Chapter 35: There's No Place Like Home
After the Doctor and Rose returned from their weekend away, his tolerance for being stuck in the past dwindled rapidly. He stayed up late working on the video camera, muttering about antique technology and, "How am I supposed to build a camera that can also program a flight plan when they've barely invented the compact disk?"
Rose's patience with his moodiness was almost at a breaking point when she heard a strange noise at breakfast one morning. "Doctor? What is—"
He jumped out of his chair and ran into the living room so fast she barely caught a glimpse of the broad grin on his face. "Oh, yes!" he shouted, brandishing the timey-wimey device. "Are you ready to meet Billy Shipton, ladies?"
Rose and Martha scooted back from the table and grabbed their jackets. "Where will we find him?" Martha asked.
"That's what this is for!" he said, putting the device to his ear and counting, his lips moving silently. "It works a little bit like a Geiger counter, so the closer we get, the faster the beeps will come."
"At last, you get to use your timey-wimey detector for its intended purpose," Rose said. "No longer just an egg cooker, now it will actually detect temporal fluctuations."
The Doctor grinned and held the door open. "Exactly, Rose Tyler!" he crowed. "Now, are you ready to go hunting for someone else out of his time?"
"Oh, yes," she said.
But it was Martha who led them down the stairs. "I am so ready to get home," she said eagerly. "Let's go!"
oOoOoOoOo
They were near St. Paul's when the beeps of timey-wimey detector changed tone. "This way!" the Doctor called out, running down the street. They turned the corner into an alley—similar to the one they'd landed in, he noticed—and he spotted a man leaning against the brick wall, looking like his head had just been done in.
"Welcome!" The Doctor crouched down in front of him and tried to offer a reassuring smile.
Billy squinted up at them. "Where am I?" he grunted.
"1969," Rose told him. "Trust me, there are worse times to be stuck in."
"And you've got the moon landing to look forward to," the Doctor added encouragingly.
"Hopefully we'll be gone by then," Martha said, "but maybe we could go after we've got transport again?"
"Maybe," the Doctor said absently. He was watching Billy closely, ready for some kind of argument.
To his credit, Billy's next question was, "How did I get here?"
"The same way we did. The touch of an angel. Same one, probably, since you ended up in the same year." Billy started to get up, and the Doctor waved his hands quickly. "No, no. No, no, no, don't get up. Time travel without a capsule. Nasty. Catch your breath. Don't go swimming for half an hour."
Billy sagged back against the brick wall and stared up at them, looking dazed. "I don't… I can't…"
The Doctor shifted to sit beside Billy. "Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels. The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely. No mess, no fuss, they just zap you into the past and let you live to death."
Billy rolled his head to look at the Doctor. The Doctor didn't think he looked quite as grateful for the Weeping Angels' unique methods as he should, so he sped up, rambling about the surprisingly painless sentence of living in the past.
"The rest of your life used up and blown away in the blink of an eye. You die in the past, and in the present they consume the energy of all the days you might have had. All your stolen moments." He sniffed. "They're creatures of the abstract. They live off potential energy."
Billy looked from Rose to Martha to the Doctor. "What in God's name are you talking about?" he asked, his confusion and frustration making his West Indies accent sharp.
"Trust me," Martha told him. "Just nod when he stops for breath."
The Doctor waved his device at Billy. "Tracked you down with this. This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at thirty paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."
Billy shook his head and blinked, like he was trying to wake himself up from a nightmare. "I don't understand. Where am I?"
Rose settled down on the other side of him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard to believe, but you really are in 1969," she told him, keeping her voice soft.
She could feel his lungs hitch, and finally, he nodded.
The Doctor smiled at her gratefully, then looked at Billy. "Normally, I'd offer you a lift home, but somebody nicked my motor. So I need you to take a message to Sally Sparrow. And I'm sorry, Billy. I am very, very sorry. It's going to take you a while."
That was Rose's cue to interrupt, before they gave the poor out-of-time bloke a worse shock than he'd already had. "But I think we can discuss that in our flat over supper, can't we?" She hopped to her feet and offered Billy a hand, pulling him up. "What's your favourite kind of take away, Billy? Chips? Curry? We'll stop on the way home."
In the end, they stopped by their regular curry place, getting enough for all four of them. An hour after meeting Billy Shipton in the alleyway, they were seated around the dining table, explaining the whole story to him.
He thumbed through the stack of pictures Sally Sparrow had taken of Wester Drumlins while they talked. "So this is why all those cars kept being abandoned by the old house, then," he said, almost to himself.
"Speaking of cars," the Doctor drawled, leaning against the table. "I don't suppose you've seen an old police box?"
Billy's eyes narrowed. "I have, as a matter of fact," he told them. "I only showed it to Sally Sparrow a few hours ago—right before I ended up in that alley."
Rose laughed when the Doctor nearly bounced in his chair. "That's our… well, it's ours," she told Billy, not wanting to get into what exactly the TARDIS was. "The Doctor has been counting on it turning up, since it's mentioned at the end of the transcript of the conversation with Sally and Larry, but it feels good to know someone has seen her more recently than we have."
Billy pushed back from the table and dropped his fork onto his plate. "There isn't a key, though," he warned. "I've tried to get into it for six months, and nothing will open it."
"Sally Sparrow had the key," Rose explained. "Martha's fell out of her pocket when we were transported here, and one of the angels picked it up. Sally took it from them and gave it back to us in the folder along with all the information."
Billy picked up Sally's detailed report. "So the day I see her again is the day I die."
"Oh, don't think about it like that," the Doctor said. "You've got years to go before then, a whole life to live. Another Sally to meet."
"And I can't call her up before then because…"
"Welllll, you could, only it would tear a hole in the fabric of space and time and destroy two-thirds of the universe."
Rose glared at the Doctor, and he ducked his head apologetically. "Sorry."
Billy laughed disbelievingly. "I think I need a place to stay for the night."
"You can sleep on our couch," Martha offered.
oOoOoOoOo
Martha had trouble sleeping that night, wondering what they'd do if Billy Shipton refused to help them. She'd asked the Doctor that same question more than once, and he'd brushed her off. Sally Sparrow's report was gospel, and the report said Billy Shipton helped them. That was all he needed to know.
But seeing how shocked he'd been at dinner, Martha wasn't so sure. She didn't blame him, honestly. It was a lot for her to take in, and she'd been living in the TARDIS for over six months now.
Billy seemed to have come to terms with his lot though, because over breakfast, he finally agreed to help them get home. He turned out to be the help the Doctor needed to finish the video recorder. His parents had owned a second-hand electronics shop, and he'd spent his days after school tinkering with broken down appliances, getting them working so they could be sold.
Between his practical, hands-on knowledge of older electronics and the Doctor's understanding of what needed to happen in order to create the control disk that would send the TARDIS to them, they managed to cobble together a camera and autocue in just a week.
"Are you ready for your film debut?" Rose asked the Doctor after breakfast on the day they were going to finally film the conversation.
He peered into the mirror and adjusted his hair. "I'm ready to get the TARDIS back," he told her. "Anything I have to do to make that happen, I'm ready for."
Rose waited, and when he started to tie the swirly tie he'd worn their whole time in 1969, she gently took it from him and handed him a long, skinny box. "A good luck present," she told him.
The Doctor opened the box and laughed when he read the store name printed on the tissue paper. "You went to Henrik's!" he said as he pulled out the silk tie. The brown background was a good match for his suit, and the diagonal stripes in alternating shades of blue would go well with most of his shirts.
"Couldn't resist," Rose told him.
He flipped up his collar and tied it nimbly. "Well, what do you think?" he asked, holding his arms out. "Do I look ready for the camera?"
Rose circled him, fixing his collar so it lay flat and adjusting the knot of the tie until it was just so. "Perfect," she declared finally.
The Doctor bent his head and brushed a soft kiss over her lips. "Thank you for the tie."
"Thank you for working so hard to get us home."
oOoOoOoOo
When Billy arrived, he fussed with the lighting, then stood back, out of the frame. "All right, Doctor. Ready whenever you are." The Doctor slipped his glasses on and nodded, and when Billy pressed a button, the red light on the camera started flashing and the autocue began.
"Yup. That's me," the Doctor said, in answer to the line spoken offscreen, identifying him as the Doctor.
Rose followed along with the autocue, trying not to recite Sally's lines as she had all the times the Doctor had rehearsed his timing.
SALLY: Okay, that was scary.
LARRY: No, it sounds like he's replying, but he always says that.
The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I do."
LARRY: And that.
"Yup. And this."
SALLY: He can hear us. Oh, my God, you can really hear us?
LARRY: Of course he can't hear us. Look, I've got a transcript. See? Everything he says. Yup, that's me. Yes, I do. Yup, and this. Next it's—
"Are you going to read out the whole thing?" the Doctor asked, the exasperation in his voice not an act.
LARRY: Sorry.
SALLY: Who are you?
The Doctor nodded. "I'm a time traveller." He shrugged. "Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969."
Rose stepped into the frame—the next line was hers. "I prefer 'temporarily grounded' to stuck."
The Doctor shook his head and smiled at her. "It doesn't have nearly the ring though—'Temporarily grounded with you, Rose Tyler?'" He looked at the camera. "This is my wife, by the way. Rose Tyler."
"Hello!" Rose waved, then stepped back.
Martha leaned into the frame. "Well, temporarily grounded or stuck, we're still in 1969, and I'm working in a shop to pay our way—all because the transcript says that I said I did. And I tried to get the Doctor to let me say something different, but he was all, 'Do you want to cause a paradox, Martha Jones?'" She shot the Doctor a wry smile before stepping out of the frame to stand with Rose, who pointed at the autocue to redirect the Doctor's attention.
SALLY: I've seen this bit before.
"Quite possibly."
SALLY: 1969, that's where you're talking from?
The Doctor bobbed his head. "Afraid so."
SALLY: But you're replying to me. You can't know exactly what I'm going to say, forty years before I say it.
"Thirty-eight," the Doctor countered, a defensive edge in his voice.
Rose smacked her palm against her forehead. How on Earth could a scripted conversation sound exactly like him?
LARRY: I'm getting this down. I'm writing in your bits.
SALLY: How? How is this possible? Tell me.
LARRY: Not so fast.
The Doctor sighed, and Rose prepared herself for his lecture on the nature of time. Even after hearing this dozens of times as they rehearsed—even after living it for four years—this bit still gave her a bit of a headache.
"People don't understand time," he explained to Sally Sparrow. "It's not what you think it is."
SALLY: Then what is it?
He looked straight into the camera. "Complicated."
SALLY: Tell me.
"Very complicated."
SALLY: I'm clever and I'm listening. And don't patronise me because people have died, and I'm not happy. Tell me.
Rose cheered silently at Sally's attitude. Scripted or not, that answer was patronising, and she deserved better.
The Doctor swallowed hard and straightened up. "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect," he said, motioning with his hands as he spoke. "But actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."
SALLY: Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you.
The Doctor stared off into space, and Rose could see him trying to figure out where exactly that sentence came from. "It got away from me, yeah," he agreed.
SALLY: Next thing you're going to say is, "Well I can hear you."
"Well, I can hear you," he said frankly.
SALLY: This isn't possible.
LARRY: No. It's brilliant!
The Doctor backtracked. "Well, not hear you, exactly, but I know everything you're going to say."
LARRY: Always gives me the shivers, that bit.
SALLY: How can you know what I'm going to say?
"Look to your left." The Doctor tilted his head to the right, which would look like he was indicating left onscreen.
LARRY: What does he mean by look to your left? I've written tons about that on the forums. I think it's a political statement.
SALLY: He means you. What are you doing?
LARRY: I'm writing in your bits. That way I've got a complete transcript of the whole conversation. Wait until this hits the net. This will explode the egg forums.
"I've got a copy of the finished transcript," the Doctor explained. "It's on my autocue."
SALLY: How can you have a copy of the finished transcript? It's still being written.
"I told you. I'm a time traveller. I got it in the future."
That left out the detail that Sally herself gave them the entire packet, but considering they knew she didn't figure that out until they met—four months ago for them, and months in the future for her—he couldn't explain that to her.
SALLY: Okay, let me get my head round this. You're reading aloud from a transcript of a conversation you're still having.
The Doctor sighed and waved his hand back and forth, trying to get her past this point. "Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey."
Rose nodded. It sounded barmy, but it really was the best way to understand time and causality. They could be reading from a transcript that Sally gave them in her personal future because it had already happened for her when she'd handed it to them. And having a complete, two-sided conversation like this was the only way they could hope to get home.
SALLY: Never mind that. You can do shorthand?
LARRY: So?
"What matters is, we can communicate." The Doctor used his hand to emphasise his words. "We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The angels have the phone box."
Rose shivered, just like she had the first time she'd read that part of the transcript. The idea of the TARDIS in the hands of the Weeping Angels didn't bear thinking about. She didn't want to know what they would have done to the ship if they'd gotten inside her.
LARRY: "The angels have the phone box." That's my favourite, I've got it on a t-shirt.
SALLY: What do you mean, angels? You mean those statue things?
"Creatures from another world," the Doctor explained.
SALLY: But they're just statues.
"Only when you see them."
SALLY: What does that mean?
"The lonely assassins, they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can."
SALLY: Don't take your eyes off that.
Rose hated this part of the transcript, because she could only imagine what was happening on Sally's end. That one line suggested so much, as did the abrupt end of the conversation. There was an angel—maybe more than one—in the room where she and Larry were watching the DVD. Her gut tightened as the Doctor continued to speak. What would happen if the angels got to Sally and Larry before they finished listening?
"That's why they cover their eyes," the Doctor told them, and Rose relaxed a little, remembering the genius of his plan. "They're not weeping. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe." He leaned into the camera. "And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now."
SALLY: What am I supposed to do?
"The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me."
SALLY: How? How?
The Doctor sat up slightly. They all knew that was the end of the transcript, but every time they reached this point, they hoped more would magically appear. Not knowing exactly how Sally and Larry would get the disk to the TARDIS was nerve-wracking.
"And that's it, I'm afraid," the Doctor said. "There's no more from you on the transcript; that's the last I've got." He took his glasses off and frowned. "I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess. They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck."
"And cut!" Billy said, ending the recording. "Now, are you sure your machine here managed to record the necessary information to get your ship back to you?"
The Doctor huffed. "Of course I'm sure!" he said. "D'you think I'd do something so important if I weren't 100% certain it would work?"
"All right, all right!" Billy held his hands up. "So, if you're sure, Doctor… Does that mean this is the last time I'll see you?"
"I'm afraid it does." The Doctor held out his hand, and the men shook. "You are going to have a fantastic life, Billy Shipton. Not the one you thought you'd have, but fantastic nonetheless."
"Thank you, Doctor, I think I will. Apparently, I need to be on the lookout for a lady named Sally."
"You take care, and tell Sally Sparrow we said hello when you see her again."
Billy shook everyone's hand, then left the flat.
"How much longer will we have to wait?" Martha asked after he was gone.
The Doctor looked at her in surprise. "Oh, didn't I say? I've got a homing beacon running on the sonic screwdriver, and the program on that disk will tell the TARDIS to lock onto it. She should be here any minute."
"No, you didn't say!" Martha exclaimed, a smile on her face that the Doctor hadn't seen since they'd gotten trapped in 1969. "I'd better go turn in my notice then, so management don't look for me tomorrow."
She ran out the door, and the Doctor looked at Rose. "I could have sworn I'd mentioned that…"
Rose chuckled and hugged the Doctor. "Sometimes you skip over the things you think are obvious, forgetting that not everyone's got a big Time Lord brain," she teased him.
"Huh." The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "So, when I said I was going to set a protocol for the TARDIS to come back as soon as the disk came through the doors…"
"You probably should have mentioned the timey-wimey bit that would bring her back today."
She kissed him on the cheek, then spun away to start packing. They'd been in 1969 just shy of two months, but they'd still managed to collect possessions.
"Are you going to go talk to the landlord?" she called out as she pulled their clothes out of the closet and laid them on the bed.
"Nah, our future selves can do that."
Rose shrugged; fair enough. "Then I guess we don't really need to pack or clean either, do we?"
The Doctor wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Nope! Leave it all to do later. Let's just go home."
As always though, the TARDIS' navigation was a bit off, and it wasn't until they were sitting down to dinner that they felt the familiar wind kick up that indicated she was about to materialise.
The Doctor leapt to his feet. "Oh, yes!"
Rose had never been so glad to hear the TARDIS' wheezing engines as she was when the ship finally appeared in the flat. Oh, hello there! she greeted her warmly. The TARDIS chimed and hummed in response, and Rose patted the door apologetically before walking inside. It had been March of 2007 when they'd investigated Wester Drumlins, and according to the information from Sally, her entire adventure had taken place in October of 2007. The poor ship had been left on her own for seven months.
"Oh, I am so glad to see this room," Martha said as she walked into the console room, carrying her suitcase.
"Is everyone ready?" the Doctor asked, bouncing on his toes as his fingers rested lightly on the dematerialisation lever.
"Yes!" Rose and Martha said in unison.
"Back to time and space!" he exclaimed as he threw the lever.
The TARDIS shook as she took them into the vortex, and they all fell to the grating, laughing hysterically. "Where are we?" Martha asked once she got her breath back.
"Just the vortex," the Doctor said. "I'd like to do a little maintenance before we take her anywhere." He arched an eyebrow. "Besides, it was dinner time when we left, so I didn't think anyone would be up for an adventure before getting a night of sleep first."
"A night of sleep in my own bed," Martha said. Her conversation with Rose from months ago came back to her. She definitely felt up for an adventure, but if she was being given the night off, she was happy to take advantage of all the comforts of home.
"Martha, have we introduced you to By the Light of the Asteroid?" Rose asked.
Martha raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like some kind of space soap opera."
"Well, there are these twins…"
She laughed. "Definitely a soap opera. All right, I'm in. I'll meet you in the media room in ten minutes."
Rose winked at her. "I'll have the ice cream."
The Doctor looked at the console. "I can do this later," he decided. "Watching telly and eating ice cream for dinner sounds like more fun than rerouting the temporal stabiliser."
oOoOoOoOo
After breakfast the next morning, the Doctor lifted his tools up onto the grating, then leveraged his body out from underneath the console. Martha and Rose were both on the jump seat, watching him expectantly.
"Everything's back in perfect working order," he told them. "Of course, the angels didn't actually get into her, but still—it was good to take the opportunity to check her systems out." He wiped his hands off on a greasy rag.
Once he was cleaned up, he set the coordinates carefully, making sure they would land in London after they met Sally Sparrow the first time. "There's someone I'd like to go see," he told Rose and Martha. "I think we owe Sally Sparrow a thank you, don't you?" Their smiles were the only answer he needed, and he sent them flying through the Vortex towards April 2008.
When she landed, the Doctor peaked at the external monitor and bit back a grin. "Ah yes, Sparrow and Nightingale, Antiquarian Books and Rare DVDs. I think you'll find they're expecting us."
He nodded to the door and Martha and Rose pushed it open, then looked back at him reproachfully. "You landed in their back office, Doctor," Rose told him.
The Doctor could see a dumbfounded Larry Nightingale staring at them from the office doorway, and he waved cheerily, then motioned for the women to go on out.
"Hello there, Larry!" he chirped when he joined them.
"Doctor. Um, we weren't… that is, we aren't prepared for company…"
"Oh, that's all right!" The Doctor waved his hand. "We aren't really here to chat. Actually, I thought you might like to come with us for a bit."
You did? Rose asked, and he nodded slightly.
Sally appeared in the doorway. "Come with you where, Doctor?"
Martha grinned. "Asking the wrong question, Sally Sparrow."
"Of course. Come with you when?"
The Doctor stuck his hands in his coat pockets. "Well, it struck me that this all really started for the two of you when someone else was touched by an angel." He nodded at Larry. "Your sister, Katherine Wainwright—nee Kathy Nightingale."
Larry paled, but Sally's eyes brightened. "Oh my god, Kathy? Do you mean it, Doctor? We could go back and see her without it causing any problems?"
He grinned at her. "I like you, Sally Sparrow. Asking the right questions already. We'll have to tell Kathy that she can't mention it to anyone, especially not in the letter she wrote you. Hey, maybe us going back for a visit is what will inspire her to write that letter in the first place."
"I haven't seen my sister in six months," Larry finally said. "She's the only family I've got—our parents died ages ago."
Rose stepped forward. "You'd have to understand, this would be a one time visit. A chance to catch up, for all of you to see that you're happy, and to say goodbye. Can you do that? Because if you can't promise us to leave when we say it's time, then we won't go."
One encounter with Reapers was more than enough for Rose Tyler. She didn't want to scare or upset Larry and Sally, but they had to understand the stakes if they took this offer.
Sally looked at Larry. It was obvious she wanted to go, but she was letting him make the call.
Finally, he nodded. "Yeah. We'll do it. Just let us put out the closed sign."
The Doctor rocked back on his heels. "No need for that," he told them. "We've got a time machine—I'll have you back in five minutes."
Sally looked at Rose and Martha, then nodded decisively. "I'll put out the closed sign," she agreed, clearly seeing the silent message in their eyes that the Doctor wasn't quite as good at precision landings as he thought he was.
After discussing it with Sally and Larry, the Doctor set the coordinates for 1935. Based on the letter and photos Kathy had sent Sally, all of her children would be born by then, so if she and Larry slipped and mentioned them, they wouldn't be giving any spoilers. But she would still be young enough that she felt like the Kathy they knew.
Watching the reunion was a bit awkward, Rose mused as she sipped tea from Kathy Wainwright's best china. They didn't know Kathy at all and barely knew Sally and Larry. As much as possible, they stayed out of the conversation, only speaking up when it seemed like someone might be about to divulge information that should be kept a secret. The Doctor even let Sally explain what the Weeping Angels were, and how they'd sent Kathy back to 1920.
Their visit lasted a few hours. Having so recently had a second chance at a last conversation with her mum, Rose felt for Sally and Larry when they returned to the TARDIS, hand-in-hand.
"Kathy seemed pleased that you're together," she said, trying to break the silence.
Larry's ears turned red. "Surprised, maybe," he said. "She was there the first time we met, and I… let's just say I didn't make a stellar first impression."
Sally chuckled. "Maybe not, but you made up for it," she told him.
The TARDIS' wheezing broke into the conversation, and Rose glanced over at the Doctor, who was leaning against the console. "We'll be back in your shop in just a few minutes," he told them. "Again, we really can't thank you enough for all you did to help us out when we were in 1969."
"This was a perfect thanks," Sally said firmly.
Rose and the Doctor exchanged a glance. They both hated that the Nightingale/Sparrow family had to be split up at all, but they couldn't fix that without causing a paradox.
"Well." The Doctor nodded once. "If we're ever in the area and looking for a rare DVD, we'll be sure to stop by."
oOoOoOoOo
Once Sally and Larry were gone, the Doctor leaned against the console with his arms crossed over his chest. Martha looked at him warily—she didn't want to be the one to say they needed a break, but she really didn't want to end up in the middle of a revolution or something.
To her surprise, the Doctor said, "I think we've earned a break, especially the two of you. There's someplace I've been wanting to go, if you're in the mood for a holiday."
Martha smiled widely. "I'm absolutely in the mood for a holiday," she assured him.
"Well then, why don't you go pack a bag for a long weekend, and I'll take us to a fancy resort."
When everyone was back in the console room with packed bags, the Doctor grinned. "This place has something for all of us. It's one of the fanciest resorts in the galaxy—they call it a leisure palace, actually. There's a pool, hot tub, sauna, and all the other resort amenities."
"Sounds a little boring for you, Doctor," Rose teased.
"Right you are! But Midnight is the famous planet made of diamonds. You can take a tour to the sapphire waterfall—one of the seven wonders of the galaxy."
Martha snorted. "Of course. You would pick a resort that has something odd you can explore. But as long as they've got a swimming pool and plenty of drinks with little umbrellas, I'm fine with you taking your tour to see the sapphire waterfall."
But when they pushed the doors open and sunlight poured into the TARDIS, the Doctor groaned in disappointment. "Oh, this is not where I wanted to be!"
"Where are we?" Rose asked. "Not Midnight, I take it."
"No, Midnight's sun is xtonic. For some reason, the TARDIS landed us in Hawaii instead."
Martha peered over the Doctor's shoulder and took in the long expanse of pristine white sand. She and Rose exchanged a look, then then ducked around the Doctor on opposite sides and darted out into the sun.
"Okay," Martha said, holding her arms out and tipping her head back. "For once, I love that your ship never lands where you tell her to."
AN: That's the end of Blink. Next week: Utopia. We are on the brink of the Master arc, and I cannot wait.