"I really am sorry about that," the Doctor said as he backed out of the TARDIS spraying a fire extinguisher in front of him. I coughed again and waved my hand in front of my face.
"It's fine. It's not like I was asleep or anything," I said sarcastically, and he sent me a droll look. I felt like his look was undeserved since I'd had a very rude awakening when the cloister bell had started going off and I'd spilled out into a hallway full of smoke and the Doctor shouting for me from the console room.
"Seriously why do you tinker with the poor girl? Doesn't she already do everything you ask her to?" I asked and the Doctor growled in frustration as the doors slammed shut.
"I want to make sure everything runs smoothly. I think she deserves that," he said, and I patted his arm.
"Maybe if you hadn't tossed the owner's manual into a supernova, we wouldn't have these problems," I said and gestured at the small amounts of smoke that were still seeping underneath the TARDIS' door.
"I am never going to live that down, am I?" I beamed at him.
"Never ever." I turned and looked at the hallway that was spread out behind us. "So, where are we?"
"Haven't the foggiest." He took a quick turn around the very dark room. "Looks like an art museum."
"How much money should I bet that if we move any further away from the TARDIS we will set off the alarms and get surrounded by armed guardsmen?" I asked lightly and he threw a teasing frown at me. I raised an eyebrow, and he pursed his lips in thought which made me laugh.
"Does that mean you don't want to explore?" He asked and immediately proved that he knew my answer by extending his elbow out to me.
"I didn't say that. Just wanted to make sure we were both clear on everything," I said as I stepped forward and connected arms with him. He dug around in his other pocket for a moment and then pulled out a small flashlight.
"There now we can actually see the art as we explore," he said brightly.
"It would be boring to visit an art museum and not actually see any art." He shot me another look as we set off. "It seems quite small."
"Could be private," the Doctor said, and I curled my nose up in disgust.
"Gross." He sent me an amused smirk. "I have a think about private museums, okay? It completely defeats the purpose."
"You generally have to pay to visit museums," he said.
"Completely different. I wish absolutely one hundred percent that all museums had completely free entry, but it's still different between paying twenty dollars and not being able to access a whole collection," I argued, and he laughed. We stepped into a different wing and I gasped in awe at the paintings on the wall.
They were all a series of starscapes, but what caught my attention was the fact that the stars and galaxies on the paintings were luminescent. The Doctor switched the flashlight off and they glowed brighter.
"It's beautiful," I whispered as I detached my arm from the Doctor's and took a step closer to get a better look. I was staring at it, deeply entranced when the luminescence lifted off the painting and floated towards me.
Tiny, glowing things that reminded me of dust sprites floated down to my level and swirled around me and I let out a giggle of shocked delight before they landed on me. I looked over at the Doctor through the bright haze and saw that he was beaming at me.
"What are they?" I asked as I lifted my arms to look at them a little closer.
"Leki spraĭtove," he answered after he had taken a few steps forward and picked up my hand to study it.
"Which are?" I asked.
"Remember what I told you about the Vashta Nerada?"
"Unfortunately, yes." He shot me a smile as a few of the Leki spraĭtove drifted over to his hand.
"These are their cousins more or less. They look like dust sprites, but they feed off of positive emotional energy."
"No better place than an art museum," I said and they must have had their fill because the started floating off of me and back towards the painting. I watched them go with a smile before I realized there was still one lone Leki spraĭtove lingering on the cuticle of my index finger. "Hey what are you doing?"
It gave a little quiver and I smiled.
"I know. It's pretty nice over here right now, but if you stay you'll be lonely." I lifted my hand and extended my finger towards the painting. "Being lonely isn't any fun."
It gave another little quiver before reluctantly floating off my finger and back to the painting. I watched the Leki spraĭtove settle back onto the painting and the glow returned to the star scape.
"Wow," I breathed. "That was magical."
"It was." I had just linked elbows with him when the alarms in the building started blaring. I winced and looked up at him.
"Well, we made it longer than I thought we would," I said as bars slammed down over the windows.
"True," he said with a tilt of his head as the doors at the opposite end of the hall flew open with a loud bang and a bunch of armed men walked in.
"Wow this art museum has a militia," I said as they all pointed their guns at us and the Doctor started making his noises.
"Stand down," a female voice ordered. The men all lowered their weapons and I blinked in surprise at the pregnant woman who was walking towards us.
"This art museum has a militia that answers to a pregnant woman," I said and the Doctor shot me a look.
"Is now the time?" I shrugged.
"I don't have anything to say at the moment except my sarcastic comments. Open to suggestions," I said. His face twisted up in amusement.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Marla and I am the art director here," the woman announced as she stopped in front of us with her hand extended while the other one cradled her extended belly. The Doctor swooped forward and shook her hand.
"The Doctor and Emma. Pleasure to meet you, why does this museum have a militia?"
"To protect the paintings of course," Marla said, and I glanced at the size of the guns.
"Are these paintings particularly valuable?" I asked blandly because the Louvre didn't have this much security. Or at least they didn't have a militia.
"All art is particularly valuable," she said stiffly. I rolled my eyes at the sidestep.
"Why are you here talking to us?" The Doctor asked.
"We witnessed you two damaging the paintings on the cameras," she said and I frowned.
"We didn't damage anything."
"You were caught on camera, glowing. And then the glow moved off of you onto the painting," Marla said.
"Oh, so you managed to miss the part where they came off the painting first," I shot back and she blinked in surprise.
"They?" She repeated.
"The Leki spraĭtove."
"The what?" I turned to the Doctor who gladly launched into his explanation of what the Leki spraĭtove were and what they were doing here. And emphasized over and over that they hadn't done any damage to the paintings, since they were just sitting on it.
"How do we get rid of them?" Marla asked as soon as the Doctor finished and he made a noise of disgust and threw his hand towards the paintings, which were no longer glowing since the lights were on.
"I just finished explaining how they aren't harming the paintings, or harming you, and you want to get rid of them!"
"It's not what the artist intended."
"Really?! That's the argument you're going to go with?" I asked and Marla flushed. "Why not just admit that you're about to phone whoever owns this place and tell them you're over your head?"
Before she could reply we were interrupted by a light binging noise floating over the intercom. The Doctor and I shared a confused look before we glanced over at Marla, who was now rubbing her stomach idly.
"That will be my husband with my snack," she said, and all the armed men nodded at the same time. I got the sense this was a frequent occurrence. She pushed her shoulders back, probably trying to look imperious, but her pregnant belly made her lose that slightly, and addressed one of the men. "Keep them here for half an hour while I get my husband in the building and phone Mr. Sir."
"Your boss's name is Mr. Sir?" I repeated incredulously. She shot me a look. "Oh come on, that's a fake name."
"It certainly sounds fake," the Doctor said as we settled in on the floor and the Doctor fished out a pack of cards from his pocket. Marla gave us another look. "We get bored."
"We spend a lot of time in jail cells, or containment cells or sitting while being watched," I said. The Doctor dealt out a hand for each of us for a complicated game that he'd taught me how to play. She gave us one last withering look before storming off.
"You know we always end up in the weirdest of situations," I said idly after a few minutes of silence and it became clear that the people monitoring us weren't about to start chatting.
"But they're good aren't they?" The Doctor asked. I beamed at him.
"The best." He grinned back at me.
"In fact, I didn't know that there were any Leki spraĭtove left in the universe. They're incredibly rare. It was nice to see them again," he said, and I smiled at him.
"They were amazing." I looked over both shoulders and dropped my voice so that I wouldn't be overheard. "I feel like they deserve to be somewhere other than here."
"I agree. We could take them to a bigger, public museum and they might be able to have enough energy to procreate and expand the swarm," he said at the same level as me.
"So that's the plan? We get the Leki spraĭtove out of here and leave this stupid, private museum behind?" I asked and he nodded before quirking his lips up at me in amusement.
"What exactly do you have against private museums?"
"Ask me what I don't have against private museums. The list is way shorter," I said and he burst out laughing.
"I don't know why I'm surprised."
"I don't know why you are either." I pointed at him with my cards. "And don't act like you don't agree."
"You know me so well," he said with another grin. I grinned at him.
"I certainly do." I was going to say more, but my blood filled with ice suddenly and I got lightheaded.
"Emma?" The Doctor asked as he lunged forward, sending cards everywhere, to catch me at the elbows before I tipped over. I blinked at him in confusion. "What happened?"
"I don't know. My blood got cold, and I felt lightheaded." The concerned look on his face deepened. "Like someone walked over my grave or something."
"Has this ever happened before?"
"I promise I would have brought it up," I said. His facial expression shifted slightly into a concerned, thinking frown. "So are we chalking this up to something with the time energy or just one of those weird intuition things?"
He didn't answer and simply pulled out his sonic. I started cleaning up the cards that he'd spewed everywhere while he scanned me. Judging by the look on his face, he didn't get any definitive answers.
"Doctor Emma. Marla is ready for you in her office." We got up from the floor and I linked my fingers with the Doctor's.
"Hey it'll be fine. We have a plan, and maybe Marla's husband will be on our side."
"Or he's the reason why you got lightheaded."
"Oh come on, who could do that?"
XXXXX
Do I have a good, cohesive reason for missing a week? Alas no.
This is one of those adventure arcs that arise occasionally that don't really have a lot of plot but have a lot of character stuff. Enjoy and sorry again for the delay!