DOCTOR WHO
THANKS FOR THE DANCE
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(Contains spoilers for "The Timeless Children")
Prisoner 2311-1963 was late for breakfast again.
She didn't care, she often wondered if routine days like this were worth the fight.
She'd been trying to catch up on her streaming hours, limited as they were in the prison; the privilege had been bestowed upon her for model behaviour.
Her choices of movies ranged from The Great Escape, Escape to LA, and Escape From The Planet of the Apes.
She hoped somebody would notice a pattern forming. She wanted to know whether or not Judoon possessed those kind of deduction skills.
However, with each visit from the Judoon guards, even in full view of what she was watching, they weren't catching on. It disappointed her so much.
"Prisoner will accompany security personal to cafeteria wing W1A" the approaching officer instructed.
The Doctor waltzed past the officer and headed out of her cell and down the corridors of the prison station. As she did so, the uproar, prayers and ramblings of the various cellmates flooded the archways. The Doctor did her best to drown out the noise with meditative navigation, closing her eyes and trusting familiarity with the station to guide her where she wanted to be without much interruption.
She passed a lone Dalek screaming into the night, telling tall tales of the children of time, she passed a Sontaran general who talked of further mistakes from a field marshal called Styre; it would ring a bell if she could hear it.
She reached the canteen, and counted the many prisoners in attendance. Approximately fifteen, enough to start a tidy riot, with the right type of cohering.
She approached the lead chef and made her order
"Fried eggs and a salami please" she said.
The chef pointed to the mould of grey and emerald green protein dip in the bowls opposite him.
"Do I have to go bobbing for it?" asked The Doctor.
The Chef's face remained stoic. No smiles were to be had this day for him, much to The Doctor's annoyance.
The Judoon had no skill for subtle deduction, and no sense of humour either.
She took her slop and sat down to try and digest it, but like every other day she had spent here, she found herself unable to even keep it in her mouth for more than a matter of seconds.
If only her model behaviour guaranteed her a four course meal.
Someone sat down beside her, her first bit of company in the last 135 days; it took her that long to be noticed.
The person, a mo hawked, ruby lipped, muscular tattooed female with an unintelligible message forum post typed all across her neck and shoulders, glazed at her with eyes that sparked with electricity, fluctuating across veins that served as eyelashes, the current travelling upwards through her forehead.
"Yes?" The Doctor asked.
"Your eyes" the cell mate noted.
"What about them?" The Doctor asked.
"I see past them, I know who you are, beyond the veil"
"Yeah, and who am I?"
"You are a storm, a shadow, a destroyer of Skaro...they have offered me great promise for your elimination"
"Who? Who has offered you promise? Because I promise you, if you threaten me, things will happen to you that predict nothing for your future but pain"
"Your future ends now" the fiendish woman said, towering over The Doctor as the energy enlarged her body, and she levelled the time lord with a ferocious right hook that sent her flying off of the table.
"No sonic, no weapons, no way out" she said.
The Judoon officers attempted to step in, but the intimidating woman paralysed them where they stood with a crippling and pulsating blast from her fingertips.
The Doctor staggered to her feet, standing up to her enemy.
"Your power, stems from a Gryprodian reducer, it inhibits the dampeners the Judoon place on all their prisoners to negate existing skills, inner or outer, from being used within the station, how did you get your hands on it?" she asked.
"Their promise is already plentiful" the vicious vixen teased.
"Please, whatever your quarrel is with me, leave it strictly between us, and don't harm anyone else in here, I'll surrender myself to you willingly, just spare everyone in this room, wards, prisoners alike."
"Your surrender is not required, your murder on the other hand..." the female remarked, her fingertips pulsating with lethal force, she took aim.
Suddenly, the process was interrupted by the swift sound of clapping. A man in a long grey coat, overalls and a light blue shirt appeared in the corner of the doorway.
"Congratulations lady, you're still awake, nice to know I haven't lost my touch keeping you up all night"
Suddenly, her eyelashes shortened out, the power dampened, and she collapsed lifeless to the floor.
"Spoke too soon" he said, walking over to the motionless body.
"Jack? Oh are you a sight for sore eyes" The Doctor said in relief.
"And what a sight you are, reminds me of a Terileptil I met at a cocktail wagon on Cyrus 8, now that's what I'd call a hell of a visitation. Almost burned the place down, then she told me about a wild party back in 1666, great fire of London. There were fireworks that night"
"Well I should know, I lit the fuse down in Pudding Lane"
"Really? You travel in time?"
"Jack, it's ME"
"Me? As in Ashildr? The tyrant of Trap Street? I've seen her described as a bit of a crazy bird, to say nothing of that raven she lets loose around there"
The Doctor grabbed Jack by the coat, and matched her fierce eyes with his own.
As eloquently as she could, in spite of her frustration, she made it abundantly clear what she meant.
"It's. Me."
The authority in her voice, the steel, the determination, confirmed her identity to the awe-struck Captain.
"Well...hello you" he said, allowing a wide grin to stretch across his features. He let out a wild laugh, and hoisted The Doctor up in the air, his hands gripped firmly around her sides; he lowered her back down and gently clasped his hands on her face.
"Hope you're interested" Jack said as he leaned in for a deep kiss.
"Oh, I've got to check if that woman's alright" The Doctor said, quickly wriggling her way out of the hold Jack had on her and heading towards the limp woman.
"Wish you'd attend a more attentive patient, but fair enough" Jack replied.
The Doctor checked her pulse.
"Still alive" she said.
"Oh I see to that every night in that cell, they might need to move me now" he replied.
"What did you do?" The Doctor asked, most curious.
"Left a couple of destabilising emitters in her compact while she was in the bathroom, I figured the Division had given her a bit of a boost. She gets gifts sent directly to our cell from connected sources, part of her privileges; she too was a model prisoner. She bided her time, now she'll be doing more time than her sentence previously allowed. Those privileges? Gone"
The Doctor focused on one part of this elaborate amount of detail, surprised at the mention of it.
"Did you say the division?"
"Yeah, a real ugly side of Gallifrey, their take on the black ops back on the planet Earth. Shady lot, I heard some of their remnants were looking for someone on this very prison. This large lady here told me all about it"
"Why would she trust you?"
"She doesn't, she talks in her sleep" he explained.
"I thought you said you kept her up all night"
"I said 'night', she sleeps during the day; you got to snooze sometime with me"
Jack instantly flooded her with query upon query, questions concerning the Lone Cyberman, the Cyberium, and the Alliance, whether or not she worries about fixing her hair or settling on the right kind of perfume, things he had missed out on while serving time in here for accommodating a spacecraft.
The Doctor did her best to answer him, but she couldn't help but notice some of the prisoners talking amongst themselves, chattering a bit about what the Division's operative wanted with The Doctor, whether or not she was worth something, and how it was worth finding out how valuable she was.
"I think I've just become a target" she said.
"If a bulls eye is on your back, it's aimed at mine too" Jack said, promising to be at her side.
The prisoners got up and surrounded them
"Odds seem against us. Kinda like it" Jack remarked.
"Shut up tough guy and dance" The Doctor instructed
The two engaged in hand to hand combat with the rioting prisoners, Jack using the various fighting styles he had picked up through the centuries on Earth, and The Doctor utilising her Venusian Aikido. They soon made mincemeat out of the cafeteria mob.
The Doctor dusted herself down, Jack likewise.
"You haven't lost it" Jack said.
"Easy when there's nothing to lose" replied The Doctor
"So there's nobody special in your life. Hard to see why, you're a prize catch with the shape you're in"
"Oh you say that about anyone's shape" he said.
"At least you know I mean it" replied Jack.
"Prisoners will return to their cells" instructed a Judoon warden
"Our time is up, knowing my luck they'll put me on ice" Jack remarked.
"I'll probably lose my privileges" The Doctor added.
"Hey, you stood up for everyone in there Doctor, Judoon and prisoner alike, the former will show a lot more gratitude to you for that than the latter just did"
The Doctor gave him a coy look and a knowing smile.
"Always about authority Captain"
"Shut up tough guy, and give me what I want" he said
The Doctor ran over to where he was, wrapped her arms around him and planted a tender and spell-bindingly affectionate and deep kiss on his lips. Jack hoisted her up in the air with a firm grip as he did so, leaving the two briefly locked in a scene plucked from a bountiful ballet performance, before the Judoon stepped in and pried the two apart, leading them each back to their cells.
"Thanks for the dance" said Jack, blowing a kiss at her.
The Doctor watched him go with great admiration.
Days likes this truly were worth the fight.