The TARDIS shook happily as they made their escape, with the atmosphere in the room it was almost like the whole console was glad to be free again. Mckenzie smiled as she looked up at The Doctor from across the console. Jack felt that he had to throw himself between them just to stop them from making googly eyes at each other.
They all laughed together as the TARDIS finally slowed to a stop.
"So, what now then?" asked The Doctor, putting his arms around Jack and McKenzie.
"That was quite small time for you Doctor. We could stop a galactic war, save the universe?" Jack smiled.
"And that's a regular weekend for you then?" asked McKenzie, raising an eyebrow at them.
"Well…" The Doctor shrugged modestly.
"Oh you wouldn't believe some of the things we got up to when we were young." Jacked laughed.
"You consider yourselves old?" McKenzie asked.
"You don't know the half of it... We've been through a lot." Jack paused for a moment, like everything was washing over him from his past. He shook it from his mind, "Anyway, I'm going to stick around for a bit, see if I can't chase up where they went…"
"Sounds good to me, but they're Planet Link's problem right?" asked McKenzie, "Anyway, as alluring as what might be on the other side of that door is, I'm pretty beat… so I'm going to take a nap or something." said McKenzie.
"Down the far right hallway, on the left, just opposite the wardrobe, should be alright." said The Doctor.
"Thanks…" she said, grinning at him as she left.
The Doctor picked up McKenzie's bag and pulled out the files on Vera and George.
"Vera seemed pretty interested in getting these files..." he handed one to Jack, "These could help find them?" he said.
"Theymust have had it planned all along… I know it. Steal a vortex manipulator and get the hell out of dodge… they could be anywhere now."
The Doctor opened the file on Vera, "Oh. Well… This explains a lot…" he showed the file to Jack.
"Hmm…" Jack mumbled.
"She's a lady of… negotiable affections…" he continued reading the file, "She killed a string of men for not paying her properly."
"But, if she's from the 18th century… How did she end up here?" Jack opened the folder for George, "And how did she end up meeting him?" he handed The Doctor the file. It showed he was a club owner from the 1890's.
"To get their employees Planet Link have a system. They take people from different times, when they can manipulate them easily." The Doctor rubbed his chin quizzically, "Hm... says here Vera was a personal request from George…" The Doctor shuffled awkwardly, "Lovely."
"We're getting nowhere with this they could have hopped a ship off of the planet by now… Although... Planet Link monitors the use of their vortex manipulators so we could check that?" Jack sighed.
"Well, it's a start…" The Doctor got up and stretched, "I'm going to check on McKenzie."
"Alright." Jack grinned, "Don't check too hard..." he giggled.
The Doctor headed to McKenzie's room, the door was closed. He noticed it had her tattoo etched into it with a message in circular Gallifreyan, he went a little red and laughed to himself "Napkin Girl..." he slowly opened the door and lent on the door frame, just to check on her.
She was lying on the bed like she had just flopped over. He watched her for a moment, smiled and went to leave but she stirred and woke up.
"Oh, hey," she rolled over, "I would have tried to be a little more graceful if I knew I was gaining an audience." she got up from her bed, "Did you find anything?"
"Jack's working on it." The Doctor shrugged.
"Good." she shuffled awkwardly, she was wearing a familiar white shirt and stripy socks, "I hope you don't mind me borrowing it…"
"No, it's fine, it looks better on you anyway," he smiled, "I mean you can give it back now if it bothers you." he shrugged, a tiny bit of pink creeping its way onto his cheeks.
"Oh thanks! You couldn't just–" she swayed, "Blimey, how tired are you?"
"Not at all, I'm fine." he lied.
"No, you're not." she pulled him over to the bed, "Come on, bedtime."
He pulled away from her, "I am over two-thousand years old, I don't have a bedtime."
She raised her eyebrow and sat down on the bed, "Well, I have some serious adjusting to do and even if you don't want to sleep–"
"I don't need to sleep–"
"You could at least just have a lie down?"
The Doctor sighed defeated as he did as he was told.
"Good boy." she said, he raised his eyebrow at her and she laughed.
She lay down next to him, "This is so weird..." she said, staring up at the ceiling.
"I can go if you like–"
"No, don't be stupid. I mean me. For the first time in– I don't even know, I have memories... I remember what happened to me... but I guess I got more than I bargained for... I got you as well."
"I still don't know how I feel about you knowing everything there is to know about me..."
"Yeah... I'm– I'm sorry about that."
He looked her in the eyes, "You know my name... don't you?"
She gazed back at him "I do..."
"And there's only one time I would ever tell anyone my name, I may have done that a couple of times now..." he said awkwardly, "But you just know it as I know it... I never told you."
"I only heard it once... mixed in with everything else, but I don't think I'll ever forget it."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"Do you want to know my name...? Like... my full, real, name?" she asked him.
"You don't have to tell me... it's not like we're–"
"But I want to..."
He turned to her, looking almost confused.
"I mean... it's only fair." she added awkwardly.
"Alright," he smiled genuinely as he looked back up at the ceiling, "Go ahead."
She took a deep breath, "Gosh... it feels like I'm about to give part of myself away... That's a weird feeling." she laughed awkwardly.
"In a way, you are..." The Doctor said, "For a Gallifreyan this tradition means giving a part of your soul to the other person–"
"And I feel like I've just taken yours, with nothing in return. So here goes..."
She moved close to him, her cheek brushed against his as she whispered in his ear, taking care to make her name sound as meaningful as possible, even though it couldn't possibly be as impressive as his was.
"Phoenix Laili'Yaudrah Pandora" she slowly moved back and joined him in staring up at the ceiling. They were silent for a moment. She felt fear, she was actually a little scared of what he might think, she didn't know why. She turned to him, some of the fear she was feeling was coming from him, "Hey." she poked him.
He turned to her, unable to think of something to say.
"Look after it... yeah? I trust you." she smiled.
They smiled at each other.
"It's funny..."
"What?" he asked.
"No, not that... Something else." she fiddled with his tie, "When you walked out of that closet, did you ever think that this is where you would end up?"
He smiled and leant back on his arms behind his head, "Well, me and my endless charm, how could you resist?"
She jabbed him in the ribs, "Shut up." she laughed.
McKenzie moved a little closer and rested her hand on his chest.
"I guess, if I hadn't been shot... you wouldn't be here right now." he said.
"Yeah... I suppose I wouldn't be."
"And you wouldn't be... well, who you are now."
"No, I wouldn't be would I..?" she smiled, "So... what you were saying... before?"
"Before?"
"About me and who you thought you were going to be…"
"Oh, right yeah..." he tried not to blush.
"You'd really want me there... after your regeneration?" she asked, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Of course..." he smiled, "You were there before weren't you? Yours was the first face that this face saw." he brushed her hair out of her face, "You really helped me find who I am... or at least who I am this time... and uh– that means a lot... to me..." he went a bit red.
"Gee, are you always this... gushy after regenerating?" McKenzie laughed. The Doctor rolled his eyes and McKenzie continued to tease him, "Are you sure you haven't become a woman?"
"Well excuse me for saying things... I mean, you can check if you really want–"
"Oh wow..." McKenzie lay back on the bed, "Definitely a bloke, if that's your pick-up line."
"That's not how I meant it to sound..." The Doctor covered his face, "I didn't say that... pretend I didn't say that!"
They laughed and turned to face each other.
"So what do we do now, where do we go from here?" McKenzie asked.
"Well… there's a whole universe out there..."
"You don't sound enthusiastic?"
"No, it's amazing... I'd love to show you–"
"But?"
"But trouble tends to follow me around…"
"I can handle trouble." she raised her eyebrow at him.
He smiled, "Sometimes I wish– I wish I could just… be."
McKenzie thought for a second, thinking about what he meant by that. She felt a sense of longing and fear that tied her stomach in knots, but the feeling melted away when he looked up into her eyes, "Maybe, I could help with that…?" she asked.
"I think I'd like that." he smiled.
She cuddled up to him and he put his arm around her. She eventually fell asleep in the comfortable silence, he watched her for a moment and considered leaving but he held her close and fell asleep.