Summary: What gave the Doctor the idea to change to the blue suit? Slightly AU; yet another take on how he got the blue suit but with the addition of him pondering the funny smell of his bed (amongst other things) in the mix. Set just after the currently nonexistent 3x01.
(It's a horrible summary isn't it? Sounds more like an ad than a summary. And it's me trying to be funny! Pfft.)
Spoilers: not really.
Disclaimer: don't own.
A/N: Hello, another one-shot! Inspired by the idea of Ten in a bed, by himself, mind you. :D That one idea led on to a lot of other ideas, as you'll see… By the way, it took weeks to come up with a 'good' title and summary.
Almost New New New Doctor
"Is this your room, Doctor?" Martha asked curiously, poking her head in the doorway.
"…and of course, you can get to your room anywhere on the TARDIS. Just wish it and bam, there it is, right smack bang in front of you. Well, not literally, but pretty much. It might not always work though. Depends what her mood is. Bet you didn't know that, did you? She can get mood swings, so make sure you don't…I don't know, explode anything of hers. She doesn't like that. You wouldn't do that though, would you Martha? Martha?" He turned around, seeing his new companion still standing at the other end of the corridor. When had she stopped?
"Is this your room?" she repeated.
"Maybe." He strolled to where she was standing and peered in as well. "Hmm, seems so," he said, sounding jovial but the expression Martha glimpsed on his face said the complete opposite. He shut the door in her face with a snap.
Martha raised an eyebrow. "I take it I can't go in there."
"No." He avoided her questioning eyes and skipped ahead, suddenly cheerful again. "Now, where would you like your room? You can design it too. The TARDIS will fix everything up, no worries. Oh, I bet you want to see the kitchen, and the pool too. Do you want to see the pool first? Or maybe I'll show you…" He chattered on, leading her down corridors after corridors, giving her the usual tour.
After four hours of non-stop walking, they finally found themselves back at the control room. "So!" he grinned. "Like it?"
"Definitely bigger on the inside," she remarked dryly.
"Yep."
"My feet hurt."
"They tend to do that occasionally, or so I've heard." He rocked back and forth on his heels, trying not to laugh.
"God, you act like such a kid sometimes." She gave him a half-exasperated, half-amused look. "Are you really nine hundred years old?"
"Of course I am! Don't I look it?"
"Not really," she replied, straight-faced.
"Aww, that was rude. I'm supposed to be the rude one. Wait, was that a compliment?" He looked up, thinking. "You know, I don't know what I like more – people thinking I'm young and sexy," he winked cheekily at Martha who merely arched an eyebrow, "or people thinking I'm old and wise. Though, being wise has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? The Wise Doctor. And then it would evolve into an adjective – 'Doctor-wise'! I'm Doctor-wise! I'm very Doctor-wise!" He beamed infectiously.
"…your ego has no bounds…" she muttered while trying to look dignified.
"Genius!" he chirped, pointing at himself. "So! Where would you like to go first?" He began leaping around the console, pulling levers, punching buttons while Martha looked on from a distance.
"Actually, I might go to my room and get some rest for a couple of hours."
He suddenly came to a complete standstill and looked up incredulously. "Really? What for?"
She shrugged. "It's night time right now, where I come from."
"Ah. You humans need eight hours, right? So much time wasted sleeping…" he said mock-regretfully.
"I can live with seven," Martha replied testily before letting her curiosity get the better of her. "Why? How much do you need?"
He wrinkled his nose slightly, considering. "Oh, not much. We just tend to…doze off once in a while. Meditate. Sort of."
She laughed. "You, meditating?"
"What's wrong with that?" he asked, genuinely stumped. Martha couldn't stop laughing. "Anyway," he said loudly, "I'll just be fixing the TARDIS, while you fix your feet. See you in eight hours then!" He pulled up a metal grating and dropped below, ignoring Martha's indignant shout of, "Seven!"
He tinkered with the TARDIS; fixing, upgrading, repairing the little things while she hummed soothingly. Around three hours later he heaved himself out and replaced the grating. He spent a few moments thinking in silence before wandering off to the library and wherever else his feet might take him next.
He liked his library. It was huge. Massive. Gargantuan. Slightly haphazard and disorderly, but that was because it was lived in. Just the way he liked it, especially with those spiralling staircases up to the higher shelves that the TARDIS added one day. Even better was that his bedroom was connected directly to it behind one of the shelves…now if he could find which one…
He could scarcely believe his luck after getting the right shelf on his fifth attempt. Evidently the TARDIS was being kind to him. His slim fingers slid easily into the gap and flicked the lever, swinging it wide. He shut it behind him with a small, well-oiled click and leant back against the shelf with a contented smile.
This was his room; surrounded by more polished wooden shelves all around, towering overhead to the ceiling and filled to the brim with his favourite books, small mementos and odd little objects. Right in the centre of his cosy circular room was his bed, which he gratefully flopped down on and stared up at the ceiling which he and the TARDIS altered. He watched the everlasting glittering stars against the canopy of velvety black, feeling a sense of nostalgia sweep over him. That sky he knew so well was gone now. Gone like the rest of them. All that remained were memories, but they were never as good as the real thing.
All of a sudden he averted his eyes and rolled over onto his stomach, feeling faintly disgusted that he dared tarnish the reputed beauty of the real sky with his memories. A moment later he rolled back over again. No matter what he thought, or how many times he thought it, he liked that sky. He always had. If he forgot for a moment he could pretend he was actually on Gallifrey, lying stretched out on the silvery grass all night. Just watching, and dreaming.
He was going to show Rose this sky when she came into his room, but he had told the TARDIS to cover it up just before she came in. His ninth self hadn't trusted himself enough to keep a tight rein on his emotions, and his tenth, current one never dared to show her, just in case he still couldn't. But now he wished she were here, showing her the stars and far off galaxies seen from his home in his perspective; his first perceptions of the universe. Perhaps even tell her about Gallifrey before the war.
It was strange, he reflected. He had such fond memories of his home planet now. When it was still there he avoided it like the plague but now he wanted nothing more than to just set foot on it again. It was amazing how much he desperately missed things once they were gone forever. Like Rose. Oh, he wasted so much time when she was around. He thought they would have forever.
He swallowed thickly and rolled over again. Good memories, he chided himself. Think of the good memories.
Propping up his head with one hand, he remembered how she looked like when she woke up every morning and smiled at the image in his mind of her hair dressed up like a golden haystack atop her head. He chuckled softly and wriggled up towards the pillows on his bed.
The pillowcase was brown, he observed dryly. Brown pinstripes. It matched the rest of the bed and his suit. He had modelled the uniform colour scheme on Rose's room. Hers was all pink, so his was all brown. He took it a bit further though.
Rose had slept curled up with her quilt tucked around her like a cocoon, he reminisced. He wondered if that was comfortable. On impulse, he lifted the blankets and squirmed underneath, tucking them around him just like she did. Not bad, he evaluated. Then he turned over and settled on his stomach. He didn't like this position. Lying on his side wasn't bad though. Then he shifted onto his back again, pulling the covers up to his chin. He liked lying on his back. He could see the sky this way.
How did Rose end up with her hair mussed up like that every morning? Even his lovely big hair never got that tousled. Experimentally, he rubbed his head against the pillow in an attempt to fluff up his hair as much as possible. When he finished it didn't feel that different, so he left it. He had short hair anyway, comparatively. And his bed smelt funny. Sort of…musky, unused, old, and untouched. The sheets needed washing. Or replacing, perhaps? New companion, new colour scheme? New chapter of his life?
He swung out of bed, tugging off the coverlets and heaped them onto a squishy pile on the floor. Then he plonked down on them, enjoying the softness of it. Rose would be laughing at him right now he realised, and suddenly the penetrating silence of the room felt like a sharp pain in his chest. He shook himself out of it and declared loudly, "I always wanted to do that. Sit on a pile of soft squishy bed things." He paused, the silence buzzing so deafeningly loud in his ears. "Yeah…" he finished lamely.
He gathered the sheets together and pushed himself to his feet. He found the other door that led into the corridor, and after a bit of searching he found the wardrobe. He left the sheets in a little pile in a corner and rummaged around, looking for something he liked. He didn't really have anything particular in mind, but maybe something would catch his eye.
"Ooh," he murmured to himself, doing a double take. Blue with red stripes. Just like his suit, except different colours. He held it up and scrutinised it from all angles. Blue and red? Interesting colour combination. Not to say that he was an expert at colours and matching, but blue and red?
A faint warning bell went off in the back of his mind. Two conflicting colours don't match, and blue and red were conflicting colours…apparently. So was brown and blue. Apparently.
He liked this fabric!
After a few more minutes of searching he found the pillowcases to go with it and gathered up everything, ready to head back but something made him pause. His eyes darted to the brown pinstripe sheets in the corner. No, that wasn't it. Well, it was, but there was more to it than that.
He looked down at the blue pinstripe sheets, then down at his own suit. A new suit to match his new coverlets? Wasn't that a bit…extreme?
Oh, why not. He'd done it last year, so he might as well do it again. Grinning, he bounded off towards the main section of the wardrobe.
He was waiting for her when she re-entered the control room, leaning against the rail with a teasing half smile on his face. "You slept for nine hours."
"I forgot to set my alarm," she said, feeling her discomfort rise when his eyebrows shot up disbelievingly.
"Really? Like the dog ate your homework?" he quipped, mouth twitching at the corners.
"No, that was last month," she deadpanned. He laughed then and Martha, even with her embarrassment, couldn't help but join in. Suddenly she stopped. "What on earth are you wearing?"
He gave her one of his cheeky smiles and spread his arms. "What do you think? Like it?"
Martha stepped back a pace and gave him her full attention. A blue pinstripe suit with a red tie and matching Converses? "I liked your brown one better," she said at last.
"Really?" He was looking at her with such wide-eyed, childlike disappointment that somehow only he managed to convey…even though he was supposed to be a nine hundred year old alien.
"Well…" she backtracked hastily, "it's not bad. I'll get used to it."
"Maybe I'll alternate?" he tried hopefully.
Martha shrugged, grinning. "Maybe?"
He nodded slowly. "Okay, I'll alternate. Now!" He shifted moods in an instant and leapt towards the console excitedly. "Ready for an adventure?"
"Definitely."
He grinned manically at her. "Off we go then!"
END
I am well aware that in the trailer he first meets Martha wearing the blue suit. However, I didn't think of it at the time I wrote this story, so take this to be AUish.
Also, was it really blue with red stripes? I don't think I made it up… I can't remember where I saw a picture like that but I'm pretty sure I did. Anyone know what I'm talking about? And if someone can come up with a better title and summary, tell me and I might change it. :D
Anyway, thanks for reading this far! Please review?