Bill Potts considered herself to be rather out of the ordinary. Then again, she considered everyone to be out of the ordinary, so actually it made her kind of ordinary. Maybe she considered herself to be rather ordinary. She wasn't sure.
Bill Potts also considered herself to be a rather out of the ordinary student. That was because, actually, she wasn't a student at all. She just worked in the canteen as the chip lady, which had turned out to be the best job she'd ever had. The students were always nice because she was one of the bearers of food, and if a member of staff was eating in the canteen they just tended to be in a world of their own. No one shouted, or called for her manager, and university life tended to be the most tolerant, so she could be a bit of a perv and not one woman had batted an eyelid.
What wasn't very ordinary about her, though, was how she snuck into one particular professor's lectures every day just to hear him speak despite not being a student at all. Everyone did it, so you had to get there early because once the seats were all full the door to the lecture hall was closed and there was nothing more disappointing than that door slamming right in your face. At least there tended to be a lot of other disappointed souls to share condolences with. She'd managed to get a couple of phone numbers that way.
But when she managed to get a seat, she never took it for granted. She never understood what the Doctor was going on about, but then again, she wasn't sure that his students really knew. He didn't have a subject to teach. It was supposed to be physics, she had heard once, but she had heard him talk about everything from poetry, to fine art, to the farthest stretches of the universe. She wasn't sure how anyone could pass that degree, but he was quite famous for never losing a student to failure. She just knew that she could listen to him for hours and never get bored.
For almost an hour she didn't move, no one ever did when the Doctor was talking. He had a whole stage to himself and he seemed to own it with ease as he stood in the middle, looking out at all the impressionable faces in front of him.
"Words, sounds, painted pictures on papers long since discarded," he said to his raptured crowd. "So much power behind simple phrases all brought to life in ways never imagined. A pure grief of a father who had lost his son, his sense of self brought out so much beauty instead of despair, hope and joy instead of loss and sorrow. William Shakespeare was genius beyond the measure of books, he was a hope to generations with the power over even the vastest of beings, inspiring love and romance to everyone his words touch, even if they never realise."
With a little dip of his head he was done, and Bill realised that instead of talking physics, he'd spent an entire hour talking about William Shakespeare. She wasn't sure if she'd taken any of it in, but it didn't matter because like everyone else, all she could do was sit and listen to him. It was astounding and it took a moment for the students to realise he was finished and start to tidy up.
She was sure she was the only one who saw his eyes dart around the room until his gaze fell on a woman, roughly her age if only a year older, sat on the other side of the lecture hall. She wasn't moving, instead she had her chin propped up on both of her hands. When their gazes met, he winked at her and she smiled softly in return. A grin spread on his face and he turned to clean his desk up. The woman didn't move until almost everyone had left, picking up her small messenger bag and left, jogging slightly to catch up to the crowd but walking on her own, pulling out her phone.
No one else seemed to notice the little moment between the two. Or, if they did, no one cared.
What was that about?
~0~0~0~
The Doctor had one of the older office's in the university. It had been around a very long time, and a lot of it had been chopped and changed over the years, but some of the original buildings still stood and his was in there. Bill had only been in the building a couple of times, and didn't quite understand why she had been summoned, or why she was being led to the office by a man who – although she couldn't work out why – was squeaking like he needed an oil change.
She didn't say anything, though. She didn't want to judge, but were there people out there that needed oil changes, like cars?
He let her into the room and silently motioned to the wooden chair behind the old wooden desk, inside the old wooden room that looked like it could also have been a library. There were strange pens on the desk, with photos of two young women; one with red hair and one with blonde. They must have been his granddaughters.
The strangest thing about the room, though, was the blue police box in the corner. It had an 'out of order' sign on it, which made her wonder what was on the inside. She didn't really know what a police box was. Was it a kind of phone box? Did that mean that it was a direct line to the police? Wasn't that what 999 was for?
She sat back down at the desk just as the clock chimed the hour. She had no idea where the Doctor was, nor how long she was going to wait, and as she was naturally curious, she started being a bit nosy. She was just reaching for one of his strange pens when the sound of an electric guitar scared the living daylights out of her. For the briefest of moments, she thought it was an alarm going off, but then as the song continued and she recognised it to be Beethoven, she realised that someone was playing it in the room off the office.
She held her hand to her mouth and cleared her throat pointedly. The guitar screeched off and the Doctor appeared at the door a moment later. "Potts?"
"Yeah," she confirmed with a smile. He stepped out with an old vinyl record in hand. He closed the door behind him, making sure she couldn't see in.
"Bill Potts?" he clarified and she nodded.
"You wanted to see me?"
He walked over to a corner behind his desk, placing the record down on a pile of them before he began to sort through them. "Er, you're not a student at this university."
"Nah, I work in the canteen."
"Yeah, but you come to my lectures," he pointed out and she started, panicked slightly that she had been caught doing something she shouldn't. After all, university was expensive. Did it count as stealing?
"No, I don't," she tried to dismiss. "I never do that."
He pointed at her with a record. "I've seen you."
She grimaced slightly. "Love your lectures. They're totally awesome."
He turned back to the sorting. "Why'd you come to my lectures when you're not a student?"
Bill didn't have an answer for that. The first one had been because she was curious. She'd heard a lot of students talk about this mysterious Doctor and then, suddenly, she'd been to a term's worth of lectures for no other reason than she wanted to. So, she just opened her mouth and said the first thing that came to her. "Okay, so my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips. There was this girl. Student. Beautiful. Like a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you perved. Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips. Like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Then finally, finally, she looked at me, like she'd noticed, actually noticed, all the extra chips. Do you know what I realised? She was fat. I'd fatted her. But that's life, innit? Beauty or chips. I like chips. So did she. So that's okay." She chuckled at the end and the Doctor turned around, walking over to her but standing on his side of the desk, looking over her.
"And how does that in any way explain why you keep coming to my lectures?"
"Yeah, it doesn't really, does it?" she replied with a little shrug. "I was hoping something would develop." She looked over at the corner, at the blue box, her mind already trying to jump onto something that finding an answer that would satisfy him. "What's that? A police telephone box?"
The Doctor looked over at it and smiled. It was the same smile he shot the brown-haired woman in his lectures. "Yeah."
"Did you build it from a kit?"
He looked at her, baffled. "No, it came like that," he replied, almost offended.
"Then how did you get it in here?" Bill replied, because it didn't make any sense. "The door's too small and so are the windows."
"I had the window and a part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in."
"What, with a crane?"
"Yeah," the Doctor drawled, like he wasn't too sure himself. "With a crane. It's heavier than it looks." He sat down in his chair. "Why do you keep coming to my lectures?" he asked, sounding a little exasperated with how she was dodging his question, so she gave him the only answer she had.
"Because I like them. Everybody likes them. They're amazing," she told him. "Why me?"
"Why you what?"
"Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren't supposed to," she explained. "Why pick on me?"
"Well, I noticed you," he offered.
"Yeah, but why?"
She was so full of questions and the Doctor couldn't help but like it. So many people wouldn't question anything, but maybe that was because she had so many to ask that she'd taken up the quota for everyone else. He glanced at the two pictures on his desk, his wife smiling back at him from different time periods. "Well, most people when don' t understand something, they frown," he replied softly. "You smile."
She smiled, then seemed to notice that she was doing it. She leant forward in her chair. "I'll tell you what I don't understand. You've been lecturing here for a long time," she said. "Like, fifty years, some people say. Nabeela in the office says over seventy."
He smirked to himself. "Yeah, and you're thinking, 'Well, he doesn't look old enough'."
"No," she replied bluntly and he deflated slightly. He didn't look old enough, did he? "I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on. It's like the university let you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry."
"Poetry, physics, same thing," he replied with a shrug.
"How is it the same?" she countered.
"Because of the rhymes," he replied. "What are—"
"Then there's that girl," she continued before he could ask her his follow-up question. He brows furrowed.
"Girl?" he repeated.
"Yeah, the brown haired one," Bill replied. "I've asked about her and no one seems to really know who she is. No one even knew her name."
He shifted slightly. "What about her?" he asked, trying to sound like he was curious and not concerned.
"Well, after every lecture, you look at her and smile," she replied. "And she smiles back. She doesn't put her hand up, you don't call on her to answer questions, but you always look at her like… like…" She clicked her fingers and pointed at him. "Like you're looking for her approval. Like- Like she's evaluating you or sommat!"
The Doctor blinked, wondering how someone could be so close to the right answer and yet so spectacularly wrong. "No, it isn't," he insisted.
"Yeah, that's it," Bill continued, like he hadn't tried to correct her. "Is she like the university version of OFSTED? I remember them from school, they used to come in and watch the teachers, make sure they were teaching properly. Is she there to see if you stay on subject?" She pulled a face. "You must be getting low marks if she is."
"That's not…" the Doctor stuttered out. "She's not…" He shook his head. He hadn't wanted to get off track, but she'd already pulled him in two different directions since she'd been in his office. "She's just a student," he dismissed. "What are you doing at this university?"
She shrugged, answering honestly. "I always wanted to come here."
"Yeah, to serve chips?" he countered, which got her back up slightly. She didn't like the way he said it, as if she was wasting her time, as if it was beneath her, beneath him.
"So anyway, am I nearly done?" she challenged.
"Do you want to be?"
Yes, she very much did. She stood up. "See ya."
"You ever get less than a first, then it's over."
She paused at the door, even more confused. "You what?"
He'd picked up some papers, looking at them as if he was comparing them and not talking nonsense. "A first. Every time, or I stop immediately."
"Stop what?"
"Being your personal tutor." He stopped, looking up at her with a big grin and she smiled through her confusion.
"But I'm not a student. I'm not part of the university. I never even applied."
He got up and rushed to her side excitedly. "We'll sort all that out later," he dismissed.
"You kinda have to sort that out earlier."
He still didn't seem too concerned, waving it away with his hands. "Leave it with me," he told her. "I'm assuming that it's a yes."
So many thoughts went through Bill's mind, like how it had to be an elaborate joke and she was just missing the punchline, or that she was supposed to turn him down to prove she was a good worker, or something. There had to be something that she was missing because stuff like that, like being offered to be tutored by the best professor at her favourite university without applying or paying, just didn't happen in real life.
But she found herself nodding, agreeing completely. "Yes."
"I'll see you at 6pm every weekday," he instructed. "I don't care who's dying, never, ever be late. I'm very particular about time."
She didn't know what to say, she wasn't even sure if she should thank him, so she turned and walked out, completely stunned. Then a question came to mind, so she turned to him. "Oh, er. People just call you the Doctor? What do I call you?"
He grinned. "The Doctor."
"But Doctor's not a name. I can't just call you Doctor. Doctor what?"
He never tired of hearing that. Or, rather, any variation of the traditional 'Doctor Who'. He loved the mystery and it made for a great story. And, as it turned out, a great television show.
"The Doctor," he repeated, clarifying nothing as he ushered her out. "6pm, starting Monday, do not be late."
The moment the door shut behind her he rubbed his hands together in glee. He'd seen Bill in class, but he'd not seen her see his wife, which made his decision all the more worthwhile. He could keep an eye on her and make sure that she didn't investigate that train of thought too much, didn't dig too deep, whilst keeping his brain working. Being a teacher to a large group of students who had set ideas of what they needed to learn in mind was becoming a little tedious. She was going to be something new to get his teeth into, as it were.
Plus, he'd never been able to resist teaching someone who smiled at any new knowledge, even if they'd never understood it.
He glanced at the TARDIS. He'd hoped that he'd managed to squash her curiosity about the box as well, and eventually she would blend into the background like everything else in the office. But, first, he had something to do inside of her. He had some news he'd have to break, and he was pretty sure how it would go down.
Ignoring the 'Out of Order' sign – a stroke of genius on his part – he headed inside to find his wife, his Danielle. When she wasn't in class she tended to study in the console room and that was where she was. She had set up a desk at the other end of the room so she could be surrounded by the books that lined the upper floor. She also had an armchair that she liked to sit in when she was reading, which was what she was doing when he skipped into the TARDIS.
She smiled immediately at the sight of him, and that was his favourite smile.
Immediately, though, it fell away to a smile of confusion. "What's got you so happy?" she asked him.
The smile of confusion, the one that appeared when he was happy but she didn't know why, was also up there with the smile at just seeing him. The one that said she was happy that he was happy, but she couldn't place where the emotion came from. Still not his favourite, but one of them.
"Do you remember Bill, from my lectures?" he asked her as he made his way to her. She nodded, closing her book.
"The one who wasn't supposed to be there?" she asked. He nodded. "I told you; a lot of people go who aren't supposed to be there. I don't know why you're so fixated on her."
"Well, it turns out, she works in the canteen," he explained anyway. "On chips. She likes fattening up young women."
"I'm… glad?" Danni offered, still baffled.
"Well, I've just had a talk with her and, well, I'm going to tutor her," he declared. Automatically the happiness she displayed fell away to exasperation.
"Theta!"
He held his hands up in defence. "I know what you're going to say," he started.
"You don't have time to tutor her! You made a promise, you can't just…"
"I'm not going back on it," he quickly interjected. "She's going to come to my office, we're not even going to my lecture hall. And only on weekdays, the weekends will still be free and ours to do whatever we like."
Danni stared at him; lips pursed together as she tried to collect her thoughts. She had known that staying still was boring him – hell, it was boring her to no end – but they had an arrangement and they had to stick with it. "This was all your idea," she reminded pointedly.
"I know, but she was just begging me, and I couldn't say no," he replied and Danni rolled her eyes. "Do you know how rare people who search out knowledge, even when they don't have to, are?" he tried. "We both know that most people aren't like that."
She, again, took a moment to gather her thoughts. He couldn't help but smile at her just a little. He loved watching her mind work, he knew there was a lot of knowledge in there and she had to sort it out before she would say anything. She didn't ramble like he did.
"It doesn't matter what I say, does it?" she said eventually, which deflated him slightly. "You've already asked her and she said yes."
"Actually, she asked…"
"And you knew at the time it wasn't something you were supposed to do, because you didn't tell me before, only after," she continued and he trailed off. She wasn't wrong. "You never know when, or why, only who, right?"
"She's not travelling with us," he reassured her. He knew that was what she worried about, and after the whole mess that Clara Oswald had ended up being, he could understand that. Her memories were pretty much reformed now, but she still had no idea who Clara was, or who she was to her, and it frightened her. She had been adamant that she didn't want anyone else on the TARDIS.
Of course, for some reason, that didn't include Nardole. He still didn't quite understand that.
"It's only a matter of time before she will," Danni replied. "I know you, Theta. Once you have someone to show off to, you can't hold back."
He had to suppress his smile at that. Instead, he walked up the stairs towards me. "Trust me, there's only one person I want to show off to," he promised before he crouched in front of her chair. She had her eyes downcast, purposefully not looking at him the eye. "You never have to worry about that, my Pet."
But she did. All the time. "A thousand years is a long time," she muttered. "And we've been at this even longer now."
He caught her gaze. "And I've still yet to get bored," he replied. Her lips pulled up as she tried not to smile and he knew he'd won her over. "I even brought that idiot Nardole back to life for you."
Her eyes finally snapped to his. "Hey," she scolded, offended. "He's not an idiot, he's just irritating!"
He cupped her cheek. "Never worry about my attention," he promised. "In a room full of hundreds, I'm still only teaching to you."
She felt her cheeks warm up just slightly, touched at his words before she sighed, exasperated. "Oh, why do you have to be so charming?" she muttered and he knew she was happy for him to tutor Bill.
"I can't help it, I've always been like this," he replied and she chuckled slightly before leaning forward, capturing his lips with hers for a brief kiss.
"Speaking of Nardole, have you seen him?" she asked. "It's his turn to make food tonight and I'm worried it'll be fishy again."
The Doctor pulled a face, remembering Nardole's last attempt at making their dinner. It had been a lot of maceral and not much else. "I'll go fetch him. Perhaps you should go shopping with him."
Danni nodded, agreeing completely. She caught his lips again, and then again, until she pulling him up into the chair. "Later," she purred against him. "This is much more fun."
~0~0~0~
Usually, when the Doctor finished his lectures, Bill tried to be one of the first people out. Not the first, that was too obvious, but one of the first so no one could ask her any questions. Even now the Doctor was tutoring her she still found herself rushing to leave, because she still wasn't sure if their new situation wasn't more suspicious than her just turning up.
But this time she hung back until almost the very end, when the brown-haired woman finally left the hall on her own. She tried to act unsuspicious as she followed her out, but quickly jogged to catch up with her.
"Hey!" she called, skidding in front of her because she realised that she didn't even know her name. The brown-haired woman looked rather weirded out. Bill couldn't blame her. "Hey, you."
"Hi," she replied, a little curtly. Again, Bill couldn't blame her. "Bill, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," she replied before pointing at her. "I-I don't actually know your name."
"Danni," she said. "Can-Can I help you?"
Bill realised that she'd just stopped this woman going about her daily life and, really, didn't have an actual reason to stop her. Well, she did, but it was purely her being nosy, which may have been a little rude.
"Are you staff?" she asked, a little rudely. Danni blinked, obviously not expecting that question. "It's just, I see you all the time, but you don't seem to do anything but go to the Doctor's lectures." She laughed awkwardly. "I mean, that's all I do as well, to be honest, but you're like… Well, you're a proper student, aren't you? So you should be out and about, but you're never at any of the bars, or any I've been to at any rate."
"Um…"
"And I've asked a couple of people, but no one seems to really know who you are, and no one knows what degree you're on, so I thought that maybe you weren't doing a degree after all. Maybe you were just, like, observing the Doctor. Like someone on staff sent to make sure he's doing his job. But, then, I wasn't sure if that was right either because you would do more than go to lectures, so, well, are you? Staff, I mean? Or a student?"
"You've been asking people about me?" Danni asked. Bill grimaced slightly. "Why didn't you just ask me if you were so curious?"
"Because, well, it seemed a bit rude?" she offered. "As does accosting you in a hallway, I guess."
Danni stared at her for a moment and Bill could almost feel the judgement coming from her. She motioned between the two of them. "I've not done a good job at this, have I?"
Danni shook her head. "Not really, no," she said a little bluntly. "Why do you want to know if I'm a student or a member of staff?"
"Well," Bill started. "It's just, I've seen you and the Doctor, you know, sharing looks and stuff, he seems to really like you, and I was just… curious? It just seemed like there was something going on, and he's a nice guy and all that, but, you know, if you're a student… we're supposed to look out for these things, you know?"
That turned out to be the completely wrong thing to say. Danni's neutral look fell away to anger. "If you must know, my degree is in English and Classical studies," she snapped out. "I took physics as an elective just because I thought it sounded interesting. The Doctor is my professor, just like everyone else's. If you have a problem, take it up with him."
She didn't wait around for Bill to say anything else, or for an apology, striding off without looking back. Bill watched with a grimace, knowing that she hadn't exactly made a friend at that point. Sometimes her mouth ran away from her and she couldn't stop it until it was too late.
She really hoped it didn't get back to the Doctor.
But who was she?
~0~0~0~
Danni chucked her bag down by the TARDIS door, letting it swing shut behind her. In their blue box she felt safe, and secure, and she always let out a little sigh of relief whenever she made her way back to it. The outside world was scary. The TARDIS, for all of her infinite possibility, was familiar and predictable.
"Theta?" she called. "I'm back!"
There was a brief silence where she checked the monitors for any unread messages or things of interest then the Doctor appeared in the doorway, cup of tea in hand.
"How was class?" he asked, holding the drink out to her. "Not too dull, I hope."
"Nah, I think I'm getting pretty good at Greco-Roman history," she replied. "I've got a couple of essays to write, but I've got plenty of time to do them."
"I didn't mean that one," he muttered and she shot him a giant smile, letting him know that she knew exactly what she meant.
"The lecture was fine," she promised. "Afterwards, on the other hand…"
His brows furrowed and immediately he needed to know every detail. "What happened?" he asked. "Was it Nardole?"
"No, it wasn't Nardole," she said with a sigh. He always thought it was Nardole. "It was your little protégé. She accosted me in the hallway and basically accused me of sleeping my way into your favourites list."
He smirked slightly. "Well…"
She shot him a pointed look. "That's not what she meant," she snapped. "She thinks I'm doing inappropriate things with one of my professors, for no reason at all! It's insulting!"
The Doctor wasn't sure how he liked the sound of that. "I am right here," he muttered.
She shook her head. "No, don't do that," she warned. "I won't have my integrity undermined. I've worked hard for my degrees. I didn't have to sleep with anyone to get them." She pointed at him. "You set her straight, alright?"
He sighed. "Yes, dear," he replied cheekily. "Although, it was your idea to be student and teacher, not mine."
"Well, I was annoyed at you," she grumbled. "We have to blend it and you couldn't be the student."
He held his hand out to her. "Too old?" he asked, wiggling his fingers to tempt her to him. He watched her shuffle on the spot, trying to resist, before she took it.
"Too much of a smartarse," she corrected. "The moment one of the teachers said something slightly wrong you would have been on your feet, unable to keep quiet." He took her other hand and she slid her fingers between his. "Then I'd have to make excuses and I'd get annoyed because they were wrong and trying to enforce it, and it would just be a mess."
"Hmm, that it would, my Pet," he agreed, his voice low as he pulled her closer.
"And you know you love being called Professor," she continued. "Even if you correct people, you still love it."
"I do," he purred, leaning down to kiss her. She tilted her head, going in for the same kiss but paused before their lips met. This seemed to happen a lot when they talked, not that she was complaining about that. Whenever they tried to be serious, it ended up with them making out. But she had been stewing on Bill's rather pointed questioning all through her classes and it still upset her.
"I don't want her accosting me again," she warned him. "She's your student, not mine."
"Done," he promised and she believed him instantly. So, she leant up and closed the gap.
The door closed loudly across the room. "I hope you two are hungry," Nardole told them, a couple of bags in hand full of food. "I'm planning a large selection of…"
The Doctor and Danni turned to face him, eyes flashing at being interrupted. "Nardole!"
~0~0~0~
Bill had learnt over the last few months to be ready for anything when she entered the Doctor's office. So, the moment she did open the door, she reached out and caught the flying book that was coming towards her head. The Doctor seemed to wait for her, getting ready to chuck things at her the moment she came into the door. She didn't mind, not really. It was what made him the quirkiest and most interesting professor she'd ever come across.
"What's on the cards today, then?" she asked him, flipping the book open. For some reason, no matter how old or complicated the book, she had to check to see if there were pictures. Would they help? Probably not, but she checked anyway.
"Whatever was and whatever could be," was his cryptic reply, although she had come to expect that sort of talk from him. It seemed rather hard to get a straight answer from him on occasion, but she enjoyed the puzzle of trying to work it out.
"I was thinking, actually, we could over my essay again," she suggested. "'The Quantum statistics of light'. I'm still not happy about what I got on it."
"Oh, really?" he asked. "You've not mentioned it a hundred times before." He almost skipped down the stairs from the top level of his office, where he kept all his books, and towards her. "You got a first, you did well."
She pointed the book at him. "Did I though?" she countered. "I think I could have done better."
"So do I," he replied bluntly and, for a moment, she felt rather insulted until she remembered that she had been the one to bring it up in the first place. "Why do you think I've chosen that book?"
She looked back down at the book in her hands and smiled at the title. "You'd already planned on going over it again, anyway, hadn't you?" she asked. He nodded and motioned to the chair behind his desk that had become 'hers'.
"Sit, read chapters 4 through 7," he instructed. "I've got a lot more marking to do. When you get to the end, I'll see if you've retained any of it."
She groaned. "Not a quiz."
He grinned that wide grin of his. "Oh yes, a quiz," he replied. "You'll be a master of quantum physics yet."
So Bill sat down and began to read, and the Doctor kept an eye on her as he read through the next stack of essay's he'd assigned. He did like to watch Bill work, her mind absorbing everything in front of her. Her understanding of physics, so far, had been remarkable but her ability to ask questions was what he found truly fascinating. They never seemed to be about the subject at hand, but her mind picked up so many things at once that all of her questions would, eventually, lead back to what she wanted to know. It made him think about things differently.
He could see her losing focus, her gaze going from the book, to his desk, then back again. She quickly skimmed the pictures of Danielle he kept on his desk. It was the only way he could have a piece of her there; by having two photos of her previous bodies he could still see her but people dismissed them because neither of them were around. It had been a compromise that Danni had suggested herself.
He cleared his throat and she jumped in her seat, quickly going back to her reading. "There has been a complaint," he told her. "From a student about you. Apparently you accosted them in the hallway."
Bill looked up at him and he was staring at her pointedly. She knew who he meant almost instantly and shifted slightly. "Yeah, that wasn't one of my best moments," she drawled before her brows furrowed. "Wait, she told you about that?"
He opened his mouth, ready to tell her that of course she told him, then remembered that he was supposed to keep her disinterested in their relationship. "No, she told the office, who told me," he replied. "I said that I would have a word with you about your incredibly inappropriate behaviour."
She nodded. "I know, I felt awful afterwards. I just, like, I just talk and it all spews out before I've really thought about it," she rambled, as if he hadn't noticed that. It was both endearing and irritating at times.
Hmm, like Danielle found Nardole. How interesting.
"It's just she's more of a mystery than you were," Bill continued. "I mean, I guess you still are a little, but no one knows who she is. She doesn't have any friends, no one even knew her name. I always thought students were hanging around with each other, getting drunk and, I dunno, sleeping around?"
The Doctor knew that she was just describing the stereotypical student, and that she didn't mean Danni in the slightest, but he bristled slightly. "How very closed-minded of you," he retorted. The smile of confusion she sent her way was just another sign that maybe he'd taken her words slightly too personally. "Perhaps she had lots of friends you just don't know about," he offered. "Maybe her romantic life is incredibly fulfilling and as passionate as you wish it to be. Or maybe, just maybe, it's none of your business."
Bill nodded once. "You're right. You are right," she agreed. "My curiosity gets the better of me sometimes."
"Well, just make sure you aim it at something more appropriate," he suggested. "I'm your tutor, not your nanny. I don't have time to be telling you off all the time."
Bill thought it was adorable that he felt like he was telling her off. She tried not to smile. This Danni girl was just another mystery that she wouldn't be able to let go of. "Of course, I will," she promised.
The Doctor felt like his talk had gone very well, and he had squashed her curiosity as was needed. "Good, that's good." He motioned to her book. "Back to work, then."
Bill dipped her head, this time focusing fully on the words in front of her. When the Doctor felt like she had been sufficiently bored by the book, he pulled out her latest essay and chucked it onto the desk in front of her; 'Laser cooling ions: atomic clocks and quantum jumps.'
"92%," he told her and she grinned happily, picking it up to have a look through at the notes he had made. "Like I said; you can do much better."
~0~0~0~
Nardole had a lot of responsibilities. He had cooking, and cleaning, and he also acted as the Doctor's secretary when he needed one to deal with his more demanding university needs – meaning the ones that he didn't want to deal with at all but had to whilst maintaining the pretence of being a professor.
Nardole's biggest responsibility, though, was to make sure that the Vault was always maintained and guarded. He needed to keep the two Time Lords firmly on Earth without travelling away in their TARDIS and he had to make sure that what the Vault contained very much didn't get out. He checked on it throughout the day, usually between duties. There was a time when he had a more exciting life, but having your head chopped off and being rebuilt as a robot tended to calm people down.
He started at the sight of the brown-haired woman sat on the floor outside the Vault. Immediately his gaze looked around, looking for the Doctor, but he wasn't there. That was most unusual and he didn't like it at all.
"Ma'am, really," he scolded. "You're not supposed to be down here without supervision."
"I know, I made that rule, remember?" Danni snapped back, already sounding annoyed. It didn't particularly bother him; he knew she rather adored him.
"If I recall correctly, the Doctor made that rule," he pointed out and she turned her head to glare at him.
"And who, exactly, inspired the idea?" she countered before looking back at the door. "That's what I thought," she continued, as if his silence was because he was agreeing with her rather than the fact she'd not given him a chance to answer.
"Actually, I think it was because you were kidnapped and…" She glared at him and he quickly realised that they'd probably argue about it for too long if he let them. "That still doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't be down here on your own." He walked over to the door of the Vault, checking to make sure that no one had tampered with it. "If anything were to happen…"
"I was told that this was the most secure place in the universe," Danni interrupted. "That nothing could get in and, more importantly, nothing could get out."
Nardole nodded, picking up his checklist from where he kept it. "That is true, Ma'am," he reassured her.
"Well, which one is it, then?" she asked. "Either it's secure, or it's not. You can't have it both ways, Nardole."
She turned back to the Vault and glared at it like it housed the thing she hated most. Which, to be fair, it did. Nardole watched her out of the corner of his eye as he started his checks. In fact, the Vault housed the thing she was scared of most in the universe, and as such she never came down to see it. She left it to the Doctor and himself to keep an eye on its security and contents, which is why he was currently doing the checks and not her.
"So, are we going to talk about what is worrying you?" he asked her.
"No," she said shortly. He shrugged.
"Okay, I'll just keep working," he said as if he hadn't wanted to hear her worries in the first place. They stayed in that silence for a little while, with only the sound of his pen on the paper checklist in the room. It had to paper. Couldn't leave an electronic trail for people to find.
"What do you know about Bill?" she asked him.
"Not a lot, Ma'am," Nardole replied, glancing at the Vault to check the temperature readings. "She works in the canteen but isn't an official student. Roughly 25." He looked over at her, his gossip face on. "According to her Facebook, her love life isn't going too well," he continued. "A string of first dates but no seconds yet."
"That's not what I meant and you know it. Why had the Doctor suddenly taken an interest in taking up his own personal student?"
Nardole let his hand hang by his side. "If you're worried about the Doctor looking at her…"
"Of course I'm not," she cut in. "I mean, once, maybe, but have you seen me?" She waved her hand up and down her torso. "He'd be an idiot to let this go. No, I don't think he's trying to sleep with her on the side." She sighed. "I'm worried that he's going to make her his new companion."
Nardole frowned. "Is it a valid concern?" he asked and she nodded.
"You know the Doctor. He only takes interest in extraordinary people."
"Or he's really bored," Nardole offered.
"Neither of which are going to keep him on this planet," she stated. "He made a promise to stand guard for a thousand years. If she catches his attention enough, I don't think he'll be able to keep it and…" She glanced back at the door to the Vault. "I can't be left alone with her. You know I can't."
"Your husband loves you very much," he told her. "He will never leave you on your own with her. Neither will I, for that matter."
Danni smiled at him. "Thanks, Nardole," she said sincerely. "I'm glad you're here." She stood up off the floor. "You won't tell him I was here, will you?"
"Of course not," he replied, going back to his work. "You've given me very specific instructions not to."
Danni nodded. "That I have," she confirmed. "I don't want him worrying. She's-She's safe in there."
And if she hadn't stuttered, Nardole would have really believed that she believed that. She left him alone and he shook his head to himself.
"You know, Professor Song, you didn't pay me enough to be a physiatrist as well," he muttered to himself before pausing. "In fact, you never did pay me at all."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor placed Danni's essay on the desk next to her. "Perfect, as always," he told her. She didn't look up from the book she was reading. "Perhaps I should make it harder for you."
"You can try," she said offhandedly. "I'm sure I'll still be your highest scorer, though."
"Do you think I go easy on you?" he asked, putting on an air of offence just to tease her. She shook her head.
"No, I'm just that good," she retorted and he chuckled. That was very true. But, if they were both honest, she did have a little bit of an unfair advantage. "Speaking of; how's Bill doing? Still getting Firsts?"
"Every time," he replied, sitting down in the chair next to her. "She noticed that the rug had moved underneath the TARDIS."
"Told you she would," Danni said, trying to not sound too smug. "People notice what you do with the things you buy them. They're very selfish like that." She highlighted the line she had just read - she had got her studying down to a fine art now - before looking up at him. "I assume you diverted her attention away?"
He shot her a look. "I do know what I'm doing," he replied boldly.
"So she's more curious than ever?" she asked cheekily. "You know, if she asks too many questions, you're going to have to let her go?"
"She won't," he promised.
"She will," Danni warned him. "And you'll love every minute of it because you always do. You love people who love asking questions."
"Is that why I love you?"
She paused again to shoot him a look. "Well, it's not just my stunning looks, is it?" she countered. He chuckled. "I just don't want you getting too attached…"
"I'm not attached, I'm bored," he countered. "I think I've taught you everything I know. It's her turn now."
Danni placed her highlighter down. "One; there is infinitely more in that big Time Lord brain of yours than I could ever fit in mine, so keep digging. Two; you are so attached."
"I am not!" he protested indignantly.
"You went to her mum's past to get her photos for a Christmas present," she reminded him. "You never, not once, put that much effort into a Christmas present for Amy."
"Not true," he replied. "And just because I wanted to do something nice does not mean I'm going to swan off with her on some magical adventure." He straightened slightly. "I'm a professional. I'm just teaching her physics."
"Today you did a lecture on Starry Night by Van Gogh," she reminded him cheekily. "I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all."
"I appreciate it, but you don't have to worry," he reassured her. "Everything I need is right here."
They fell silent and Danni went back to her studying. "Do you miss it, though?" he asked offhandedly. "The travelling?"
"All the time," Danni replied. "I never stop. I hate staying still as much as you do. But you made a promise to a monster of a woman—" she looked up, cutting him off before he could protest. "-so there's nothing much we can do about it."
"But we could still, you know, take a trip?" he suggested temptingly. "Just a quick ten minutes somewhere new…"
"Theta," she cut in with a sigh. She popped the lid back on her highlighter and closed her book. "You said you would never leave her alone; we can't just jump off and hope the Earth can handle her."
"No, but you could go," he pointed out. "Take Nardole and go off for a holiday. Nothing's stopping you."
She paused for a moment, looking at him to see if he was serious. When she realised that he was offering her the opportunity to go on without him she shrugged. "What's the point?" she replied. "Without you it's all a bit dull, really."
"That's not true."
She took another pause, pressing her lips together as she tried to form what she wanted to say. He loved watching her gather her thoughts, he could almost hear them all as she discarded what she didn't want to say and kept the thoughts she liked.
"When I jumped about, you still travelled, right?" she asked and he nodded. "And you enjoyed it, yeah? It was still beautiful?" Again, he nodded. "But you used to say the universe brightened when I appeared?"
"That it did," he agreed. "And it dulled when we were apart."
"Well, why would I go when it's dull?" she replied. "It might still be beautiful to see it now, but why would I go when it's raining? Why not wait for the sun?"
He smiled at her, touched by her words and the way she said them so matter-of-factly. She had told him that she knew he wasn't lying when he used a similar tone, and it was something that had come out of her when she had wiped her memory. He guessed her brain was filling in the blanks of where Clara Oswald fell out with pieces of him. Or, maybe, she just regenerated that way and he'd only just noticed it in recent years.
"Plus, if I go anywhere, then I won't know for certain that she's still in that vault," she continued. "I'm safer here than I ever will be away from here because of that point alone."
He deflated slightly, but he couldn't blame her. Knowing where the threat was, even if it was right beside you, was still better than not knowing where they were even if they were far away. He still didn't like her to think like that, though. He wanted her to feel safe, not at war.
"Oh, and here was me thinking that I was a good enough reason," he teased anyway, hoping to relax her. The look she shot him said that it worked a little.
"You are," she reassured. "Definitely in the top three."
"Top three?!"
"Alright, the top five."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor liked a puddle. It wasn't often he could say that, but he really did. There was a puddle in the courtyard that was interesting, which meant he finally had something to do instead of teaching and marking. He had something to investigate, which meant he get Danni to investigate with him. A proper date, as it were. If he could remind her how better having something to investigate was, then maybe he could convince her to a trip or two off-world. With both of them flying the TARDIS they'd be back before they'd even left. No one had to know that only Nardole was there protecting the Vault.
Danni had gone to type up something for her English class, which usually meant that she was in the library, so he'd taken it upon himself to analysis the liquid from the puddle. Hopefully by the time she got back he'd have a better idea of what it actually was. Then he could lead her into discovering it herself, and with a few encouraging words, a few bits of praise, they'd be rocketing around space and time once again.
The door burst open and the Doctor jumped up, surprised by her sudden and rather early return. His mind had already run through a few hundred excuses over what he had been doing when he realised it was Bill, not Danielle. She was panting as if she had been running and she jammed a chair under the door handle before darting back away from it.
"Hello, Bill," he said slowly, walking over to her. She looked panicked and she didn't tear her eyes from the door.
"Oh," she whimpered as water began to pour in from underneath the door. She was terrified.
The water stopped sloshing through like a waterfall and began pouring through like an organised puddle, which again was something the Doctor really hadn't seen of thought before. "What is that?" he asked lowly as it began growing from the ground, around the chair Bill had tried to barricade them in with.
"I'll tell you what it isn't," she replied. "It isn't a freak optical effect." The Doctor couldn't help but stare, amazed, as it began to form the shape of a small, young woman. "And it's following me."
It was amazing, and terrifying, and all the things the Doctor had missed from travelling. Quickly coming to the conclusion that it was the best thing he'd seen in a while, he leant closer, wondering how substantial the mimicking was. Would his hand go through it, or would he hit dripping skin?
"No, no, what are you doing?" Bill hissed.
His hand stopped. Maybe she was right. Who knew what the dripping creature could do to him? This is why he needed a Clara, or an Amy, or a Danni. He needed someone to stop him being stupid. It was very easy for him to fall into.
He quickly made a decision that, in hindsight, may not have been his best. He knew the consequences of it, he knew that Bill couldn't know about the hidden part of their lives, but there was a monster in front of them and his first goal was to get everyone safe.
"I'll tell you what," he declared, moving away from the liquid monster and towards Bill. "Let's just pop into my box." He opened the TARDIS door, ushering Bill through it.
"Your box?" Bill protested. "What good is getting in your box going to do?"
"What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be," he muttered to himself before stepping in himself, reaching outside just once for good measure to take the 'Out of Order' sign of the front.
Time to be a time traveller again.
~0~0~0~
Hello all! Welcome to the start of Preservation, book 7 of the series! Can you believe it? I can't! I'm surprised there are so many of you still out there :P
Let me know what you think. I'll start review replies next chapter :)