Chapter 1 The One with the Stranger
Gooooood afternoon/morning/evening! Welcome to Into the Darkness, my new Doctor Who story! I hope you all enjoy this first chapter, mainly introducing Florence and a familiar face turns up... Yes, the chapter titles will all start with "The One with..." or some variation. Yes, I've been watching a lot of Friends. No, I am not sorry. Standard rules apply here: In do not own anything you recognise, that all belongs to the BCC.
Without further ado, let's go!
The twitch in Martin Bradshaw's eye became a constant as the incessant tapping of a pen against paper echoed in his head, adding to the dull throbbing that was already present. His thick grey eyebrows drew tightly together as a loud sigh accompanied the tapping, his hand clenched tightly around the handle of his coffee mug and he lifted it slowly to his chapped lips. He slurped it loudly to drown out the noise, and when he placed it back onto the countertop he noticed that it had ceased.
"Do you mind?" He narrowed his eyes and turned his head to the left to stare at the source of the voice, where that pretty brunette he saw working here occasionally sat twirling a pen around her fingers glaring at him, in front of her was a lined piece of paper half full with, presumably her own, blue penmanship. Martin glanced down briefly at it before slowly lifting his eyes to meet hers, he raised his eyebrows,
"Excuse me?" She scoffed and jotted down another word and finished off the sentence with a dot,
"I said, 'do you mind?' or has your constant slurping somehow impaired your hearing over the years, Martin?" Martin clenched his jaw and turned away, scowling down at his black coffee. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the insolent girl smirk triumphantly to herself and was seconds away from turning back around and telling her exactly where she could stick her smirk when one of the older waitresses in the cafe approached her from behind the bar and tapped her paper,
"Hey, stop being rude to the regulars! Shouldn't you be heading off to campus, missy? If I remember correctly you have a meeting at 10, do you not?" The younger of the two women sighed and began to pack away her papers into black leather backpack that sat on the stool separating the two,
"Yeah, yeah, sorry Marty! I'm heading off now Sally, keep your hair on." She smiled cheekily at the woman opposite her, revealing a set of straight pearly whites. "I'll be back at four, kay?" Sally smiled sweetly at her and swatted her with the rag in her hand,
"Shoo, shoo! Don't be late! No dawdling now, ya hear?!" The young lady blew a kiss as she pulled a jacket on and threw her bag onto her shoulders, pulling open the door and rushing off down the street and out of Martin's eyesight.
He let out an exasperated sigh and ground the heel of his hand against his forehead, Kids these days.
Florence closed her book and packed her notes away once her supervisor let her go for the weekend, thanking him for his time and the tea while leaving his office and making her way along the cold hallway of the old university building, smiling at her classmates as she passed them. The messy curls of her friend Sarah appeared directly to her left as she reached the automatic doors of the building, and the familiar babble that usually accompanied her soon followed,
"How dare Professor Becker give me five pages of notes to look at over the weekend! My chapter was near perfect, he said! How has it gotten worse in the last month?" She moaned, throwing her head back and causing Florence to pull her out the way of a sprinting first year making his way to his lecture. "I mean," She continued, oblivious to the near accident. "What if I was like you and had to work all weekend, not that I do but, y'know, he just did not take that into consideration…" Florence laughed,
"Calm down, Sare, just rehash the chapter!" Sarah gasped, and threw her arm out to stop Florence just as they reached the pavement,
"What?! Flo! I can't just 'rehash the chapter'! This was meant to be a helpful 'supervision meeting' and somehow that cold-hearted cretin has managed to ruin all chances that I have of getting sleep before I have to take that god-awful trip back to Durham to see those heathen twins!" Florence laughed again and continued walking through the throngs of students, dragging her friend along with her by the sleeve of her jacket,
"Come on, take a breath, I'm gonna be late for my shift. You can tell me more about what a travesty Becker has inflicted upon you over a drink, yeah?" They got to the busy junction and quickly ran across the road to grab the bus.
"Fine." Taylor conceded, tapping her oyster on the reader. "But you're buying!"
"Aren't I always?"
Having spent the journey talking about anything other than university work (namely the boredom Sarah would have to endure in Durham as well as the five hundred hour drive), by the time the two girls reached the independent cafe that Florence called her second home, she was glad to have a break from the chat. Breaking away from her friend, she changed into her uniform in the back room - a white button-up with the cafe logo sewn on the left breast with a maroon skirt. She pinned her name badge to the shirt and grabbed her notepad. Smiling that bright customer service smile perfected over the years, she walked into the main area of the cafe where Denise, one of the other waitresses, pointed her towards a booth at the end which was occupied by a single customer. After placing an order for Taylor, who had taken a seat at the bar and begrudgingly taken out her books to begin her adjustments to her dissertation, Florence made her way towards the booth.
"Hi there, can I get a drink while you have a look at our menu?" The man turned his head and looked up at her, blinking slowly, before a smile stretched across his handsome face,
"Oh I don't know, what do you recommend…" She noticed he was American, so her hope for a tidy tip went up, he leaned in to look at her name tag, "Flo." The way he said that god awful nickname made her feel like he was saying some sort of punchline to a joke she wasn't privy to, and she didn't like it.
"Um," She shook her head lightly and focused on doing her job, "well we have a really good mango cooler if you like sweet… fruity, refreshing… drinks."
He laughed at her, she didn't like that either.
"That sounds great, I'll have one of those, and a black coffee. Please. And no food, thank you." Florence nodded, jotting down his order and taking his menu from him, getting a good look at the vintage looking World War Two greatcoat he still wore despite the heat of the cafe,
"Um, we have a coat rack just in that corner if you're worried about, like, dirtying up your coat?" He shook his head and gave her a wink,
"Don't worry Flo. I never take this old thing off, I look way too good in it."
Florence blushed lightly and spun on her heel, going to punch his order into the system, Well he is way too friendly for his own good.
Captain Jack Harkness was an impulsive man. Don't be mistaken, he was in no way unfamiliar to this trait of his, he'd come accustomed to his impulsivity in the last century. This decision, however, may have been too impulsive even for him. He was following a lead to a certain fake health professional of his in London when he just couldn't help himself, the cafe called to him, and so did the idea of seeing an old friend of his before he was technically supposed to.
His reasoning was as such: timelines are fucked, especially hers. Was there any harm in casually ordering a refreshing fruity mango cooler in a cafe where a walking talking fucked up timeline worked? No. Well, yes probably, and he'd no doubt get it in the ear from both of them when it finally comes round to it. But it was a risk he was willing to take. He was good the previous few years with Rose, he never actually spoke to her, because that was different. He timed it perfectly and stopped spying on her a few months before her workplace went up with a bang.
Jack was going to drink his mango cooler and by god he was going to enjoy it. Also, it didn't count as flirting if he knew for certain that it would never happen.
"Don't worry, Flo. I never take this old thing off, I look way too good in it."
The smiley American frequented the cafe over the next couple of weeks, and Florence's Masters degree had come to an end with the submission of her final paper, meaning her shifts had doubled and she was forced to see the guy twice as much. She saw him and his constant World War Two cosplay at the same time every other day at 2:35 exactly, except on saturday mornings (her shift off) and sundays. He ordered the same thing every time, black coffee after black coffee, and never seemed to particularly enjoy them. From Florence's studying of his daily cafe schedule, she did notice that he paid particular attention to either her or his funky looking wrist strap every now and then. One afternoon in early May, he appeared a bit more dishevelled than usual and sporting a wicked looking cut on his forehead. He noticed her eyeing it when she came to take his order and poked at it with his finger,
"This? Yeah you should see the other guy, or girl, I'm not sure how their species goes about with that whole concept." He handed his menu to her without even looking at it, as always. "Binaries huh? Who needs em?" He smiled that charming smile, speaking about things that never got less confusing even after so many visits, so Florence just shook her head and smirked,
"Black coffee? Maybe a napkin for the blood?"
"If ya could Flo."
"Who was that?" Sarah demanded, peeking over her friend's shoulder to get another look at the handsome customer sitting in his usual booth, and Florence shrugged,
"I dunno, some guy." Sarah rolled her eyes,
"That is not just 'some guy'! Look at him!" She grabbed her friend's face in one hand and twisted her head to face the man's direction, watching him fiddle with his wrist strap and glance at his industrial backpack on the chair next to him. "He looks like a Greek God! You could cut glass with that jaw!" Florence looked again at the guy and saw he was smirking, and forced her head back to face Sarah,
"Alright, he's hot! He comes in like three times a week, it's not a big deal!" Sarah just twirled the straw of her smoothie coyly. "It's not! I don't even know his name! Plus he's way too cocky."
"Flo, I went home for two weeks! So give me some gossip on the hot World War Two general!" Florence smiled patiently at her friend and just ignored her, making her way back to the dirty tables and wiped away the mess from the late lunch customers.
"You can tell your friend it's Captain." Florence looked up quickly, her new best friend (according to Sarah, and unsurprisingly Sally) had leaned forward onto his elbows, resting his head on the knuckle of his right hand like some damn Rodin sculpture.
"Sorry?" She asked, moving towards him and resting her hip on the booth's seating opposite him.
"Your friend? The one staring at us." Florence saw he was correct, her friend was staring openly at the two, using a book propped up in front of her as a shield. "It's a Captain's coat, not a general."
"Who are you?"
"Does it matter?" It wasn't meant harshly, he was simply asking if it was important, so she shrugged,
"I dunno, I guess not." He drained his coffee with a wince and stood, flipping the casing of his wrist strap open and peering at whatever was on the screen.
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness." She smiled slightly at him, she raised her eyebrows a bit. "What?"
"Nothing!" She said quickly, trying not to upset him. "I just...well… I just wasn't expecting something so… official." The Captain laughed and began to pick up his backpack, looking ready to leave. Florence didn't know why but she felt like this was his way of saying goodbye for a while, "Well Captain Harkness, I'm Florence Jensson, not Flo, Florence. Nice to officially meet you."
He laughed again, this inside joke with himself was seriously getting on her nerves. He placed his hands on her shoulders and bent slightly to look her in the eyes, suddenly serious,
"Oh Florence Jensson, the pleasure is all mine, really." He brushed past her and headed to the door, and Florence watched him through the window as he crossed the road and disappeared round the corner, out of sight.
Florence shook her head and went back to confront her almost hysterical friend, who was bursting with excitement to ask about what just happened. Florence wasn't sure what to tell her, it was an innocent interaction, so why did she feel like something was about to go terribly pear shaped from here on out.
Florence woke up with a splitting headache for the fourth day in a row, as well as an uncontrollable urge to go and empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet. She felt great. It was the second shift she had to call in sick for and the guilt of bailing on Sally when she needed help consumed her, but the older woman insisted she have some time off when she almost fainted on her last shift.
She stumbled out of bed and shoved her feet into her fuzzy pink slippers before making her way into the kitchen to put the kettle on and hopefully alleviate the pounding in her head with a cup of tea. Rolling her eyes at the mess her roommates had left from their dinner the night before, she reached over and grabbed her mug as well as the milk from the fridge and leaned back on the table, holding her head in her hands and closed her eyes. The pounding was getting worse, she could feel pinpricks in the back of her eyes travelling down her whole body. Actually, her whole body was tingling. She felt like she was burning up, she opened her eyes.
Darkness.
She couldn't see anything. Her ears were ringing. They felt like when you're on a plane, and the altitude is so great that you feel as though your eardrums might burst from inside your head and out of your skull.
"Hello?"
Florence was scared. Point blank, she was terrified. Something was wrong with her, she held her hands up in front of her. She could see them.
"So, I'm not blind I'm literally… standing in darkness." She looked, left, right, down at her feet that seemed to be planted on some kind of pitch black flooring, she tried to step forward and found herself almost gliding across the darkness.
It was silent, but then she heard something. Murmuring. Voices overlapping, men, women, a mechanical voice occasionally coming through. Were there other people here?
"Hello! Anyone? Help!" She screamed into the void, her breathing erratic, "I can't see! Where am I?!" She rubbed her eyes and stumbled backwards and…
Straight into the kitchen counter of her dingy London flat, smacking her hip as she fell.
"What…" She ran her hands on the surface, holding herself up, trying to convince herself that she really was where she seemed to be, she wiped the tears that had made their way down her cheeks and jumped when the sound of the boiling kettle echoed through the flat.
Florence's headache was gone, but was replaced by an unsettling feeling that she had just been somewhere she was not meant to be.
Florence told no one about the episode she had had the week before, and when she went back to work she waltzed in like absolutely nothing was wrong. Everything was fine, normal. Except.. well except from the fact that she hadn't seen her mysterious Captain for six shifts now. Not that she was counting, she didn't keep looking over at the booth where he usually sat and wondering whether she was making a bigger deal of this than need be. Nope. Not at all.
"He came in last week, you know?" Sally interrupted her thoughts with a smile, "That strange man, with the nice smile. Came in asking about you, seems a little old for you though Florence I have to say, not that it's any of my business of course."
"What do you mean asking about me?"
"I mean asking about you silly, asked why you weren't in, and I told him you were sick and had been for two days now and he…" Sally paused, and Florence frowned,
"He what?"
"Well, he nodded and said 'yeah, that sounds about right' which frankly I don't quite get but, what can you do eh, he was off like a shot after that!" Florence nodded and hummed gently,
"Yeah, weird," It was weird, she felt as uneasy knowing that he'd been asking about her as she had been not knowing where he was. "I'm gonna… head off, Sal. I'll see you Thursday, yeah?" Sally winked at the young woman and waved her off. As Florence stepped out onto the busy street she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, shooting off a message to Sarah agreeing with some comment about her twin brothers ruining her peaceful holiday for her and grabbing a can of coke from the corner shop. She briefly glanced at the posters that lined the windows outside, noticing an advert for some supernatural nerd group LINDA. The pounding was back, which worried her, and she hoped to be home before she got to find out what happens if she was in public while visiting 'the bad place'.
Too late.
She turned the corner and blinked, and the next thing she knew the darkness surrounded her, it engulfed her and this time she couldn't move.
"Oh fuck off!" She screamed, what harm was it swearing when there was nobody there, "Help!" She was breathing heavily, and the voices were back, whispered conversations about the "vortex", "timestreams" and "pears" echoing. This time the pain grew worse, her hands were on fire, her ears felt like they were bleeding. She screamed until her voice was hoarse, trying to move her body in any direction until she suddenly felt herself fall forward onto her hands and knees.
"Florence!" A voice called from somewhere close to her. "Ouch! Must have been a rough one!"
End of chapter one! Please let me know what you think, reviews mean the world to me! I have a handful of chapters ready to go, so hopefully will be able to post on a regular basis!
I'm really excited for you guys to see where this story is heading, there's going to be romance, adventure, confusion, running, more confusion, even more running. The usual excitement.
See you for chapter two! xo