Title: A Marvelous Thing
Author: S J Smith-Evil_Little_Dog
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I don't make any money.
Summary: The Doctor has a wonderful toy.
Note: Inspired by Tom Paxton's song, "The Marvelous Toy".
"Doctor, what is that?" Romana stopped just inside the control room, peering at the thing on the floor next to his prone body.
The Doctor rolled onto his side, propping his head up on his knuckles. "It's marvelous, isn't it?"
Romana folded her arms, drawing back slightly. K-9 wagged his tail at the thing, doing an excellent impersonation of a curious, real dog, instead of the automaton he actually was. "It's definitely something, Doctor, but what is it?"
"A machine, Mistress," K-9 offered.
"Yes, exactly, a machine," the Doctor agreed, his rubbery face bursting in a smile. "A wonderful machine."
Squatting down to make herself more on the level of everyone else in the room, Romana studied it as it trundled across the floor. It whirred and flashed lights as it moved – she wouldn't call it walking, exactly, or even rolling, as K-9 did, 'lurched' might be appropriate. K-9 rolled after it, tail still wagging. The machine disappeared behind the center console, with K-9 appearing on the other side, without the machine. "Where did it go?"
The Doctor popped his eyes. "Where did it go?" he repeated.
Romana considered swatting him, but it would do no good. "Yes, Doctor, where did your machine go?"
"Oh, well." He shrugged eloquently, his mouth turning down. "It'll come back, eventually." Scrambling to his feet, he patted the control panel as the familiar sound of the TARDIS's materialization flooded the control room. "We're here!"
"Here?" Romana stood up, too, peering at the view screen. "Doctor, you didn't muck about with the randomizer, did you?"
"No, no, of course not."
"You're not very convincing," Romana told him.
"No?" He smiled. "I'll have to work on that, then. But now, let's go exploring, shall we?" Touching the lever to open the door, he darted out of the control room, leaving Romana no choice but to follow after.
X X X
Her own TARDIS didn't have a malfunctioning chameleon circuit. Romana told herself she kept the shape of the call box for her own amusement. It was not quite a duplicate of the Doctor's. She, K-9 and the Tharils had made many improvements on the design and mechanics. It was enough to take her out of E-Space, and let her and K-9 travel through time and space again.
A strange sound alerted her while she attended to the control console, and Romana glanced around. "K-9? Is that you?"
"No, Mistress," came his mechanical reply. His tail wagged as he rolled across the floor. "It is back."
"What's back?" She turned her attention to the floor, and a whirring, lurching thing. Frowning, Romana tried to recall building it, and knew she couldn't. "What is that, K-9?"
"A marvelous thing, Mistress."
Romana blinked, twice, as long, nearly-forgotten memories re-emerged. Squatting down on the floor, she tilted her head as the machine trundled closer, then stopped. "Hello, marvelous thing," she said. "I don't suppose you're here to give me a message."
It whirred in response.
"Right." She smiled, and stood back up again. "K-9, are you still able to track the Doctor?"
"Mistress?"
"I think we need to pay a visit, and find out why his toy is in my TARDIS, don't you think?"
"Yes, Mistress! Calibrating the Doctor's location." K-9's tail and ears wagged as he worked.
It would probably take time, but what else did a Time Lord have? Romana settled in to wait. Eventually, she'd know where the Doctor was, and find him again.
~ end ~