Chapter 9: Lord of Time and Ice

He stared at his hand, between every finger, turning his hand this way and that. Through the magnifying glass his green eyes looked huge, "But it's just impossible," he told the hologram he'd programmed in for company, "This shouldn't have happened"

"Whatever remains however improbable must be the truth," his own voice harped back at him for the fifth time. The Doctor sat back in his console seat still examining his hand, he hadn't been able to replicate what had happened when he had become stuck to the handbrake lever. He tapped his teeth with the tip of his sonic screwdriver deep in thought.

"What about absorption of DNA?" he asked the flickering image of himself without even offering it a glance.

"Negative. Pure Time Lord DNA cannot accommodate additional strands" The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes.

"That's what I thought," he murmured. He thought about confessing all to Elsa, but his lies had already gone past the point of no return. No, he definitely couldn't go running to Elsa. For a second he considered going back to the valley of the living rock, but the thought of having to face Pabbie again completely put him off the idea. He didn't need to feel any more miserable about himself than he already did. Instead he did what any other concerned Time Lord would do. He put on his fez and pulled faces at himself in the console mirror. Needless to say he wasn't entertained for very long before he was once again, slouched over the sofa re-examining his hand. He dropped the magnifying glass to the floor beside him with a clatter, "What am I going to do?"He groaned loudly.

A light tapping on the Tardis door brought him out of his despair.

"Should I get that?" the hologram asked.

"Shut up, you're not helping anything," the Doctor carelessly switched off the projection with his screwdriver. He gathered all the sanity he had left and moved sluggishly to open the door. It was Princess Anna who greeted him as the door swung inwards.

"Hey Anna"

"Hey yourself," she replied with her usual sing song tone, "Are you going to join us for dinner? I'm surprised the smell hasn't lured you down already, it smells delicious doesn't it? And for dessert we had the royal bakery make a huge chocolate cake"

"That sounds wonderful," the Doctor straightened his red bow tie and checked that his braces weren't twisted beneath his tweed jacket.

"You look great Doctor," Anna reassured him. He followed the cheery Princess down to the overly large dining room. It was far too big for a casual meal but there weren't many rooms in the palace smaller than this one. The Doctor sighed and allowed his eyes to wander around the room. Kristoff was already seated beside Elsa pointing to an ice sculpture he'd made that was currently acting as a centre piece. With a wave of her hand Elsa created a small flurry above it to keep it cool. The Doctor found the act from the Snow Queen breathtaking. The Queen who not even a few months ago had very limited control over her magic. She continued in her conversation with the ice mason as he and Anna approached, "I found him," Anna announced falling into the seat opposite her sister. This ignited Elsa's attention.

"Doctor," She beamed, "What took you so long?"

"I, had a few things to take care of," he replied casually. When she turned to address her sister Anna the Doctor shot a meaningful glance at Kristoff who simply responded with a bewildered look. 'What?' he mouthed at the Time Lord. The Doctor simply held his hand just above the table and wiggled his fingers. Kristoff shook his head completely confused, 'What do you mean?' The Doctor puffed his cheeks out in annoyance and picked up a glass on the table. It froze in his grip. Kristoff did everything to stop himself from looking startled, he held his breath to stop the sharp gasp that so desperately wanted to escape him. The Doctor hid the frosty glass next to the ice sculpture out of sight pretending to admire the model of Anna and Olaf. The two men stared at each other, the Doctor frowned unblinkingly at Kristoff. He had no idea what was going to happen to him, he'd already been plagued for nights on end by nightmares, wondering how on earth he was going to thaw his heart, now he'd acquired Elsa's powers by some crazed misfortune.

After the main course the pair excused themselves, "But you'll miss the chocolate cake!" Anna protested as Kristoff planted a kiss on her forehead. The Doctor merely nodded in a slight bow as he retreated with Kristoff out into the corridor.

"What the hell Doc?"

"I seem to have acquired some of Elsa's magic" He rubbed his hands together still staring at Kristoff, unsure of what his next plan was going to involve to debunk this mystery.

"Oh well no kidding. What does it mean? What's happening to you?"

"I don't know!" the Doctor put his hands up gripping his hair tightly and pulling hard, "I don't know how to stop this!" Kristoff backed away a few steps causing the Doctor to look down to where ice was creeping out from the soles of his boots.

"Don't panic. Panic makes it worse," Kristoff put a hand out with the intent to make the Time Lord calm down, though it didn't really achieve this. The Doctor actually considered borrowing Elsa's gloves, they weren't really his colour though.

"This is disastrous"

"You need to tell Elsa. If you don't, then, then I'll have tell her"

The Doctor felt utterly betrayed by Kristoff's fly away comment. With each step he took towards the ice mason, more ice spread out, "I can't tell her!"

"Tell me what?" the Queen emerged into the corridor from the dining room. She immediately saw the ice seeping from the Doctor's boots. She took a sharp intake of breath, "Doctor...!"

"It's not what it looks like" he protested feebly.

"How is this possible?" Elsa rushed to his side. She quickly thawed the ice that was threatening to reach Kristoff. She took the Doctor's ashamed face in her hands, "You need to tell me what's going on. How did this happen?," she asked him firmly, "Doctor," she forced him to look her in the eye, "Tell me" He looked into her concerned blue eyes, everything within him was melting under her stare. He was at the end of the line, at the end of his lie. It was now or never.

"I still have a frozen heart," he confessed.

"What?" She backed away a few steps in horror, "Why? How? I don't understand. Doctor..."

'Oh god,' he thought, 'Just start crying and apologising. Throw yourself at her mercy. Do a dance. Put on a fez. Anything' But all he could muster was a meek, "I was going to tell you"

"How long have you known?"

"Elsa it's not as bad as you think"

"Doctor, how long have you known?"

"Not long, only, you know, since I thawed out"

"What?!" The look on Elsa's face. It killed him. Pure hurt, pure betrayal.

"I swear I was trying to protect you!" During their sharp exchanges they didn't notice Kristoff flee back to the safety of his Princess. Anna had come to see what all the fuss was about, she stood in the doorway to the dining room, the light cast from inside practically silhouetted her.

"Elsa are you okay?" she called. Else stared at the Doctor, her head shook from side to side in a silent 'no'. The Doctor simply stood as the tears welled up, causing in eyes to shine in the light cast upon them.

"I'm scared Elsa. I don't know what's happening. I thought I could figure this out on my own, but I can't. First it was my heart and now I'm freezing myself to everything I touch," a tear escaped to run down his cheek, "Help me Elsa. Please, please help me"

Elsa did nothing but stare at the Doctor. She could see the fear she'd felt reflected in his eyes. She'd been terrified, all at sea, with such a misunderstanding of her winter magic. Then he'd turned up in his wonderful blue box and all those horrible feelings had been banished from her life. She pulled him into a tight embrace; and stroked his soft hair. "Everything will be fine," she told him with complete and utter conviction in her tone, "I promise"

Anna cast her eyes on a guilty looking Kristoff, "You'd better hope that you didn't know about this," she warned him. He swallowed hard.

"Of course not," he lied as Anna too pulled him into a hug. Over the sister's shoulders the two men simply stared at each other. It seemed as though their bumbling about was about to come to a halt with the Arendelle sisters now on board to solve the mystery of both the Doctor's frozen heart and the transferred winter magic.