Chapter 30 The One with the Sun
Let's go kiddos! Part two of 42! And Happy 200,000 words!
I own nothing recognisable x
"Impact in seventeen oh-five."
The Doctor was still for only a second, before he was already jumping into action. He turned Florence to face him and bent slightly to look her in the eyes.
"Florence, I will bring her back. I promise you." Florence nodded, her eyes already moving away from his to turn back towards the window where the pod was getting smaller and smaller. "Look at me." She looked into his deep brown eyes. "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid, but I will get her back."
Florence frowned.
"'Incredibly stupid'? What do you mean?" He squeezed her shoulders before letting go and pressing the comms link button.
"Scannell!" He called. "I need a spacesuit in area seventeen now!"
"What for?" The man asked.
"Just get down here!" Florence looked at him, slowly shaking her head as his words sunk in, watching him move from the comms.
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no… No!" She told him, hands on her hips as he fiddled with the exposed wiring of the panel.
"Yes, Florence." He responded, and she pursed her lips.
"No! Don't tell me you're seriously thinking of going out there!" He nodded.
"Okay." She could feel her shoulders relax. "I won't tell you."
She let out a growl of frustration, grabbing onto her hair with both hands, feeling sticky in the heat.
"You're going out there? I know you think you're indestructible or something but guess what, you're not!"
"I'm not suggesting that I'm indestructible, Florence." He told her, still looking at the wiring of the panel. "Hence the spacesuit." He muttered, causing Florence to point a finger at him.
"I heard that!" She scolded, and then hung her head, rubbing her face with her hands. "I just, I just want there to be another way!"
"Florence! There is no other way!" He turned to her, a wild look in his eyes, and Florence hated to admit that he was most likely right. "I brought you both here, I'm not letting her die!"
Before she could say anymore, Scannell arrived carrying a dark red spacesuit in his arms, looking rather reluctant to hand it over to the Doctor.
"Here, this should fit." Florence held the neck open as he slid his long legs into the suit, glaring up at him as she helped to pull it over his shoulders and fix it around his neck, snapping the clips in the back together while he reached for the front. Scannell sighed loudly as the two of them got the Doctor ready.
"What?" Florence snapped, her own nerves getting to the better of her. "Sorry…"
Scannell waved off her apology. "I just… can't let you do this."
"You're wasting your breath, Scannell." The Doctor told him, tightening his gloves. "You're not gonna stop me." Florence glared at the man whose suit she was sorting out, shoving the helmet into his hands when she had finished.
"He's right, Scannell. He's made up his mind."
"You want to open an airlock in flight on a ship spinning into the sun." Scannell continued regardless. "No one can survive that."
"Ohhh, just you watch." The Doctor told him, and Florence nodded in agreement.
"Trust me Scannell, he's surviving this." She looked him in the eye. "He fucking better."
Scannell just shook his head. "You open that airlock, it's suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you!"
"If I can boost the magnetic lock, it should remagnetise the pod." The Doctor told him. "Now, while I'm out there, you have got to get the rest of those doors open. We need those auxiliary engines! Take Florence with you." Florence shook her head vehemently.
"McDonnell can go with him, I'm staying right here." The Doctor opened his mouth but Florence held up a finger. "I'm staying."
"Doctor, will you listen!" Scannell almost begged the Time Lord. "They're too far away. It's too late."
"I'm not gonna lose her." The Doctor turned away from the other man, putting his helmet on. Florence looked at him, and before she even gave it a second thought she reached up and grabbed the sides of the red helmet, pulling him down to her just as she raised herself slightly on her tiptoes and placing a firm kiss to the glass. She pulled back and looked at him.
"For good luck. Be careful." He raised his glove hand and gently stroked her cheek before dropping it and heading towards the airlock. Scannell programmed the door to close behind him, and shook his head at the man,
"He's mental." Florence nodded, moving to stand in front of the porthole window to watch him.
"Yep." She replied simply to Scannell, before glancing over at him. "Go on, you've got sixteen more doors to open."
"Decompression initiated." Florence chewed on her bottom lip, taking a deep breath as she saw the Doctor get closer to the door.
"You ridiculous man." She muttered.
"Impact in twelve fifty-five." She watched him fuss around with the controls for a moment, she felt completely useless, unable to help him or even soothe his own worries. He wouldn't say it but he was so obvious with his fear, if you really looked at him. Sometimes he would get angry, he'd yell at people just trying to help, he'd start yelling at his enemies, just yelling yelling yelling. Other times, he would go quiet, he would start planning, he would move into action without considering herself, putting only his companions' lives first, forgetting about the impact it would have on his own. That was where Florence was left, in the wings, waiting for him to survive and come back to her. All because he was scared, but refused to admit it.
"Heat shield failing. At ten percent."
The airlock slid open, and Florence could see the Doctor struggling already as the pressure was released, he stuck one leg out of the ship, and Florence gasped when he lost his balance slightly. He sat up, reaching his right arm out to reach the outer controls that would remagnetise the pod. His head disappeared from view as he slid further and further out, gripping onto the inside of the ship with only one arm and one leg.
"Come on, come on, come on." She muttered, next to her, the comms beeped and she blindly reached to her right to open the link and heard Scannell speak.
"Doctor, how're you doing?"
"I can't… I can't reach!" Came the Doctor's voice. "I don't know how much longer I can last!" He sounded like he was straining, and Florence could see his fingers just about clinging onto the inside of the ship.
"Come on, Doctor! You can do it!" She cried out, her own fingers gripping the porthole window with all her might. She heard his groans and yells as he reached one more time to grab hold of the controls, and with a spark and a beep inside the ship, she knew he had done it.
She laughed in relief when she saw his body collapse back into the airlock, his figure shading her from the light of the sun below as he stared, Florence assumed he was watching the pod come back, Martha and Riley safely within.
"Doctor!" Came Scannells voice over the comms. "Close the airlock now!" Florence smacked her hand against the window, trying to get him to move away from the opening. He backed up suddenly, pressing his hand to the airlock controls and paving the way for the escape pod to return. Florence watched him remove his helmet, but frowned when she noticed something wasn't right. He was still kneeling, hunched over in what looked like pain as he removed his helmet, eyes tightly screwed shut. Florence abandoned her spot at the window, pressing the keypad of the panel next to her to try and get the door open, only for the Doctor to drag himself out when it did, he couldn't stand. Why couldn't he stand?
"Doctor!" Florence called, just as she reached down to him, but he tried to bat her away.
"No! Florence!" She heard the pod reattach behind them, and Martha called out to them as she approached.
"Doctor! Florence! Oh, my god, is he okay?" Martha helped her turn him around so he was facing them, when he did, his eyes opened for a split second, and the two women drew back in horror when a sliver of bright white light shone from them.
"Stay away from me!" Florence turned as she heard footsteps running towards them.
"What's happened?" McDonnell asked, and the Doctor dragged himself back away from her as he leaned against the doorframe.
"It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!" The four who were standing froze for a second at the accusation, before McDonnell turned to Riley.
"Riley, get down to Area Ten and help Scannell with the doors… Go!" She yelled when he hesitated, before legging it down the hallway in the direction she had seen Scannell head in not five minutes before. Florence turned back to the Doctor, who was sweating and panting as he tried to battle whatever was infecting him, just like Korwin had seemed in the med-bay.
"You mined that sun, scooped its surface for cheap fuel!" He continued, keeping his eyes screwed together. "You should have scanned for life!"
Florence gasped when she realised what was happening, the infection coursing through his body and causing him to writhe around in pain.
"I don't understand!" McDonnell argued, and Martha looked just as confused.
"Doctor, what are you talking about?"
"That sun is alive!" He groaned out, thrashing his head around. "A living organism! They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!"
McDonnell shook her head. "What do you mean? How can a sun be alive?" She turned to the other women. "Why is he saying that?"
Florence put her hands to her face, looking at the Doctor thrash around and moaning out in pain. "I think, I think because…"
"Because it's living in me!" The Doctor cried out, gritting his teeth.
"Oh, my god" McDonnell finally understood, gasping and holding her hands to her mouth.
"Humans!" The Time Lord cried out in disdain. "You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry!" He let out a short scream of pain. "You should have scanned!"
"It takes too long!" McDonnell admitted, looking horrified. "We'd be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal!" Suddenly her hesitance to answer their questions. he vague answer about updated next docking, it all made sense.
The Doctor yelled again in pain, reaching out an arm, which Florence grabbed and helped him sit up more.
"You've got to freeze me, quickly!" He told her, and Florence looked at Martha in panic.
"What?"
"Why?" Martha also asked, rushing to his other side and helping Florence despite her confusion.
"Stasis chamber!" He told them. "You've got to take it below minus two-hundred, freeze it out of me!" He was thrashing again, and Florence wiped his sweaty hair away from his forehead as he cried. "It'll use me to kill you if you don't! the closer we get to the sun, the stronger the link! Med-centre, quickly!" Florence and Martha started to lift the Time Lord, McDonnell froze in place.
"Come on, McDonnell!" Florence yelled at her. "Quickly!"
"Impact in seven thirty."
Martha let go of the Doctor and ran ahead, grabbing what seemed to be an instruction manual and flipping through the pages.
"I can do this, I can do it!" She whispered to herself, while Florence and McDonnell staggered under the Doctor's weight. As he fell slightly onto Florence, he let go of McDonnell voluntarily and reached an arm out to Martha.
"Martha! Where are you?" She turned at his question, running back and relieving McDonnell of the Time Lord, helping Florence to place him onto the bed of the stasis chamber.
"It's alright! I'm here!" The Doctor helped them slightly, using what little control he still had of his body to drag his way up into the machine. "Stasis chamber… minus two-hundred, yeah?" She asked Florence, who looked away from the Doctor for a second to nod.
"No!" McDonnell cried. "You don't know how this equipment works. You'll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!" Florence shook her head.
"He can! Martha, do it!"
Martha looked at McDonnell in all seriousness, "He's not human. If he says he can, he can."
"Let me help you then!" McDonnell told her, but Florence batted her hands away,
"You've done enough damage!" She and Martha turn the Doctor onto his back, Florence laying his head gently onto the headrest, stroking his wet hair off of his face.
"Ten seconds, that's all I'll be able to take." He told them. "No more… Florence!" He called out suddenly, and Florence gripped his hand tightly in her own.
"Yeah?" She looked at Martha nervously, who was still fiddling with the controls of the chamber.
"It's burning me up. I can't control it." He told her, taking deep breaths. "If you don't get rid of it, I could kill you. I could kill you all." He let out a gut wrenching scream. "I'm scared! I'm so scared!"
Florence shushed him, gripping onto his hand and stroking his face. "It's okay! It's okay, I'm here. I've got you!" The Doctor leaned into her hand slightly before shaking himself and growling in pain,
"You can't be here, what if I kill you?!"
She smiled at him, though he couldn't see it. "Shhh shh, I'm not leaving you. Do you remember what I told you?" She held his hands to her lips briefly. "When I jump, when the burning is coursing through me, I hear your voice? Remember? I hear all your lives, echoing in the darkness. But I don't just hear you, I listen out for you now, your voice… guiding me back to you." She looked at Martha and nodded at her to start the machine. "So I'm doing the same for you now. I'll be here." Martha used a joystick next to the controls to roll him fully into the chamber, Florence's hand leaving the Doctor's but falling down to settle on his ankles that stuck slightly out of the machine. Martha set the keypad to two hundred, pressing the green button and flinching as the Doctor immediately started to scream.
Suddenly, only moments after the process had begun, the machine beeped. The power cut and the chamber flickered off, the Doctor gasping as he felt himself already start heating up again.
"No! Martha, you can't stop it. Not yet!" Florence looked from Martha to McDonnell in confusion.
"What happened?" She asked them, and McDonnell looked at the readings on the comms,
"Power's been cut in Engineering!"
Martha frowned. "But who's down there?"
The captain stopped suddenly, and Florence thought about what Scannell said about Korwin's death, worrying they had misjudged the ease in which they could destroy the creature inhabiting their bodies.
"Leave it to me." She ran out of the room in search of Korwin.
"Impact in four forty-seven." The Doctor continued to scream out.
"Martha, what are we gonna do?" Florence asked, and the medical student looked at the machinery in panic.
"I dunno!" She started pressing buttons, the thermometer showing his temperature rising rapidly, Florence could feel the heat radiating from his suit. "I don't know what to do!"
The Doctor screamed again. "Martha! Florence!" He called out. "Listen! You've got to go!" Both women looked at him in shock.
"No way!" Martha told him, and Florence gripped his ankle tighter.
"We're not leaving you!"
"Get to the front!" He told them. "Vent the engines! Sun particles in the fuel, get rid of them?"
Florence frowned, not understanding. "What? I thought we needed the auxiliary engines to leave!" The Doctor gasped a few times and Florence could see the frost that had covered his suit had all melted away.
"You've got to give back what they took!" He told them, but Martha was focusing on the controls once more,
"No! We are not going!" Florence looked between the Doctor and Martha, she knew they had to listen to him.
"PLEASE!" He screamed, and Florence shut her eyes for a moment before releasing his ankle.
"Martha." She whispered. "We have to go." Martha opened her mouth to argue before looking at Florence, and nodded. Florence reached into the chamber slightly to lightly touch the Doctor's hand. "We'll come back for you."
"Impact in four oh-eight."
Florence reached out to Martha, grabbing her hand and pulling her from the Med-bay. They ran.
Leaping through the doorways that Scannell and Riley had opened to clear their path, Florence felt sweat dripping from every pore, gasping for breath as her lungs burned with the exertion. She briefly registered the intercom buzz once more, McDonnell's voice calling out to Riley and Scannell before there was nothing more than static.
"Impact in two seventeen. Primary engines critical." Martha overtook Florence, she felt her breath coming out fast and shaky.
"Repeat. Primary engines critical. Survival estimate projection zero percent."
"Florence!" She stopped in her tracks at the voice echoing across the comms, and ran to one of the panels by the next set of doors.
"Doctor? What are you doing?"
"I can't fight it. Give it back… or burn with me. Burn with ME!" Florence and Martha shared a panicked look before Martha nodded towards the direction they were running in.
"Come on, Florence!" She called, and Florence nodded, turning away from the panel and following Martha.
"Life support systems reaching critical." Florence could have cried as she saw the numbers finally get below ten. "Repeat. Life support systems reaching critical. Impact in one oh-six."
They reached door five.
Then door three.
"Collision alert. Collision alert." Martha barreled through the final door, gripping onto a handrail as her body almost swung into the auxiliary engine room.
"Why's it not working?" Florence heard Riley ask just as she followed behind Martha.
"Collision alert. Fifty-eight seconds to fatal impact."
"Vent the engines!" Martha told them both. "Dump the fuel!" The men looked confused, and didn't move to do as she was demanding.
"What?" Scannell asked.
"There are sun particles in the fuel!" Florence tried to explain, as quickly as she could. "So get rid of them!" She gave them a look at their hesitation. "Do it! NOW!"
The two men sprung into action, they twisted a whole row of knobs, hearing the hissing of the valves as the engines opened up below them. Martha grabbed onto Florence's hand tightly as they watched.
"Come on, Doctor." Her friend muttered. "Hold on."
"Fuel dump in progress. Fuel dump in progress." There was suddenly a thud and the ship jolted, Florence and Martha both gripping onto each other in one hand and the railing in the other. There was a second delay before the foursome felt the ship start up again.
"It worked!" Scannell yelled triumphantly. "The auxiliaries are firing!"
They all fell to the floor of the ship as it lurched, Florence held her hand up to grab onto something to stabilise herself, closing her eyes in fear.
"Impact averted." She opened her eyes in relief, letting out a laugh in disbelief. "Impact averted."
"We're clear!" Riley called, Florence looked over at him to see him ready to stand, looking at the systems reports. "We've got just enough reserves!" Riley and Scannell stood, shakily moving to hug each other while Florence crawled towards Martha, wrapping her arm around her friend and leaning her head against her shoulder with a sigh of relief.
There was a moment of silence as the four caught their breath, before Martha and Florence both sat up straight suddenly, looking at each other.
"Doctor!" They cried in unison, and Florence scrambled to her feet before Riley or Scannell could even look her way. She stumbled out of the room, heading back the way she had run only moments before.
It wasn't until she was running through area eighteen that she could see through the open doors in front of her the orange spacesuit of the Doctor slowly standing. She quickened her pace, her thighs burning as her feet slapped against the floor, hopping through the last door, she caught the Doctor's eye and his face lit up. He extended his arms out in front of him and she fell into them with a laugh. She wrapped her arms around his neck, gripping his damp hair in her hands as she pressed her cheek against his, his laughter flooding through her ears.
"Thank God!" She breathed, as he lifted her from the ground, holding her tighter against him. She pulled away after a moment and looked him in the eye, holding his face in both hands and pushing the hair from his face. "Hello."
He swung her lightly side to side before dropping her back to the floor.
"Hello." He smiled toothily down at her, before his eyes drifted up and behind her. "Martha Jones!" Florence stepped aside and watched as he embraced his friend, hugging her warmly and laughing madly with the young woman.
"That was a close call!" She told him.
Florence barrelled into the two of them, feeling lucky to have them both still with her, despite the sweat and grime that covered their bodies.
A wave of calm flowed over her when she saw the deep blue of the TARDIS in front of her eyes, standing strong and - most importantly - still intact after their near brush with a sun. She skipped ahead of Martha and the Doctor to greet the ship, pressing her hand gently against the wood, oblivious to the fond smile the Doctor was giving her.
"Oh, hello, old girl." The Doctor followed her lead and placed his hand on the wood, before running it all along the outside of the ship, coming to a stop next to her and Martha.
Scannell scoffed and stood in front of the box with Riley in amazement. "That is never your ship." He muttered in shock, watching the three strangers look upon it so affectionately.
"Compact, eh?" The Doctor retorted. "And another good word, robust. Barely a scorch mark on her." The Doctor turned to the women proudly, but Martha looked between the Doctor and the remaining survivors of the crew.
"We can't just leave you drifting with no fuel." She pointed out, but Riley just folded his arms and shrugged.
"We've sent out an official mayday." He reassured her. "The authorities'll pick us up soon enough."
"Though how we'll explain what happened…" Scannell wondered, and the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door before turning to give them one last piece of advice.
"Just tell them that sun needs care and protection just like any other living thing." He nodded at them before waltzing back into his ship, Florence gave them a small wave.
"See you later, boys." She smiled brightly before following the Doctor, skipping up the metal grating and joining him at the TARDIS console.
He walked around the central column, plugging in coordinates and flipping switches here and there, Florence watched him with a soft smile. She saw his eyes flicker up to meet hers every few seconds before falling back to his hands, and she frowned.
"What?" He shook his head, ignoring her question. "Come on… what?" She followed him around the console, before pulling his arm away from his fiddling in annoyance. "Alright, what you being weird for?"
He looked down at her intently. "Earlier, you said something…"
"I say a lot of things, usually too much." Florence countered, raising a challenging eyebrow at his evasiveness.
"You said, in the darkness, about my voice..."
Florence let go of his arm, wrapping her own around herself, suddenly feeling mildly embarrassed. "Ah… you remember that?"
"I do."
"Okay."
"So?"
"So what?"
"Florence…"
She groaned.
"Fine, okay! When I jump, I use your voice to calm me down! Is that what you wanted me to say? In my most painful moments I hear your voice and it reminds me what I'm experiencing this for! Okay?!" He looked slightly stunned at her confession. "I mean, it makes me feel better… like, it comforts me… knowing that as painful as it can be, I'll open my eyes and you'll be there to help me through this." A grin suddenly wormed its way onto his face. "Shut up!" She couldn't help the smile that stretched across her own. "Stop!"
Before he could say anything that might have embarrassed her, Martha strutted into the TARDIS, a smug look on her face.
"So!" She began, and Florence and the Doctor turned away from each other quickly. "Didn't really need you in the end, did we?" The Doctor raised his eyebrow at her and Florence laughed.
"Never! Martha Jones, we continue to amaze him, I think he struggles to admit it." Martha giggled with her, before sobering up and looking at the Doctor intently.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" The Doctor waved her off.
"None of that! What do you say?" He bounced away from the concerned women, heading back to his controls. "Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Kur-Ha… fancy it?"
Martha looked mildly put out by the Doctor's dismissal, and Florence couldn't blame her, she was only trying to be a good friend.
"Whatever you like." She shrugged, which the Doctor noticed, and he smiled softly as he approached her once more, pulling something out of his pocket and dangling it in front of her on a long chain. A TARDIS key.
"By the way, you'll be needing this." Martha looked up at him in astonishment.
"Really?" She asked, and he nodded, placing it gently in her outstretched hands.
"Frequent flyers privilege…" He paused, before looking at her seriously. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it." She breathed, staring at the plain silver key in awe, before stopping and looking at Florence in panic. "Oh no! My mum!" She turned away from the two of them, pulling her phone out of her trouser pocket and calling her quickly.
The Doctor and Florence shared an amused look with each other, before Florence sidled up to his side and held out an expectant hand.
"And mine?" He looked down at her with a smirk,
"Sorry?"
"I'm a frequent flyer." She told him plainly. "Where's my key?"
He let out a loud laugh, but both looked caught out when Martha turned back to them and waved a hand at them to quieten down, placing fingers to their lips.
"Florence." The Doctor murmured to her, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I gave you a key a long time ago, be patient."
Florence rolled her eyes. She would be having words with both the earlier version of this incarnation and her leather jacket wearing Doctor to find out where her phone and key were, or she would simply take his one when he wasn't looking.
For now, she merely pouted. "Fine… but I get next trip pick!"
"You don't want to go ice-skating?" Florence shook her head vehemently,
"God no, last time I went ice-skating I was fourteen and was terrified of my fingers getting chopped off if I fell at any point…" He gave her a curious look, and she beamed up at him. "No. I want to go somewhere amazing… Like a market or that fair! The one on the asteroid! Can't we do that?"
"I can find us a fair." The Doctor smiled softly at her. "I'll find us a fair."
Florence grabbed onto the lapels of his jacket and gave him an excitable shake, she overheard Martha saying her goodbyes, turning to her friend with a clap and a laugh, ready for the next adventure. Once she had changed from her sweaty clothes.
Florence laughed as the Doctor handed her and Martha a stick of what seemed to be candy floss. "We have these back at home!" The Doctor shook his head, handing the seller a silver stick - so called credits that were the universal currency according to the Doctor - and grabbing one for himself.
"Oh no no, Florence. These aren't just candy floss, the Ukatchi have found a way to create multipurpose flavourings. That right there is a three course meal on a stick!" Florence and Martha laughed at him, and he baulked in confusion. "What?"
Florence quietened down and smiled up at him. "Come on, Doctor."
"What?" He looked rather put out.
"That's from Charlie and the Chocolate factory!" Martha told him.
The Doctor shook his head, and Florence nodded vehemently at him. "Yes, it is!"
"You two! I bring you to a different galaxy, an intergalactic fair on an asteroid, and you're comparing it to a children's book!" He moaned, and Florence tugged on his sleeve with her free hand,
"Oh, Doctor! Don't be like that!" Martha muffled her laughter with her hand. "Maybe Roald Dahl was an alien! Maybe he was Ukatchi!"
The Doctor humphed slightly, "No, I already checked that…"
Martha pointed an accusatory finger at him. "Ha! So you also realised it was from Charlie and the Chocolate factory!"
The Doctor raised his eyebrow at Martha. "I was more worried about his knowledge of the BFG…" He smirked at their stunned faces before popping a bit of the candy floss into his mouth with a smug grin. "Ooh! Bruschetta!"
One moment she had been laughing and swinging around the large Graske stuffed toy that the Doctor had won for her at the ring toss. The next, she had been forced to dump her new comfort in the console room and marched out of the TARDIS with hardly a second to acclimate to her new surroundings. The moment they had stepped out of the TARDIS, the doors flew close with a slam and Florence was suddenly glaring at the Doctor's back from where he stood in front of her, in the middle of the Powell Estate, with the distinct lack of TARDIS in the empty spot in front of him. He ran his hand through his hair, before using both hands to pull at it, groaning in frustration.
"Now what?" Florence asked, crossing her arms in frustration.
She received another groan in response.
"Oh yeah, agreed, you are an absolute twat!" The Doctor spun on his heel, hands on his hips and a bright grin on his face, as if he hadn't just tried to rip his own hair out.
"Come on now, Florence! Chin up!" Florence raised her eyebrows at him,
"So… what's the plan?" The Doctor wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned her on the spot, walking her towards the block of flats that had been their original destination in the first place.
"The plan is… we go and have a cuppa with Rose's mum, Jackie." He responded, and she looked up at him, the sunset glowing orange against his face.
"And then?"
"And then we wait." Florence laughed slightly,
"So we're stuck here? For how long?" The Doctor shrugged, holding the door to the stairs open for her,
"Couple of days…a week max!"
A week? Florence could do a week, she stopped suddenly on the steps, looking up at him with a curious look.
"Hang on, when are we? You said 2007 to Rose… Can I pop back to my flat or are we too early?" The Doctor frowned,
"Oh, um…" He looked around, before running his finger along the metal of the railing and popping it in his mouth, causing Florence to reel back in disgust. "Hmm, definitely 2007… at least there's that." He looked at the sun setting out the window and sniffed the air. "It's definitely a Thursday. Oh, I hate Thursdays!"
"I'm sorry, that was absolutely vile!" The Doctor threw his head back in laughter, bounding up the stairs, and leaving Florence to trail behind him. "No, seriously, stop licking things!"
The Doctor pulled her out of the stairwell and along the hallway that led to, what Florence assumed, Jackie's flat. He raised his fist to knock before hesitating, and Florence looked up at him, wrapping her arms around her body as a breeze rippled past them.
"Come on, what's up?" She asked, and he held a finger up as he listened to something from inside the flat.
"Just park yourself there, Alan, and I'll grab the vienetta! Then, we'll see what happens…" She heard Jackie saying, followed by some coquettish giggling that made Florence cover her mouth lest she heard them outside her door. The Doctor smiled, and pulled her away from number 47.
"Never mind Jackie, let's see if Mickey-boy is in." Florence nodded,
"Good old Mickey Smith."
The Doctor seemed to know where they were heading, and Florence let herself be dragged past a number of doors and up another flight of stairs. He gave the door a quick knock, but barely gave whoever may have been inside a second to get up from the sofa before he had whipped his screwdriver out and had glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone, other than Florence, was looking. Unlocking the door, he pushed through and motioned for Florence to follow, which she did so with slight hesitation.
"Doctor, come on, if he's not in we can't just break in!" The Doctor smiled, waving his screwdriver at her,
"Aha, but we didn't break anything!" Florence rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her, looking around the messy flat. She couldn't quite believe that she had practically invaded two different companions of this Doctor's homes twice in the last week, first Martha's, and now poor Mickey's.
"Fine, I guess we can wait until he comes home…" The Doctor sighed in content, throwing his overcoat and suit jacket onto the sofa in victory, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt and settling himself into the armchair in the corner, feet up on the coffee table. The stillness lasted all of five seconds before he was up again and pacing around the room, Florence easily recognising the Time-Lords inability to relax and do absolutely nothing for longer than that amount of time. She sighed and watched him pace, before standing up herself and heading towards the kitchen to put the kettle on. She fussed around, trying to find the teabags, and called out to the Doctor over her shoulder,
"Why don't you, I don't know, watch TV? Have a shower? Do you take showers?" She suddenly wondered, pouring water into the mug in front of her. "Or do you smell like that naturally? Oh my god, do you smell like that naturally?" Hearing nothing in response, she left her tea to brew and poked her head into the living room, seeing it empty. She sighed and walked over to his coats, hanging them on the back of the door rather than over the back of the sofa, and looked down the hallway, lights spilling out of the two other rooms in the flat. She knocked lightly and peaked into the bathroom, empty besides the sonic screwdriver, which had suddenly taken up a spot in Mickey's toothbrush holder, before flicking the switch and turning to make her way into the bedroom, where the Doctor was already fiddling with the wiring in Mickey's computer.
"Really?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe. "Does this now count as breaking and entering?" She shut the door behind her as she sat on the edge of Mickey's bed. "What are you doing?" The Doctor pulled something from his trouser pocket and fitted it into the computer before logging on and looking at the screen.
"I've done Mickey a favour! Now he doesn't need to hack into anything, everything's already been hacked…" He defended his actions with a smug smile, turning back to the screen. "Plus I wanted to have a look at UNIT's archives, see if there's anything afoot…" He murmured, fingers flying across the keyboard as he typed.
"Afoot? Okay, Sherlock… find anything?" He hummed, lingering on some data before dismissing it and moving onto the next.
"Nothing yet… few odd bits here and there, nothing exciting…" Florence suddenly heard the front door open, and glared at the Doctor.
"Oh my god!" She whisper-shouted. "That's Mickey and we're snooping around his bedroom!" The Doctor waved her concerns away and she pointed an accusatory finger at him. "This is your fault! Go and apologise before he finds us in here!" The Doctor pulled a face at that.
"Can't you?" He whined. "He likes you more!" Florence put a finger to her lips, hearing footsteps coming down the hall, but relaxed when she heard them enter the bathroom.
"Go! Now!" She ordered, and the Time-Lord huffed as he stood, ready to go and greet their host.
It only took forty seconds of leaving the Doctor unaccompanied before there was a terrified scream from the bathroom, followed by a crash and the sound of the Doctor's cheery voice.
"'Ello, Mickey!"
Florence sighed and decided to join the men before Mickey ended up ruining all chances of ever travelling with the Doctor. She cracked the bathroom door open and waved sheepishly at the flat's owner, who was currently being looked over by the Doctor with the sonic screwdriver, cringing slightly as he aimed the device at his mouth.
"What is going on?" She asked, and Mickey groaned slightly while the Doctor waved her off,
"Just a misunderstanding! Mickey thought my sonic was a toothbrush, not the first time that's happened!"
"I'm sorry, what?" The Doctor merely continued to grin at Mickey.
"Anyway… so the TARDIS starts to dematerialise with Rose still in it!" He continued. "I forgot to lock the time settings, completely Florence's fault, she was distracting me."
"No I bloody wasn't!"
"There she goes, distracting me again… Where was I? Oh yes! Don't worry about Rose, she'll turn up in a few days and it'll have just been a couple seconds for her!" Florence sighed and folded her arms from her position leaning against the doorframe.
"I'm sorry, Mickey. You know what he's like, we were going to go to Jackie's but she had… company." Mickey nodded,
"Yeah, it's a Thursday." He told her. "Thursday night's date night."
Florence nodded. "Right, well, you want a cuppa?"
"You don't mind us staying here for a bit, do ya Mickey Boy?" The Doctor also asked, getting straight to the point.
"Oh no," he replied, sarcastically, "walk right in…" His sarcasm was lost on the Doctor, who was already standing and bounding out of the room.
Florence stretched a hand out to Mickey and helped him up from his seat on the edge of the bath. "Sorry about him, sometimes I do think he is completely oblivious to social cues." Mickey smiled at her, before frowning slightly.
"This is a one bed…" He muttered to himself, heading for the bathroom door. "Hang on!" Mickey called after him. "Where are you both gonna sleep?"
"Don't like sleeping!" The Doctor replied. "Not when there's something to do, and there's always something to do! I'm gonna make you the best omelette of your life!"
Florence scurried after the two men, hoping to grab her cup of tea before the Doctor inevitably destroyed Mickey's kitchen. It was going to be a long week…
I hope you enjoyed the little interlude at the end, I felt like the chapter was cut a bit short after the events of 42 and just wanted a little kicker! The last last bit is actually from a comic strip The Lodger - and yes was the basis of the episode in S5!
Also, don't think I simply stole that bit with Florence kissing the helmet... what was stolen will be returned don't you worry ; )
I've got quite a few exciting chapters planned, since we're heading towards the last ten of this story… more is going to be revealed…. ominous
I hoped you enjoyed the lil Doctor/Florence moments!
See you for chapter 31!