Chapter 21 The One with the Sheriff
Hello hello hello! Exciting stuff ahead but I also wanted to note that as of right now we are halfway through this 'book' / 'chronicle' / section of Florence's story! I'm planning 42 chapters for this story and then moving on to another! I just didn't want to have like 80 chapters that's not really my style!
Anywayyyy:
I own nothing recognisable x
The door clanged shut and Florence was left stuck with the five year olds trapped in two grown men's bodies, who kept looking at the door as if it were going to magically open up once more and set them free.
"Right…" She drawled, grabbing their attention. "Now what?" The Doctor frowned and looked around the room slightly for signs of a way out, while Robin's eyes widened comically as he clearly thought of something.
"Beat your breast!" Florence flinched in surprise.
"Um, excuse you?" She asked, she must have been missing some medieval saying or else Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was going to get a smack. "Beat my breast?"
The Doctor gave him a dark look. "I'm sorry?" Robin looked between the two of them curiously,
"Beat your breast." He repeated, turning to the Doctor. "Moan!" He explained, and Florence's shoulder fell slightly in relief. "Groan as though twenty devils possessed your guts."
"What for?" The Doctor asked.
"So as to attract the attention of that gargoyle-faced guard, we get him close and we incapacitate him." Robin told them, as if speaking to idiots, Florence scoffed - as if that explained anything further.
"It's your bloody plan!" Florence argued, giving him a look of disbelief. "You moan!"
Robin shook his head firmly. "No, no. That won't work."
"Why?"
"Because you are a woman! Clearly more likely to succumb to sickness and hunger in these damp dungeons!"
"Oh dear." The Doctor muttered, as Florence felt her face grow warm,
"I'm really resisting the urge to throw this skull at you." She told the outlaw plainly, who looked to the Doctor in alarm.
"Well then you must do it!" He informed him. "You're more advanced in years… and you have a sickly aspect to you." Florence let out a laugh at his cheek.
"I have a what?" The Doctor asked, affronted.
Robin seemed unfazed by his fellow prisoner's insulted face. "You're as pale as milk." He shrugged. "It's the way with the Scots, they're strangers to vegetables." Florence laughed again, and the Doctor shot her a look,
"Right, that's it. You moan!" Florence pulled a face,
"Absolutely not!"
Robin sighed and looked to the ceiling wearily. "Fine! If you want something doing…" He let out a loud moan before giving the Doctor and Florence a look. "Can I rely on you to do the rest?" Florence nodded and the Doctor huffed,
"Yes, yes. I know the drill." A shadow came across the bars of the door and the guard's voice echoed through the large room,
"What is this din?"
"No business of yours, cur!" The Doctor yelled back to him, before turning to Robin in faux concern. "Speak up, I can't hear you."
"What ails him?" The guard tried once again, but Florence turned to glare at him.
"None of your business!" She yelled out haughtily, and the guard unlocked the door loudly and stomped in,
"I said, what ails him?" He repeated, and the Doctor sighed dramatically,
"Well, if you must know, he's having a nervous breakdown!"
Even Robin looked somewhat confused by the wording. "A what?" The guard asked him.
"He's like this whenever he's in any kind of danger." The Doctor explained, and Florence had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, glad that she was next to the skeleton and the guard was facing away from him. "He just can't seem to cope. He gets so afraid. He goes into a kind of fit. I honestly believe that he may die of sheer fright, like some tiny, shivering little mouse." Robin groaned again, and the Doctor sat up slightly in disgust. "Oh, God, I think he's soiled himself."
"Let him die." The guard decided after a moment, turning his back and walking away. Florence gave the Doctor a look as if to say 'do something!'. "It will save us the trouble of executing him."
"And what will happen to the reward?" The Doctor called out quickly, thinking on his feet. The guard paused. He turned back to face them again.
"Reward?" He asked, and Florence looked at the Doctor in panic,
"Doctor!" She hissed, and he shut his mouth dramatically,
"Oh, I shouldn't have said that!"
"Tell me!" The guard demanded, rushing back over to them.
"He carries a vital message." The Doctor explained. "The Prince has promised a bounty."
"A big one?" The guard asked, the greed of men being their downfall.
The Doctor nodded. "An enormous one." Robin mumbled under his breath incoherently, and the guard stepped closer to him.
"What's that?" He asked. "Say again?"
"Come closer." Robin murmured, and the guard leaned in so they were at eye level, before Robin suddenly opened his eyes. "Your breath stinks like a serpent, has anyone ever told you that?" Before the guard could respond Robin drew his head back and quickly slammed his forehead into the guard's own, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious, head inches from Florence's feet. Robin turned to the Doctor in annoyance. "Soiled myself?"
The Doctor gave him an unimpressed look. "Did you? That's getting into character…" He stretched his foot out to begin edging it over to the guard's prone body. "Okay, keys." Robin also stretched out the leg next to the Doctor's, copying his movements.
"I'll get them!" Their competitiveness took over them again, causing Florence to sigh in annoyance.
"I swear to god." She looked up at the ceiling in exasperation, barely listening to their arguing back and forth over who was more masculine and could be the hero and reach the keys. Their feet shuffled and thumped around before suddenly there was a rattle and Florence looked down just in time to see the keys fall into the drain in between them, rattling down further and further until they landed with a splash. She looked at the Doctor with an open mouth. "Are you serious?" He gave her a sheepish smile,
"Wasn't me?" Robin gave him a dark glare,
"It was! It was you!"
"I had it under control!" Florence glared at them both,
"Enough! Jesus! Please, just…" She trailed off, waving her shackled wrists at them. "Now what?" Robin sighed and fell back roughly against his post, his movement causing the Doctor's wrists to move slightly with him. He looked down at the iron ring attached to the ground that connected their shackles curiously.
"Interesting…" He muttered, and the Doctor looked at him,
"What now?" Robin lifted his chains so they pulled against the ring tautly.
"This block, it's not attached." The Doctor turned so he could lift his shackles at the same time, the joint upward force shifting the stone slightly in its place.
"Aha!" The Doctor cried, and the two men began tugging their chains to lift the block, groaning with the effort. They managed to pull it up halfway as they crouched, Florence resting her back against her own post, helpless. Robin gripped his chains with one hand as he slid another under the block, managing to slide it out from the hole and into his arms with a victorious yell, and Florence clapped her hand sarcastically at the two of them as they stood with grins covering their faces.
"Yay, teamwork!" The two men looked over at her, the Doctor puffing his chest out while Robin attempted to do the same while still holding the block of stone looping their chains together. "What about me?" The Doctor looked down at her, his bushy eyebrows knitted together in concern,
"Ah… can't you…?" He gestured the block next to her and she nodded to the figure beside her,
"Don't think my prison mate is gonna be up to the job." Robin grunted slightly under the weight of the stone and looked down at her chains,
"My lady, hold your chains taut." He told her, and she peered up at him suspiciously, but did as she was told.
"Okay…" He walked over to her, holding the heavy block over her chains and lifting it slightly.
"Watch yourself." He warned, before dropping the block with a thud, dragging his and the Doctor's bodies down slightly as they were still attached to the loop. Florence cried out slightly in shock and felt the chains give way a little from the force, and she looked up at the men with a smile.
"Once more for luck?" Robin groaned slightly and began to lift the block once more, the Doctor sighing slightly in exasperation. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Florence told him snarkily. "Are we keeping you?" The Doctor gave her a so-so motion as Robin readied the block to drop.
"Oh, just robot invaders in the middle of medieval England, no biggie!" Florence gritted her teeth and pulled her half broken chains again as Robin dropped the block with a grunt, finally pulling herself free from the imprisonment. The outlaw cheered as it broke, while the Doctor held a hand down to help Florence stand, she took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet, giving him a soft smile when he squeezed her hand gently. "Right!" He helped Robin bundle the block back into his arms before leading the trio over towards the door that had been left ajar. "Off we pop!"
The three of them peered out curiously to ensure there were no other guards waiting for them outside, though Florence was sure they would have made themselves known already with the racket they had made. Robin looked to the Doctor,
"Now what?" He asked the Time Lord who glanced down at the shackles still connecting them,
"First, a blacksmith's forge."
"So as to remove our chains?" Robin asked, and Florence rolled her eyes slightly, the Doctor beating her to a snarky comment,
"No. So I can knock up an ornamental plant stand." He said blankly, motioning Florence up the stairs first so that he could struggle on behind with the outlaw. "Of course it's so we can get rid of our chains. I don't want to be manacled to you all night." Florence giggled slightly and Robin let out a large guffaw at his comment. "Oh, no. Please don't do that." The Doctor moaned, and Robin continued chuckling lightly,
"Ornamental plant stand." He repeated, and the Doctor looked at him, unimpressed.
"It's not even that funny." Florence shook her head lightly and continued up the stairs.
"You're an amusing fellow, Doctor." Robin told him, still laughing behind them.
"Can you just stop!" The Doctor demanded. "You'll give yourself a hernia."
"And him a bigger head!" Florence called over her shoulder, before turning down the next dimly lit corridor.
Florence lifted her skirts with her newly freed hands as she, the Doctor and Robin climbed another set of stairs away from the forge they had managed to sneak into. The Doctor reached blindly behind him with an outstretched hand and Florence gripped it tightly as they came to an open iron doorway, peering around the corner and coming to an abrupt stop when the Doctor caught sight of something,
"Aha…" He smirked slightly, Florence and Robin looking in the same direction he was to find a strange metal door between two sets of candelabras, with an ominous sterile light coming from the circular window at the top. "At last, something real." He shot Florence an excited look, reminding her of his previous bodies. "No more fairytales."
"Some normality, yeah?" She quipped, laughing slightly at the idea that the two of them found sci-fi more of a comfort than knights and lack of indoor plumbing. She moved past him towards the door, feeling round for a handle before the Doctor's hand appeared above her and he merely pushed the door with force, and the three of them opened the door to, for Robin at least, a new world. They entered a hallway basted in cold white lights, with a console and screens at the end of the length of the room.
"What is this place?" Robin asked, looking around in awe but lingering at the doorway.
"A spaceship." Florence told him with a grin, looking back as she followed the Doctor towards the console. The feeling of excitement and the thrill of the unknown never getting old for her. A little voice in the back of her mind wanting to break free to tell her how unnatural this all was and how weird it was to be this used to going from the medieval past to the future without blinking, but she smothered it - it did her no good dwelling on the insanity of her new life with the Doctor, she had plenty of time to do that in the comfort of her room in the TARDIS rather than in the middle of danger.
"More twenty ninth century than twelfth!" The Doctor informed him, skipping around the podiums and trying to access the information on display. "Data banks, data banks, data banks. Where was this ship headed?" Florence sidled up next to him, reading the orange words on the screen curiously,
"'The Promised Land?'" She looked at him. "That sounds pretty 12th Century to me?"
"Again… just like the Half-Faced Man…" The Doctor muttered, and Florence shot him a confused look. "Spoilers." He waved her off. "This is much more sophisticated, it disguised itself as a 12th Century castle." The screen showed the floorplans of the castle, and the spaceship they were standing in landing in the middle of the castle and acting as the central keep. "It merges into the culture, tries to keep a low profile, so no one notices." He turned away from the screen, moving onto the next curious object in the room, namely the smoking orb in the centre.
"That explains the robot knights." Florence commented, and he clicked his finger at her in agreement, staring at the pulsating centrepiece.
"But the engines…" He began. "The engines are damaged. They're leaking radiation into the local atmosphere, creating a temporary climate of staggering benevolence."
"I beg pardon?" Robin asked, looking particularly, and understandably overwhelmed at the revelations.
"The climate change!" Florence realised, remembering Clara's words back in the forest, and the Doctor nodded.
"I told you. It's too sunny. It's too green." The Doctor explained. "But it's not just the weather, there is even an evil sheriff to oppress the locals. This explains everything, even you." Florence frowned at this, slightly unsure he was going with this.
"It does?" Robin asked, and Florence shrugged when he looked at her briefly for help.
"Well, what does every oppressed peasant workforce need? The illusion of hope. Some silly story to get them through the day, lull them into docility, and keep them working." The Doctor circled him, ending at the same screen and pulling something up. "Ship's data banks. Full of every myth and legend you could hope for, including Robin Hood." They all looked down at the screen, where various pictures and drawings of Robin Hood that had circulated Earth's history was displayed. "Isn't it time you came clean with me?" The Doctor demanded. "You're not real and you know it. Look at you. Perfect eyes, perfect teeth. Nobody has a jawline like that. You're as much a part of what is happening here as the Sheriff and his metal knights. You're a robot." Florence shook her head slightly,
"But Doctor, you scanned…" Robin cut her off angrily,
"You dare to accuse me of collusion with that villain, the Sheriff?"
"I dare!" The Doctor taunted, and Robin practically shook with anger,
"You false-tongued knave. I should have skewered you when I had the chance." Florence placed her hands on both their chests,
"Hey!"
"I would like to see you try." The Doctor challenged.
Before Florence had to physically intervene anymore, however, the door that they had come through was suddenly blown down in a fiery blast, and the Doctor turned away from Robin with a laugh,
"Oh, yeah yeah yeah." He walked towards the intruders, the smoke clearing to reveal the Sheriff holding Clara by the arm and his knights flanking him.
"Clara!" Florence called out, and the woman gave her a reassuring, if slightly worried, smile.
"Surrender, outlaw!" The Sheriff ordered, and the Doctor merely laughed again,
"Very good." He complimented, and Florence looked at him in confusion.
"Kill him!" The Sheriff told his knights. "Kill Robin Hood!" The knights advanced on Robin, the Doctor ignoring the danger completely,
"You can drop all that stuff now, Sheriff."
"Doctor?" Clara and Florence both asked simultaneously, equally confused by his bravado.
"He is not what you think he is." The Doctor explained to the girls, ignoring the knights who were aiming their lasers at Robin. "This is all play-acting."
"What are you talking about?" Florence cried as Robin backed away, a purple target on his clothes.
"We can't just let them kill him!" Clara broke free of the Sheriff's hold and ran towards Robin, who had to duck as a beam shot the wall behind him, opening up into the dark night sky outside.
"You're not fooling anyone, Sheriff." The Doctor continued, while Florence hit his arm in impatience,
"What are you doing?" She asked him, before yelling out in alarm when Robin grabbed Clara and held her between him and the advancing knight, backing them towards the open air behind. He whispered something to her before Clara cried out,
"No!" And the two disappeared from view, falling into the abyss below. Florence screamed and ran to the edge, watching the water ripple in the moonlight.
"Clara!" She yelled down, and the Doctor shouted the same thing next to her.
"Yeah, sorry about the girl." The Sheriff said in a bored tone. "Such a pretty thing. What a queen she would have made." He left their side and Florence let out a sigh of relief when she saw Clara's prone figure being carried out of the water by Robin. The Doctor pulled her away from the busted doorway by her waist gently and turned angrily to the Sheriff.
"Stop pretending." He told the Sheriff, who paused to give the knight in front of him a polish with a cloth he held in his hand. "You and your fancy robots. I get it, I understand."
"Oh, so you know my plans?" The Sheriff asked mockingly.
"You and your robots plundering the surrounding countryside for all it's worth…" He paused slightly in realisation, clicking his fingers. "Gold. Gold. Of course. Gold. You are creating a matrix of gold to repair the engine circuitry." Florence did wonder how much information was stored in his head sometimes.
The Sheriff nodded, covering his surprise as best as he could. "This is the scheme the Mechanicals have devised." He confirmed. "Soon this skyship will depart. Destination, London. There I will obliterate the King and take my rightful place as ruler of this sceptred isle!"
"It won't work." The Doctor warned him. "There's not a chance. I've seen the instruments. There's been too much damage. You are stoking up a gigantic bomb!" The Sheriff tsked him slightly, holding a finger to him lips, motioning next to him, where a knight stood with his fist raised.
Florence gasped and tried to catch the Doctor as he fell, before she too succumbed to unconsciousness.
Florence woke suddenly to someone shaking her shoulder urgently, she looked up to see only the back of the Doctor's head, realising that it was him shaking her with his arms shackled behind him. She inhaled sharply and sat up, shoulders pulling slightly from lying chained to the wall as she had been.
"Doctor?" She whispered, head pounding. The familiarity of this adventure with the Doctor to the last time he had had a Scottish accent was not lost on her, and she wished this was not the second time in less than a month that she had been knocked out and chained up. The Doctor stopped shaking her and threw a reassuring smile over his shoulder,
"Oh good! You're awake." She shuffled up so that she was leaning against the wall and looked at her surroundings, while not as dingy as the dungeon, the cold dimly lit room hardly comforted her. She watched as knights marched past them holding spaceship components. "Florence, this is Marian, she's going to help us out of here." Marian smiled at Florence, who gave her a friendly nod,
"Would shake your hand but…" Marian smiled again and held up the pin she planned to use on the Doctor's shackles before looking up at him, continuing their conversation from when Florence was out.
"I think I understand you. The Sheriff's using the gold to replace something." She managed to free the Doctor, who rubbed his wrists in relief for the second time that day, and Marian shuffled over to reach Florence's chains as discreetly as possible.
"That's the principle." The Doctor told her. "But he's a moron. If he tries to fly this ship, it'll explode and wipe out half the country. What we need is a little riot. Time to reflect on lasers and gold. Spread the word." He instructed her, and she finally unlocked the chains, freeing Florence. The three sat there, pretending to still be imprisoned when they heard the heavy footsteps of a knight approaching.
"You are fit for labour." It told the Doctor. "Stand aside while this peasant unit is freed."
"I'm afraid you're a little late." The Doctor told the robot, who opened its helmet and the purple beam pulsated from the centre of its face.
"Explain." It ordered.
"I'm already free!" The Doctor cried, pulling his hands out from behind his back and waving them at the robot, who's laser readied itself. The Doctor grabbed a golden plate from the pile next to him and held it in front of him just in time for the laser to be deflected and hit the wall behind it with a fiery explosion. Florence grabbed another plate and threw it at Marian, who aimed it at the knight as it shot again, this time the beam bouncing back and removing its head from its shoulders. The three of them stood, Florence grabbing a shield for herself just as another squadron of knights entered, but were all halted by the sight of the rest of the prisoner workforce holding up golden plates in the way of shields in defiance.
The people stood hard against the knights, who despite the rebellion, managed to fire shot after shot of purple beams at the people, blowing up barrels nearby and ladders and platforms sheltering the workers. Florence watched as some fell, but the knights were falling quicker, until there was only one remaining.
"Everyone, the last one!" The Doctor called, and the newfound army circled the last robotic knight, who shot multiple beams at them and each was deflected by a shield, until they all converged into the centre and the machine was defeated in an explosion of flames and smoke. Men and women cheered as they threw down their weapons and hugged each other tightly, but the Doctor was quick to regain order. "Out, out! Everyone, quickly, get out!" He laid down his own shield and pushed the lingering survivors towards the exit, whilst Marian paused briefly and hugged him tightly,
"You saved us all, clever one." She kissed him quickly on the cheek before running off with the other, and the Doctor stood frozen where he was. Florence laughter lightly and shook his arm,
"Ooo, get you, tiger." He shook himself out of his stupor and laughed at Florence's words, grabbing her into a hug and lifting her from the ground happily.
"Aw, how sweet." A voice interrupted them, and they looked up to see the Sheriff standing at the top of the steps to the entrance, smugly looking down at them. "You are indeed an ingenious fellow, Doctor. But do you really think your peasants' revolt can stop me?"
"Engine capacity at eighty two percent." A knight's voice announced, as if to boast further.
"I rather think you're the revolting one around here." He paused suddenly and turned to Florence in disgust. "I'm bantering, I hate bantering." Florence rolled her eyes slightly and he turned back to the Sheriff. "Listen to me. You don't have enough gold content to seal the engine breach. If you try and take off, you'll wipe out half of England." The Sheriff scoffed, picking up a knights fallen head and tossing it lightly.
"Liar! From my sky vessel, I shall rule omnipotent."
The Doctor groaned at his ignorance. "You pudding-headed primitive, shut down the engines. What you're doing will alter the course of history."
The Sheriff gave them both a little smirk, before turning and throwing the knight's head into the crucible behind him. "I sincerely hope so, or I wouldn't be bothering."
"Listen to me. It doesn't have to end like this." The Doctor bargained. "Shut it all down, return Clara to me and I'll do what I can."
"I don't have Clara." The Sheriff informed him, and motioned his remaining guards to seize the Doctor and Florence.
"Robin's one of yours!" The Doctor argued, but Florence wasn't quite sure she agreed with him on this occasion. The Sheriff held up a hand for the guards to stop.
"What did you say?"
"He's one of your tin-headed puppets, just like these brutes here." The Doctor answered plainly, but the Sheriff shook his head,
"Robin Hood is not one of mine…"
"Of course he is. He's a robot, created by your mechanical mates." Florence shook her head,
"Doctor, I don't think…"
"Why would they do that?" The Sheriff asked, looking genuinely confused.
"To pacify the locals, give them false hope." The doctor explained. "He's the opiate of the masses."
The Sheriff huffed slightly at his suggestion. "Why would we create an enemy to fight us? What sense would that make? That would be a terrible idea."
"Yes! Yes, it would." The Doctor agreed, before pausing slightly and rethinking his logic. "Wouldn't it? Yes, that would be a rubbish idea." He turned to Florence. "Why would they do that?" She shrugged slightly. "But he can't be. He's not real. He's a legend!" Florence opened her mouth to respond when a masculine voice called out.
"Too kind!" They all looked up to see Robin Hood standing proudly on the balcony above them, with that charming grin permanently etched his face. "And this legend does not come alone." Out from behind him popped the one fact Florence was glad to see.
"Clara!" She called up, and receive a waggle of some fingers in response,
"Hiya!" Robin whipped a dagger from his side and stabbed it into the tapestry beside them, Clara climbing onto his back as he swung their legs over the balcony side and allowed gravity to pull them down to the ground. Clara slid carefully off of him and the two stood, clearly proud of their entrance.
"My men have taken the castle!" Robin drew the dagger from the wall hanging and threw it at the Sheriff, who dodged it while letting out an angry yell of frustration. "Now I'm going to take you!" The knights began to advance on Robin, but the Sheriff stopped them with a press of a medallion around his neck.
"This one's all mine. What do you say, outlaw? A final reckoning?" Both men drew their swords and readied themselves to fight, while Clara sidled up to her friends' sides.
Florence hugged her tightly as she approached. "Are you okay?" Clara nodded, smiling in relief,
"I'm fine, yeah." She reassured her, and the Doctor grabbed them both gently,
"Good, we don't have long." The keep began to shake and tremble ominously, Florence looked around at the precarious wooden structures around them,
"Doctor, this place is gonna explode." The two other men in the room began sword fighting around the crucible, making constant quips and jibes at each other, before Robin edged over towards a rope, holding on and cutting it at the bottom with his sword, launching himself into the air and atop a wooden cross beam above the crucible itself.
"I'm too much for you, outlaw." The Sheriff cried up at him. "The first of a new breed. Half man, half engine." He too cut another rope at his side and launched himself next to Robin. The taunting and sparring continued, the Doctor, Florence and Clara could only watch from below as the Sheriff gained the upper hand with a swift cut to Robin's arm, and his sword flew out of his hand and careening towards the ground. They watched as Robin looked down slightly before holding his arms out in surrender, and the Sheriff launched a final attack on the outlaw, who repeated the Doctor's victory move at the stream, stepping to the side and pushing his back against the Sheriff's, causing the villain to fall into the fiery pit of the crucible with a scream. The trio on the ground reeled back slightly at the spectacle before welcoming the hero to them once more as he landed with a flourish.
"Sorry. Was that, er, was that showing off?" He asked Clara sheepishly, clutching his wounded arm.
"No! That was... amazing." The starstruck woman told him with a flustered grin, before they could celebrate any longer the rumbling worsened, and stone began to fall from all around them.
"Run!" The Doctor yelled, pulling Florence out of the room, the other two following behind them. "Come on, run!
The group ran through the tunnels the other civilians had left through, making their way through the underbelly of the castle and regrouping with the rest of the Merry Men in the courtyard. The Doctor ordered everyone out of the castle, managing to lead them all across the drawbridge and into the outskirts of the forest just as the final stones of the keep fell and the spaceship began to take off, leaving destruction in its wake.
"It's never going to make it." The Doctor informed them, as they watched the ship struggle. "Not enough gold. It'll never make it into orbit." He turned to Robin quickly. "Where is it? Where did it go?"
"Where did what go?" Clara asked, and the Doctor turned with a grin.
"The golden arrow!"
"Tuck!" Robin called out to his faithful friend, who appeared next to him, arrow in hand.
"You took it?" The Doctor asked, and Tuck gave him a funny look,
"Of course we did. We're robbers." Florence laughed and pointed at the troupe of men,
"Oh, you are brilliant!"
"Doctor, what are you going to do with it?" Clara asked as the Doctor held the arrow in his hands.
"Golden arrow." He explained, handing a bow and the arrow in question to Robin. "It might just be enough gold content to get the ship into orbit and out of harm's way." Robin shook his head,
"No, it has to be you. My arm is injured." The Doctor nodded, and began to draw back the bowstring, fumbling with it and losing grip quickly.
"What is this?" Florence asked. "But you…?"
"You won the tournament!" Clara accused, and the Doctor looked away sheepishly,
"I cheated." He admitted. "I made a special arrow with a homing device."
"Oh, fab!" Florence groaned, and Clara took hold of the bow,
"Right, lemme try."
"You?" The Doctor asked in disbelief. "You do Tae Kwon Do. That's not the same thing as this." Robin put a hand up and gave the three of them a smirk.
"My friends. Surely we can manage it together?" He quickly braced himself on the ground and grabbed the bow from Clara, holding it horizontally across his body and instructing Clara and the Doctor to stand at either end to steady it, while Florence crouched in front of him to rest the weight of the centre of the bow on her shoulder, the arrow tip pointing just inches from the side of her face. "Remain perfectly still." Robin told her, as he drew the string as taut as possible.
"Oh trust me." She murmured. "I will." She held her breath as he paused, before feeling and hearing the whoosh of the arrow flying across the space and up into the sky towards the ship, landing directly into one of the panels at the side of the engines. There was a moment of tension before the engines surged once more and the ship was blasted into orbit. Florence let out a sigh of relief as the ship got smaller and smaller until the engines failed for the last time and they witnessed a minute explosion in the sky, leading to great cheers from the group at the forest's edge. They let out whooping cheers and cries of joy as Alan began playing his lute, ribaldry and laughed echoing from behind her as she stood to her feet.
"Still not keen on the laughing thing?" She heard Clara ask, and turned to see the Doctor's disgruntled features.
"Well, that was…"
"Terrifying, a night to remember?"
"I was going to say fun, actually." The Doctor gave Florence a strange look as they stood looking over at Clara's archery lesson from Robin.
"'Fun'? What do you mean 'fun'?" He asked her scornfully, and she nudged him playfully in the side,
"Oh come on…" She laughed slightly. "Sword fighting, heroism, medieval castles? It all felt very renaissance fair-y."
He gave her a stern look. "We were imprisoned twice and shot at multiple times." Florence returned his look mockingly.
"I'm sorry? Is this body adverse to calling that 'fun' now?" He stared at her for a second before letting a small smile cross his face,
"Nah, you're right. All in all it was quite easy now I think about it." Florence scoffed,
"I never said easy! Fat lot of good you were the first time we were captured. God, just as useless as always you are..." She grinned cheekily up at him, and he responded by wrapping an arm around her shoulder and hugging her into his side quickly before letting her go. "What was that for?"
"Nothing, just…" She raised her eyebrows at him. "New body, I never quite know…" He trailed off slightly and Florence bit her lip, suddenly shy.
"I mean, you know…" She hesitated, unsure where she was going with her words. "I like… all of you." She looked up at him. "Like, it's still you, you're still… here. The Racnoss, the Minotaur and stuff… that was all you." The Doctor nodded slightly and looked away.
"Good." He said plainly, and Florence realised he was just as bad at this right now as she was.
"Good." She repeated. She reached out and tugged on his sleeve, nodding to where Clara was bidding farewell to Robin at the TARDIS doors. "Come on then." The two waved goodbye to the Merry Men before joining Robin, who spread his arms and hugged Florence gently,
"Goodbye, Florence." He said warmly, and she smiled brightly up at him,
"So long, Robin Hood." She winked at him before stepping back, giving the Doctor a look. "I'll meet you inside, be nice." She warned him, and opened the familiar blue door and stepped into the cool console room, where Clara was waiting patiently at the top of the ramp.
"Oh you didn't leave them alone!" She laughed, and Florence shook her head,
"More I didn't want to be there for another argument…" Clara sighed slightly and began to undo the bobby pins from her hair, and Florence collapsed onto one of the chairs to her right, toeing her converse off with a relieved groan. "Let me out of this dress and back into normal clothes, please!"
"Oh come off it!" Clara grinned, swishing her skirts around. "What's the point of traveling in time and not dressing the part!"
"The point is you end up tripping over your skirts and breaking your neck!" She looked at Clara curiously. "So, what else have you dressed as?"
Clara hesitated. "I thought I couldn't…"
"It's not technically spoilers." Florence waved off her worry. "I just mean like... 1950s? Roman times?" She sat up straighter at the thought. "Oh my god have you worn a toga yet?!" Clara laughed and shook her head,
"No, no togas! Worn a full Victorian dress though, blimey that was heavy…" Florence laughed and tilted her head back,
"Really makes you wanna take pictures and show your mates I bet…" Clara nodded enthusiastically,
"Honestly! The amount of sources I could have for my kids!"
"Goddamn these rules of time and space travel!" Florence shook her fist in the air jokingly and the two of them laughed. "How long have you been with the Doctor anyway?"
"Oh…" Clara furrowed her eyebrows. "I dunno really, like a year? It all sort of blurs into one really, I go home a lot and there'll be a few days of normal life, you know?" She stopped suddenly. "I'm sorry, I mean… you don't…" She flustered slightly, worrying she had offended Florence somehow, but the younger woman just smiled wearily at her.
"It's fine, I get it. Normal life for me consists of splitting headaches and accidentally knocking myself out making a cuppa, who wants that?" There was a slight awkwardness before the doors of the TARDIS opened again and the Doctor entered, walking towards the console and automatically kicking Florence's shoes towards her out of his way, not even glancing down at them as he did so.
"Admit it." Clara spoke after a moment, a triumphant smile on her face. "You like him."
"Well," the Doctor acquiesced, "I'm leaving him a present, aren't I?" Florence frowned up at him,
"What did you do?" She asked, and he shrugged,
"Oh, just… reuniting lost loves…" He bobbed his head happily as he set the flight controls into motion, the TARDIS trembling slightly as they took off. "Just call me cupid!"
Aww yeah, another chapter DONE! Hope you enjoyed this, some nice fun little convos happening here! Wanted to make sure 12 knew that Florence wasn't bothered by ANOTHER regeneration, this is the fourth one she's seen in only a few weeks!
See you for chapter 22! xo