"Jesus it's cold out here," I said as I wrapped my arms around myself and the Doctor dropped his jacket over my shoulders without a word as he frowned into the depths of the ship we'd appeared on.
"This seems familiar," he said, and I looked at him while I slid the jacket on properly.
"In a good way or a bad way?" I asked.
"Bad way," he said, and I waited for a couple seconds to see if he would expand before I shrugged and hooked my fingers with his.
"Well shall we explore?" I asked. He smiled at me before he kissed my temple gently.
"I say something is familiar in a bad way and you still want to explore?" I nodded with a smile and he kissed me. "What would I do without you?"
"Explore alone," I said, and he laughed before I tugged at his hand. "Come on I have a good feeling about this direction."
We walked quietly for a while until the Doctor stopped us with a delighted grin on his face before he pulled me towards him to press a kiss to my forehead. I raised an eyebrow up at him in question and he gestured down the tiny hallway which had a computer screen at the other end.
"I don't think I can take credit for that since it was just luck," I said, and he grinned widely at me anyways.
"And I don't think I need an excuse to kiss you anymore," he said with a teasing gleam in his eyes as he moved to kiss me slowly and deeply.
"I should have known there was a secondary motive behind the brilliance kisses," I teased, and he laughed. I arched up on my toes so that I could see over his shoulder. "And I know you're going to hate this, but I might have to duck Rule Two. There's no way we're both going to squeeze down that hallway."
"You'll stay here?" He asked after he had glanced down the hallway to confirm my statement and looked back at me. I rolled my eyes at him fondly and nodded.
"Where else would I go?" I asked and he tilted his head in agreement before he slid down the hallway. I settled on the floor to wait for him to finish and leaned against the wall with my eyes close.
"Doctor can you hear that?" I asked as I opened my eyes and sat forward at the sound of violins coming from down the hallway faintly.
"Hear what?" I stood up and tilted my head to see if I could hear where it was coming from a little more clearly.
"Music. Classical music," I said and started walking towards it without a thought until I heard the Doctor sputter behind me and scrambled out of the hallway.
"Emma Bradley! Rule One," he said, and I smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry I forgot," I said. He grumbled Gallifreyan under his breath as his hands came to rest on my shoulders and his gaze skimmed over me like he was looking for injuries. "I wasn't even gone that long."
"I hear the music now," he said, and I rolled my eyes at him with a smile as his hands slipped off my shoulders and I reached to link my fingers with his.
"Paranoid," I said teasingly as I rocked up to kiss him. "Music or computer?"
"Music. I have a hunch," he said with a deep frown on his face.
"Doesn't look like you like this hunch," I said as we started walking further down the hallway and he sighed deeply.
"We don't have the best track record with familiarity," he said, and I laughed.
"What was the last thing we bumped into that you hadn't already encountered?" I held up a finger when he opened his mouth. "And new humans don't count."
"You don't play fair Emma," the Doctor said after he had pouted at me for several seconds which made me laugh harder as he pulled me to a stop next to a large painting of a ballroom. The music was the loudest it had been thus far, and I quickly looked around for a speaker before looking at the Doctor in confusion when I couldn't see one. He smiled and gestured at the painting.
"Woah," I breathed in wonder as I took a closer look at it and realized that it wasn't a painting at all.
"Did I ever tell you about meeting Madame du Pompadour?" the Doctor asked as he rested his chin on my shoulder. I shook my head carefully as I took in the scene in front of us. He explained quickly and then stepped away from me smoothly just as I turned to ask questions.
"That's creepy as hell. And you think this is a sister ship of some kind?" I asked as I waved my hand around the room and taking a few half steps away from the portal and he nodded.
"Everything seems to fit." He frowned down the hallway over my shoulder. "Except that."
I cranked my neck around while I whirled to see a man in a Victorian style tweed suit walk up to us with a dazed look on his face. I gaped at him in shock as he seemed to shake it off himself and held his hand out towards the Doctor.
"Good day to you, my name is Doctor Franklin Brown. Do you have any idea what is happening?" He asked and the Doctor tipped his head to the side after he spared me a glance and decided that I was going to be useless this time. Not that those were the words that he would have used, but the sentiment was the same.
"What year is it?"
"1885," Doctor Brown said with only a slightly confused look on his face.
"I'm very confused," I said, and the Doctor hummed in agreement.
"TARDIS." He spun on his heel and headed back the way we came without another word. I sighed before I gestured at Doctor Brown.
"It's best to follow him," I said and gently grasped his arm to lead him when he didn't move. "If only because you're here with me and I don't exactly have the best luck."
"You are just as peculiar as the people I met earlier," Doctor Brown said.
"What other people?" I asked and he waved down the hallway behind us.
"They spoke and moved oddly. They were dressed in old period garb, must have been actors. Said that they were looking for a girl," he said, and I blanched slightly as I made us walk faster. There was almost no way that wouldn't come back to bite me in some kind of unfortunate way.
"Did they say what the girl's name was?" I asked and he frowned before shaking his head.
"No. What is this?" We were outside the TARDIS and I looked between him and the open door as I bit my lip and tried to decide what to tell him.
"Emma what are you doing?" The Doctor asked. I took a deep breath and shoved Doctor Brown through the door, trying to pretend that I hadn't heard his question or hesitated.
"Doctor Brown would you be kind enough to tell the Doctor what you just told me?" I asked and both of them turned to look at me before shifting their gazes to each other.
"What did you tell her?"
"You are a doctor as well?" I rolled my eyes and settled myself on the jump seat to watch whatever was about to happen. They engaged in an awkward dance of Doctor Brown trying to step forward to shake the Doctor's hand, before suddenly realizing that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside than the outside while the Doctor stepped kind of sideways to get a better look at him, before something on the console blinked and he got distracted.
"Yes, the Doctor is a doctor, but not a medical one. Doctor Brown was kind enough to inform me about strange people in period garb looking for a girl," I said as I slid out of the Doctor's coat after several seconds of silence between the two of them.
"I was really hoping I was wrong," the Doctor said glumly. I got up to pat his arm gently. "I should have done a deeper diagnostic. Found out the name of the ship."
"Yes, well I'll take the blame for that one," I said, and he sent me a look before tapping me on the nose.
"Imagine what we could do if you followed Rule One," he teased.
"I imagine it would be very similar to what we currently do, but with the tiniest more hint of different information," I said dryly. "Just do a diagnostic now."
"Well I can't do it from here," he said slowly, and I made a noise of realization.
"And you don't want to split up," I said. He nodded. "Paranoid."
"Your ship is bigger on the inside than the outside!" Doctor Brown cried and he'd been so quiet that I'd almost forgotten about him which made me jump embarrassingly.
"Yes, it is," the Doctor said and then the two of them were off on the usual discussion of what was and wasn't possible. It was one of the Doctor's favourite discussions, so I wandered over to the still open doors of the TARDIS to close it and not interrupt the conversation when I stopped short once my hand hit the door.
"Doctor," I called softly over my shoulder as I took in three rather tall humanoid figures gathered around the TARDIS. One of them took a weird step forward and I clenched the door handle as I tried to decide if I should slam the door in its face or figure out what it wanted.
"Doctor," I called again, slightly louder this time, but the conversation continued, and my curiosity won out over my common sense, so I stepped out of the TARDIS. I could hear gears whirring now that I was a little closer "Hello."
"You are a potential specimen," the one in the middle announced and I squinted at him.
"For what?"
"The air is bad. You are a potential specimen." The other two stepped forward though their hands flipped to become saws and knives.
"Thanks for your time," I said and scuttled backwards quickly into the TARDIS again and threw the doors shut and leaned against them. "Doctor!"
"Emma what is it?" The Doctor asked and I pointed over my shoulder.
"Clockwork robots who said I was a potential specimen with surgical instruments for hands," I said quickly and he spun to the console and booted up the monitor before whirling back to me with a frustrated look on his face.
"Did you go out to speak with them!?" I shrugged as casually as I could manage while I pushed myself off the door. He grumbled under his breath as I walked up to him and he cupped my face in his hands before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
"Well that kiss was confusing," I teased. "Also, I tried to tell you that they were here, but you were too busy with the 'You have no idea what is possible, little human' talk."
"I have never said that," he said. I grinned at him.
"Not in those exact words, but the sentiment was all there," I said.
"Potential specimen. Potential specimen for what?" the Doctor muttered as he turned back to the screen and I shrugged.
"They said the air was bad and that was as far as I got before the surgical instruments appeared and I came back to the TARDIS," I said.
"That's a diagnostic I can run from here," the Doctor said as his fingers flew across the keyboard and I tilted my head so that I could see the screen and Doctor Brown without having to move my head.
"Yes, Doctor Brown it's always like this," I said and gestured towards the jump seat. "If you feel like you need to sit go ahead."
"There it is," the Doctor said so I shifted my attention back to the screen. I could see tiny flecks floating around in the air.
"Dust?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Pneumatic Influenza," he said, and I looked up at him.
"What?"
"Think if pneumonia and the flu had a baby. It usually got called the Pneu Flu and it had several epidemics before humanity got a handle on it. Most ships automatically filter it out these days, but there also isn't much of a failsafe," he said.
"Not to make this about me, but can I catch the Pneu Flu?" I asked and he shook his head.
"You've been vaccinated against it," he said, and I frowned at him. "TARDIS privileges."
"Okay so the filters on this ship failed and the Pneu Flu spread somehow. That doesn't quite explain to me why I was a potential specimen."
"You're human," the Doctor said nonchalantly before he frowned deeply.
"Right except for the fact that with the Madame de Pompadour ship they wanted her brain because the ship was named after her," I said and pulled a face as I thought of the portal painting thing. "God damn it."
"My thoughts exactly."