The Doctor left the TARDIS, closely followed by Rose, Mickey and myself and we proceeded to look around a dark, apparently disused room of a spaceship.
"It's a spaceship! Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!" Mickey said excitedly.
"Looks kind of abandoned... Anyone on board?" Rose asked us.
"Nah, nothing here. Well! Nothing dangerous. Well! Not that dangerous." The Doctor said before looking at the look I was giving him. "You know what, I'll just have a quick scan... in case there's anything dangerous." I nodded my head and we walked over to a console panel in the center of the room and started tapping at some buttons.
"So, what's the date? How far we gone?" Rose asked.
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take a few." I said before pulling on a switch and turning on the lights. The roof gradually opened into a window which showed a spectacular view of the stars outside. "Fifty-first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey! Two and a half galaxies!" I told him smiling as he moved to a porthole, gazing outside. I turned to the Doctor to see him rummaging around the control panel, picking up bits and pieces of presumably broken technology and looking unimpressed by everything.
"Mickey Smith, meet the universe. See anything you like?" Rose asked him.
"It's so realistic!" Mickey said and I shook my head at him.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here! Got a ton of repair work going on." The Doctor said, chucking pieces down casually before noting a screen with a diagram of the spaceship on it. Rose and Mickey joined us to look at him. "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... and we're not moving. So where's all that power going?" he asked.
"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked and I tweaked some knobs on the control panel for the life reading.
"Other than us there's no life readings on board." I told him.
"Well, we're in deep space; they didn't just nip out for a quick fag." Rose said.
"Nope, checked all the smoking pods." I told her. I took a deep breath and smelt something that drew my attention away from the screen and I looked around curiously.
"Can you smell that?" The Doctor asked.
"Yeah, someone's cooking." Rose said.
"Sunday roast, definitely!" Mickey said. I pressed a few more buttons and a door opened behind us. We walked through and saw part of the wall and floor with 18th century decor as well as a lit fireplace.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eighteenth century! French! Nice mantel." The Doctor said pulling out the sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the fireplace. "Not a hologram." he said bending down to examine it closely with me following his example. "Not even a reproduction, this actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double-sided, there's another room through there."
"There can't be, that's the outer hull of the ship, look." Rose said. I suddenly saw a young girl with long blonde hair, dressed in a nightgown, looking back at the Doctor and I.
"Hello!" The Doctor said happily.
"Hello..." the girl said giving us a strange look.
"What's your name?" The Doctor asked her.
"Reinette."
"Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?" I asked her.
"In my bedroom." she told us as if we should have known already.
"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?" I asked her again.
"Paris, of course!" she told us.
"Paris, right!" I said smiling at her.
"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, what are you doing in my fireplace?" she asked us.
"Oh, it's just a routine... fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?" The Doctor asked her.
"Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty seven." she told us.
"Right, lovely! One of my favorites... 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 told her.
"Night night!" I said waving.
"Goodnight Monsieur. Goodnight Mademoiselle." she said waving and we stood up.
"You said this was the fifty-first century." Mickey said looking at her.
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink." The Doctor told him.
"What's that?" Mickey asked him and I rolled my eyes.
"He has no idea. Just made it up. Didn't wanna say 'magic door'." I said smiling at him.
"And on the other side of the 'magic door' is France in 1727?" Rose asked us. The Doctor nodded and looked back at the fireplace before walking across the room, taking off his coat and throwing it in the corner.
"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too." The Doctor told her.
"She was speaking English, I heard her!" Mickey told us and Rose draped her arms around Mickey's neck as the Doctor walked back to me and the fireplace.
"That's the TARDIS - translates for ya." Rose told him.
"Even French?!" Mickey asked.
"Yep." Rose said smiling. The Doctor and I knelt to the side of the fireplace and we began to rotate, just like in a horror movie.
"Gotcha!" the Doctor said as we moved.
"Doctor! Ashlee!" Rose called to us as we turned. Once the fireplace had finished turning, we found ourselves standing in a dark and shadowy bedroom, with Reinette asleep. The ticking of her clock could be heard as we wandered around to the window. We looked outside to see a Paris skyline in the snow. We could hear the neigh of a horse and we heard a gasp and turned to see Reinette sitting up in bed, scared.
"It's okay! Don't scream! It's me, it's the fireplace man and woman. Look." The Doctor said walking over to a candle by her bed and lighting it with the sonic screwdriver, but she still looked startled.
"We were talking, just a moment ago. We were in your fireplace." I reminded her.
"Mademoiselle, that was weeks ago. That was months!" she told me.
"Really?" I asked her looking at the Doctor.
"Oh." the Doctor said walking back to the fireplace and knocked on it, listening to the sound it produced. "Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in."
"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Reinette asked us. I sat on her bed and was about to tell her who we were but the Doctor interrupted me.
"Okay, that's scary..." the Doctor told us.
"You're scared of a broken clock?" She asked him and I looked at her confused before looking to the Doctor scared.
"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit. 'Cause you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room..." The Doctor paused and turned to us and I could see the glass of the face of the broken clock, shattered.
"Then what's ticking?" I asked as the ticking grew louder. Reinette held onto me and I hugged her close and got comfortable on her bed with her while the Doctor barely moved, speaking slowly and quietly.
"'Cause you see that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. Size of a man." the doctor told him.
"What is it?" Reinette asked him, scared. The doctor checked behind the curtains, but found nothing.
"Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticks and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do: break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two?" The Doctor asked pausing. "You might start to wonder if you're really alone." He moved towards us and crouched down. "Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge." he told us peering underneath the bed before turning on the sonic screwdriver to scan under the bed, but he was smacked backwards. Reinette gasped and the Doctor scrambled back to look underneath the bed. The Doctor slowly resumed crouching, looking behind us with wide eyes. "Don't look round. You two stay exactly where you are." he told us standing up and looking behind us. He glanced at the young girl, then at the thing behind us, then back at Reinette, discomforted by something. "Hold still, let me look..." He bent down and grasped Reinette's head between his hands, staring intently into her eyes with a disturbed expression before looking back at the figure. "You've been scanning her brain!" He said pausing and looking once more into her eyes before standing up straight again. "What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"
"I don't understand... it wants me?!" Reinette asked looking at the creature behind us. I followed her gaze to see something disguised as a French aristocrat. "You want me?" she asked it. The figure's head twitched at one side and it spoke in a distinctly mechanical voice.
"Not yet. You are incomplete." it said.
"'Incomplete'? What's that mean, 'incomplete'?" I asked it but the droid didn't answer me, but continued staring at Reinette. "You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, 'incomplete'?" The droid again didn't answer, instead walked in jerky movements around the bed and faced the Doctor. The droid extended an arm and a menacing looking blade slide out near the Doctor's face. He tilted his head away and I jumped of the bed and pointed a gun at it.
"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, be careful!" she said.
"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares." The Doctor said told her backing away with the droid pursuing. It swiped at us and we jumped back, reaching the fireplace. "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" he asked as the droid slashed at us again but we jumped aside making the blade hit the mantel, getting stuck.
"What do monsters have nightmares about?" she asked us. as the droid struggled.
"Us, ha!" we said together as the fireplace turned back to the future.
"Doctor! Ashlee!" Rose said in surprise as the fireplace finished turning. The Doctor ran and grabbed a gun-like object from the wall, using it to spray ice at the droid. It convulsed in a last, vain attempt to free itself before freezing completely.
"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey said as the Doctor calmly threw the 'gun' to Rose, who caught it.
"Fire extinguisher." the Doctor told him.
"Do you really think this one would use a gun?" I asked him.
"Where did that thing come from?" Rose asked us.
"Here." I told her.
"So why is it dressed like that?" She asked.
"Field trip to France, some kind of basic camouflage protocol - nice needlework! Shame about the face." The Doctor said as he walked back to the droid, squinting at it. He pulled off the wig to reveal its actual head - an ornate clockwork mechanism, covered with a clear plastic egg shape. I smiled at it and couldn't help but admire it with near giddy excitement. "Oh, you are beautiful!" He said putting on his glasses. "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 us." we told it. It suddenly creaked back into life and teleported away. the Doctor stuffed the screwdriver back into his pocket, and we walking swiftly back to the fireplace and preparing to go back to the other side.
"Short range teleport, can't have got far. Could still be on board -" I told them.
"What is it?" Rose asked us.
"Don't go looking for it!" The Doctor ordered pointing to the two of them.
"Where're you going?" Rose asked.
"Back in a sec." The Doctor told her and we turned the fireplace, returning to Reinette's side. The Doctor and I got off the part that turned, but the room looked very different from when we were last here. It was now red and gold and held things that weren't here before such as a harp.
"Reinette... Just checking you're okay..." The Doctor called to her as we walked into the room. He idly brushed a hand across the strings of the harp as we continued looking around the room. Someone caught our attention by clearing their throat. "Oh! Hello!" he said grinning and putting away his glasses.
"We were just looking for Reinette. This is still her room, isn't it? We've been away, not really sure how long." I told her.
"Reinette! We're ready to go!" We heard a woman call out.
"Go to the carriage, mother, I will join you there." the woman in front of us called out to her and I smiled.
"It is customary, I think, to have imaginary friends only during one's childhood. You two are to be congratulated on your persistence." she told us teasingly.
"Reinette...!" The Doctor said amazed and she smiled at her. "Well. Goodness, how you've grown." he said looking her up and down.
"Eyes front soldier." I told him and he looked sheepishly to me.
"You two do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you." she told us.
"Right... yes... sorry. Um... umm... umm.. listen, lovely to catch up, but er, better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with strange people, do we?" The Doctor said, unsure of what to say.
"Strange? How could you be strangers to me? I have known you since I was seven years old." she told him.
"Yeah... I suppose you have." he said with a small laugh.
"We came the quick route." I said getting between them. Reinette touched my arm, examining me.
"Well, you seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real." she told us.
"You never want to listen to reason." I told her.
"Mademoiselle! Your mother grows impatient." a man called to her.
"A moment!" she called to him before looking back at us. "So many questions. So little time." she said and then she got a look in her eyes and I pushed her back from us.
"Sorry. I'm an armed jealous wife." I told her and her eyes widened a bit.
"Mademoiselle Poisson!" the man from before called to her. she quickly left, grabbing her purse from her dressing table as she went. We watched her leave and a moment later a servant came to the door but stopped as he noticed us.
"Poisson?" The Doctor asked him.
"Penny in the air..." I said waiting for him to catch up.
"Reinette Poisson?" he asked again.
"...and the penny drops." I said looking at him.
"No..." he said looking at me and I nodded. "No, no, no, no, no way, Reinette Poisson?! Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? "Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan? Fantastic gardener!" The Doctor said and we moved back to the fireplace.
"Who the hell are you?!" The servant asked us.
"I'm the Doctor. This is the Hunter. And we just saved Madame de Pompadour!" The Doctor said triggering for our return to my sister.
"Rose!" I called out but she didn't come around the corner or out the TARDIS. "Mickey?" I called again.
"Every time, every time, it's rule one - Don't wander off! I tell them, I do, rule one! There could be anything on this ship!" he said as we went to find them. We turned the corner and was met by a white horse in the middle of the corridor. I opened my mouth to say something but I was speechless as the horse whined at us.
He turns the corner and is met by a white horse in the middle of the corridor. The Doctor blinks while the horse whinnies.
The Doctor and I kept crossing junction after junction of corridors, looking completely lost.
"Rose? Mickey?" We kept calling with the horse following us. The Doctor and I stopped walking down the corridor before turning to the horse.
"Will you stop following us? I'm not your parents!" I shouted at it. the horse nosed us and I turned to the Doctor to see he'd walked away from me to a set of white, French double door.
"So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?" The Doctor asked opening the doors. We walked onto a grassy courtyard in Versailles and saw a familiar figure. I pointed her out to the Doctor and he smiled when he saw her. I watched him walk to a low wall with a pillar and an urn on top of it. I watched him watch her before joining him.
"Oh, Catherine, you are too wicked!" Reinette said to her friend before suddenly turning around towards us. We ducked down behind the pillar just in time to be hidden from her.
"Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateneux is ill and close to death." Catherine told her friend and we straightened up and leaned on the wall to watch her again.
"Yes. I am devastated." Reinette said before laughing.
"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable." Catherine said joining her laughter. "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. And I look forward to meeting him." Reinette told her friend and Catherine laughed again. Reinette turned back to us and we hid again.
"Is something wrong, my dear?" her friend asked.
"Not wrong, no." Reinette told her and we stood to watch her again.
"Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions." Catherine told her.
"Every woman in Paris shares them." Reinette told him.
"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball?" Catherine asked her friend and we left the way we came and the horse was still there.
"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" We heard Mickey ask who I only assumed was Rose.
"King of France." The Doctor said as we walked up to them.
"Oh, here's trouble. What you two been up to?" Rose asked us.
"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat... picked a fight with a clockwork man..." The Doctor ticked off the list as the horse whined from around the corner.
"Oh, and we met a horse." I told her smiling as the horse trotted into view.
"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked us.
"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective." The Doctor told him as we looked through the window at the King. "See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history. Hers. Time window... 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 him.
"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived." I told her, trying to hide the slight hate I had for her right now.
"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Rose asked us.
"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress." I told her.
"Oh, I get it. Camilla." Rose said and her and Mickey laughed.
"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace... even her own title - Madame de Pompadour." The Doctor said as Reinette stood before the mirror, preening herself.
"Queen must have loved her..." Rose said.
"Oh, she did. They get on very well." I told her.
"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked me.
"France. It's a different planet." I told him. We heard ticking from the other side of the mirror but we hadn't heard them talking earlier. I looked at the clock to see the face had been shattered. We watched Reinette turn to a figure facing the wall before it turned to face her, revealing itself to be one of the clockwork droids. The Doctor grabbed the fire extinguisher from Mickey and swung the mirror around so he can step back into Reinette's world. Out of mine.
"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" He asked her.
"Fireplace man!" Reinette asked surprised. The Doctor stepped past her and sprayed the droid with the fire extinguisher until it was immobile. He threw the extinguisher back to Mickey and we stepped into her world again. The droid started to click and whirr loudly.
"What's it doing?" Mickey asked us.
"Switching back on. Melting the ice." The Doctor told him.
"And then what?" Mickey asked and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Then it gives us all hugs and puppies. What do you think Mickey, it kills everyone in the room." I told him and the clockwork droid's arm shot out towards the Doctor's throat and he jumped back and backed towards Reinette and I.
"Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" The Doctor asked me. "Who are you? Identify yourself." The droid said nothing to us. "Order it to answer me." he told Reinette.
"Why should it listen to me?" she asked him.
"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it." He told her and I saw Rose looking at me. I ignored her.
"Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you." Reinette ordered and the droid lowered its arm.
"I am repair droid seven." it said.
"So what happened to the ship, then? There was a lot of damage." I told it.
"Ion storm, eighty two percent systems failure." it said.
"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" I asked.
"We did not have the parts." it said and I looked at it confused.
"Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts." Mickey asked laughing.
"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" The Doctor asked it.
"We did not have the parts." The droid said and my eyes widened.
"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" The Doctor asked it again.
"We did not have the parts." it said.
"Fifty people don't just disappear! Where-?" The Doctor paused.
"They didn't have the parts, so they used the crew." I said.
"The crew?" Mickey asked.
"We found a camera with an eye in it... and there was a heart... wired in to machinery." Rose told us.
"It was just what it was programmed to. 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?" I asked them.
"Someone cooking..." Rose said.
"Flesh plus heat equals barbeque." I told them.
"But what are you doing here? 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?" The Doctor asked it.
"One more part is required." The droid's head jerked towards Reinette and we all turned to stare at her.
"Then why haven't you taken it?" I asked the droid.
"She is incomplete." it said.
"What... so, that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet'?" the Doctor asked it.
"Why her?" Rose asked the one question we'd yet to ask it. "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!" Reinnette told it.
"We are the same." The droid repeated.
"Get out of here! Get out of here this instance!" Reinnette ordered.
"Reinette, no." the Doctor said but it was too late. The Droid activated a teleport and disappeared.
"It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does." I told her.
"Arthur?" Rose asked me.
"Yes, it's a good name for a horse." I told her.
"No, you're not keeping the horse!" She told me like Mum would.
"We let you keep Mickey! Now go, go, go!" I told her and they ran back through the mirror portal while the Doctor and I stayed behind. I closed the portal behind them as the Doctor worked with Reinette.
"Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for, there's only one way I can do that. Won't hurt a bit." he told her. I saw her nod her assent and the Doctor placed his fingers on her temples and closed his eyes and he followed suite. I closed my eyes and entered his mind telepathically so I could learn what he learned.
"Fireplace man... you are inside my mind." She said shocked.
"Oh dear, Reinette. You've had some cowboys in here." he said. Her mind was in disarray, like the ship.
"You are in my memories. You walk among them." She said.
"If there's anything you don't want us to see, just imagine a door and close it. We won't look." I told her.
"Ooh.. actually... there's a door just there." the Doctor said and I saw the door and more popped up quickly. "You might want to clo- ooh. Actually, several."
"To walk among the memories of another living soul... do you ever get used to this?" Reinette asked us.
"We don't make a habit of it." he told her.
"How can you resist?" she asked him.
"What age are you?" he asked her.
"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising." she flirted.
"I'm still armed and still get jealous very easily." I told her.
"Not my question - theirs. You're twenty-three and for some reason, that means you're not old enough." he said. "Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect."
"Oh, such a lonely childhood..." she said.
"It'll pass. Stay with us." I told her.
"Oh, Doctor, Hunter. So lonely. So very, very alone. Until you found each other." she said and I gave a confused.
"What do you mean, alone? You've never been alone in your life-" My eyes snapped open. "When did you start calling us 'Doctor' or 'Hunter'? I asked.
"Such lonely children. Lonely then before you found each other but lonelier now, even together." she said, opening her eye to look at us. "How can you bear it?"
"How did you do that?" The Doctor asked her backing away from her.
"A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction..." she said. I stepped up to the Doctor and held his hand. He gripped my hand tightly. We were vulnerable for the first time in a long time. "Oh, Doctor. y lonely Doctor. Dance with me." she said stepping up to us.
"I can't." he told her.
"Dance with me." she ordered.
"This is the night you dance with the King and I'm married." he told her.
Then, we shall make them jealous." she told him.
"I can't." He told her once more.
"Doctor... Doctor who? Hunter who?" she said sadly. "It's more than just a secret, isn't it?" she asked us.
"What did you see?" I asked her.
"That there comes a time, Time Lord, Time Lady, when every lonely child must learn how to dance." she said, smiling and taking our hands and leading us away from the portal. She led us to the ballroom before letting go of my hand and taking the Doctor onto the dance floor. I watched them dance and laugh during their dance.
"My Lady?" I turned to see the King standing next to me and I turned my attention back to my husband and the King's future mistress. "Are you familiar with that man?" he asked me.
"You could say that." I said to him.
"Who is he?" he asked me.
"Are you worried about something your majesty?" I asked him.
"Why should I be? I am the King." he told me.
"While my husband isn't a King he is a Lord and we are the last of our lines." I told him.
"Your husband?" he asked me and I nodded to him. He seemed to relax.
"So he is taken?" he asked.
"As are you but you are taking on a mistress." I reminded him. He nodded to me and we went back to watching our lovers. "Are you okay with her dancing with him?" I asked turning back to him.
"I have no say in what she can and can't do." he said looking at me. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"But you are just as jealous as I am, even though she can never be your wife." he smiled at me and nodded.
"If their goal is to make us jealous, why don't we return the favor?" he asked holding out his hand for mine. I nodded and took it and we made our way to the dance floor and danced. Eventually a new song came on and we all switched partners. I was surprised to see the Doctor as my partner, I hadn't noticed we'd gotten that close to the dancing couple.
"I have a feeling you're not to happy with me." he told me.
"I have no issue with you." I told him.
"But you'e not happy." he said and I shook my head.
"I am happy. I'm with you again. I'm traveling. That's all I want." I told him and he smiled at me.
"But with all the attention I'm paying to Reinette..." he said breaking off.
"It doesn't matter." I told him. He leaned down and kissed me deeply.
"It matters to me." he said.
"Let's go. I have a feeling that my sister and her boyfriend are in trouble." I told him smiling and we left the dance floor.
As we walked in the ship we heard Rose talking and we instantly knew she was trying to buy her and Mickey time. I took off the Doctor's tie and wrapped it around his head and tightened it slightly. We grabbed a martini cup from his pocket and some liquid from mine and poured it into the glass.
"Ready?" I whispered to him and he nodded with a smile. He kissed me lightly before we started singing off key and banging against the ship.
"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night..." we sang and I laughed at him.
"They called them the- they called them the- the-" Rose stuttered as we staggered into the room, dancing with each other. I was wearing sunglasses and his tie was flying between us.
"And still have begged for moooore... I could've spread my wings and done a thou-" we sang together before he broke off.
"Have you met the French? My... GOD, they know how to party." The Doctor said with a goofy grin on his face. He spun me around and set me on the controls with the martini glass in my hand.
"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm and Predator." Rose said.
"Oh, you sound just like Mum." I told her.
"What've you been doing? Where've you been?!" Rose asked us.
"Well... among other things, I think we've just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early." The Doctor told her. "Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before! Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are GOOD. Oh ho ho ho ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so THICK. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad." The Doctor said walking to me. He stood right in front of me and kissed me hard. I kissed him back just as hard.
"Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for?" I asked them breaking apart from the Doctor. "Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it?" I asked staring one of the droids mockingly in the face, leaning into the Doctor. "Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason - God knows what - only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."
"The brain is compatible." The droid said.
"Compatible?" The Doctor said taking the martini glass from me. "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." he removed the droid's mask and poured the wine into the clockwork inside the head of the droid. He replaced the mask and pat it on the head. The droid winded down and I saw Rose lean back in relief.
"Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." I said lifting my sunglasses from my face to my head. I leaned back and deactivated the rest using a lever near me.
"Right, you two, that's enough lying about..." the Doctor said releasing Rose and Mickey quickly with the sonic screwdriver, and they slid down the tables onto the floor. "Time we got the rest of the ship turned off."
"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked us as the Doctor fixed his tie.
"Yep. Safe. Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down." The Doctor said feeling his pockets. "Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs?" he asked.
"You had them a minute ago, you were using them as castanets." I reminded him. "Did you leave them at the party?" I asked him.
"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Rose asked us.
"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they'll be lucky to hit the right century. Trial and error after that." The Doctor told her as I tried to operate the computer.
"The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?" I asked trying to close the windows. Suddenly there was an ominous pinging sound.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
"I don't know... incoming message?" I guessed.
"From who?" Mickey asked. I looked at one of the screens as a message came through.
"Report from the field... one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That's why I can't close the windows, there's an override!" I told them. Behind us, one of the clockwork droids sprang to life with a whirring sound and he expelled the wine the Doctor poured into his mechanics over the Doctor's shoe.
"Well, that was a bit clever." The Doctor said looking at his shoe. The rest of the droids sprang to life, filling the room with ticking. I pulled out two guns and pointed them at anything that wasn't human or Time Lord. "Right... many things about this are not good." Suddenly the pinging sound went off again.
"Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?" I asked them.
"She is complete. It begins." A droid said and they all teleported out.
"What's happening?" Rose asked.
"One of them found the right time window, and now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head." I said reading the screen. I did my best to locate the time window with the computer and Rose's help while the Doctor and Mickey looked around the ship physically.
"What happened to you?" she asked me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked her.
"When we were in France you were acting different than you are now." she told me.
"The Doctor and I had a marriage argument that a King and Reinette helped us fix." I told her. Found it. "They found it. Let's go." I told her.
"How do you know?" she asked me.
"Time Lord's are telepathic with each other, especially when married or family. We always know when one is around." I told her.
"So he sent you a message?" she asked me.
"Yes." I told her as we met up with the boys. "Rose we need you to go to another time window and tell Reinette that the Doctor will be there in five years. Tell her the Doctor will be there in five years." I told her. She left and the Doctor messed with the time window and but there was no way for us to go through. "Mickey to bring Rose back." I told him and he ran off. "Can you get the sound on at least?" I asked him and he gave me a look.
"I'm trying dear." he told me and suddenly we heard screams from the window. "Done." he said grinning at me.
"Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now, you promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time." Reinette said through the time window.
"We have to figure out how to get through." I told him.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Reinette called again. "Doctor!"
"We must go. No one is coming to help us." the King said to her. the Doctor danced around the mirror and tried to do the best he can.
"You are complete. You will come." a droid said.
"Doctor they're already with her." I told him as Rose and Mickey joined us.
"They knew I was coming. They blocked it off." the Doctor told them.
"Where are we going?" Reinette asked the droid doing as we told her. Buying some time.
"The teleport has limited range. We must have proximity to the time portal." The droid answered her.
"Your words mean nothing. You are nothing." She told it and I smiled.
"That's my girl." I said smiling.
"I don't get it. How come they got in there?" Rose asked us.
"They teleported - you saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short-range teleports will do the trick." I told her going to the computer, trying to gain us access.
"Well, we'll go in the TARDIS!" Rose told us.
"We can't use the TARDIS, we're part of events now." The Doctor told her.
"Well, can't we just smash through it?" Mickey asked.
"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck." The Doctor told him.
"We don't have a truck." Mickey said.
"I know we don't have a truck!" The Doctor yelled at him.
"Well, we've gotta try something!" Rose yelled at us.
"No, smash the glass, smash the time window, they'd be no way back." The Doctor told her. I looked at him and left the room.
"Can everyone just calm down? Please. Such a commotion. Such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court. And we are French." Reinette told the humans. "I have made a decision. And my decision is 'no' - I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world, and I have no desire to set foot there again."
"We do not require your feet." A droid told her. I grabbed Arthur's reigns and led him back to the Doctor.
"Doctor!" I yelled at him. He turned to me and looked from the horse to the time window to me. He walked to me slowly and held me for a moment.
"Are you sure?" he asked me.
"We have to save her." I told him, tears pooling in my eyes. He kissed me hard and climbed on the horse.
"You think I fear you. But I do not fear you, even now. You are merely the nightmare of my childhood. The monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured so will yours." Reinette said and the Doctor chose that moment to burst through the time window. Shards of glass littered the floor and the interior of the spaceship was all that could be seen where the time window into the ballroom used to be.
"What happened? Where did the time window go? How's he gonna get back?" Mickey asked me. I stared where the window used to be and didn't answer him as tears ran down my cheeks. "We can't fly the TARDIS without him. How's he gonna get back?" Mickey asked again.
"I can fly without him but I won't. He'll be here. He'll come back to me." I told them. I went to the TARDIS and sat in front of it and waited. I'd wait forever for that man.
Hours later I saw the Doctor run towards the TARDIS and I ran to him, the largest smile on my face. I jumped on him and wrapped my arms and legs around him, forcing him to support both of us.
"How long did you wait?" he asked me quietly.
"Nearly a day!" I told him.
"Right, always wait a day!" he told me happily before hugging Rose and turning to hug Mickey, but he changed his mind and shook his hand instead.
"Where've you been?" Rose asked him.
"Explain later. Into the TARDIS, be with you in a sec." he called to us. Mickey went into the TARDIS without hesitation, but Rose and I watched the Doctor go back to her world.
"Reinette? You there, Reinette?" he called for her. Rose took my hand and pulled me into the TARDIS behind her. We waited a few more hours before the Doctor walked back into the TARDIS wearily and walking slowly up to the console. I began getting ready for us to leave quietly.
"Why her?" Rose asked us. "Why did they think they could fix the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour?"
"We'll probably never know. There was massive damage in the computer memory base. Probably got confused." I told her messing with the controls of the TARDIS. "The TARDIS can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble." I said.
"Come on, Rose. It's time you showed me around the rest of this place." Mickey said pulling Rose with him. When they were gone I looked up to the Doctor and watched him.
"Are you all right?" I asked him and he looked up at me.
"I'm always all right." he told me with a smile. He turned back to fiddling with the controls with me, but I still watched him, aware that he was keeping something to himself. I went back to my work and we both worked in silence.
"She wrote a letter for you, before she died." he told me and I took the letter he held out to me and carefully opened it.
My Dear Hunter,
The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again. But I think I shall not listen to reason for I have many things I wish to say to you. I have seen the world inside the Doctor's head, and through everything he's been through you've been on his mind or by his side. You and I both know he needs someone at his side at all times. At first I wanted to take your place by his side, but I knew that will never happen. He loves more than life itself and would burn worlds for you. You're the most important woman in the universe to him. You are his protector. Protect him, Time Lady.
I tucked the letter away and turns back to the console, so very heavy of heart. I looked at the Doctor and saw him looking at the monitor. I walked to him and saw the image of the fireplace, which was still lit with merrily dancing flames. He pressed a few keys, and they went out, leaving the fireplace shrouded in darkness. He and I stood there watching it for a few more moments before wrapping arms around each other and looking up at the rotor.
Next time on The Doctor's Girl:
"So, this is London." The Doctor said as we looked around.
"An alternative to our world were everything's the same but a little bit different." Mickey said.
"We're in some sort of no-place." The Doctor said.
"What're they all doing?" Rose asked. I noticed everyone was wearing earpieces, which flashed and beeped quietly.
"It's the earpieces."
"We've seem them before." he told her and they got closer.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Cybermen." I told her.