Oh, she had forgotten what drinking too much had felt like. It was not fun.
Danni rolled over, groaning and squeezing her eyes shut as she pushed her face into her pillows. She really hadn't intended on getting drunk the night before, but one thing had led to another and she barely remembered getting home. She felt like crap. The whole world was crap. She blamed everyone.
There was a low chuckle that, most of the time, wouldn't have bothered her. Now, though, it felt much too loud for the time of morning she was hearing it. "Theta, stop it," she warned. "When I can open my eyes, I will throw things at you."
"Good morning to you too, my Pet," he replied, highly amused. He didn't like his wife feeling ill at all, he'd never want that, but knowing it was self-inflicted did make it a little funny.
"Good? No morning is ever good," she muttered into her pillow. He smiled to himself; she can't have been feeling too bad, after all that would have been her normal reaction regardless of a busy night out or not.
"Well, true as that may be, we both have class."
That did not sound like something Danni wanted to even think about, so she shook her head into the pillow. "I'm not going to class," she told him bluntly.
He sat down on the bed next to her. "Your professor might not be too happy with that," he reminded, a little cheekily.
"My professor knows better than to wake me up after I've had a night out," she pointed out. "He knows to let me sleep it off."
He smiled to himself. She was aware enough to snap at him, which meant that she wasn't in too much pain from the night before. He could finally probe about the mysterious Kyle, who had taken it upon himself to get his wife ridiculously drunk. "I suspect he does," he agreed. "But he also knows that you tend to get rather annoyed if you are left to sleep in. You wouldn't want to keep Kyle waiting."
"Kyle can go suck my…"
"Danielle," he cut in and she rolled over, chucking her arm over her eyes to block them from the bright lights of their bedroom.
"It's just a saying, Theta. You know I only mean it when I'm saying it to you."
"You'll have to regenerate first," he retorted.
"With how I'm feeling right now, I'm pretty sure it's imminent," she said. "I don't remember hangovers being this bad."
"That's because you can't remember having a hangover," he reminded her gently before he pushed a small vial of purple liquid into her hand. It was what she called 'purple stuff', a solution that she was adamant cured hangovers. In fact, it was just fast-acting pain relief that gave her the capacity to get over the dehydration that drinking brought, but she had never wanted to hear the science behind it. It was magic, and that was all she cared about.
She popped the top and downed it in one, eyes still closed before she chucked it towards the bottom of the bed. She didn't hear a smash, which meant she'd hit her target and didn't hit the floor. That was actually a win for her, that was how bed she felt.
"I don't remember getting home," she told him. "Was I late?"
"Rather," he confirmed. "And when you realised that you'd said you were going to let me know when you were coming back, you ran out of the TARDIS to call me."
She groaned to herself. "Oh yeah, I remember that," she said. "Did I really invite Nardole on my next night out?"
"You did."
She groaned again. "That's going to be awful. Do you think I can get out of it?"
"I don't know, I think he's pretty excited," he teased. "He was doing that thing where he's either happy or confused." He wasn't telling the truth, of course. Nardole wasn't exactly someone who liked hanging around young humans, but if he couldn't tease his wife, then who could he tease?
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked her. She nodded before swinging her legs off the side of the bed and sitting next to him.
"Kyle sits next to me in one of my physics classes. He came to see me in the library and invited me to be on his pub quiz team with some of his friends, so I said yes."
"Did this team include the amorous Sarah and Boyle?"
Danni's nose wrinkled as she quickly remembered how close the two had gotten before they'd disappeared off together. "Yeah…" she drawled. "Those two really embodied that stereotypical student thing of always being horny."
"You were in the right company, then," the Doctor pointed out.
Again, she suddenly remembered how she'd tried very hard to get the Doctor to come to bed with her. She shrugged. "Well, that's because you're delectable," she said as if he should have known better. "Next time regenerate unattractive."
"I'll do my best," he replied flatly. She shot him a smirk, already feeling better as the solution began to dull the pain.
"I think you did very well to resist me, though," she praised. "I mean, I don't think I could have resisted if I'd come at me like I was." She stood up, stretching slightly. "Where did my clothes go?"
"You originally chucked them across the room," he explained. "But I folded them up ready to be washed." He nodded to the small pile of clothing on top of the laundry basket.
"Thanks," she replied. "Give me five minutes and I'll get ready."
"Well, about that," he drawled before pulling her back onto the bed. "Your professor just cancelled the class. You've got a free period."
"Oh, do I?" she asked with a laugh. "Well, that's convenient, isn't it, professor?"
"Very much," he purred before she kissed him.
~0~0~0~
Bill was being nosy again. She knew she had a problem with it, but she couldn't help herself. She'd never understood how people couldn't be nosy. So much was going on in the world that the idea of ignoring it all seemed stupid to her. People like Moira, who still hadn't noticed that she liked girls rather the guys, just went through life happy with what they knew. That wasn't Bill. She didn't understand a lot of things, but she wanted to know all of it.
So when she saw Danni leave the Doctor's latest lecture being followed by a group of people, all chatting happily she just couldn't help but be drawn to it. It was new, and unusual, and therefore right up her alley.
She waited just enough to be out of the lecture hall before she began jogging. "Danni!" she called.
Danni paused in her step, almost wincing at the voice calling for her. Kyle looked at her, a little concerned. "Who is that?"
"Just Bill. I'd better see what she wants," she replied, trying not to sound too wary. "Go on, I'll meet you in the cafeteria. Save me a seat."
Kyle grinned, almost like he was relieved that she was still coming. "Do you want me to wait?" he asked.
"Nah, this isn't going to be interesting," she told him bluntly. He nodded and caught up with the rest of his friends as Bill caught up to Danni.
"Sorry, were you—" Bill started.
"You're making a habit of calling my name out in the hallway," Danni interrupted. "If you're wanting the Doctor, I'm not going to lunch with him today."
"Oh, no, I don't want to go to lunch with him either," Bill replied before realising what she said. "Not-Not that you don't want to go to lunch with him. I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that, you know, I have a job at lunch. You know," she tilted her head to the side slightly, "I serve chips, so…"
Danni stared at her for a moment, expecting more to come but Bill just stared at her. "Well, what did you want, then?" she asked, hoping to move the conversation along.
"I just- I wanted to apologise. About all of the things I said," Bill told her. Which was true, because in her confusion and fear she'd said a lot of things without really thinking about it. "And look!" She waved down the hallway. "You do have friends, I was wrong."
"Have you- Did you stop me in the hallway to point out that I can, in fact, have friends?" Danni asked slowly and Bill cringed slightly.
"No, not like that," she quickly replied. "What I meant was that I said you didn't, but you do, and that's awesome. Real awesome." She nodded before her face lit up with happy realisation. "They look so much closer to your age. No one will notice you now!"
Danni would often say that she didn't like a lot of people, but really it was the fact that she very rarely had the patience for anyone but the Doctor – and possibly Nardole on a good day. If she took the time to get to know them, she probably wouldn't dislike most people. They were interesting, and funny, and it was hard to find someone she really disliked.
In that moment, she decided she was never going to take the time to get to know Bill.
"I'm going now," she told Bill bluntly. "Please don't call my name in the hallway again. We're trying to keep a low profile, I don't need you alerting people to where we are."
She turned and started to walk away. "No, no, wait," Bill called after her, quickly running up to her. Danni sighed and turned, looking at her with a very annoyed expression. Bill couldn't blame her. Sometimes she just couldn't keep her foot out of her mouth, especially when she was feeling a little intimated. The look on Danni's face made her feel like a teacher was getting very exasperated with their student. "I didn't mean anything by that," she promised. "The Doctor can't stop talking about you, now that I know… well," she remembered just in time to look around, but no one was paying attention, "now that I know," she finished. "He kept going on and on about how you were trying to keep your family safe, and how you were being clever. Actually, he couldn't stop talking about how clever you were." Danni couldn't help smiling slightly, but caught herself and let it drop away. She didn't want Bill to know that it made her happy to know the Doctor didn't forget about her when she wasn't there. "He said that it was mainly because of you that you both have such a great gig now, and how you've taken to Earth so I understand why you weren't mingling, even though he said you would have loved the new planet. It just… It felt a shame that you didn't want to have any friends…"
"Sorry?" Danni interrupted sharply. "New planet?"
Bill suddenly realised that she'd let her mouth run away from her again. "Oh, that…" She said slowly, trying to think up a lie. The Doctor had expressly told her not to mention their trip out to his wife before he'd had a chance to talk to her. "Oh, it was… I meant the end of the universe one," she quickly explained, hoping she would believe her. "The one where Heather… you know, that one?"
"Right…" Danni drawled before deciding she really needed to talk to the Doctor. She went to turn away and walk off, but looked back at Bill one last time. "The Doctor's going away this weekend, I'm sure he's not told you," she said. "Don't bother turning up on Friday, no one but Nardole will be there and he won't entertain you."
Bill watched her walk off and groaned to herself. She could be such an idiot sometimes.
She thought about going to warn the Doctor as the university's clock bell rang and she realised she was late for work. She couldn't afford to lose her job, so she sprinted off and thought no more about it.
~0~0~0~
"This is our first holiday in seventy years, why are you trying to stop us going?" Danni asked her husband. He leant over one of the railings on the upper floor of the console room, book in hand, so he could look down at her.
"I'm not trying to stop us going," he replied, a little defensively. "You said we were going on the weekend. It's not the weekend."
"Friday is practically the weekend," Danni defended. "Neither of us have classes today, so it's the weekend."
To be honest, she was a little hurt that he was protesting so much. It was hard for her to surprise him with anything at the best of times, but she'd found the hotel and booked it herself, sorting out their dining and a couple of activities, like a proper weekend away.
And the Doctor was touched, he was, but he was still rather concerned about her. She had gone from not wanting to interact with people to having friends in a matter of days, and now after seventy years of adamantly staying in the same place, she wanted to suddenly go on a trip. He wasn't sure the sudden change was healthy as much as he had wanted it. Erratic behaviour was never a good sign and he just wanted her to be alright.
"I can't go today," he told her, watching her closely to see how relieved she looked. "We can go tomorrow, when I've tutored Bill."
"And I told Bill that you weren't here today, and that she would have to spend the time with Nardole if she turned up," she explained. "Because, to be honest, I didn't expect so much pushback for the idea."
His eyes widened slightly and he headed to the stairs. "No, no, that's not what I'm doing," he quickly told her before almost hopping down the stairs towards her. She supressed a smile; she could remember Eleven, with his gangly legs, doing the same thing while worrying his hands when he thought he'd upset her. "You've not wanted to leave the university in decades, I don't want you to rush out because you think I want to."
"I know that, sweetie," she replied. "And I appreciate it, but would I have booked it if I didn't want to go? Do you not know me like, at all?"
It was her cheeky look that really relaxed him, rather than her words. It appeared when she was flirting, or feeling smug, or when thought he was being an idiot; basically, it appeared when she was genuinely happy. He placed the book down on the console, ready for when he needed to give it to Bill.
"Alright, a weekend away it is," he declared. "How are we getting there? We're a bit of a walk away from the train station, but there is always Uber." He shot her his own smug look. "Yes, I know what Uber is. The students are well and truly rubbing off on me." He pointed to the door. "And leaving Nardole, right?"
"The checked trousers suggest otherwise," she teased. "Yes, we're leaving Nardole. Someone needs to look after the Vault while we're away. And we're taking the TARDIS, obviously."
The Doctor frowned. "Doesn't your servant need the TARDIS to take care of the Vault?"
"He's not my servant," Danni corrected. "He's my mother's servant. And, one, if he calls us and says 'Missy's out of the Vault', I want to be able to get back as fast as possible. And, two, if he does call us, I don't want his words to be 'Missy's out of the Vault and has the TARDIS'."
He couldn't argue with that logic. As safe and secure as he thought Missy was, he also wasn't keen on tempting fate that way. She still wasn't rehabilitated and he didn't trust her, for a moment, to not take one step out of the Vault, grab Danielle and run off again.
But he didn't want to ask about that. He wanted to know about their weekend away. He knew they were off to Weston-Super-Mare, but that was about it and now he knew she was happy to go, he realised he didn't know anything else and that was rather exciting. Their love of surprises was just another thing they had in common. "Should I ask when we're going?" he asked. "Or are you going to make me guess when we get there?"
She shook her head and, with a smirk, flipped a switch and sent them into flight. A moment later they landed with the small thud. She waved her hand at the door.
"I checked in earlier so we could just land inside," she explained.
"And you're letting me go out first?" he asked in reply. "I am honoured."
"So you should be," she retorted. He stepped out first and smiled to himself. The room was rather grand, with a large bed and full dining area. She'd obviously tried to find somewhere nice for him, and even though he didn't really care about where they stayed, it was nice to have a fuss made for him.
She stepped out after him, closing the door behind her. "There should be a beach view out of the window. I mean, I know Britain doesn't have the best beaches, but this one's actually really pretty."
She wasn't wrong. It was still just becoming spring, so the sky wasn't particularly sunny and he wouldn't have suggested a quick dip in the sea, but it had a nice charm to it. Perfect for a moonlight stroll later.
"You have, once again, outdone yourself my Pet," he told her, taking her hand to place a kiss on her palm. "Who thought Britain could be rather pretty?"
"You do realise just how much time you spend on this little island, don't you?" she replied as she threaded her fingers through his. "I suggested somewhere warmer, with less rain."
She led him over to the bed, sitting on the edge and he sat next to her. When they were both younger, they spent a lot of time hotel-hopping. He had enjoyed it immensely, and so did she if he remembered correctly.
And he did remember correctly.
"Warm doesn't always mean better," he pointed out. "We've been trapped on desert planets before, they're never any fun." She nodded but didn't reply, instead just smiled at him fondly. She had this way of looking at him, as if he was the only thing that could make her happy, which was both baffling and rather wonderful.
"What is it?" he asked and her smile faltered just slightly.
"I'm just remembering how lovely you look when you're happy," she told him. His brows knitted together in confusion. "I think we're about to get into an argument," she explained. "I don't want to, but I think it might happen."
"Oh?" he asked, a little apprehensive. "What makes you say that?"
"Because I know you took Bill on another trip behind my back."
The Doctor was suddenly hit with the panic he felt when he'd walked back onto the TARDIS, after taking Bill to the end of the universe, and saw his wife stood there. It was the same panic he'd feel as a child when he was caught in the TARDIS repair yards, or when he'd skip class to go running. Not a scared panic, but the panic of a child who was in a lot of trouble with an adult.
He did, for a moment, consider trying to talk his way out of it, but he didn't particularly want to lie to her. He hadn't, really, wanted to keep it from her, he'd just not known how to break the news that he'd been on another trip without her.
It hadn't been an easy decision, either. It had taken him a few days of talking himself out of the idea before he'd given into temptation and flown back to the night he'd sent Bill away. He'd had a great time, even with the danger the trip had presented, but he'd missed Danni incredibly throughout it. One trip had been enough; he wasn't going again without her.
"How did you find out?" he asked her.
"Your companion decided to accost me in the hallway, again, to let me know that I did, indeed, have friends," she explained. "She said that you'd not stopped talking about me and that you thought I would have loved the new planet you'd been to."
He had noticed that Bill could talk for a while when she was nervous, that had become pretty evident when he'd first called her into his office. He hadn't expected her to just blurt it out, though. "Ah."
"Where did you go?" she asked. She sounded curious, and he wasn't surprised.
"The future. We were almost killed by robots that communicated entirely in those emojis you like to use."
"Good," she replied. "I mean, good that you weren't killed and good that you were almost killed. It's a good punishment." He couldn't argue with that, so he didn't. "I'm going to say some things," she told him. "Then you are going to reply, and hopefully we'll both agree and we can avoid the argument. Agreed?"
He quickly nodded. "Agreed," he replied. He didn't mind her spelling stuff out for him. In fact, they had been together so long that a lot of the time he actively encouraged it. It was a good idea for both of them.
"I'm not happy that you didn't tell me," she started. "The first time, alright, fine, maybe I overreacted a bit because she was in danger and you couldn't exactly stop and give me a phone call. But you purposefully went on a trip without me, and left me alone with Missy, and I don't like that you were okay with doing that. I didn't want to keep Missy; I was more than happy to let her die. That was your choice, and it's me who's in danger from it the most. You shouldn't leave me with her. It's not fair."
"You're right, it's not," he replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, and then I didn't tell you afterwards."
"But," she continued. "I don't like the fact that being here is stopping you being who you are. I don't want you to not travel the universe, I don't want you stuck here, bored. I don't want to be the reason you don't get to be who you are. That's the man I fell in love with. I don't want you to change. And I certainly don't want you to change because of Missy."
He frowned. "Wait, you want me to travelling?" he asked and she nodded.
"Only one of us has to stay behind and make sure she stays exactly where she is. And, as you saved her in the first place because of me, I should be the one to stay behind," she reasoned. "I just-I just want you to come back to me, that's all. Don't stay away too long."
She had thought about it a lot. When Bill had actually spilled the beans, she had been angry and had been intent on finding the Doctor and confronting him, much like she had done the first time. Then she had come up with the great idea to bide her time and wait until they were on their mini vacation, where she could spring it on him and ruin his day, like the news had ruined hers.
But then she had thought on it some more, and she didn't feel angry, she felt jealous. She wanted to go out and see the universe again. She hated standing still, she always had. She blamed meeting the Doctor during her most influential years for it, but maybe it had been there all along, she wasn't sure. She just wanted to be out there, viewing the stars. But she couldn't bring herself to leave Missy alone. At least, if she knew where she was, she knew she couldn't sneak out and wreak havoc on anyone else.
That didn't mean that the Doctor couldn't do what they both did best, though. She didn't want to argue, or be unhappy. She didn't want either of them to be unhappy. So her anger, and her jealousy, turned into an acceptance. She just wanted him to be happy.
"Really?" he asked, a little sceptical and she couldn't blame him.
She nodded. "I don't want to fight," she said. "And I definitely don't want to fight over something that is my own doing." He tried not to smile, but couldn't help it. He wrapped her up in his arms and she laughed in surprise as he pulled her back on the bed. "Theta!"
"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily," he told her. "I knew I kept you around for a reason."
"Excuse me?!"
~0~0~0~
Nardole really hated being near the Vault. He'd never been in it, thankfully, but being around it was enough to make him incredibly grateful that he didn't have to see the monster inside. He had heard only a fraction of what Missy had done and he wasn't inclined to spend any time with her. He was very happy keeping the metal door between them at all times.
However, having the responsibility of looking after the Vault, maintaining energy and other important levels to keep it running at full capacity did give him a sense of purpose he'd not had since his casino-robbing days. He felt incredibly important, and he enjoyed it.
Once he'd taken all the readings, adjusted the light to simulate the day-night cycle and locked up the basement, he headed up to the side room of the Doctor's office. It had been his one demand – after all, he didn't need sleep, or food. He just wanted a little place, out of the TARDIS, that was his own.
He sat down at his desk and picked up his headset before entering his password on the touchscreen. Just because they were stuck in the early 21st century didn't mean he was stuck with their technology.
The visor snapped down over his eyes and, for a moment, the room went blurry and would have made him feel slightly nauseous had he had a stomach. Luckily he adjusted as he reappeared in another room and he clasped his hands together as he waited. The room he'd appeared in was a rather old-fashioned living room, with extravagant furniture and a fireplace that was blazing and giving off a nice warmth.
He wasn't waiting long as the door opened and River stepped in, smiling at him warmly. "Nardole!" she greeted, sounding slightly surprised. "I thought I felt a shift in the system."
"I hope you don't mind me dropping in, Professor Song," he apologised. "I've got a rare weekend on my own, so I thought I'd come and report in."
"Of course not," she replied, sitting down on one of the ornate armchairs. "You know you can come to the Library whenever you feel like it."
Nardole took his job very seriously. Along with taking care of the Vault's day-to-day running, he had another, much more important task that had been given to him before Missy had even been caught. In the last days leading up to her death, River had taken him aside and asked him to keep an eye on Danni and the Doctor, making sure that even after she was gone, Danni was healing.
"Danielle, believe it or not, suggested a weekend away," he told her as she waved her hand and produced a tray of tea and cake. Even though he didn't need to drink or eat, he still took a cup. "It's just down the road, at a place called Weston-Super-Mare, but it's a big step for her."
"After only, what, a hundred years?" River asked before taking a sip of her own drink.
"Since you died, Ma'am, yes," Nardole replied factually. "She has also gained a gaggle of young humans who like to follow her around. They seem to think she's rather smart. Although," he looked a little unimpressed, "they are not the best influences. They took her to one of those student pubs, she came home in a right mess."
"She always was a rather enthusiastic drunk," River mused to herself. "But she's interacting with the locals, now?"
"It's very out of character. I wanted to give her a full physical, but the Doctor said that it was unnecessary and intrusive," Nardole replied. "He can build me a new body, but apparently taking her temperature was 'a step too far'."
"She's only acting out of character for this regeneration. Her other ones are ridiculously friendly," she explained with a small roll of her eyes. "It was so difficult going anywhere without her making friends with everyone she walked past. Stragglers were always part and parcel of the Danielle Fielding experience."
"Really?" Nardole asked, still looking unconvinced at the entire idea.
"Oh yes," River replied. "How do you think she managed to pick up the Doctor in the first place? He's the biggest hanger-on that she's ever had. I've been trying to get her to shake him off for centuries."
Nardole smirked slightly. "You know, there's rumours out there about you and the Doctor and how you two were once married," he stated. "It makes you wonder, doesn't it?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "About what?"
"Whether you really dislike the Doctor as much as you claim, or if really you're just jealous that he married your daughter and not you." He took a sip of his tea, trying to look innocent as River's face dropped to straight outrage.
Then she laughed, shaking her head. "Nardole, you've become positively sassy," she praised.
He straightened slightly, proud. "Upgrade, Ma'am," he replied. "Did it behind the Doctor's back. It took my natural charm and enhanced it. I'm thinking of adding a humour chip next."
"I don't think you could enhance that anymore," she replied. "What else has she been up to?"
"Well, she dropped one of her language courses. She said that the French teacher really wasn't from France as they claimed, but from the US. She said the accent gave them away. I looked into it, but I think it's just because they said she was conjugating one of her verbs incorrectly."
~0~0~0~
Evening turned out to be just as nice, if not nicer, than the beach during the day. The sand was slightly wet but it didn't matter much, because the lights from the town and the pier illuminated the sea beautifully. Hand in hand, the Doctor and Danni walked along the sand, ignoring the sound of life on the street above them.
"Of course, in the fertilizers were skulls," the Doctor told her. "The robots had been using the people to feed the farm."
"Which made the food both you and Bill ate?" Danni asked and he nodded.
"The robots thought that if you were unhappy, you had to die. So as they killed the crew…"
"The rest became sad, so they killed and killed until there was no one left," Danni finished for him. "And organic matter is an excellent fertilizer. So you had to escape, obviously. How did you manage that?"
"Well, my Pet, it was simple really," he boasted. "I had to blow the whole ship up."
"Naturally," Danni agreed. "You can't exactly leave a city ready to eat anyone who turned up lying around."
"Exactly," he agreed. "However, we found the rest of the colonists in cryogenic storage. Blowing them up would have been a grave mistake."
"Not one you made though, right?" she pointed out. "Otherwise you wouldn't have brought them up in the first place."
"The humans wanted the kill the Vardy and all of their robot army as they'd killed all their friends, which was troublesome but not entirely surprising. So, to cut a long story short, I had to stop them too." She looked up at him, expectantly, and immediately he was in the part he loved; the part where he was the hero and saved the day.
They told a lot of stories to each other he had come to realise many moons ago. They loved to spin yarns and they loved to relive their glory days with each other, especially since they were currently grounded in Bristol of all places.
"It was the faulty programming of the Vardy and their robots that was the issue, so I just had to fix that. Of course, that would have taken too long and I'd have too many dead people on my hand distracting me to do it. So I pressed the reset button. The Vardy became the indigenous lifeforms and decided, completely coincidently, to charge the colonists rent."
Danni let out a burst of laughter. "So, one of colonists really pissed you off, did they?" she asked and the Doctor nodded.
"Bloody humans. They're always shoot first and maybe, perhaps, talk later."
She couldn't help but grin. She could always tell which part of an adventure had the biggest effect on him based on what she would tell him. He liked the technology, which was why he focused on the robots and not the humans. He hated the death, again why he focused on the robots and not the humans. And he, most definitely, suggested the rent to the robots, which meant someone had annoyed him but he was trying not to say.
"And what did Bill think about her first proper adventure into space? Did you scare her off for life?"
He wasn't sure if he should tell her that every evening since, Bill had asked to go on another trip. He believed her when she told him she was happy for him to go off without her, but he also didn't want to rub it in. He knew she missed it. They both missed it and telling her about how Bill had taken to the life of adventure seemed a bit cruel.
"I don't think I completely scared her away," he settled on. "I'm thinking of taking her somewhere I know next time, though. Somewhere calm and collected."
"You don't know the meaning of the words," she teased him. "You love the adventure, you always have."
"Better with two," he told her and she smiled warmly at him. He knew he didn't mean Bill, he meant her, and she appreciated it a lot. Ultimately, after all these years, she just wanted to spend time with him. She only wanted to travel if it was with him, and so going without him seemed so pointless, that was why she suggested him to go on his own without her. When she could, she'd go with him. Until then she was happy to stay at the university and wait.
She paused, looking up at the night sky. It was cloudy – nothing new there – and the wind was cold but calm so the cover wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Even with the moon shining from behind them, it looked so dull.
"You should take her somewhere with stars," she said softly. "There should always be stars."
He watched the sadness on her face, knowing that she was remembering every single time she sat in the doorway of the TARDIS, looking out into the universe. Or every time they stood on a beach and looked up at the sky, and saw a different one each time. She missed it as much as he did.
He took her other hand, turning her around. "I'm not going anywhere without you," he told her firmly, much to her surprise. "When you are ready we'll all go. You, me, and Bill and we'll see the stars. I can wait five hundred years for you to be ready."
And she knew that he genuinely meant it. The smile returned to her face as she turned on the spot so she could face him. "You sentimental old fool," she said fondly. "What would I do without you?"
As she leant up to kiss him – and he moved happily to meet her – her phone rang and she pulled away. Immediately worried it was Nardole with some terrible news about the Vault and Missy, she disregarded the moment and pulled it out.
She frowned at the name on the screen and answered it. "Hello?"
"Fielding! Where are you?!" Kyle called from the other side, obviously on his way to another drunken night. "I need a partner so I can whip Boyle's arse at pool!"
"I'm away for the weekend, remember?" she told him. "And I'm terrible at pool. You're better off without me."
"Away? Boo!" he replied before his voice turned fainter as he pulled the phone away from his ear. "She's gone away!"
She giggled at the collective sound of booing on the other side, proving that she was very much missed by the group. She looked up at the Doctor. "It's Kyle," she told him quietly. "Give me a moment."
She started walking away and the Doctor scowled, his mood immediately ruined.
Kyle. He was starting to really dislike that boy. He decided to mark his latest paper the moment he got home, just so he could show Danielle how little her newfound friend knew. That would serve him right for ruining his professor's weekend.