Ludwig and the Doctor

by TheSilverNoble

The Doctor breaks a very important piano.

"Alright," the Doctor whispered. "So you know how to get to Valkore Six now, yes?"

"Ideed!" Boomed the Captain. "We took a wrong turn at Andromeda, but you have set us right! Thank you, Doctor!" The Doctor winced a bit at each word. He was rather hoping they would understand he was trying to keep the noise down, to avoid confusing any more people than they strictly had to. Yet the house seemed silent. Heavy sleepers. The Hirynn ship took off into sky, leaving no traces it had ever been on Earth.

The Doctor sighed with relief. The Hirynn were not warlike per say, but they did tend to have rather extreme tantrums when frustrated. Moons had been known to go missing when certain sport teams lost in the Hirynn sector. The Doctor thought it best to play it safe and help them find their way before they got too worked up.

He turned a looked at the house they had landed in front of as he fixed his bow tie. His hands fell limp as he saw the name on the door. "No," he said. "No." He walked closer and looked at the name again. He threw his arm up to examine his watch, then back to the name. "It is." He pulled out his screwdriver and opened the door. He walked carefully through the house to the living room, where he found a grand piano against the wall. He took a step toward it, then turned around. "No, I can't." He looked over his shoulder at the piano. "Well," he turned back around and looked at it. "Well, maybe a little."

He walked over to it. He straightened his sleeves and took a seat. He held up his hands to the piano… and tilted. The old stool gave way and the Doctor reached to grab something… which happened to be the piano, which came down with him. The piano fell into the wall with a thud that caused the Doctor's blood to run cold.

"No," he said scrambling to his feet. "Well, ok, clearly yes, but… no!" He paced a few times in front of the ruined piano. "No problem, I can get another piano. Or fix it. How hard could that be?" The Doctor knelt by the broken piano and tried to see where pieces of things fit with each other.

"Mister." The Doctor whirled back to the doorway. A small, sleepy child was standing there rubbing his eyes.

"Oh. Hello." The Doctor, standing and walking over to the boy. "Did I wake you? I'm so sorry."

" 's fine," the boy said. "Did you break my Dad's piano?"

The Doctor looked back at the piano. "No, it's fine. Well, it'll be fine by morning," the Doctor said quickly.

"But I was going to play for my dad when he gets back tomorrow," the boy said. "I wrote a song. I wanted him to hear it."

"Oh, don't worry. That was a bad piano. Terrible. You'll have a better one."

"Alright, mister," the boy said with another yawn. He stared for another minute before going back to his room.

As soon as the boy was up the stairs, the Doctor ran out of the house and back into the TARDIS. He began pulling various levers and switches while checking the TARDIS screen every few seconds. He eventually looked up to see Rory standing sleepily at the top of the stairway.

"What are you doing?" He asked with a yawn.

"I broke a piano!" The Doctor said. He was frantically tapping things on the computer screen. He pulled a book out from under the control panel, flipped through it for a moment, then tossed it over his shoulder before going back to the screen.

"Why did you do that?" Rory asked as he walked down the stairs. He was still in his pajamas.

"It was an accident," the Doctor said, looking away.

"Well…. Is it that important?" Rory asked.

"Yes!" The Doctor said. "It's Beethoven's piano! I broke Beethoven's first piano!"

"What?" Rory seemed awake now. "Can you fix it?"

"Not by myself," the Doctor said. "I'm trying to see if there's someone I could pull… but no, it would take too long, longer than a night."

"Get a new one, then?"

"But where?" The Doctor said, whirling on him.

"A… piano store?"

"It can't just be any piano, Rory!"

"Why not?"

"It just can't!" The Doctor went back to his computer, frantically typing again.

.

The TARDIS shook violently as it rematerialized. The Doctor was nearly thrown from his feet, catching himself with a combination of one of the control panels and his cane. Susan was not so lucky; she fell to the floor.

"Susan!" The Doctor bent down next to her.

"I'm fine, Grandfather," Susan said, holding him away with a hand. "I just slipped, that's all."

"Oh my, dear me," the Doctor said, straightening himself. "Let me see, where are we? Not where we should be, by the look of it." The Doctor looked at some of the TARDIS monitors. "Omicron Persei Eight. Terrible planet."

"Grandfather," Susan said, "is something wrong with the TARDIS?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"That's the fifth time that's happened."

"Oh, nonsense child. The TARDIS is perfectly fine." The Doctor patted the controls lightly.

"It was in a museum when we stole it," Susan said. "Maybe it wasn't working properly and they put it away."

"Come, child. First, we have only borrowed this TARDIS."

"Well, if we hadn't found it, they would have caught-"

"Second," the Doctor went on, "it makes the landings much more exciting. We never know where we might end up."

"Or if we'll surivive," Susan said. "Grandfather, we need to do some repairs."

The Doctor sighed. "Well, you might be right, child. We'll settle in as soon as we find a proper planet. But that planet is not Omicron Persei Eight! Hmph!"

The Doctor pulled a few switches on the control panel and the TARDIS began to dematerialize.

.

"Here we go, here we go," the Doctor said, straightening up from another book. "Look, here. Nearly forgot about this place. The Intergalactic Museum of Music."

"And they have a piano you can use?"

"Do they have a piano? Rory, they created exact replicas of all the best musician's instruments. Beethoven's piano included. You can pay to play on them."

"And… do they have souvenir Beethoven pianos as well?" Rory asked.

"No, of course not," the Doctor said. "We're going to have to steal it."

"What, like a heist?" Rory immediately felt excited and worried.

The Doctor clapped his hands. "Yes. Just like a heist. We'll assemble a crack team from across all of space and time to steal Beethoven's piano." He stopped in his tracks. "But there's not much security, really. And we don't have much time. Forget the heist, we'll just go."

"Oh," Rory's heart sunk a little. "I'll just go wake Amy, then."

"What did I just say, Rory? No time!" The Doctor pulled a few switches and ran for the door. He stepped out just as the TARDIS dematerialized. Rory sighed and ran behind him.

They were in the atrium of a large, strange museum. Rory didn't have any time to take in the architecture, as the Doctor was making a beeline for the entrance. He bypassed the line and flashed his psychic paper to the attendant. She looked at it for a moment and waved them through.

Once inside, the museum branched off in a lot of different directions. Rory realized there were different sections for different races. Judoon, Silurians, Thals, and many other races Rory had never heard of. But the Doctor was headed directly for the Human section, and Rory had to follow.

.

"No, no, Epsilon is no good," the Doctor said. "The neighbors are always causing problems." He looked at the TARDIS screen again, poring over more possible planets.

"Grandfather, you are really looking, aren't you?"

"Of course I am, child!" The Doctor sounded offended. "But we can't just set down anywhere! You can't repair a TARDIS overnight! We're going to be stuck wherever we stay for some time. It must not be rushed!"

"Yes, Grandfather," Susan said.

"Besides, the sky is all wrong."

Susan walked over to the Doctor and put a hand on his shoulder. "Grandfather, do you miss Gallifrey?"

The Doctor turned to look at her. "What? Certainly not," the Doctor said. "After how we had to leave? Why would I?"

"It was still home," Susan said. "I know there was a lot about it you liked."

"Well, every planet has some good points," the Doctor said.

"And it seems like every planet we've come to, you've turned away for not being like Gallifrey."

"Hmph. Child, you haven't seen one tenth of the universe that I have. I know a good planet when I see one, and none of these have been any good."

Susan sighed. She looked at the monitor. They had stopped above a small blue planet. "Well, what about that one?"

.

Rory jumped as something smashed beside him. He looked over to see a small stage where people of various races were lining up to smash guitars. "What's that?"

"Replicas of Paul Simonon's bass," the Doctor said as he tried to see over the crowd. "You pay to go on stage and smash the guitar and they send you a picture. It's incredibly-"

"Awesome," Rory said.

"Touristy." The Doctor came off his toes and started working his way through the crowd. "We need to get to the classical music section." Rory followed the Doctor past drum sets and Stratocasters into another room filled with clarinets, trumpets, and pianos. Rory wished they'd had time to look at some of the instruments from his future, or to go into some of the alien sections, but they had been in too much of a rush.

"Ahh, here we go," the Doctor said. Sitting behind a red rope was an old piano. He reached out his hand and the air above the rope crackled. He jerked his hand away with a muffled yelp.

"Hey!" Someone in a blue uniform came over to them from another exhibit. "What are you doing?"

The Doctor pulled a small wallet out of his back pocket. "Intergalactic piano inspector," he said. "I need to have a look at that piece."

The security guard looked flustered. "I'm not sure if I can-"

"Look, I'm trying to keep a low profile here. But how are you going to feel when the special guest comes in and that piano is out of tune?" The Doctor paused for a moment. "You do know about the special guest, don't you?"

"I, um," the guard stammered. "Let me see that again?" The guard examined the Doctor's psychic paper and seemed satisfied. He walked over to the wall and flipped a switch. The Doctor checked the rope again and found he could cross over it.

"Alright, good," the Doctor said, stepping over. Rory followed after him.

"He's still looking at us, Doctor," Rory said.

"I know. He'll figure out we're not doing anything in about ten minutes," the Doctor said as he examined the piano and the walls from every angle.

"Alright," Rory said. "Do you have some sort of… teleporter… thing?"

"No."

"Well, what's the plan then?"

"I'm still working on it," the Doctor answered.

"What? What if you can't think of one?"

"Then I'll have to come up with an even better lie than the one that got us in here," the Doctor answered. The Doctor paused with a hand on his chin. Rory looked around for anything they might be able to use to steal a piano, but came up with nothing.

The Doctor looked over and Rory and his hand fell from his chin. He walked over and looked at Rory very closely. Messed with his hair a bit and put his hands over his eyes. "Um, Doctor, what are you doing?"

"I might have an idea. Are you a Beatles fan?"

.

"Earth? This planet is a total mess. Look at all the wars they have, constantly, all the time. Over the smallest thing. They fought a war over an ear!"

"You're only seeing the bad," Susan insisted. "You know there are plenty of good times and places on that planet."

"Maybe, maybe," the Doctor said. "But you and I both know that what we expect to find isn't always what's there, especially in the good parts."

"Grandfather, you're finding the silliest reasons to turn down each planet we visit."

"Because none of them will do," the Doctor insisted.

"Let's do a full scan," Susan said. "We haven't done more than stick our heads out the door wherever we landed."

"Oh, fine child, fine." The Doctor went to the TARDIS controls and began to set up a full scan of the planet below them. "Maybe this will convince you, hm? Then we can be on our way." The Doctor looked up at the TARDIS screen with his hand on a dial.

He began to twist the dial slowly, cycling through sounds and images from all over the planet. Much of what the Doctor said was accurate; there were lots of wars and fighting. Yet among all the violence and nastiness, Susan saw a lot of good things as well. People helping each other, a football game in the middle of a battlefield, a man jumping in front of a train to pull someone to safety, and dozens of other things.

Yet the Doctor stopped the dial on the image of a large explosion- the first nuclear explosion the little planet had ever seen, according to the Doctor's data. "Are you satisfied, child? Can we move on now?"

"A little more," Susan said.

The Doctor sighed and turned back to the dial. "Very well."

"No," Susan said, pulling her grandfather's hand away. "Let me."

"As you will, child, as you will." The Doctor stepped away from the console and looked at the screen. Susan began to twist the dial, much slower than the Doctor had. She lingered a little on the images of kindness and creativity, but the Doctor did not seem very convinced.

"It is not a bad planet," the Doctor said at last. "We can come back, if you like, once the TARDIS is repaired. But I would not want to be strand…stranded. There. For any time."

Susan paused the dial. Something on the screen had caught the Doctor's attention. She thought it was the piano music. She began to cycle back slowly.

.

The Doctor fixed the wig and put adjusted the sunglasses slightly. "There, perfect. Spitting image."

"I don't look anything like him," Rory said.

"Well, ok, but it's not like any of these people have really met him. You can pull it off for five minutes."

"Doctor, this is crazy," Rory protested.

"Look, just act like you really like everyone you're talking to, but also that you're very tired." The Doctor straightened Rory's hair one last time. "Alright. Five minutes, then run for the TARDIS on my signal."

"…All, alright," Rory said.

The Doctor and Rory left the TARDIS. They went right to the 20th Century music section. The largest section was devoted to a little rock band from Liverpool.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the Doctor announced, hopping on to a small stage full of Beatles instruments, "here for a one-time special visit, straight from the 20th century, John Lennon!" Rory nervously stepped up on to the stage as the Doctor hopped off. He slipped through the gathering crowd and into the Classical Music section.

The security guard was still watching the piano, though he was watching the doors to the 20th century section, trying to see the stage.

"Hey, are you, uh, done with the inspection?" he asked.

"Almost," the Doctor said. He looked to both sides, took a step closer to the guard, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll tell you what, though, our special guest is here now, just over there. He's going to come in here to play in a few minutes, why don't you go show him the way when he's ready?"

"Oh, yes," the guard said. He must have heard the announcement. He took a step away, then looked back at the Doctor and the piano.

"Go on," the Doctor said. "We'll be fine here." The guard did not need further encouragement. He practically skipped away.

The Doctor stepped over the red rope. Still off. Good. The piano was already on wheels. Even better. The Doctor moved the velvet fence out of the way like it was the most normal thing in the world and began to roll the piano across the floor. A few patrons looked at him curiously, but he smiled and waved and continued on his way.

He slipped past the crowd watching Rory Lennon, who was doing an admirable job distracting them. All he'd done so far was pick up a guitar and tune it, but they were enraptured. The Doctor wondered if Rory actually knew how to play. The security guard was standing on the stage, along with a few others. He noticed the Doctor with the piano, but between the distraction of Rory Lennon and the crowd he was making, the Doctor knew they wouldn't catch up in time.

He barreled into the main lobby and snapped his finger. The TARDIS door opened, but the Doctor pulled the piano up short. He ran around it and up to the door. "No," he said. "No, no, no."

The piano was too big to fit.

.

"As I was… I was..." the Doctor was trying to talk, but Susan had found the piano music that caught his attention earlier. The Doctor gave up trying to speak and just focused on the music. It was slow and sad, but still beautiful for that. Susan smiled and turned the volume on the piano up, drowning out all the other sounds from the scan. It picked up the tempo a few times, getting more upbeat, before slowing back down again. It was incredibly moving.

Eventually the song ended and the Doctor snapped out of his trance. "What was that? On the, ah, scanner?" He pointed to the TARDIS controls with his cane.

"Music from the planet," Susan said. "From…" she looked over at the scanner herself. "Earth."

"Earth. Dull name for a planet that produces something like that." The Doctor mused. "Well, I suppose it might do. The right place, the right time, and it might not be so bad. Just, ah, try to make sure it's after that lovely piece of music has been written, hm?"

Susan knew the last bit was directed more to the TARDIS than to her. He talked to it sometimes, which Susan found strange but, well, that was her Grandfather. She set a course for the planet below.

.

The Doctor ran up to the TARDIS doors and stopped. He ran a hand along the frame and looked up at it. "Come on, old girl," he said. "You know what this is for. You know what it means to me." The ran his hand along the blue wood for a moment longer before returning to the back of the piano. "Alright, here we go!" He pushed the piano.

It went through.

The Doctor ran back outside and drew his Sonic Screwdriver. He pointed it upwards and all the lights in the museum went out. "Rory!" he called. He ran back into the TARDIS, leaving the blue light on so that Rory could find his way.

Rory burst through the doors a few moments later, slamming them shut behind him. He'd lost the wig and the glasses, and the shirt was a little torn. "Doctor, never again," Rory said.

"Nonsense, you did marvelously." The Doctor did not look up from the controls. "Now we just have to go back to deliver this piano and call it a night."

The TARDIS rematerialized in front of Beethoven's house a moment later. Rory didn't seem to notice the conundrum of the piano and the TARDIS, but the Doctor again pushed the instrument through without issue.

.

"Doctor, there's another problem," Rory said. "Um, I don't think we can get it through the door."

The Doctor rolled the piano up to Beethoven's door and saw that Rory was correct; the piano would not fit, and the Doctor didn't think Beethoven's house would be as accommodating as the TARDIS.

"Ah. Well. No problem, we'll just knock down the wall and roll it in." The Doctor scanned the wall to piano room with his Screwdriver. "It's not load bearing, no danger. I think I've got something back in the TARDIS that will do just the trick."

"What?" Rory caught the Doctor by the arm as he was going back to the TARDIS. "We can't just knock down a wall!"

"Why not? We've done it dozens of times before."

"When someone was in danger, sure," Rory said. "But Doctor… it's only music."

"Rory, don't be ridiculous. It's only a wall." The Doctor tried to pull away, but Rory did not seem convinced. The Doctor turned back, exasperated. "That wall probably won't see the end of a century. And if it did, you could stand in front of it again and not tell it apart from any other wall in the world. But Beethoven's music? Beethoven's music will live forever. For a long as humanity lasts. And you will always know it." The Doctor pulled his arm away and Rory let him. "Now come on, we don't have much more time."

.

The wall vanished with a satisfying pop just as the sun came up. Rory looked down at the device he was holding, which looked a bit like a dusbuster, not quite sure he'd actually see what just happened properly. Smiling, the Doctor rolled the piano into the room just as little Beethoven sleepily walked in.

"Is that him?" Rory asked. The Doctor nodded.

"You're back, mister," Beethoven said.

"Yes, with a brand new piano. Nevermind that old one, I'll just get it out of the way later."

Beethoven sat in front of the piano and tapped a few keys. "Sounds just like the other one," he said.

"I should hope so," Rory muttered.

"Hey mister," Beethoven said. "What happened to my wall?"

"Ah. That." The Doctor clapped his hands together and briefly turned around to look at the missing wall. "Well, we had to get the new piano in here somehow, so we just… made some room."

"Why didn't you use the back door?" Beethoven asked. "That's how we got the old one in."

"There was a back door," Rory said, turning to look at the Doctor.

The Doctor looked back and shrugged. "I was only here for a bit. Didn't realize they had a back door."

"Well, thanks, mister," Beethoven said. "I'll be able to play for my Dad now."

"And play for him you will! He'll love it so much he probably won't even mind too much about the wall," the Doctor said. "Anyway, we should be going." He turned to leave

"Would you like to hear it?" Beethoven asked. The Doctor and Rory stopped in their tracks. "I need to practice it again anyway, so… would you like to hear it?"

"Yes," Rory and the Doctor said in unison.

"Alright," Beethoven said with the hint of a blush. He found another stool somewhere and sat in front of the piano. He closed his eyes for a moment and then played beautiful soft, song as they listened. It was soft and slow, but not sad. Somehow the Doctor's smile grew even bigger.

.

"I don't think I'd heard that one," Rory said as the TARDIS dematerialized.

"I hadn't either," the Doctor said, "and I know all his songs."

"What does that mean?" Rory asked. "Did we change something?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't think so. That was the first song he ever composed. He was, what, seven? He probably never wrote it down and forgot it by the time he was older." The Doctor paused for a moment. "We're probably the only people in the universe that know that song."

"Huh," Rory said. The Doctor knew he wasn't underwhelmed. Quite the opposite, it was probably the only word Rory could manage.

"Well," Rory said, "I'm glad I was able to save musical history, but I do still need to get a night's sleep."

"Of course, of course," the Doctor said. "You go on. I've got a few things to take care of."

"Alright. Goodnight, Doctor." Rory wandered up and off to bed.

The Doctor waited till he was just out of earshot, then took of sprinting down one of the back hallways off the TARDIS. He ran past the first, second, and third wardrobes, turned right at the library, down a ladder and then some stairs, through a dining room, narrowly avoided the swimming pool in old gallery and the hot tub in the new gallery, and finally came to a small room with a piano.

He closed the door behind him and sat down in front of the piano. He cracked his fingers, and opened the lid. He opened the music book and looked over the piece. He cracked his fingers and took a deep breath.

His hands came down on the piano and he played "Pickin' up Paw-Paws." He made a few small mistakes here and there, but the song was certainly recognizable. He played it a few more times, sometimes stopping to work on the hard parts. After a few run throughs he closed the lid and stood up, grinning from ear to ear. The grin stayed with him as he skipped out of the room.