"Where are we going?" The Doctor asked.
"I got an email from a friend of mine asking if I could stop by so I'm going to take us there," I said as I flicked switches and levers on the TARDIS. I grinned up at him brightly. "Talk about a role reversal."
"What friend?" The Doctor asked with a smile as he leaned on the console next to me.
"Charlotte Detrement. She was studying anthropology at university the same time I was," I said. "She got a teaching position after she graduated while she worked on getting her Master's."
"Did she say why she wanted you to stop by?"
"You get more and more paranoid every single day," I teased.
"Get as old as me and we'll see how paranoid you are," he said as he lifted my hand to kiss the back of it before setting it on a different lever. "This one if you don't want to chance creating a new black hole."
"I love not creating new black holes," I said seriously, and he laughed out loud.
"I agree. Do you have an educated guess why Charlotte wants to speak with you?"
"No. Maybe she just wants coffee, or she wants to know if I would be willing to co-write a paper with her?" I suggested before I frowned. "It was weird though because she specifically asked if I knew Professor Ramsuen."
"Do you?"
"Not exactly. He was a robotics professor in the engineering college, and I tried to stay away from that building so our circles didn't really cross. There was a bit of an urban legend surrounding him spreading around when I was on campus, so I have heard of him," I said and the Doctor's eyebrows shot up immediately.
"Urban legend?" He repeated and I nodded.
"Rumour was he was trying to create an android in a secret lab under the engineering building," I said. I hadn't bought into the rumour at the time, but there had been an alluring pull to it all the same.
"Why on Earth would he be doing that in secret? You left university in 2004 plenty of people were trying to build androids on Earth," he said with a confused frown. I shot him a smile.
"Yes, but the kicker is that allegedly he was trying to bring his wife's consciousness back from the afterlife. She had died a little while before the whole rumour kicked off. I knew her a lot better than her husband because she was a history professor. It was really sad honestly," I said as my smile dropped off my face at the memory.
"That's terrible," he said, and I nodded.
"Believe it or not I think the story kind of helped everyone after she died. She would have thought it was stupid but funny," I said as my hands stilled on the controls and I swallowed. "The rumour gained a lot of popularity because there was a certain romance in the fact that he was trying to build his wife the body she had always wanted but couldn't have. Immortalized her as the woman she really was."
"I feel like there's a double meaning there," he said softly, and I nodded as I sniffled.
"She was trans and was not very delicately exposed as such at the funeral through an angry graveside confrontation and well, there was a tiny bit of a scandal." The Doctor grasped my shoulders and moved me to the jump seat and forced me to sit down while pressing a handkerchief into my hand.
"No driving and crying at the same time," he chastised gently, and I sniffled through a laugh. "I can see the romance in the urban legend now. Did it ever die out?"
"Yeah after he adopted his son. It didn't have a lot of staying power apparently." I shook my head harshly. "I shouldn't be as emotional about this as I am."
"Emma how many times do I have to tell you that you can be as emotional as you like?" he asked teasingly, and I laughed.
"I don't know maybe one or two more times," I said, and he kissed me with a smile as we landed.
"I love you," he said when we split. I smiled widely.
"I love you too. And I will not be offended if you decide that you just want to stay here in the TARDIS while I go chat with Charlotte," I said, and he scoffed immediately.
"Stay here and miss the opportunity to see your university?" He asked and rubbed my nose with his. "Perish the thought."
"Alright but don't complain if this just turns into girl talk," I said as I stood up from the jump seat and handed him his handkerchief back. I double checked to make sure I had my phone in my pocket before I moved towards the door where the Doctor was pulling on his overcoat.
"Well shit," I said as soon as I stepped out into a, thankfully empty, lecture hall and looked around quickly. "I think I missed."
"Why do you say that?" He asked and I pointed at the handwritten date on the board that clearly said 2004. He quirked an eyebrow up at me. "Not so easy is it?"
"Sorry which one of us has eight hundred years of practice versus a matter of months?" I asked sarcastically before I pretended to think about it. "Oh yeah right it's the Time Lord not the human."
"I'm surprised you didn't go for the argument that the teacher passed along their bad habits," he said with an amused look on his face. I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Who says I didn't consider it and then decide that I couldn't damage your poor fragile ego that badly?" I asked lightly with a toss of my head.
"Oh, I have a fragile ego now do I?" He raised an eyebrow up at me and copied my arm cross. I gave him an up and down sweep with my eyes.
"If the shoe fits," I said and there was about fifteen seconds of silence before we both cracked and started laughing. We gained a few passing glances as we leaned on each other and laughed.
"So, I guess we won't be able to see Charlotte," the Doctor said after we had gotten a hold of ourselves. I shrugged.
"Technically she's here on campus, she would just be a couple years younger than the Charlotte who wanted to talk to me," I said before something occurred to me and I looked up at him. "And not to make you overly concerned, but there is also a younger version of me wandering around campus. Is that going to cause a problem?"
"I assume you don't feel like starting a paradox," he said seriously, and I nodded with a gasp and took a half step back towards the TARDIS. He cracked a smile. "Then if you stay away from yourself you should be fine."
"You're a jerk," I said as I whacked him on the side of his arm. His grin widened.
"It's not very often I can get away with that with you," he said, and I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Since we're here and it's on my mind we could go investigate to see if that urban legend was true," I said with a sly grin and the Doctor looked at me sideways.
"Why do I get the feeling that you just want me to yourself in some dark, dusty hallway?" he asked, and my grin widened as I held my hand out to him invitingly.
"Because I always want you to myself in a dark, dusty hallway," I said and judging by the flush on the Doctor's face he had caught my double entrendres and was perfectly fine with it. He coughed after a few seconds of silence as he took my hand.
"Yes, well. Who wouldn't?' He asked as he self consciously adjusted his tie. I laughed as I started heading towards the engineering building.
"How did you handle Elizabeth I's flirtations better than mine?" I asked teasingly. He cleared his throat again before he looked down at me.
"Because I was not attracted to Elizabeth," he stated dryly like that should have been well known fact.
"Well glad to know that you're attracted to me," I said, trying to keep my expression straight and failing miserably. "I had a pretty good idea, but hearing it said out loud really does wonders."
"Should I start listing some of my favourite things right here and now?" He asked and I shook my head immediately.
"God please no. I'd die of embarrassment. But," I trailed off, looked around before arching up to whisper in his ear. "You could do that later in a more private venue."
He cleared his throat again loudly as his flush deepened and I smiled to myself in pleasure that I had at least repaid him a little bit for his comment about the paradox.
"By the way how do you feel about breaking and entering?" I asked as we approached the appropriate building. He raised an eyebrow up at me. "Because if you don't feel comfortable, I'll take the sonic and do it."
"I didn't say I wasn't comfortable I would just prefer to know what we're breaking into before I commit the crime," he said even as he dug in his pocket and fished out the sonic to hand to me.
"Well the secret entrance to the lab was allegedly in his office behind his bookshelf," I said, and he raised an eyebrow up at me. "Listen I know it's cliché, but remember engineers concocted this story."
"So, we have to break into his office before we can break into his alleged secret lab?" he clarified, and I nodded as I stopped to check the directory of where the rooms are.
"That pretty much sums it up. There's still a chance to go back to the TARDIS," I said as we continued down the hallways.
"Go back to the TARDIS while we're embroiled mid mystery? Emma Bradley do you know me at all?" He asked with faux offence in his tone which made me laugh.
"You're right how could I ever think something like that?" I smiled widely. "Though I never would have thought that you would take me up on that suggestion."
"Good to see you're still brilliant," he teased. I pulled him to a stop outside the office.
"Here we go," I said with only a slight bit of apprehension, and he chuckled at that.
"I'm not sure if I know what you mean by that," he said. I shrugged.
"Sometimes I'm still worried that the sonic is going to rebel against me or something. Like I'll think the wrong thing and it will just explode in my hands," I said as the lock clicked, and the door swung open. I handed the Doctor back the sonic as he frowned at me.
"Why?" He asked and I shrugged again.
"I don't really know. With the TARDIS I get feedback a lot, like she'll tell me when she's happy or when I'm doing something wrong flying her. It's helpful, but I can't get that from the sonic and there are a lot of different options as you know," I said as I pushed the door open and gestured for him to follow me in.
"I will walk through every single setting with you and give you feedback okay?" He said as he caught my hand in his and tugged me to face him. I smiled and nodded. "Now do you know which bookshelf is allegedly hiding the secret entrance?"
"This one with the picture of their wedding day on it," I said as I moved towards it. I picked it up and studied it carefully.
"She's beautiful," the Doctor said, and I nodded.
"She really was. You would have liked her," I said, and he tilted his head towards me.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah she always used to say that there wasn't a single moment in history that wasn't affected by another moment in history. It seems silly, but she was one of the first people I knew who taught history chronologically worldwide instead of geographically."
"That does sound like someone I would like," he said as he wrapped an arm around me in comfort. "What was her name?"
"Kristina. After the Girl King of Sweden." We stood in silence staring at the picture for a while before I put it back carefully and the Doctor took that as a sign to pull out the sonic again and waved it over the bookcase.
"There is definitely something behind it, and that something goes on for a pretty long ways," he said after his eyes bugged out slightly. I gaped at him in shock.
"You're shitting me," I said, and he shook his head as he gave a flick of his wrist and the bookcase slid to the side on its own exposing a dim hallway behind it that led to a set of stairs. "Holy shit."
"My thoughts exactly Emma," the Doctor said after we had stood staring at the stairs for a few shocked seconds. "My thoughts exactly."