Sorry everyone. It has been brought to my attention that I really should put disclaimer's in. So:
I do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters.
There. Everyone good? Great! On with the Story.
Chapter Four
Andrea stepped into the control room. She'd had a nasty nightmare about her two least favorite things: Dalek's chasing her into a vat of strawberry milk. She sat on the couch, drawing her knees up to her chest.
She'd been on the TARDIS three days now. They'd visited a bar on Barcelona (not the city Barcelona, mind, the planet Barcelona) and Rory had almost been thrown in jail for shouting at a guy about flirting with Amy. Then, they'd wandered around the sixties back on Earth, for a good bit. Now they were just floating in space until Amy and Rory made up their minds about where to go.
The Doctor slid out from under the console, wires draped across his chest. Andrea jumped and fell off the couch onto the floor. The Doctor jumped too and smacked his head on the console. They looked at each other and began to giggle, Andrea on her butt and him with a hand on his forehead. He dumped the wires on the floor and walked over to sit next to her. She got up and pulled her t-shirt back down over her midriff. They grinned at each other.
"Well! That was a first," the Doctor said.
"What was a first?"
"I've never been snuck up on in my TARDIS before." Andrea giggled again.
"Sure you have," she said, matter-of-factly. He turned to her, looking a bit confused. She mentally kicked herself as she said, "I mean, you must've been before. You may be the Doctor, but sometimes you're a bit clueless."
"Oi!"
"Well, you can be," she said, nudging him with her elbow, "But most of the time, your brilliant."
"Thank you, Andrea," he said. She smiled at him again, but he didn't smile back. He looked thoughtful.
"Andrea, might I ask something a bit personal?" he asked, softly.
"Um… sure?" she said, uncertainty clutching at her.
"Why are you in here this late?"
"Oh…" she said, relieved "I had a nightmare."
"What was it?"
"I… I was being chased."
"By what?"
"Um… Doctor, I'm sorry, but I don't really want to talk about it," she said, looking away from him. She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye.
"Okay. Well," he said standing up, "do you want something to eat? I can fix you something."
"Really?" she said, amused. "Can you really cook?"
"Yeah."
"I find that hard to believe," she said, getting to her feet anyway. He looked a bit offended.
"And why's that?"
"I don't know," she lied, "It just seems to me that the Doctor would have better things to do than learn how to cook." And because my dad doesn't know how to cook, she thought.
Twenty minutes later, however, Andrea and the Doctor sat in the mess hall with mugs of hot chocolate, smiling and chatting pleasantly. Pleasant until the topic took a dangerous turn to Andrea's family.
As soon as he mentioned it, the Doctor regretted his decision to pry. Andrea's eyes lost their spark, her shoulders slumped, and she hung her head just the slightest so that her brown hair could partially hide her face.
"Andrea…" he said softly.
"I… nineteen. I'm nineteen. I just started looking for an apartment a week ago. I was going to move out of Mom and Dad's house, the one they never thought they'd get the chance to share. But I was gonna go back for my little brothers' birthday. They're twins. They're turning ten in a week," she said. Her voice broke, but she didn't start crying.
She was actually angry with herself for being so weepy lately. This was not her. She never cried. Not in front of other people. And look at her now. Stuck in another dimension with the hero of her childhood stories and all she could do was cry!
"I'm sorry, Andrea. I shouldn't have asked," the Doctor said, averting his eyes. She looked up and shook her head firmly.
"No! I need to talk about them. I'm sorry for being so sensitive about it," she said. She looked him hard in the eye and he smiled, obviously relieved that she'd forgiven him for his lack of tact. She smiled back.
"How'd you meet Amy?" she asked. He laughed.
"I crash landed in her yard in the middle of the night," he said. Andrea giggled.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he did," said Amy's voice. She was dressed in a nightgown with a pink robe over it and white bunny slippers on her feet.
"What's the matter, Amy?" the Doctor asked, concerned. She shook her head with a yawn.
"I just heard you two talking and decided to come eavesdrop."
"Eavesdropping implies you don't want to be observed by the talkers," Andrea said with a smile. Amy shrugged.
"Then pretend I'm not here," she suggested. The Doctor laughed again and stood up to fix her a mug of liquid gold as well.