The Doctor and the Pilot
"Wow," Rose breathed as Charles Lindbergh's plane landed several hundred yards in front of her at the Le Bourget Airport. The crowd in front of her rushed at the plane. She watched silently as they lifted Lindy out of the cockpit and carried him around on their shoulders.
"Fantastic, isn't it?" the Doctor said, prodding her gently in the shoulder with one of his leather-clad elbows.
"It really is. I wonder what the crowd would have thought if the TARDIS had landed in front of their faces."
The Doctor smiled at her. "They would have lifted us up on their shoulders of course!" They both laughed and continued to watch as the crowd exuberantly carried Charles Lindbergh around the airport.
"Doctor?" Rose said, leaning against the TARDIS console as it zipped through the Vortex. "Do you know what happened to Amelia Earhart? I mean, I was just wondering. Lindbergh's landing a couple of days ago made me curious."
The Doctor glanced up from the circuit board he was fiddling with. "What?"
"Amelia Earhart, Doctor! First female to fly across the Atlantic? Her plane disappeared in the middle of the Pacific, and she was never heard from again?"
"Do you just assume that I know all of the secrets of the universe?"
"Well, don't you?" Rose smirked, her tongue peeking out slightly from between her teeth.
The Doctor laughed. "Only most of them. That's one I don't know."
Rose circled the console, the soles of her sneakers slapping against the floor. The Doctor's eyes followed her every move. He watched her drag her fingers across levers and the edge of her hoodie get caught on a corner. But mostly he watched her face. It was clear that she was thinking hard – that was quite easy to discern from the expression in her eyes and the way she bit down on her bottom lip.
"What are you thinking Rose?" he finally asked when she paced past him for the ninth time.
"Welllllll…" Rose dragged out the single syllable for an impossibly long amount of time. "I thought maybe we could pop in and pick her up. If no one knows what happened to her, why couldn't we sweep her out of the sky and show her the stars?"
A huge smile filled the Doctor's face, stretching from one oversized ear to the other. "Rose, you are truly brilliant."
The TARDIS landed with a VWORP in the back corner of the airport in Lae, Papua New Guinea.
"Right, so you stay in the TARDIS, and I'll see you soon." The Doctor kissed Rose on her forehead.
"And you're sure this will work?" Rose asked, nerves creeping up in her voice. "All I have to do is open the door for you guys?"
"Yes." The Doctor took her hand and squeezed it. "She's on autopilot and will handle everything."
With that, he left. The door clicked shut. Rose was alone. With any luck, there would be three passengers in the TARDIS the next morning.
The man was drunk. He was supposed to navigate for Amelia in less than an hour, but he was so incredibly drunk that he didn't remember that. As he stumbled out of bed looking for more to drink, the navigator tripped over something.
"AHHH!" The man collapsed in a heap on the floor next to what turned out to be a pair of shoes. "Oh, my head…" He let out a moan and rubbed his head where he had bumped it against the bedframe.
"Sorry about that Mr. Noonan," the Doctor said, lifting the man up by his armpits. "How about I help you back into bed?" Without waiting for an answer, the Doctor placed Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart's very drunk navigator, back on the mattress.
"Whoareya?" Noonan slurred.
"I'm the Doctor, and I am going to save Amelia Earhart while you stay here and sleep this off. Do you mind if I snag some of your clothes?" Noonan let out a snore in response. "Right, thanks mate."
The Doctor found a suitcase in the corner of the room underneath a bunch of papers and empty bottles. After sweeping off the junk, he opened the case and rummaged through it. His leather jacket and t-shirt were exchanged for a button down and a short, fat tie covered in polka dots. After pulling his sonic and psychic paper out of the leather jacket, he placed the jacket on top of Noonan like a blanket. The TARDIS had plenty of leather jackets in the closet; he could afford to leave that one in exchange for the clothes he had taken.
"Hmm, we really do look just alike," the Doctor said when he caught a glimpse of himself in the window. Rose had been completely right when she had said he was a ringer for Fred Noonan. "Time to save Amelia." The Doctor paused by the door. "Now that's a great name. Amelia." Smiling slightly, he left the sleeping Noonan and headed for Amelia Earhart's plane.
"Fred. We aren't going to make it." Those were the first words that Amelia Earhart had said to the Doctor in a while. She had been talking frequently over the radio for the past half hour or so, but she had not said anything to him.
"Yes, we are," the Doctor replied, moving slowly towards the front of the plane.
"Fred, we're almost out of fuel and we have completely missed the island." Despite her clear attempt to remain calm and brave, the Doctor could detect a slight tremor in her voice. "I would say your prayers now because I don't know how much longer we will be in the air."
"Amelia, I'm not Fred. I'm the Doctor. I replaced Fred this morning. He was too drunk to navigate for you, and, on top of that, I knew I could save you from this."
"What in the Lord's name are you talking about?" Amelia leaned away from him, clearly thinking him to have gone insane.
"As I just said, I'm the Doctor. I am here to save you. You were brave enough to go on this flight – will you be brave enough to trust me?"
His tone was sincere. Despite his unbelievable words, something in Amelia believed him. Perhaps he was just naturally trustworthy .The more she looked at his face, the more she realized that he was not Fred. Sure, his face was close to that of her navigator's, but it was still different. There was something about it that was older, more mature. His eyes, maybe. They looked like they had seen so much more than she could even comprehend.
"I, I trust you," she finally replied. "What can we do? There's nowhere to land the plane, and we are out of fuel!"
"We aren't going to land this plane." The Doctor walked back to the door of the plane and threw it open. Air rushed into the cabin and noise filled both of their ears. Having to yell to be heard over it, the Doctor shouted, "We have alternative transportation!"
The TARDIS was hovering outside the door. Its door flung open and a beaming Rose waved from inside of it.
"Come on Amelia. Let the controls go, and come with me." He extended his hand towards her.
Amelia glanced down at the plane's controls and then looked back at him. She could go down with her plane, or she could trust a stranger. With a deep breath, she stood up and took his hand. "Let's go."
"JUMP!" Both the Doctor and the Pilot leapt from the plane.
"This is a space ship? And a time machine?" Amelia Earhart breathed as she strolled around the TARDIS. She examined every tiny bit of the control room, every button and every lever.
"And it's bigger on the inside," Rose added.
"This is absolutely amazing." She stroked the console and the TARDIS seemed to whir happily beneath her hand. "Thank you for showing me this. And thank you for saving me." She gave the Doctor a small nod of appreciation.
"Ah, it was Rose's idea, so you should be thanking her."
Amelia Earhart stuck out her hand to Rose. Rose took it, and the two women shook hands. "Thank you Rose."
"You're – you're very welcome. Doctor, I AM SHAKING HANDS WITH AMELIA EARHART." Rose might have squeaked a little when she said that.
"Yes you are," the Doctor said, chuckling. "And now, you're about to travel the stars with her. Where to Amelia?"
"What?"
"We can go anywhere and anytime in the universe. What would you like to see?"
"Oh this is glorious. Surprise me."
"Brilliant! One surprise coming up!"
And with that, Rose, the Doctor, and the Pilot started an adventure.