The Girl in the Fireplace, Part One
Clara admired the interior of the TARDIS. It was so different from the TARDIS she knew. It was warmer. Happier. For a moment, she wondered if the TARDIS hated her for something she did to this one, rather than just hating her like she had always assumed.
Rose and Mickey had been introduced to Clara. Mickey seemed perfectly friendly. Rose, on the other hand, seemed a little annoyed. She wasn't mean, but she wasn't exactly welcoming.
"Now! Mickey, Clara," the Doctor looked excited. "Where shall we go first?"
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"It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go." Mickey shouted as they filed out of the TARDIS. Clara admired the spaceship, glancing out the window. She saw the familiar, yet still beautiful view of deep space. All of them accidentally kicked bits of equipment that was just lying around.
"It looks kind of abandoned." Clara commented, purposefully kicking a piece of pipe.
"Anyone on board?" Rose called down a hallway. The Doctor shook his head, having a look around himself.
"Nah, nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous." He paused for a moment, winking at Clara. "Well, not that dangerous. You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous." He pulled out his screwdriver and began scanning. Clara was surprised to see that the screwdriver was completely different than the one her Doctor used. It was sleeker, silver, and had a round, blue top.
"So, what's the date?" Rose asked, glancing unhappily between Clara and the Doctor. "How far we gone?" The Doctor tore his eyes from Clara's and checked his screwdriver.
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take." He slipped the screwdriver back into his coat pocket. He felt around for a light switch and flicked it, causing a skylight to appear in the roof. "Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster; you're a long way from home, Mickey, Clara. Two and a half galaxies."
"Wow..." Clara whispered. She glanced at the Doctor and couldn't help but think about how different he was from the Doctor she knew. She couldn't even describe it, he was just different. How he treated her, how he explained everything. His excitement for traveling was different, even!
"It's so realistic!" Mickey exclaimed, face glued to the window.
"It is real." Clara reminded him, picking up a broken pocket watch. She thought it looked neat, so she slipped it into her small purse. The Doctor, meanwhile, had been scouring the area more thoroughly.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here." He commented. "Got a ton of repair work going on. Now that's odd. Look at that." He pointed at an engine. Rose, Mickey, and Clara crowded around him for a peek.
"All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving." He explained. He scrunched his eyebrows. "So where's all that power going?"
"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose wondered, looking around.
"Yea," Clara was thinking hard. "The ship is running, but no one's running it."
"Great observation, Rose!" The Doctor said. "No life readings on board. No one to run the ship."
"So how's it running?" Mickey asked.
"Well, we're in deep space. They didn't just nip out for a quick fag." Rose said. The Doctor shook his head.
"No, I've checked all the smoking pods." He paused and sniffed. "Can you smell that?"
"Yea, someone's cooking." Rose replied after sniffing. Clara inhaled deeply.
"Barbeque?" She asked. "On a spaceship?" Mickey sniffed a few times.
"No." He sniffed again. "Sunday roast. Definitely." The Doctor pressed a button on the wall and opened a door.
"This way?" He, jokingly, offered Clara his arm. Clara, used to linking arms with her Doctor, slipped her arm into his easily.
The far end of the wide room had a gorgeous, ornate fireplace. Vaguely, Clara remembered this fireplace. But, since her time in the Doctor's time stream, the things her echoes did had faded from her memory. She really only remembered faces at this point.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship." The two approached the fireplace, Rose and Mickey behind. "Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there." Rose looked out of a porthole that was on the same wall as the fireplace.
"There can't be. That's the outer hull of the ship. Look." She pointed out the window. Clara nodded.
Clara, meanwhile, had followed the Doctor's example of trying to peer through the fireplace into the other room. A pretty, seven year old girl appeared in front of them.
"Hello." Clara said gently.
"Hello." The girl replied, looking slightly afraid of them.
"What's your name?" The Doctor asked kindly.
"Reinette." She answered shortly. The Doctor grinned
"What a beautiful name." Clara told her, smiling. Reinette smiled shyly back at her. Clara had always had a way with children.
"She's right, Reinette, that's a lovely name." He paused for a moment, scratching behind his ear as he thought. "Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?" Reinette giggled, as if this were an absurd question.
"In my bedroom." She answered. The Doctor and Clara shared a look.
"And where's your bedroom?" He asked.
"Where do you live, Reinette?" Clara reiterated for the young girl.
"Paris, of course." Both the Doctor and Clara began nodding, as if that were obvious.
"Paris, right!" He exclaimed. Reinette was quiet a moment.
"Monsieur, Madame, what are you doing in my fireplace?" She asked awkwardly, almost as if she didn't want to bring it up. The Doctor shrugged, standing up a bit to act like he was inspecting the fireplace.
"Oh, it's just a routine fire check." He said, knocking on the wood a few times. Clara followed his example- having done so many times with her Doctor- and inspected the tile on the ground. "Can you tell me what year it is?" The Doctor was trying to be casual, but not doing a very good job. Well, that hasn't changed. Clara thought.
"Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven." Reinette was very matter of fact with her answer, pleased she was correct. The Doctor nodded.
"Right, lovely." He said thoughtfully. "One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors." Clara nudged him.
"I don't think you're supposed to tell people the future, are you?" She asked, acting as if this really was her first time traveling adventure.
"Right. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night." The Doctor stood and moved away from the fireplace, taking Clara with him.
"Goodnight Monsieur. Good night, Madame." Clara stopped for a second.
"I don't know much French, but shouldn't she be calling me 'Mademoiselle'?" She asked, half pointing as the now empty fireplace. The Doctor shrugged.
"She thinks we're married." He replied lightly. Clara noticed that he wasn't looking at Rose when he said that, and wondered if that was on purpose. Rose did not look happy at that answer.
"Wait a minute. You said this was the fifty first century." Mickey reminded the Doctor.
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole." He looked at it closely once more, slipping a pair of glasses on. Clara's cheeks heated up; if he was handsome before the glasses, he was even more now. "Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
"What's that?"Clara asked. She had never heard the Doctor use that term before.
"No idea. Just made it up." He grinned at her sheepishly. "Didn't want to say magic door." Clara couldn't help but giggle for a second. Sure, the Doctor she knew was goofy and all, but this one was just dorky and cute.
"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?" Rose butted in.
"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too." The Doctor replied.
"She was speaking English, I heard her." Mickey insisted, confused. Too late, Clara added a soft, "Yea!" when she remembered that she wasn't supposed to know that the TARDIS translates for you.
"That's the TARDIS. Translates for you." Rose told Mickey, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Even French?" Mickey clarified, as if French were harder to translate than an alien language of barks and growls.
"Yeah."
"Gotcha!" The Doctor shouted, pulling everyone's attention back to him. The floor of the fireplace began to move, taking the Doctor and Clara with it.
"Doctor!" Rose cried out as they disappeared into the wall.
"What did you do?!" Clara grabbed onto the mantle of the fireplace to keep from falling. Half a second later, not even listening to the Doctor's answer, she was gawking at the incredibly beautiful bedroom of young Reinette.
A/N: I just want to butt in and say that I see you guys favoriting and following this story, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd review as well! Love ya! x