Calendar Girl

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all characters are property of the BBC. I do not own them nor make any money from them. I only spin stories for my own amusement and the entertainment of others. Any original characters are mine.

Chapter 1 – Wonderland

"Got enough stuff?" the leather-clad Doctor asked the young blonde who was removing a large red rucksack from her back.

"Last time I stepped in there," Rose Tyler answered, referring to the Tardis, the Doctor's police-box-shaped time machine, "it was spur of the moment." She thrust the heavy bag into his arms. "Now I'm signing up." She pointed at him and smiled." You're stuck with me. Ha!"

Rose then turned to her boyfriend, "Mickey-the-Idiot", and asked him to come along. "Idiot" was probably not the best nickname anymore, considering how much help Mickey had been with the Slitheen invasion, but the name had stuck. However, he was an idiot for letting Rose leave without him. Right before Rose and her mother had walked over to the Tardis, the Doctor had invited Mickey to come along. But Mickey said he couldn't handle that sort of life and asked the Doctor not to tell Rose. So the Doctor had to interrupt Rose's request and pretend that Mickey was not welcome. Rose didn't seem to mind much, and the quick kiss goodbye that she gave him was not one that indicated a sorrowful farewell. This pleased the Doctor more than it probably should have.

Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler, expressed her unease about Rose leaving by challenging him about her safety. He caught something about light years and being stuck on some moon, but the Doctor was not fully listening. He was still pondering the significance of the rucksack. When the Doctor had returned Rose to London in the year 2006 instead of 2005, he worried that Rose might be persuaded to stay with her mother out of a sense of guilt. That fear grew when Rose told him that Jackie wanted to cook a meal for them. He would not do domestic, but he also did not want to leave without Rose. He enticed her with the wonders of the universe, but when Rose didn't come running like before, the Doctor worried she might not come at all. Then he saw her heading toward the Tardis with that rucksack, and the worry left him. Not only had Rose Tyler decided to come with him again, she had packed for an extended journey. He couldn't explain why this was such a relief. After all, she was just a nineteen-year-old human, and he had only known her a short time. But he had already grown accustomed to having her around and did not want to ponder the idea of traveling without her.

Rose said her goodbyes to her mother, and the Doctor and Rose entered the Tardis.

"So where to?" asked the Doctor once the Tardis had dematerialized. "Your wish is my command—within reason."

"I don't know. Somewhere fun and different from home, I guess," said Rose.

The Doctor thought a moment then set the coordinates. The Tardis flew through the Time Vortex to their next adventure.

"Here we are," he said later as he opened the Tardis doors. "The forest moon of Edron. Earth year 1003 AD."

"So this is the past, but in space," said Rose slowly as she walked out of the Tardis and took in the sight of the evergreens that surrounded them.

"It is," the Doctor said as he followed Rose out of the Tardis. The trees of Edron were over three hundred feet tall and grew in such close proximity to one another that the forest floor was as dark as early evening though the sky above the towering giants was bright and blue. The Doctor leaned against one of the trees and crossed his arms, pleased at the look of awe on his companion's face. He breathed in the fresh air then shook his head slightly. "Sadly, it will all be gone soon. We're here just one year before it's discovered by explorers and stripped for all its natural resources."

"That's horrible," said Rose with a frown. Then she did a double take and looked at the Doctor. "Wait! Did you say Edron? A moon covered in trees? That sounds a lot like—"

"Endor?" finished the Doctor, smirking. "Sometimes writers aren't aware that part of their creation is actually a faint memory of a story heard elsewhere. The universe is filled with tales of a lost forest moon. The story of its destruction has made it into the parables of many planets, including yours. You lot even have a rhyming children's book about it. The trees in the illustrations are wrong, though, and the furry creature in it is complete fiction. Still—same basic idea."

"So I am guessing are there are no teddy bear warriors then either?" Rose said. She smiled with her tongue peeking out from between her teeth.

The Doctor laughed. "No, but there is a perfect Christmas tree just beyond those trees," he said walking over to her and pointing in front of them to a dense part of the forest. "It's the only tree that didn't get cut down. Five hundred years in your future, humans will discover it and begin decorating it every year for Christmas. And that will start a movement to replant this moon."

As he was talking, Rose walked a couple of paces ahead. She had lost the playfulness from a moment ago and seemed pensive.

"Christmas," she said sadly, looking down. Then she turned around and walked back into the Tardis without a word.

The Doctor had no idea what to make of that response, so he followed her in and shut the door. He also had no idea what to say. He searched her face for understanding and waited for her to talk.

"I lost a year of my life," Rose said with tears in her eyes.

So that was the reason for the mood change.

"No you didn't," said the Doctor. "You just skipped ahead a year in your timeline. You missed a year in London's history, not a year in your life."

"And how exactly is that different?" asked Rose. There was an angry edge to her voice that the Doctor did not like. Worse, he didn't understand it. They had joked about the missed year, and he thought everything was fine. Apparently she had not thoroughly processed the idea. Apes and their linear thought patterns! How could he explain it to her?

He sighed. "To lose a year of your life, you would have to have lived that year but not been able to experience or remember it—such as having amnesia or being unconscious. But that is not what happened."

"But I can't go back to London 2005 to live that year, can I?" she challenged him.

"No," admitted the Doctor.

"So I lost that year."

"Rose, you have not lost a year. You are living it now. You are no longer traveling in a straight line, following one day with the next, but you are still very much living your year. You are just doing so in a different time and place." This was not that complicated (even for a human), so why was this bothering her so much?

"But I missed things I could have come back for: birthdays, holidays, seasons. I missed twelve months of those things!"

"And that matters to you?" asked the Doctor, dumfounded. "All of time and space is at your disposal, and you still need to mark time by festivals in England, on Earth, in 2005?"

Rose nodded.

The Doctor was annoyed. He had assumed Rose was different than the rest of the humans that mindlessly ate their beans and toast, watched the telly, and never looked at the stars. Maybe he should have left her behind with the Idiot. Then he remembered everything they had gone through so far. She had accepted so many things without needing much time for adjustment: aliens, time travel, danger, and more. Even the fact that he was 900 years old and a Time Lord didn't seem to faze her. Perhaps he should try to be understanding and let her adjust to the shock of this more personal aspect of time travel.

Rose wiped her eyes with her sleeve and avoided the Doctor's gaze. He walked over to the console and stared at his screen just to have something to look at. The Doctor had forgotten the complications of traveling with humans. It occurred to him that he would have to re-set the Tardis controls to take human sleep and nutrition cycles into account. Then he realized Rose would likely want to mark the passing of time according to her linear perspective, so he would also have to add an algorithm to integrate her linear calendar with the relative time of the Tardis. As he made the adjustments, he decided to include a notification system to alert him to the national holidays of the United Kingdom as they occurred. It felt a bit stifling and domestic, but traveling with an unhappy companion wasn't pleasant either.

The Doctor knew that just noting the passing of those milestones would not be enough for Rose. But he also couldn't take her back to her home to experience those dates because she couldn't cross her own timeline. He wondered if she would accept reasonable substitutes.

Suddenly, the Doctor had an idea. "I have somewhere to take you," he said. His grin went from ear to ear. He really hoped it would work.

It was a new day and a new planet, and despite her tears from the night before, Rose Tyler was glad she had decided to keep traveling with the Doctor. There was danger and—as she was learning—heartache, but it was worth it just to know that she was a part of something bigger than her small life in a dress shop.

Rose marveled at her surroundings. She supposed that she might be willing to miss even another year (or two or three) of consecutive time if it meant experiencing more days like this. She couldn't decide what was more beautiful, the sight of countless rows of tulips in many colors as they swayed in the breeze, or the sound of those same tulips singing. Rows and rows of flowers almost identical in size and shape to Earth tulips stretched out as far as she could see in all directions. She was reminded of the pictures she had seen of the Netherlands; but in addition to red, pink, purple, orange, and yellow blooms there were bicolor and tricolor blooms and blooms of iridescent colors that seemed to defy labeling. Words like "ultraviolet" and "infrared" came to her mind, but she was fairly certain humans could not see those colors.

These tulips were even more extraordinary because they were a feast for the ears as well as the eyes. Rose closed her eyes and could imagine herself at an outdoor concert consisting of woodwinds and a choir. There was an ever-changing melody with multiple notes sounding at once. Some sounded like instruments, but others sounded almost like human voices.

"So is this Wonderland, then?" Rose joked to the Doctor, who was standing beside her.

The Doctor shifted his attention from the garden to his companion. "Wonderland?" he asked her.

"Yeah, you know—with the White Rabbit and the garden of singing flowers. I could even be Alice, what with my blond hair and this blue dress and white pinafore you had me wear."

The Doctor smiled. His blue eyes matched the sky that surrounded them and shone with merriment. "Actually we are in the countryside of Melunia on the planet Sirig. Most of the planet is uninhabitable. It has large polar ice caps, vast deserts with killer sandstorms, and enormous oceans with regular hurricanes. Melunia is the only land mass that supports life; and because it is on the equator, it is always spring."

"A land with singing flowers, where it is always springtime? That sounds like a wonderland to me," said Rose. "So I suppose I am in fancy-dress to add to the storybook effect?"

The Doctor grinned and shook his head. "The outfit you are wearing is the traditional attire for the Festival of Songflowers. The blue dress represents the blue sky and the white pinafore represents the clouds that water the land. And the flowers don't sing, Rose. The flowers are vessels that collect the rainwater. During the breezy season, winds blow over the tops of the flowers to produce a melodic sound."

"But it is perfectly in tune," protested Rose.

"The three different sizes of flowers create a three note triad in which each note compliments one another. It's simple science and harmonics," explained the Doctor.

"Maybe," said Rose, "but it I bet it isn't a science lesson that causes people to have a yearly festival." Rose looked around and noticed they were the only people present. "If this is a festival, where is everyone?"

"The gates to the gardens will open soon," said the Doctor, pointing off to his left and right at gates that could barley be seen at the edges of the horizon. "We arrived a bit early."

"You mean we jumped the queue," she said with a grin.

The Doctor shrugged. Minutes later, people began filling in from both sides until all the pathways and viewing areas were filled. Unlike the very alien-looking guests that Rose had encountered on a space station above Earth, the people of Melunia looked as human as the Doctor and she. (However, it was still a bit surreal that he was not actually a human, but a 900-year-old alien who only appeared to be about forty earth-years old, and whose accent did not originate in northern England, despite how it sounded.) The only thing unique about the people of Melunia was their attire. The women and girls wore some variation of a blue dress and pinafore while the men wore pastel outfits that looked something like lederhosen. The Doctor stood out in his black jeans, black leather jacket, and aubergine jumper, but Rose had a hard time imaging him in the indigenous clothing. The thought of the Doctor in lavender-and-pink lederhosen made Rose giggle.

Rose and the Doctor stayed for the entire festival. A real orchestra showed up and played a concerto that complimented the music of the flowers. Dancers moved about the gardens choreographed to the rhythm of the wind. People brought canvases and painted the scenery. Refreshments were offered freely to all guests. Brightly colored hot air balloons offered an aerial view of the events. After days of danger and running, Rose was thankful for a day of peaceful fun.

Hours later, the Doctor and Rose returned to the Tardis. Rose was smiling from ear to ear. It had been a perfect day, and she hoped days like that one outnumbered the ones in which she was running for her life.

"So?" asked the Doctor "Would this count as a holiday?"

Rose gave him a confused look and shrugged. "Well we are definitely abroad, so I suppose that makes it a holiday." She swayed and twirled in her full-skirted storybook dress to enjoy the novelty of it a bit longer, but she was ready to change back into her regular clothes.

The Doctor shook his head, "I mean does it count as a holiday for your missed year?"

Rose stopped her swirling to think. "Which holiday?"

"I was thinking Easter," said the Doctor. "Easter is a spring holiday and that's about where you left off, isn't it?"

Rose wasn't sure why, but her face flushed. "Is that why we came here?"

The Doctor smiled as Rose swayed in her festival outfit. He knew she had considered the dress and pinafore juvenile at first, but when he had insisted she wear it, she trusted him and put on the outfit. He was pleased to see that her willingness to fully embrace the festival had cheered her up. He liked seeing Rose happy like this and would gladly commit to an entire Earth year of holidays in consecutive order if it produced the same results that today had.

"Melunia is the land of springtime, and spring is when you left to travel with me," the Doctor said to her. He paused. His blue eyes looked into her brown ones. "Rose, I can't take you back on your own timeline. It would cause a paradox. But we can still move through your calendar of holidays and events, if you want. Just let me know which ones matter most and we will try to do them in order."

"Thank you," she said quietly. She was silent for a moment, as if she were in deep thought, then she grinned mischievously. "Melunia may count as a spring festival, but it isn't Easter without chocolate eggs. Know of a place where I can get those?"

"As a matter of a fact, I do," said the Doctor. He began setting coordinates and pulling levers. "Just you wait. This is going to be fantastic!"