Matt's eyes opened when he heard the front door opening, the sound of bags crumpling, Jodie talking and a sigh.
Looking over at his nightstand, Matt saw the time, and pushed himself up.
Hearing a knock at his bedroom door, Matt called out, "Come in."
The door opened and Ripley sighed as she entered, there's a tiger lily sticking out from the side of her head, and she looked like she's been through the ringer.
"How was it?" Matt asked her.
He heard back, "It was a madhouse!"
Apparently, there was an influx of customers, more than Ripley expected, and she worked tirelessly to tend to them all. Including the one who wanted the armoire. He was late with the pickup and Ripley nearly had to call the bobbies because there were fights over the armoire.
"I should've been down there," Matt frowned.
Ripley sat near him on the bed and shook her head.
She told him she handled it, she always does, and made the issues she had go away. The perks of having a dragon's temper and a selection of unsold hardwood canes to get her point across.
"Besides, I didn't want you getting hurt in it," Ripley mentioned that there's another reason she's glad he didn't help her. Too many people who don't know each other's names and have no reason to back down unless threatened with "a little taste of the o' ultra-violence."
Ripley explained that it eventually tapered off towards the end and she was able to get to Matt's favorite restaurant with time to spare to get his order. Unfortunately, she was late getting back to his flat than she liked.
"You're okay though?" Matt worried.
Ripley nodded.
She told him, "Peachy as can be. How about you?"
Matt told her that he felt better and she gingerly put her hand up to his forehead, feeling it.
She then checked the sides of his neck, her soft hands cold from the outside.
"I'll be damned," Ripley had a small smile on her face.
Matt recovered from his cold and she's happy that he did.
He's certainly happy about it.
"What's with the tiger lily anyway?" Matt asked her about that.
Raising her hand to touch it lightly, Ripley told him she got it from a little girl who visited her shop with her mum.
Noticing a look on her face, Matt inquired more, and Ripley told him that it was Susan and her daughter, Alice, they found their way to her shop and wanted to stop by.
Nearly knocked Ripley to the ground when Alice ran into her, wrapping her arms around her, but she was so excited to see Ripley, again.
"Not in trouble, are they?" Matt asked Ripley.
Ripley shook her head as she told him that they weren't, she made sure of it, but she helped them figure out their surroundings and they're enjoying their mother-daughter trip.
"That's good," Matt sighed.
Ripley then asked, "So, why were you at the Windsor Marketplace?"
Matt felt the dread come over him instantly and he sheepishly asked what she meant by it. Apparently, Susan and her daughter were at the Windsor Marketplace around the time he went there with Jodie and Starlight.
He didn't see them, but he was busied with something else, and apparently, they recognized him from what Ripley told them.
"Uh…" Matt gulped heavily.
Ripley crossed her arms as she awaited his explanation and he gritted his teeth before admitting to Ripley what happened.
"I'm so sorry, Rip," Matt apologized to her.
He didn't mean to break his promise to her and he wished he stayed in bed like he should've because he got caught up in more than he bargained for.
Sighing, Ripley shook her head.
"Sounds to me you're punished enough," she mused.
As angry Ripley was about Matt sneaking around doing things without her knowing, sick as he is, and the fact that weeks ago they dealt with Drekker, it seemed karma had a way of punishing him for her.
"I should've expected something like this happening. You being the Doctor and all, but please be more careful next time, okay?" Ripley looked at him.
Nodding, Matt frowned and Ripley touched his shoulder.
"I sent her home, I'll yell at her for impersonating you when I get back," Ripley sighed.
With the knowledge that Matt and Jodie were at the Windsor Marketplace, Ripley put two and two together the moment she texted Matt and got his response. She knows when it's him and even Jodie couldn't replicate it that well.
So, when Ripley returned to the shop, she'll properly yell at Jodie for allowing this to happen in the first place and thank her for keeping him out of trouble. As Ripley asked her to do.
"Seems to me we had a long day," Matt mused.
Ripley nods.
She asked if he's hungry and he nodded.
He never ate anything the moment he came back to his flat, just washed up, and passed out in his bed.
Pushing himself off the bed, Matt went with Ripley out of his bedroom to the kitchen where they sat around.
Since the Doctor with the bowl cut gave him that piece of sweet, there's nothing in his stomach, and thankfully Jodie looked out for him because he ate the entire sandwich without leaving a crumb. This being the large sandwich, stuffed to the brim with the fixings that Matt loved most, and a large cider that sucked so dry, there's not even liquid on the ice cubes!
With his stomach calmed down, Matt's able to rest easy knowing he won't run to the bathroom in a hurry, and as he wiped down his mouth, he thanked Ripley.
"Hey, it's what friends are for, right?" Ripley shrugged.
Nodding, Matt neatly folded the napkin, and stopped.
"Um, Rip?" Matt looked at her.
Ripley looked at him.
"What's on the brain?" she asked him.
Matt frowned as he sheepishly asked, "You know… we've been together for a while now, right?"
Ripley looked at him as she raised a brow.
"I suppose, what's up?" Ripley asked.
Matt tapped his fingers against the table as he mulled over his words.
"Well, you never really told me," Matt looked at her.
She's told him almost everything about her.
Except for her family background… and her real name.
Looking at Matt, Ripley frowned, and nods.
"Yeah, ain't fair innit?" Ripley shrugged her shoulders.
It's only fair that Matt knows it, after all, they're together and as trusting goes, the two trust each other with their biggest secrets.
"Promise you won't make fun of it?" Ripley looked at him.
Matt tilted his head as he asked, "Why would I?"
Ripley told him that she got her first name from a song and admittedly made her hate it for a while.
"Doubt we even have it, here," Matt brought up that since they're in a completely different universe with it's own history, it probably doesn't exist here.
Nodding, Ripley chewed on the bottom of her lip as she tells Matt, "It's… Eileen Freeman. They used to call me Ellie, hell, I went by that up until I ended up here."
Telling Matt, Ripley told him her real name and that as far as anyone's aware, she's still just Ripley.
For obvious reasons.
Smiling, Matt asked her what's so embarrassing about her name and Ripley told him, "How about hearing, "Come on Eileen" for the rest of your days up until you can't even watch the music video anymore?"
Poking her, Matt found it funny.
"I guess you can call me by it, if you want," Ripley shrugged.
She's gone by "Ripley" for so long, it's almost foreign hearing her own name again. However, since it's just Matt and they're alone together, Ripley didn't see anything wrong with him calling her by her real name.
"Ellie, huh?" Matt smiled at her.
Ripley shrugged.
"It's a lovely name, though," Matt pointed out.
Ripley didn't see it as such, but it's only fair since she dealt with the blunt of the teasing for having the same name as a song.
It seemed that Ripley caught on to what's going on and asked Matt, "What's really on the brain of yours?"
It's one thing to know about his girlfriend's actual name, but Ripley caught a look on his face, and she's not letting it go until she has her answers.
"Um, well," Matt became flustered.
How does he put it to word without looking like a jerk?
Ripley spared him from it by saying, "Oh, you're thinking… about that…"
Bashful, Matt looked away.
He heard Ripley quip, "Former footballer, antique dealer extraordinaire, gets dates out of the door, too bashful to ask his girlfriend about something like that?"
She had him there.
"Well, I didn't want to put you on the spot," Matt tells her.
After all, it's Ripley first foray into dating. The last thing Matt wanted was to embarrass her.
Ripley pointed out, "As much trouble as we get into, worrying about being on the spot doesn't cross my mind."
She had him there, too.
Matt asked if she isn't nervous about it, too, and she admitted she would've, but she wasn't.
Suppose, working with him nonstop in the shop, going on adventures with him, the long dates, among everything else, Ripley's quite comfortable with Matt.
Enough that, despite her own reservation with the whole idea, she wasn't nervous about it.
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm still nervous as all hell about the idea," Ripley added.
Reminder that she never had a boyfriend until Matt and never had inclinations even before that.
"I didn't know how to ask without looking like a jerk," Matt admitted to Ripley.
He should've had it in the bag with all things considering, but Ripley's case was different, and he didn't want to make things awkward between the pair.
Ripley held his hands with hers and she told him what he needed to hear.
There's nothing wrong with discussing the intimate nature of their relationship, after all, it's expected.
Obviously, there's a right and wrong way of asking, but Matt isn't doing anything wrong, not in Ripley's eyes.
While Ripley acknowledged that Matt didn't want her to fluster from the conversation, she told him that she would've heard him out regardless.
It's in her nature, after all.
"Suppose I was just waiting for you to finally say something," Ripley mused.
She would've brought it up herself, but a lady doesn't discuss those intimate details so loosely, at least what Mercy taught her.
"Well, you know, you'd think being the Doctor I'd have the capacity to discuss things even in uncomfortable situations," Matt admits.
Ripley got a chuckle out of it and Matt did too, looking for the littlest things, and all that.
"Hey, you're getting there, maybe you'll be brave enough to go up to the prime minister just wearing your pants," Ripley teased him.
Matt poked her in the stomach by mistake and he heard her audibly giggle.
She giggled!
Ripley realized it and covered her mouth.
Narrowing his eyes, Matt caught on what happened.
"My, my, my Ellie's ticklish?" Matt raised a brow at this.
It'll be odd using her real name, but Matt appreciated Ripley telling him all the same.
Ripley lowered her hand and admitted she might've been a teensy bit ticklish.
"You'll have to do better than a poke, though" Ripley crossed her arms over her stomach.
Matt smiled so wide it nearly took over his face as he cheekily asked, "Is that a challenge?"
In so little words, the pair decided, and that decision changed their relationship forever.
To the pair, it was a good decision and Matt is now known as the Tickle Lord.
… Ripley threatened to kick him out of his own bed for that pun, but it was worth trying!
THE END
