Okay. Since I tried a different approach on this, I added more POVs into this. And cut it off quite early. It's a bit shorter than usual, but will try to continue soon enough.
Somewhere in the starry sky, three thousand years in Rose's future, with a bit of a thud, TARDIS materialised in the spaceship. The Doctor was first to come out, followed by Mickey and then Rose. Both of the men taking their surroundings with wonder. Soon enough, the Doctor informed both of them it being fifty first's century's spaceship and Mickey couldn't suppress his absolute excitement. The smell of the barbecued crew almost made Rose gag, but she forced herself to stay composed.
Rose grimaced a bit. Definitely not the spaceship she would have chosen for herself. She thought she got over it, but it still made her heart hurt a bit. All the memories rushing from this trip...Frankly speaking, she had no idea how would the Doctor react this time. If they hadn't had that talk about Rose's travels, she would have been sure that she would have been abandoned five hours and more. If he would have ever really came back to her... But now. It felt like they have settled some problems. No?
Rose shook her head. No more feeling sorry for oneself. What she regretted the most, after this trip the last time, was that the Doctor was basically in charge of everything. He went out there, met people, saved them, while Rose with Mickey just stayed there on the spaceship, awaiting their fates. Now times were different.
If he could go explore, so could she. Here is nothing to explore. But 1727 France! That's another story.
And there they stood. Facing the fireplace, connecting the two worlds - standing tall. The Doctor was, obviously, first to rush towards it.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eighteenth century! French! Nice mantel." He pulled out the sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the fireplace.
"Not a hologram," he announced.
"Not even a reproduction, this actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double-sided, there's another room through there." He bended down, examining it more closely. Rose was leaning on one side of it, watching him. Mickey was just...somewhere there.
"Hello." The Doctor's sudden voice, startled her. She squatted down, next to him, to see a young girl with long blonde hair, dressed in a nightgown, looking back at the Doctor.
"Hello?" the girl answered, a bit confused.
"What's your name?" the Doctor asked her casually.
"Reinette," she answered like it was obvious.
"Reinette, that's a lovely name," the Doctor said encouragingly. "Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?" Curiosity taking over him.
"In my bedroom." The girl already feeling suspicious, but still answered.
The Doctor nodded, before continuing. "And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?"
"Paris, of course." She laughed at the oblivious man.
"Paris, right!" The Doctor laughed himself.
"Monsieur, what are you doing..." She glanced him over. "In my fireplace?"
"Oh, it's just a routine..." The Doctor shook his head nonchalantly. "Fire check." Rose smiled at his silly excuses. "Can you tell me what year it is?" he continued.
"Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."
"Right, lovely!" The Doctor nodded smiling, a bit silly. "One of my favourites..." He stopped to consider. "August is rubbish though. Stay indoors." Back to his cheerful self. "Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night night!" As he stood up.
"Goodnight Monsieur." Was the girl's last words.
"You said this was the fifty-first century," Mickey said at once.
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole," he began blithely. "Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink," he muttered.
"What's that?" Mickey asked with his eyes wide. Rose just shook her head.
"No idea. Just made it up. Didn't wanna say 'magic door'," the Doctor answered him simply, leaving Mickey pouting. Rose snorted at the sight.
"What?" The Doctor looked at her innocently.
"Oh, nothing. Just you being..." She gestured. "You." Her hand at her mouth.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, but as he was not saying anything, Rose continued.
"So..." she began. "On the other side of this..." In a deeper voice. "Magic door." She locked her gaze to the Doctor's. "Is France in 1727?"
The Doctor held his gaze to Rose's for a moment, before abruptly turning his head sideways, tucking on his ear as he tried to sound nonchalant.
"Well... she was speaking French. Right period French, too." He nodded, purposely not meeting Rose's eyes. Rose pressed her lips together, to suppress the smile, breaking on its way at his reaction.
"She was speaking English, I heard her!" Mickey butted in, when the Doctor walked off in the room to drop his coat, coming back to the fireplace, moments later.
"That's the TARDIS - translates for ya." Rose told Mickey absentmindedly as she followed the Doctor to the fireplace. Not letting you escape now.
The Doctor was already searching for the way to go through and just as he pressed the right switch, the wall began to rotate, taking the Doctor together with Rose on the other side of the fireplace.
"Rose! Doctor!" Mickey's shouts were the last things heard when the pair found themselves in Reinette's bedroom.
"What did you do that for?" The Doctor looked at her puzzled.
"Can't let you go have fun by yourself." Rose gave him a serious look.
"So decided to join me?" He grinned at her teasingly.
"Oh, you love my company," she teased him back.
"Yes, I do." Both of them looking at each other intensely with wide smiles.
"Anyway." Rose suddenly turned her gaze away. "I'm not letting you enjoy France all by yourself." She gave him a pointed look. "I always wanted to go there," she continued, while stepping away from the fireplace, further inside the room, taking in her surroundings.
"Why didn't you say so?" The Doctor quickly by her side. "I could always get you there with the TARDIS."
"And where's the fun in that?" she teased him, looking at him with a smile on her face. "Things like that-" She gestured to the room. "Is what adventure is all about." Ending with tongue between her teeth.
"I surrender." The Doctor chuckled faintly, putting his hands in defence mode.
"Who's there?" A girl's voice, made both of them sprung around, as they saw Reinette, sitting on her bed, watching them cautiously.
"It's okay! Don't scream! It's me, it's the fireplace man. Look-" The Doctor lit up the fireplace with his sonic.
"Hello." Rose waved slightly. "I'm his right hand." She smiled warmly at the girl.
"How can you be his right hand?" The girl looked Rose up suspiciously.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
Rose glanced at the Doctor, who didn't seem to mind the last sentence. "I thought the kings and emperors all had their right hands," she whispered, leaning to the Doctor's side.
"Well." He shrugged. "She's young-"
"I heard that!" Reinette frowned, clearly unhappy. "And I know what it means. I'm seven already. You can't be his right hand though."
"And why not?" Rose didn't want to budge. Even as a little girl, so cheeky.
"You're a woman!" Reinnete announced.
"I am, yeh," Rose agreed with head held high. "It's not a crime being one in 1727, is it?"
"Early eighteenth century," the Doctor whispered in her ear. "They have no women working with the fireplaces.
"Oh. Right." Rose seemed to realise that. The Doctor just shook his head, smiling in amusement.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
"Anyway!" he exclaimed. "Oh, look at that!" As he walked out towards the window. "It's winter!" Smiling in total bliss. "White piles of snow, covering the streets of Paris. What more to ask?"
Rose rolled her eyes and turned around to face the fireplace. Then she froze.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
"Doctor," she whispered, her voice shaky.
"Mm?" The Doctor walked over her casually. Then he spotted what Rose just saw. The broken clock.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
"Are you a Doctor?" Reinette asked. "I thought you said you were the fireplace man."
Instead of answering, the Doctor continued to stare at the clock on the mantel with his mouth open, looking slightly fearful.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
"Okay, that's scary..." he breathed, slightly backing away, grasping Rose's hand, pulling her away too.
"You're scared of a broken clock?" Reinnete asked him sceptically.
"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit," the Doctor began, releasing a hold of Rose. "'Cause you see, if this clock's broken." He turned around to face the room.
Tick tock tick tock.
"And it's the only clock in the room...Then what's that?" he whispered, as the sound grew louder.
Tick tock. TICK TOCK.
Reinette was looking around her room, clearly scared, Rose swallowed, brushing, the thoughts of herself being strapped to the bed, sharp weapons pointed at them, away.
"'Cause you see that's not a clock." The Doctor looked around. "You can tell by the resonance." He started moving slowly. "Too big. Six feet, I'd say." Reinette was taking calming breaths. "Size of a man," the Doctor ended.
"What is it?" Reinette asked softly. Scared to the bone.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
"Now. Let's think." He walked to check the curtains, but found nothing there. Rose moved to check the other pair. Still nothing. Where was it hiding?
"If you were a thing that ticks and you were hiding in someone's bedroom," he spilled fast. "First thing you do : break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two?" He paused.
"You might start to wonder if you're really alone," he said in a low voice, steadily moving towards the girl's bed. Rose tried to approach it too, but the Doctor stilled her to stay there with his hand.
"Stay on the bed. Right in the middle." He instructed Reinette, crouching down on the floor. "Don't put your hands or feet over the edge." As he pulled his sonic screwdriver out.
As he peered underneath the bed before turning on the sonic screwdriver to scan, suddenly something smacked the Doctor backwards, knocking the screwdriver out of his hand. Reinette and Rose both gasped at that. Rose for different reasons than Reinette though.
The Doctor was still scrambling on the floor, looking underneath, while Rose stood there, face to face, only the child's bed separating her and the being whose feet the Doctor spotted standing there from under the bed. She gulped at the sight. As the Doctor slowly started to stand up, looking at Reinette with wide eyes, Rose whispered, not breaking her gaze.
"Reinette...Don't look around," she whispered.
A figure was standing on the other side of the bed, wearing a creepy clown-like mask and leering down at Reinette, who was looking terrified.
"You stay exactly where you are." The Doctor instructed to Reinette then glancing to the figure, back at Reinette, again at the figure, then back at Reinette.
"Hold still, let me look..." The Doctor bended down and grasped Reinette's head between his hands, staring intently into her eyes with a disturbed expression, before looking back at the figure.
"You've been scanning her brain!" he announced, shocked.
With only a touch he knew that. Rose could only be glad that she managed to avoid being scanned by the Doctor for the time being. Otherwise, she was not sure what he would find.
"What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain?" The Doctor looked at the figure with horrified and incredulous expression. "What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"
Hmm. Still don't know how important she is to them. To you. No! Let's not think that. Rose shook her head.
"I don't understand... it wants me?!" Renette asked, clearly scared, but the moment she turned around to look at the figure, she didn't even flinch at the sight. "You want me?"
The figure's head twitched to one side as it spoke in a distinctly mechanical voice.
"Not yet. You are incomplete."
"'Incomplete'?" the Doctor asked sarcastically. "What's that mean, 'incomplete'?" He grimaced.
The droid did not answer, just stared at Reinette for a few moments, but then it caught sight of Rose. Before the Doctor could react, as he was once again watching Reinette, the droid held his arm at Rose, giving her a chance only to blink when some sort of light lit her head. Probably a scan.
"What did you do!?" The Doctor stood up, pointing his sonic screwdriver threateningly at it, glancing with the corner of his eye at Rose.
"You all right?" he asked her, still holding his gaze at the droid.
"Yeh..." Rose breathed. "I think."
And then the words, which gave her shivers, escaped the droid's mouth.
"You're compatible. Temporarily."
"What do you mean she's compatible!?" The Doctor's voice sounded dark now. "You can answer her. You can answer me."
The droid again did not answer, instead it began walking in jerky movements around the bed and now stood facing the Doctor. When it extended an arm, a menacing looking blade slided out near the Doctor's face. He just tilted his head away, pushing Rose behind him.
"Monsieur, be careful!" Reinette's voice echoed inside the room.
"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it." He glanced at her, then back at the figure. "Everyone has nightmares." He began backing away, droid pursuing.
"Rose. Portal!" He instructed, as the droid swiped at him, making him duck the attack and walk in circles with the monster. Rose rushed at the fireplace to get a hold of the switch to move it.
"Ready!" she yelled back to him.
"Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" he teased the droid, backing away to the fireplace now once more.
The droid slashed at the Doctor again, but he managed to evade the attack, by jumping to the side and now the droid's blade was stuck in the mantel.
"What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette asked suspiciously.
"Me! HA!" the Doctor exclaimed as Rose hit the switch, taking the trio to the other side.
"Doctor, Rose!" Mickey's delighted voice greeted them.
As the fireplace finished turning, the Doctor ran to grab a gun-like object from the wall, using it to spray ice at the droid. Rose was already at Mickey's side. After a bit of a struggle, the droid convulsed in a last, vain attempt to free itself before freezing completely.
"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey smiled in approval.
The Doctor turned around to face them both and calmly threw the gun at Rose, who caught it.
"Fire extinguisher," the Doctor corrected him.
"Where did it come from?" Mickey asked.
"Here," the Doctor stated.
Before Mickey could add more, the Doctor suddenly turned to face Rose.
"Now you!" He pointed at her, making her blink. "You're staying here. No more trips to France. We don't know what it wants from you, but it can not be good," he muttered before facing the droid again. Soon enough, he dropped its wig down, to reveal its actual head - an ornate clockwork mechanism, covered with a clear plastic egg shape. The Doctor couldn't help but admire it.
"Oh." His mouth fell open. "You're beautiful!" he exclaimed.
"It wants you?" Mickey asked Rose, surprised.
"It wants Reinette. I was just...how did you call it..." She trailed off in thoughts. "In the way!" she exclaimed.
"And it wants you too," the Doctor added in a low voice, still staring at the head. "You're gorgeous! Look at that!" he cried.
"That's not gonna stop me..." Rose muttered under her breath, the Doctor was oblivious to that, too immersed into the sight ahead.
"It would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you," he continued. He took one last wistful look at the droid, before holding up the sonic screwdriver, preparing to point it at the clock.
"But that won't stop me," he said sadly. However, before the Doctor could do anything, the droid teleported itself out.
"Short range teleport, can't have got far. Could still be on board..." The Doctor trailed off and went towards the monitor.
"Just need..." He pressed a few buttons. "Hmm." Looking at it. Rose smiled at the sight. Now was her opportunity. She tossed the gun at Mickey, him barely catching it, as she walked towards the Doctor.
"Eighteen century France," Rose began in a luring voice, leaning slightly on the table.
"Yeh. We just learnt that," the Doctor replied her absentmindedly. He hummed in silent self understanding and after a few backward leaps, ran off to the TARDIS. Rose was tailing behind him, but the Doctor was fast as wind. Not long after she stepped inside the ship, she spotted the Doctor already hovering above the console.
"I just need..." He was focusing on the readings on the monitor. Rose joined him near the console, not letting her plan go.
"France. Parties...Dancing..." Rose tried to hint him. It seemed to snap the Time Lord out of his musings for a slight moment.
"What, you want to go dancing now?" The Doctor looked at her incredulously, as he just bent his head to the side in puzzlement. His random moments of catching the phrases... But he quickly turned back, facing the monitor again.
"I'm sure we could find some dancing floors down there." Rose nodded, speaking in a low voice.
"We're currently helping a little girl not to be used for Clock Droids' with carnival masks purposes," he sang in reminder.
A somewhat awkward silence followed his words. It managed to disturb his work a bit, his thoughts trailing off to thoughts of what wrong had he said. He frowned, not being able to grasp it. And then it clicked him. He turned to face her and when he saw her grinning, his own face lit up.
"You know whose house is that," he noted.
"Well." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I might recognise the fireplace."
"Not hiding anymore, are you?" He giggled, beaming at her. Rose gave him her tongue between her teeth smile. "So, who's it?" he asked her, totally eager to know.
"Oh, where's the fun in that." She backed away from him, when she sensed the Doctor getting closer to her. She was walking backwards, towards the doors, still grinning. "I have a proposal for you," she said, stopping just at the doors.
"Oh?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "And what might that be?" he asked, looking in her eyes with expectation.
"I bet you five quid who can get the first dance with The Royals," she said seriously, but with a playful tease thrown in between.
The Doctor blinked a bit, his mouth opening up. "The Royals? Is Reinette a royalty?" He beamed in excitement.
"That. I won't say." She laughed.
"Oh. Come on," he groaned.
"Find out yourself, Time Lord," she teased him, poking him in the chest.
"Five quid for the first dance?" He looked at her incredulously. "That's a bit cheap."
"Ten quid?" she asked softly.
"Deal." They both grinned at each other and Rose flew the doors open, running back to the spaceship.
To nobody's surprise, really, she found Mickey standing near the fireplace, completely lost as to what was going on, the gun still in his hands.
"Mickey!" Rose ran to him and hugged him briefly.
"Y-yeh?" he stammered a bit.
"Hold that gun, no matter what. Be careful. Got that?" She looked at him seriously.
"Why? Is there danger?"
"Not unless you ask for it." The Doctor's voice caught their ears, as he walked into the room, getting close to the fireplace. "Don't go looking for them!" He pointed a finger at Rose and Mickey, pressing the switch, as the fireplace started to rotate.
"Can't promise that!" Rose yelled out for him.
"Don't!" He pointed one last time at her.
"Will be back in a sec!" His voice echoing in the room.
When the Doctor seemed successfully gone, Rose began to walk away, further inside the spaceship.
"He said not to look for it!" Mickey called out for her.
"Yes, he did!" she said seriously, facing him. Mickey glanced at her suspiciously, when he saw her face lit up in a wide grin. "Stay there. Wait till he comes back. I'll be back in a sec myself." She waved at him and with one last grin disappeared from Mickey's sight.
"Oh, just great," Mickey muttered. "At least before they would go in one direction. Now in two opposites."
"Reinette?" the Doctor called out for her as soon as he entered her bedroom. "Reinette?" He tried again and soon enough a young beautiful woman walked inside the room.
"Oh. Hello. I'm just looking for Reinette." The Doctor looked around. "This is... still her room, right?" he asked cautiously. "I've been away, not sure for how long..." he muttered.
"Reinette! We're ready to go!" a voice from downstairs called.
"Go to the carriage, mother, I will join you there," the woman called back, holding her gaze to the Doctor's.
A grin of realisation spread across the Doctor's face.
"It is customary, I think," Reinette began teasingly. "To have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence."
"Reinette...!" the Doctor exhaled in amazement. Reinette smiled back at him.
"Well." The Doctor looked her up and down. "Goodness, how you've grown." He nodded.
"And you do not appear to have aged a single day," she said, approaching him. "That is tremendously impolite of you. Although, I must note that you're missing your right hand with you this time round." She chuckled.
"Eh?" He looked at her confused. "Oh. Right." As he realised. "Only one hand now." He waggled his fingers at her. "She tends to run off somewhere." He shrugged, laughing nervously.
"Should I be concerned of her ever reaching you back?" she asked sheepishly.
"She always finds her way back home," the Doctor replied smiling warmly at her.
"So she is home... to you," Reinette whispered softly, lowering her gaze. The Doctor completely oblivious to that.
"Or!" he exclaimed. "I just have to find her." He shrugged, smiling. Reinette smiled back at him. She then approached him to touch his cheek, examining him. The Doctor's eyes widened.
"Well, you seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd." She looked troubled. "Reason tells me you cannot be real."
"Oh, pfft... You never want to listen to reason..." he joked.
"Mademoiselle! Your mother grows impatient," a voice, sounding a bit familiar to the Doctor' ear, called out in the distance. The Doctor grimaced at that in thought. Weird.
"A moment!" Reinette called back. She could see the Doctor's attention was drifting away.
"So many questions. So little time," she said in a soft, urgent voice, and in a second the Doctor found himself pulled towards her, her lips passionately attacking his.
The Doctor was stunned by that reaction, not exactly making effort to move. His eyes were still open wide as they registered blonde hair. Instinctively he reached out to cup the woman's head in his hands, his eyes closing down, even kissing back.
"Oh, don't blame me for that. Her body moved on its own."
A sudden memory filling his thoughts.
"Rose," he whispered, as he grazed his lips with the woman kissing him. Then in a flash, both of them stumbled backwards. Each of them at the opposite sides. Both watching each other with wide confused eyes, breathing a bit laboured.
"Well, that's a cruel way to reject a woman." Reinette laughed slightly, feeling uncomfortable.
"What? Oh, no no. Sorry. I'm so sorry!" The Doctor began to apologize with all sincerity. He couldn't really understand himself what just happened, even less explain someone that, or in this case, apologize. Which! He thought was necessary. But what was that about anyway?
A laugh made the pair jump at their feet.
"Ain't this our routine of meeting each other?" A cheeky voice caught the Doctor's attention. He stepped away from Reinette to see who was talking.
"Jack?" he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Hey, Doc." He saluted then glanced back at Reinette. "Reinette." As he winked at her.
"Jean, what are you doing here? I told you not to enter my bedroom as you please." She chided Jack. A smile breaking its way on her face.
"Jean?" The Doctor eyed him sceptically.
"My French name." Jack bowed gracefully.
"You two actually know each other," Reinette noted, gesturing to them both. "I guess it's to be expected that two mysteries of my life just happened to be acquaintances."
"A mystery?" the Doctor mocked. "Great big face," he muttered, glancing Jack over.
"Stop," Jack warned him. The Doctor just shrugged innocently.
"Oh, he has a handsome face," Reinette agreed.
"I bet he does," the Doctor sang, chuckling. Jack gave him a dangerous look.
"Reinette?" A voice from downstairs could be heard.
"Coming!" she called out. "It's time for me to go." She spared one last glance at the Doctor and Jack and walked out of the room. Both men's gazes following her as she left.
Then Jack suddenly got serious. "I knew you had problems with Rosie, but not to such depth."
"We don't have problems." The Doctor just shook his head. Then he tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. "She told me about him."
"Told you what?" Jack asked, just to be sure.
"I know you are aware of it, Jack," the Doctor said in a low voice.
A pause.
"Oh. So you know," Jack breathed. How much did he know? Certainly couldn't know everything, right? "What exactly did she tell you?" he asked faintly.
"Weeell." The Doctor began to pace around the room, tugging on his ear. "That she had lost her partner with whom she travelled among the stars, and all that."
"So she did not tell you that I knew," Jack stated.
"Yeeh, but I figured as much." The Doctor came to a stop, his hands in his pockets, staring at Jack for a moment.
"Ok-ay," Jack began slowly. "And you're unhappy about it." He looked into the Doctor's eyes, trying to gauge his reaction.
"About what?" The Doctor shook his head, confused.
"That she told me before you."
That kinda hit the sore spot. But the Doctor didn't let it show. "Nah, 'course not!" he exclaimed blithely. "She's free to tell whoever she feels most comfortable with." He pulled out his sonic to fiddle with it.
Jack snorted at that. The jealous Time Lord. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him.
"What?" he asked.
Jack only shook his head at him. "But really, she told me first only because I knew him."
"You knew him?" The Doctor stopped to tinker his sonic and was steadily edging towards Jack. "Personally?"
"It was more like I was aware of his existence." Jack trailed off. Maybe should have stayed silent.
"What does that mean?" the Doctor persisted. Those words games were getting on his nerves.
"Not my place to tell, Doc." Jack pulled his hands in defence. "But wait a moment." After a short pause he continued. "Did you just say she told you he was her partner?"
"Yeh. Why?" the Doctor asked in bewilderment.
Jack smirked inwardly. "Oh God." He faked a concerned and shocked look. "She didn't mention that bit to me."
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, not sure where this was going. "You said you knew about her travels."
"About travels. Yeh." Jack nodded, face serious. "But I didn't know it was so serious." He faked an apologetic smile at the Doctor, which just made him more confused.
"What is?" He frowned in confusion.
"Well, partner. You know." Jack shrugged.
"Yeh, so?" The Doctor shook his head questioningly.
"Partner," Jack uttered it meaningfully, gazing at him intensely.
The Doctor just stared at him for a moment, before he tilted his head, rolling his eyes. "Should have known. Everything comes to that for you," he muttered, as he turned to go towards the fireplace.
"All I do is say hello. Usually. But that's how it all starts! It's just a simple truth of life." Jack shrugged. The Doctor just gave him a look.
"You said yourself. Partner. There's only one explanation, even by 21st century's morals. Partner equals mate," he continued on lightly. "And I don't mean a British 'mate'-," he laughed.
"Stop it, Harkness. And I mean that. Enough." The Doctor grimaced at him. Jack just laughed. "And where're you going?" he asked, still giving him a filthy look, as Jack approached the fireplace.
"Going with you," Jack just stated simply.
"What about your life here? Your position?"
"I got this." With that, Jack pulled out a letter from his pocket and placed it on Reinette's bed-table. The Doctor just rolled his eyes as the pair rotated back into spaceship.
Back at the spaceship, Jack and the Doctor found only Mickey standing there, waiting impatiently.
"Doctor! Finally you show up," he complained. Then his eyes focused on the american. "And where did you pick the cheesy one from?" He frowned.
"Been missing you too, Mickey Mouse." Jack grinned at him
"Where's Rose?" the Doctor asked with concern.
"She just ran off." Mickey shrugged. "Same time as you, just in the opposite direction."
"And you just let her?" The Doctor looked at him in disbelief.
"What was I supposed to do?" Mickey said indignantly.
The Doctor just shook his head. Giving up on Mickey. "Every time. Every time. Rule number one. Don't wander off. For once, can't she listen when I tell her not to wander off?" he muttered to himself, walking in circles, looking upwards and shaking his head.
"You clearly were wandering off yourself." Jack glanced him up and down, hinting something, which Mickey couldn't catch.
"Don't even start." The Doctor gave him a warning look and went towards the monitor in the room.
"So, what, you snogged Rosie, two times now? One with Cassandra another with her image in Reinette?" Jack teased him. "Or does this one doesn't count? Not being her lips and all?" He winked.
"What?" Mickey asked, feeling like he was just slapped.
"Three times, if you want to be exact. And those each times were not snogging." The Doctor made a meaningful look, as he turned to face Jack, ignoring Mickey aaaand the last part about the very recent events.
"Sure sure." Jack nodded, stifling his chuckle.
"It is!" the Doctor cried. "The first time round, it was to get the Time Vortex out of her, I was still in my ninth body and then regenerated into this." He gestured to himself casually. "It was life and death situation." He gave a serious look at them.
Jack pressed his lips together. Nodding. Couldn't have used your sonic for that. Sure. Mickey was listening to all that in confusion and horror.
"The second time, it was not even her! It was Cassandra possessing her body and launching herself at me. I had no way out!" He was desperately trying to defend himself. "And the third time it was with Queen Victoria." He looked sideways. "We both got knighted and banished in the same day. Blimey." Then he shook his head to concentrate again. "Anyway! We were in hiding from this lupine wavelength haemovariform, werewolf, in your language." He made a pointed look at them. "And we just so happened to stand under the mistletoe, so I had to. It was the tradition!" he cried, now leaving Mickey completely mouth-open, eyes unfocused and Jack laughing hysterically.
"What?" the Doctor countered him.
"So, so what you're saying..." Jack tried to calm himself down. "Is basically, that women just keep attacking you?" Jack tried to stay calm and serious, saying that, but was failing miserably.
"I'll say no more." As the Doctor walked away.
to be continued...
I felt the need to tease our Time Lord a bit. Hehe.
Basically this chapter is like an idea. Not saying much there. But still, it would be nice to hear what you think even with this bit. Well...this bit is 5k words long but. LOL
And once again. You would tell me if something was off? Way off or boring, or not enough explained, off character and stuff, right? If thought better not to until now, do so from now on. Would be always grateful to hear and improve myself.