"I must admit that I love the tropical temperature. It feels like ages since I've gotten to wear a sun dress," I said as I climbed up onto the little stone wall and held my arms out to the side to keep my balance as I started to walk on it. The Doctor laughed as he turned to look at me and a tiny hint of concern wrinkled his brow.
"What are you doing?" He asked and I shrugged carefully.
"Walking," I said, and he laughed again.
"Seems more like balancing," he said, and I flashed him a wide smile. I wobbled slightly and one of his hands extended towards me before retracting as I caught myself, like he had been ready to catch me but stopped when he realized I didn't need it.
"Balancing with forward motion makes it walking," I said.
"Is that so?" He asked with a teasing eyebrow raise. I nodded firmly. "Alright then. May I ask what's in the bag?"
"Snacks!" I cried delightedly like a four-year-old as I gave a little wiggle to shake the bag slightly. My wiggle made me wobble slightly again and I saw the Doctor's hand flash towards me again. "And a camera I found in the TARDIS."
"You found a camera in the TARDIS?" He asked and I nodded. "Where?"
"A little storage closet popped up next to the library. I decided to go exploring." I'd been looking for something specific at the time though I'd since forgotten what it was, which was probably why the closet had appeared in the first place.
"I wonder where it came from."
"I assumed it came from a previous companion but there was no name. And then I realized that there aren't any pictures of you, so I decided to fix that." I reached a slightly wider section of the wall and lifted one leg and executed a quick, slightly messy spin left over from early dance lessons.
"Jesus Emma." I heard the Doctor mutter mid way through my spin before I came to a stop and pulled out the camera. I lifted it up and focused it on his face. He raised an eyebrow up at me which I snapped a picture of. He pulled a disgruntled face and I laughed as I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Smile then," I said as I lifted the camera to my eye again. He rolled his eyes before he gave me a smile. I took the picture quickly and lowered it to smile at him. "Thank you."
"You can pay me back by passing me the camera," he said as he held up a hand. I lifted it away as I cocked my head to the side as I thought about it.
"Are you going to give it back at some point so I can take more pictures?" I asked and he smiled.
"Of course. I just wanted to make sure there's some photos of you in this album." I set the camera into his still outstretched hand as I grinned at him.
"We're making an album?" I asked.
"Where else are we going to keep the pictures? Strike a pose." I planted my foot carefully and arched up in a cliché ballet pose. His lip quirked up before one finger appeared in the air and made a go again motion, so I switched to a more natural pose. He lowered the camera away from his face with a soft smile. "Beautiful."
"Flatterer," I said as I plunked down to sit on the wall and patted next to me. The Doctor sat next to me and accepted the apple that I held out to him. I leaned my head on his shoulder as we ate and listened to the distance ocean waves in silence. Once we were done, I grabbed the camera and angled it towards us. "Smile."
"Is this going to work?" He asked as I took a couple of pictures at various angles just to make sure.
"Lillian, Kate and I used to do it all the time. We got pretty good at it, but it's always good to take a couple just to be safe," I said.
"Kate?" He asked and I nodded.
"My cousin." He squinted at me as I turned the camera around to see how much film was left.
"From your unnamed Uncle?" He asked and I laughed.
"Surely you have a guess who my Uncle is," I teased as I lifted the camera to my face. I hadn't taken a solely landscape picture since University, when I'd taken a photography class to fulfill an elective, but the sprawling land in front of me was too picturesque to resist an attempt.
"How exactly are you related to the Brigadier?" The Doctor asked and I smiled.
"Not in the slightest. Lilian is though." I scrunched my face up to think about it. "If I remember right, he is Mom's cousin, but they're pretty close despite the age difference. Kind of like Kate, Lillian and I actually. But either way he's been there my whole life. Birthdays, Christmas, all that stuff. He used to take Lillian, Kate and I out to the country for a month every summer. It was kind of like he knew that I needed extra family and didn't mind being my uncle too."
"And he told you about aliens he encountered working with UNIT?" I nodded.
"For bedtime stories mostly. Every time he started a new one he always made us swear to secrecy because they were classified which always made us feel special. I didn't realize that he was serious about the classification until I was older and Kate joined UNIT." We'd all been so proud the day she got accepted into the science division, but no one more than her dad. He'd proclaimed to anyone who would listen about how she was going to be the start of a new UNIT, though he had done it as subtly as he could manage since Kate had dropped the Lethbridge to avoid accusations of nepotism.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart," the Doctor said fondly, and I smiled.
"The one and only. Now stop distracting me so I can take this picture," I said as I realized that I had lowered the camera at some point in my reminiscing. The Doctor made a go on gesture. I took the picture and then frowned at something in the view finder.
"What's that?" I asked as I handed the camera to him so that he would be able to use the zoom. "There just on the top of the hill on the right."
"It looks like a Quark," he said as he shoved the camera back into the bag and jumped off the wall onto his feet. I gave him a confused look as I planted my hands on his shoulders and he lifted me off the wall from my waist.
"A what?" I asked as soon as my feet were on the ground. He jerked his head in the direction of the quark and I nodded so we set off.
"A Quark is an alien species, I guess," he said, and I blinked up at him.
"You guess?" I asked and he shrugged.
"The Daleks were humanoid before they were Daleks, I don't know if that's the case for the Quarks."
"Okay fair point. So, what's a Quark?" I asked and he sent me a confused look.
"What?"
"Well you ask what's a Dalek and one answer is they're a tentacle thing inside a pepper pot thing that wants to subjugate the universe. But the other answer is they're your greatest enemy and that's really all you need to know," I said, and he laughed. "So, you answered what's a Quark, but I still need to know what's a Quark?"
"Emma you are baffling," he said with a soft smile.
"I'm going to take that as a compliment. Now tell me what a Quark is," I said.
"I haven't really bumped into them that much. They're another breed of murderous robots with a tendency for subjugation. First time I met them they were working in the Dominator's army. Though I suppose that if the Daleks didn't exist then they would be the Daleks," he said.
"But there aren't any Daleks anymore because of the DoctorDonna thing, wait except for the ones we bumped into a little while ago I kind of forgot about that." I reached up and rubbed my forehead in frustration. "This makes my brain hurt."
"Did you have a point?" He asked with a teasing smile as I shot him a frown. "I couldn't quite follow it."
"Okay assuming we aren't going to stumble upon anymore Daleks then that means that there aren't anymore Daleks in this universe then wouldn't that mean that maybe the Quarks are trying to become the Daleks since the Daleks aren't here anymore?" I asked. The Doctor made several faces as he processed my question before his nose scrunched up and he tilted his head to one side.
"Should I take that as a maybe?" I asked after several moments of silence. The Doctor grumbled in frustration.
"I'm torn between saying yes because that makes sense and telling you no because being my greatest enemy is not like the Mafia." I gasped and smiled at him.
"It is like the Mafia! I can't believe I never made the connection!" I said delightedly and he groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
"I've done it now," he muttered as he looked at me balefully through his fingers. I grinned at him before I reached up and tapped the centre of my forehead.
"I'd like a brilliance kiss now please," I said. I hadn't said it out loud, but his conditioning had probably worked a little too well because I'd gotten a little addicted to them. Not just because they made me feel appreciated but also because he always looked so happy whenever he gave me one.
"For?" He asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Before the Mafia thing you said that my thing made sense. That means I was smart," I said and tapped my forehead again for emphasis. He laughed before he swooped in and pressed his lips to where my finger had just been.
"You are brilliant," he said, and I smiled up at him.
"Thank you." I took another step and realized that the ground had gotten very soft at the top of the hill as compared to the rest of the hill. "Hey that's weird."
"What's weird?" The Doctor asked. I pointed down at my feet.
"The ground is really soft. But it's not like wet, soft it feels more like springy." The Doctor dropped to his knees with his sonic extended as soon as I finished speaking. He scanned it carefully before he pressed his ear to the ground.
"Do me a favour and jump up and down. I want to see if I can hear an echo," he said, and I laughed.
"I really really want to know when you saying stuff like that became normal to me," I said as I gave a small jump. He paused for a moment before shaking his head minutely and holding up his hand to make a go again gesture. I jumped again, though higher this time. He frowned and squeezed his eyes shut like he could almost hear something so I jumped as high as I could before he could ask. When my feet hit the ground there was an odd metallic, squelching sound and the ground gave way under me.
"Emma!" The Doctor screamed as I fell onto the metal grate several feet below me with a loud clatter.
"Ow shit." I cracked my eyes open to see the Doctor's head over the hole I had made and waved at him. He made a frantic hand motion at me and I slid myself out of the way just as he jumped in after me and dropped not far from where my head had been. "So, did you hear an echo?"
"You aren't funny," he hissed as he squatted next to me. I grinned up at him.
"You're just upset that I'm more of a magnet for trouble than you are," I said, and he looked down at me like he couldn't decide whether he was going to frown or smile.
"You still aren't funny." Then concern flooded his features again and washed everything out. "Why haven't you gotten up yet? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?"
"My back hurts, but I figured you wouldn't want me to move too much just yet since I think I hit my head," I said, and he had the sonic out in an instant. He carefully scanned over my face before holding it up next to his ear. "Since when does the sonic check for concussion?"
"Since I added a new function because you keep hitting your head," he said before he nodded. "Wiggle your toes and fingers."
"Between this and my find anywhere key maybe you should just wrap me in bubble wrap," I said as I did as he asked which he nodded at and took his extended hand to pull myself into a seated position.
"Emma if I thought for a moment it would work I would," he said. "No concussion, no spine damage, no blood. Probably just some severe bruises and another decade off my lifespan."
"I keep telling you that you can spare them. Get back to me when I've burned off a century total," I said as I looked in the bag. The leftover apples were probably just as bruised as my back, but the camera was miraculously intact.
"You still aren't funny."