"This is absolutely nuts," I said as we climbed down the stairs as silently as we could manage. The Doctor had insisted on going down first, so I couldn't see as much as I would have liked. I may have joked about dark, dusty hallways but I'd been travelling with the Doctor long enough that the dark part made me nervous.
"Maybe this is just an old bomb cellar from the war?" I said after we finished with the stairs and the Doctor made a face that I could just make out in the darkness. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a flashlight, sweeping the beam around the tunnel around us before he turned to me and shook his head.
"You okay Emma?" He asked as he reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand. It was at that moment that I realized that I was jittering slightly from nerves. I gave a weak smile.
"Not to quote Star Wars, but I have a bit of a bad feeling," I said, and his lip quirked up at the corners.
"What kind of a bad feeling?" I shrugged.
"I don't know, just making me nervous I guess," I said, and he nodded before he lowered his hand from my cheek to link my fingers with his.
"Well if your bad feeling comes to fruition, we'll face it together," he said. I smiled and squeezed his hand tightly.
"I should hope so," I teased, and he laughed at that before he tugged me down the hallway. We hadn't been walking for very long when the sonic went off in the Doctor's pocket. He frowned as he dug it out and frowned harder when he held it up to his ear.
"That's odd," he said as he pushed the buttons a few times. "It's picking up Earth technology."
"I thought that new setting was for technology that isn't supposed to be here?" I asked and he hummed in agreement as he messed with the sonic a little while longer before putting it back into his pocket.
"It is, but the reading isn't clear," he said as he reached for my hand again. "I'm going to have to tighten the parameters."
"Can you hear that?" I asked because now that the sonic wasn't whirring I could hear a faint grating sound. The Doctor's face dropped immediately into a deep frown again.
"Yes, I can." As we got closer the grating sound got a little clearer and now there was an odd wet undercurrent to it. The combination made a chill shoot straight up my spine and I shuffled a little closer to the Doctor in response as we approached a door and he pulled it open.
There was an android laying on the table, though it was only half covered in skin while everything lower than the neck was covered in a sheet, and I took a few aborted half steps forward on autopilot even though everything in me was telling me to leave.
The wet grating sound echoed around the room as the chest rose and fell and I realized that the sound was supposed to be breathing. Or was some version of agonized breathing.
"Emma is it-?" The Doctor trailed off like he didn't want to ask the question, let alone make me answer. I dragged my eyes upwards and sucked in a stuttered breath as I took in the half of the face that was covered in skin.
"Yeah it's her," I managed to get out weakly. I reached up to touch my cheek on autopilot. "She had a scar right here."
The Doctor yanked me into his arms, pressing my face gently into his shoulder with a hand on the back of my head. I wasn't sure if it was to comfort me or to make me stop looking, but I figured that it was probably both. I fisted his jacket in my hands as I took a few deep breaths.
"The breathing sounds like when the Cybermen were choking," I whispered, and he shuddered before dropping a few kisses to the top of my head.
"I'm sorry Emma. I'm so sorry." That was the answer to the question that I hadn't been brave enough to ask and all my breath got stuck in my throat at the thought.
"I need to get out of this room," I said, feeling a tinge of hysteria entering me and pulled myself out of his grip and stumbled out into the hallway. I collapsed on the ground a few feet away and tried not to cry. It wasn't very long before the Doctor's hand was cupping my cheek.
"Emma, sweetheart, love please don't freeze up on me." His thumb smoothed over my cheekbone as he twisted his head so that he could make eye contact with me.
"Are we doing pet names now?" I asked with a tiny smile and his lips quirked up with relief.
"I don't think sweetheart and love are pet names," he said. "Endearments."
"Okay then are we doing endearments now?" I asked and he laughed as he scooted towards me and nuzzled my cheek before planting a kiss on it.
"Emma, my darling, my love I will call you as many endearments as I please," he said as he tucked my hair behind my ear with a soft smile. "Especially if they make your ears turn pink like this."
"Stop it you," I faux threatened and he laughed before he leaned in to kiss me.
"Never," he said into the kiss.
"I know that we should talk about it, but I need a tiny break. Do you want to see my favourite spot on campus?" I asked after we had split apart. He helped me up off the floor with a nod.
"Of course, I do." I took his hand tightly in mine and led him back out the way we had come until we were back outside. We both inhaled the fresh air deeply before I tugged on his hand and started leading him towards the library.
"I should have known it was the library," he said after we had entered the building and we were waiting for the elevator.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," I said. "It was quiet and had nice light."
"A girl after my own heart," he said. I gasped in mock offense.
"Only one of your hearts? I'm going to have to try harder," I said as we stepped out from the elevator and I led him over to the side of the building I had always preferred when a thought occurred to me.
"Hey, do you know specifically, like day of the week, year and time, of where we are right now?" I asked. He gave me a confused look before checking his watch that he had started carrying around after I had made some great points about needing it on several occasions.
"Thursday November 25, 2004 at 3:50 pm," he answered, and I made a noise of realization, arched up on my toes to see better, had a look around the room and pulled an amused face.
"Emma what is that face for?" The Doctor asked. I flashed him a smile.
"Remember when we said that I should try and stay away from younger me? Well I realized that I would have been in this building on campus today and I looked over and sure enough." I nodded over his shoulder towards where younger me was sitting. "There I am."
"What?" He whirled on the spot and started studying the people in the slightly crowded library. "Where?"
"Corner desk by the window," I said as I stepped forward slightly so that I could see the look on his face if he realized. His face crunched up in confusion.
"I don't see you." I lifted his hand, extended his finger and slowly pointed it towards my younger self. I watched confusion, disbelief, realization and something that looked vaguely like horror flash across his face before he turned his head to look at me wide eyed. I bit down on my lip so that I wouldn't start laughing at his expression.
"Yeah it doesn't exactly suit me does it? Although it doesn't look as weird as I thought it would." The dark brown really made me seem paler, but it brought out my eyes quite nicely. What really made the whole picture weird was the fact that my hair was pin straight and long enough to be sweeping my mid back.
"What the Hell did you do?" He asked as the horror seemed to fully descend on his face. I lost control of myself at his expression and started laughing as quietly as I could manage so that I didn't bother anyone who was studying since we were in a library.
"It was just a phase that lasted about half a year or so. I wanted to try something different, so I dyed my hair every so often and straightened it each morning," I said while I watched his jaw flex like he was chewing on which words he wanted to let out.
"Emma you know I love you and would never tell you what to do, but I much prefer your natural look," he said after a few moments. I arched up on my toes and pressed a kiss to the side of his cheek.
"Good because straightening it was a huge pain in the ass. It took hours sometimes," I said, and he laughed.
"You are beautiful and amazing and wonderful, and I am incredibly lucky to be here with you," he said before he pulled me in for a kiss. I straightened his tie with a smile when we separated.
"And the same to you Doctor." I let go of his tie and smoothed my hands down his lapels until I could feel his hearts beating under my palms. "Okay I feel better now so we should talk about what we're going to do."
"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked with a quizzical look and I shook my head with a fond smile as I reached up to cup his cheek.
"You made a face when we found the lab, and it was the face you make when we have to fix something. Also, the sonic was beeping at us about technology right before we found the lab."
"Exactly how much attention do you pay me?" He teased as he dropped a kiss to my wrist.
"A lot," I admitted. "How else would I manage to keep up with you?"
"Emma, my love you have done a spectacular job keeping up with me," he said with a chuckle.
"You are really leaning into the endearments, aren't you?" I muttered as I ducked my head down to hide my blush slightly.
"I've been holding them in," he said as he tipped my chin up gently and smiled at me. "My darling, my love, my dearest."
"Doctor stop I'm about to die of embarrassment," I said as I felt my cheeks heat even further. "Besides I can't even do I back to you because nothing I can think of goes well with Doctor."
"My real name isn't Doctor, so you're using a nickname," he said with a head tilt. "Arguably that could be an endearment."
"I never thought about it that way," I said before I looked up at him. "Also don't think you can just deflect my question that easily."
"The technology is too good, too early," he said defeatedly as he rested his forehead on my shoulder. I rubbed his shoulders comfortingly at the answer we had both seen coming.
"So, the question is do we tell the professor and make him lose his wife all over again or do we handle it and make the professor lose his wife all over again?" I asked and the Doctor nodded roughly. "Sometimes the universe is very cruel."
"It really is."