Meanwhile in the TARDIS
The Doctor looked at Amy for a moment as the shaking of the TARDIS calmed. They'd flown through the Vortex and into a calm patch of space, just drifting till they were sure that Amy had acclimatized well enough to handle whatever strange things might becoming next. The box itself could be quite overwhelming and if Amy couldn't handle the console room, she'd have a fair bit of trouble with what was outside those doors.
He nodded to himself as he saw her still preoccupied with the room and subtly made his way around the console and to Mac's side. He paused, spotting her on the monitor, seemingly putting something into the TARDIS datacore, a log, it appeared, of the cracks. She was making a record of it, the one on Amy's wall, how big it was, if it was closed or not, and their results of closing it. What startled him was that she'd also included that there was a second crack, in the TARDIS itself, on the monitor too. But it appeared simply turning it off and back on had removed the crack. She had a note that it may possibly be just a remnant pattern of energy that the TARDIS had picked up of the crack and not a true crack, but still, to be sure, she had put it in as a record.
"Kenzie…" he began.
"Why do you call me that?" she asked him, cutting him off slightly. It hadn't been irritating her, no, but…it was rather different from what he'd used to call her that she just wanted to ask. She was sure it was probably just his regeneration, new him, new name or something, but…only Donna had really called her Kenzie, well, her and K9 so she was curious.
He blinked, "I…just…felt like it?" he offered, really not sure why he'd suddenly taken to calling her that, "I feel…like it's a new start, for us," he looked at her, "Mackenzie was so…formal, your full name, and that's not you anymore. You don't go right to Dr. Jones when you're cross so I didn't want to go for Mackenzie. I…I like calling you Kenzie, no one else but Donna really did and…" he started to stutter a bit, "But if you…if you don't like it, I can call you Mac too or…"
"Kenny?" she joked, glancing at Amy again, before she focused back on the Doctor, "No, it's alright Doctor, Kenzie's fine."
"Really?" he eyed her, wanting to be sure.
"Yes," she laughed a bit, "I like it. You're right, it's a new me, should have you call me a new name too."
"Brilliant," he breathed.
She nodded and looked at him expectantly, "You…wanted to say something?" she reminded him.
"Oh, yes, yes," he nodded, "I um…you said before that you…you weren't angry with me anymore?"
She fell silent for a moment, "I'm not," she told him, "I understand why you didn't tell me. My last self…" she shook her head, "She wouldn't have believed you that THAT was the reason why you time locked the planet. I'm sorry for that, I'm sorry you had to wait till me for that to come out. I wish I'd known though," she murmured, looking down, starting to fiddle with a knob, "I treated you so terribly Theta…"
"Hey," he smiled at her, reaching out to take her hand, just…holding it a moment, "There are…so many things I wish I'd done differently Naery, SO many," he reached out to put his hand to her cheek, "And that's all in the past now," he lowered his hand, "We…we both know the truth, we both know…everything and now we…we have a chance for a new adventure with no negative feelings or anger between us…right?" he gave her a cautious look as though he weren't sure he entirely believed her.
"Right," she nodded, "I spent so long being cross with you and I was so wrong about it all. All you've ever done has been to look out for me and for the rest of the universe."
"And I always will," he promised.
"So I'm not angry," she repeated, "Our planet…or the entire universe," she murmured, "You weren't protecting everyone from the Daleks but from our people and with all the chaos…there really was only one way to stop it," she took a breath and looked at him, "I can't be cross with you for time locking the planet to stop the Daleks and them surviving when that wasn't the point of what you did at all."
He smiled lightly at her again, "I'm glad."
"I'm just sorry that I treated you so terribly…"
"I understand," he cut in gently, "Now, no more thoughts on that eh? New beginning, for the both of us now. Ok?"
She let out a soft laugh, "Ok."
"Good, because I don't want to see you fretting about this again," he pointed a mock-warning finger at her, "Your frowns break my hearts Naey."
"Well then I shall endeavor to smile more."
"And I'll be endeavoring to make you smile," he winked at her.
"Oh will you?" she laughed.
"Yeah," he chuckled as well, squeezing her hand, only just realizing that, at some point in their talks, her hand had come away from the console and he was just holding her hand between them, "You know how much I like a challenge."
"Are you calling me difficult?" she teased.
"Don't know," he shrugged, "Don't know what I'm calling anyone. Don't know what I'm calling myself…"
"Doctor," she answered, though he hadn't asked a question, "Just…stay with Doctor."
"Ok," he winked.
"Why's it a phone box?" Amy suddenly called, pulling their attention over to her, making them turn, the move causing them to drop their hands.
"Sorry what?" the Doctor blinked, a hint of a blush creeping up his neck as he realized he'd actually forgotten the ginger girl was there for a moment or two (or the entire time he'd been speaking to Mac).
"On the outside it said police box," Amy hopped over to them, walking around the console and eyeing all the different devices and controls on it, "Why have you labeled a time machine police box, why not time machine? Is that too obvious? And what is a police box? Do police men come in in boxes? How many do you get? Are you police?"
"Doctor sort of implies NOT police," Mac offered with an amused smile.
"No, you're right," Amy nodded, eyeing the Doctor intently, "Look at his hair…actually," she blinked at the Doctor, "Just LOOK at your hair! Do you ever look at your hair and think 'whoa…it just won't stop? And my chin! Look I'm wearing a bowtie, shoot me now?' Am I gabbling?"
"A bit, yeah," the Doctor laughed.
"Not quite as bad as you've done in the past though Doctor," Mac remarked, walking around the console to help make sure the box was stable.
"Yes well…" he paused, blinking, "Oi! What's wrong with my hair?"
"It's a bit floppy," Amy pointed at it.
He pouted, "My hair is not floppy…is it?" he spun to Mac.
"A little yeah," she nodded.
"Well," he huffed, "We can't all have perfect ginger hair."
Amy started grinning at that, not noticing that the Doctor was looking pointedly at Mac when he'd said that, almost forgetting that there was another ginger woman in there besides her, "The question stands," Amy looked pointedly at the Doctor, smirking.
"The first question?" he frowned, trying to keep track of them all.
"Yes."
He nodded…and then glanced at Mac, his head still a bit fuzzy from the repeated whacks to it.
"Why's it a phone box?" Mac reminded him.
"Right, yes," he looked at Amy, "Well it's not really a police box, which by the way is a special kind of telephone box that police men used to use…"
"Right," Amy nodded, following along, "Telephone box. There's a light on the top, do you need to change the bulb?"
"Amy, stop," he put his hands on her shoulders, "Breath…"
Mac laughed as she took a deep breath in, "But to answer your question, yes, the bulb DOES need changing at times."
Amy glanced at her and, in one breath as she exhaled, continued with, "Why doesn't the air get out? It is made of wood! Oh," she inhaled sharply, "You've got a wooden time machine. Do you feel stupid?" she looked back at the Doctor for that one, "Sorry, back on the bowtie…"
"It's your own fault Amy," Mac pointed out, making her way past the girl to squeeze her shoulders, "If you hadn't caught his tie in a door, who knows what he would have picked to wear."
"It's camouflage," the Doctor got them back on the topic of the TARDIS instead of his tie, tweaking it to straighten it, "It's disguised as a police telephone box from 1963. Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a 12-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius, and determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment…"
Mac smiled, seeing Amy looking very, VERY impressed that the old box could do that, "And then, it just happens to turn into a police telephone box from the early 60s."
"Oh," Amy frowned, "Why?"
The Doctor scratched the side of his face, "It's probably a bit of a fault actually. I've been meaning to check…"
"Liar," Mac muttered, crossing her arms as she leaned against the console, watching them.
"Hold on, so it's a police box every time?" Amy inquired, wanting to make sure she'd gotten that right.
"Yeah, I suppose," the Doctor shrugged, "Now you mention…"
"How long's it been doing that?"
"Oh…not long…"
"Lies, lies, lies," Mac teased, "Try centuries ago in 1963, Amy."
Amy had to laugh at that, "Ok, ok, but what about the windows? There are windows on the outside but where do they go? Is it a cry for help?"
"What?" the Doctor blinked, both he and Mac looking a bit confused.
"The bowtie!"
"You are REALLY fixated on the bowtie," Mac commented.
"Aren't you?" Amy scoffed.
Mac shrugged, "I've seen reports of him wearing a rainbow-colored jacket," she remarked dryly, "A bowtie is relatively normal, actually…" she paused to think of the pictures she had seen in his UNIT file, "He's worn bowties before…"
"Yes, because bowties are cool," he grinned and walked past Mac, "As is the headband," he reached out and snapped hers up.
"Doctor!" she huffed lightly, shaking her head as she readjusted her headband.
He just grinned widely, he'd gotten to touch her hair just briefly…it was softer than he thought it would be. He felt like he should be jealous that she as ginger, that she got to be ginger whereas he had wanted to be ginger so badly and STILL hadn't managed it but…he just couldn't. The ginger hair suited her and she looked lovely as a ginger, he'd rather stare at her than pout at her for her hair luck.
"And you're aliens," Amy glanced between them.
"Yeah!" the Doctor cheered, "Well, in your terms yeah, in OUR terms," he gestured between him and Mac, "YOU'RE an alien," he poked her in the forehead, making her go cross-eyed, "In quite a few people's terms probably."
"Practically every other alien species thinks those not of their planet are aliens," Mac shrugged, "You'll get used to it."
"What kind of aliens are you?" Amy asked.
"Well, you know," the Doctor mused, "Nice ones. Definitely two of the nice ones. Especially Kenzie, nice on more levels than I can name."
"You're rather nice yourself Doctor," she chuckled, shaking her head as she got back to looking at the controls.
"So you're like uh, space…squids?" Amy wondered, poking him when he'd looked over at Mac, positively beaming at her praise of him, making him look back at her, not intentionally, just more a luck of the timing, "Or something? Are you like tiny little slugs in human suits? Is that why you walk like that?"
"Slouched over?" Mac guessed.
"Oi!" he pouted again, "I do not slouch."
"Yes you do," Mac told him matter-of-factly, "And you really shouldn't, it's bad for your posture and you don't want to ruin that in a new body. Stand up straight Doctor."
He rolled his eyes, "Yes mum," he huffed, standing a bit straighter.
"Not your mother!" Mac countered in a sing-song.
"Are you like Prisoner Zero?" Amy eyed them suspiciously, "Are you like a space-eel but in a hologram or something?"
"Amy," the Doctor turned to her, rolling his eyes, getting a bit tired of that, he'd been about to give Mac a compliment and the moment had been ruined, not that he blamed Amy, but there was only so many times he could say that they really were humanoid (by her standards, though she was more Time Lordian by their own) before it started to get a bit old. That was new, impatience, well no, not actually that new, he'd had quite a few bodies that got irritated with the companions far more quickly than this one, "This is me," he grabbed her hands and put them on his cheeks, "This is what I really look like. And that is what Kenzie looks like."
"Well that's fine then!" Amy half-snapped back, slapping his cheeks with both hands.
"Ow!" he winced, "Good."
"At least it wasn't her mother this time, eh Doctor?" Mac mused with a small smirk on her face, the files were very consistent with that theme of mothers slapping him.
"I don't like slapping," he muttered, moving over beside her to flick a button, "I like YOUR slapping but I don't like slapping and…"
"MY slapping?" Mac shook her head, "I'm fairly certain there's only one sort of slapping…"
"No," he countered, turning to lean against the console, "You slap my shoulder, you do it a lot when you're teasing me or worried about me."
She blinked, "Do I?" she hadn't known that.
"I like it," he shrugged, "I like knowing you're worried about me. Makes me feel like you care."
Mac looked at him softly for that, "I DO care," she told him, not seeing that his look before hadn't been a sort of sad look, like he was depressed he thought she didn't care, but more a calculating and testing look, like he wanted to see what she'd say, "Even when I was angry with you…I DID still care."
He smiled at that, "I'm glad, I always care about you too."
"I know," she nodded softly at that.
"Ok…" Amy breathed, looking up at the ceiling again, taking a deep breath and then smiling at them, oblivious to the small conversation they'd been having as her thoughts settled, "Ok, I think I'm done there…" she laughed.
"Amy Pond," the Doctor clapped and turned, pulling a lever on his way back to his side of the console, "We've barely started," he looked at Mac as she pulled another lever, "Cos…" he winked at Mac and ran to the doors, Amy rushing after him as Mac remained by the console, "Do you know what we keep in here?" he stopped at the doors.
"What?"
"Absolutely everything," he grinned, pulling them open and stepping to the side so she could see the stars beyond them, the TARDIS drifting in the middle of space, "Anything fit your fancy?"
Amy shook her head and spun around, staring at him, "We're in space…"
"Really?" Mac laughed kindly, amused, "What was your first clue?"
"But it can't be," Amy looked at her.
"I can promise you Amy, that most certainly IS."
"But it's like…it's like…it's like …" she glanced out the doors, and back to the Doctor, "Special effects?"
The Doctor smirked a bit at that, thinking for a moment on meeting Shakespeare, how he'd remarked to Martha after they stopped the Carrionites that 'her effect was special enough' and had to wonder how Mac would react if he tried that line on her…hmm…no, best not. If he was going to compliment her, he wanted it to be with his own words.
"It is isn't it?" Amy continued, "It's not real."
He eyed her a moment before glancing back at Mac, "What do you think? Should I?"
Mac blinked, guessing what he was about to do, and shrugged, "Be careful though," she told him, turning to extend the air shell of the TARDIS just to be safe.
He beamed and turned back to Amy, "Get out."
"What?" Amy frowned.
"No, seriously," he quickly pushed her out the doors, "Get out!" before he rushed forward and grabbed her ankle, letting her float off just a bit, space all around her.
A/N: SO sorry this is late :( We had a lot of rain yesterday and lost power at my house and, of course, my phone's battery was at like 5% and died on me so I couldn't even put a note on my tumblr about it :( We didn't get it back till about a half hour ago, so I gave this as quick an edit/read through as I could to get it up. Sorry!
As for the chapter, I wasn't planning on doing this mini-sode originally, but with how the first chapter went, I felt like I really wanted a separate chapter to have the little chat between the Doctor and Mac that's in this one :) I won't be doing the second Meanwhile, before Vampires though ;)
Some notes on reviews...
The Doctor didn't leave the sonic behind actually ;) I had written that he 'picked up his dead sonic and tried to see if he could possibly salvage it,' and never said anything about him dropping it again, so he still had it on him, it wasn't just left behind so Mac didn't have to comment on it, believe me if he had left it she'd have said something and picked it up :) It's the first chapter with a new Doctor still going through regeneration and Mac JUST learned the truth about the Time War hours ago (which is a lot to process)...chemistry won't instantly happen, that wouldn't be believable. She doesn't know who the new Doctor is, neither does he, we see the chemistry slowly build as the story goes ;) She has patience with those she sees as intelligent (and children, she adores them), humans are still growing on her. She has less patience in high-tension situations (like 20 minutes to save the world) or when there's danger, and in that context with 20 minutes you can't afford to be patient lol :) And thanks! I'm SO glad you think Mac's relationship with the Doctor is totally different than Angel's! ^-^ That's such a good thing it's not the Doctor/Angel match as this IS a different TL with a different dynamic and history and relationship to the Doctor than Angel. I really try to keep the TLs separate from each other and unique so comparing Mac to Angel and seeing differences and a 'far cry' from the relationship she had with the Doctor means I'm doing my job right ;) To have the same relationship as Angel had would essentially mean turning Mac into the same personality as Angel and that isn't something I want. The disagreeing is sort of the point with this new Doctor/Mac, they're more of the 'bicker couple' except unlike how the old Mac was biting and harsh in her bickering, this one is more light-hearted. She's the one who has no issue disagreeing with the Doctor and letting him know it ;) It's intentional :) But this is a new Mac that's still settling and a New Doctor so it's hard to really do much in the first chapter with only like 5 minutes of calm before the running ;)
Yup, Amy will still hit on the Doctor, but as for what Mac will say...we'll have to wait and see ;)
I can say the Doctor does actually have a sort of semi-almost-claim to Mac, they both said they loved the other, just at different times. Unofficially they're Chosens, officially...there's a very BIG possibility that they WILL be Chosens (given how everyone calls Mac that, especially Caan), in the Doctor's mind they are Chosens, he just has to prove it to Mac ;) And thanks, I'm sure the story isn't the best, there are probably hundreds of wooing stories out there that are better, but thank you :) And that's cool if Mac is your favorite, I actually like that a lot of people have different favorite TLs :) And thanks so much! I honestly wasn't expecting anything to come from writing my stories except a place to get my ideas out, but I'm really glad they were able to inspire people and that they're enjoying them, so thank you :') Lol, I don't think it's odd, nope, I thought it was a very clever name :) No worries about the length, I love every length review :)
I probably won't do a sneak peek for this story, just because by the time we hit a certain number of reviews...the story would probably be about halfway over so we wouldn't get many of them :( Amy and Mac will probably happen around Venice with a carry over into Amy's Choice, let's just say Mac will do quite a few things that will make Amy very annoyed ;) Mac won't be able to be a pilot till Gallifrey is back, or till the TARDIS is at the planet again ;) I'm not sure if the TLs will regenerate into something strange, I feel like if it's too out there it borderlines becoming a Mary Sue even if the Doctor himself ended up with cat eyes or something and the TL had cat ears, some readers would still cry Mary Sue if it's too weird. It would depend on the show and what the Doctor becomes :)
We'll have to wait and see what Mac's reaction to the Amy-kiss will be ;) As for River...River's reaction to Amy's thoughts made me laugh ;)
I wasn't depressed when I wrote Angel or channeling angst nope :) I think it was more that the hero's journey requires hardship and I really wanted Angel to become the hero I always saw her as :) I can say Mac's story won't be as dark as Angel's, there might be a dark episode or two, a dark moment, but overall much lighter than Angel's ;) But yup, no Time Tots here :( I'm definitely going to try and make up for it with the children-episodes though and a few twists :)
Mac will more be of the 'actions speak louder than words' mentality when it comes to Amy and her rudeness at one point. We'll see her almost fight fire with fire ;)
There won't be lots of angst in Mac's story nope :)
I'm sorry you've been feeling bad lately :( I completely understand that feeling, my mother had Breast Cancer and that entire time was just terrible and terrifying. I wish you and your mother the absolute best and for a swift recovery :) And if you ever need it -virtual hug!- I've got plenty more where that comes from ;)
The Evy AU, and practically all the AUs, probably won't be up for a very long time :( I originally planned for them to be the 'filler' stories that would happen between the long waits in the series for DW and to work on them once I'd caught up with all my future TLs. I've got 2 more planned for 2015, so we may not see any AUs till 2016 :( I was going to try and get Rewritten going again, but I've got way too much writing going on this year (nearly doing 2 different stories every day for the year makes me think I was a little insane lol) to get to that :( But we might see an OC for 9, but probably not till after the AUs that'll feature 9 get out :)
Oh Mac will be very angry at Demons Run yup ;)
