Bill loved how her life had suddenly changed. She had a tutor; she was a student. She had never even considered going to university despite how much she had wanted to. She left school and immediately got a job, and then another, and then another and it fell away to the back of her head. Some people were destined for education, she had thought she'd been destined to serve chips and she'd been very happy about it.
Of course, now she was a student. She was supposed to be walking across the campus, not just because she had a job, but because she was part of the community. Sure, she only had classes on an evening, but she was no longer out of place during the Doctor's lectures. She didn't have to sneak in because she was expected to be there.
She was actually heading to the library one afternoon when she spotted the Doctor and Nardole – whose job she still wasn't certain of – scuttling across the grass like they had something to hide. All thoughts of doing work fell to the side as she immediately decided to follow them. How could she resist when they were acting so shady?
They headed around the back of the building and down some stairs that led to the underbelly of the building, and Bill was quick on their heels. She'd always been too curious for her own good, she wasn't sure if that was going to be her downfall, but it wasn't something she was actively trying to stop, either. She did wonder if she should try, though.
They led her to a metal door that looked like it shouldn't have been there, which was just more and more suspicious. The Doctor and Nardole had already gone inside and she tried the ring handle to open it. It didn't budge, but then she let it go and with a mechanical whirring noise, it opened on its own.
It was still so strange, and Bill smiled slightly in her confusion. But then she stormed in, determined to get to the bottom of it. She didn't want to inadvertently end up being part of some strange terrorist attack, or robbery, or something, just because she was the Doctor's student. One he'd personally taken under his wing to teach one-to-one.
Oh god, what if she was going to be the fall guy to some master theft, or murder? What if he was part of the mafia and he was looking to recruit her?
Nah, not dressed like that he wasn't.
She walked in, the door shutting on its own behind her. The stairs were narrow, dark and damp, as most basements tended to be but she followed them down as quietly as she could.
"So, you're tutoring her then, hmm?" Nardole asked, his voice filtering down the hallway she was trying to walk down without falling. Would some overhead lights really be too much to ask for?
"Yes, I am," the Doctor replied as another mechanical whirring noise sounded. Were they drilling? It sounded a little like a drill.
"Why?"
"Why not?" the Doctor countered.
"Your wife is concerned," Nardole told him. "She's worried you're going to leave her on her own."
"I wouldn't do that," the Doctor protested and he sounded so offended Bill stopped in her tracks. He had a wife?
"Uh huh."
"Again," the Doctor said, sounding exasperated. Bill set off again, trying to see the pair. "I wouldn't do that again."
"It's a valid concern, though, isn't it?" Nardole pressed. "You leaving your post. You did promise…"
"I know what I promised," he snapped. "And I have every intention of keeping it." There was a pause. "What business is it of yours, anyway?"
"You're not supposed to get involved," Nardole said. "What are you teaching her, anyway?"
"Everything."
"Well, how can you teach anyone everything?"
"Because it rhymes," the Doctor offered and Nardole seemed rather happy, letting out a noise of approval. If the Doctor had a wife, then who exactly was Nardole to him? She had never pictured him with a wife but now she started picturing a short woman in her head, with grey hair in a bun, baking cakes and bread while he was at work. Why did she picture all old women as some 1800's house wife? That was something she hadn't know about herself.
And what about that girl, Danni, he kept smiling at? Was he having an affair? Was she suddenly in the plot of a soap opera?!
As Bill finally found herself in the dim room the Doctor and Nardole were in, she couldn't help but notice the random junk around her, all gross and covered in cobwebs. Maybe he was one of those hoarders she'd seen on television. She peered around the corner of a large, stone pillar and spotted the pair in front of another large, metal door, huddled together with a lamp. They seemed to be inspected it. She immediately, and rather strongly, wanted to know exactly what they were doing. She stretched around further, trying to see, but instead just knocked over some more junk and made a loud clattering noise.
She darted back around the pillar and then into the hallway, trying to keep her gasping to a minimal. What if they'd seen her...?
"The door upstairs, how did you set the security?" the Doctor asked Nardole, his voice low and serious. Bill pressed herself against the wall; she was in so much trouble.
"Friends only," Nardole replied.
There was nothing for a moment, then they seemed to get back to work. Deciding she was safe – for now- Bill very slowly, and very quietly, made her way back out to the surface before darting off from the door and back towards the library. Or home. Yeah, maybe home. She could come back later and ask him all about it.
It was all very strange, and had her imagination running a mile a minute trying to work out what she'd just witnessed. On the surface it didn't seem particularly worrisome; two men working underground on some project. But it was mysterious, and secret and she'd seen enough movies to know that nothing ever looked as simple as it seemed…
And then, around the corner, sat a woman. She had curly hair, and she looked sad and all thoughts of strange, sci-fi doors flew out of Bill's head. The woman, it turned out, had a star in her eye and hated the university so much she just wanted to leave. She was absolutely mesmerising.
That was how Bill met Heather.
~0~0~0~
The TARDIS was truly a majestic machine. She was infinite, and beautiful, and capable of anything and everything you could possibly think of. And, as everyone spotted when they first stepped in, she was bigger on the inside.
Of course, spotting that meant that you had to step in and look, rather than pressing yourself up against the door to try and see out of the tiny windows at the top, as Bill did the moment she stepped inside. After all, she didn't want to be caught unawares by the strange, water woman who was chasing her.
A strange water woman that she had been trying so hard to date.
"How do we stop it getting in?" she asked him. "We're trapped in here!"
The Doctor, who was much less concerned about being attacked by a water woman and more concerned on why there was a water woman in the first place pointed to the doors with his key still in hand. "Nothing gets through these doors," he promised her.
Bill looked at him, absolutely flabbergasted by the words that had come out of his mouth. "But they're made of wood," she pointed out. "They've got windows!"
The Doctor just grinned at her, running into the console room to grab his jacket. He loved this part. Where they didn't notice at first, but then they turned around and saw just how majestic the TARDIS was. It was one of his favourite parts about having a companion.
Not that Bill was going to be his companion, he had a promise to keep after all, but it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.
"Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather," Bill explained as she continued to look out of the window. The Doctor had figured that, considering how she seemed more surprised that she was being chased rather than the thing that was chasing her. "Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person…"
The Doctor quickly sorted himself out for when she turned around, trailing off as she finally saw the TARDIS for the first time.
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space. TARDIS for short," he told her grandly. "You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be. Any questions?"
Then she said something completely baffling. "Is this a knock-through?"
He didn't really know how to respond to that. Not a question he'd really been asked before. "Well, in a way, yes."
She had already moved on from her original question to look around. She was smiling because she didn't understand it. "Look at this place. It's like a…"
"Spaceship," he finished for her knowingly.
"Kitchen," she finished, cutting him off completely.
Again, as he had noticed over the short time that he'd known her, Bill managed to be so close to the right answer and yet spectacularly wrong. "A what?"
"A really posh kitchen, all metal," she replied, motioning to the console as she decided that she really liked her answer without listening to the one he'd given her. He really needed to get a handle on that. "What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?"
Well, that was just insulting.
"What you are standing in is a technological marvel," he insisted, annoyed. "It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be."
He looked around himself, still not quite able to believe how wonderful the TARDIS was. He absolutely adored their home and what she could offer. Every time he thought on it, even for a moment, he felt like a school boy. He lived in a TARDIS, a time machine, a space…
"Can I use the toilet?"
He turned around, pulled out of his thoughts. "Pardon?"
She shot him a look, talking through gritted teeth, embarrassed. "I've had a fright. I need the toilet."
He motioned to the stairs. Perhaps they could try again when they "It's down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser."
"Thanks."
She darted down the stairs only to be met by Nardole, who appeared from the doorway out of the room. "Oh, human!" he said in voice that almost sounded like he'd seen an ant in his kitchen. He continued up the stairs and motioned back to her. "Human alert. Do you want me to repel her?" he asked the Doctor, who shook his head.
"She's just passing through. She wants to use the toilet," he explained in a bit of a grumble.
Nardole pulled a face and looked back at Bill. "Oh, I'd, er, give it a minute, if I were you."
Bill pulled her own face, a little grossed out, when the TARDIS shuddered with a bang. She had to grab onto the railings to stop herself falling over and the Doctor and Nardole rushed to the centre of the room.
"Ooo, what was that?" Nardole exclaimed, once again very worried. The Doctor had noticed it was a constant state of his, he had to wonder how he managed to get anything done being so worried all the time.
He turned the monitor around, showing Nardole the water woman outside in the office. "We have an incursion on campus. Extra-terrestrial. We're under attack," he explained. He moved to the controls, setting them in motion. "Let's move."
Bill looked up at the time rotor and the way it moved up and down, whirring and flashing lights. Again, she smiled. "Oh, my God! This isn't just a room, is it?" she exclaimed.
The Doctor shot her a look. He no longer had time for this part, she'd missed her shot. She was going to just have to work it out herself, be very impressed, and he'll deal with questions later. "No, it's not just a room," he muttered.
"This is a lift!"
Once again, she managed to be so close to the answer and yet so far away. How was she managing to get such good grades when she missed all the obvious stuff?
He made his way to the door, Nardole following and beckoning Bill to follow them. She wasn't sure what she'd expected to see outside the room but the dark basement she'd followed them to definitely wasn't it. She'd pretty much forgotten that it had even existed because she'd been immediately distracted by Heather.
The two men immediately rushed over to the wall where the vault doors were sat, checking them over. Bill cautiously stepped out and looked up at the box, then in the box, then around it to check that she was really seeing what she thought what she was seeing.
"No interference here, as far as I can see. The vault's secure," the Doctor muttered to himself.
"So your box can move? It can go anywhere it likes?" Bill asked, still drawn to the blue box. Much like everyone else tended to be once they'd noticed her.
"Mmm. Good, innit?" Nardole replied with a smile.
"Anywhere at all, in the whole university?"
The Doctor paused his scanning, screwdriver in hand. He looked down at Nardole. "Is it my imagination, or is this taking longer than normal?" he asked and Nardole nodded his agreement. He kept his attention firmly on the vault, though, making sure that it was as secure as they needed it to be.
"Hang on. The room's still inside the box. This isn't a knock-through," Bill realised before she gasped and turned to her tutor. "Doctor! It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!"
"Way-hey!" Nardole cheered. "We got there!" He and the Doctor shook hands in a congratulatory way, the Doctor rolling his eyes slightly at just how long it had taken her to get to the point that she should have been at when they'd first entered the box. Then again, the way her brain worked seemed rather fascinating, it was one of the things that kept their tutorage rather interesting.
"How is that possible? How do you do that?" she asked.
Nardole knew that pulling the Doctor away from his job was a bad idea, and also probably quite impossible, so he turned to bill instead. "Well, first you have to imagine a very big box fitting inside a very small box." She nodded along, smiling as she waited for the answer. "Then you have to make one," he finished and her smile fell slightly. "It's the second part people normally get stuck on."
"Can we shut up, please? Busy, busy," he snapped at them both. "I need to know if there's any interest in what's inside this vault."
He knew that it was safe. He knew that no one could get into the vault doors and to what was behind it without some serious power and hacking skills, but that still didn't make him less worried. It didn't stop his hearts beating a little faster, and it didn't stop him wondering if he should get Danielle before they managed to break inside and let what was in there loose.
"Either the creature came here specifically for what's in here, or it's just a coincidence," the Doctor explained to Bill, who was still confused about everything that was going on.
Bill shook her head. "It's just a coincidence," she replied confidently.
"Well, we can't know that for sure," he told her.
"Yeah, we can," she said. Both he and Nardole looked at her, waiting for her to explain her reasoning. "It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?"
The Doctor wasn't sure if he liked that she made a lot of sense, especially considering he'd never thought of it himself. He turned back to the lock. "I don't know. Maybe it's a student?"
Bill was a little offended, whereas Nardole laughed like he was amused by the conversation. "Oh, banter. It's good, this," he declared happily. He looked at Bill expectantly. "Your go again."
The water rushing down the stairs and into the basement cut off any more of the banter that Nardole was waiting for. The Doctor looked up at the shorter man. "Nardole, we need to move away from the doors and towards the TARDIS," he instructed in a whisper. They all were in agreement, so without any words or complaints, the trio moved towards the TARDIS. They paused in front of the steps as the water continued to pour into the room and watched at it began to rise and form the water woman once again.
"What if it attacks us?" Nardole whispered.
"Well, that's the good news," the Doctor replied in kind. "It means it's not interested in what's inside the vault. It just wants to kill us."
This did nothing to comfort either of them. The water woman stared at them, and they stared back and the Doctor watched her pay absolutely no attention to the vault on the other side of the room. That was good. That was the best-case scenario. That meant that the vault was safe, that his wife was safe, and that he could continue trying to work out what the puddle woman wanted.
"Run!" he shouted and everyone rushed into the TARDIS as the woman screamed loudly after them. That was definitely an inhuman screech. There probably wasn't much of her left in it. That thought always made him sad, even if he couldn't process it in the moment.
"It's not interested in the vault, it's chasing us," the Doctor explained to them both as he set them back into flight. "Let's give it a proper challenge. Let's see how far she's prepared to go."
"But what about my friend? What about Heather? Can you save her?" Bill asked. The Doctor didn't have an answer for her. Or, rather, he feared he didn't have an answer for her that she would like. The TARDIS landed on the other side of the flight with a thud.
"First things first. Let's see if we can survive her," he replied. He walked calmly the doors, opening them to take a peek outside to make sure he'd landed where he'd aimed for. He had, so he stepped out into the warm sun and the chattering people. Even just flying from one side of the Earth to the other was a thrill he'd missed immensely. He had hoped he'd be able to tempt Danni into doing a trip with him, but this was almost just as good. Running from an alien, moving in space, being the Doctor.
He'd really missed it.
He turned to watch Bill step out, turning on the spot as she tried to comprehend where they'd landed. "But…" He nodded. "We've moved again."
"We have," he confirmed.
"It was night," she said, watching all the people walk by like nothing was wrong. "Now it's day."
"Definitely day."
"Oh, my God!" she rushed over to him, voice low. "Have we travelled in time?"
"No, of course not," he dismissed. "We've travelled to Australia!"
He moved out of the way so she could see the Sydney Opera House, something he was sure she had missed. He did it with a grin on his face, like a grand reveal, expecting a happy, confused and amazed reaction. Maybe even some applause, he wasn't sure how she would react in the face of something like a spaceship.
Instead her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, like a fish, then she turned on the spot to see how everything was different, how it was warm and sunny and therefore definitely not England. He kept smiling at her, enjoying the show until she turned and dashed into the nearest café, then into the toilets.
This wasn't his area of expertise; it had always been up to Danielle to reassure people about the TARDIS and the fact that they were aliens. He paused, hand outreached to open the bathroom door; he had to tell her that as well, didn't he? He had to explain everything. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before; he'd done it numerous times all on his own, but she had looked panicked, and upset, and a little queasy and he wasn't sure if he was up to dealing with someone else throwing up because of the TARDIS.
Luckily, she didn't have too much time to protest to him being an alien when the water woman was back to attack, so they rushed back to the TARDIS to go somewhere else. Somewhere hopefully safer so they could stop running for a few minutes and he could work out a proper plan that wasn't just 'run as fast and far as you can to see if it will follow'.
Nardole jumped in surprise when they burst back through the doors, almost as though as he wasn't expecting them which didn't really make much sense because it was his TARDIS after all. Still, the Doctor dismissed it as part of him just being an overall idiot and got to setting them back into flight.
"Where are we going?" Bill asked.
"As far as we can. She made Australia in a minute. Let's see what she can really do," he replied, flipping another switch.
Nardole, who was watching the monitors, looked up with a frown. "Sir, we're leaving Earth," he said. "What about the vault? What about your wife?"
"Oh, we're fine. If there's any trouble, I'll get a message on this," he held up his psychic paper. "She's smart, she'll be fine."
He tucked it away in his pocket, but Nardole didn't seem too convinced. "But, sir, you made a promise…"
"She'll understand," he cut in sharply before looking down at the controls. "She'll understand," he repeated, more to reassure himself. When it came down to that vault and the contents, he wasn't sure she would.
He pushed the switch back into position. "Let's see how long it takes for her to get here."
"Where are we?" Bill asked.
"Other end of the universe. Twenty-three million years in the future." He turned, giant grin on his face. "Oh, yes, she's a time machine to."
There it was again. Her confused smile. He would never tire of pulling that from anyone.
Outside was sparse, rocky, dusty and bright. Two large moons hung in the sky and he was sure that more orbited the planet. It wasn't too warm, or too cold. The sparkle in the rocks was very pretty. There was some planet life, all grey because of how baron the land was. Perhaps, behind the rocks, there would be a nice walking path. It'd been decades since they'd been on a proper hike together.
Bill's first steps out were a little wobbly as she looked around, wondering just how more bizarre her day could be. "So this is somewhere else? This is a different planet? Not Earth, a different one?" she asked.
"That's the general idea," the Doctor replied softly.
"That's different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sky made of?" Bill rambled off, obviously not even trying to contain what questions were immediately coming to her mind.
"Lemon drops."
She looked at him, incredulous. "Really?"
"No," he replied sadly. "But wouldn't that be nice?"
"You can be very silly sometimes, you know that?" Nardole told him and he couldn't help but smile. He did rather love being an old fool. "So, how do we know this water thing is dangerous?"
"Ah, because most things are," the Doctor replied and Nardole agreed.
"Why? Is everything out here evil?" Bill asked.
"Hardly anything is evil, but most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery," he explained. "Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?"
"So what is it, and what was it doing on Earth?" Nardole asked.
It, as it turned out, was a liquid spaceship. Or, rather, a droplet from a spaceship that could turn into anything that spaceship needed it to be. Some sort of intergalactic space oil. It had seen Bill's friend, found someone who wanted to escape from the planet like it did, and stole her away to do just that.
How fascinating. How… new. The Doctor loved new. He loved things he didn't understand because then he could make himself understand them. Or he got to live in ignorant bliss never knowing. Bother were good options. Both made for fantastic stories.
Nardole sat down on one of the larger rocks. "So why is it chasing this one?" Nardole asked, motioning to Bill.
"Everything wants, everything needs," the Doctor offered, walking over to Nardole.
"But why does it want her?"
"I don't know. I don't know everything, Nardole," he retorted, exasperated." I don't have it all written down."
"You act like you do," Nardole said pointedly.
"I act like I do, because I don't."
"It must be looking for something."
"Of course it is, everything is," the Doctor agreed. "What, in the end, are any of us looking for?" He thought back to Danielle, who was currently oblivious to his actions and probably studying a bit too hard. Would she notice he was gone? "We're looking for someone who's looking for us."
He looked over at Bill just in time to see her pulled face first into a puddle by the water woman. Both he and Nardole rushed over. "Bill!" he cried, grabbing one side of her whilst Nardole grabbed the other. "Quick!"
They managed to rip her from the grasp of the angry woman, pulling her away from the puddle. "Back to the TARDIS!" he instructed, and no one protested as the woman screamed and the puddle exploded into a giant geyser.
The Doctor wasn't sure what to do next except to run away, so he opened the door to the TARDIS and ushered Bill and Nardole in first in the hopes that it would by him a second or two to come up with an exciting and, more importantly, functional plan.
Of course, as Bill gasped for air, all of his plans fell from his mind as he was greeted by his wife, stood at the console, looking rather angry.
~0~0~0~
Danni, surprisingly, had begun to really love being a student. She was starting to actually enjoy studying and, now that she'd made her way through a few of the degree courses at the university, she had gotten a real good hand on her studying. She was efficient, keen and smart. All the things a model student should be.
Well, she was mostly keen. Sometimes, though, she was also like every other student and studying felt like the worst thing she could possibly do at that point. If she had to look up another webpage, or read another out-of-date textbook then she was sure her brain would melt and pool in a small puddle on the desk she had taken in the library.
Most other students, she knew, would use it as a reason to have a night out. They'd call up their friends and tempt them into going down to the pub, or the bar, or something… she actually wasn't sure what students did, these days. She'd fallen out of keeping up with them a couple decades ago. So, she didn't even think about calling anyone up. She, instead, went to find Nardole.
Nardole, who was ever patient with her as they walked through the TARDIS hallways, not doing much at all except talk. She was sure that this wasn't how he'd expected to spend his life, although she was also sure that he didn't really mind it.
"I'm not doing it," she told him firmly. "Not a chance."
"You'll enjoy it," Nardole told her, again patiently.
"No, I won't," she told him. "I'm not a tutor. I don't like people."
"That's not strictly true, is it?" Nardole pointed out.
"You and the Doctor don't count," she replied, making Nardole feel very loved indeed. "Plus, I'm a student. I can't just suddenly become a tutor; it'll look suspicious and she's already asking questions she shouldn't be."
"Maybe you could be another one of his students, then," Nardole offered. "You'll feel much better about the entire situation if you were there to oversee it."
"I trust the Doctor completely. If he says he's not going to take her on as a companion, then I believe him," she said, promptly ending the conversation. "Plus, why should I have to waste my time sitting in on the lessons, when you could do it for me?"
"Because, ma'am, I'm very busy looking after the Vault," Nardole reminded her. Danni shot him a glare in return.
"River told you to do what I said," she said, sounding frustrated at his lack of compliance. "You can sit in, not me."
He sighed, resigned. "Yes, Ma'am."
"You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be."
Danni held her hand up, stopping them both in their steps. "Did you hear that?" she asked Nardole, who nodded. She motioned with her head and scuttled to the doorway to the console room, where she could see both the Doctor and Bill. She turned to Nardole, outraged.
"He's brought her onto the TARDIS!" she hissed, dipping back into the hallway. Nardole stuck his head around the door.
"Oh, so he has," he stated, as if he was mildly interested rather than concerned. That just annoyed her further and she grabbed him, pulling him back into the hallway.
"He can't just bring her onto the TARDIS!" she snapped angrily. "What the hell is he thinking?"
"Perhaps you should go ask him, ma'am," he suggested and she shook her head.
"No, no, I shouldn't have to ask him anything. He should be telling me before he brings random humans into our home," she raged. "He's not tried to-" she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone to check she hadn't missed any calls. She hadn't. "- ring me and let me know. He's just… just brought her in!"
"Well, maybe he has a good reason to?" Nardole said, trying to be diplomatic. Again, it wasn't what Danni was looking for and she pointed her phone at him.
"We're supposed to be undercover! No one is supposed to know we have a time machine! We have something incredibly fucking dangerous in the basement that we're supposed to be keeping an eye on. He's not supposed to show off to anyone!" She shifted on the spot. "Well, no one else except me, anyway."
Nardole didn't try to hide the way he rolled his eyes. "Ma'am, he is always showing off to you. It gets in the way of us trying to look after the Vault, if you haven't noticed."
"I have noticed," she replied, still sounding incredibly angry. "This isn't that, is it?" She pushed him towards the doorway. "Go on, then. Get to work."
"Work?!" he exclaimed and she shushed him. "What work?"
"Watching over them two, like we just discussed," she reminded him. "You're going to keep an eye on them and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
He sighed again, knowing he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of being the babysitter. "How do you want me to report back? I guess you don't want him knowing you're here?"
"Work that out as it happens. You're supposed to be smart, Nardole, don't act like an idiot," she snapped.
Danni stayed in the doorway, peeping around the corner as Nardole made his way out into the console room, deterring Bill from heading into the hallway. She watched as the Doctor sent them into flight, holding onto the doorframe for the slightly shaky ride. She became more and more annoyed as the Doctor and Bill rushed out of the doors and only had enough time for Nardole to tell her they were in Australia before they were back and they were in flight again.
To the other end of the universe.
She just couldn't believe he'd left her behind like he had. He'd just jumped in the TARDIS, dragged a human along for an adventure and hadn't even dropped her an email or a text! She knew he didn't particularly like any mode of communication that wasn't a straight up call, but it just felt like a giant slap in the face that he'd gone without her and not even informed her that he was going off world.
What if something happened? He'd promised that she was safe, that nothing could happen but why should she believe that? She had so much more experience that said that a vault wasn't going to keep that monster at bay. If she wanted to escape, if Missy decided that she was bored, then some metal doors weren't going to stop her from leaving. And if she was on her own, if Danni was on her own…
She watched them from the monitor as the Doctor tried to work out what was going on, and she knew that Bill was in danger but she found herself rather unable to care. It had nothing to do with how the Doctor had seemingly taken a companion on without telling her, it was the fear that Missy was now on Earth, on her own, and she knew that the other Time Lady would know that. The Doctor might think that any monster was capable of change, of redemption, but Danni knew differently. There was no saving Missy, there was only delaying the inevitable. And he'd just given her the perfect opportunity to devastate them all again.
Which was why she was angry, and why she stood there when the Doctor came in, and why she wasn't surprised, in the slightest, by his terrified look. She must have looked like a force to be reckoned with, and she was glad. She wanted him to know how much it had hurt her.
"Oh!" Nardole exclaimed, trying and failing to sound surprised. "Ma'am!"
Bill, who was coughing through her gasped, stared at the woman in bewilderment. "Hang on, you're-you're that Danni girl," she said, a little redundantly. "What are you doing here?" She turned to the Doctor. "What is she doing here?"
The Doctor, on the other hand, knew that he'd been very much caught out and instead of rushing to the console to set them in flight and away from the angry space oil, he just felt the same fear as a child who'd been caught sneaking out after bedtime.
Danni pressed her lips together as she stared back at her husband, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The monitor had been pulled around to where she was stood so it was obvious that she had been watching them outside. She reached out and, without looking, flicked the switch to send them into the time vortex.
The Doctor shot her a sheepish grin. "I can explain," he started.
"I'm sure you can," Danni replied. "I'm sure there's a brilliant explanation as to why you're at the end of the universe."
Nardole raised his hand. "Ma'am, if I could just…"
"No, you can't," Danni interrupted and he lowered his hand. She didn't take her eyes off the Doctor. "You broke your promise."
"Now-Now, hang on," he started, moving forward and up to her. "This isn't just some trip, we're in danger…"
"I know, I was watching, I saw the giant geyser with the face in it," Danni retorted. She pointed at him. "You left me behind!"
"Actually, as you're here to tell me off, I don't think…"
"You left me behind!" she repeated, biting out the words and his lips slammed shut. "You left me on Earth, on my own, with… with that thing!"
"I knew you were safe," the Doctor reassured her. "I was going to come home at the same time I'd left, there was no need to panic."
"You left me on my own!" Danni shouted back.
"I thought you were in the library?" the Doctor countered. She nodded.
"I was. I came back for something and me and Nardole got talking about you and your student," she explained, motioning over to the bald man. The Doctor shot him an angry look, furious that he'd not warned him and suddenly Nardole looked rather worried. "And I overheard you giving her the companion speech and asked Nardole to keep an eye on you!"
"I don't need to be babysat!" the Doctor protested.
"Apparently you do!"
Bill, who had just managed to catch her breath, looking between the two arguing like they were an old married couple. "What is going on?" she asked. "I mean, we're right in the middle of an alien oil attack!"
"Yes, we know," Danni snapped at her. "We'll get back to that, hold your horses." Bill blinked, a little taken aback over being dismissed but Danni didn't pay her any more attention. "You told me that this wasn't why you were tutoring her!"
"I didn't exactly plan this, you know?" the Doctor pointed out. "I don't plan alien invasions; I just stop them."
"No, UNIT stops them, that's what they're for. Our job is to watch that vault and your job was to not leave me alone with it! What if something had happened? Do you have any idea what would have happened to me if anything did?"
Her anger was fear, he knew that, so he stepped forward again until he could take her hands in his. "Nothing was going to happen," he promised her gently. "You were fine. You can handle more than you think you can."
"No, I really can't," Danni insisted. If that vault had opened, if the contents had escaped… If she'd had to fight, and she'd not been able to… "You promised to not leave me alone with her, and you did."
"I'm sorry," he promised, pulling her close for a hug that, thankfully, she let him do. She didn't wrap her arms around him but he knew that was just because she was still afraid. She had become better with the vault over the years, no longer spending hours and hours down there watching it to make sure nothing got out, but it still scared her. He still had to prove that she was safe to her in terms she would accept.
Bill's eyes widened as she realised what was going on. "Oh my god, she's your wife!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, thank you for noticing," the Doctor retorted and Danni pulled away, as if she suddenly realised that they had an audience.
"But-But I'm not one to judge, but you're old enough to be her grandad."
Even Nardole winced at her words. "You might want to take that back," he warned her as Danni glared at her.
"And what has that got to do with you at all?" she countered. "Weren't you just accusing me of sleeping with him just before Christmas? Or was it alright when he was my teacher, but now it's not so 'inappropriate' you can't see it?"
"That's not what I'm saying," Bill told her.
"No, you're just accusing me of having bad morals and also not being good enough for my own husband," Danni snapped back. "In my own home, no less." She looked up at the Doctor. She was very much tired of having someone in her home who had done nothing but throw accusations at her. "What's chasing us?"
The Doctor was slightly startled at the change in conversation, but was also quite glad about it. "Space oil," he explained. "Well, not exactly oil, more like a liquid spaceship. And it's taken the form of Bill's friend and is trying to eat her."
"And what's the plan?"
Bill wasn't sure if she should have been insulted by the fact that she seemed very unconcerned about that fact that she was being chased by space oil, but as she was still reeling from the fact that the Doctor really did have a wife, it didn't register straight away. Not that she didn't think he shouldn't have a wife – although, if she was honest, he had always seemed a bit too, well, alien, to be thought of in that context at all. Love was love; everyone had the potential to find someone if that was what they wanted. It just… She knew him, she'd been tutored personally by him, and it had never come up so she'd sort of dismissed it.
"Basic sterilisation," the Doctor explained. "We're going to run that think through the deadliest fire in the universe."
Nardole nodded along. "Yes, that sounds excellent. The deadliest fire in the universe." He made it sound like the title of a movie rather than something that Bill would never have thought she would ever hear. "That's definitely good."
Danni, who was looking at the console along with her husband, didn't even look back at him. "We're going to have to run through it first, you know that, right?"
"Less good now."
Bill held onto the railings as Danni and the Doctor flew them away. They had a fluidity she hadn't expected, neither of them saying a word as they pushed all the buttons and switches that she didn't understand. They'd obviously been doing this for a while together. Like, a long time.
"Are you an alien too?" she asked before she caught herself. "Oh my god, you are, aren't you?"
Danni didn't look up from what she was doing. "This is who you chose to bring onto the TARDIS?" she asked under her breath.
"She's smart, it just takes her a moment to realise that," the Doctor replied just as lowly. Danni rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I am," she retorted and Bill gasped in realisation.
"Oh my god, that's why you don't have any friends, isn't it?" she exclaimed. "So people don't find out you're living amongst us!"
Danni looked at her, incredulous, as the TARDIS landed. "Excuse me?"
Bill's brows furrowed as her thoughts talked over Danni. "Why are you pretending to be a student, though?"
The Doctor rushed up the stairs to the platform above, patting Bill on the arm on his way. "Maybe for another day, eh?" he said. "Let's get you safe first."
Nardole checked the screens and grimaced. "Oh, not there. I don't like there!" he cried as the Doctor rushed back and chucked an old sonic screwdriver at him.
"I want you running interference. Can you do that?" he asked.
"Can I say no, sir?"
"No," Danni replied for him, so Nardole nodded.
"Yes, then."
"Where are we?" Bill asked.
"Well, we're basically in the middle of a war." Bill really didn't like the sound of that, so opened her mouth to protest but the Doctor waved them away. "No, but, well, it's a war zone, and this is just your basic skirmish," he explained. And it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise you." He began ushering everyone out the door, with Bill and Nardole in front and Danni bringing up the rear. He knew that, despite being annoyed at him, she'd still want to come out into the madness. Neither of them could resist. "Come on, I've got friends here, old friends."
Danni grabbed his arm before he stepped over the threshold into the spacecraft outside. "I'm still angry at you," she told him. "We're not done talking about this."
"I didn't think we were," he replied. "But don't you think we're a bit busy now?"
She nodded. "Daleks, though?" she asked. "Was there not a better place to go?"
"Dalek fire. Purest in the universe," he said and she had to agree, as much as she didn't like it. They rushed out as well and to Bill, who was waiting for the pair. Nardole had already run off to do his job, sending out as much interference as he could as the trio made their way through the rubble and the explosions to the sound of tin robots calling out for the Doctor.
"Are we still in the future?" Bill asked.
"No. This is the past," the Doctor replied.
"Doesn't, doesn't look like the past."
"Doesn't look like your past," Danni corrected her.
Bill's terror level was so high that she didn't really question the snarky comment. She just continued to follow the Doctor and Danni through the wreckage, hearing the battle cries and wondering why it was happening to her. "But are we safe here?"
"Well, that's up to Nardole, so probably not," the Doctor retorted and Danni glared at him.
"I've told you to be nice to him!" she scolded. "He's not an idiot, he just acts like one!"
"Where are we going?" Bill asked as something large exploded behind them. The Doctor seemed to know where he was heading, and Danni wasn't far behind him. He obviously had something in mind and not at all concerned about the faint screaming they could hear.
"Into the fire," was his reply, which offered her nothing. "Come on."
They had to climb through holes in corridor walls, and around large craters in the floor. They had to run past people dying, and gun fire, all which has Bill's heart pounding in her chest and her head swimming as she felt more and more overwhelmed. None of it seemed to hide them, though, as they came across Heather, still made of water and still terrifying and upsetting. She was stood at the edge of a corridor and, at the other, was a large robot that looked a little like salt shaker except scarily large and in front of fire and carnage.
"What's that?" Bill exclaimed as the robot's head swivelled around and it stared at them with one, long eyestalk.
"The deadliest fire in the universe," the Doctor replied.
"A Dalek," Danni added. She was sure that was meant to mean something, but all she saw was a giant robot and the woman who was trying to kill her.
"Identify. Intruder. Identify," the Dalek commanded. The Doctor moved forward, holding his sonic screwdriver out to it.
"Scan this device and identify me!" he instructed. The Dalek did as he said and immediately went into a panic.
"You are the Doctor. You are an enemy of the Daleks!" it exclaimed and the Doctor nodded.
"Oh, yes, I am!"
"Exterminate!"
The Doctor grabbed both Danni and Bill and pulled them behind a metal pillar as the Dalek fired at them. The bolt zoomed straight past them and hit Heather in the stomach. She rippled at the attack, as if someone had thrown a stone into some water, but didn't seem at all disturbed by it.
"Exterminate," she repeated. The Dalek tried again, firing at her but nothing happened except her repeating the war cry.
The Doctor looked down at Danni, who was peeking around the corner with a giant smile on her face as she watched the exchange. He dipped his head down. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked lowly.
"What? Daleks, killer water women and running through a warzone?" she countered before looking up at him, a flirty smirk on her lips. "Who can resist?"
He placed a kiss on her hair. "Not me," he agreed.
Bill looked at them both like they had two heads, which they could have done considering they were aliens and she'd seen plenty of movies where aliens used devices to make themselves look more human. The Doctor grabbed her arm again and they began running away.
"What was that thing?" she asked.
"A Dalek," Danni replied. "I told you that before."
"Yeah, but what's a Dalek?"
"Nevermind. It's a Dalek," the Doctor told her as a shot flew past their head. It hit some rubble ahead of them, causing it to explode and cutting off their only escape route. They all turned around slowly to see the Dalek stood there, ready to kill them all.
"Exterminate," it slurred and the Doctor and Danni shared a look.
"Well, there's just not right at all," Danni declared and the pair quickly approached the creature with Bill at their heels. Danni looked up at the Doctor, because there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. "Have you ever heard of a drunk Dalek?" she asked him.
"Once," he replied. "It was a weird day; I'll have to tell you about it sometime. But look," he nodded towards the eyepiece. Danni moved a little closer, looking into the eyepiece. Water seemed to be running out of it, like it was crying, but the star shape that replaced the normal glow that came from a Dalek was very strange indeed.
"What is that?" she asked. She didn't even look up as Nardole came running up to them, terrified as always over the Dalek.
Danni had seen many things over her long life. She had seen supernovas and lizard men, and blue grass and crystal moons. She'd travelled across universes. She'd heard maddening noises and pure evil monsters. She lived in an impossible blue time machine, with an impossible man. But still, as she watched Bill say goodbye to the girl she liked, she knew she had only scratched the surface of it. There was so much more out there, and she had no chance of seeing even a fraction of it. It was a beautifully sad thought. Much like watching Bill say goodbye.
The Doctor walked off, leaving her to seemingly cry and there would have been a time when Danni would have stayed behind to comfort her. She just followed him to the TARDIS, though. "Now what?" she asked him lowly. "She knows too much already."
"I know, I'm working on it," he told her.
Danni glanced up at her husband, who wasn't looking at her at all. "She can't stay," she told him and he nodded. She grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop whilst Nardole and Bill caught up. She shot him an apologetic look; she didn't want to be the bad guy. "Theta, she can't."
He gave her that soft, gentle smile that always reassured her. "I know," he promised. "I'll sort it." He grinned. "Don't you trust me?"
"Sometimes, yeah," she replied cheekily and he shot her a look.
"Now, that's just not nice," he scolded playfully. "We're in a middle of a warzone and you're taking shots at my character."
"I'm not taking shots at your character," Danni replied as the Doctor frowned. His pocket was, rather unexpectantly, warming up as the psychic paper decided that he had a message. "I'm just stating a fact."
He reached into his pocket, turning to hide the fact he was checking the message. "So you say," he said, flipping it open to read it. "Nardole! Hurry up!"
Danni knew he thought he was being sneaky, turning his body so she couldn't see him opening up the psychic paper wallet, but it was plainly obvious what he was doing. "Theta," she started in warning. "You said…"
He flopped it back closed with a snap. "It's fine, everything is fine," he quickly dismissed in a voice that suggested nothing was fine at all. He also grabbed hold of her arm. "We're just going to go for a very quick run to the TARDIS," he continued before looking over his shoulder. "Nardole! Bill! Now!"
~0~0~0~
Danni still didn't know how she felt about a student being sick being able to trigger the alarms on the Vault. On one hand she had been incredibly relieved that all it had been was some poor bugger having a rather eventful evening, but on the other she'd been so concerned that she had almost emotionally crashed out when she'd found out it was nothing at all.
Nothing like thinking a trip out had been the cause of a monster getting loose to really get the hearts pumping.
The Doctor had said he was going to deal with Bill, and Danni had no reason not to believe him. She knew that he understood the severity of their responsibility and, although one of the things that had attracted her to him had been is childish disregard, he knew he would never shrug this off. For as much as he thought Missy was redeemable, he knew that it was risk he was taking. He had been the one to spare her life. He had been the one to make the promise.
After all, Danni had wanted to kill her. She still did. She still didn't understand what the Doctor saw in her because she had been with Missy up close and personal. Nothing could save her. The Doctor was just going to get his hearts broken by her.
The door opened and, as she had expected, the Doctor walked in looking as world-weary as she'd expected him to. Bill was just another way that Missy was hurting him. In any other circumstances Danni knew he would have offered her another look at the universe. Missy meant that he couldn't. No matter how much Danni didn't want another companion – Clara's wound was still too large for her to even contemplate another one – the Doctor did. He thrived on having someone to show off to and, sometimes, he just needed a friend. Not a wife, who loved him and helped him by being someone to impress, but just a friend. She just wished that it could stop there.
He looked old. Well, no, actually he always looked old. He looked ancient. The weight on his shoulders could weigh him down sometimes. "I couldn't do it," he told her apologetically. "I tried to wipe her memory of today but I couldn't."
Bill had, quite rightly, challenged him on his plans to wipe her memories. Immediately, as he'd reached out to her temples, he'd been reminded of Donna, who had begged him not to do the same. He had hated doing it then and he was hating having to do it now, but he would. It was for the best. It would keep everyone safe.
It wasn't until Bill had asked how he would feel that his thoughts had fallen onto his wife. Watching her knees give way, the feeling of dead weight in his arms, as she told him that she just didn't want him to have to bear the pain of wiping her memory.
He'd told Bill to get out, becoming more and more upset until she had run away and he had been left alone with his pain. He never wanted to be the cause of someone losing a little part of themselves because of him. He knew Danni was going to be mad, and upset, and probably blame him for it. He just couldn't be that man again.
He hadn't expected her nose to wrinkle slightly. "Well, no, of course not," she replied like the very idea was idiocy. He looked over at her, baffled. "You're a good man, Theta. I don't know why you keep expecting that to be something you could do again."
She walked over to where he'd stopped at the railings. "Plus, it's still a ridiculous idea," she continued. "I mean, just because she's forgotten you doesn't mean that the universe will forget that she did, at one point. At least if she remembers us if something did notice, she's got a much better chance of defending herself against it if she knows what she's fighting for."
"But-But you told me to deal with her!"
"Yeah, like make sure she knows this isn't going to become a regular thing," she explained. "That she doesn't go interfering with the Vault. You know, that kind of deal with her." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Did you really think I wanted you to wipe her memory? Me?"
It was a stupid thought, really. And the look on his face told her that he really had thought that. She shook her head and sighed. "Honestly, you really do like playing into the old fool stereotype, don't you?" she teased him lightly. "I would never want you to bear that."
He chuckled. "What would I do without you being here, my Pet, to tell me how stupid I am?" he asked her.
"I have no idea, but I would have a lot more time on my hands," she replied. "I wouldn't know how to fill it. I could write a book. Finally learnt to knit, maybe?"
Her soft smile was wonderful because he knew she didn't share it with people often anymore. "I'm sorry I went off world without letting you know," he told her. "And I'm sorry that, potentially, I left you alone with Missy."
The smile fell for a moment as she pressed her lips together in thought. "I don't know why you keep thinking she'd redeemable," she told him honestly, yet again. "She's not. She's never going to change."
"I'm making some real progress," he promised her. "I think she will be able to see the error of her ways."
"That's the problem, she genuinely believes she's not done anything wrong," Danni insisted. "And if she is acting like she does, then that's all it is; an act. Some people are just beyond redemption."
Her words were heavy and he knew exactly what she was implying. It was one of the reasons that Missy was still alive in the basement of a university in Bristol. "Not everyone, though," he told her.
"Hmm," was her reply because she didn't believe him at all. Instead she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone and ending the conversation. She quickly checked the time before pocketing it again. "Now, I actually do have some work to do in the library," she stated before taking his face in her hands. She had the smile back on her face. "Do you think you can leave off discovering alien invasions for another hour?" she asked.
"I'm sure I can manage," he replied, a little grumpy. She leant up and pressed a kiss on his lips. He caught her lips for one more.
"I won't be long," she promised. "Keep an eye on Nardole. I think the Daleks might have spooked him."
"I'll lay some newspaper down, then, should I?" he asked, mocking the other man. Danni shot him a look over her shoulder as she grabbed her bag and coat from the pilot seat. The Doctor frowned; how long had they been there? Had he just missed them the entire time?
"Be nice," she warned. "He's not a dog. Dogs are smart."
He watched her leave, wondering if he should follow her for one more kiss. That was the theme of the night, if he was honest with himself. One more.
One more kiss before she left.
After his first wife he'd not even thought about finding a love of his own. He'd gotten one more chance there.
Missy was deserving of one more chance. Danni deserved one more too, even if she couldn't see it.
And heading home from what had to be the craziest night of her life, Bill deserved one more chance at seeing something amazing after all that she had lost. Poor Heather. He hoped she got one more chance, as well.
He looked up at the TARDIS time rotor and sighed heavily to himself. He just wanted one more. One more trip, one more adventure. Seeing one more new planet, one more new species.
He headed to the console, putting the TARDIS into flight.
Just one more.
~0~0~0~
Hi! Sorry for the long break, I hope you don't mind too much! I did update the Time Child with some more of the rewrite, though, so I hoped that kept you occupied :P
I don't have much to report, so onto reviews!
Jedi Master Albus - Oh, definitely not. Who doesn't love Twelve?
Sophia Lilia - Why thank you, I think :P I hope I can keep your attention with my less-than-ideal update schedule.
Psst - You're very welcome! Hope you like this one :D
sketchtheunicorn - I know, I saw your reviews :P Trust me, I'm the first to say how awful the first few stories are. It's been six years, that's all I can offer but I'm glad you stuck through to here. I am trying to rewrite the original trilogy, though, in the hopes of bringing some sense to it. After all, I know if I saw it for the first time I'd not make it through the first couple of chapters.
Guest - Why thank you, sweetie! I hope you like this one too!
silasargent123 - I think she understands more than she lets on. She misses travelling and having a friend as much as he does, I just think she'll struggle to admit it more.
bored411 - No, not really, was she? I hope you liked it XD
Also a special shoutout to Bolonka, who must have given me my longest review to date, and probably one of the nicest! I'm glad I managed to change your mind, and I really don't mind the long review. Honestly, it made my day :D