We went right from saying goodbye to Sarah Jane to the next adventure. Rose got over herself pretty quickly, and by the time we'd landed, everyone was back to normal. The TARDIS materialised with a softer landing than usual. The Doctor stepped out first, Mickey then Rose then me trailing behind him. It made sense the Time Lord wanted to go first. The softest landings sometimes meant the most immediate danger on the other side of the doors.
Except no one was in physical danger this time. My Plans for today had nothing to do with saving lives. Just as well since I seemed to be pretty shit at that. How could I have forgotten the teachers?
Team TARDIS stepped out onto into the cockpit of a spaceship with a long central computer, a lot of clutter, and not much else.
"It's a spaceship. Brilliant!" Mickey said. "I got a spaceship on my first go."
"It looks kind of abandoned," Rose observed. "Anyone on board?"
"Nah, nothing here," the Doctor dismissed without checking. "Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous. You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous." Rose smiled and walked forward to lean on the computer.
"So, what's the date? How far've we gone?" Rose asked.
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take," the Doctor offered. I checked my watch, which listed the year as 5028, which meant- "Fifty first century," the Doctor confirmed. I sucked in a pained breath, but it was hidden under the sound of the lights coming on. Any other thoughts of Jack disappeared as the ceiling opened up to the stars. "Dagmar Cluster," the Doctor continued. "You're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies."
"Mickey Smith, meet the universe," Rose said, walking up behind him and leaning. "See anything you like?"
"It's so realistic!" he gasped.
"That would be because it's real, Mickey," I deadpanned. Rose rolled her eyes at me and started walking around.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here," the Doctor said. "Got a ton of repair work going on." He picked up a piece of metal and then tossed it back down in favor of pointing at the one working computer. "Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe-"
"That seems dangerous," I interjected.
"-But we're not moving," the Doctor continued like I'd said nothing. "So where's all that power going?"
"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked.
"Good question," the Doctor praised, typing away. "No life readings on board."
"Well, we're in deep space. They didn't just nip out for a quick fag," Rose said.
"No, I've checked all the smoking pods," the Doctor said, oblivious to sarcasm.
I raised my head, the smell finally hitting me. "Have I gone crazy, or is someone barbecuing?" I asked.
"I can smell it," the Doctor said.
"Yeah, someone's cooking," Rose agreed.
"Sunday roast, though," Mickey added, sounding excited. I swallowed some bile that had risen into my throat.
The Doctor hit a button on the computer, and the wall behind us opened. We all walked over and into the room it revealed. The far wall was wood panelled with a lit fireplace and a clock on the mantle. It stood out like a sore thumb against the dirty greys of the rest of the ship.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship," the Doctor said, walking forward. "Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle." He pulled out the sonic and scanned it over. "Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace." Rose looked out a nearby window, and made a confused face. "Double sided. There's another room through there," the Doctor observed.
I walked over and crouched beside him. If my goal for today was to get on Madame de Pompadour's good side instead of the Doctor, I might as well start as soon as I could. She was already sitting on the other side, close to the fire and looking very confused. I smiled at her.
"There can't be," Rose said. "That's the outer hull of the ship. Look."
"Hello," the Doctor and I said together.
"Hello?" the little girl responded, sounding just as confused as she looked.
"What's your name?" the Doctor asked.
"Reinette," she answered.
"Reinette, that's a wonderful name," I said. Mickey and Rose came over and peered into the fireplace. "Much better than my name. Can I ask where you are, Reinette?"
"In my bedroom," she said, like that was exactly what we should expect her to say.
"And where's your bedroom?" the Doctor prompted. "Where do you live, Reinette?" Reinette looked very confused.
"Paris, of course," she said.
"Of course," I agreed.
"Monsieur, Madame, what are you doing in my fireplace?" Reinette asked.
"Oh, it's just a routine...fire check," the Doctor tried. Rose shot me a very fond 'look at this dumbass' look. I rolled my eyes. "Can you tell me what year it is?"
"Bien sûr, je peux," Reinette said. Of course I can. "Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."
"Right, lovely. One of my favourites," the Doctor said. "August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire." The Doctor stood up.
"Bonne nuit et dors bien," I said. Good night and sleep well.
"Bonne nuit, Madame," Reinette answered. I stood as well.
"You said this was the fifty first century," Mickey said.
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe," the Doctor said. "I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
"What's that?" Mickey asked, voice full of wonder.
"No idea" the Doctor admitted. "Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door.
"And on the other side of the magic door-" Rose emphasized the words. "-is France in 1727?" The Doctor nodded.
"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too," the Doctor said. He walked over to smoke exposed piping threw his coat in it, and marched back.
"She was speaking English, I heard her," Mickey protested.
"That's the TARDIS," Rose explained. "Translates for you."
"Even French?" Mickey cried.
"When it works. The translation circuit's not usually on the fritz." I said. The Doctor looked over from the fireplace, hand hovering over the switch I knew was there.
"What?" he asked. I looked around the group, but the other humans just looked confused.
"Was she not switching back and forth from English to French?" I asked. Mickey and Rose shook their heads.
"Pouvez-vous comprendre ce que je dis?" the Doctor asked.
"Of course I can understand you- oh." I stared at the wall, as memory upon memory of pointing and asking my dad what that was in French flooded back into my brain.
"So um, fun fact," I said, voice cracking. "I can speak French. Turns out."
"Gotcha!" the Doctor cried. He flipped the switch, and the fireplace rotated. I was still standing on it, and turned into Reniette's bedroom with him.
Reinette was fast asleep. The Doctor walked as quietly as he could and looked out the window. It was snowing, and the sun was just about to rise. A horse passed under the window, and the floor creaked without either the Doctor or I moving. Reinette woke with a gasp.
"Shh," I whispered, stepping slowly forward. "It's okay. It's just us. The - the fireplace people." We walked closer to Reinette, who wisely moved as far away from us as she could on her bed.
The Doctor lit a candle on the bedside table with the sonic. We smiled as soon as the light touched our faces. Reinette looked marginally less scared. "We were talking just a moment ago," the Doctor said. "We were in your fireplace."
"Monsieur, Madame," Reniette began, looking back and forth between us. "That was weeks ago. That was months."
"Really?" the Doctor asked, walking back toward the fireplace.
"May I sit here?" I asked, gesturing to the bed. Reinette nodded, so I did.
"Must be a loose connection," the Doctor continued from the other side of the room. "Need to get a man in."
"Who are you?" Reinette asked me. "Who is he? And what are you doing here?"
"We're…" I hesitated. My normal answer of 'we're travellers and we'll help if we can' was probably not my best option here. I looked over at the Doctor, who had just noticed the broken clock. "We're here to protect you," I decided, taking one of her hands in both of mine. "I promise as long as one of us is with you, nothing will hurt you." Reniette looked even more confused than she had before I'd answered.
"Okay, that's scary," the Doctor said quietly. Reinette looked past me to the Doctor.
"You're scared of a broken clock?" she asked.
"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit," the Doctor said. "Because, you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room-" He looked around to confirm. "-then what's that?" The steady tick-tock-tick-tock seemed to get louder when we actually listened for it. I pulled my legs onto the bed and threw an arm around Reniette's shoulders.
"Because, you see, that's not a clock," the Doctor continued, coming toward us. "You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man."
"Doc," I hissed.
"What is it?" Reinette asked. Her eyes kept darting around the room, like she was desperate to find the potential danger.
"Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock," the Doctor continued, locking eyes with me. "No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two?" I jerked my head down. "You might start to wonder if you're really alone." He looked under the bed, slowly reaching in his pocket for the sonic. "Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge."
The Doctor waved the sonic under the bed for a moment. Something knocks it out of his hand, and pushed him back. I turned and glared at the clockwork android that had stood up on the other side of bed.
"Reinette," I asked quietly, not taking my eyes off the clockwork man. "When you're with your friends and someone tells a scary story, what do you do?" The Doctor stood up slowly behind me.
"Madame, I do not understand," she whispered in fear.
"Just tell me-" I squeezed her hand I was holding. "When the story gets scary, do you close your eyes or do you look around?"
"Madame, I look around."
"Ok then, Reinette." I glared at the repair android. "Look around." Reinette turned slowly. "You, stay exactly where you are."
There was a pulse in the air, something so light it only brushed through the world. But it tried to worm its way inside my mind, so I glared harder and shored up my mental defenses.
"You've been scanning her brain?" I asked, even though it wasn't a question.
"What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain?" the Doctor asked the clockwork android. "What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"
"I don't understand," Reinette said. "You want me?" The droid snapped his head to look at Reinette.
"Not yet. You are incomplete," it droned.
"Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete?" the Doctor asked. The droid remained silent. "You can answer her, you can answer me," the Doctor demanded, standing again and pointing the sonic. "What do you mean, incomplete?"
The android walked jerkily around the bed and raised its arm to the Doctor. A blade comes out of its hand, a few inches from the Doctor's neck. He didn't flinch, which was really impressive.
"Monsieur, be careful!" Reinette cried. I stood up quickly from the bed, using the momentum to pull the Doctor back a bit, just as the droid swung again.
"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it," the Doctor assured, stepping back, holding his arm out to keep me behind him. The droid slashed again, and we ducked out of the way. "Everyone has nightmares. Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" The android swung. We ducked to both sides. The blade stuck in the mantlepiece.
"What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette asked.
The Doctor flicked the switch and the fireplace rotated again.
"Me!" we cried.
"Doctor! Katelyn!" Rose cried as soon as we were back on her side.
The Doctor grabbed a tube-gun-thing from a nearby rack and fired its contents over the android. I grabbed the second one, but waited. The android seized up.
"Excellent," Mickey said. "Ice gun."
"Extincteur d'incendie," I corrected.
"Which translates to fire extinguisher," the Doctor said, tossing his to Rose. She settled in on her hip, ready to use it if needed.
"Where did that thing come from?" she asked.
"Here," the Doctor answered. He stepped forward to get a better look.
"So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey asked.
"Field trip to France. Some kind of basic camouflage protocol," the Doctor explained. "Nice needlework, shame about the face." He took the droid's mask off to reveal the clockwork underneath. "Oh, you are beautiful!" He slipped the glasses on. I walked around the droid to stand next to Rose. "No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me."
I raised my fire extinguisher, but the droid teleported away before I could fire.
"Short range teleport," the Doctor said. "Can't have got far. Could still be on board."
"Well, it's either on board or in deep space," I reminded him, putting the gun back on the wall, and stepping toward the fireplace.
"What is it?" Rose asked.
I found the switch under the fireplace, and flipped it before the Doctor could step back on. The room I entered was not a little girl's room. The bed was in the same place, but other than that, everything was new. I walked over to harp and played a few notes. Luckily for my sanity, I didn't suddenly remember how to play the harp.
Honestly, how could I forget knowing an entire language? A language I knew so well, apparently, that I could switch back and forth with no effort. I'd thought I was getting better. I'd thought I'd known who I was.
Maybe I'd just always be a mystery. Mysteries were fun, right?
Across the room, someone cleared their throat.
I turned to see Reinette again. She was much older, although I couldn't tell how old. 17? 18? Certainly around my age.
"Hello," I said. "Sorry, I was just looking for Reinette?" Reinette smiled a secret smile, like she very much enjoyed keeping me in the dark. "Is still her room? I've been away, not sure how long."
"Reinette!" a woman called from another room. "We're ready to go."
"Go to the carriage, Mother," Reinette called over her shoulder, smile only growing. "I will join you there. It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood." She stepped closer, and I was suddenly aware that she was very pretty.
Goddamn you, I cursed myself. Now is not the time to be a disaster bisexual.
"You are to be congratulated on your persistence," Reinette finished.
"Reinette," I acknowledged. "Good to see you're safe. And an adult."
"And you do not appear to have aged a single day," Reinette said, stepping closer. I stepped back toward the fireplace on instinct. "That is tremendously impolite of you."
"Sorry," I said, only just managing to keep my cool. "Um, great to talk, but I should be off. Don't want your mother finding you up here with a stranger." Why the fuck would I say that?
"How could you be a stranger to me?" Reinette asked, crowding me against the fireplace. "I've known you since I was seven years old."
"I came the quick route," I managed. Reinette reached up and touched my cheek. Were hands usually that warm? Unfortunately, I was on the other side of the fireplace from the switch, and could not escape.
"You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd," Reinette marveled. "Reason tells me you cannot be real."
"Well, you never want to listen to reason," I said. "Reason's so boring."
"Mademoiselle!" a voice called. "Your mother grows impatient."
"A moment!" Reinette called back. "So many questions. So little time."
Reinette decided to use that time to push my hips against the fireplace and kiss me. She was… she was very good at it, and some long buried instinct had me kissing back, had hands reaching to hold her face and waist.
"Mademoiselle Poisson!" the voice called again. Reinette pulled away with a self-satisfied smile and ran out the door, grabbing whatever she'd come back to the room to get on her way out.
I swallowed hard, fumbling for the switch behind on the mantelpiece behind me and hitting it.
"Poisson," I squeaked as soon as I was back on the ship. The Doctor looked up from the computer he was working on and stared.
"Poisson?" he repeated.
"Reinette Poisson," I clarified. "French courtesan, future mistress to Louis XV. She grew up, and she remembered me." The Doctor paused, letting that information sink in, and no doubt trying to figure out why I looked so rumpled. A smile that bordered on a smirk spread across his face.
"Did you snog Madame de Pompadour?" he laughed.
"She snogged me," I said, still trying to remember how to breathe. It had been a while since I'd been kissed like that. Wait. Had I ever been kissed like that?
"49," the Doctor sang.
"I hate you," I said. My brain fizzled back on, and I noticed we were the only ones in the room. "Where did the humans go?"
The Doctor's smile faded. He turned in a circle, apparently only just noticing he was alone.
"Rose! Mickey!" he called. They didn't answer. "Every time. Come on." He started walking away, and I made my shaky legs follow him. "Every time, it's rule one. Don't wander off. I tell them, I do."
"You didn't tell me," I said.
"You, of all people, should know," the Doctor said. "There could be anything on this ship."
And that was when we walked into the horse.
...
Several human-less corridors and about ten minutes later, the Doctor was starting to get irritated.
"Rose?" he called for the 200,000th time.
"Mickey?" I added, for fairness.
The horse clopped along behind us. I was making an effort not to get attached. The Doctor stopped walking with a loud sigh, and turned to the horse.
"Will you stop following us? I'm not your mother," he said. The horse snorted and nuzzled at the Doctor's sleeve. The Doctor sighed and kept walking.
"Just ignore the mean old Time Lord, Arthur," I cooed, giving him the pat he so clearly wanted. Then I cursed. Here I was, trying not to get attached, and I'd gone and named the fucking horse.
"Katelyn!" I jogged to catch up with the Doctor. "I think I found where the horse came from." He pulled open a pair of white wooden doors, and we stepped out into bright summer light.
Reinette walked by immediately, giggling, arm in arm with another woman. "Oh, Catherine, you are too wicked". She turned around, and we dropped to the ground to hide from her.
"You're blushing," the Doctor whispered. I punched his arm hard enough that he shut up.
"Oh, speaking of wicked," Katherine said. "I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death." The Doctor and I stood back up and watched.
"Yes. I am devastated," Reinette deadpanned.
"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable," Katherine said dramatically. The two women giggled for a bit. "The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?"
"He is the King, and I love him with all my heart," Reinette said. "And I look forward to meeting him."
A bird called, and the Doctor and I dropped to the grass again.
"Is something wrong, my dear?" Katherine asked.
"Not wrong, no," Reinette said. When we stood back up, Reinette, had turned back around and was walking away.
"You're still blushing," the Doctor teased. I turned and walked back through the doors we'd come from.
"Another word, and they will find your body in that pond tomorrow," I deadpanned. The Doctor chuckled behind me.
"With all the time jumping we're doing today, that's the least threatening thing you could have said."
It didn't take us much longer to find Rose and Mickey. They were about two hallways away, watching another scene of Reniette's life play out.
"Blimey, look at this guy," Mickey said as Louis XV walked in. "Who does he think he is?"
"The King of France," the Doctor said, moving to stand in the middle of Rose and Mickey. I allowed the smile I normally would have hidden spread across my face. Territorial old Time Lord.
"Oh, here's trouble," Rose said. "What you two been up to?"
"Oh, this and that," the Doctor dismissed. "We became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, I picked a fight with a clockwork man." The Doctor sniffed. "Katelyn snogged Madame de Pompadour." I looked up at the ceiling, begging God to smite me where I stood. It would be less embarrassing. Arthur neighed. "Oh, and we met a horse."
"Katelyn did what?" Rose cried, delighted.
"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked. Mercifully, the Doctor ignored Rose's question in favor of making fun of Mickey.
"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective," the Doctor sassed. "See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history-" Reinette picked the perfect time to enter. "-hers. Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"
"Who is she?" Rose asked.
"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette," the Doctor answered. "One of the most accomplished women who ever lived."
"Choice snogging partner, Katelyn," Rose teased. I groaned and buried my face in my hands. God, I was never going to live this down, was I? "So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?"
"No, he's already got a Queen," the Doctor said. "She's got plans of being his mistress."
"Oh, I get it," Rose drawled, smirking. "Camilla." Mickey laughed. I decided not to say I had no idea why that was funny. Rose had enough on me already.
"I think this is the night they met," the Doctor said, gesturing to the window. "The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title."
"Madame de Pompadour," I finished for him. Reinette came over to the window and checked her reflection. "It's funny, I grew up knowing her name, but I couldn't tell you why."
"You were fated to meet," Rose said dramatically. I almost laughed at that one. No, this exact scenario was the reason I'd grown up with Reinette's name in my head. "The Queen must have loved her," she added when I ignored her.
"No, she did. They get on very well," the Doctor said.
"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked.
"France," the Doctor mused. "It's a different planet."
"Actually, on Earth, polygyny is more common than monogamy," I added. "Your culture is statistically abnormal." I left Mick to stew that over, grabbing his fire extinguisher and walking through the window just as Reinette noticed the clockwork droid
"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" I said as I passed her.
"Fireplace woman!" she cried. I sprayed the android until it's gears clicked frozen, and then threw the extinguisher back to Mickey. After only a second, the android creaked.
"What's it doing?" Mickey asked.
"Switching back on. Melting the ice," the Doctor explained. Reinette spun around.
"Fireplace man?" she asked.
"And then what?" Mickey said, like he knew he wouldn't like the answer.
"It kills everyone in the room, right, Doctor?" I said, backing up as the droid reached out.
"Yep," he said, stepping level with me. "Who are you? Identify yourself." The only indication the droid gave that it had heard was the slight tilt of its head. The Doctor groaned and turned to Reinette. "Order it to answer me."
"Why should it listen to me?" Reinette asked.
"I don't know. It did when you were a child," the Doctor explained. I walked to Reinette's other side, really trying to ignore how her gaze followed me.
"Answer his question," Reinette said to the droid. "Answer any and all questions put to you."
"I am repair droid seven," the droid said.
"What happened to the ship, then?" the Doctor asked. "There was a lot of damage."
"Ion storm," the droid answered. "Eighty two percent systems failure."
"That ship hasn't moved in over a year," the Doctor said. "What's taken you so long?"
"We did not have the parts," the droid droned. I shivered. Only Rose and Reinette noticed. Reinette looked confused, but reached for my hand anyway. I let her.
"Always comes down to that, doesn't it?" Mickey laughed. "The parts."
"What's happened to the crew?" the Doctor asked. "Where are they?"
"We did not have the parts," the droid repeated.
"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" the Doctor insisted.
"We did not have the parts," I said in unison with the droid. Everyone turned to me.
"You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew," I revealed, feeling sick.
"The crew?" Mickey asked. Slow horror spread across Rose's face.
"We found a camera with an eye in it," she said slowly. "And there was a heart wired in to machinery." Mickey face was slowly shifted to match Rose's. Reinette's grip on my hand tightened.
"It was just doing what it was programmed to," the Doctor said. "Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"
"Someone cooking," Rose said quietly.
"Flesh plus heat." The Doctor turned to me, and gave me the 'I know you know' look. "Barbeque." I nodded. "But what are you doing here?" the Doctor asked the repair droid. "You've opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"
"One more part is required," the droid said, snapping her head toward Reinette. I pulled her back and stepped in front of her.
"Then why haven't you taken it?" I asked.
"She is incomplete," the droid said.
"What, so, that's the plan, then?" the Doctor asked. "Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's done yet?"
"Why her?" Rose asked. "You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically her?"
"We are the same," the droid said.
"We are not the same. We are in no sense the same," Reinette snapped.
"We are the same," the droid repeated.
"Get out of here," Reinette shouted. "Get out of here this instant!"
"Reinette, no!" the Doctor and I said. The droid teleported away.
"It's back on the ship," the Doctor said. "Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Get after it. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does. I'll be with you in a second."
"Arthur?" Rose asked as she walked out.
"Good name for a horse," I defended.
"No," Rose said, looking between the Doctor and I. "You're not keeping the horse."
"I let you keep Mickey," the Doctor said. "Now go! Go! Go!" The Doctor closed the mirror-door behind Mickey and Rose. "Katelyn can you-"
"Me?" I asked. He wanted me to go in Reinette's mind?
"You're…" the Doctor hesitated. "You're telepathy is stronger than mine," he admitted.
"It is?" I asked. The Doctor only nodded. "Ok, that's a conversation for another time. Go." I made a shooing motion, and the Doctor disappeared through the mirror-door. Turned back to Reinette. "Reinette, I need to find out what they're looking for." I raised my hands to either side of her face. Stronger telepathy had nothing on experience, and I had never done this before. Oh well, just another trial by fire. "This won't hurt," I promised.
I pressed my fingers to Reinette's temples and pressed my mind into hers. It was… a weird feeling to be out of your mind and in another's. I imagined myself a body, because I had to in order to move around. Reinette's thoughts were a maelstrom of colors around me, only every so often coalescing into something solid enough to make out. I closed my metaphorical eyes.
"Fireplace woman, you are inside my mind," Reinette breathed.
"It's a bit chaotic," I said, pushing toward the back of her thoughts, were I thought her memories would be.
"You are in my memories. You walk among them," she said.
"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it," I said, the exact sentence I'd heard the Doctor say the two times I'd watched him do this. "I won't look. Like that one." Distantly, I felt my cheeks heat up. "You might want to clo-" I swallowed hard and made a conscious effort to look away from the… 'memory'. "Reinette, please, I have to concentrate." She giggled, but the doors closed.
"To walk among the memories of another living soul. Do you ever get used to this?"she asked. There, just to the left of her most recent memories, was something that was not made of either of us.
"I've never done it before," I said.
"How can you resist?" Reinette asked.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation," Reinette teased. "How promising."
"No, that's their question," I corrected, purposefully ignoring her tone. "You're twenty three and for some reason, that means you're not old enough." Reinette flinched suddenly, and I pressed my fingers tighter. Technically, I'd found what I needed, but getting out was just as complicated as getting in. I might have bumped something. "Sorry, I think that was some old memories reawakening. Must be a side effect."
"So many holes," Reinette whispered.
"It'll pass," I promised, distracted by making sure I didn't bump anything else. "Stay with me."
"Oh, Katelyn," Reinette whispered. I tore my hands from her face and opened my eyes, uncaring of the awful feeling of being ripped from her mind. Reinette's eyes were open and earnest in a way that kept me from backing away. "Useless?" she asked. "Alone? Wrong? How can you see yourself like that? Oh, but Katelyn, you are wonderful."
"I'm- How did you do that?" I whispered. How had I not noticed? How had she gotten through walls even trained and aggressive telepaths could not?
"A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction," Reinette explained softly. She reached out and grabbed my hands. "Oh, Katelyn. My lonely angel. Dance with me."
"I-I have to go back," I protested. "The-the Doctor-"
"He can wait. Dance with me," Reinette repeated, leaning closer.
"Th-he King," I tried. Reinette smiled and started tugging on my hands. I followed, despite not really wanting to.
"He can wait too," Reinette said.
"I can't go out there, please," I whispered. "I'm awful at parties."
"There comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little girl must learn how to dance," Reinette whispered. I didn't bother to correct her on my species or my dancing, because I knew there was no way to persuade her. I just let her lead me away.
Halfway to the ballroom, I shot Rose a text saying what the droids were looking for.
...
"Found her!" Rose said, walking back into the room with the TARDIS and the Doctor and Mickey, dragging Katelyn along behind her. "Doctor! She was at a party," Rose added.
Katelyn giggled. The Doctor looked up from the computer he was working on, and looked beyond confused.
"Go on, pull the other one," he said.
"I'm serious, look at her!" Rose said, pushing Katelyn to stand in front of him. She was a bit wobbly on her feet, and grinning like an absolute loon.
"Doctor!" Katelyn slurred. "Rose est un trésor et un de mes meilleurs amis!"
"And she's stuck on French," Rose added. The Doctor laughed. "What did she just say?"
"That you're a treasure and one of her best friends," the Doctor translated. All true, he had to agree. "Vous n'avez rien de gentil à dire sur moi?" he asked Katelyn. Don't have anything nice to say about me? She looked very thoughtful as she sat down on the nearest flat surface, but said nothing. Good, that would keep a clearly drunk Katelyn occupied for a few minutes.
"Did you figure out why they're scanning her age?" Rose asked.
"This ship is thirty seven years old," the Doctor explained. The computer had been really helpful once the clockwork droids had run off. "They think that when Reinette is thirty seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. That's what they're missing, command circuit. This ship needs a brain."
"Why hers?" Rose asked. The Doctor shrugged.
"The brain is compatible," one of the droids said.
"Mickey!" the Doctor scolded. Said human scrambled to flip the repair droid's off switch back to the 'off' position.
"Sorry!" Mickey said. "Katelyn's distracting." The Doctor looked over to where Katelyn was now leaning heavily on the TARDIS and spouting endless praises at her. The Doctor fought a smile. He should have known Katelyn was a sappy drunk.
"Why didn't they just open a time window to when Reinette was thirty seven?" Rose asked.
"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century," the Doctor said. He flipped what he thought was the off switch for the windows, but the windows did not close. "Trial and error after that. The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"
"Champion du temps!" Katelyn declared, as a bell rang.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
"Well, Katelyn said 'time's champion', for some reason, but I don't know about that bell," the Doctor said. "Incoming message?"
"From who?" Mickey asked.
"Report from the field. One of them must still be out there with Reinette!" the Doctor realized. Katelyn giggled at the name, too drunk to realize the situation was serious. "That's why I can't close the windows. There's an override."
The droid off switch moved itself to on again, despite Mickey's scrambling to keep it on 'off'. It wouldn't budge after that.
"Right. Many things about this are not good," the Doctor said. "Message from one of your little friends?" he asked the droid in the corner. "Anything interesting?"
"She is complete. It begins," it declared, before teleporting away.
"What's happening?" Rose asked.
"One of them must have found the right time window," the Doctor said. "Now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head." He started pacing. "Right, right, ok. Rose, go back to that music room window we found. Reinette should be about 32 there. Warn her." Rose nodded and ran off. The Doctor turned to Mickey. "In the TARDIS, in the medbay, fourth cabinet from the door, you'll find a box labeled 'detox 6'." He looked over to where Katelyn had now seated herself on the floor, staring at the opposite wall as if it were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. "Bring me a syringe."
...
I woke up to the sound of screams, a mild headache, and a mouth that tasted vaguely of almonds. My memory got fuzzy somewhere around my third glass of wine, but I could just remember Rose showing up and dragging me away from the party. Oh! That was the almonds! For some reason detox 6 made everything taste like almonds to me.
I sat up on the metal grating, and realized exactly when I was. The screams were from the time window, the right one, the one where Reinette was 37.
I shot to my feet, which was a stupid and very dizzying decision. Luckily Rose happened to be right there to catch me.
"You found it, then?" she asked the Doctor.
"They knew we were coming," he said, scrambling around. "They blocked it off."
I could see the ballroom through another mirror-window, French noble being pushed around by the repair droids. I let go of Rose and went to find Arthur.
"I don't get it," I heard Rose say. "How come they got in there?"
"They teleported. You saw them," the Doctor said. "As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick."
"Well, we'll go in the TARDIS!" Rose said. I grabbed Arthur's reigns and guided him back into the room.
"We can't use the TARDIS. We're part of events now!" the Doctor said.
"Well, can't we just smash through?" Mickey said.
"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck," the Doctor said.
"We don't have a truck," Mickey said, unnecessarily.
"I know we don't have a truck!" the Doctor shouted.
"We have a horse," I offered. The Doctor paused in his frenzied running, eyes going wide.
"No," he said. "Smash the glass, smash the time window. There'd be no way back."
"Then I'm going," I said firmly, not looking away from the portrait.
"You are not-"
"Don't go getting all emotional. It's logistics, Doctor. Only one of us can fly a TARDIS, and it's not any of us humans." With strength I didn't know I had, I swung myself up onto Arthur's back. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but breaking the time window would remove this ship from 'established event' would it not?"
The Doctor said nothing, clearly not willing to encourage me. Jokes on him, because his silence told me all I needed to know.
"Could everyone just calm down?" came Reinette's voice from the ballroom portrait in front of my. "Please."
"See you on the other side," I said.
I ignored the others' shouts of protest, stepped Arthur back, and urged him forward. I only knew the absolute basics of riding a horse, which meant I was holding on for dear life with arms and legs. I probably looked significantly less cool than the Doctor would have smashing through that window, especially when I slid from Arthur with exactly no grace and barely managed to land on my feet.
"Madame de Pompadour," I said shakily. "You look younger every day."
"What the hell is going on?" Louis XV demanded. I ignored him and just walked over to Reinette.
"Oh. This is my lover, the King of France," she said.
"Your Majesty." I curtsied between steps. "Don't mind me. I'm just here to fix the clock."
I ripped the mask off the nearest android, the same one from Reinette's childhood. It pointed its blade at my throat. And it was at that moment I really wished I'd nicked the sonic.
"Oh, leave it. It's over," I said, glancing at the mirror I'd broken. "Talk about seven years bad luck. I broke the link. There's no way back." The android had no face, but I could still see its expression when it looked at the wall and saw I wasn't lying. It pressed its wrist a few times, but the teleport didn't work. "You don't have the parts," I sneered. "How many ticks left in that clockwork heart, hm?"
The androids all wound down, bending over with the lack of power. One of them fell backwards and broke apart. I reached down and helped Reinette to her feet.
"You all right?" I asked.
"What's happened to them?" she asked.
"They've stopped," I said with a shrug. "They've lost. They have no purpose now."
...
I'd been shooed out of the party by the sheer scandal of the fact that I was wearing pants, which was fine with me. Curled up in a bay window staring out at the stars was a much better way to spend my time.
How long would it take the Doctor to get here? Theoretically, he could have left as soon as I'd broken the window. Not that that would help his accuracy in any way. I could only hope he wouldn't be a century off. Although, I suppose if he'd been a century off, he'd get another shot at actually finding me.
"I have often wished to see those stars a little closer," Reinette said. I turned from the stars and watched her walk over to me. She passed me a glass of wine. "Just as you have, I think."
"We really spend more time on other planets than on stars," I said. "Although, there are stars cold enough to touch. I keep meaning to ask the Doctor to take me to one."
"Is 'the Doctor' the true name of Fireplace Man?" Reinette asked.
"It's the one he uses," I said.
"You are of many mysteries," Reinette said fondly. I smiled, but Reinette's face stayed serious. "In saving me, you trapped yourself. Did you know that would happen?"
"Yes," I said, "But it's just for a bit, sorry. The Doctor has… this ship. Assuming he remembers the year, he should be here any day to pick me up."
"You do not have faith in his arrival?" Reinette asked.
"Oh, he'll get here," I said. "But God only knows when."
"So, here you are," Reinette said, reaching to touch my cheek again. "My lonely angel, stuck on the slow path with me."
"Yep." I popped the P and raised my glass. "Here's to the slow path." We drank a toast, and I set my glass down next to me on the windowsill.
"It's a pity," Reinette said quietly. "I think I would've enjoyed the slow path."
I smiled at her gently, the first smile like that I'd smiled in… 10 months?
I remembered another time so like this, with another woman. The memory was… soft, but so strong I felt the ache even here and now. I couldn't see her face.
...
The Doctor was late, of course. I had expected that.
That's why I didn't argue at all when Reinette dug out an older dress of hers, and demanded I dress for the era. I was a little confused, however, when she insisted I get a title (which ended up being Louis' second official mistress, although he never once even looked at me), and be treated as such by the other occupants of Versailles. I was a lot confused when not one person argued with that. When I said as much to Reinette, she stared like I was from another planet.
"How is it you are the smartest woman I know, yet you fail to understand people?" she asked. "All who were at that ball know you saved our lives. What fools would they be to deny you?"
I had kissed her then, because I could and I wanted to and she made a good point. She seemed happy enough with that scenario.
It took a month of being stuck in 18th century France for that to start feeling a little weird.
It was 7 weeks into my… stay in Versailles when the memories started coming back in earnest. I was walking alone through the gardens, at night. It was something I'd started doing after the first month, when the corsets and the people and the expectations started getting too heavy. At night, no one but the guards walked around the grounds, and the guards didn't give two shits if I wore a corset or skirts or walked alone.
It was nice, having that freedom again. I didn't even realize how much freedom living on the TARDIS had given me, until I ripped it away by breaking the time window.
This particular night, I found a spot in the middle of the gardens, laid down, and enjoyed watching the stars sans light pollution.
And suddenly I wasn't in Pre-revolutionary France. I was back in Willow Brook, lying on my back, my head in someone's lap.
"So what's that one?" the woman asked, pointing.
"Alpha Centauri," I remembered saying. I also remember that I was lying out my ass. I had no fucking clue which star she'd even pointed at. "From here, it looks like just one star, but it's actually a binary system, so close together we can't tell them apart."
"Did you pick that answer just to be sappy?" the woman asked. I hummed, turning and hiding my face in her stomach.
"If I say yes, will I win a kiss?"
I broke off whatever I'd had with Reinette the next day. She seemed to understand. After all, a passing fancy about someone you've met three times is one thing, but living with them? That was another thing entirely. We stayed good friends.
The memories kept trickling in, small and large, but never the woman's name, never her face, and never why I loved her so much. She seemed to be everywhere. My earliest to my last memories of my other world. So many holidays, and vacations, and school days, and weekends. There was nowhere you could turn in my mind and not find her.
Well, until you looked at the last ten months. The months I'd spent in this universe. Then she was gone.
...
It was six months when the Doctor finally came to get me. The day after my 20th birthday, actually. Reinette and I were sharing lunch in the garden, and I was telling her the story of a coup Team TARDIS had supported. It had happened only a week before School Reunion, on a planet just called "O". I was halfway through describing what an ass the queen we were helping deposs was when I heard it.
"And this woman had the gall, the AUDACITY-" I ignored it at first. I thought I was imagining it. "-to look me in the eyes-" But the wheezing-groaning was getting louder. "-and… say…" My voice trailed off when I heard the thump that came with a landed TARDIS.
I wasn't even aware of what plane of reality I was on until Reinette reached over the table and grabbed my hands. "Katelyn?"
"He's here," I whispered, because my voice refused to go any louder. I could feel the faintest impression of the Doctor's mind reaching toward me, trying to find out where I was. On instinct, I looked in his general direction. Reinette followed my gaze.
"Then go," she said. I didn't move. "You have been waiting for months. What is holding you?"
I'm remembering here, I couldn't say. She came back. What if that all stops?
"I don't want to leave you," I said instead. It wasn't a lie. I didn't want to lose anyone else. I didn't want to abandon another friend to an uncaring world. Not while I could keep them safe.
Reinette shook her head. "You have stardust in your soul, Katelyn Laurin," she said. "Keeping you here would kill you."
"Come with us," I said, standing and pulling her to her feet. "All of time and space." Reinette smiled a smile so forlorn, I wanted to scream. There was nothing I could do. Again. Finch had been right. There were so many goodbyes.
"If you had asked me six months ago, I would have gone with you running and never looked back," Reinette admitted. "Today, I can only tell you I belong in this time and place." She dropped my hands. "You have told me so many stories of preserving history. I am history. I cannot go with you, and I know some part of you knows that."
Farewells are like ripping off a bandaid. If you try to do it slowly, it may hurt less, but it will hurt for longer. It's better to tear it from your skin, for the pain to be sharp, but fade quickly.
I whispered a goodbye and ran away. Because that's just what I did now. Always running. Always moving on.
...
The Doctor was the first one back to the TARDIS. Really, Katelyn knew they were coming, why'd she run off and try to meet them?
Unless Madame de Pompadour was lying, of course. After all, six months? There was no way he'd missed by that much. No matter what Rose said, it wasn't his fault he'd landed a year out that one time. It was the TARDIS. Obviously, she'd bumped the coordinates, for a reason he could never quite figure out. But the TARDIS loved Katelyn. There was no way she'd let him lose Katelyn for six whole months. Reinette had to be lying.
Not that Reinette had seemed the kind to lie, but she had seemed rather distraught. Or maybe annoyed was the better word? Something about Katelyn leaving without a proper goodbye.
He didn't want to think about where she might have picked that up.
Anyway, the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey had split up to search Versailles for Katelyn, since she also had disappeared from the telepathic field and he could no longer track her. Although, the slightly cracked TARDIS doors in front of the Doctor gave him a good idea where Katelyn might have gone.
"There you are!" he said before he'd actually seen if she'd gotten in there. "Honestly, if you knew we were coming-" The TARDIS hummed worry, which stopped the Doctor in his tracks. It was not a good thing when she worried in Katelyn's general direction.
That was certainly Katelyn Laurin up by the console, but with the longer hair (nearly over her shoulders. Had it really been six months?) and period dress, he almost couldn't tell. And why was she looking at him like that? All… angry and sad and broken. He hadn't seen her like that in months.
"Erika Kumar," Katelyn said.
"Sorry?" the Doctor responded. He didn't know any Erika Kumars, he was certain. It was a brilliant name. He'd remember.
"Erika Kumar," Katelyn repeated. "My fiance."
"What?" the Doctor asked quietly. Of all the things he'd thought Katelyn might say, that hadn't even graced the 'least likely' list.
"We'd been dating for 6 years," Katelyn said. "Everyone thought we were too young, and God, we were only 18, but she wanted the commitment, and I think we'd been in love since we were children. We always said it was just that we were broke and couldn't afford rings, then she surprised me, on my birthday, two years ago, and proposed.
"I remembered that yesterday," Katelyn hissed. "How can you just forget your other half? How do you remember everything else, and not them?" The Doctor had never been happier that he didn't have to answer a rhetorical question, because what was he supposed to say to that?
"So I'm not being… complacent anymore," Katelyn continued. "I will not stand here and watch the only two people I have in this word dance around each other until one of them dies. I know why you're holding back, Doctor, and I won't allow it.
"Erika is gone-" Katelyn's voice cracked. "-and I can never get her back. But I wouldn't change one moment of our time together, not one breath. Because I know when the loneliness gets so heavy I can't breathe, I'll always have those memories to save me.
"You're choice, Doctor. Regret or memories." Then Katelyn turned and left the console room.
The Doctor was not a being easily made speechless. It was usually the effort of several people (or several pounds of force to the skull) to get him to shut up.
But what was he supposed to say to that?
(A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry this was a bit late. It was a chaotic fucking weekend.
Shoutout to user Bored411, who was posting winky faces next to Reinette's name in their reviews. How did you know?
Anyway, see you next week!)