Chapter 3 The One at the School
How's everyone doing? Lockdown is really kicking my ass right now so I'm distracting myself with this ole tale.
Thank you all for the reviews! I'm so glad people are enjoying it, to answer THGHPTVD.2: I'm aiming to update every Tuesday or so, at the mo I have a couple chapters in the bank so I should be consistently updating - unless a major block hits!
Nothing recognisable belongs to me, it's all BBC
Fifteen days had passed since the Doctor dropped Florence home, and so far she had to admit: she was bored. Yes, their adventure on the Motorway was tense what with the whole fearing for Martha's safety, but it was the most alive she had felt in years. Everyday she expected to see a funny looking alien walking down the street, every Irish accent she heard she expected Brannigan's humour to follow, and she especially hated the way she looked up eagerly when the bell on the door of the cafe shop jingled signalling a new customer, hoping to catch sight of the handsome suited stranger that showed her a new world.
Her graduation was fast approaching, which occupied her time buying her gown and a smart dress, and with that came an influx of questions and suggestions from her friends as to what she should do in the upcoming future. Was she going to do a phd? That was from Sally. Was she going to get a job in a museum or gallery to put her degree to good use? Well that was also Sally, she had the sensible suggestions. Sarah, on the other hand, demanded that she come with her to Italy for a couple of months to find a sexy Italian man to take her breath away (her exact words). However, degrees, jobs and men were the last thing on Florence's mind. Well, she supposed, that last one was only half true, she couldn't get the messy haired alien man out of her head. She didn't like it, she was telling the truth when she told him that she wanted to go home, she was scared at the implications of their timelines somehow being connected (whatever that was supposed to mean) and she did want to see her friends. But now that she had been home, and received the expected line of questioning about her future from said friends, she craved the adventure. Just one more maybe. A small one. Or even just a glimpse of him.
On the sixteenth day of being home, Florence found herself standing outside the gates of the newly rebuilt Deffry Vale High School, halfway through construction of a new building after a gas explosion about nine months before. She frowned as she looked up at the school crest, she wasn't sure what drew her to the school, it was an unsettling feeling. All she remembered was waking up with the continuous pounding (that hadn't faded for over two weeks now) and getting a bus (the number of which she couldn't even tell you) before ending up somewhere in east London outside the comprehensive. The pounding had gotten more intense on the journey over and as she stood there she felt disconcerting pinpricks that had accompanied her last two episodes travelling up her arms and legs once more. She screwed her eyes shut and rubbed them with the heels of her hands, bracing herself for the darkness once more.
She opened them, and found that as much as she tried to prepare herself for it, the stifling atmosphere was no less alarming than the previous times. The burning was back too, enveloping the exposed skin of her neck and arms - the hot late June sun allowing her to leave the house in just a T-shirt and blue dungarees, a cardigan tied round her waist for later if needed - and caused her to cry out slightly, she gasped in pain and hunched over, eyes closed.
And when she opened them she was back in front of the gate. Only, it was nighttime. That was unusual, last time it was the TARDIS but the first time it happened and she remained where she was only seconds had passed. Wait, she thought to herself, looking at the school in front of her, that building is different. She turned to her right to begin walking through the gates towards the school when she stopped in her tracks, spotting three figures approaching the same destination up ahead, and one seemed to be wearing what she hoped was a familiar long brown overcoat.
"Doctor!" She called out, hurrying over to them, the man in question turned and gave her a beaming grin, pulling her into a warm hug which made her stiffen slightly in surprise and pull back, "Um, hi."
"Florence! Wondered where you'd got to!" The girl next to him, a pretty blonde laughed and nudged him,
"Thank god you're back, this one's been moping for the past week. 'Where is she? She's not usually this long… I'm a big worry wart!'" The Doctor scowled playfully down at her,
"Hey! I was concerned! And I don't sound like that!" He smiled brightly back at Florence, "So then, where abouts have you come from?"
"Oh!" Florence remembered, too excited to have found him to realise what he had warned her of at their first meeting. "Timelines, right. Um, well I was home, actually." The Doctor looked worried at that,
"Why? What happened? Are you okay? How was the jump? I know they're more painful when, well." He paused, before asking, "How many times have we met Florence?"
Florence worried that he wouldn't like the answer, but there was nothing she could say except - "Once. We were in New Earth with-"
"Wait!" The Doctor cut in, holding up a hand. "Don't tell me anymore, if it's my future we don't want that mess to deal with." Florence nodded,
"Right. Gotcha. No spoilers." The Doctor smiled at that. "What?"
"Nothing, just, something I've heard you say before." He clapped his hands together. "Okay then! Introductions and updates! Florence, this is Rose and Mickey, Rose and Mickey this is Florence, just, well, younger." Florence smiled at the blonde girl who spoke earlier and the young black guy who looked permanently confused during the whole conversation.
"Nice to meet you." She was a tad embarrassed at having to constantly be introduced to people who seemed to already know her, and hoped she would get to experience it the other way round soon.
"School's got something weird going on, Florence." The Doctor informed her. "Kids seem too smart, teachers all recently replaced, so we," he gestured to the four of them, "are gonna go a-sleuthing!" He rubbed his hands together before spinning on his heel. "Allons-y!"
"So what's going on then, the school looks different from the one I was in front before I… jumped?" Florence was still getting to grips with the wording of her appearances, and stuck with the phrase the Doctor had used.
"Right! Yes, you said you were at home." He missed, working out in his head. "Mid 2007?" She nodded, it was like he was her own personal pocket diary. "And we're abouuut… January? 2007?" He grinned down at her and winked. "Welcome to the past, Miss Jensson."
Florence's mouth dropped open, "Seriously? Six months? It's still 2007? Not exactly the date I always dreamed of going when someone mentioned time travel…" Rose laughed next to her,
"Tell me about it, this is my present." They turned a corner and began walking down the cold empty school corridors, four sets of footsteps echoing on the grey linoleum. Rose shivered. "Oh, it's weird seeing school at night. It just feels wrong. When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school." Florence laughed at that,
"God, me too! Until I saw my maths teacher doing body shots in a bar one time, not a pretty sight…" the two girls giggled at that, until they were stopped abruptly by the Doctor,
"All right, team." He grimaced and that. "Oh, I hate people who say team. Er, gang. Er, comrades." He looked at Florence for approval but she shook her head. "Anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen. Get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers. Go and check out the Maths department. Florence and I will go look in Finch's office." He pulled Florence's left wrist up, which he somehow knew had a watch secured around it. "Meet back here in ten minutes." He slid his hand from her wrist to grasp her hand and began leading her up the stairs in the direction of Finch's office. She pulled her hand from his as they turned down another corridor and shoved both in the pockets of her dungarees, he turned to her when she did so,
"How are you feeling? I know the jumps can be painful." Florence scoffed slightly,
"Yeah, you keep telling me." She felt guilty when she saw his downtrodden expression, reminding herself that to him she was an old friend and she couldn't blame him for the jumps. Much anyway. "I'm okay." She told him softly. "It hurts but the pain fades not long after I land. Hopefully I can master staying on my feet soon." The Doctor barked out a laugh at that, clearly not Florence thought to herself. "So," She began, "where's the TARDIS?" The Doctor nodded in the direction they were heading,
"Oh just down here somewhere." Florence looked at him in confusion,
"But I met you guys outside?"
"Yup, Rose insisted on meeting Mickey-boy" Somehow the nickname did not seem to be said with affection in her opinion, "outside. Something about wanting to make his own way to his 'investigation'." Florence laughed a bit and nodded in understanding,
"I see… battle of testosterone, who's cooler than who, typical men." The Doctor rolled his eyes at her,
"Leave off, I had no one to impress." He asserted, stalking off and round the corner into the gymnasium, stopping in his tracks at something in front of him.
Florence peered around the overcoat covered back of her friend to see him staring at a woman who was busy backing away from a cupboard in the corner. She wore a leather jacket and had shoulder length dark brown hair, and when she slowly turned to face them Florence noticed that she was in her forties, and that she was incredibly surprised.
"Hello Sarah-Jane." The Doctor said calmly, and the woman, Sarah-Jane, looked close to tears,
"It's you. Oh, Doctor Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it." She stepped towards him, hardly noticing Florence standing behind him. "You've regenerated." Regenerated? Florence was confused at the term, making a mental note to mention it to the evasive man at a later date; he hadn't mentioned such a thing when he told her and Martha about the Time War.
"Yeah." He confirmed, looking down at himself slightly, "Half a dozen times since we last met."
Sarah-Jane smiled at him, "You look incredible."
"So do you." He told her, and Florence felt incredible like she was missing a tender moment between two old friends, like when Sarah would invite her to her hometown and take her to parties and chat with school friends for hours leaving Florence without a clue.
"Oh, I got old." Sarah-Jane finally noticed the young brunette peeking out from behind the Doctor, seeing she had been caught she stepped out and Sarah-Jane held out her hand, "I'm sorry, Sarah-Jane Smith, former companion of the Doctor?" Florence smiled, finally, she was meeting someone in the right order,
"Nice to meet you Sarah-Jane, I'm Florence. I'm a… friend of the Doctor's." She still wasn't quite sure where she stood on that front, was she a 'companion' like she presumed Rose and Martha were (are? Would be?). The Doctor stepped in and briefly explained,
"Florence is an involuntary time traveller, she's just met me recently." Sarah-Jane nodded, seemingly understanding the situation quicker than Florence had done, which was frustrating.
"So what are you doing here?" She asked the pair.
"Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn't resist." The Doctor smirked slightly at her. "What about you?
She grinned.
"The same." There was a short pause, and Florence wondered whether it was about time to meet up with Rose and Mickey again, but before she could voice her concerns, Sarah-Jane spoke again, unhappily. "I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died." Florence knew this part of the story, she was talking about the Time War.
"I lived." The Doctor told her painfully. "Everyone else died." Sarah-Jane couldn't quite comprehend what he was trying to tell her.
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone died, Sarah." He repeated, and Florence tugged lightly at the corner of his overcoat's sleeve, as much physical comfort as she could offer him right now.
Sarah-Jane shook her head lightly, "I just can't believe it's you." A scream cut through the gymnasium. "Okay now I can!" The three of them raced out of the gym and along the corridors back the way the Doctor and Florence had come, bumping into Rose at the junction of the hallways, who was looking panicked,
"Did you hear that?" She asked, Florence nodded and began to lead them all in the direction Mickey had gone in, but Rose was busy noticing the extra member of the team, and she did not look impressed. "Who's she?" The Doctor bobbed his head to each of them in turn,
"Rose, Sarah-Jane. Sarah-Jane, Rose." Sarah-Jane nodded and smiled politely to the blonde, but with less warmth that she had done with Florence,
"Hi. Nice to meet you." She looked to the Doctor, who was attempting to keep his focus in front of him. "You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger." Florence glanced at the older woman sharply,
"Hey, I resent that!"
"I'm not his assistant!" Rose shot back indignantly. Sarah-Jane raised her brows mockingly at the Doctor,
"No? Get you, tiger."
"Sarah…" The Time Lord said warningly, marching ahead of the bickering women with Florence's hand somehow once again grasped in his own.
They burst into one of the classrooms to find Mickey standing in front of an open cupboard holding what looked to be neon green rats and looking extremely embarrassed. "Sorry!" He cried. "Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell on me." He held up the rats to prove his point, Rose looked at them in disgust,
"Oh my god. They're rats. Dozens of rats!" Florence grimaced and poked at one of the packets lightly,
"Vacuum sealed, why are they vacuum sealed?" She looked to the Doctor for answered but he simply raised his eyebrows mockingly at the younger man,
"And you decided to scream."
"It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended himself, but the Doctor didn't let up,
"Like a little girl?" Florence swatted him lightly,
"Behave."
""It was dark!" Mickey argued. "I was covered in rats!"
"Nine, maybe ten years old." The Doctor continued, "I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt."
Mickey ran his hand self consciously over the back of his head, while Rose rolled her eyes at the pair of them, unimpressed, "Hello? Can we focus!" Florence nodded in agreement, giving the Doctor a sharp look. "Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Sarah-Jane gave her dismissive wave of her hand,
"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them." She looked at her coolly. "Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?" Florence felt extremely uncomfortable at this point, she was looking between the two like it was a tennis match, and she could tell who was winning.
"Um, well, I dissected hearts at school, funny story act-" She tried to interject, hoping to draw attention away from the argument, but it only spurred Rose on,
"Exactly. No one dissects rats in school anymore. They haven't done that for years." So that didn't work, the blonde was giving Sarah-Jane a scathing look. "Where are you from, the dark ages?"
"Anyway," The Doctor drew out the second syllable, doing a better job than Florence had done at refocusing the group, "moving on. Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office." Mickey turned to Florence as they began to leave the room,
"Thought that was where you was both heading?" Florence sighed,
"Hotshot over her got sidetracked with his, uh, friend." Mickey chuckled and held the door open for the brunette,
"Of course he did."
It seemed the Doctor's effort in dissolving the brewing argument was not as effective as Florence had assumed, instead the snide comments continued into the hallway as they marched to the headmaster's office.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything," Rose began, and Florence knew she had the exact opposite intent, "but who exactly are you?" There it was.
"Sarah-Jane Smith." The reporter answered proudly. "I used to travel with the Doctor." Rose blanched,
"Oh." She turned her head away and reminded Florence of all the girls in sixth form who took on the role as 'it girl', dismissive. "Well, he's never mentioned ya."
Florence gave the Doctor a 'really' look, fuck off how many people must he have travelled with?, he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Oh, I must have done…" He reasoned. "Sarah-Jane. Mention her all the time."
"Hold on." Rose put a hand to her chin, as if contemplating his words. "Sorry. Never." Florence and Mickey shared an uncomfortable look. "Florence, how about you?" Mickey gave a snicker at the brunette being dragged into it.
"Oh, I, um, I'm new. Very new. I mean…" Sarah-Jane looked gutted at the idea,
"What, not even once? He didn't mention me even once?" The two women marched ahead of the Doctor, Florence and Mickey, who patted the taller man roughly on the back,
"Ho, ho, mate. Caught out by the newbie and the ex. How embarrassing." He winked at Florence as he brushed past to catch up with the feuding pair in front. "Keep him in check, eh Flo." The Doctor sighed and rubbed his hand over his jaw and Florence gave him a more gentle pat on the arm,
"Come on. Let them get it outta their system."
The group of five met outside the door labelled 'Headmaster' and the humans allowed the Doctor to get by in order to unlock it with his sonic screwdriver. He pulled a torch (that seemed way too big to have fit) out of the inside pocket of his overcoat and flicked it on. "Oh." He said simply when he peered into the room, the others crowded behind him to get a look. "Florence, you asked a great question earlier…" She looked at him,
"What, why were the rats vacuum packed?"
"Bingo." He answered. "Because I think they were being kept fresh as food…"
"Food for what?" Rose asked cautiously, and the Doctor tilted his torch up to the ceiling as he spoke,
"Rose, you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school? Well, in this one, they do." They all looked up slowly and saw ten, maybe twenty, long bat-like creatures hanging from the ceiling of the office. Florence's jaw dropped,
"Oh. My. God."
"No way!" Mickey groaned, immediately turning and running away from the scene, the other four turned and followed after him. The Doctor shut the door gently behind him and Florence shook her head lightly as she hurried after Mickey,
Giant crabs, she thought to herself, and now giant bats… what the fuck.
"I'm not going back in there." Mickey was telling them, shaking his head and pointing towards the school they had just exited. "No way. Nah."
Rose still looked confused, "Those were the teachers..."
"How the hell did they get into the school? Like, fucking invasion of the bat people? People must have noticed?" The Doctor sighed, nodding slightly,
"Well… Mickey and Sarah noticed." He looked back towards the school. "When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people." He said it so casually, exuding a calm chill 'what can ya do' energy, and Florence hating him for it when she felt like her heart was about to burst from her chest. He began to walk back in. "Come on." Florence scoffed,
"What? We're running towards the monsters now?" Mickey nodded emphatically at her comment,
"You have got to be kidding?!" The Doctor sighed slightly, pointing out,
"I need the TARDIS. I've got to analyse that oil Rose got from the kitchen." Shit that was fair.
Sarah-Jane saved them from their misery however, grabbing the Doctor's arm excitedly, "I might be able to help you there. I've got something to show you!" She led them over to a silver parked car, the only one in the car park. Florence laughed to herself slightly, Guess the bat people wouldn't need cars. Sarah-Jane unlocked it and opened the boot, inside was a squarish lump covered with a green tartan blanket, which she removed with a flourish to reveal a robotic dog with exposed wiring on its sides and even complete with what looked like miniature satellite dishes for ears.
"Oh this is precious." Florence commented. "Who's-?" The Doctor cut her off with excitement,
"K9!" He fiddled slightly with the wiring on the sides. "Florence Jensson, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9 - well K9 Mark III to be precise."
"K9…" Florence repeated, smiling at the little metal thing. "Oh that's just brilliant." The Doctor bobbed his head in agreement, a smile across his face.
"Why does he look so disco?" Rose asked, Florence was unsure whether the comment stemmed from her bitterness to a former companion of the Doctor or because of the metal dog's rather… tarnished look. Either way the Doctor looked as though it was a personal slight,
"Oi!" He cried. "Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge." Florence gave the cool metal of the dog's head a tiny pat,
"Well I think he's wonderful." The Doctor's smile returned to his face at the comment, and Florence nearly missed Rose's utterance of, "You would." Which caused her to raise an eyebrow at the blonde, hoping she wasn't about to be in her bad books for a comment about a dog.
"What happened to him?" The Doctor asked Sarah-Jane, who shrugged,
"Oh, one day, he just," she made a noise, "nothing."
"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?" He pressed, making Florence pull a face slightly at his obliviousness, mirrored by Sarah-Jane,
"Well, it's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro! Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone." She reasoned, but the Doctor ignored her sensibility, choosing instead to continue to coo at the robot,
"Oooh…" He put on a 'dog owner' voice, something Florence was definitely going to tease him about. "What's the nasty last done to you, eh?" He stroked the side of his face while making noises at it, Florence laughed openly at him while the others began to pile into Sarah-Jane's car to find somewhere safer nearby to analyse the oil. "Ignore the mean young Florence, she doesn't get us, eh boy?" Florence just continued to snicker at him and pulled him away from K9, just as Rose called out,
"Look, no offence, but could you two just stop petting for a minute? Never mind the tin dog. We're busy." Florence closed the boot and pushed the Doctor towards the passengers side of the car, before sliding herself inside next to Mickey.
Rose was leaning against the counter of the bistro waiting for her order while she watched the Doctor and Sarah-Jane bond over the rundown tin dog at a table near the window. She could feel Mickey and Florence watching her keenly so turned away quickly with only a slight huff. She smiled painfully at the woman preparing her portion of chips while Mickey stood there with a dopey grin that she wanted to smack right off his face. "You see," Oh she was tempted to do it then and there, she knew that tone, she knew him, "what's impressive is that it's been nearly an hour since we met her and I still haven't said I told you so." She ignored Florence's uncomfortable look and continued staring at the chips,
"I'm not listening to this." She insisted, she hated how he knew exactly what buttons to push.
"Although," He continued, risking his life at the moment, "I have prepared a little 'I was right' dance that I can show you later." She ignored him once more, handing over the correct money for her food and walked over to a table separate from the two besties fussing over mechanics, leaving Florence with her face pressed up against the glass case still trying to choose a pastry. "All this time you've been giving it, 'he's different!' When the truth is, he's just like any other bloke." Was he still talking? Rose munched on her chips angrily and glared at her maybe-sorta-ex-but-not boyfriend,
"You don't know what you're talking about." She told him, and she meant it. Mickey really didn't understand what he was talking about, this wasn't some irrational jealousy on her part because she only wanted the Doctor to herself. Any sort of thoughts like that get blown out the window the second a person spends time with him and Florence together. When the brunette appeared his eyes focused on nothing else, even in the bistro Rose could see his eyes dart from the dog to the woman every now and then, inexperienced Florence or not, she enveloped his every thought. And Rose was fine with that. She really was. Perhaps in another life yeah, she would be interested in the Doctor, but she couldn't fool herself into thinking like that with Florence around. Plus, if she was totally honest, the girl was too nice - annoyingly so sometimes, almost sickly sweet when it came to the Doctor but that sweetness extended to everyone around her which she supposed she couldn't fault. But what Rose did fool herself into thinking, emphasis on the fool she realised now, was that she was The Companion of the Doctor. It was Him and Her (and various Florences), Him and Her against the Daleks, Cassandra, the Sycorax. In that way, yes, maybe Mickey was right. She was hurt that the Doctor hadn't told her about his other companions, but not because she was jealous of them knowing him before her, but because she worried that she would be another one of those forgotten companions.
"Maybe not." Mickey pulled her out of her thoughts. "But if I were you I'd go easy on the chips." He was swotted on the arm by Florence as she joined them, a half eaten croissant in her hand and a content look in her eye,
"Rude." Mickey looked up at their newcomer,
"Oh yeah alright then, what do you make of the ex turning up? Huh?" Florence shrugged, ripping off another chunk of croissant and popping it in her mouth,
"Seems nice, Doctor seems pleased."
"So you're not, you know, interested in marking your territory?" Rose kicked him lightly under the table, she had already warned him about protocols when meeting earlier versions of Florence, who was usually pretty unaware of her close relationship with the Doctor, and she did not want to risk jeopardising that for the sake of him feeling vindicated. Either way, Florence pulled a face at that,
"What? Mickey I hardly know the man… I'll leave the pissing contest to you and him or the metal dog come to think of it." Rose snickered at the offended look on his face and was about to chime in when the three twenty-somethings were interrupted by a whirring motion and the Doctor's excited yelling,
"Hey! Now we're in business!" They all turned to see a red light had turned on on the dog's eye visor. A robotic voice that made Rose roll her eyes (come off it, she thought, is it not a little cliche?) came from the machine,
"Master." The Doctor looked extremely pleased to hear that,
"He recognises me." The dog bobbed his head slightly,
"Affirmative."
"Rose," The Doctor called to her, making a gimme movement with his hand, "pass us the oil." She did as he requested, but stopped him just as he uncorked the tube.
"I wouldn't touch it, though." She warned him, remembering the smoke coming through the white uniform and the pained screams earlier that day. "That dinner lady got all scorched."
"I'm no dinner lady." He told her, making Florence huff out a slight laugh, before dipping his index finger into the test tube. "And I don't often say that." He smeared the contents onto the small probe that extended from K9's eyepiece, and there was more whirring for a few seconds. "Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go."
"Oil. Ex-Ex-Extract." The dog struggled to say. "Ana-Ana-Analysing." Mickey laughed,
"Listen to him, man! Thassa voice!" Sarah-Jane frowned lightly at him,
"Careful." She scolded. "That's my dog!"
"Confirmation of analysis." K9 said. "Substance is Krillitane Oil." The name meant nothing to Rose, and she noticed with slight happiness that Sarah looked just as confused as she did. But the Doctor looked worried,
"They're Krillitanes."
"Is that bad?" Rose asked him, and he nodded ominously,
"Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad." Rose saw Florence worrying her lip with a frown.
"Nice analogy, really superb, now what are they?" She asked him, getting straight to the point.
"They're a composite race." He began to explain, speaking quickly, something Rose noticed he did very often when he was just that little bit more worried than he was confident. "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."
"What're they doing here?" Rose asked him, he looked like he had a brainwave,
"It's the children. They're doing something to the children." They left the bistro pretty quickly after that revelation, heading back to the car and to Sarah-Jane's, who had offered them a night's rest there before they headed to the school the next morning. Rose watched Florence, Mickey and Sarah-Jane lift the dog into the boot once more and laugh amongst themselves but lingered back slightly with the Doctor. She needed to clear some things up.
"How many of us have there been traveling with you?" She finally asked the question that had been on her mind for hours, but the Doctor remained aloof,
"Does it matter?" He asked, making her angry. She didn't mind when he was secretive, but not when he was being down right obtuse.
"Yeah, it does, if I'm just the latest in a long line."
"As opposed to what?" They both stopped in the street, equally frustrated with each other. Rose blanched at the question, she wasn't expecting him to be quite so defensive.
"I thought you and me were..." She trailed off slightly, trying to find the words to make her not sound like the green eyed monster Mickey was trying to make her look like earlier. "I thought, what with Florence coming and going, I was your… constant. There for you, always. I obviously got it wrong." She huffed at him, crossing her arms. "Oh, I've been to the year five billion, right, but this? Now this is really seeing the future. If we don't have a lovely little jumping power, you just leave us behind. Is that what you're going to do to me?" The Doctor shook his head at her,
"That's not fair, that's not how it happens. I wouldn't do that to you." Rose wasn't sure if she believed him.
"But Sarah-Jane?" She argued. "You were that close to her once, and now you never even mention her. Why not?" He took a breath.
"I don't age." He told her simply. "I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine continuously watching that happen to people you care about. It's different with Florence, but even then one day she might stop jumping and then what? What am I going to do the day she looks at me with no idea who I am?"
"So are we just stand-ins for her?" Rose asked sadly, worried for the answer, but he shook his head firmly.
"No." He assured her. "You're not. Rose, I was forced to leave Sarah on Earth by my people. I never want to leave you, but the trouble is that you can spend the rest of your life with me, I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
Rose's heart broke then and there, with pity for the lonely man in front of her, and for her own future that could never be spent with him.
Florence lay awake staring at the ceiling above her, listening to the gentle breathing Rose on the sofa adjacent to her and the light snores of Mickey from the floor. Sarah-Jane had offered them proper beds in her guest rooms but the three assured her that they would be fine in the living room, it was going to be an early start as it was. While her two new friends slept, Florence fiddled with her hands and wondered if she was ever going to drop off, she couldn't take her mind of the flying creature that had swooped down on them hours before. She also still couldn't believe she had found herself back in another life or death situation with the Doctor. His words from their first encounter ran through her head, was this her only option now, to stay with him and jump around his timeline? How long was that meant to last? How long did Time Lords live, unless that term Sarah-Jane mentioned 'regenerate' meant something important? Could he grow a new arm? She laughed at herself, that was stupid, unless his species was close to iguanas… focus Florence, count some sheep or something, she thought to herself. Her natural instinct was to send a text to Sarah, asking if she was up, but she soon remembered that she was technically six months behind her right now and wasn't sure her phone would keep up with the time difference. She supposed even if there was a signal, she checked, the bright light of her Nokia screen illuminating her face, zilch, she might run the risk of texting Sarah when her future was with the girl - and the twenty one year old might be concerned with a text from a random woman claiming to be the mate that was standing right in front of her in a bar asking her for advice on how to sleep. This whole thing was too confusing this late at night.
Florence rolled onto her side, frowning when she heard a noise coming from the kitchen, and braced herself, ready to shout the house down. The panic soon faded when the familiar sound of the sonic screwdriver followed the noise, and Florence swung herself off the loveseat she'd been allocated (as the smallest of the three) and tiptoed out of the living room towards the kitchen.
She leaned against the doorframe, watching the Doctor was still in his suit but sans overcoat and a pair of black framed glasses on; he was tinkering with K9 lightly connecting and reconnecting wires, occasionally hissing when there was a slight spark. She was unsure whether to disrupt him or not, but the decision was made for her when his head turned to her sharply,
"Oh!" He whispered. "Did I wake you? Sorry." Florence shook her head, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear,
"No I, uh, couldn't sleep anyway. Came to see who else was up." The Doctor smiled lightly and pushed the chair at the end of the table he was sitting at out with his conversed foot. She took the invitation to sit with him, pulling her legs up underneath her. They sat in a slightly stifling silence for a few minutes, broken only when the Doctor decided he had finished tinkering for now and pulled his glasses off, facing her,
"What's on your mind?" She tilted her head.
"Do you really need those glasses?" She asked him cheekily, and he just raised an eyebrow at her. She pursed her lips briefly. "You told me our timelines were connected. And that I could go home, but the jumps are more painful when I'm home." She played with a coaster lying in front of her. "What's going on, Doctor? Why me?" He sighed. "Please. I need to know, otherwise I can't ever fully trust you."
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, Florence. And that's the truth." He added, seeing her about to cut him off. "Our timelines are connected, yes. Those voices you hear, in the darkness? That's me. Snippets of conversations in the TARDIS. It's not just me you're connected to, it's her as well. I think that's why it's less painful when you jump inside the TARDIS. That's the reason I hesitate taking you home, I don't know what I tell you in the future, but I promise. If I could assure you that there would be no pain staying at home, I would. But I care about you, Florence. I don't want to see you hurting so much." Florence sighed and nodded, finally looking him in the eyes,
"Okay, I get it." He relaxed slightly, and she pointed at him. "I'm still not happy about it!" She wasn't sure why she kept blowing hot and cold with the Doctor, she knew it wasn't his fault, but there was something about him knowing her so intimately that kept her on edge. "But I get it."
"Good. You don't have to trust me straight away." He told her gently. "I've met this younger you a few times and I understand that it's going to take some time." They say in silence again, this time much more comfortably. Florence hesitated before asking her next question,
"Is it always dangerous with you?" The Doctor smiled, slightly bashful,
"A bit, yeah." He paused. "It is more fun like this though."
Florence couldn't help but smile. "A bit, yeah."
In the morning light, sat at the kitchen table of 13 Bannerman Road, Florence relaxed properly for the first time since she met the lonely traveller in front of her, and watched him tinker once more with the robot dog in between them.
The next morning the group of five found themselves walking towards the school, through the throngs of children and ready to put a stop to whatever was going on with the Krillitane and the kids. The Doctor gave them their instructions as they got closer, "Florence, Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside." He pulled his sonic from his overcoat, handing it to Florence instinctively, "Here, you might need this." Florence just looked at it.
"Um, try again. I have no idea how to use that thing." He nodded in understanding and handed it to his other side to Sarah-Jane, oblivious to Rose's outstretched hand and hurt expression.
"Mickey," He told the young man, "surveillance. I want you outside." The man in question looked affronted by this placement,
"Just stand outside." Sarah-Jane tossed her car keys at him,
"Here, take these you can keep K9 company." This didn't seem to appease him, and nor did the Doctor's next comment,
"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack."
"What?" Mickey asked, confused. "But he's metal!" Florence gave the Doctor a look at his cheek,
"I don't think he meant for K9…" They left the poor man standing there with the keys as they entered the building, Rose asking just before the Doctor left them,
"What are you going to do?"
He looked solemn. "It's time I had a word with Mister Finch."
Florence sat on one of the desks in the IT classroom watching Sarah-Jane attempt to work the sonic screwdriver on the back of the computers, she felt a bit useless. It had been nearly eight years since she had last had to sit in a secondary school classroom, and so she was taking the time to relish in how much she absolutely hated it. "For someone who voluntarily chose to do an extra five years of further education, I really fucking hated school." Rose laughed and nodded in agreement. "Seriously, I mean I never thought I'd have to revisit a classroom again."
Sarah-Jane let out a huff and popped up from her position on the floor, "It's not working!" Rose made a motion with her hand, taking the screwdriver from the older woman.
"Give it to me." Sarah-Jane crossed her arms in a huff,
"Used to work first time in my day."
"Well, things were a lot simpler back then." Rose muttered, causing Florence to kick her thigh lightly from where she sat, earning a glare.
"Rose," Sarah-Jane began hesitantly, "can I give you a bit of advice?"
"I've got a feeling you're about to…" Sarah-Jane took this as a go ahead,
"I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding." Florence once more felt very uncomfortable with the two other women, and wondered if the Doctor was getting on betting with the big bat leader.
"I don't feel threatened by you, if that's what you mean." Sarah-Jane nodded,
"Right. Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off." Florence could tell she was attempting to sound reassuring but she also knew Rose wouldn't give in that easily,
"No? With the big sad eyes and the robot dog? What else were you doing last night?" Florence raised her eyebrows,
"Rose, come off it." Rose glared up at her while she fussed with the computer.
"I was just saying how hard it was adjusting to life back on Earth." This only made Rose roll her eyes,
"The thing is, when you two met they'd only just got rid of rationing." She bit out scathingly, standing. "No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you." Florence wanted to know honestly how many times Rose had questioned her safety with the Doctor, how often she had wanted to go home.
"I had no problem with the space stuff." Sarah-Jane refuted. "I saw things you wouldn't believe!"
"Try me." Florence didn't want to be sitting here right now.
"Mummies."
"I've met ghosts."
"Robots. Lots of robots." Yep, Florence would rather be anywhere else.
"Slitheen, in Downing Street!" That one did get her attention, was she there for that?
"Daleks!"
"Met the emperor." Rose told her dismissively.
"Anti-matter monsters."
"Gas mask zombies!" Seemed strange that two people were competing over life or death situations.
"Real living dinosaurs!" Okay, Florence thought, that has to be the winner.
"Real living werewolf." Rose came back easily, an even tie.
"The Loch Ness Monster!" That caused a shocked silence,
"Seriously?" Rose asked, before shaking her head, "Listen to us. It's like me and my mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and we're arguing over the Doctor." She laughed slightly, leaning in like she was telling her a secret, "With you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go, 'what?' and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?" Florence laughed at this,
"Ha! He's such a smart arse!"
Sarah-Jane nodded enthusiastically, "All the time! Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?" Florence raised her eyebrows,
"I'm sorry what…?" God, she was connected to a right weirdo.
"Yeah!" Rose cried. "He does! I'm like, do you two want to be alone?" The three of them burst into laughter at the thought, Florence was just glad they had gotten any sort of rivalry out of their system, she was a bit smug actually as it was exactly what she told the Doctor they needed to do. The man in question entered the room with a flourish,
"How's it going?" The women paused for a second before continuing to laugh, clutching their stomachs. "What?" Nothing. "Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these." Florence had managed to stop but couldn't say the same for Rose and Sarah-Jane. "What?" He sounded a little petulant, not liking the feeling that the laughter was directed at him. "Stop it!"
The laughter had finally ceased and the team had managed to focus back on the task at hand, the Doctor was taking the computer apart to reach the hard drive, looping wires around his shoulders and grabbing things here and there - Florence wasn't sure quite how he had expected the three humans to have pulled off what he was doing. The bell rang loudly in the hallway outside and Florence and Rose began the job of directing students away from the classroom and towards another part of the school. They turned back and saw the Doctor struggling to access whatever it was he was trying to find, "I can't shift it." He muttered angrily to himself. "It has a deadlock seal, the sonic can't break it. There's got to be something inside here." He smacked the side of the screen. "What're they teaching these kids?"
Suddenly the screen behind them turned on, and strange green symbols began to float around in a cube shape, constantly flitting and changing.
"What's that?" Florence asked. "Like a puzzle? An equation." The Doctor was looking at it intently,
"Some sort of code." It suddenly started to solve itself, some of the symbols rearranging themselves. "No. No, that can't be… the Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm."
"The Skasis What?" Sarah-Jane asked him, looking at the large screen in front of her.
"The... God maker. The universal theory." The Doctor explained. "Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control." Florence shook her head,
"But what's that got to do with the kids?"
"Are they like… a computer? A calculator?" Rose wondered.
"Yes. And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil. That oil from the kitchens, it works as a, as a conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer." That didn't sound good. Florence couldn't believe the power the oil could have over the kids so quickly,
"Oh my god, of course," She realised, "the lunches! Doctor, these kids have been drip fed this intelligence for what? Weeks? Months? No wonder he replaced all the kitchen staff!" Rose nodded,
"That oil's on the chips. I've been eating them."
"What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" The Doctor demanded, and Rose took less than a second to respond.
"Two thousand and sixty five. Oh, my God."
Sarah-Jane interrupted the maths lesson, "But why use children? Can't they use adults?"
"No." The Doctor shook his head. "It's got to be the children. The God maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code, they're using their souls." Florence covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped, they were bleeding them dry.
"Let the lesson begin." A cold voice broke through the revelation. They turned and saw a fierce looking man who, she assumed was Mr Finch, standing at the door, dressed sharply in a black suit. "Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."
"Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mister Finch?" The Doctor mocked him. "Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."
"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good." Finch tried to convince the Doctor to join his side, with no luck.
"What, by someone like you?" He sneered in response, But Finch shook his head,
"No, someone like you. The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom." He smiled wickedly. "Become a God at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta. Your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn." Florence couldn't sit here listening to Finch pressure him with such empty promises,
"Doctor don't, he's lying to you." Finch looked at the three women standing protecting the Time Lord,
"And you could all be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die." He turned back to the Doctor. "Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us." Florence was worried by how quiet the Doctor was, she stepped forward and grasped the corner of the sleeve of his overcoat lightly,
"Doctor." She said gently, but it was as if he couldn't hear her.
"I could save everyone." He said to himself. Finch agreed.
"Yes."
"I could stop the war." Sarah-Jane stepped forward at this, which Florence was glad for. The journalist was the only companion in the room who truly understood the Doctor's thoughts, she had been with him through so much and so long ago.
"No." She told him, firmly. "The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends." There was a silence, Florence hoped she had got through to him. For a second, she wasn't sure. Until he turned from her, grabbing a chair and throwing it straight at the screen, causing it to break in a shower of glass and sparks.
"Run!" He yelled to them, and they fled the room with no hesitation.
They ran through the hallways, past the gymnasium where the Doctor and Florence had met Sarah-Jane just the night before, stopping at the bottom of a set of stairs, and almost crashing headfirst into Mickey and a young schoolboy. "What's going on?" Mickey asked quickly. Just before Florence could answer him, the screeches of the big bat people sounded from behind them, and she let him work it out for himself. They carried on running, making it into the canteen just before Finch walked in, followed by a group of his minions. The schoolboy turned to the adults in fear,
"Are they my teachers?" The Doctor nodded,
"Yeah, sorry." Finch spoke orders to the other Krillitane and they attacked. Sharp claws and teeth came towards the group, forcing them under tables and scurrying out of direct hits from the monsters using chairs as shields or weapons. Before anyone could get hurt, thankfully, a jet of red light shot into the sky and hit one of the bats, hurting it significantly enough to make it fall midair. Finch screeched furiously in the direction of the laserbeam, as did the other bats who saw the saviour of the day in the form of a turquoise robotic dog.
"K9!" Sarah-Jane exclaimed, ang the dog halted in his shooting to answer,
"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress." The Doctor grinned and shouted for them all to run once more,
"Come on! K9, hold them back!"
"Affirmative, master. Maximum defence mode." K9 shot at all the Krillitane that came their way, allowing the Doctor time to get the door unlocked, they raced out of the canteen and into a physics classroom, sonicking the blue door shut behind them. They all took the chance to catch their breath as the Doctor leaned against one of the desks.
"It's the oil." He thought aloud. "Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil." He stood straighter. "That's it! They've changed their physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?"
"Barrels of it." Rose answered, the classroom wasn't safe, they could all see the deep scratch marks from the bombardment of the Krillitane. The Doctor nodded to Mickey,
"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens. Mickey." The young man through his arms up,
"What now, hold the coats?" He clearly wasn't over the 'wait in the car' order.
"Get all the children unplugged and out of the school." The Doctor told him, glancing worriedly at the weakening door in front of them. "Now then, bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?" Lucky for the adults in the room, the young boy had the perfect plan, and smashed his elbow into the fire alarm on the wall. The shrill noise causing the Krillitane outside to pause their attack and screech in pain, giving the group of them time to run past them and towards the kitchen.
By the time they had reached the hallway adjacent to the canteen, the fire alarm had stopped, Mickey had split off and K9 approached them from the right. The Doctor ushered him to follow and they ran with urgency into the kitchens. Two large barrels of oil stood in the centre, and the Doctor attempted to open them with that handy screwdriver of his, which failed for the second time that day.
"They've been deadlock sealed. Finch must've done that. I can't open them." Florence looked around for anything they might use,
"Is there nothing else? What if we heat it or something?" The Doctor shook his head,
"Unless these stoves can reach unbelievable degrees, no."
"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser," K9 informed them, "but my batteries are failing." The Doctor looked down at his old friends, before pushing the others towards the back door,
"Right. Out, everyone, back door." He pushed Florence, who was slightly hesitant to leave him, gently, "Florence go. K9, stay with me." She followed his command and ran with Rose and Sarah-Jane out the red door leading them into the back alley of the school. Her and rose ran to the playground, Florence noticed Sarah-Jane fall behind, and with a quick look back saw that she hadn't gone back inside but was waiting for the Doctor and her dog outside.
The two girls followed the sounds of children gathered in the middle of the playground, unsure what was happening but many were not complaining about being let out of classes earlier. Rose was quick to give Mickey a tight hug and they waited for the Doctor and Sarah-Jane to join them. Not moments after she caught sight of the two running around the corner towards them hand in hand did the school behind explode with a huge blast, causing the glass to shatter and flames to spread. The children let out laughing screams when they realised what had happened, cheering and grabbing the gang's schoolboy helper after discovering his involvement. Florence noticed sadly that K9 wasn't with the Doctor and Sarah-Jane, approaching them cautiously and giving her arm a soft squeeze as the Doctor hugged her into his side.
Florence leaned against the console, back aboard the TARDIS and getting a good look at the room around her, smiling thoughtfully. Rose and Mickey were teasing each other by the leather seats while the Doctor was meeting up with Sarah-Jane outside. "So, Flora!" Rose called out, using a nickname Florence was unaccustomed to but wasn't wholly unwelcoming of. "How long ya staying for?" Florence shrugged,
"I don't think I really get a choice." She laughed nervously, and Rose smiled softly at her.
"Yeah sorry. What do you think though? You know, staying… proper staying." Florence shrugged once more,
"Maybe? I don't know…" Before she could continue the Doctor entered with Sarah-Jane in tow, looking around at the TARDIS decor in wonder,
"You've redecorated." She commented.
"Do you like it?"
"Oh I do, I do. Yeah." She looked at the messy console. "I preferred it as it was, but yeah. It'll do." Florence scoffed, adding cheekily,
"It's a tip, isn't it." The Doctor poked her side as he moved past her in annoyance, but smiling all the same.
"I love it." Rose said with a grin, Florence pulled a face at her. Sarah-Jane laughed at the two of them and pointed at the blonde,
"Hey, you what's forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?" Rose laughed,
"No idea. It's gone now. The oil's faded."
"Oh," Sarah-Jane waved a hand. "But you're still clever. More than a match for him."
"You and me both." Rose agreed, before giving the Doctor a look. "Doctor…?"
"Yes, um, were about to head off… but you could come with us." The Time Lord asked, almost bashfully, but Sarah-Jane declined the offer,
"No." She told him. "I can't do this anymore. Besides, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead. Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own."
"Can I come?" Mickey asked, speaking up form behind them, "No, not with you, I mean with you. Because I'm not the tin dog, and I want to see what's out there." Florence smiled at him, hoping the Doctor took him with them, she liked Mickey - he kept them all on their toes. Sarah-Jane seemed to agree with her,
"Oh, go on, Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith, a Mickey Smith. You need a Smith on board." The Doctor pretended to think about it for a second,
"Okay then, I could do with a laugh." Florence scoffed at that,
"Oh you're so funny." He winked at her,
"I am, yeah."
"Rose," Mickey asked. "Is that okay?" Rose looked at Florence and the Doctor interacting,
"Yeah, course." She smiled sincerely at her oldest friend. "I'd love it."
Sarah-Jane pulled Florence and Mickey in for tight hugs before pulling Rose to the side, whispering amongst themselves while the Doctor prepared them for flight. He was just about to lead Sarah-Jane back outside when Florence began to feel something, it had started off as a tingling sensation in her feet whilst they were chatting but soon became the annoying pinpricks she had associated with the Darkness.
"Doctor." She called to him, making him turn in worry. "Um, I think, I think I'm off again." He made a step towards her but before he could touch her she blinked and found herself once more surrounded by the void. She was suspended for a few seconds, breathing deeply and trying to stave off the slight burning she could feel. The pain was less than the previous trips, and she hated the possibility that the doctor was correct in assuming that this meant it was safer for her to jump from the TARDIS. She closed her eyes as the overlapping voices, that she now knew to come from various points in the Doctor's life, grew increasingly loud, and took a deep breath preparing herself to where she might end up next. She opened her eyes.
And awoke in a pool.
What the…
Well that was a loooooong one! I love doing the little companions' takes on this much younger Florence, let me know what ya think!
See you for chapter five! xo