Fitz in a Fez!
Authors Note:
And some more Fitz for you! Because I'm apparently on a Fitz crusade right now.
It was a museum. Another museum. Fitz couldn't understand the Doctor's fascination with the places, after all, he could just go and visit any of the times and places displayed here where there might be actual wine, women and song instead of just pictures, battered old ornaments and carvings but no, he wanted to prance around large cold buildings for hours on end, examining dusty display cases of long ago civilisations. Fitz fought back a yawn and traipsed around another corner. The Doctor was long gone by now, racing ahead to try and see everything, and he'd lost Anji in the room of currency from across the globe. As far as Fitz was concerned, the only really interesting room so far had been the one with all the stuffed animals. He'd skipped the Blitz re-enactment room, seen all of that before thank you very much, have no desire at all to see it again. Now he was wandering through a gallery showcasing hats from around the world through the ages. Some of them were loose, to be tried on. Fitz plonked a Stetson on and peered in the little mirror on the wall.
"Lookin' good cowboy," he grinned. He tried a top hat next but it was too big, slipped down past his ears. The flat cap was too small and Fitz had no intention of touching the myriad of ladies hats around. With his luck Anji would walk around the corner and see him in some nineteenth century mop cap. She'd probably have a camera with her as well. The very last display cabinet had a fez in it, one of those ridiculous red ones shaped like a top hat with no brim and a silly looking tassel hanging from the centre. He lowered it onto his straggly hair, it fitted surprisingly well.
"A Fez! Yes! Excellent!"
Before Fitz had time to turn around at the new voice, the fez was batted off his head and into the hands of the bloke who'd just come up behind him. He planted on his longish brown hair and spun around in apparent delight.
"Ponds! I found hats!"
Fitz stared at the madman who was now leaning out into the corridor shouting for his friends, blithely ignoring the unspoken rule about being quiet in museums and libraries. He was wearing shirtsleeves and a brown jacket with a bow tie and his hair looked like he'd just stepped off a commercial, all floppy and styled. He bounced back towards Fitz and pushed him aside to gaze into the mirror. Fitz stepped aside and glanced at his watch, he should probably go find the Doctor soon. Then he became aware that the madman had frozen into complete stillness and was staring at him in the reflection of the mirror. He checked over his shoulder quickly but no, the bow tie wearing man was definitely staring at him.
Abruptly straightening up, the fez guy spun around to look him full in the face. Automatically taking a step back, Fitz couldn't help but notice he had nice eyes, very dark green and positively glowing with life and excitement. Right now they were fixed on Fitz.
"Uh, can I help?"
"Fitz?"
Now Fitz was even more wary. Eccentrics he'd encountered before, odd people who were overly interested in him for one reason or the other he'd encountered before, but meeting odd eccentrics that he'd definitely never seen before in his life who were overly interested in him and somehow knew his name was not a situation Fitz had found himself in before. Nor was it one he'd particularly wanted to find himself in.
"Fitz?" The madman asked again, more insistently this time. Fitz hesitated and nodded, not that much point trying to pretend otherwise if he was known on sight. There was a sudden movement and Fitz flinched back, but before he'd even completed the movement the mad man had lunged forward and caught him in a bear hug.
"Oof." The air was crushed out of his lungs and he wriggled, trying to get free, but the other man just gripped him harder. Fitz's nose was crushed against his jacket and one arm flailed blindly while the other was trapped between their bodies. Just as he'd thought he might actually faint from lack of oxygen and was considering shouting for the Doctor the lunatic pulled back, keeping his hands on Fitz's shoulders and beaming into his face.
"Fitz! Oh, this is just brilliant! Where did you come from? What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in ages!" Fitz just gaped at him.
"Sorry, do I know you?" The other man laughed at that, loudly.
"Of course, you don't recognise me! Right, yes, sorry. New body, new face. Keep forgetting." He seemed a little embarrassed now, finally releasing Fitz but never dropping the enormous grin. There was something familiar about the smile though, Fitz thought but before he could work out who it was the madman had grabbed his hand and pressed it to his chest. Fitz tugged back, alarmed, but the other man was much stronger than he appeared and Fitz didn't have a chance of freeing himself. He felt the steady heartbeat under his fingertips.
"Feel that? Good! Feel this?" Now the lunatic switched Fitz's hand to the right side of his chest. Incredulous, Fitz felt the second heart pumping strongly beneath the ribs. Double heartbeat. But that meant…
"You're a Time Lord?"
"Oh, I'm much more than that Fitz! Are you sure you don't know me?" Now Fitz felt his own mouth twitching into a smile. He'd spent long enough with the Time Lords, and one Time Lord in particular to understand a few things about them. Including regeneration.
"Doctor." It wasn't a question, just a statement of fact and the new Doctor's grin impossibly widened before he pulled Fitz into another bone cracking hug. This time Fitz reciprocated, arms tight around his new but still the same friend.
Footsteps echoed as the entered the gallery and Fitz pulled away. A hot chick with red hair had just come in, holding the hand of a taller bloke with scruffy brown hair and an air of slight bewilderment. The cute redhead and what was sadly probably her boyfriend were staring at the bouncy new Doctor who hadn't let go of Fitz.
"Doctor, are you scaring the other visitors again?" The girl asked. She had a nice Scottish accent Fitz thought.
"Ponds! Yes, no wait. No! I'm not scaring him! Ponds, this is Fitz, Fitz this is Amy and Rory Pond!" The bloke, Rory, muttered something like 'Williams' but didn't press the issue. Fitz nodded to them cautiously.
"Ah, new friends Doctor?" Fitz enquired. A shadow flickered across the Doctor's face and he released Fitz at last. He seemed uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"Yes, well. An empty TARDIS is no good for anyone. Least of all me." Fitz decided not to press the issue. He knew how long the Doctor could live for, knew he couldn't follow him forever and he decided then and there he didn't want to know what had happened to him. Would happen to him.
"Wait, so Fitz used to travel with you?" Amy cut in.
"Oh yes!" The Doctor grinned again, switching from melancholy to manic in a heartbeat. Clearly some things never changed. "Long ago, for years and years! Helped me out a few times, got us into trouble some other times…"
"I got us into trouble?" Fitz spluttered. "You have a downright addiction for trouble!"
"I wasn't that bad!"
"Yes you are. Were, I mean." Tenses and time travel, never a good combination.
"Well, alright. Maybe a little." The Doctor beamed again. "But I always got us out of it again!"
"Eventually." Fitz muttered. He started to ask a question, hesitated and glanced to Amy and Rory. Rory intercepted the look and tugged Amy back out, saying something about Van Gogh? Fitz wasn't really listening. He opened his mouth to ask and again hesitated, looking down at the floor. He felt long fingers curl around his jaw and tilt his head up to look back at the Doctor. God, he seemed so young now, but he was older than Fitz's Doctor. Must be, if he remembered Fitz. But did he remember…
"Yes Fitz, I remember." The Doctor's eyes were soft and kind. He'd clearly known what Fitz wanted to ask. "It won't last forever. I can't tell you when or how or why but I do remember. I remember everything. Sam, and Compassion and all our adventures. I remember buying a half dead plant off a bored shop assistant faking a dreadful French accent. I remember him coming with me and sticking with me no matter what happened. I remember waiting for a hundred years to see him again. I remember him being my best friend even when I really, really didn't deserve it." Fitz's eyes were wet, he blinked the tears away fiercely.
"You always deserved it Doctor."
Now the Doctor's eyes were wet and he grabbed Fitz and kissed him full on the mouth, just like he did whenever he got too excited or carried away. Fitz blinked in shock and the Doctor wrapped him in a hug again, clinging to him.
"Am I interrupting anything Fitz?"
Fitz yelped and twisted, still in the Doctor's arms, to see Anji leaning against the doorframe, amusement dancing in her eyes. Behind he stood the Doctor, frowning slightly at his future incarnation but without recognition. Behind him stood Amy and Rory. Amy had her hand over her mouth, like she was trying very hard not to laugh and Rory just looked even more baffled than before. Fitz felt himself flush bright red and pulled away from the new Doctor.
"Doctor!" He squeaked. "Uh…" The old Doctor, Fitz's Doctor smiled suddenly.
"Come on Fitz, lots to see! That is, if you don't mind leaving your new friend?" He said. Amy muffled another giggle, glancing between the two Time Lords. Fitz blushed an even deeper red and stepped towards his Doctor.
"No, I'm ah, coming now." But he turned back to the younger, older Doctor one last time and grasped his hand. "You always deserved it." He said, too quietly for anyone else to hear. The zez wearing Doctor's eyes glistened and he squeezed Fitz's hand silently.
As Fitz left the museum room, ignoring Anji's questions and hidden mirth and the Doctor's curious glances he heard Amy's voice behind them.
"You used to be really pretty there Doctor! Shame that changed."
"Oi! I'm still pretty, right Rory?"
"Er…"
Fitz grinned and felt his Doctor's curious eyes on him again. The Time Lord in the green jacket looked back towards the hat room.
"Who was that exactly Fitz?"
"Just a friend."
"A friend?"
"Yes Anji, just a friend. C'mon, have we not managed to uncover an alien invasion or time distortion yet?"
"Well there were some carvings in there from the Stone Age that simply couldn't have been right, we were thinking of hopping back to see what was going on."
"Right then, cavemen and dinosaurs here we come?"
"Now Fitz, there were definitely no dinosaurs co-existing with cavemen, you should know that!"
Fitz grinned as the Doctor began babbling about time differences and the warming of the earth and meteorites and goodness knows what else. A glimpse of the future was nice certainly, but it could never beat the present. He followed Anji through the TARDIS doors, still listening to the Doctor chatting about Cybermen and millipedes, wait, how had he gone from dinosaurs to Cybermen? The doors shut behind him, signalling the start of yet another death defying adventure that no fiction writer would dare write about for fear of being ridiculed for being too fantastical.
Yeah, the present was pretty good.