Chapter 6: Aftermath
Many weeks passed since the battle and Arendelle slowly regained some normality. All that remained of the Snow Queen's winter was an ice rink in the town for the citizens to use. Summer returned, all was glorious and merry, except within the walls of the Palace. Anna found herself free to come and go as she pleased, but the gates remained closed and Elsa remained hidden inside. Her upset had frozen the upper floors of the Palace, no one, neither the staff nor Anna, dared to venture up to see her anymore. Often people stole a glance up to the higher floors, wrapped in ice on the outside, and knew that the Queen was still grieving the loss of a good man, Arendelle's saviour.
Her room was a hostile winter, a blizzard swept furiously about between the four walls, the only item untouched by the ice and cold was the Doctor's jacket hung by the door, which he had shrugged off before he'd pursued Prince Hans. Every time Elsa looked at it she mourned his untimely leave from Arendelle all over again.
Anna had not taken the disappearance of the Doctor quite as hard as her sister and was content to keep up appearances around the Kingdom. She'd taken a particular liking to Kristoff the ice mason, he would often carve her small figurines out of ice knowing full well that they would last the seasons in the wintery castle. She joined him regularly on his trips up the North Mountain along with Olaf, they even ventured to view Elsa's fallen palace. Anna had begged her sister to rebuild it when they'd returned home, but Elsa had flatly refused. It saddened the young princess to see her sister so crushed and as selfish as it seemed, when she left on her trips with Kristoff she liked to leave her troubles behind the closed gates. The trio were currently riding his sled out of Arendelle to harvest the purest ice from the northern most part of the kingdom when a large blue box appeared out of thin air; it whirred and skittered to a halt on the road in front of them.
"What the..." Kristoff reached for his pick axe as he rose from his seat. The blue door opened inwards and out stepped none other than the Doctor.
"Oh my god," Anna couldn't believe what she was seeing, "Doctor is that you?"
Jacketless and clearly battle tired the Doctor tugged the door shut, swayed a little and smiled at Anna, "It's me," he confirmed. His hair was messy, his shirt was torn in places, and the frayed bow tie he wore hung limply from his collar.
"What happened to you? Where is Hans?"
"He wanted to a rule a Kingdom, so I gave him one. It's, complicated. Where is everyone? Where is Elsa?"
"She's," Anna hesitated, "She's at the palace. It's been weeks Doctor, where have you been?"
"Weeks?!" The Doctor tapped his watch, "Ohh no! Water damage! I completely lost track of time"
"Hop in, we'll take you back to the Palace" Kristoff took hold of the reins and guided Sven to turn the cart around. The Doctor stared with frank suspicion at the jolly snowman he was squashed up against, he buzzed him quickly with his screwdriver and read the reading.
"Hey I'm Olaf. I like warm hugs"
"Did Elsa build you?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah why?"
"Absolutely no reason," the Doctor tucked away his sonic into his pocket, "Shouldn't you have a nose?"
"Ohh I've always wanted a nose" The Doctor rumaged through the sacks on the back of the sled until he found the reindeers carrots.
"Hold still," he warned the little snowman, before stuffing it roughly into his face. Olaf grabbed at it, going cross-eyed as he admired it.
"Oh. I. Love it!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and resided himself to the fact that his day quite probably could not get any stranger than a sleigh ride with a living snowman. The journey was bumpy yet swift, as they reached the palace the Doctor's hearts sank.
"But it's frozen," he shook his head, unable to comprehend why the thaw she'd unleashed had failed to work on the second floor of the palace.
"She's mourning you Doctor, she thinks you're dead"
The Doctor could only look on in dismay as they approached. When he entered the palace the true depth of Elsa's upset was clear. Ice flooded the staircase, jagged and unfinished, nothing like the wonderfully crafted palace he had landed in weeks ago. He stole a glance back at Anna and Kristoff, both of whom encouraged him to ascend the frozen stairs. He therefore ventured up the staircase alone, his footing was unsteady on the harsh ice causing him to slip a few times. Once at the summit it wasn't difficult to find Elsa's room, the ice was at its thickest there. With his sonic screwdriver and heavy hearts he resonated the ice surrounding the door handles and after a few long minutes he'd broken it off. He pushed his way inside, feeling the Queen's pained torment in the harsh blizzard that struck him. Laying on her frozen solid bed weeping into an equally frozen solid pillow, was Elsa. The Doctor struggled through the harsh conditions to her and perched himself on the bed beside her. He gently stroked her platinum hair. Elsa opened her eyes and almost burst into further tears when she saw him, "Tell me that it's really you"
"It's really me," he put her hand up against his cheek, "Got my timings wrong, like I always do"
The Queen hugged him tightly, so tightly that the Doctor feared that she may freeze him again. Instead the blizzard ceased and the ice retreated, he hugged her back and held her close until the wintery palace surrendered to the heat of summer. The pair pulled apart from their long embrace. Elsa, shy as she was, gently fixed some stray strands of the Doctors floppy fringe back into place. She couldn't help but smile, seeing him again melted her winter powers down to almost nothing.
"I thought something terrible may have happened to you, and when you didn't return I..." The Queen held back valiantly the sobs that were attempting to rise up to consume her again, "I'm just glad you're okay"
"Hey now," he soothed rekindling their embrace, "I'm always okay, I'm the king of okay"
"Doctor?" Elsa pulled back, looking him straight in the eye, "What happened to Hans?"
The Doctor smiled, "That's a long story," he pushed himself up onto the bed properly beside her, interlocked his fingers neatly behind his head and rested back against the soft pillows. Elsa gathered up her pillow hugging it tightly awaiting the Doctor's explanation, "It happened like this.."
The two fierce brawling men tumbled off the edge of the ship into the Doctor's clever time machine. Used to the sudden gravity change, the Doctor stood upright immediately and pulled the dematerialisation lever. Hans, adjusting much slower to the Tardis' internal gravity, staggered backwards and forwards, helpless, like a clumsy drunk.
"You're the devil!" He cried at the Doctor.
"You know, that, that might be a new one," the Doctor mused flicking the pinball machine on the console.
"What is this contraption?!"
"I wouldn't worry about that," the Doctor swung himself around the console panels with the handrail of the monitor, "I'd worry about your new kingdom"
Hans fell backwards onto the sofa, "You're taking me home?" He frowned at himself for a moment, "Why would you do that?"
The Doctor turned to face the disgraced Prince, "Because Hans, you're dangerous, I'm not allowing you to go anywhere near Arendelle again. And you're certainly not getting anywhere near the Queen and her sister for as long I've got a beat in my heart and breath in my lungs"
"Until she loses control and freezes you again, it's only a matter of time, and you know it"
The Doctor sighed, shook his head at Hans, "I've never met anyone who wasn't worth the risk. Elsa is no exception"
"How did you survive anyway? She froze your heart solid. I saw you turn to ice"
The time lord gripped the console tightly, "Ah yes, that," Who else better to share in his secret than a man he was sending across the universe never to be heard of again. The Doctor knew that the Queen could never know the truth, fear caused her powers to spiral out of control, if she thought for a moment that she'd caused his slow death, who knew how she'd react. He allowed Hans to see the full body scan he'd performed on himself. The Doctors right heart was still frozen. The screen spoke in a computerised female voice.
"Regeneration cycle, disabled"
"What does that even mean? Do you, do you have two hearts?" Hans had never heard of these space-age terms, nor had he seen someone with two hearts.
"I'm a time lord Hans, I don't die when I'm injured, my whole body changes. I get new everything, new face, the lot. But this," the Doctor pointed at the screen, "This is like poison to my system. This, has stopped my ability to regenerate. I'm still dying, but at human pace"
"So, you're saying that you're going to age and die, instead of regurgitating?"
"Regenerating," the Doctor corrected, "And yes. I've got one life left, this one," The Tardis rumbled to a halt. The Doctor raised his head, "Looks like this is your stop"
"No! They'll kill me for treason" Hans clung to the sofa like a cat, "We can get past this, you're a good man right? I promise to stay away, and you, you let me go free. How does that sound? Hm? Please?"
"Sorry," the Doctor frowned, "No second chances, I'm that kind of a man" He hauled the Prince out of the Tardis quite literally by the scruff of the neck, he shoved him out into the wilderness. It was almost pitch black, the ground was dry and uneven, Hans' white uniform now looked dirty and unkempt.
"This isn't home"
"It's your new home," Around them many pairs of red eyes suddenly appeared gleaming through the darkness, "I promised them a leader the last time I was here. I've finally delivered on that promise. You see Hans I'm a man of my word, I said that I'd take you to a new kingdom, not your old kingdom. Goodbye Hans"
"No! Doctor please! Doctor no! Don't leave me! Doctor I…!"
The Time Lord shut the door firmly, and snapped the safety catch on.
Elsa's wide eyes almost had the Doctor thinking that he'd done wrong in his punishment of Hans; but the Queen simply chuckled softly, "Well he did want to be on a throne" The Doctor smiled with relief.
"I was thinking, I might stay in Arendelle for a while," he stared up at the perfectly crafted ceiling.
"That would be wonderful, as long as you like Doctor, the gates are always open to you"
He smiled briefly at her, "I'm sorry that things got so crazy"
"I'm sorry that I froze you," Elsa stood up and looked down at the relaxed Doctor. It was the first time he'd looked so calm since she'd met him. She grabbed his jacket from the coat stand.
"I thought I'd lost that," he got up to retrieve it from her and slid his arms into the familiar sleeves. He gathered up the lapels and breathed in the space dust it had gathered over the years. The Doctor looked down the petite Snow Queen, the stress was gone from her face, she was back in her rightful place, in her home, and she was adored by her people.
"We should celebrate your return. I owe Arendelle a true celebration anyway after the last disaster"
The music filling the ballroom finally subsided, the couples stopped dancing, applauding each other politely.
The steward stood proudly at the head of the ballroom, "I give you, Queen Elsa of Arendelle," Elsa stood beside him and nodded politely, "Princess Anna of Arendelle"
Anna, late as ever, found herself being pushed through the crowd by Kristoff, hurriedly taking her place beside her sister, she beamed around happily, even waving at a few of the couples. Cheering erupted, and the sound of clapping filled the ballroom. It all stopped when the music started back up again; and the dancing continued. For the first time, everything was going right.
"Where did the Doctor get to?" Anna raised up onto her tiptoes to scan the room.
"Over there," Elsa pointed to the main entrance where the Doctor was emerging in his finest tuxedo and tails.
"What is he wearing? I love it!" Anna seemed to love everything the Doctor did, or wore, or said. Kristoff rolled his eyes and took the opportunity to grab her hand and lead her off for a dance. The Doctor manoeuvred his way across the dance floor and up to the Queen, he offered his hand out and bowed embarrassingly low just as Kristoff had done all those weeks ago.
"My Queen, may I have this dance?"
"Don't call me that," Elsa couldn't help but stifle a giggle, "Doctor, I don't, I don't dance"
He stood up straight, shrugged pointedly and simply said, "Well neither do I, let's give it go," Grabbing her hand he led her fluidly into the crowd of dancers; he delicately raised her hand and twirled her gently. He gave her an encouraging grin, "I usually only dance at weddings," he admitted before they joined in beside Anna and Kristoff.
The festivities went on long into the night, the sisters relaxed by Elsa's throne, drinks in hands, giggling away as the hard-core party goers maintained the dance floor. Kristoff and the Doctor hovered by the punch bowl.
"So uh, Doctor, did it, did it work? The, the thing I mean?" Kristoff leant in close to the Doctor so as not to be overheard, "The thing you asked me to do" The Doctor set his drink down calmly and looked Kristoff in the eye.
"No. It didn't work. I've still got a frozen heart"
"But it's not spreading at least?" The Doctor shook his head in response, "Does Elsa know?"
"No, and she doesn't need to know. The last thing we need to do is to put that fear back into her. She's got it under control now" Kristoff didn't look convinced, he screwed his face up.
"Why aren't both of your hearts frozen?"
"My anatomy is a little more complicated"
"I know where we can get you help"
"The trolls?" the Doctor took his full glass and downed the contents instantly. Kristoff's face was enough to stop a clock, "I know already. Elsa told me"
"Then, we should go and see them then," the ice mason shrugged. The time lord glanced to the happy sisters, "Oh don't worry, they don't need to know, we could go now, it's late, they won't be leaving the castle tonight"
"We'll have to take the sled. My Tardis is in Elsa's room"