"What? Why? And wasn't there a coat rack there before?" Ruby noticed.
"Because bad things always happen whenever I'm in this time period. What are you talking about? I put that coat rack away a month ago," he said
"There was a coat rack there. I'm telling you I saw it? It was sitting right there." She pointed to the right side of the door. "What kind of bad things?" Ruby asked, now intrigued.
"Well, you must be delusional, because there was no coat rack there. It's hidden away in one of the closets. Let's see. First, there were hundreds of these ghosts that we had to kill that lived in the gas of the candles. And later we had to get rid of these three witches. Well, actually they weren't witches. They were called carionites. I'm taking you home."
"No you are not!" Ruby stood there with a determined expression on her face. "I will not go back to my cruddy job in London, or hometown in Connecticut. Why do you think I would want to leave this place? There's too much life in here." It was true. Every time Ruby stepped into the TARDIS she felt the excitement like little tiny electric shocks across her skin. It tingled with the very energy and vivacity that she had been looking for when she ran away from America. Ruby spread her arms out wide and inhaled deeply. Tons of different smells came through her nose. And they were all wonderful. She let it all out with a heavy sigh and said, "Don't you feel it?"
The Doctor only raised an eyebrow and said, "Okay." He sat down on the floor, for some odd reason that slightly amused Ruby. "Alright. We'll stay. But we're not leaving here until the party. You got that?"
"Perfectly." And with that she sat down beside him on the floor of the console room, and just looked at him. What was it about this strange man before that she felt so appealing and yet something scared her. She wasn't afraid of him exactly. Except whenever she caught the time to look at him, something about him was familiar. It wasn't his physical features, but the depth of his eyes. There was a history behind the emotion in those deep brown swirls of color. They confirmed his old age while his body was that of a man of thirty-five. The spirit that he held however was that of a ten year old boy on Christmas. The Doctor was all mixed up and Ruby thought that's what she liked about him but still she wasn't sure. It creeped her out to think of how familiar the man behind those chocolate eyes was.
Ruby was a different girl. He reminded her of Rose, but as the Doctor thinks that he finds huge differences. Ruby has a different quality about her that he just couldn't place his finger on. Not to mention with just a few words and stubborn personality, she was able to change his mind. But something wasn't right. He didn't remember her from any of his past lives, but there was something about her that he recognized. The life and spirit that she held attracted him. Ruby did remind him of Rose though. He had never been this curious about someone since her.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked. He was so good at hiding his feelings and yet this woman was able to see his every emotion.
"Nothing really. You just remind me of someone."
"Is it Rose?"
He stared at her for a moment and then said, "Yeah."
"That's funny because you remind me a bit of Billy. He was always bringing me to different places."
The Doctor's frown turned into a smile. "Didn't you say his name was Bobby?"
"Oh, yeah. I did, didn't I?" There was a silence and then both Ruby and the Doctor burst out laughing and ended up flat on their backs clutching their stomachs. Rocking back and forth Ruby's laughter turned silent and her face went a bit red. She caught her breath and wiped her eyes as she let out a few more breathy giggles. Still clutching her abdomen, she turned her body so that the side of her head was hugging the floor and watched the Doctor calm down.
His eyes were wet with tears of laughter and seemed to glitter in the light of the console room. His smile was something extraordinary, as if it was from another world. That's when she realized that he was from another world. He really was inhuman. A timelord. Why wasn't that weird? She only met him yesterday and today she traveled backwards in time. So, why did she feel like she could trust him with her life? Why was she so comfortable around a man with an occupation for a name? It baffled her, but she didn't feel the need to find the reason for her odd tranquility around him. As long as it existed, she wasn't going to meddle with her emotions to get to the bottom of it.
The Doctor turned his body to face Ruby. Thin strands of hair hung over her face and with a sharp exhale of breath, Ruby made them fly over her head and out of her face. He watched her roll onto her back and stare towards the ceiling. The doctor studied her profile and now he noticed how her long eyelashes framed her brown eyes, and how her hair had changed to a blonde in this light. Twenty minutes ago it was a light brunette.
"What?" Ruby laughed. She turned back towards the Doctor who was staring at her with a look on his face that couldn't have been anything beyond adorable. Before she knew it she felt his warm hand on her waist. She wouldn't have minded, she actually was enjoying it, but something was wrong. It was too soon for her taste, too personal, too intimate.
"Umm, I gotta go." Ruby got up and left his hand on the floor.
The Doctor pulled his hand back in an uncomfortable fashion and said, "Yeah. The party is at seven. You should probably get ready. Um, yeah." He pulled himself up off of the floor and walked to the console with his back towards Ruby, and pretended to be busy until he was absolutely sure that she was out of the room.
When the Doctor looked over his shoulder and didn't see Ruby, he walked over to the wall and started to hit his head against it. "You're not supposed to be doing that, Doctor," he scolded himself. He stopped injuring his head and started to pace around the glowing console. "You didn't even do that to Rose, why are you doing it now?" He used the palm of his hand to hit the side of his head. "Think. Think. Think. What is it about Ruby? Why does she seem so familiar to you?"
The Doctor sat down and put his head in his hands. He tried to go back into his memory. He separated himself from his body and actually walked through his mind as if it was a building filled with millions and billions of doors. But he knew all of these doors. They weren't anything special, just normal memories, as "normal" as his memories could get. It was driving him mad, whenever he looked at her. It triggered something inside of him and he didn't even know what to do.
After about an hour the Doctor yelled, "I'm going to wait right outside the Tardis!" Hopefully she heard it. He stepped outside and shuffled the snow with his feet as he waited for Ruby to come out. He didn't have to wait too long.
"Well don't you look nice?" The Doctor heard form behind him. "And I thought I liked your blue suit."
The Doctor was baffled. Ruby looked positively stunning. The dress that she was wearing was out of exactly that time period with its blue corset top and flowing skirt. The green embroidery and embellishments attracted his eye and he noticed that they were little flowers. Actually they were lilies entangled in thorny vines. He looked up at Ruby's hair and saw it pulled back into a bun with lose strands here and there that had been curled. She was looking at him with such happiness in her eyes. How could he have ever thought of bringing her back home?
The Doctor was so handsome in his tuxedo. She looked him over and noticed that he had black sneakers on his feet. She chuckled and saw a sparkle in his eye and for a split second there was something in his expression that seemed to be awe, but it was gone in no time. It was replaced with a smile of glee and for some reason Ruby felt as if that smile said something but she couldn't place it. It shouldn't have mattered to her. But it did.
"Brilliant! You look absolutely gorgeous."
The doctor then held out his arm and Ruby took it with a smile. "Allons-y, Doctor!"