"I just realized something," I said as I studied the writing on the back of my hand, and the Doctor hummed in curiosity from where he was scanning the entrance to our cave.
"Well in order to properly follow these coordinates we're going to need a map, right?" The Doctor hummed in agreement. "How are we going to find a map when we don't even know what planet we're on?"
"Well that's easy," the Doctor said after he had finished his scanning and removed his glasses. I raised an eyebrow up at him.
"Care to share?" I asked, and he waggled the sonic at me between his fingers. "I'm still not following you."
"I can just set the sonic to work like a GPS and it will direct us straight there like a compass," he said, and I squinted at him.
"How can it work as both a GPS and a compass at the same time?" I asked.
"Well they both use the same science," he said, and I laughed.
"So basically, the sonic is going to do some kind of combination of the two and it's a little bit too complicated to explain," I said, and he tilted his head to one side.
"Well," he drawled, and I laughed again. He smiled at me.
"Hold up your hand please." I did as he requested, and he carefully scanned the writing on the back of my hand and held the sonic up to his ear. "It's working."
"Does this mean I can get up now?" I asked. The Doctor had nicely and firmly requested that I stay sitting for a while since he wasn't sure what effect my semi possession might have on me. He sent me an amused look as he held out a hand to help me up.
"Now let's go get some answers," the Doctor said as he held his left hand out with his palm up and rested the sonic on top of it. I watched the sonic swing to point to the right.
"How far away is it?" I asked, and the Doctor shrugged carefully so that he didn't drop the sonic. "So more compass than GPS."
"Tiny bit, yes," he said. We hadn't walked very far before the silence of the planet started to get to me.
"I'd love to hear some theories," I said.
"I haven't got any," he said, and I cursed under my breath.
"That's got to be a first," I said. He reached over with his free hand and took mine.
"I'll talk out loud if it will make you feel better," He offered, and I shook my head.
"Don't go out of your way on my account. It's just, I don't want to be cliché, but it seems too quiet." The Doctor dropped my hand to scratch at his head in frustration before he picked it up again.
"Which would lead me to believe that it is one of the planets the Daleks had conquered before the war. But they always kept slaves of some kind to do manual labour so that doesn't fit either. And it doesn't explain why they are here either." He had obviously ignored my previous statement and I certainly wasn't going to complain about it since he didn't seem bothered by it.
"Could we be before the Time War?" I frowned at the weird phrasing of my sentence.
"Maybe, but if that were the case, I would know which planet we're on. Unless I missed one," he said.
"Missed one?" I asked.
"I was working on liberating them all before the war. Subtly, of course, or as subtly as I could manage so that the Time Lords wouldn't get on my case about being involved," he said.
"I'm sure they had absolutely no case about you getting involved in any planet's history ever." He sent me a grin. "I know I've said this before, but Time Lords were snobs."
"Oh, Emma you have no idea how bad they really were," the Doctor said with a laugh. "You would have hated them."
"I'm sure I would have, but it's okay I got the best one," I said and snuggled into his side slightly. He kissed the top of my head and smiled.
"Exception to prove the rule," he said. "Well and Romana."
"Who's Romana?" I asked so he told me about the only Time Lord companion who had traveled with him apart from Susan and how she had left to continue helping subjugated beings in an alternate universe.
"She sounds lovely. Hang on, if she stayed in that other universe then she couldn't get back for the Time War, so that means you aren't actually the last Time Lord," I said.
"Good try, but she did come back for the War. She returned shortly before the war and was president for awhile actually," he said sadly.
"Damn it," I muttered, and he squeezed my hand gently. "What about Susan?"
"As far as anyone knows she and her family went missing a few years before the Time War." I raised my eyebrow up a him.
"And as far as you know?" He sent me a wink.
"Hidden away in a pocket universe. I don't know which one, I thought it would be best if I didn't so that no one could ever find them."
"There you can feel good about that one. I do understand if you continue to refer to yourself as the Last of the Time Lords because it just adds a sense of gravitas," I said.
"I'm glad you appreciate my need for gravitas," he said sarcastically with an amused eyebrow raise. I grinned.
"You are one of the most dramatic people I've ever met," I said as the Doctor slowed us down until we came to a halt. I skimmed the empty area in front of us. "Why have we stopped?"
"We're here," the Doctor said as he tossed the sonic into his right hand and started scanning. I reached out a few feet in front of us and my palm collided with a smooth wall of stone.
"You could have just said that it was invisible."
"I didn't know until we got here. Aha!" He pointed the sonic at the thing in front of me and a tower appeared in front of us. I took a step back and tipped my head to look at the top.
"Where's the door?" I asked, and he shrugged as he did a few other things with the sonic. "If the password to get in is Rapunzel this is going to be a very weird day."
"As far as I can tell there is no door. The Daleks probably sealed it shut to keep the seer contained. But if I can get the rocks to vibrate at the right frequency they'll explode." He held the sonic out and gestured for me to stand behind him.
"What a plan," I said sarcastically as I stood behind him. I watched him try several frequencies to no avail before I turned around to see what was making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"Oh shit," I said as a Dalek crested over the top of a hill.
"EXTERMINATE!" The Doctor jumped and spun us both so that he was facing the Dalek with sonic extended and I was now between him and the tower.
"What do we do?" I asked. The Doctor took several steps backwards until my back was flush with the wall and babbled a bunch of scientific nonsense that I couldn't keep track of. I closed my eyes, fisted the Doctor's coat in my hands and thought about how it had felt when we had phased through the hillside into the cave earlier. It was a complete shot in the dark, but I figured it was worth a risk.
"Emma, it's going to be okay," the Doctor said just as I felt the resistance of the wall disappear beneath me and I pulled as hard on the Doctor as I could just as a brilliant green laser flew over our heads.
I hit the floor with a shriek before the Doctor landed on top of me and bounced my head onto the floor which made me swear and the Doctor scrambled off of me.
"What did you do?" He asked as he knocked on the wall a few times gently. I heard the Dalek shoot again which was closely followed by the sound of a ricochet. I blinked at the ceiling to try and force the fuzziness out from my vision.
"I believe I pulled off a Hail Mary," I said, and the Doctor knelt down beside me smoothly and cupped my cheek with one hand as I started to sit up.
"Did you hit your head?" He asked. I almost nodded but caught myself at last minute as I realized that that would probably not be a good idea.
"Sure did," I said and led the Doctor's free hand to the back of my head that was throbbing. I winced when he touched it gently and his fingers had a bit of blood on them when he pulled them back. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and folded it before he pressed it firmly to the spot where I was bleeding. "Ouch."
"I'm sorry Emma," he soothed and swept his lips over my forehead. He held up a finger.
"One finger," I said before he could ask. He dropped his hand and picked up the sonic and scanned my eyes carefully.
"No concussion as far as I can tell. Can you stand?" He asked, and I tried a slow nod.
"Help me up?" He lifted me up off the floor and set me on my feet. I reached up and replaced his hand that was holding the handkerchief with mine. I glanced around and realized that we were at the landing of a set of stairs that spiraled up to the top. "Should I ask how many stairs there are?"
"Probably not," the Doctor said with a touch of concern in his eyes. I really needed to stop hitting my head because one of these times I was actually going to get a concussion and then the Doctor would start fussing about brain damage.
"Give me a ballpark so I can mentally prepare myself," I said, and he laughed.
"Between fifty and one hundred and fifty."
"That seems manageable," I said. "Of course, I'm saying that before we've started going up."
"Let me know if you need a break," the Doctor said in a tone that made it clear that it was pointless for me to try and argue. And that he would be very upset if I didn't let him know.
"Deal," I said and drew an X over my heart. He laughed and started up the stairs. We'd made it about a third of the way up before my shoulder started to ache from where I was still holding the handkerchief to the back of my head.
"Can I stop holding this here?" I asked and wiggled my elbow at the Doctor. He stepped forward and gently removed the handkerchief as I gratefully dropped my arm and rolled my shoulder to loosen it.
"It looks like it's stopped bleeding. I still want to have a better look at it when we get back to the TARDIS," he said as he tucked the bloody handkerchief into his pocket.
"How are we going to get back to the TARDIS anyways?" I asked, and the Doctor shrugged as we continued up the stairs.
"We'll find it," he said, and I rolled my eyes fondly.
"When will I learn not to ask about your plans?" I asked, and he laughed.
"Not for several years, though you will find the TARDIS before then," a small voice said as we rounded the next corner and I jumped. There was a little boy sitting on the stairs in front of us and grinning happily.
"I was not expecting that," I said, and the Doctor blinked.
"Neither was I."
XXXX
Am I still annoyed that we don't know what happened to Susan? You are darn fucking right.
Romana was president of Gallifrey in the Big Finish audio dramas and she was excellent in the role.