Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who and never will. But I do own Charlene Davis and any other characters I make up!
A huge thanks to everyone who reviewed :D
Charlene's outfit for this episode is on my polyvore:)
Charlene's POV...
I was in the console room with the Doctor, ready to start the next adventure. Mickey was still in his room, getting ready. It was then that I brought up the fact that I wanted to drive the TARDIS.
The Doctor blinked at me in surprise, "You want to drive the TARDIS?"
"Yeah!" I said brightly. "I've been reading up on how to drive her."
"But you can't have. You're not a Time Lady yet, Carly." The Doctor picked up the fob watch that was dangling around my neck (since the Doctor knew about it now I had no need to hide it in my pocket). "Unless you haven't told me that this opened."
"Oh it hasn't," I said nonchalantly and the Doctor dropped the pocket watch back on my chest (mind out the gutter, dear readers!).
"Then how could you have been reading up on how to drive the TARDIS?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for an answer.
"Doctor, the TARDIS gave me the manual to drive her."
He, once again, blinked at me but not in surprise this time, but in shock. "What?"
"Yeah…when I got the pocket watch, before we went to New Earth, I went to my room and found the manual there. I think – no I know – that the TARDIS knows about me being a Time Lady. I mean, why else would she have given me the Driving Manuel if she didn't know?"
The Doctor was silent for a moment and nodded. I squealed, thinking that he was nodding his head as a 'yes' to me driving the TARDIS.
"I can drive her! Thank you!" I let out a whoop.
"Wait, no! I didn't mean that!" The Doctor protested, but it was already too late, I was already running around the console, going to the computer to set a date and time to go to. "I think you should hold off on trying to drive her until you're actually able to drive her." He quickly went over to me, pulling me away from the computer by wrapping an arm around my waist.
"Oh, come on!" I pouted but allowed him to pull me away from the computer. I grabbed his forearms, stopping him in place, before I turned around in his arms, putting my arms around his neck. I fluttered my eyelashes at him flirtatiously, not really knowing where that was coming from. "Please Doctor." I gave him my cute little pout, the one I used to get what I wanted…even though it didn't usually work on people. Same was said for the Doctor.
"No. That…" He gestured to the pout, "Doesn't work on me. But nice try, Carly." He smiled and winked at me cheekily.
I pouted some more before sighing exasperatingly. "Oh fine." But I stayed where I was, arms still draped around the Doctor's shoulders. "But your only say that because you're scared that I'm going to drive her better than you." It was my turn to wink cheekily at him.
The Doctor scoffed playfully. "That's not true at all." He then mocked me, "Big head Carly."
"I do not sound like that!" I pretended to be applauded.
"Yes, yes you do."
"Right," I drawled out. "Weeeelll, what are we waiting for? Allons-y!" I gave a manic grin and laughed the same way, trying to mock the Doctor.
But he just raised his eyebrows at me. "Why are you saying that for? 'Allons-y'? Is that even a word?"
"Yes, yes it is. It's French for 'let's go'." I gasped mockingly, "Oh, my God, I know something the Doctor doesn't! What is the world coming to?!"
"What?" The Doctor really pulled off the innocent look real well, "There can be some things that I don't know. I'm a Time Traveler, Carly. I learn things on my travels too … Weeeelll not all the time, but I do … Weeeelll sometimes."
"Right," I drawled out again, nodding my head in mock agreement.
It was then we heard the clearing of a throat and we looked to see Mickey standing there with a smirk.
"Am I interrupting something?"
The Doctor and I looked at each other then looked down and saw that we were still wrapped in each other arms. We blushed brightly and moved away from each other as quick as we could.
"No, you're not interrupting anything," I said then cursed myself at how squeaky my voice sounded.
"Yes, nothing going on in here!" The Doctor's voice was just as squeaky as mine was. He ran a nervous hand through his hair and cleared his throat. "Anyway! Mickey Smith!" He beamed at him. "Where do you want to go?"
-0-
Mickey and I followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS once it landed. Looking around, I knew that we were in a spaceship but the thing was…no one was even in here. It also looked like bulldozer came and wrecked the place.
"It's a spaceship!" Mickey excitedly exclaimed, looking around. "Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!"
"Amazing, isn't it?" I grinned, throwing my arm around Mickey's shoulders. He nodded in agreement, still looking around in awe. Then to the Doctor, "But where is everyone? You would think on a spaceship like this there would be tons of people inside. Unless you see something I don't which wouldn't be surprising." As I said this, I played with the fob watch. I wondered if my Time Lady self was just as smart as the Doctor was. Probably not because as the Doctor does love saying, no one was as brilliant as he was.
"Nah, nothing here," The Doctor said to me, looking around. "Well! Nothing dangerous. Well! Not that dangerous."
"Might be a good idea to scan around though, just in case," I said pointedly.
"Oh, I'm sure nothing's here…" The Doctor waved it off, but then he thought about it and nodded. "Yeah, I'll just have a quick scan…in case there's really nothing dangerous."
"Good idea." I smirked as the Doctor walked over to a control panel in the center of the room and he started tapping at some buttons. I went over to him, leaning over his shoulder to see what he was doing while I asked, "So, what's the date? How far have we gone?"
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take." The Doctor nodded towards this switch with a grin, looking over at me. "Pull that switch, Carly."
Curious as to what this switch did, I did as the Doctor said and lights turned on, the roof of the ship gradually opened into a window and it showed a spectacular view.
"That's beautiful!" I said in awe.
The Doctor grinned and nodded in agreement, casually throwing an arm around my shoulders. "Fifty-first century. Diagram cluster." He looked towards Mickey who had moved over to porthole gazing out of it in awe, continuing to grin. "You're a long way from home, Mickey! Two and a half galaxies!"
"Hopefully the same thing doesn't happen the last time we were in a spaceship," I commented, heading over to Mickey. "The last thing we need is the Daleks appearing again."
"Oh we've got rid of them, Carly! And besides that, this isn't the kind of ship that the Daleks would use!" The Doctor said as he began to rumble around the control panel, picking up bits and pieces of broken technology, looking unimpressed.
I got to Mickey and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, grinning at his awed face. It reminded me of the face I had when I went on my first trip in the TARDIS.
"Mickey Smith, welcome to the universe! See anything you like?"
"It's so realistic!" His voice was so ecstatic that it made my grin widen.
"Dear me had some cowboys in here! Got tons of repair work going on!"
I turned to see the Doctor throwing pieces causally back on the console before looking at this screen that was there. It was something I hadn't noticed before when I was over there by the Doctor. Mickey and I went over to join him and looked at the screen ourselves. It was the diagram of the spaceship.
"Now that's odd," The Doctor mused with growing surprise and curiosity. "Look at that. All the wrap engines are going…full capacity! There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe!"
"But it's not moving though. I mean if it has all that power, why wouldn't it be? The power must be going somewhere."
"Good observation, Carly!" The Doctor beamed at me. "The power must be going somewhere!" He frowned, eyebrows furrowed, "So, where is it going?"
"And where is the crew?" I added in
He leaned forward and tweaked some knobs on the control. "Good question, no life readings on board."
"They couldn't have gotten far, I mean, we're in deep space. They can't have walked out to take a quick fag." The last bit was said sarcastically but the Doctor didn't notice as always so he regarded me seriously.
"Nope, checked on the smoking pods."
There was a pause as all three of us gazed around and the Doctor sniffed. "Do you smell that?"
I sniffed and my nose wrinkled. "It smells like something cooking? Barbecue, maybe?"
"Sunday roast, definitely!" Mickey said.
The Doctor pressed something else on the console and a door opened behind us. We shared curious looks before walking through the door and we saw a part of the wall and a floor with 18th décor, as well as a familiar looking lit fire place. But I didn't know why it looked so familiar though.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship." The Doctor looked it over. "Eightieth century! French! Nice mantel."
"It might be a hologram," I pointed out.
In response, he pulled out the sonic and pointed it at the mantel, scanning it. "Nope, not a hologram." He bended down to examine it more closely while Mickey explored the rest of the room and I stayed near the Doctor as he spoke to me, still examining the mantel.
"Not even a reproduction, this actually is an eightieth century French fireplace. Double sided, there's another room through there."
"How can there be a room? As I said, we are in deep space so there can't be one." I went to look through another port hole on the same wall as the fireplace and sure enough, there was only the rest of space outside. "Yep, that's definitely space and it's the outer hull of the ship."
"Hello!"
I turned around to see that the Doctor was crouched down, looking through the fire. I managed to look down enough to see what he was looking at and if there really was another room. And sure enough there was one, and a little girl with long blonde hair was sitting in front of the fire and she blinked at the Doctor.
"Hello…"
"What's your name?"
"Reinette."
The Doctor smiled encouragingly at her. "Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where we are at the moment, Reinette?"
"In my bedroom." Reinette sounded slightly suspicious.
"And where's your bedroom?"
I decided to bend down next to the Doctor. "Hello Sweetie," I greeted. "What he's trying to ask is where your bedroom is?"
"Paris, of course!" Reinette said as if it was obvious before adding to not be rude, "Madame."
"Paris right!" The Doctor nodded, pretending that he had known this all along.
"Monsieur, Madame, what are you doing in my fireplace?" she asked.
"Oh, it's just a routine… fire check," The Doctor answered, trying and failing to sound casual. "Can you tell me what year it is?"
Reinette had a look on her face that seemed to say, 'you must be joking.' "Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty seven." She sounded proud that she knew this off the top of her head.
"Right, lovely!" The Doctor said brightly. "One of my favorites…" He pulled a face, "August is rubbish though." Reinette looked confused. "Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night!"
"Goodnight Monsieur, Madame," Reinette said, still looking confused.
The Doctor stood up, looking thoughtful. I stood up too but I went to stand next to Mickey just as he said,
"You said this was the fifty-first century."
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe," The Doctor reminded him, turning around to look at us. "I think I just found a hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
"What's that?" Mickey asked.
"It's nothing," I said before the Doctor could say anything. "He made it up. Didn't want to say 'magic door'." I did quotation marks with my fingers.
"I didn't make it up," The Doctor protested. I gave him a pointed look and he heaved a sigh, "Oh all right, yes. I made it up. Saying 'magic door' doesn't sound very…scientific."
"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?" It made me wonder why it was on that time period and why it was on a spaceship none the less.
The Doctor nodded and looked back at the fireplace before walking across the room. He took of his coat and threw it in the corner.
"Well, she was speaking French," he said. "Right period French, too."
"She was speaking English, I heard her!"
"That's the TARDIS for ya," I told Mickey, grinning draping an arm around his shoulder as the Doctor went back over to the fireplace. "It translated the French for us. That's why it sounded like she was speaking English."
"Even French?!"
"Yep," I said, popping the 'p', still grinning.
The Doctor kneeded the side of the fireplace and that section of the wall began to rotate, reminding me of this horror movie I watched one time. It took the Doctor with it!"
"Gotcha!"
"Doctor!" I shouted just as the fireplace finished turning. But before I started panicking, the fireplace was starting to turn back again and when it finished, the Doctor ran out but he wasn't alone. A weird looking drone was with him.
Quickly, he grabbed a gun-like object from the wall, using it to spray ice at the droid. It convulsed in a last, vain attempt to free itself before freezing completely.
"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey said appreciatively.
The Doctor calmly threw the gun to me, and I caught it easily. Even though I did almost it drop but I managed to keep it in my arms.
"Fire extinguisher," he corrected my sister's boyfriend.
"This is a fire extinguisher," I said, looking down at the gun in disbelief. This so didn't look like one… But that didn't matter, what did though … was that drone. "Where did that thing come from?"
"Here."
"In the other room?" He nodded in reply and Mickey asked a really good question,
"So why is it dressed like that?"
"Field trip to France, some kind of camouflage protocol – nice needle work! Shame about the face."
Before I could ask what he meant, the Doctor walked back over to droid, squinting at it. He pulled off the wig to reveal its actual head. It was an ornate clockwork mechanism, covered with a clear plastic egg. It was something that the Doctor would get over excited about it and this wasn't an exception.
"Oh you are beautiful!" The Doctor slipped on his glasses to examine it more closely as Mickey and I edged closer in curiosity. "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." He gestured to both of them, "And by the way count those – it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you." He looked at the droid wistful look before holding up the sonic. "But that won't stop me."
Suddenly the droid creaked back to life and teleported away. I didn't have to look around to know that the droid was gone but Mickey did, blinking in surprise. I turned to look at the Doctor but he was already walking swiftly back to the fireplace and he looked like he was preparing to go back on the other.
"What are you doing?" I asked the Doctor quickly.
"Short range teleport, can't have got far," he said all business. "Could still be on board –"
"What is it?" This time the question was out of curiosity. The feeling of wanting to go find out for myself came over me and the Doctor must have noticed the thinking look on my face and pointed a finger at me.
"Don't go looking for it!" I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off, "No, I mean it Charlene. Don't go looking for it." The Doctor had the 'Oncoming Storm' look on his face.
"Oh fine, I won't go looking for it." But then in my thoughts I went, 'Yeah, right.' But what was he doing, better yet…where was he going? I voiced that question out loud, "Where are you going?"
"Be back in a sec."
And with that, he turned the fireplace, returning to Reinette's side. I looked down at fire extinguisher, a plan forming in my head as I weighed it.
"He said not to look for it…" Mickey reminded me.
"Yes, yes he did," I said, nodding my head before winking at Mickey cheekily. "Doesn't mean I always listen to him." We looked at each other for a moment before he smiled and he grabbed the other fire extinguisher. I grinned and laughed. "There you go, now you're getting it." I gave him one last wink before we jogged off.
TBC...
In...
Girl In The Fireplace, Part 2...
I wanted to thank all my reviewers for getting me up to 308 reviews! It means a lot that you're loving the story so much. This is my first Doctor Who fanfic, and I'm really proud of it. I wonder if we can get up to 400 reviews before the end of season two and the end of the first story in this series (I don't know what the series is called though, any ideas would be great by the way)! Anyway, please leave reviews for the first part of TGITFP! Until next time on CCW! :D