Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 11. I know that the last chapter was a cliffhanger. But if you guys want to see more fluffy fluff moment, but it was only supposed to be one fluffy moment between the Doctor and Gwendalyn. Now we are to the Girl in the Fireplace. I hope that this turned out well and y'all enjoy it. Without further ado Chapter 11. Allons-y!
Chapter 11
The Doctor, Gwendalyn, Rose and Mickey came out of the Tardis.
Gwendalyn looked around in confusion. It was dark. Perhaps it was a bit too dark.
"It's a spaceship! Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!"
Rose looked around surprised to see that there was no one even around. "Looks kind of abandoned… Anyone on board?"
"Nah, nothing here. Well! Nothing dangerous. Well… not that dangerous." The Doctor paused and looked around. "You know what, I'll just have a quick scan… in case there's anything dangerous."
Rose smirked as she watched him. "So, what's the date? How far we gone?" She asked curiously.
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take." The Doctor said with a smile.
Gwendalyn found a light switch on a console and part of the ceiling lights up.
"Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies." The Doctor explained with a smile.
"Mickey Smith, meet the universe. See anything you like?" Rose asked curiously looking at her boyfriend.
"It's so realistic." Mickey said looking out the window.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here. Got a ton of repair work going on. Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?" The Doctor asked clearly confused of what was going on.
"And the crew is missing." Gwendalyn said looking around. "There should be a crew… where did the crew go? On a ship like this there should be quiet a few people onboard."
"That's a good question." The Doctor said looking at Gwendalyn. "No life reading on board."
"Well, we're in deep space. They didn't just nip out for a quick fag." Rose said looking around knowing that was true that no one could go out and have a cigerett.
"No, I've checked all the smoking pods. Can you smell that?" The Doctor said smelling the air.
"Yeah, someone's cooking."
"Sunday roast, definitely." Mickey said smelling the air.
The Doctor then used the console to open a door behind them.
Gwendalyn looked at the far wall that was panelled and contained a blazing fire in a ornate fireplace with an ormolu clock on the mantlepiece. "Doctor."
The Doctor looked at it and a smile came to his lips. "Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eigteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a holgram. It's not even a reproduction. This is actually an eigteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there."
Rose looks oout of a port hole in the same wall. "There can't be. That's the outer hull of the ship. Look."
"Hello." The Doctor said to a young girl who was dressed in a nightgown who was kneeling by the fire on the other side of it.
Gwendalyn looked and saw the young girl too. Now that was something new. Never in her life had she seen such a thing.
"Hello." The young Reinette replied looked at the Doctor and Gwendalyn.
"What's your name?" Gwendalyn asked with a soft smile forming on her lips.
"Reinette." She said answering Gwendalyn's question.
"Reinette, that's a lovely name." The Doctor said with a smile. "Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?"
"In my bedroom."
"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?"
"Paris, of course."
"Paris, right!"
"Monsieur, Madame, what are you doing in my fireplace?"
"Oh, it's just a routine fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?" The Doctor asked curiously wondering what year young Reinette was from.
"Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."
"Right, lovely. One of my favorites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night."
"Goodnight Monsieur and Madame."
Gwendalyn and The Doctor moved away from the fireplace.
"You said this was the fifty first century." Mickey said crossing his arms.
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
"What's that?" Mickey asked in confusion.
"No idea. Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door."
Gwendalyn slapped him on his arm causing him to wince.
"Ow." He said rubbing his arm where she had hit him.
"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?"
"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too." Gwendalyn said crossing her arms.
"She was speaking English, I heard her." Mickey said confused of why they were saying that she was speaking French.
"That's the Tardis. Tranlates for you." Rose said with a smile looking at her boyfriend.
"Even French?"
"Yeah."
"Gotcha!" The Doctor said finding the switch to rotate the fireplace.
"Doctor!"
Gwendayln and the Doctor went into it.
Reinette was sound asleep in her bed. She woke up with a start looking up at the two of them.
"It's okay. Don't scream." The Doctor said soothingly. "It's me and Gwendalyn. Fireplace man and woman. Look. We were just talking a moment ago. We were in your fireplace." He lit one of Reinette's candles with his screwdriver.
"Monsieur, Madame, that was weeks ago. That was months."
"Really?" Gwendalyn said blinking a few times. That was really odd that it had been months since they had last talked to Reinette.
"Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in." The Doctor said muttering to himself.
"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"
Gwendalyn noticed that the clock wasn't working and it was ticking loudly. She tapped his arm.
The Doctor looked at the clock. "Okay, that's scary."
"You're scared of a broken clock?"
"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a tiny bit. Because, you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room, then what's that?"
The ticking continued.
"Because, you see, that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man."
"What is it?" Reinette asked looking up at the Doctor.
"Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two."
"It would make you wonder if you were really alone." Gwendalyn said with a nod of her head. "Stay in bed. Right in the middle. Don't move."
The Doctor nodded his head as he waved his screwdriver under the bed only to have it knocked out of his hand.
"Don't look around Reinette." Gwendalyn said softly.
A figure is standing behind her with a smiley mask on it's face.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You, stay exactly where you are. Hold still, let me look at you." The Doctor said holding Reinette's head looking deep into her eyes. "You've been scanning her brain. What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain. What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"
"I don't understand. It wants me? You want me?" She asked the thing that was in her room.
"Not yet. You are incomplete."
"Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete? You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, incomplete?"
The driod walked around the bed with a blade coming out of it's hand.
"Monsieur, be careful."
"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares."
The android slashed at the Doctor and he dodged it.
"Doctor." Gwendalyn said her brows furrowed with concern.
"Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" The Doctor questioned at the blade got stuck in the mantelpiece.
"What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette questioned looking at the Doctor with her brows furrowed.
The Doctor quickly activated the mechanism and the fireplace rotated again. "Me!"
"Doctor!" Rose called out.
Gwendalyn pursed her lips together as the Doctor grabbed a tube from a nearby rack and fired its contents all over the android causing it to seize up.
Mickey grinned in surprise. "Excellent. Ice gun."
"Fire extinguisher." The Doctor simply replied as he looked over at Mickey.
"Where did that thing come from?" Rose questioned her brows furrowed in concern.
"Here." The Doctor said simply like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey questioned tilting his head to the side his brows furrowed.
"Field trip to France. Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face." The Doctor said as he removed the android's face to reveal clockwork. "Oh, you are beautiful! No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me."
Gwendalyn let out a soft chuckle watching him looking over the android.
Then suddenly it beamed away.
"Short range teleport. Can't have got far. Could still be on board."
"What is it?" Rose questioned her brows furrowed.
"Don't go looking for it!" The Doctor said grasping his fiancee's arm leading her away.
Rose felt her anger beginning to rise. "Where're you going?"
"Back in a sec." The Doctor said as he rushed towards the fireplace again.
"Must we talk to the girl again? Time is passing so quickly." Gwendalyn pointed out to The Doctor as she kept up with his strides.
"Yes, there is something going on there and we need to get to the bottom of it."
Gwendalyn nodded her head. "I know you're worried about what's going on… I'm more worried about what is going on with this ship… no one onboard…"
"I know you think it is odd, Dalyn. We'll get to the bottom of what is going on."
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This is the end of Chapter 11. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried my best when it came to writing it. I hope that I didn't do too bad when it came to writing this chapter out. I hope that you guys enjoyed it and please let me know what you think of it. I hopefully will be able to update next week with the next chapter. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to updating and writing. Until next time.
