Notes: This short, lighthearted piece is for a tumblr buddy; just another morning aboard the TARDIS...
Jamie did enjoy living in the TARDIS, which he had gladly accepted as his new home the first time the Doctor took him from Culloden. With his memories restored and the Doctor having taken him from Culloden again, Jamie once again felt at ease with the TARDIS. However, one thing had stayed the same—trying to find the Doctor was, sometimes, nearly impossible.
It was one morning that Jamie was in search of the Time Lord, calling for him at the top of his lungs.
"Doctor! Och, are ye going to have breakfast or nae!? I need to know how many plates to set oot!"
Jamie was annoyed when he finally did find the Doctor in a room that was brightly lit with artificial sunlight. The walls and floor of this room were painted white, and there were white cushions all around the floor. The Doctor was sitting here with his frock coat and shirt off and his legs folded in a lotus pose as he stared ahead, unblinkingly.
"There ye are," Jamie said. "Ye di'n hear me? I thought I was shouting enough t' wake the dead!"
The Doctor didn't respond, and Jamie frowned.
"Can ye nae hear me?" he asked, walking over to the Time Lord, who didn't even so much as acknowledge the Scot's presence. In fact, the Doctor didn't even move.
Annoyance quickly turned to alarm for Jamie, who momentarily panicked.
"Doctor!? Doctor, are ye alright!?" he exclaimed.
He pressed an ear to both sides of the Doctor's bare chest, making sure that both of the Time Lord's hearts were beating. They were, and the Scot exhaled in relief, but it was short-lived.
Why wasn't the Doctor responding to him still, even as Jamie was staring right back at him?
"Are ye in a trance?" Jamie asked. "Bewitched? Aye, I've seen this happen before—witchcraft, it is! Witches can cast spells from anywhere! That old hag in the village that my father warned me aboot as a wee lad… She once had someone in a trance who was on the other side of the village. Don' ye worry, Doctor; they got that poor fellow free of the magick within hours; I can do the same for ye!"
He pulled a charm from his sporran.
"My father gave one of these to me and my brothers to protect us from witchcraft; that hag ne'er harmed any of us. Ye wear this, and ye'll be alright again."
He tied the charm around the Time Lord's neck and waited, hopefully. His smile faded as the Doctor still didn't snap out of the trance.
"It's nae witchcraft…" Jamie realized.
Remembering their last conversation about vampires, Jamie began to inspect the Doctor's neck. There were no signs of any vampires having attacked the Doctor, thankfully; it had to be something else.
"Who did this to ye…?" Jamie wondered, quietly.
His eyes fell on the serpent tattoo on the Doctor's arm—the mark of a criminal among the Time Lords. It was the first time he had gotten a good look at it.
"The Time Lords did this to ye, di'n they?" he asked, quietly, as he gently ran his fingertips over the tattooed skin. "They've put ye in a trance so ye'll obey them better? Och, I'll bet it was that Goth fellow; I'll have a word with him over the video link. I won' let him do this to ye!"
Full of purpose, Jamie got up, heading for the door of the room.
That was when something soft smacked him in the back of the head. Jamie whirled around, seeing one of the white pillows at his feet. Suspicious, his eyes turned back to the Doctor, who was still sitting in the same lotus pose.
Slowly, he approached the Doctor again. He noted that a spark seemed to be back in the Time Lord's eyes…
The Doctor's head suddenly turned, his eyes meeting the Scot's for an instant before Jamie found himself under attack by a barrage of pillows.
"What—!?" Jamie yelped, digging out from under the mound of pillows.
The Doctor now leaned against the pile of pillows with Jamie still half-buried in them; the Time Lord propped his chin in his hand so that he and Jamie were eye to eye.
"You didn't happen to notice the sign on the door that read, and I quote, 'Meditation Room,' by any chance?"
Jamie went red.
"I'll take that as a 'no,'" the Doctor said, calmly.
"So… ye were nae in a trance or bewitched… Ye were meditating?"
"Exactly."
"…Oh. Then why di'n ye answer me?"
"Because, Jamie, the point of meditation is to shut out all external stimuli."
"Eh?"
"You're not supposed to react to anything going on around you; it's a matter of self-discipline," the Doctor explained. He now removed the charm from around his neck. "And now, there's this."
Jamie's face burned redder.
"…You know what I've told you about these sorts of things, don't you?" the Doctor asked, still holding out the charm. "I think you've been very unfair towards that poor woman who lived in your village. What proof do you have that she was a witch?"
"My father said nae to go anywhere near her because she practiced witchcraft. And ye di'n disobey Papa."
"And yet, you traveled with me," the Doctor said. "I remember when you used to think I practiced some sort of witchcraft."
"Aye, well, ye saved my life…" Jamie admitted. "Then I just sort of…"
He trailed off, and the Doctor smiled.
"I've grown quite fond of you, too, Jamie," the Time Lord said. "Fifty years, I did as the Celestial Intervention Agency told me to do so that you could travel with me again."
Jamie's eyes fell on the serpent tattoo on the Doctor's arm again.
"Ye did that just for me," the Scot said, quietly. "Put up with all of that…"
"Don't talk as though you aren't selfless," the Doctor said, with a smile. He handed back the charm that Jamie had placed around his neck. "You thought there really was witchcraft about; without even a second thought, you gave that to me to protect me, leaving yourself vulnerable."
Jamie blinked.
"The thought di'n occur to me…"
"And even if it had, you probably still would have given the charm to me, wouldn't you?" the Doctor asked.
The Scot smiled now.
"Of course I would have."
"And for that thought, I am grateful," the Time Lord said, grabbing his shirt and frock coat with one hand while helping Jamie out of the mound of pillows with the other. "Now, then… I believe you were asking about breakfast when you barreled in here?"
"Oh, aye!"
The mishap forgotten, the duo headed for breakfast, starting another day, which was sure to be as eventful as all of their others.