Hello to my lovely readers! Here's a cute oneshot I wrote.
Inspiration: Reading the Wikipedia page for spiders at 1:00 am.
The Spider
"Doctor."
He was busy in the console room, running around the bronze mushroom, pressing a button here, pulling a lever there, doing something energetic with a pump elsewhere. Trembling, terror-stricken, and timid Rose was very obviously out of his attention-span.
"Doctor." Rose hissed again.
He looked up from the console, his hair- boy, did Rose love his hair- wildly poking in every direction, an inevitable spark in his warm eyes, and a bright smile erupting on his face after seeing her. "Hi! Hadn't seen you for a while. Don't really like it when I don't see you for a while. So, woke up from your 'beauty sleep'? Humans and their sleep. I'll never get over that."
"Doctor." Rose whispered, with an almost pleading expression on her face. Obviously the Doctor took notice of her plight, and gently asked, "Is something wrong?"
Rose said nothing, but directed her trembling finger towards her hydrogen-peroxide blonde hair.
"What?" he asked. "There's nothing wrong with your hair, they look fantastic."
Rose nearly teared up; she yelped, "Look."
And this time he finally noticed what she wanted him to. Intricately woven in Rose's blonde hair, were silver strings that indubitably belonged to a spider. And the spider wasn't far away from it's make-shift home, it was crawling upon a trembling Rose's hair. She was so terrified...but the Doctor couldn't help but point out that she looked so cute when she was scared.
"Rose, you have faced Daleks before. And Cybermen. You've looked into the heart of the Tardis itself and survived. And this is one tiny spider."
"That surviving the looking-into-the-heart-of-the-Tardis was thanks to you-" she grinned sheepishly, and continued, "But there's an insect in my hair!"
The Doctor looked mortally offended, as if someone had just insulted his great ancestors. "Spiders aren't insects, they are arachnids. There's a huge difference. The body of an insect is comprised of three segments; the head, thorax and abdomen but the body of an arachnid is comprised of two segments; the cephalothorax and abdomen. Also, insects have six legs; arachnids have eight legs and insects have compound eyes; arachnids have simple eyes and-"
"Doctor." Rose hissed, cutting him off. "I need help. Take this arachnid off me." The last sentence was said with such plight that even the Doctor was clouded with pity.
"All right.." He muttered. He grabbed a spare tissue, tucked it between his fingers, and moved his hand towards the spider. The reddish-brown spider was large, it's eight fuzzy legs sticking out amongst the mess of golden hair. A tiny baby spider rested upon the bigger one, and that made the Doctor suddenly exclaim, "Ah! It's not just any spider! It's a wolf spider!"
"A wolf spider?" Rose deadpanned.
"A wolf spider is known to carry it's young ones on it's back. Oh, Rose, do you have any idea how adorable that is?"
"I don't care!" Rose bellowed. "Just- just take this thing off me- please."
It was most unlikely of Rose to actually stutter and tremble with fear, so he relented and softly took the spider out of her hair. She breathed a sigh of relief.
He softly pulled her close and implanted a kiss atop her forehead, "All right, doll?"
She rested her head upon his chest, as she muttered a muffled, "Thanks." He then announced, "There is something we need to do, though."
Still holding on to Rose, he produced his sonic screwdriver and was about to sonic the two spiders- including the baby spider- until Rose wailed, "No!" She slapped his hand and the sonic screwdriver fell to the floor.
His brow wrinkled, flabbergasted, he asked, "What?"
"You can't kill it!" She cried. "It may be a hella annoying arachnid but that doesn't give you the right to take it's life!"
The Doctor fell silent. He sighed. Oh, his pink and yellow human was so incredibly human."Right. So I can't kill it, killing is wrong, its absolutely wrong, so what are we gonna do with it?"
"I dunno..."
The pair stood silent for a moment, quietly observing the movement of the fuzzy reddish-brown creature, atop which was settled a tiny version of it. The baby spider. The timelord smirked at the scene, "Wolf Spiders."
The silence ensued for a while, both of them were perfectly content, nestled against each other, but then the Doctor broke the quiet, "Oh I know!" he squealed delightedly.
Rose still had a quizzical look on her face, so the Doctor said, "C'mon...You'll see." He absentmindedly pressed a few buttons on the the Tardis console, a daft grin on his face. He delicately settled the spiders in a tiny box, and thrust the spider-containing box in his pocket, running about the bronze mushroom, dancing with joy, as he chirped, "I haven't done this for a long while! I've set the Tardis coordinates to random!"
Rose didn't protest. She could be in a garbage dump and she'd still be happy if he was with her.
The heavenly sound of the Tardis landing boomed, as the duo's grin widened. The first step into an alien world never lost it's exhilaration, no matter how many times they did it. The Doctor opened the door and, awaiting him was glistening ice, light shining through the damp snow, and ice crystals glimmering like diamonds. Rose too stepped out of the Tardis, shivering with cold.
The Doctor exclaimed, "Welcome Rose- to the Planet of the Ood!"
"The Ood? What, the ones we met near that black hole?"
"Yep." He replied.
They walked for a while, Rose desperately wishing she was wearing better-suited clothing, not her denims and a light cotton shirt. But Rose had never been good at matching her clothes to the situation. She had once worn a Union jack tee in the midst of World War II, and a rugged denim in front of Queen Victoria. And if looks could kill, she'd be dead ten times over as the Queen scrutinized her for her 'nakedness'.
Obviously, Rose's shivering and chattering did not go unnoticed by the Doctor, so he pulled off his coat and settled it over Rose's shoulders. "Here you go."
"But what about you-", Rose began, but the Doctor cut her off.
"I'm already wearing my suit jacket. You can take my coat. Plus, superior timelord biology and all that. I'm not that sensitive to cold as you humans." he continued, with his grin growing wider, "Besides, I think I was taught basic etiquettes at the Academy." He put on his best posh voice, and said, "Pardon me, but a gentleman can't bear to see a lady shiver in front of him, now can he?"
Rose fell out in a fit of giggles.
Confused, the Doctor asked, "Why are you laughing?"
"I...I..." She tried to speak, but she was nearly doubled up with laughter.
"What?"
"I am just imagining my rude and not ginger Doctor being a gentleman." She fell out again. When she finally regained her composure, she explained, "I mean- you always keep running about, with your coat swishing away- it's amusing to imagine the same man walk and talk stiffly like a gentleman."
The Doctor pouted at this. That made Rose laugh even harder.
"You are 903 years old." Rose teased. "And you pout like a 3 year old."
"C'mon Rose...stop making fun of me." He took her hand in his own, and prodded on, "Besides, we came here to take care of this." He said, referring to the two spiders in his pocket.
"So what are we gonna do with them?" She asked innocently.
"We are going to leave them here." He replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What?" She was flabbergasted at this notion.
"We are going to leave them here." He repeated.
"Doctor, we can't leave them here!" She cried. "They'll freeze to death! We need to choose a better place!"
The Doctor lovingly looked at the young human in front of him. Where would he be without her?
"Doctor." Rose snapped him back to his senses.
"Alright, alright..." He offered his arm to Rose, which she gladly took, and exclaimed, "Back to the Tardis then! To choose a better place!"
xxx
The walk back to the Tardis was a fairly long one, for they had absentmindedly skipped along the unfathomable snow, but they finally did reach the blue box. The Doctor reached for the door, holding the door open for Rose, making a slight bow, "My lady."
Rose giggled and stepped inside, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Come inside, Mr. Gentleman. Or you'll freeze to death."
The Doctor scrunched up his nose at this, but relented and stepped inside the Tardis, taking out the box containing the two spiders, and chirped, "I know just the right place for you two!"
He danced around the console, setting the coordinates, while the Tardis lurched to one side and Rose fell. "You know...you should really fix some stabilizers to this thing."
"Nah, that'd be boring, Rose." He remarked as he climbed onto the console and pushed a lever with one of his shoes. "Besides, sailors keep their feet through worse than this!"
After a minute or so, the Tardis landed. The Doctor opened the door, and the pair looked outside.
The environment outside was dry and hot, the sky a brilliant vermillion as the twin suns shone upon the endless mounds of sand. Upon the sand, scuttled an endless amount of reptiles, insects, and arachnids. There seemed to be no water for miles in the arid.
"So, what about leaving them here? They'll have company here."
Rose looked at the myriads of desert life surrounding her, the spiders would be comfortable around here. But...
"No."
"What?"
"I said no." Rose firmly said, "We aren't leaving them here."
"Why?" The Doctor's face drooped.
"It's so dry here that's why! And the baby spider won't be able to handle this, it's too small!"
"Alright..." He groaned. Finding a new home for the spiders besides Rose's hair was gonna be tough.
xxx
The Doctor turned out to be, as usual, right.
Finding a new home for the spiders besides Rose's hair was tough.
Rose had rejected almost a dozen planets, and he was close to suggesting that her hair be a permanent home for the arachnids.
"Come on, Rose..." He sighed. He couldn't think of a single place anymore. He muttered to himself, "Wolf spiders, right..." Then suddenly an idea hit him and squealed excitedly, "I know!"
He hastily set the coordinates, jumping with joy. He hugged Rose out of pure happiness as he affirmed, "You are going to love this place! I promise! In fact, you've been here earlier." He grinned.
The Tardis finally reached it's destination, and the pair stepped out. It took Rose a moment, but she recognized the place.
It was nothing else but the Earth.
The Doctor took the spider-box out of his pocket, and delicately settled it in Rose's hand. "Do the honours."
Rose flipped open the box, and the fuzzy reddish brown spider, atop which was settled the baby spider, scuttled away, and they were soon out of sight.
"Doctor?"
"Hmm?"
"Will the- d'you think the spiders will get lonely?"
The Doctor flashed her a grin, and said, "Nope. Wolf spiders. They live in solitude. Alone." He gave a short laugh, "Sort of like me, really."
Rose threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, nuzzling into him, "Sort of like you, yeah? Not anymore. You've got me."
He put his arm around her shoulder, "Yeah."
Thanks for reading! Could you please grace this fic with a review? Pwease?