Well here we go. Stuff's getting interesting. On with the show! :D
The Doctor hadn't had a hope of keeping things in order. As soon as they were through the doors, Leonardo made to take off on his own, drawn to the marble pillars that held up the main lobby of the museum and the oddities that hung from it like mobiles. The Doctor seized him by the arm and yanked him back, snatching a map from the stand offering them and dragging both Leonardo and Ezio behind it, hoping for the guise of some tourists.
'But Doctor - !'
'Shhhh!' He hissed, watching a nearby security guard who had turned his head briefly in their direction over the top of the map. He couldn't tell where he was looking past the sunglasses, but the Doctor didn't make any move, watching him keenly.
'Doctor – ' Ezio murmured, who's muscles were aching from stooping over the map. The colours of the silly thing were making his eyes water, and the labels were confusing and agitating.
'Shhh!' The Doctor hissed again, his eyes never moving from the security guard, who looked around the lobby a moment more before hooking his thumbs in his belt and wandering off, down the lobby to the front of the queue. The Doctor straightened up in an instant, fixing his bowtie nervously as he talked in a low whisper. 'We can't draw any attention to ourselves. We don't know who's watching,' his eyes flickered up into a nearby security camera that lurked in a dark corner of the lobby, eying it distrustfully before glancing at Ezio and Leonardo again. 'So keep your head down, and do as I do.'
Ezio and Leonardo nodded. The Doctor looked at the queue and rolled his shoulders. This was easy. He'd seen the humans doing it. It was just a matter of standing there and…waiting. He strode forward, laced his fingers behind his back and proceeded to wait behind a couple who were talking German over one of the museum maps. The TARDIS idly began to translate it in his head, but he tuned out absently, staring keenly at the desk where tickets were being distributed.
And that was when he noticed it.
The metal detector – on the right side of the desk. People were stepping through it, some being pulled aside at random to be patted down and others pulling their shoes back on with sour expressions as they queued to get their belongings back – which had all gone through an X-Ray machine.
Ah.
'When I tell you to...' the Doctor murmured to Leonardo and Ezio behind him, who had stuck close as the queue progressed. The Doctor's hand went into his pocket, and then back behind his back, his fingers enclosed over the tip of the sonic screwdriver. 'Follow me.'
'Understood,' Ezio murmured back. Leonardo nodded, looking nervous.
They approached the front of the queue slowly, and when the couple in front got their tickets and moved off, the woman threw the Doctor a wide smile.
'How can I help?' She asked.
'Yes, I'll have three tickets…'
Ezio and Leonardo watched as Doctor's thumb shot up his sleeve, and the screwdriver gave a muffled buzz. At once, the X Ray machine ground to a halt with a series of painful sounding shudders, the computer sparking. The people surrounding it jumped back, yelling, and the woman behind the desk stood up.
'What the hell - ?'
'Hey, that's my stuff in there!' A tourist shouted, shoving his way through the crowd that'd gathered around the smoking machine. The baffled security guards behind it shook their heads, a couple gathering around the computer and prodding it unhelpfully.
'We're sorry sir, just hang on a moment while we get this fixed – '
'I want my stuff back!'
'We have to wait until the machine starts working again –'
'Screw you, and screw this country!' The tourist shouted over the guard, and shoved his way past a few more people to stick his hands right into the X Ray to grab at his stuff.
'Oi!' The guards shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders and wrenching him away.
'I'll sue you bastards if anything's damaged!'
'Step away from the machine - !'
'I'll sue!'
'I think that's a suitable distraction…' the Doctor murmured. 'Come on.'
The crowd and the staff were too engrossed in the American and the battle for his belongings to notice the three men tentatively slip around them all and make their own way into the museum.
For free.
'What will we see first Doctor? The art of the future? Relics from distant tribes?'
'Perhaps there will be time for that later, Leonardo,' Ezio said, a little testily. For an hour now, they had wondered around in circles, the Doctor's head stuck firmly in the museum map. Ezio and Leonardo had trailed after his bent back for an age now, and Ezio's discomfort with this era was nagging at him to get what they were after. They'd passed through countless rows of the oddest and most impressive objects in gleaming class cases, Leonardo crying out in delight each time, but they hadn't stopped for any of them. Thinking about it, Ezio realised that they hadn't seen any articles at all for a while now – they had gone past a place where there was a range of artificial sort of smells that made Ezio hungry, and he'd spied people doing more queuing before the Doctor had whisked them past it and into a very strange looking corridor. The walls, floor and ceiling were gleaming, and there seemed no end to it. Ezio was about to demand from the Doctor where he was taking them when he suddenly stopped, turning and shutting the map with a decisive flap.
'Here we are!' He said, motioning to his left. They'd stopped outside a door, which Ezio tried – it was locked.
'What - ?'
'Oh, it's simple really. We needed a place to hide, and where better than a cleaning cupboard? And I said to myself, I said, "Doctor, you handsome devil, where can you find a cleaning cupboard?" and I said "Thank you mysterious stranger who looks a lot like me, we can find it near the toilets!" and then I said "Doctor you clever, clever man, where are the toilets?" and then I said to myself, "Well, intelligent people ask themselves intelligent questions, and we'll find the toilets near the cafeteria!" so here we are! Hurrah!' The Doctor finished, whipping out the sonic screwdriver and flipping it in his hand once before pointing it at a nearby security camera – the red light that shone from it slowly died as the camera turned off. 'That gives us a minute or so,' the Doctor said, throwing the screwdriver across to the other hand and unlocking the door with it. He opened the door with a flourish, and motioned to Ezio and Leonardo to step in. 'In you go.'
Ezio and Leonardo peered inside, and saw just about enough room for the cupboard's solitary broom and bucket, shoved right at the back with an assortment of cleaning equipment.
'You seriously do not expect us – '
'Oh come on, it's just a cupboard!' The Doctor rolled his eyes and tossed the screwdriver to Leonardo, who caught it a little haphazardly. 'Plenty of room for everyone, look!' he said, stepping inside and kneeling under the broom, drawing his legs right up into his chest and hugging them. Ezio hesitated for a moment before awkwardly stepping inside, pressing himself up against the wall as Leonardo stepped after him, enclosing them all in darkness.
'Do lock that door.'
There was a buzz behind the door as Leonardo locked it. Outside, the camera switched back on. It was a good thing it couldn't pick up sound, because there was much muffled scuffling in the cupboard as people found themselves awkwardly pressed up against doors and walls and buckets.
And then silence.
'Don't suppose Amy and Rory taught you eye spy?'
Alas, there'll be no updates until Monday - its the boyfriend's 18th birthday this weekend and thus PARTY is in order. So I'll see you guys then! :)
