A/N: I had another idea of why the Doctor might call Ella Cinderella – you can just pick whichever one you like more!
I don't own Doctor Who.
Cinderella – The Second Interpretation
Ella was sitting on the floor of her old bedroom at home. She'd always imagined she would clear out all the old rubbish she'd collected over the years, before she went to uni, but the Doctor had come first and she had never got round to it.
Now, her mum was sick of the piles of old school books, out of date calendars and children's books that lay around gathering dust, and echo of what her life had been before. Finally caving to her the guilt trip Julie inflicted on her, Ella had promised to sort it out.
She and the Doctor had picked a day to visit and arrived expecting a welcome party. Instead they had found the house empty. Ella had had to search throughout the TARDIS for half hour to find her old bunch of keys, but she eventually did and let them it.
Ella went upstairs to make a start and the Doctor went off to the kitchen to put the kettle on, quite at home in the now familiar house.
He entered her room with the tip of his tongue just poking out between his lips, concentrating on the two steaming mugs he was holding.
"Here you go,"
Ella glanced up and smiled.
"Thanks," she said and took the cup he was offering her. "Here, look what I've found."
She handed him a pile of photographs, taken at a fancy dress party a couple of years ago. The Doctor flicked through the first few with no more than a cursory glance – they contained people he had never seen before and as such weren't overly interesting. He suddenly stopped leafing through, staring at the picture he had unearthed.
"God, what did you go as? Princess Glittery Fairydust?" he sounded not a little disgusted.
"Do you not pay attention when we watch children's tv? Her name is Princess Sparkle." Ella leaned over his shoulder to get a proper look at the photo. "And I wasn't dressed as her anyway. I went as Cinderella."
The picture showed her in a snow white, full-skirted dress covered in sparkling sequins, posing with a hand on the shoulder of who could only have been Prince Charming.
"Cinderella?" he still sounded skeptical.
"Yeah, the theme was something to do with your name and Cinderella has 'Ella' in it."
"So what's his name – Charmin?" The Doctor thought it was a bit ridiculous, and that lad looked stupid, really he did. Ella frowned at his sarcastic tone.
"No, he's called Charlie actually – the first part's the same."
The Doctor snorted. Ella reached over and plucked the photo from his grasp, looking at it a bit more closely.
"Charlie, I haven't seen him in ages. I wonder how he is."
"I'm sure he's getting along charmingly." The Doctor replied quickly but Ella merely looked at him, signaling her lack of appreciation for his play on words. He continued grinning at her until he won a reluctant smile in return.
A couple of hours later they'd managed to stuff two bin liners full of stuff to throw out and another two rucksacks of things Ella wanted back on the TARDIS. It hadn't escaped the Doctor's notice that she had slipped the photo into one of the outside pockets but he refrained from commenting. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Ella scribbled a quick note for her parents and left it on the kitchen table. Before locking the front door, she took a last look around the hall – it felt like she was actually, properly leaving home this time and she was quite glad she didn't have a send off party, it would only have ended in tears.
She shut the door and took a deep breath before turning away.
The Doctor was at the corner of the house waiting for her to join him for the short walk back to the TARDIS. One of her bulging rucksacks was perched on his back, looking absurdly small. He called back to her to hurry.
"Come on, Cinderella! We haven't got all day!"
She smiled, swung the other bag onto her shoulder and went to join him – not looking back once.
A/N: Yes, the Doctor and Ella watch a kids tv programme about Princess Sparkle.
And I would remember Charlie if I was you – he might become important…..
Please review xxx
