I've always wanted to write the idea of a companion who isn't straight away impressed by the Doctor, and the companion is sort of morally grey. I'm sure it's not an original idea, but I'd love to explore the notion of them starting to trust each other as their adventures go on!
Obviously I don't own anything aside from Nat. Hope this is a good read for you lovelies.
It wasn't every day that he ended an adventure clinging to a pipe and screaming bloody murder. It also wasn't every day that he saw a worse pilot than him.
This day was apparently a day for new experiences.
The ship lurched again, and The doctor looked down to see his knuckles turning white from the effort of clinging on. His pilot was currently violating about 80 different driving laws, he was sure.
"Just a bit of turbulence!" She called over the creak off pipes and other ships.
He clung on tighter.
His pilot was flicking switches and pulling levers, one foot securely on a button whilst her other hand kept on the wheel. He would have called it impressive if they weren't crashing.
"And-" She pulled another lever. "Done."
Everything shuddered to a halt. He could finally stand on his own two feet again.
"So. What brings you here then?"
Blunt, and to the point. The doctor scratched his ear as she raised an eyebrow at him. "I er—Caught a distress signal. Came up all bright and shiny on my ship. Thought I'd take a look."
"A distress signal?" Her eyebrow raised higher. "I didn't send one out."
Very odd. "Then who did?"
She gave a shrug, leaning her weight against the control panel. "Dunno. I'm the only one here."
He made a "hm" in her general direction, and went about doing what he did best. Being too nosy for his own good. "I'm the doctor. And you are?"
"Nat." Pause. "Nat Ramos."
"Well, Nat. I'm just wondering something." The doctor clicked his tongue behind his teeth as he pushed off the wall, coming to face her. "Why does that little scanner there—can you see it?"
He pointed, and she glanced up.
"Why does it say there's six life signatures on this ship if you're the only one here? Certainly seems odd."
He saw the dawning realization on her face long before he could have anticipated what she did next.
She bolted. Ran, actually. He had never seen someone move so fast. Unlucky for her he had a sonic screwdriver. It did stuff. You know, it shut doors:
Right in her face.
"Is there something you're not telling me, Nat?"
She turned slowly from the closed door, almost like a child in a tantrum with her arms folded over her chest. "No."
"Want to elaborate?"
"Well… You barged onto my ship. Without permission. That's it."
"23rd Century ships are usually named after the owner." The doctor walked past her and glanced outside a window, able to see the ships name clearly. "And unless your name is Gerado, something just isn't quite adding up. Well. Sort of. I never was good at simple addition."
Nat said nothing, so he slid a hand into his pocket and took out his psychic paper. "You see this?"
"Yeah." She narrowed her eyes as they ran over the text on the paper. "Says you're a police man."
"That I am." He told her, gravely. "I come for thieves who steal ships. It's my specialty."
She sighed, long and hard, but eventually nodded towards the door. "The six life signatures include you and me. So there's four people aside from us. Crew members, I suppose. Didn't really say anything to them before I put them in that room."
"No one's hurt?"
Nat smiled, for probably the first time since he landed. "No one's hurt. Might be a ship stealer but I'm not rude."
"Right—Well that's first base of operation." He unsealed the doors, and walked through it. "Follow me. Don't try anything."
She gave him a mock salute. "Yes sir."
He followed her directions until they came to a black door, and when he pressed his screwdriver to it, nothing happened.
"—It's deadlocked?"
Nat blinked. "Oh right, sorry, I thought your stick would work with it." She bent down low on her knees to fiddle with the wiring attached to the door.
The doctor's murmur of :"…..It's not a stick." Was lost when the door hissed open to reveal four very stressed looking crew members.
"'Ello!" He called into the room, his cheeriest grin slapped onto his face. "I'm sorry about what this young thief—" She sighed loudly. "-Put you through, but she's in capable hands now. This won't happen again."
"You got our distress signal?" A woman to the right of him asked.
"I did indeed."
The woman beamed. "Thankyou."
"Alright. Well—"
The heavy clomp of boots on a metal floor cut The Doctor's sentence short. He looked at the woman in front, to Natalie, and back again. "Is there an extra ship member I don't know about?"
"….No."
He probably should have guessed it was the Judoon just from how many boots were against the floor, but it still didn't stop him from sighing when they turned the corner.
"Female. Hispanic. 23." Was the simple description the Judoon gave out on their main suspect, and from the look of it, Nat suited it to a T.
"What's he saying?" A crew member asked, and he couldn't blame them for looking terrified.
"They're speaking English." Nat replied, her eyebrows furrowed.
Seems like the translation circuit had worked on her after all. He had hoped it would. But he had to intervene before they took her off planet for execution—in typical judoon fashion.
"Ah, hello there!" The doctor showed the Judoon his psychic paper. "I've just arrived to arrest this woman under the orders of the Shadow Proclamation. Even got the Shadow Architect's signature at the bottom, look." He tapped the bottom of the paper. "I have permission to take her to a jury off world."
If Nat said anything it would ruin his whole plan. Thankfully for him, she kept silent.
"Confirmed?" The judoon asked the two judoon by its side.
"Confirmed."
They quoted article 43 before they left, the same old nonsense: If he failed to take her to court the judoon would be inclined to hunt him too. The same old rubbish he had heard a thousand times.
As the Judoon cut their brief interaction, by leaving the ship, he gave a bemused looking woman a pat on the shoulder, before turning to leave.
"Right, I'll have to take you off world." He said to Natalie, who looked just as bemused as her counterpart. "Come on."
As they walked back down the corridor to the Tardis, she fired questions at him:
"Are we actually going to court?"
"Why didn't you let them have me?"
"What's going on?"
"What the Hell is that?"
The last question was directed towards the TARDIS. She shrugged her hooded jacket back on (he had mistakenly landed in a freezer) and approached it warily, one hand outsretched.
"Is this your ship?" She was laughing.
"Yes!" He insisted, his frown deepening by the second. "Don't laugh at her!"
"It's tiny!"
He scoffed at that, and pushed the door open to lead her inside. She took one step in and his chest immediately met her back as she halted. "What the flying fu—"
"Oi."
She glanced back, with an almost apologetic expression on her face. "Sorry. But this is impressive."
"She is isn't she?" The doctor replied, pushing past Nat to approach the console. He ran a hand over her casing. "Plenty of room to keep an eye on you."
His comment was lost on her as she glanced around the control room, and he could see her lips splitting wider with her grin. "Massive." She agreed. "But I won't be here long, will I?"
"What do you mean?"
Nat frowned as she made her way up the ramp, her hand trailing across the rail. "You're taking me to court, aren't you?"
He paused, and pretended—if only for a second, he was studying the levers on the TARDIS' control hub.
"…No. I'm not. The Judoon would have had you executed for a petty crime, and the courts change their sentences like the weather. So I thought you'd be best under my supervision."
"Your supervision?" She repeated, her eyebrows raised. "Like a prison warden or something—a legal guardian—my dad?"
"If you're complaining I can give the judoon a ring."
She grinned. "Nah. I'm alright. Guess I'm going to be here a while then."
"Possibly. Might shove a few field trips in now and again as well."
"To where? We're in deep galaxy mate." She made it to the control hub, taking a seat in the pilots chair. "Not much but stars and space."
"I forgot to tell you the best bit, didn't I?" The doctor asked, more to himself than Nat.
"Best bit?"
"This ship. My TARDIS. It travels in space and time."
She jerked in her chair, eyes wide as she stared at him, perhaps trying to determine if he was joking or not. "Get out."
"It's the truth."
"Prove it."
The doctor's eyebrows raised. "I don't need to prove myself."
She leaned her arm on the back of the chair, her arrogance was starting to irritate him. "Wouldn't you want to educate a deluded, and unintelligent criminal?"
"Might do."
She rolled her eyes in response—
And he pulled the lever to push them into a new era, a new time, and a new space.
Thankyou for reading! Any responses or feedback is appreciated x