Kyle had been very worried when the Doctor cancelled all of his lectures that week, but he hadn't been surprised. He still knew very little about Missy and what she had done to create such a reaction out of his friend, and when Danni didn't turn up to any other lectures either he didn't chase her up.
When the Doctor started back up his lectures, but Danni didn't return to class, his worry did not abate at all. He had talked to Bill about it but she hadn't known much more than he did. She had just agreed that even though it was very strange to keep a woman in a Vault in the basement, she trusted the Doctor enough at this point that it was probably for the best for everyone and that this woman being out of it was something to be concerned about.
She had mentioned something about Monks and statues, but he'd had no idea what she was talking about and when she had said that was down to the Doctor as well, he'd decided it was best not to question it. Some things were just too clever for him, and he knew when to bow out.
As the students left the lecture hall Kyle could see the Doctor pretending very hard not to stare at the door. He shuffled papers, but never turned to face them properly. No one else seemed to notice it, but Kyle did. He was looking for Danni.
He headed up to the platform at the front of the room. "Hey, Doc," he started when he was sure that most, if not all, of the other people had left.
"Don't call me that," the Doctor replied. "Never call me that."
Kyle nodded, as if he was never going to call him it again. "Is—" he glanced behind him again. He knew that they were trying to keep their relationship lowkey. "Is Danni alright?"
"She's fine," the Doctor replied. "She's just taking some time off school. She's got enough degrees, missing a few classes won't hurt her grades."
It was a very dismissive answer, but Kyle either didn't notice or didn't care. "That's good," he replied. "We've all been missing her. Boyle was asking about her the other day, and how we should go and see if she needed anything and I wasn't sure…"
"Yes, well, she is fine. She'll come back when she wants to, she just doesn't want to see anyone right now," the Doctor interrupted before he was too overwhelmed by small talk from the young man. "I'll let her know that you were asking after her, or something."
"Oh, well, thanks," Kyle replied, a little put out that he wasn't being entertained more than that, even though he didn't take personally. "See you later, Doc."
The Doctor shot him an annoyed look but didn't comment further for fear of being drawn into another conversation. He had tried to get Danni to leave the TARDIS but she had been adamant that she was fine inside the blue box. She'd argued that she only went to the lectures to fit and, and because she liked to hear him speak, and that she was so far in front of her work that no one would miss her. Then she would be very persuasive and it would take him a while to remember what they were arguing about.
If only he didn't find her so delectable, or was it that she found him so irresistible that she was hoping that maybe he would convince her in a similar fashion? Either way he needed to be better at resisting her. Or…
"Wait!" he called out to Kyle, who had made it almost to the door as the Doctor had fallen into his own thoughts. To his credit, Kyle did stop and turned around only to be surprised by the Doctor barrelling towards him. "You don't fancy my wife, do you?"
"What? No!" Kyle quickly exclaimed. "Why would you think that?"
"I find it hard to find people who don't," he explained. "She is very attractive. You should go see her. Tonight."
"I thought she didn't want to see anyone?"
"Well, she likes you, so I'm sure she won't mind seeing you," the Doctor replied. "Now go on, off you go." He quickly ushered him out. "Go drink, or go to class, or sleep, whatever you humans do."
He shut the door in Kyle's face before he could protest any more. He leant against the wood, grinning to himself happily. He was so smart. If they still had Clara around this would have been so much easier because Danielle always felt better when she had been around. Now, though, he would have to make do with a student.
~0~0~0~
Danni was really enjoying reading lately. The Doctor would argue that she enjoyed reading pretty much all of the time, but she was sure was enjoying it more lately than she had in a long time. Now that she had something to research that really held her attention, she found herself sat on their bed, surrounded by books and pieces of electronics that she had pulled apart to see the inside. It had been a couple weeks since either of them had actually been able to sleep in the bed. She really needed to move her work back into her workshop.
Tomorrow. That was definitely a job for a Future Danni, not Present Danni.
There was a knock on the door, which made her frown slightly. The Doctor only knocked when he had was being polite, and him being polite usually came with some bad news she really didn't want to deal with. She was trying to fix up a vortex manipulator, she didn't have time for alien invasions.
What if it was the Zygons again? They'd been quiet for a while, but the Osgoods had been good at keeping the peace.
"Are you decent?!"
She stared at the door; eyes wide in surprise. That wasn't the Doctor. "Uh…"
"Because I don't want to come in if you're getting dressed!"
"No… No I'm not getting dressed…" she said slowly. The door opened and Kyle stepped in.
"I've said this before, but this place is amazing," he told her as the door shut behind him. He jumped and turned to look at him. "Automatic bedroom doors!" he exclaimed. He turned back to her. "I've been walking around for like, ten minutes. Did you know there are like, seven kitchens in this place?"
"She's always been hospitable," Danni offered, still a little perplexed why he was there.
"Eventually I realised what she was trying to tell me," he continued as if she hadn't said anything. He held out a packet of Jammy Dodgers. "One of them had these piled up on the counter. Like, twenty packs or something. She must really think we'd want them."
Danni looked at the red packet. He was too far away from her for her to just reach out and take it, but he also didn't seem to want to step in any closer to give her it. "Not to be rude, but why are you here?" she asked him. "It's quiz night, isn't it?"
He stared at her for a moment. "How long have you been in here?"
She shrugged. "I dunno, couple weeks maybe," she offered. "Why?"
"Cause it's Monday, not Thursday." Her eyebrows shot up slightly. She really had lost a bit of time, hadn't she?
"Oh," she replied softly. She looked down at the pile of pieces she had scattered on the bed. "I think I might have missed a few classes."
"A few, yeah," he replied kindly. He hadn't expected to see her absolutely surrounded by books and gadgets, he'd expected to find her in pyjamas and binge-watching Netflix. "What are you doing?"
She didn't look up from her work straight away, because the answer was depressing; failing, that was what she was doing.
She didn't know why she had thought it would be easy to fix a vortex manipulator, otherwise Jack would have fixed his many times over. She had expected to make some progress, but all she had was a pile of burnt-out circuits on the floor and a couple of new scars from being scorched. She knew she was still far behind the Doctor in terms of knowledge of all things engineering, but she could hold her own very well. And, for some reason, the TARDIS had been hiding any manuals she may have had that covered the subject. Danni took it as the TARDIS trying to encourage her to work it out on her own. She always appreciated the TARDIS's help, but sometimes it was nice to at least be pointed in the right direction.
"It's a surprise," she replied. "For the Doctor."
This caught his attention, apparently, because he actually approached the bed. "I won't tell him," he explained. "Is this what you've missed class over?"
She pondered for a moment, but nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm trying to repair a vortex manipulator."
"And that is?"
"Cheap and nasty time travel."
It was his turn to be confused. "You live in a time machine, though. Why would you need more?"
There were a million reasons that she could give him, all of which may or may not have been true. So, instead, she fell back on an old favourite. "It's a Time Lord thing," she replied. "They like to collect time travel stuff. It's like people who work with rocks collecting more rocks."
"Oh! So, he likes watches and stuff too, yeah?"
She couldn't help but smile. He sounded genuinely interested in her husband, and that always made her like people a little bit more. "You know, he actually does," she confirmed. "He has an invisible watch somewhere. He lost it a while ago."
"A watch that is invisible, or a watch that makes him invisible?"
"Both," she said. "Neither of which we can find. Maybe I should get him a new pair and chuck this in the trash."
"Don't do that!" he protested with such energy it actually startled her somewhat. "Just because you haven't worked it out yet doesn't mean that you won't. You're always saying how smart you are."
"I can't help being clever," she offered. "Alright, I won't." She smiled at him again. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"The Doctor said you might want some company after, well, you know."
That dropped her mood slightly. He meant Missy. Everyone meant Missy. It was always Missy. "Yeah, well, I'm fine now. If you want, I'll put this away and we can go watch a movie or something instead?"
"I'd love to, but I was only dropping in to see if you were alright. We're all worried about you. In fact, Boyle wanted to come see you too, but I didn't think it was the best idea so I said I'd drop in on the way to the pub. Why don't you come too?"
Going outside actually made her stomach drop, so she shook her head. "Maybe next time," she replied.
He didn't seem hurt by her rejection, in fact she realised that he probably was expecting her to do so. "No worries. I'll let them all know you said hi!" He walked over to the door and paused. "There's no door handle."
The door them immediately opened and he jumped. "That is so cool!" he cried. "How do I find my way out?"
"She'll take you to the exit, don't worry. She's never trapped anyone in before," she promised, which was a lie but he didn't need to do that. "I'll come to class tomorrow."
"Sure," he replied, again probably not expecting her to. She appreciated that he didn't, it was nice not to have to have expectations of anything on her. The door closed behind him and she looked down at the pile of parts in front of her. He was right, of course. She just needed to keep trying, she'd get there eventually. She just needed to look further afield for help.
~0~0~0~
"This is all your fault."
The Doctor looked at Danni, outraged at the accusation. "How is this my fault?"
Danni checked the backpack for the final time, making sure she had all the books she needed before fastening it up. "You're the one who invited Kyle here without telling me," she explained. "Which meant I was caught very off guard when he came into our bedroom. That meant that I didn't have a prepared reason to say no when he asked me to help everyone with their homework. Homework that, I believe, you gave them." She pulled the backpack on. "See? Your fault."
He didn't like her logic, but then again it had been his idea to send Kyle to see her. And, if he was honest with himself, he was glad that she seemed to be getting her confidence back again. It was going exactly as he had hoped, but that didn't mean that he couldn't pout at the idea of her leaving to spend time with a bunch of humans whilst he only had Nardole to keep him company.
"If they can't do their homework on their own, then maybe they should be rethinking their life choices instead of bothering the professor's wife for help."
She walked over, smirk on her life. "Well, that's what you get for being married to such a genius of a wife," she told him. "Seems like it's your fault again." She gave him a quick kiss on his lips. "I won't be too long. I've already told Nardole to keep an eye on you so I know you'll be too busy getting into trouble to even miss me."
"I always miss you, my Pet."
It always warmed her hearts when he said things like that, as he always sounded so utterly sincere that she couldn't deny it at all. "I miss you too," she replied before heading to the door of the TARDIS. "However, to do so, I have to leave. Be good. Don't scare him too much otherwise you're cleaning up after him."
"He's your companion not mine!" he whined. "Why do I have to tidy up his messes."
"You cause it, you clean it. Those are always the rules," she reminded before the door shut. "Love you!"
"Love you too."
She dipped her head into Nardole's office, making sure that he was still on the call with her mother that he'd told her was scheduled for that evening, then headed out of the office building and into the dark outside. She took a look up at the office again, feeling a little nervous, before she turned away and headed towards her ultimate destination.
She couldn't believe that he'd believed her. She was so certain that he was going to call her bluff about Kyle, but she knew that he would just be so happy that his plan had worked that he wouldn't notice how jittery she had felt. It was a good thing that he would never willingly engage in small talk with Kyle otherwise she would be rumbled pretty fast. She felt bad about using her friend as an alibi without discussing it with him first, but she didn't him a choice. She hated lying to the Doctor about where she was going, but she didn't have a choice.
As she headed down the stairs to the basement, and the Vault, she really hated the fact that she felt like she had no other choice but to open the door and step inside.
Missy was positively startled when Danni stepped in, the metal doors closing behind her. "Danielle!" she said happily, turning on the piano stool to face her. "What are you doing here?"
"I…" she started with a stutter. She then tried to force herself to be calm, to push aside the way her hearts sped up in terror and her palms were becoming sweaty. "I need your help."
Missy tilted her head slightly in a show of concern that Danni didn't believe for one second. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Are you in danger?"
"Will you tell the Doctor?" Danni replied firmly. "Or Nardole. I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone else."
"Why wouldn't you want your little mismatch family to know?" Missy countered. "What are you doing that is so bad?"
"Do you promise?" was Danni's reply. She needed to be certain that it would never get back to the Doctor.
Missy was silent for a moment, looking her over like she was a puzzle she was trying to solve, her brows tight together and Danni didn't like it at all. "I don't think that's a good idea," she replied slowly, much to Danni's surprise and annoyance. "If you are that worried, we should let the Doctor know, he'll be able to help more than me."
"No," Danni snapped. "This was a mistake. I'll go find someone else, someone who will understand more."
It was a low move, Danni knew, but it worked as she had expected. "Wait, there's no need for that," she said in a drawl that made her sound exasperated, but the quick movement of her standing up off the stool suggested otherwise. "If it's that important, I'll do what I can."
Danni nodded, turning around and heading over to the small table and chair setup down from the platform the piano was on. She put the backpack on it and reached inside, pulling out her vortex manipulator. "I need to fix this," she explained, trying to keep her voice as steady as she could. "I need your help to do so."
"A vortex manipulator?" Missy asked, looking at it with an obviously perplexed look. "Why on Earth do you need that?"
Danni hadn't been sure how much to tell Missy, and even now she really wasn't entirely certain if that was the path that she wanted to go down. Even seeing her outside the forcefield was enough to make her want to quickly follow her flight response, her anxiety skyrocketing. However, that was exactly why Missy was the only one who could help her.
"Because I need to save someone."
"And why can't the Doctor help with you with?"
"Because, it seems, that he and I have varying rules when it comes to this sort of thing," she explained. At Missy's look she nodded. "I know, I'm surprised too. But here we are, and here I am. Can you help me?"
Missy looked at the manipulator, then at Danni, who could almost hear the gears turning in her head. A million thoughts were zooming through that Time Lady brain of hers, all weighing up helping her over turning her away. All Danni could do was hold her ground and hoped that she was say yes. A long time ago she had called Koschei one of the greatest engineering minds to have ever existed and she still stood by that. All she had to do was get the other woman to help, and that she could save him from a fate worse that whatever he had gotten himself into; regenerating and becoming Missy.
Missy nodded. "Alright, I'll help. But, if we are going to keep this from the Doctor, you're going to have to sort out hiding it from him."
"Don't worry," Danni replied, a smirk spreading across the face. "I have a plan for that." She turned her bag open and out fell a bunch of books and even more electronic bits. "Now, where do we begin?"