I ran into the room my skirts stopping the full out sprint I would rather be doing but I had to keep moving. I entered the bedroom in time to hear Reinette say;
"The only man, save you, I have ever loved." She continued quickly before her lover, the King could interrupt, "No, don't look like that, there's no time. You have your duties. I am your mistress. Go to your queen." She moved back towards the fireplace and crouched down speaking directly into the flames, "Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now, you promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time. Doctor! Doctor!"
I knelt beside her and prayed that the Doctor would keep his promise.
)0(
3000 years later.
"Doctor!" I heard Rose screech. I shot around the corner and grabbed a gun-like object off the wall, I aimed at the droid that was still stuck in the wood of the fireplace and sprayed it, freezing it completely.
"Tory?" All three of them exclaimed, I hadn't seen them for a few months I had no idea how long it had being for them.
"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey told me appreciatively. I threw the gun at him calmly.
"Fire extinguisher." I told them with a smirk. The Doctor was standing beside the TARDIS and I turned to face him, "Oh honey I missed you!" I exclaimed. I ran forwards with my arms out stretched and embraced the TARDIS, "Is he being good to you?" I asked in a baby voice.
"Hey!" the Doctor sounded hurt. I let go of the TARDIS and faced him.
"What?" I grinned at him.
"Don't I get a hug?" he asked matching my grin easily.
"Oh come here you." I held out my arms and he grabbed me, he lifted me up and spun me around. Once he let go of me I asked;
"How long has it being for you?"
"A few hours." He looked down at the ring on my finger and beamed, it meant that we were together in the right order.
"Really? I've had months." I frowned, "Mickey-boy!" I turned to him, "How's my tin dog?" I asked cheekily.
"OI!" he warned, "I'm holding the ice gun!"
"Fire extinguisher." The Doctor and I corrected at the same time.
"Where did that thing come from?" Rose asked, I wasn't sure if she was talking about me or the droid.
"Here." The Doctor and I answered together.
"So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey asked.
"Field trip to France, some kind of basic camouflage protocol - nice needlework! Shame about the face." He had walked back over to the droid while he was talking and now pulled off the wig/mask to reveal an ornate clockwork mechanism covered by a clear plastic egg shape, "Oh, you are beautiful!" the Doctor exclaimed as he put on his glasses, "No really, you are, you're gorgeous! Look at that! Space age clockwork, I love it! I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart - and, by the way, count those - it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you." He pulled out the sonic and held it threateningly at the droid, "But that won't stop me."
The droid creaked back to life and slammed its hand down on its wrist and teleported away. The Doctor grabbed my hand and dragged my toward the fireplace.
"Short range teleport, can't have got far. Could still be on board –" I explained while the Doctor worked.
"What is it?" Rose asked. The Doctor stopped working and looked over his humans.
"Don't go looking for it!" he ordered.
"Where're you going?" Rose asked. The Doctor wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back against his chest.
"Back in a sec." he pulled the switch and the fireplace span around.
The Doctor stepped away from the fireplace and looked around the room; it was very plush.
"Reinette... Just checking you're okay..." he ran his hand along the strings of a harp. And I turned to the door. A young beautiful woman stood in the doorway. She stared at the Doctor obviously recognising him, she cleared her throat, "Oh! Hello!" he pulled off his glasses and moved towards her. I walked to the harp and sat down, "Um, I was just looking for Reinette. Uh, this is still her room, isn't it? I've been away, not sure how long."
"Reinette! We're ready to go!" a woman called from outside the room.
"Go to the carriage, mother, I will join you there." The young woman, Reinette called back. The Doctor grinned and I rolled my eyes, "It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence." She noticed me, "And you have brought back someone else." I stood and bowed.
"Tory." I sat back down.
"Reinette...!" the Doctor was amazed, she smiled at him, "Well." He swallowed and looked her up and down, "Goodness, how you've grown."
"And you do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you." She walked towards him.
"Right... yes... sorry. Um... umm... umm.. listen, lovely to catch up, but er, better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with a strange man, do we?"
"Strange? How could you be a stranger to me? I have known you since I was seven years old."
"Yeah... I suppose you have." He gave a small laugh, "I came the quick route." Reinette thouched his cheek.
"Well, you seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real."
"Oh, pfft... You never want to listen to reason..."
"Yeah! Reason is dull!" I called.
"Mademoiselle! Your mother grows impatient." A servant called.
"A moment!" she turned back to the Doctor, "So many questions. So little time." She pulled the Doctor towards her and kissed him passionately on the lips. They stumbled backwards into the mantel piece but I could see that the Doctor wasn't kissing her back.
"Mademoiselle Poisson!"
Reinette broke the kiss and ran towards the open door, grabbing a purse from the dressing table on the way. She glanced back once her eyes resting on the ring on my finger. She ran from the room. I stood and walked to the Doctors side. He looked down at me guiltily. I stroked his cheek and ran my fingers in the hair at the back of his neck. I pulled him down roughly and met his lips with my own. It was more passionate than any of the kisses we had shared before; I licked his lips with my tongue and he opened his mouth to me, we fought from dominance and I eventually gave it to him. I had to pull back to breath even though the Doctor didn't (respiratory by-pass gotta love it!) he started to trial kisses up and down my neck. I pushed him back when I noticed a servant in the doorway.
The Doctor turned and when he saw what I was looking at he went into blab mode.
"Poisson?" he asked remembering what the servant had yelled earlier, "Reinette Poisson? No... no, no, no, no, no way, Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan? Fantastic gardener!" he laughed.
"Who the hell are you?" the servant Doctor reached around me to find the control for the fireplace.
"I'm the Doctor. And I just got snogged by Madame de Pompadour!" he pulled the switch and the fire revolved taking the Doctor and I back to the spaceship 3000 years in the future.
)0(
"Rose!" the Doctor yelled looking around, "Mickey?" he walked further into the room, "Every time, every time, it's rule one - Don't wander off! I tell them, I do, rule one! There could be anything on this ship!" he pulled me around a corner and we came face to face with a white horse.
)0(
We wondered around the corridors, I was pretty certain that the Doctor was lost.
"Rose?" he called out childlike. The horse was following us, "Will you stop following me? I'm not your mother!" the Doctor exclaimed. I giggled and the horse rubbed his nose on the side of my face.
"Can we keep him? Please!" I gave him my best puppy eyes. He looked down at me.
"But…fine!" he gave in. I jumped on him.
"Thank you, thank you!" my weight was too much for the Doctor however and he over balanced falling back through a set of white French double doors.
"Oph!"
"Sorry." I muttered into his ear, I kissed him on the nose and got up.
"So this is where you came from Arthur?" I asked.
"Arthur?"
"Great name for a horse!" we grinned at each other.
We stood and looked around, we were in the palace grounds and ahead of us walking along was Reinette and one of her friends. The Doctor pulled me behind a pillar with a vase ontop.
"Oh, Catherine, you are too wicked!" Reinette exclaimed. Suddenly she turned around and the Doctor pulled me back behind the pillar just in time.
"Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateneux is ill and close to death." Reinette turned back to her friend.
"Yes." She said seriously, "I am devastated." She and her friend caught eachothers eye and burst out laughing.
"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable. The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?"
"He is the King. And I love him with all my heart. And I look forward to meeting him." Her friend laughed but Reinette turned again. I pulled the Doctor behind the pillar.
"Is something wrong, my dear?" Catherine asked.
"Not wrong, no." they paused for a moment but then linked arms and continued walking. The Doctor and I moved out from behind the pillar and lent on the wall.
"Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions."
"Every woman in Paris shares them." Reinette quipped.
"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball?"
They had walked too far away for us to hear them.
"I like her." I told the Doctor as we walked back inside the ship. I took Arthurs reigns and led him along behind us, "She has spunk." We saw Rose and Mickey ahead of us, they were looking through what looked like a window in to a luxurious 18th century room.
"It's France again. We can see France."
"I think we're looking through a mirror." Inside the room a door opened and a man, the King walked in followed by two servants.
"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" Mickey asked.
"King of France." The Doctor and I told them at the same time.
"Oh, here's trouble. What you been up to?"
"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat... picked a fight with a clockwork man..." Arthur whinnied from behind us, "Oh, and I met a horse."
"Love the horse." I added.
"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked.
"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective." The Doctor rolled his eyes, "See these?" he gestured at the mirror, "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history..." Reinette entered the room, "Hers. Time window... deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"
"Who is she?" Rose asked.
"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived."
"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Rose asked as Reinette stalked around the King.
"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress."
"Oh, I get it. Camilla." Rose and Mickey laughed. The King walked out of the room.
"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace... even her own title - Madame de Pompadour." Reinette walked up to the mirror and began cheeking her makeup.
"Queen must have loved her..." Rose trailed off.
"Oh, she did. They get on very well."
"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked.
"France. It's a different planet."
I looked around the room and noticed something that turned my blood cold.
"Doctor, the clock!" he glanced between my horror struck face and the clock and then heard the ticking.
Reinette had heard it too and turned.
"How long have you been standing there?" she demanded. The clockwork person was standing in the corner of the room, "Show yourself!" it turned suddenly and showed itself to be a 'female' clockwork droid. It started at advance.
The Doctor and I grabbed the fire extinguishers from Mickey and Rose. The Doctor shoved the mirror open and we both ran though.
"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" the Doctor greeted her.
"Hello, Reinette," I followed him toward the droid, "love the dress!"
"Fireplace man! Fireplace man's wife!"
The Doctor and I flanked the droid on either side and sprayed it with the guns. It stopped moving. We passed the guns back and the droid started to click and whirr loudly.
"What's it doing?" Mickey asked fearfully.
"Switching back on. Melting the ice." The Doctor answered.
"And then what?"
"Then it kills everyone in the room." I told them.
Suddenly the clockwork droids arm lashed out towards the Doctors throat. He jumped back just in time stopping beside Reinette and I.
"Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" the Doctor asked before turning back to the clockwork woman, "Who are you? Identify yourself." He ordered. The droid cocked its head but didn't answer, "Order it to answer me." The Doctor spoke to Reinette.
"Why should it listen to me?"
"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it." Reinette turned to the droid.
"Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you." She ordered. The droid lowered its arm.
"I am repair droid seven."
"So what happened to the ship, then? There was a lot of damage." The Doctor watched fascinated.
"Ion storm, eighty two percent systems failure."
"Oh that's gotta hurt." I muttered.
"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" the Doctor asked.
"We did not have the parts." Mickey laughed.
"Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts."
"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" the Doctor asked.
"We did not have the parts."
"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" the Doctor yelled.
"We did not have the parts."
"Oh my god." I muttered, "Doctor they didn't have the parts."
"You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew." The Doctor realised.
"The crew?" Mickey asked still not quite getting it.
"We found a camera with an eye in it... and there was a heart... wired in to machinery." Rose reported.
"It was just what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No-one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"
"Someone cooking..." she answered quietly.
"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque."
Reinette looked slightly sick. And I took her hand. She looked at me gratefully.
"But what are you doing here?" the Doctor had turned back to the droid, "You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"
"One more part is required." The droid jerked its head around to look at Reinette, the others followed its gaze and I held on the Reinettes' hand tighter.
"Then why haven't you taken it?" the Doctor asked the droid.
"She is incomplete."
"What... so, that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet'?"
"Why her?" Rose asked suddenly, "You've got all of history to choose from, why specifically her?"
"We are the same."
"We are not the same, we are in no sense the same!"
"We are the same."
"Get out of here! Get out of here this instance!" Reinette snapped.
"Reinette, no." the Doctor tried to protest but it was too late, the droid hit its teleport and vanished.
"It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does."
"Arthur?"
"Good name for a horse." The Doctor winked at me.
"No, you're not keeping the horse!" Rose sighed.
"I let you keep Mickey! Now go, go, go!"Mickey and Rose ran back through the mirror portal. The Doctor closed it behind them and turned back to Reinette, "Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for, there's only one way I can do that. Won't hurt a bit."
Reinette nodded her assent but gripped my hand tighter. The Doctor placed his fingers on her temples and they both closed their eyes.
"Fireplace man... you are inside my mind."
"Oh dear, Reinette. You've had some cowboys in here." He told her.
"You are in my memories. You walk among them."
"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it. I won't look. Ooh.. actually... there's a door just there." Reinette opened her eyes and grinned slyly at me, "You might want to clo- , several."
"To walk among the memories of another living soul... do you ever get used to this?" Reinette asked.
"I don't make a habit of it." He told her seriously.
"How can you resist?"
"What age are you?" I raised an eyebrow.
"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising." Reinette teased.
"No, not my question - theirs. You're twenty-three and for some reason, that means you're not old enough." Reinette flinched, "Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect."
"Oh, such a lonely childhood..."
I frowned Reinette was upper class she had never being lonely a day in her life.
"It'll pass. Stay with me."
"Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very alone."
"What do you mean, alone?You've never been alone in your life—" his eyes snapped open, "When did you start calling me 'Doctor'?"
"Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then but now," She turned to me with a huge smile on her face, "Lonely no longer." The Doctor stepped back from her.
"How did you do that?"
"A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction..."Her voice became softer, "Oh, Doctor. My lonely Doctor and his lovely box. Dance with me."
"We can't." the Doctor told her.
"Dance with me."
"This is the night you dance with the King."
"Then first, I shall make him jealous with both partners."
"We can't."
"Doctor... Doctor who?" she looked at him for a few moments, "It's more than just a secret, isn't it?"
"What did you see?" the Doctor asked her.
"That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance." She turned to me, "And every little girl must learn to love." She grabbed his hand and pulled us out of the room.
)0(
Reinette left the Doctor in the hall and dragged me into a dressing room.
"One must be dressed properly for one's first ball."
When we walked back out to the Doctor he was struck speechless. I was wearing a blood red dress with matching corset, it fell from my hips straight to the floor in waves and my blonde hair hung lose down my back. To the Doctor I was stunning.
"Tory…you look amazing." He offered his arm to Reinette and myself and escorted us to the ball.
)0(
Me: I'm not going to write about the ball here.
Tory: why not*dances around on the spot* it was magical!
Me: but it's not exactally important to the plotline is it?
Tory: well….no.
Me: so why should I bother.
Tory: orr come on! Do it as a one shot!
Me: not without my chocolate!
Tory: I'll get u some when you finish.
Me: *huffs* fine.
Tory: yes! *punches air*
Me: *rolls eyes*
)0(
The Doctor and I had left the ball and were back on the ship. Rose and Mickey were missing and we assumed that they had being captured so we had a plan. We stumbled around the corridors singing.
"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night..." the Doctor and I actually sounded rather good in harmony.
"They called him the- they called him the- the—" we heard Rose say as we staggered into the room where she and Mickey where tied down to tables and surrounded by clockwork droids. The Doctor danced me around the room in a waltz, he was wearing a pair of sun glasses and his tie around his head.
"And still have begged for moooore... I could've spread my wings and done a thou—" we continued to sing but the Doctor broke off
"Have you metthe French?" he asked Rose. Mickey watched bemused, "My... GOD, they know how to party."
"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm." Sarcasm dripped of every word.
"Oh, you sound just like your mother." He told her distastefully.
"What've you been doing? Where've you been?"
"Well... among other things, I think I just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early." Rose lay back down on the bed, "Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before!" he kept an arm tight around me waist but leant on the edge of Roses bed, he continued sincerely, "Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are GOOD." He seemed to stop the droids for the first time, "Oh ho ho ho ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so THICK. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania."
"And so's your dad." I added. The Doctor nodded at me drunkenly.
"Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for? Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinetteis thirty-seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it?" He stared one of the droids mockingly in the face, "Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason - God knows what - only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."
"The brain is compatible."
"Compatible?" he walked straight up to the droid, "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." He removed the droid's mask and poured the 'wine' into the clockwork inside the head of the droid. He replaced the mask and pated it on the head. The droid winded down. The Doctor and I both lost are drunken attitudes, "Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." All the droids in the room begin to advance, but the Doctor quickly pulled a nearby lever, deactivating the lot, "Right, you two, that's enough lying about..." I released the humans using the sonic, "Time we got the rest of the ship turned off."
"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked meaning the droids. The Doctor pulled his tie back down to his neck and out his sunglasses on top of his head.
"Yep. Safe. Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down." He reached into his pockets, "Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago; Tory was using them as castanets." Mickey looked over at me and I shrugged.
"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Rose asked.
"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they'll be lucky to hit the right century. Trial and error after that." the Doctor tried to operate the computer, "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?" I walked over beside him and knocked him away using my hip. An ominous pinging sound filled the room.
"What's that?"
"I don't know...incoming message?" the Doctor spoke over the noise.
"From who?" Mickey asked.
"Report from the field... one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That'swhy I can't close the windows, there's an override!" I slapped the console and moved away as the Doctor spoke.
"Fat lot of good this is then!" I snapped. Behind me one of the clockwork droids sprung to life with a whirring sound. Rose gasped and I turned around slowly. The droid expelled the 'wine' the Doctor poured into its mechanics over the Doctor's shoe.
"Well, that was a bit clever." The Doctor murmured, the rest of the droids sprung to life, filling the room with ticking, "Right... many things about this are not good."
"No? Really?" I asked him sarcastically as I backed away from the droid nearest to me, the pinging sound came again.
"Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?" the Doctor asked.
"She is complete. It begins." They all teleported out.
"What's happening?"
"One of them must've found the right time window, and now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head."
)0(
I had followed Mickey down the corridor to speed him and Rose along.
"Then I must take the slower path." Reinette was in the ship which meant she had just heard the screams from her future.
"You won't be alone," I took her hand, "five years is nothing to me." Reinette and I smiled at each other.
"Are you there?" Reinettes' voice came over the speaker system, "Can you hear me? I need you now, you promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time."
"That's my voice." The present day Reinette look disturbed.
"Rose, come on - we've gotta go. There's- there's a problem." Mickey pulled on Rose's arm.
"Give me a moment." Mickey rushed away, but Rose stayed and approached Reinette and myself, "Are you okay?" she asked gently.
"No. I'm very afraid. But you and I both know, don't we, Rose and you too Tory? The Doctor is worth the monsters."
"Always." I answered and followed Reinette back through the tapestry.
)0(
5 years later.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Reinette called into the fireplace. I was kneeling beside her holding her hand, "Doctor!"
"We must go. No one is coming to help us." The king tried to pull his lover away. Reinette stood and turned to the doorway. I stood beside her and faced down the monsters.
"You are complete. You will come."
One of the droids had Reinette by the arm and was pulling her toward the ballroom, I had two one holding on to each of my arms. I stopped struggling when I realised it was pointless.
"Where are we going?" Reinette was still fighting.
"The teleport has limited range. We must have proximity to the time portal."
"Your words mean nothing. You are nothing." They pulled us through into the ballroom, "Can everyone just calm down? Please. Such a commotion. Such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court. And we are French." The droids had let go of her, she turned back to them, "I have made a decision. And my decision is 'no' - I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world, and I have no desire to set foot there again."
"We do not require your feet. "
Two droids came up on either side of Reinette and pushed her to her knees. They pointed their maiming instruments at her neck. The 'chief' droid approached her and also pointed his weapon at her. Reinette looks up at him.
"NO!" I screamed trying desperately to fight off the droid holding me by my arms.
"You think I fear you. But I do not fear you, even now. You are merely the nightmare of my childhood. The monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured –" she lowered her voice, "so will yours."
The sound of a horse whinnying echoed around the hall. Reinette, the droids, and the guests all looked around for the source of the sound while I smirked at my droid captors. Suddenly the huge mirror that adorned the side of the hall shattered as Arthur the horse leapt through, the Doctor on his back. The guests shrieked and Reinette's mouth dropped open. The Doctor winked at me as he trotted past. The horse came to a halt and the Doctor dropped down.
"Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day." Reinette smiled at his greeting, "And Tory still got my ring." I winked up at him.
"I never take it off."
"What the hell is going on?" the King asked. Reinette spoke to the Doctor,
"Oh - this is my lover, the King of France."
"Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time." He winked at me again.
"Oi! Hotstuff!" I yelled to get his attention, "What time do you call this?" the Doctor smirked and walked towards the chief droid.
"Well I don't know maybe I should fix the clock." He removed the mask of the droid, revealing the clockwork underneath, which elicited a gasp from the crowd. The droid pointed it's weapon at the Doctor, "Forget it. It's over. For you and for me." He looked up at the broken mirror, only a brick wall behind it, "Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand..." the droids looked at the mirror and then tried repeatedly to use their teleports, they all failed.
"The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart? A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. I'm not winding you up." The ticking stopped and all of the droids shut down, one fell over backwards and smashed on the floor. The King helped Reinette up as the Doctor moved towards me. I was already standing. I ran towards him and threw my arms around his neck.
"I missed you!" I spoke into his neck.
"And I missed you." He kissed my forehead but I searched for his lips. I found them.
)0(
I sat in my favourite armchair in front of a window looking out over the stars. The Doctor stood beside me a glass of wine in his hand. Reinette joined us.
"You know all their names, don't you? I saw that in your mind. The name of every star." I nodded mutely.
"What's in a name?" the Doctor asked, "Names are just titles. Titles don't tell you anything."
"Like, 'The Doctor'."
"Like, 'Madame de Pompadour'." Reinette laughed.
"I have often wished to see those stars a little closer. Just as you have, I think."
"From time to time."
"In saving us, you trapped yourself. Did you know that would happen?"
"Mm. Pretty much."
"Yet, still you came."
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" he smiled down at me, "Catch me doing that again."He pulled me out of my chair and wrapped his free arm around my waist.
"There were many doors between my world and yours. Can you not use one of the others?" Reinette asked.
"When the mirror broke, the shock will have severed all the links with the ship. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid. Wherever there was a time window. I'll- I'll, er... pay for any damage." Reinette laughed, "Um... oh, that's a thought, I'm gonna need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?" I laughed quietly.
"So, here you are. My lonely angel. Stuck on the slow path, with me."
"Yep. The slow path." He grinned and held up his glass, "Here's to the slow path."
Reinette laughed and they chinked their glasses together. The Doctor took a sip of whine and then lowered his head to kiss me on the cheek.
"It's a pity... I think I would've enjoyed the slow path." Reinette watched us.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere." The Doctor told us.
"Oh, aren't you?" she put down her wine glass, "Take my hand."
The Doctor took her hand and she led him out of the room. I stayed, knowing what she would show him. Minutes later Reinette came running back and looked out of the window excitedly.
)0(
Reinette was dead, her body had just left the place for the last time.I was sitting in the room with the fireplace when the Doctor walked in, I was crying.
"Forgive me sir." I didn't see that it was the Doctor and I tried to walk passed him.
"Tory?" I stopped when I heard his voice. I turned and ran into his arms crying my eyes out.
"I tried to take her to the future so I could get her help but she refused!" I sobbed, "She wouldn't let me help her!" he held me close and rubbed soothing circles into my back.
"It's okay."
"I tried so hard."
"I know."
He led me over to the fireplace and pulled the leaver.
Once on the other side he pulled me toward the TARDIS. I grabbed his arm and slammed him against the side of the blue box.
"Tory?" I looked up at him and then pulled him down into a kiss.
"I waited for you for five years." I panted when we broke apart, "I can't go back on that ship, not with Rose." I moved back and kissed his cheek, "Until next time hot stuff!" I winked and vanished.
)0(
My Dear Doctor. The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again. But I think I shall not listen to reason. Your Tory often comes to my room and tries to make me leave it, to take me somewhere but I have seen the world inside your head, and while I know that all things are possible I think that even you could not cure this. Hurry though, my fireplace man. My days grow shorter now, and I am so very weak. Tory cries beside my bed every night. God speed, my lonely angel. Save her.
