A/N: So so sorry for the lateness in this update! If you're interested in the reasons, read the AN at the bottom :)
IMPORTANT: Think I made a mistake earlier: this story is set after ''Journey's End'' (2008). It's non-canon after that. Donna has gone, and Rose stayed with Ten, and 10Duplicate...well, we'll see what happened to him later :)
Lucie didn't think she'd ever found herself in a more bizarre situation. Well there was that time she'd bumped into Michael McIntyre in the music store when she was in Leeds that one time, which was pretty surreal, but this, this right here really took the biscuit. Quite literally it seemed - she sat in a chair beside the incredible pulsating console, mug of tea in one hand, and a shortbread biscuit in the other.
"Sorry about the shortbread; it's literally all we've got." Rose apologised. "I think a certain person makes sure the TARDIS only supplies one type of biscuit. There are times I would fancy a ginger snap, but oh no, a certain person has something against everything ginger-"
The Doctor looked a little offended. "Hey I do not have anything against ginger! I love ginger! I've just not been ginger yet..." he trailed off with a frown.
Rose rolled her eyes. "You need to get over the ginger thing already, Doctor. I told you, the brown suits you." She shot Lucie an exasperated glance. "He gets so upset about the fact that he's not ginger."
Lucie didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but nodded along anyway.
"Er, look, don't beat yourself up about it, the shortbread's fine..." she said hesitantly to the Doctor, unsure if, under the circumstances she was saying the right thing. She took a bite of the biscuit as if to prove her point. "Mmm!" she said emphatically, and Rose giggled.
"All that just went over your head, didn't it." It wasn't really a question with the matter-of-fact way she said it.
"Completely." Lucie admitted. "Was it that obvious?"
"Only a little," Rose grinned. "But don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
The Doctor looked from one girl to the other and decided that he needed to intrude on this apparent girl-bonding thing. "So, Lucie," he began, "tell me; where are you from?"
"London." she replied. "Well, that's where I live now. I was born in Italy, but I came over here when I was about three years old, and I've lived here ever since."
Rose smiled. "London, eh? My old stomping ground. Whereabouts do you live then?"
"On the South Bank. Next door to the Globe Theatre...do you know it?"
"The Globe? Shakespeare's Globe?" the Doctor exclaimed. "Oh, I love the Globe!" His face dropped. "Well, when there aren't witches..."
"Like in Macbeth, you mean?" Lucie asked curiously, confused by his statement.
The Doctor looked her in the eye, dead serious now. "No, real witches. Well, I say witches, but the more technical term is Carrionites. They're not there now, of course, they were feeding off of Will's great, great mind, but -"
"-Will? William Shakespeare?" Lucie asked incredulously.
"Well, of course, what other great Will's have you heard of? I mean, Prince William's all right, but still, he's not Shakespeare -"
"-You met William Shakespeare?" Lucie interjected again.
"Didn't we just establish this?" the Doctor said, though not unkindly. "Yes, William Shakespeare. Now-"
"-But how?" Lucie persisted. "How did you- oh, of course." she said to herself, and the Doctor watched her with a friendly raised eyebrow and a small smile as the penny dropped. "Time Machine. Right."
"Yep!" the Doctor exclaimed, popping the 'p' loudly.
"Anyway..." Rose butted in, arching an eyebrow at the Doctor, as if to say 'shut up now'. The Doctor just looked at her blankly, and Rose rolled her eyes once again.
"Anyway, talking of home, I really should be going," Lucie said, looking around for somewhere to place her mug. "It's been a long day, with a very surreal ending, and I've got an early start in the morning..." she stopped suddenly as a thought came to her. "Wait, you never did say what you were doing in the museum."
The Doctor scratched the back of his head. "Well, umm...we don't really know ourselves yet, actually."
"How can you not know? You came here!"
"See, the thing is...we - well, I - picked up an interesting signal, coming from here, so I latched on to it with the TARDIS, and I was going to go outside and take a look at what it was, when madam here-" he jerked a thumb at Rose, who rolled her eyes. "-decided to molest me with a water pistol! And naturally, madness ensued, and I stuck the cloaking device on, so we wouldn't be noticed..."
"Which, you know, clearly didn't work..." Rose muttered, a grin flitting across her face at the Doctor's incompetence.
The Doctor glared at her. "Er, I'll have you know that the cloaking device is STILL active!"
"So you say..." Rose responded sardonically.
"It is!" The Doctor was clearly offended at the slight to his ability to operate the TARDIS.
Lucie had to ask: "What's the cloaking device supposed to do, exactly?"
The Doctor scratched the back of his neck, now looking a little sheepish. "Um, well...ahem...it's supposed to make the TARDIS invisible and undetectable..."
Rose stifled a giggle. "Well, it definitely works!" she said, sarcastic dripping off the words.
"No, no no no! It works! It's- it's Lucie's fault!" The Doctor exclaimed.
Lucie looked a little alarmed. What did I do?" she said. "I was just walking past the cupboard, and I heard a noise, so i had a look, and there was the...tad-ris?" she said the unfamiliar word hesitantly, and the Doctor corrected her.
"TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space." he explained.
"Oh, okay. TARDIS. Right. Anyway, there it was."
"Really undetectable and invisible, Doctor..." Rose said under her breath, clearly still rather amused.
"Oi! That is enough criticism from you, Miss Tyler!" the Doctor said loudly, though with no real anger. He turned back to Lucie. "And then what happened?" he asked intently.
Lucie cast her mind back. "Well, I touched the lock and the TARDIS, like, hummed, and the door opened."
The Doctor and Rose shared a look, confusion evident on both their faces, and even a little bit of...was it worry?
"The door just opened? Just like that?" Rose asked. Lucie nodded her head, not entirely sure what the significance was.
The Doctor frowned and pulled out a shiny silver tool from his pocket and pressed a button. The blue tip glowed and a high-pitched buzzing emanated from it as he pointed it at Lucie, slowly casting it up and down her body. Rose looked on in silence, and Lucie looked at the Doctor, suddenly very nervous.
"What- what're you doing?" she asked tentatively.
The Doctor put his instrument away in hos pocket and looked curiously at her. "Human." he said. "You're just a human."
Lucie looked perplexed. "Yes," she said slowly. "I'm a human. Aren't we all?"
Rose shook her head. "He's not," she said, indicating the Doctor.
Lucie felt her jaw drop slightly. "Oh."
Rose smiled sympathetically. "Didn't the time machine give it away?"
"Hm. I guess it did, I just didn't really think about it." she replied. "Wait," she said suddenly, looking at Rose. "So are you a human?"
"Yes, I was born and bred on Earth, and would still be there if he hadn't come along and blown up my job...quite literally. I'm just as human as you are."
Here the Doctor broke from his own thoughts and interrupted. "Which brings me back to you, Lucie. Human. Nothing different or special about you..."
"Gee, thanks..." Lucie murmured as Rose glared at the Doctor, who didn't even notice.
"-so how did you get into the TARDIS without a key?" he continued, exasperated that he didn't know the answer to his own question.
"I don't know!" Lucie insisted. "I just touched it and it opened! I didn't know that wasn't supposed to happen!" She stood up and placed her mug on the seat she had just vacated. "Look, I've clearly upset you by coming in here-"
"No, we're just confused Lucie! It's just-" Rose cut in.
"-So I'm just gonna leave now, and go home, and forget about all of this, and sleep. So if you'll excuse me-" She headed towards the door, and pulled on the handle. It didn't budge. She tried pushing, and nothing happened. She turned to the Doctor and Rose. "Do I need a key to get out, as well?" she asked, wearily. She just wanted to leave now. Originally she'd been excited to see the time machine and the two extraordinary travellers, but now she got the feeling that she wasn't wanted.
Both Rose and the Doctor shook their heads.
"You should be able to just pull it..." Rose said in confusion before turning to the Doctor. "Is it the cloaking device?"
"No..." the Doctor said slowly. "It doesn't stop people from leaving..." he walked slowly round the console, contemplating what could be the problem, tapping his lips with two fingers. He pressed a few buttons and pulled a lever. "Try it now?" he called to Lucie.
She tugged at the door again, to no avail.
Rose went to join the Doctor at the console, while Lucie slumped against the door with a sigh. She could see the quiet conversation going on between the two friends, but she couldn't catch what they were saying, nor did she particularly care now. She just wanted her bed.
Suddenly the Doctor shouted, "Aha! Got it!" And started pressing buttons and pumping levers like there was no tomorrow. Then just before he flipped the huge handle, he stopped. "What year was it outside, Lucie?"
She frowned at him from the bottom of the ramp. "Why?"
"I'm going to give you a lift home!" he beamed. "Maybe it's the museum that's inhibiting the door movement."
She looked at him wearily, but at the same time was a little amused by his energy, and perked up at the prospect of getting home. "It's 2009. July," she said, picking herself up and approaching the console warily, remembering what happened the last time she touched it.
"2009...then it's been a year since..." Rose said quietly, trailing off her sentence before it ended. The Doctor nodded solemnly, in response to her unfinished statement. Lucie just looked on in mild confusion, before the TARDIS' humming became a grating hiss of huge proportions. The centre column pumped up and down and there was a jerk which would have thrown Lucie to the floor if she hadn't grabbed a hold of a handle at the base of the console right at the last minute.
Rose caught Lucie's startled expression. "It's okay, Lucie, it's always like thi-is! Whoa!" she yelped as the TARDIS jerked again.
Suddenly the machine let out an almighty screech and they were all thrown the other way. The Doctor was staggering around the controls, desperately flicking switches. "What are you doing?" he yelled at the console. "I WANT to go that way! Why do you keep CHANGING it?"
"Doctor? Why is it making that noise?" Rose shouted over the cacophany.
"Okay, brace yourselves, I have to make an emergency landing!" The Doctor roared, and it was a miracle anyone heard him over the ear-splitting racket.
There was a final almighty jolt, the TARDIS wheezed, and then there was silence, as all three of them fell to the ground. No one said anything for a minute or so, the only sound was heavy breathing.
Then the Doctor got to his feet and grabbed the scanner, apparently reading the swirly shapes which were appearing. "Oh, you old girl, what was all that about, mm?" he crooned to the console.
Lucie looked at Rose, bewildered. The blonde girl shot the brunette a reassuring grin. "Don't worry, he gets like that...he's very overprotective of the TARDIS!"
"Yes, yes I am!" The Doctor called out from beside the console. "And this old girl just had a very traumatic experience...I don't know what happened but for some reason I wasn't allowed to land on Earth in 2009...or any time after for that matter...and every time I tried, it was like we were wrenched away or something..." the Doctor frowned. "That's never happened before."
Lucie had understood enough to deduce one thing. "I can't go home, can I?" she asked dejectedly.
The Doctor came over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, I really am, but no, you can't, not yet, anyway..." Suddenly he removed his hand as if he'd been shocked, and frowned at Lucie as if she'd had something to do with it. Then he decided that it didn't matter, and walked away to the console again. "Anyway, since we have landed, why don't we see where-and when- we are?"
A/N: So here's another installment of the memories, which the Master is currently extracting from her brain, hope you liked.
Sorry it's been so long: Writer's Block, other stories, illness, revision, A Levels...it's all been going down recently. And I think updates on this will be very slow, until September at the very least, when I'll finally have a bit more time to get on a computer. A lot of this story is written down, but not on a computer, so typing time must also be considered. Thanks for all your reviews and patience :)
Until next time!
xx