A/N: Hola. For all intensive purposes (basically, I'm an impatient little cat) an entire month of travels is going to be smooshed into one chapter! Huzzah! I don't want to bore you, or me... Definitely bad for me to be bored. If I get bored, this entire story will have loose ends and dying Rory's (seriously though, that man dies a LOT). So. Enjoy! REVIEW! Thank you to: shifuni and Mandapanda89 for the reviews. And thanks to all that have read!
disclaimer: If I owned this TV show, I would be rich and the head writer. Seeing as I am neither nor, I do not own it. But Kat is mine. MINE I TELL YOU! And so are the Fire Beasts because they rock like cotton socks.
Chapter 4: Two is better than one, mostly Doctor POV
Time passed, and her shock turned to awe, and her awe turned to excitement. Over a month of travels had passed us by, and for once the TARDIS felt like a home. Traveling with Kat was... different. Every time her hazel eyes went alight with happiness, I felt young again. Blissful and innocent. Now when I took her hand she clutched it tight, like a reflex. All the abnormalities seemed normal now, such as her eating in small bites and my hyper speed explanations and ability to survive through basically anything. It was new. It was surprising. It was dangerous. It was comfortable.
I was right-naturally- being in the TARDIS balanced her. The energy she had somehow absorbed was monitored daily, but she was fine with it. We had met everything, fierce Cybermen (turns out their creator made an off switch. Pathetic), man eating butterflies, and even some kittens that turned into humans (Kat was just a bit annoyed when they called her one of them).
Today was different. She had made a cake (though I told her no domestic) celebrating the one month anniversary of discovering what she called 'her new life'. She still cried. I heard it often. She was homesick to the core, and this minor celibraton was her way of closure. But I had another idea. We ate the cake and made do with idle chat, but this day was supposed to be important, not boring and normal.
I flipped switches and turned knobs, smiling devilishly. She was suspicious of me; even after a month of knowing me she was still always suspicious of me. I whistled to myself as she stood behind me.
"Doctor," she said, her arms folded across her chest indignantly. I couldn't help but smile wider.
"Kat," I said back, being as vague and unresponsive as humanely possible. She walked over to me, leaning against me,
"Whatcha doing?" she asked, her Irish accent still not dulled after living in England for so long. I shrugged. Vague. I could do that, right?
"Stuff," I said. My mouth was bursting. How can you NOT talk? Stupid new regenerations and their stupid gabs. Kat was NOT AMUSED (which reminded me of Scotland, werewolves, and Queen Victoria... and that twenty quid I owed her), and did not in the least buy my cover up.
"Such as?" she asked. I slammed down a button and laughed giddily,
"Why don't you step outside?" I asked. Kat cautiously opened the doors, took one step, and screamed, falling down. I felt my stomach collapse and my world slowed,
"KAT!" I screamed, running through the doors. Down I fell, feeling liquid splash in my face as I slid through a tunnel. Bam! Sunlight hit me. And there she was, laughing her head off. Kat. In her best jeans. Covered in mud. Laughing like a maniac.
How was this normal, exactly?
I- off course- fell next to her. But I wasn't laughing,
"You scared me!" I exclaimed, cross. Kat rolled her eyes.
"Millions of weapons, and a literal mud slide that you planned scares you," she asked. She had a point. She usually did. Mud plastered her entire face, her eyes like white saucers in the midst of the brown. I nearly blushed,
"Well, for a second. Maybe five. Or eighteen. Twenty six?" I offered, trying to seem humble. She laughed at my attempt, touching her mud covered cheeks. I reached into my coat (with it's endless pockets) and grabbed a small, clean piece of cloth.
Kat POV:
He reached up, a cloth in his hand and gently rubbed the mud off of my cheeks, avoiding the scar on my left temple that reached to my cheek. The gesture was sweet, caring. He thought I was a delicate flower. Maybe I was. I reached up, and held his hand on my cheek. I breathed out. The two of us. Sitting in piles of mud. His hand on my cheek and mine on his hand. It was peaceful. It was perfect.
It was wrong.
I quickly drew my hand away, blushing a bright pink. A mixture of embarrassment and another emotion flooded his face. Stupid Kat, stupid stupid stupid.
"Right, so, sorry, I really didn't mean to get you into such a mess," he said, standing up and offering me a hand. I bit my lip, nervous and embarrassed. Which mess did he mean? The mud or the...
"C'mon. Let's get back to the TARDIS," he said his voice gentle. I was just a child to him. Just a child. I held onto his hand still. It had always been there for me, even if he hadn't. He removed his trademark trench coat and I scoffed,
"Is that why you wear it? To stay clean?" I asked, noting that underneath his coat he was spotless. He flashed me one of his cheeky grins,
"Yes."
I laughed at this. He was always so... irritatingly child like. He shifted his coat, motioning to me. I grasped his coat, holding it to me. He only needed to get the key, but still. I pressed the coat to me, inhaling its smell. Like white cotton near the sea side. He unlocked the TARDIS, and then hesitated.
"You don't have a key, do you?" he asked. I was surprised,
"No, why?" I asked, trying to keep calm. The key. That he held so precious. That had to mean something... trust? He frowned and turned the key over in his hand. I let my face sink. Of course he wouldn't give it too me.
"Here then," he said, thrusting it towards me. I perked up at once, smiling as wide as my lips could manage. I reached for it, and he took my hand, grasping it. His eyes went up to my startled face.
"Don't lose it," he said, nonchalant. I nodded, stepping into the TARDIS. Mud was everywhere, and once again I slipped.
"Woah there!" he cried, catching me in his arms. I sucked in a sharp breath. He smiled at me,
"Too much cake?"
I laughed. Typical. He dashed off to the consoles, leaving me to close the door. My madman, I thought fondly as he went into a mile- a- minute speech on the purpose of the purple and green buttons. Standing beside him, listening to him talk, it always felt so much like a home. He looked up at me,
"Happy one month anniversary," he chirped, his fingers brushing mine until they found my hand. I rested my head on his shoulder, my eyes closed,
"Do you know how long that cake took?" I mumbled. He turned his head so it was next to mine,
"How long?"
"Eight stinking hours. And you know what?"
"What?"
"I haven't slept since two days ago."
"Well, that would explain the extreme droopiness of you right now," he said teasingly. I blushed, shifting my weight and standing up right. He was gazing at the monitor now, watching the random circles spinning. I sat down on the console floor, my legs drawn to my chest. Suddenly, the phone rang. I jumped, but he was unmoved.
"Could you get that please?" he asked. I scooted over to where the phone was, removing it and bringing it to my sitting position,
"Hello, this is Kat McCreen, how can I help you?" I asked, faking a cheerful secretary voice. We exchanged amused glances. Our personal jokes were few, but pretending the TARDIS was our workspace was one of them.
"Kat?" came an all too familiar voice. I stood abruptly, gaining a concerned look from the Doctor.
"Mom?" I asked, my voice equally concerned. My mother continued,
"Oh good, this is the right number."
The Doctor grabbed the phone from me, as I protested,
"How did you get this number, exactly?" he asked, his voice intrigued. I nudged him impatiently,
"My mother, your phone, my rights," I pointed out. He sighed and handed back the phone.
"Mom, wow, hi!" I exclaimed. The ability to phone home had never crossed my mind, and I at once felt guilty.
"Kat, thank God you're safe. I have a question for you," she said. I raised my eyebrows,
"You phoned because you had a question?" I wondered aloud. Some of his rudeness must have rubbed off on me.
"Yes, actually," my mother said, her voice level, "Can you come home?"
I froze. The Doctor gave me a warning look from across the room. I swallowed hard, feeling the words curl in my mouth,
"No Mom, I'm sorry, I really can't" I whispered, regret filling my tone. She laughed from the other side of the connection,
"Not permanently, just for a week or so. The week before your birthday, maybe?" she asked, hopeful, "I know you'd never leave him."
He couldn't hear the last part and for that I was grateful. Because I never would. Would I? I pressed my hand to the receiver, but I knew she could still hear. I also knew my family could too (the phone was all too obviously on speaker phone, I could hear more than one person breathing).
"One week?" I asked, hopeful. He strode up to me, shaking his head. Tempting me. I batted my eyelashes and held onto his hands,
"Pleasepleasepleaseplease?" I begged. Just what he wanted. He made noncommittal noises, and smiled diabolically. I practically dragged his hands to me so that I was holding them to my throat,
"Just one measly tinie tiny little week?" I asked again. He shuffled his feet and smiled,
"We-ell" his voice stretched again, "Maybe a week."
I squealed, jumping into his arms in an spontaneous hug,
"Thankyou thankyou thankyou!" I yelped. He buried his face in my shoulder and I did the same,
"Of course," he said, smiling at my glee, "Now do me the kind favor and stop squeezing me to death."
I obliged, laughing into the phone,
"Name the date!"
A/N: Nothing to say except…. Review!
