The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday - Chapter 2
Disclaimer: So, I don't actually own Doctor Who, yeah...wishful thinking.
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews! They were wonderful and gave me the confidence needed to continue, so I hope you like the first proper chapter/episode that I've done. It'll be done in 2/3 parts, I'm not sure, but here it is: Voyage of the Damned!
Voyage of the Damned: Meteors
"Rhea, are you alright?" The man said, still keeping a hand on one of her shoulders, in case she decided to topple over again.
She rubbed her eyes to relieve the soreness and ran her hands through her hair, twisting them in her black waves, a habit she had picked up the last two years to combat stress or agitation.
She looked at the man who had steadied her. Blue suit and tie, beautiful brown eyes and amazing hair. Between this man and bow-tie boy, she didn't know how she was going to survive. Her cousin had given a name to hair like this man's. She called it Fuck-Me hair, Rhea remembered.
Blue suit. Her mystery man had mentioned a man with a blue suit. A different him. What did that mean? Did that mean that the man in front of her was her mystery man as well? He did know her name.
She remembered what the Doctor had told her while she was impersonating E.T.
"What's my favourite song?" Rhea demanded of the man, feeling sort of stupid by asking such an banal and pointless question.
He rubbed the back of his neck, his face turning thoughtful. "It's a tie between Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For a Hero. Oh, we could go to Led Zeppelin's last concert in…." He thought for a moment. "Brussels! 1980! How does 1980 sound?"
Rhea finally looked around at her surroundings. She was staring at what seemed to be a rustic version of the TARDIS she had been in before. It was all gold and beautiful and fairy-tale, the complete opposite of the techno theme she had seen before.
She swallowed hard. "Are you the Doctor?" She didn't know what answer she was expecting. She didn't know which answer she'd be happy with.
He turned back to her, looking her straight in the eye, having been fiddling with the controls on the console, setting the date to 20 June 1980. His eyes turned sad, the same puppy dog eyes Rhea's mystery man had when she hadn't recognised him. "Yes, yes, I am." He said, reluctantly, as if he didn't want to be answering the question. Not to her, at least
Rhea shook her head. "I just saw you. You looked completely different. You looked-"
The Doctor cut her off. "From what I can tell this is very early in your timeline, since you don't recognise me, am I correct? Have you met me before this?"
Rhea rubbed her forehead. "I just met you for the first time, before."
He pulled a monitor from underneath the console and pressed a few buttons. The monitor showed a slideshow of nine images of men, varying in age. An old man, a man with a flute, a man with a strange screwdriver, a man wearing a very colourful scarf, a man with celery strapped to his collar, a man with extremely bad fashion sense, a man holding an umbrella, a man who looked like a younger, sexier version of Alan Rickman, and the last picture depicted a man wearing a leather jacket with large ears and cropped hair.
"Was it one of these men?" He asked, hopefully.
Rhea shook her head.
"Then a future regeneration, I suppose." The man mused. He didn't know whether to be upset by that.
"Are you trying to tell me that all of those faces, you, the man I met, you're all the Doctor?" Rhea asked, incredulously. "Two hearts, bigger-on-the-inside box and a Lord of Time is one thing, but you can't honestly expect me to believe that you've changed your face eleven times!" Her voice was high-pitched and shaky towards the end of her sentence.
He sighed and leaned back against the console so that he was exactly opposite her.
"When Time Lords die, we have a sort of trick. We regenerate instead of dying." He tried to explain, his feet scuffing the floor.
"What does that mean? Regeneration?" She asked.
"There's a process, if I'm about to die, my body changes form. Every cell in my body gets changed and, as a result, I get a new face. Well, new everything." The Doctor explained, shuffling his feet.
"So, if you're the Doctor - and I'm still not believing that just yet - what happened to me?" Rhea asked, nervously. "You said a future regeneration. Did I come here from the future?"
He sighed. "Rhea, well, you were shot through time and space. You've never actually told me the reason why, well you have, but I can't tell you the reason, timelines and knowledge of the future and all that. The simplest explanation that I can give you now is probably that your timeline criss-crosses and twists around mine in a really wibbly-wobbly way." The Doctor said and then paused. "Wibbly-wobbly way, I should say that more often."
Rhea buried her face in her hands. "Is that how you know me? Because I've only met you once before this and you said you've known me all your life. Does that mean I'm just going to be shot through time and space and meet up with you randomly?"
She took the Doctor's silence for his assent and for a split second, felt like crying.
"What about my mother?" She asked, suddenly scared and worried. "Will I ever be able to see her again?"
The Doctor moved closer to her and sat next to her on the captain's chair. He held one of her hands in his larger ones and squeezed. "I am so sorry, Rhea." That was the only platitude he could offer her.
A sob escaped her without warning. "Oh god, my life!" She wailed. "Why is this happening now of all times?" Her voice lowered. "I was just starting to get better."
He squeezed her hand again. "I know it's hard to deal with. But Rhea, I promise, we do have good times. We've had great times. You and the TARDIS have been the constants in my life and I've had a long one."
She sniffled, picking up on the last thing he said. "What do you mean 'a long one'? You couldn't be more than five years older than I am!"
A laugh escaped his lips. "I'm 903, Rhea, I'd say that's more than five years."
Her eyes widened and shocked sound escaped her mouth. "You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me." She groaned and buried her face in her hands again. "There's only so much more of this I can take."
She turned to look at him, properly, this time. Really good hair, like really amazing hair, dark brown eyes, skinny and a pinstripe suit, she filed this Doctor away in her mind. If he was telling the truth and she couldn't understand why someone would go to this much trouble just to prank her, then she guessed she'd be meeting this man quite a few times. She saw the nine faces on the monitor, the one next to her and bow-tie boy and knew she had to remember what each of them looked like so that she wouldn't get confused when she met them out of the blue.
"903, huh?" She pursed her lips, trying to lighten her voice. "You look good for your age." She said, eyeing him appreciatively.
Instead of the blush that had graced bow-tie boy, this Doctor was smirking, which made him look even sexier. If that were even possible. She didn't normally go for the science geek type, but this one, his future self and the fourth, eighth and ninth photos she had seen on the monitor, she could see her usual type changing quickly.
"So, is this really a time machine?" Rhea asked, having a proper look around. The ship was beautiful. As if she could read her thoughts, the ship hummed as if thanking her for the compliment.
"Whoa!" Rhea exclaimed, feeling the vibrations. "What was that?"
"The TARDIS. She's sentient but she can't speak, so she communicates like that. She likes you. Trust me, it's a good thing." The Doctor said from the opposite side of the console. "The TARDIS can travel anywhere in time and space." He said, beaming, looking like a little boy on Christmas extremely proud of a snowman.
Unbeknownst to herself, she grinned along with him. The Doctor bounded around the console and came back to sit beside her. "So, where would you like to go? Anywhere in time and space…within reason, but reason doesn't always have to be reasonable, so where do you want to go?"
Suddenly, a fog horn sounded and Rhea shrieked at the unexpected noise. A ship's bow crashed through the side of the TARDIS and both the Doctor and Rhea were knocked off the captain's chair and onto the floor. Rhea desperately grabbed the console as she was thrown down and steadied herself but the Doctor fell to the ground, landing on his back.
"What?" The Doctor exclaimed, coughing, his face twisting into an expression of absolute bewilderment. "What?"
He quickly rose and steadied Rhea. "Are you okay?" He asked, hurriedly.
The sound of a ship's bell was heard and the Doctor and Rhea moved closer, the Doctor picking up a life preserver that had the name 'Titanic' painted across it.
"What!" The Doctor exclaimed again. That word seemed to be the only thing he could say.
"Does this always happen to you?" Rhea asked, hoarsely, winded after being thrown against the console, so soon after being transported back in time with a blinding headache.
"The Titanic doesn't crash into the TARDIS on a regular basis, no." The Doctor said, holding her forearm tightly, so that she wouldn't fall even if her knees didn't buckle.
The Doctor let go of her arm and moved to the console. Using various controls on the console, he was able to reform the walls of the TARDIS, pushing the ship outside. He flicked a few switches and was able to move the TARDIS so that she could land inside the Titanic instead of becoming the iceberg.
The Doctor stepped out of the box, Rhea close behind him, and looked around, realising that they were in a supply closet. At least there was no one around. He closed the doors behind him once Rhea was outside, wiped his hands together and stepped out of the closet. They walked out into a wood-panelled room decorated obviously for Christmas. The people, who walked around them, drinking champagne and scotch and happily chatting the night away, were dressed in early 20th century clothing; at least that's what Rhea thought from her knowledge of Titanic and late nights of Downton Abbey. Suddenly, she felt severely underdressed, dressed in jeans and a sequined top and heels. The band played a slower, more mellowed version of 'Jingle Bells'. The Doctor approached two angels made of gold, dressed in white, gripping one of Rhea's hands tight in his own. Rhea was stunned as the angels moved jerkily and realised that they were robots and not just tacky Christmas decorations as she originally thought. She noticed a small red-skinned and swallowed hard as her mind came to terms with that. She had previously ignored the 'alien' bit with the Doctor since he looked so similar to a human. She looked over to the Doctor to see him frowning at the red man. She clutched onto his hand tighter as they wandered to a nearby window and looked out.
"Right." The Doctor drew out as he stared out of the window.
Rhea blinked just to make sure she was seeing what was in front of her.
"Attention all passengers. The Titanic is now in orbit above Sol Three, also known as Earth. Population, Human." A man said over the speaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Christmas."
Rhea could see the entire Earth below them, as if in a movie, all blue and white and massive and amazing. She never thought she'd see a sight like this. Be a part of something so big and special. Sunehri Adwani, a run of the mill psychologist from San Francisco.
"So, a spaceship named after the Titanic and not the real Titanic then." Rhea murmured to the Doctor.
He nodded. "Seems so."
Rhea looked down at herself and back at the others who were mingling. "I think we're going to need a change of clothes."
The Doctor and Rhea stood in front of a frame, which was depicting a video of a bald man with a thin mustache sitting behind a desk. They had just returned back from the TARDIS, where the Doctor had shown Rhea the wardrobe, which had to be larger than Macy's and Bloomingdale's combined. She had marvelled at the room that seemed to take up an endless width and an excessive number of floors, filled with racks upon racks of clothes, all from different eras and different planets. She had just stood there staring until the Doctor had given her a choice. She could either stay and explore the wardrobe of the TARDIS or she could explore a spaceship hovering over Earth called the Titanic. Needless to say, she had chosen the Titanic.
She had changed into a skin-tight black dress, with golden straps extending from the top of the dress to wrap around her neck, that came to the middle of thighs with tall, black strappy heels. She had left her waist-length black hair pinned at the back with a jewelled comb she had found in the wardrobe. When she had walked out, she saw the Doctor dressed in a sharp dinner jacket and bow-tie, and she approved. Really approved. At first he had looked stunned at her appearance and his jaw had dropped but Rhea, brimming with sudden confidence and sultriness, simply walked over to him, placed a finger under his jaw and pushed up, giving him a sly smile.
"Let me close that for you." She purred. "You'll catch flies."
At her smile, he started to smile as well and offered her his arm, which she happily took, and he led her back into the spaceship.
"Max Capricorn Cruiseliners - the fastest, the farthest, the best. And I should know because my name is Max." He grinned, his gold tooth becoming prominent in the frame.
Rhea grimaced. "You know, I really hate those things. It just makes teeth look cheap." She muttered.
The Doctor kept fiddling with his tie until Rhea smacked his hands away and straightened it herself. "Stop it." She said. "I think it looks good on you." At the Doctor's smug smile, she hastily finished. "In a Dr Seuss kind of way."
Ignoring the Doctor's offended look, she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him away from the creepy bald man in the talking photo frame. They walked towards the reception as 'Winter Wonderland' began to play, passing a steward who wished them "Merry Christmas, sir, ma'am."
"Merry Christmas." Both the Doctor and Rhea returned the greeting.
They walked back into the ballroom, in which they had entered the ship, passing by a man with black, slicked back hair in a sharp tuxedo, who was talking on some sort of phone. Or some alien communication device, Rhea pondered.
"It's not a holiday for me, not while I've still got my vone. Now do as I say and sell." They heard him saying into the device.
Rhea snorted. "Well, he's certainly got the Christmas spirit, don't ya think?"
They approached one of the robotic angels, which Rhea still found a bit creepy. The eyes looked empty, devoid of anything, it made her feel uneasy.
"Evening. Passenger 57. Terrible memory. Remind me. Uh, you would be..." The Doctor asked.
"Information: Heavenly Host supplying tourist information." The Host replied.
"Good, so, um..." He paused. "Tell me - cause I'm an idiot - where are we from?" Rhea smiled, he looked like such a dork that it was endearing.
"Information. The Titanic is en route from the planet Sto in the Cassavalian Belt. The purpose of the cruise is to experience primitive cultures."
Rhea was immediately insulted. "Hey, who are you calling primitive, you-" Rhea began to ask, angrily.
The Doctor interrupted her before Rhea could start chewing the robot out. "Titanic. Um...who... thought of the name?
"Information. It was chosen as the most famous vessel of the planet Earth."
"Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all." Rhea muttered, looking around the room, but unable to find anything out of the ordinary with a first glance, just people partying.
The Doctor seemed to share her opinion. "Did they tell you why it was famous?"
"Information. All designations are chosen by Mister Max Capricorn, president of Max…Max…Max…"
The Host started twitching and repeating the name while its voice pitch rose. The steward noticed and hurried over.
"Ooh, bit of a glitch." The Doctor said, reaching into his pockets to pull out his sonic screwdriver. However, the steward reached them before he could do so.
"It's all right, sir, we can handle this." The steward said, motioning for two others to assist him. Two more stewards came to them and switched off the Host before taking it away.
"Software problem, that's all. Leave it with us, sir, ma'am. Merry Christmas." The steward said to the Doctor and Rhea before following the other stewards. "That's another one down. What's going on with these things?" He muttered to himself.
Rhea watched as the man who was talking into his communications device bumped into a petite blonde waitress, making her drop her tray of drinks.
"For Tov's sake, look where you're going! This jacket's a genuine Earth antique." The man exclaimed.
Rhea grimaced, feeling bad for the girl's plight and angry at the man for placing the blame on the waitress. He had bumped into her, not the other way around.
"I'm sorry, sir." The waitress murmured. She got down on her knees to pick up the broken glass with bare hands.
"You'll be sorry when it comes off your wages, sweetheart. Staffed by idiots. No wonder Max Capricorn is going down the drain." He said before storming off.
Rhea glared at the back of his head before walking over to the waitress to help her, the Doctor coming up behind her.
"Be careful, you're not wearing gloves." Rhea warned as she knelt down beside the waitress, the Doctor also stooping down to help.
"There we go." The Doctor said, placing the last of the broken glass on the tray.
The waitress smiled at them. "Thank you, ma'am, sir. I can manage."
Rhea smirked. "No one said you couldn't."
"I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is Rhea." The Doctor introduced.
"Astrid, sir. Astrid Peth." She said.
Rhea and the Doctor grinned. "Nice to meet you, Astrid Peth. Merry Christmas." The Doctor said.
Astrid looked surprised, but then smiled. "Merry Christmas, sir, ma'am."
Rhea grimaced. "Please don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel at least ten years older than I already am. It's just Rhea."
"And it's just the Doctor, not 'sir'." The Doctor added.
Rhea nudged him in the stomach with her elbow. "Yeah, cause that doesn't sound pompous at all."
The Doctor grinned back at her.
"You two enjoying the cruise?" Astrid asked, smiling when she saw how the two interacted.
Rhea and the Doctor looked at each other. "Um...Yeah, I suppose. I don't know. We just sort of stumbled upon it, to be honest."
Astrid stood up and the Doctor and Rhea followed her. "Is it just the two of you?"
Rhea missed the smile that the Doctor gave her. "Yeah, just the two of us now." He said, ignoring Rhea's questioning look. "What about you? Long way from home, Planet Sto." He said, turning the attention back on Astrid.
"Doesn't feel that different. I spent three years working at the spaceport diner, travelled all the way here...and I'm still waiting on tables."
Astrid turned to walk away and the Doctor and Rhea followed her.
"No leave?" Rhea asked, frowning. It was Christmas.
Astrid shook her head, cleaning one of the tables near the window. "We're not allowed." She muttered. "They can't afford the insurance. I just wanted to try it, just once. I used to watch the ships heading out to the stars and I always dreamt of…it sounds daft."
"You dreamt of another sky. New sun, new air, new life. A whole universe teeming with life. Why stand still when there is all that life out there?" The Doctor added knowingly, something changing in his eyes.
Rhea smiled sadly. She would have loved to travel. Especially after high school had finished. When she was younger, she had planned all sorts of trips all over the world with her parents. After her father died, the enthusiasm to visit new places had slowly died away and had been replaced with responsibility. A responsibility to keep her mother happy and free from worry, for her father. She had got caught up in school and work and then Damian and travel hadn't entered her mind since. Maybe now she would get a chance. It wasn't exactly the way she had imagined it, but millions of people could say they had been to Egypt, how many could say they had been on a spaceship hovering over the Earth?
"So, you travel a lot?" Astrid asked.
"All the time. Just for fun. Well, that's the plan. Never quite works." The Doctor said, grinning. Rhea shook her head; she didn't want to know what this man got up to while travelling, but she supposed she'd find out soon.
"Must be rich, though."
"Well, she is." The Doctor said, pointing at Rhea, who snorted. "But me, haven't got a penny." Then, the Doctor leaned in, as if sharing some great big secret. "Stowaway." He whispered, pointing at himself and Rhea.
Astrid looked shocked. "Kidding."
Rhea bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.
"Seriously." The Doctor said.
"No!" Astrid exclaimed, about to laugh, showing her gleaming white teeth, unable to even consider the possibility.
Rhea smiled. "Oh, yeah."
Astrid looked at them both. "How did you get on board?"
"Accident. I've got this, sort of, ship thing. I was just rebuilding her. Left the defences down, bumped into the Titanic. Here I am. Bit of a party, I thought 'Why not?'" The Doctor said, trying to explain, leaving the parts out where Rhea had appeared in a bright white light, clutching onto the TARDIS console, in the midst of a headache.
Astrid looked back at the people, at one of the stewards, then back at Rhea and the Doctor. "I should report you."
"Go on then." The Doctor said, barely holding back a smile.
Astrid looked back. "I'll get you both a drink." She leaned in. "On the house." She whispered, conspiratorially.
The Doctor and Rhea looked at each other, grinning.
"Oh, look at you, you, charmer, you. Dazzling the waitresses to get free drinks. Shame on you!" Rhea whispered to the Doctor.
He nudged her in the stomach like she had done before and they smiled at each other.
They watched Astrid walk past a group of first-class passengers who were laughing and pointing at a heavyset couple, who were dressed in purple, country-western outfits sitting and eating.
The Doctor and Rhea joined their table, sitting opposite them.
"Just ignore 'em." The man said to his wife.
"Something's tickled them." The Doctor commented.
"They told us it was fancy dress. Very funny, I'm sure." The woman said.
"They're just pickin' on us because we haven't paid. We won our tickets in a competition." The man said, pointing at his wife.
"There's nothing wrong with that." Rhea said, pouring herself a glass of champagne and taking a sip. She asked the Doctor if he wanted one as well, but he shook his head. "I once won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas in a competition on the radio. I didn't go, but I won it."
The woman grinned at her. "I had to name the five husbands of Joofie Crystalle in By the Light of the Asteroid. Did you ever watch By the Light of the Asteroid?" She asked.
Rhea's face was absolutely blank, but the Doctor scrunched up his face, as if thinking long and hard. "Is that the one with the twins?" He asked. Rhea looked at him strangely; she would never have guessed that the bouncy alien would be into soap operas.
"That's it. Oh, it's marvellous." The woman said.
"But we're not good enough for that lot. They think we should be in steerage." The man said, pointing back at the other table, and the Doctor and Rhea looked back at the other table.
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" The Doctor pulled something sleek and long out of his pocket and held it under his arm, pointing the glowing blue end at the other table. Seconds later, the champagne on the other table popped its cork, spraying the liquid all over the table and the clothes of those on that table.
Rhea stared at the device in his hand. "What is that?" She whispered.
"Sonic screwdriver." He said, winking at her.
"Did…did you do that?" The woman asked, shocked.
The Doctor had the same smile on his face that little boys did when they got up to some mischief but didn't want to admit to it. "Maybe." He said, slyly, putting the screwdriver away. Rhea grinned. Oh, she was going to have so much fun with this man.
The man and the woman started giggling madly. "We like you." The woman said.
"We do." The man said, reaching out a hand to the Doctor. "I'm Morvin van Hoff." He said, shaking the Doctor's hand and then Rhea's. "This is my good woman, Foon."
The Doctor shook Foon's hand and Rhea followed his action. "Foon. Hello. I'm the Doctor and this is my good woman, Rhea."
Rhea raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him.
"Your good woman?" She asked, under her breath. "Getting ahead of yourself, aren't you, alien boy?"
He grinned at her. "Do you mind?"
She grinned back and shook her head. "Nup."
"Ooh, I'm gonna need a Doctor by the time I'm finished with this buffet. Have a buffalo wing. They must be enormous, these buffalo, so many wings." Foon said.
The Doctor took a wing but Rhea refused. "Vegetarian, sorry." She said, holding up her hands, palms facing them.
There was a high-pitched noise and a voice came on the speaker. "Attention please. Shore leave tickets Red 6-7 now activated. Red 6-7."
Foon took out her ticket. "Red 6-7. That's us." She said, standing. "Are you Red 6-7?" She asked the Doctor and Rhea.
Rhea shrugged and the Doctor smiled. "Might as well be."
"Come on." Morvin said, wrapping an arm around Food. "We're going to Earth."
The Doctor offered Rhea his arm and they walked over to an older man, slightly balding, dressed in a tweed suit, holding up a sign bearing 'Red 6-7'.
"Red 6-7. Red 6-7. This way, fast as you can!" The man shouted.
The Van Hoffs rushed ahead of them and they followed. Astrid approached them, carrying a silver plate with two drinks on it.
"I got you that drink." Astrid said, holding out the plate.
"And we got you a treat. Come on." The Doctor said, taking the tray from her and placing it on a nearby table. Rhea linked her arms with Astrid and dragged her to where the old man was, the Doctor following behind them.
"Red 6-7 departing shortly!" The older man shouted.
The Doctor held up a wallet with a slip of paper inside. "Red 6-7 plus two."
Rhea gestured to the wallet. "What is that?"
"Psychic paper. It shows people what I want them to see. I wanted him to see Red 6-7 tickets and voila! Oh, voila, I must say that more often." The Doctor said.
Rhea exhaled. "OK, psychic paper, a spaceship called the Titanic and a sonic screwdriver. A bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm still standing. Oh, that's a nice song."
"You alright?" The Doctor asked, worriedly.
She gave him a tight smile. "Give me some time to get used to all of this and I'll be dynamite."
The older man was taken aback after the Doctor showed him the psychic paper. "Uh, quickly, sir, and please take three teleport bracelets if you would."
"I'll get the sack." Astrid whispered to them both. Rhea and Astrid both put on a bracelet each and Rhea marvelled as it glowed dark blue once clasped.
The Doctor handed her a bracelet. "Brand new sky." The Doctor said, slowly and softly, as if hypnotising her.
"Take the road less travelled by." Rhea said, winking at Astrid.
"To repeat, I am Mr Copper, the ship's historian, and I shall be taking you to old London town in the country of U.K. ruled over by good King Wenceslas." Rhea looked at the Doctor in bemusement. "Now human beings worshipped the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve the people of U.K. go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner... like savages."
Rhea opened her mouth to refute everything the man said, and most likely in a rude way, but the Doctor beat her to it. "Excuse me, sorry, sorry, but, um...where did you get all this from?" The Doctor asked, as confused and shocked as Rhea was.
"Well, I have a first class degree in Earthonomics. Now, stand by."
Suddenly, the red-skinned alien ran up to them.
"And me! And me! Red 6-7." The alien said in a high pitch voice, out of breath.
"Well, take a bracelet, sir?" Mr Copper said.
"Uh, but, um, hold on, hold on. What was your name?" The Doctor interjected.
"Bannakaffalatta." The alien said. Rhea blinked twice when she heard the difficult poly-syllabic name.
"OK, Bannakaffalatta." The Doctor said, placing emphasis on the first syllable. "But it's Christmas Eve down there. Late-night shopping, tons of people. He's like a walking conker."
"Yeah, and in London, the streets are going to be packed with shoppers and families and parties…" Rhea added.
"No offense, but you'll cause a riot, because…" They were teleported onto a deserted street in the middle of London. "Oh…" The Doctor said, looking around.
"Now, spending money. I have a credit card in Earth currency if you want to by trinkets, or stockings, or the local delicacy, which is known as beef. But don't stray too far, it could be dangerous. Any day now they start boxing."
Rhea rolled her eyes, but couldn't understand why the street would be empty on Christmas Eve. This was the time that families got out of the house and went gallivanting across the city. There should be plenty of people around. There was no way London could be a ghost town on Christmas Eve.
"Very good." Bannakaffalatta said.
"It should be full. It should be busy. Something's wrong." The Doctor said, echoing Rhea's thoughts.
"But, it's beautiful." Astrid said, the awe clear in her voice.
"Really? Do you think so? It's just a street. The pyramids are beautiful, and New Zealand..." The Doctor said, wistfully.
"But it's a different planet. I'm standing on a different planet. Th-there's concrete...and shops, alien shops, real alien shops! Look, no stars in the sky. And it smells. It stinks!" Astrid gasped, laughing and jumping up and down. Both Rhea and the Doctor smiled at her enthusiasm, and were slightly surprised when Astrid jumped up and gave them both a tight hug.
"This is amazing! Thank you!"
"Yeah? Come on then, let's have a look." The Doctor said, linking his hands with both Rhea and Astrid and dragging them along.
They crossed the street to a newsagent's booth where an old man, bundled up in winter clothes, sat inside.
"Hello there! Sorry, uh, obvious question, but where's everybody gone?" The Doctor asked.
The old man laughed. "Oh-ho, scared!"
"Right, yes." The Doctor said, turning around then back again. "Scared of what?"
"Where have you been living? London at Christmas? Not safe, is it?" The old man said.
Rhea frowned. "Why would London not be safe at Christmas? What happened here?" She muttered to the Doctor.
"Why?" The Doctor asked the old man.
"Well, it's them, up above." The old man said, pointing upwards. "Look, Christmas before last we had that big bloody spaceship, everyone standing on a roof." He pointed at his small TV that showed a clip of a massive spaceship hovering above London. "And then last year, that Christmas Star electrocuting all over the place, draining the Thames."
"Do I even want to know?" Rhea asked the Doctor, suspiciously wondering whether he had something do with all of that.
He squeezed her hand. "You'll find out yourself. Spoilers."
Rhea grimaced but was diverted by Astrid's continued eagerness. "This is place is amazing!" Astrid gushed.
"And this year, Lord knows what. So everybody's scarpered, gone to the country. All except me...and Her Majesty." The old man said, standing and pointing proudly at the television set.
They could hear the reporter on the television. "Her Majesty the Queen has confirmed that she'll be staying in Buckingham Palace throughout the festive season to show the people of London, and the world, that there's nothing to fear."
"Nothing to fear?" Rhea asked.
"God bless her. We stand vigil." The old man said, saluting.
"Well, between you and me, I think her Majesty's got it right. Far as I know, this year, nothing to worry about-" The Doctor was saying before the three of them were teleported back to the ship.
"I was in mid-sentence." The Doctor said, annoyed. Rhea rubbed his arm in a show of comfort.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that. A bit of a problem. If I could have your bracelets-" Mr Copper stuttered, taking the teleportation bracelets from all of them.
The steward rushed up to the group. "Apologies, ladies and gentlemen, Bannakaffalatta, we seem to have suffered a slight power fluctuation. If you'd like to return to the festivities. And on behalf of Max Capricorn Cruiseliners, free drinks will be provided." Once he had finished, everyone except for the Doctor, Rhea and Astrid departed.
"That was the best, the best!" Astrid whispered to the Doctor and Rhea, before leaving, barely holding back her joy.
The Doctor approached the chief steward, dragging Rhea along with him.
"What sort of power fluctuation?" He asked the steward.
"Just a minor glitch. Nothing to worry about, sir." The steward said, tightly, before walking away.
The Doctor turned to look at the people on the dance floor. He held out a hand out to her, "Would you like to dance?" He offered, glancing back at the couples on the dance floor again. "It's just a lot of swaying, I can manage that, I think."
Rhea felt a smile form on her face. "You dance?" She asked, grinning wide and showing her teeth. "I thought you'd be one of those guys who were allergic to dancing, to be honest."
"We-ell," He drew out. "I don't normally, but for you, I'd make an exception."
She waggled her eyebrows. "An exception, huh?" She took him by the hand and dragged him to the dance floor. She wrapped his hands around her waist and wrapped her hands around his neck, leaving around a foot in between them.
They swayed, not in time to the music, much slower than the fast paced Christmas song being sung by a woman in a tight-fit black dress and a flower in her hair at the front of the ballroom.
"So, a nice first space adventure then?" The Doctor asked her.
She clicked her tongue. "We-ell, on a cruise on spaceship on Christmas Eve with a handsome man in a tux…it could be worse." She said, sticking her tongue out of the side of her teeth, as she smiled.
The Doctor had a smug, pleased look on his face, registering only that part of the sentence. "Handsome, huh?"
Rhea nodded, seriously. "In an alien, James Bond kind of way."
"So, alright then? Not getting too scared by the spaceship and the fact that you won't stand still in time for very long?" The Doctor asked, wondering exactly how she was feeling about all that had happened.
Rhea sighed. "Well, it's hard, of course. I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that I won't see my mother for the foreseeable future. That's the hardest thing about this. But, I suppose, if I get to meet up with you and have fantastical adventures, then it's not so bad." She said to the Doctor, wrapping her hands just a bit tighter around his neck, pulling her closer.
"Yeah?" He asked, softly.
Rhea bit her lip. "Why do you look at me like that?" She asked him, needing to ask the question, staring into his brown, brown eyes.
The Doctor frowned. "Like what?"
"Like you know something that you're not supposed to tell me but you desperately want to. Like you're expecting something from me and you're disappointed when I don't give it to you." She exhaled. "No one has ever looked at me the way you're looking at me now." She murmured.
They were silent. They just stared at each other, either of them not willing to speak another word, both desperate for completely different things. Him, for some emotion, her, for some truth.
Rhea swallowed hard and turned away. Staring at him for too long could be dangerous. Not physically, but definitely emotionally. And that was bad. Really bad. She could feel herself being pulled in and resolved to hold tighter onto something that would push her away from him. Like memories or responsibility. Don't you dare, Rhea. He's not good for you. She thought.
"The song's really nice." Rhea said, attempting to lighten the sober mood that had befallen them. "Nice lyrics. A good Christmas song."
She looked around, smiling as she watched the Van Hoffs eating at their table and Morvin fed Foon a spoon of some chocolaty dessert. She noticed, with a frown, that the steward was eyeing one of the Hosts with worry. She could see the pompous man with the black-slicked hair had just won a round of roulette. Bannakaffalatta was dancing and both the Doctor and Rhea caught Astrid's eye as she was serving drinks, with the blonde girl giving them both a soft smile.
Rhea removed her hands from the Doctor's neck and his hands fell to his side from her waist and they walked over to another framed screen showing a video loop of Max Capricorn, their fingers entwining as they walked, Rhea thinking nothing of it.
"...and I should know because my name is Max. The fastest, the furthest, the best. My name is Max. " They heard him say.
The Doctor pulled a pair of glasses and his sonic screwdriver and put the glasses on. Rhea blinked. She never would have guessed how sexy a guy could look with glasses on. But the Doctor pulled it off. Really well.
"So, what exactly is a sonic screwdriver?" Rhea asked, one side leaning against the wall.
"It's a screwdriver that's sonic." He said, never looking away from the frame, which he unfastened using said screwdriver.
"Really!" Rhea exclaimed, in fake shock. "I never would have guessed. With that name, who could have guessed that it would be sonic? Idiot." She muttered in the end.
He grinned at her. "See, this is why I've missed you."
Rhea smiled back, her eyebrows scrunching up as she tried to decipher what he meant by that.
The Doctor opened the frame and changed some settings until the image on the screen changed to the ship's current status and her immediate surroundings. They both saw that the shields were offline.
"That's bad, right?" Rhea whispered to the Doctor.
She followed as he moved over to the window and they could see three meteors headed directly for the Titanic.
"Well, is this ironic, or what?" Rhea muttered, slightly afraid. "The Titanic goes up in flames." She turned to the Doctor. "We need to warn them."
At his nod, they searched for something that would allow them to communicate with the bridge. They rushed over to a nearby intercom and the Doctor pressed a button and started speaking quickly.
"Is that the bridge? I need to talk to the captain. You've got a meteoroid storm coming in West 0 by North 2."
"Who is this?" They heard what seemed to be the captain saying.
"Never mind that. Your shields are down. Check your scanners, Captain. You've got meteoroids coming in and no shielding!"
"You have no authorisation. You will clear the comms at once" The Captain said.
"Seriously, your ship is about to go up in flames, killing hundreds of people, and you're worrying about authorisation?" Rhea asked, angrily.
"Just look starboard!" The Doctor shouted into the comm, as he stared out of the window.
Two stewards came up behind them. "Come with me, sir, ma'am." One of them said. He grabbed the Doctor by an arm and attempted to grab Rhea's as well before she fixed him with a warning glare.
"Put your hands on me and you won't have them anymore, got it?" She said, slowly, but filled with promise.
The steward just escorted the Doctor off the deck, with Rhea following right behind him.
"You've got a rock storm heading for this ship and the shields are down." The Doctor argued through gritted teeth as he was pulled along.
Suddenly, he twisted out of the stewards' grips and ran off, rushing up onto the stage and shouting into the microphone. "Everyone, listen to me! This is an emergency! Get to the lifeb-"
A Host covered the Doctor's mouth with its hand and pulled him away. The stewards stared at Rhea, ready to act in case she would try something similar to the Doctor, but she just followed as he was taken away.
"Look out of the goddamn windows!" Rhea shouted at the stewards as she stared warily at the stewards. She could get the Doctor out of their grip, no problem, but she was a little more worried about the meteor storm.
Astrid, the Van Hoffs, Mr Copper and Bannakaffalatta followed the two of them.
"If you don't believe me, check the shields yourself!" The Doctor shouted as he was dragged away into the maintenance corridors.
"Sir, I can vouch for them!" Astrid exclaimed as she came up beside them.
"Them friends." Bannakaffalatta agreed.
"Look, Steward, he's just had a bit too much to drink." Morvin tried to make the steward understand.
"Sir, something seems to have gone wrong. All the teleports have gone down." Mr Copper said to the steward.
"Not now!" The steward shouted, glaring at Mr Copper.
"The shields are down. We're going to get hit!" The Doctor still tried to make them understand.
The black-haired man came up to them. " Oi! Steward! I'm telling you, the shields are down!"
"Just listen to him." Rhea begged, speaking in a softer voice, in case the Doctor's way wasn't working.
Suddenly, the meteoroids struck the side of the ship, causing the entire ship to shake violently. The Doctor wrapped his arms around Rhea, protectively, and she grabbed Astrid, pulling the girl to her chest as they were all thrown to the floor.
A/N: So, I hope you liked the Doctor's interaction with Rhea in this chapter. It's obvious he knows something about their relationship that he's not telling her and she really hates it when people keep secrets from her. They won't be getting together really soon because she's not at that place where she unconditionally trusts the Doctor. It'll take a few adventures, with 9, 10, 11, for her to trust him. I chose Voyage of the Damned to start off because I feel The Runaway Bride or Smith and Jones have been done quite a few times. I wanted an episode where the Doctor didn't have an established companion yet, so I picked VOTD.
So, read and review!