Moments after she first stepped inside, Molly felt she'd need more eyes to truly appreciate the interior of the TARDIS. The roof domed far over her head, reaching far higher than the exterior suggested, and the walls reached out far around her. Aliens had been unexpected, but not entirely implausible to her. This, however, was something entirely different. A box that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Much, much bigger. A box that, if the Doctor was telling the truth, could travel through time and space in the blink of an eye.
The console in the center of the room was covered in countless buttons and switches and dials. It looked like the type of set-up that required several people working at once, but there appeared to be no one in the room besides her and the Doctor. Still, there appeared to be doors leading off to other parts of the ship. Maybe the rest of the crew was further inside.
She turned back to the Doctor. "Is there anyone else on board? Do you have a crew, or…?"
"Nah, it's just me. And, well, you now." Something about the Doctor's grin just didn't reach his eyes. His expression softened into one of sad remembrance. "Well, sometimes I travel with others. You know, friends, companions. Humans like you, mostly. The last one… the last one was Rose, her name was Rose." The alien grew quiet for a few moments. "I lost her," he admitted softly.
Molly felt a rush of sympathy for the alien. Just from the way he'd said her name, she could tell this Rose meant a lot to him. From the moment she'd met him, he always seemed to wear the same goofy grin, but this felt more real to her than his cheer from before. She remembered the quick flashes of sadness he had shown earlier, and she had to wonder just how deep his hurt went. She had known too many people who had been hiding pain to not see what the Doctor was doing. "I'm sorry," she told him gently.
The Doctor smiled sadly. "Yeah," was all he said. After a few moments, something seemed to occur to him, and he looked up at Molly with a narrowed glance. "You're not here to replace her," he warned firmly.
Molly shook her head quickly. "Oh no, I'd never try to," she told him earnestly. "I just want to help however I can." She wasn't trying to be the John Watson to his Sherlock. She wasn't cut out to be a partner, but if she could help save worlds the way they'd saved the hospital only hours earlier, then anything she did would be worth it.
His serious expression disappeared, replaced once again by the cheerful grin. "Good! Alright then, I think I know a good spot to visit."
Molly felt a rush of excitement, but at the idea of running around on a whole new adventure, she felt her exhaustion return full-force. She tried to stifle a yawn, but she wasn't fast enough to hide it from the Doctor. The alien gave her an evaluating glance, expression softening as he took in how exhausted she looked. "On second thought, maybe you should get some sleep first."
Molly fought to keep her expression cheerful. "I'm fine," she lied.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Molly, if you haven't already noticed, there tends to be a lot of running in my life. I'll need you awake for that." When she still hesitated, he added, "It's not like we're going to be late for anything. This is a time machine, remember? In two seconds I can have us having lunch with Winston Churchill."
The pathologist finally caved. "Alright. What about you?"
"Superior Time Lord biology," the alien boasted. "I don't need as much sleep as humans. I'll just throw us in the Time Vortex for the night." With that, he turned and bounded over to the console in the center of the room. He started circling around the console, throwing up switches, spinning dials, and pressing buttons at a whirlwind speed. It was an odd dance to be sure, but it seemed to work, for the TARDIS suddenly gave a massive shudder. Molly gave a squeak of surprise as the ship continued to shake violently. She tried to catch herself on the railing, but just ended up getting thrown to the ground, landing clumsily on her elbow.
As the shaking subsided, she let out a slight groan, rubbing her elbow where she'd landed on it. "Ow."
The Doctor looked at her somewhat sheepishly from his spot by the console. "Sorry about that."
Molly got to her feet, hand on the railing in case the ship decided to have another shaking spell. "It's fine. Er… is it always like that?"
He scratched the back of his neck, which Molly had noticed he seemed to do whenever he wanted to stall. "Well… yeah. I mean, we're traveling through time and space, there's going to be a bit of turbulence."
Privately, Molly though it had more to do with his manic driving than turbulence, but she let the matter rest. "Right." The Doctor seemed to give a whole new meaning to "driving like crazy."
The Doctor threw down a final switch, and the TARDIS stilled entirely. "Right, we should be good in the Vortex for the night. Rooms are down the hall, four lefts and a right, pick any room you want that's unlocked."
"'Kay," Molly mumbled, stifling another yawn. She started toward the hall the Doctor had indicated, but before exiting the console room, she turned back to face him. "Time Lord biology?" she questioned.
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. That's what I am, a Time Lord."
Even through her exhaustion, Molly felt a rush of satisfaction to finally be learning more about the Doctor. She'd only met him a few hours ago, true, but in that time he'd dodged every personal question Molly had tried to ask. She got the feeling he wasn't really one to talk about himself, and while it wasn't much, a species name was a good start. "Right. Time Lord. Cool. Well, good night, Doctor." With that, she headed out of the console room and into the hall.
After a confusing few minutes wandering the halls and trying to remember what the Doctor'd told her, she finally found one of the un-marked rooms the Doctor had been talking about. It was pretty barren – a bed, some dressers, and fairly bland walls. In her current state, however, Molly could honestly care less. With no clothes packed, she had no choice but to crawl into bed with her clothes from the day still on. The minute her head hit the pillow, she was gone.
SCENEBREAK
When Molly woke several hours later, she wondered groggily why her alarm hadn't gone off, and whether she'd promised to get to work early that day or not. Then she remembered.
Still dressed in yesterday's clothes, Molly wandered the TARDIS's halls until she eventually found the console room again. The Doctor was there, bent over the controls. He looked up when Molly came in. "Good morning!" he greeted cheerfully. He too appeared to be in roughly the same clothes as the day before, though the tie and suit had changed under his coat. "Ready for more running today?"
Molly couldn't stop the excited grin creeping over her face. "Sure!" Now that she was rested, she was eager to see the whole new world the Doctor had described. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see in a minute," was all the Doctor would say. He started hurrying around the console again, pausing to look at Molly before pulling the final lever. "You ready for this?"
Molly gave a helpless sort of shrug. "I guess?" She had absolutely no idea what would be waiting outside those doors. It could be a long-forgotten past, a distant future, a planet far from home. It could be absolutely anything, and now that it was about to happen, it was slightly terrifying.
The Doctor gave an excited grin. "Hang on!" When he pulled the final lever, the TARDIS starting shaking as violently as the day before. This time, however, Molly was ready for it, and was already clinging to the console when the ship took off. Now that she wasn't exhausted, the Doctor's crazy driving just made her more excited. This was really happening. She was really traveling through time.
Finally, the ship's shaking subsided. The Doctor bounded over to the front door, whirling around to face her. He almost seemed more excited than her. "Outside those doors," he told her with an air of an eager school teacher, "brave new world." With a grand flourish he opened the doors for her, letting her walk past him before shutting and locking them behind them.
It was like walking into a historical film. She was pretty sure it was London, but the houses were smaller and made of brick, with stone pathways replacing the asphalt streets. The sounds of cars rushing past and horns honking were replaced by birdsong and the chattering of the huge throng of people milling through the streets. The vast number of people was probably the most familiar aspect for Molly, having lived in London for the last few years, but even that was changed. They were dressed in different assortments of skirts and tunics and breeches, with frilly collars and puffy sleeves. Everything seemed so Elizabethan. It was like a dream.
Molly let out a slight, breathless laugh. "Oh my god." She spun around, trying to take in as much of it as she could. "Oh my god! We're actually here! We traveled through time!" With another laugh, she turned to the Doctor, who was watching her with amusement. "Where... er, when are me? Well, I guess I mean where and when? Oh, I don't know." She forced herself to stop babbling and settled for just staring around in amazement.
A warning shout of "Mind the loo!" came from overhead. The Doctor hurried to pull Molly out of the way just as a bucket was emptied from a window overhead. A rank smell filled the air from where Molly had just been standing. "Apparently," the Doctor noted with distaste, "somewhere before the invention of the toilet. Sorry about that."
Molly shrugged. "It's fine, I do post-mortems, it's nothing new." She pulled herself from the Doctor's grasp and stepped gingerly around the mess, staring wide-eyed at the city around her. "This is just... this is incredible. I'm in the past."
"Good ol' Elizabethan London," the Doctor said fondly. He had his hands tucked behind his back, once again giving Molly the impression of an eager school teacher about to launch into a lecture. As he started to lead her down the street, he informed her, "It's a couple hundred years after the black death, and it's like the country decides to poke it's head out again. Everything's changing; new ideas, new sciences, new discoveries. It's a whole new world that's growing by the minute." He had this goofy, eager grin on his face as he blurted out the information a mile a minute, as though constantly excited by the brilliance of the humans around him.
The pathologist sighed happily, still dazed by the whole thing. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. "Hang on." She turned to face the Doctor, brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Isn't anyone going to notice a big blue box sitting in the middle of the street?"
"Nah," the Doctor dismissed the idea casually, "London's always been the sort of place where anything goes. Really, it's not so different from your time. Look over there, you've got recycling," he pointed out a man shoveling horse manure from the street, adding, "Water cooler movement," as they passed some men conversing at a water barrel.
As the Doctor talked, they had passed by a preacher desperately clutching a bible in one hand and ringing a bell in the other. "...and the world will be consumed by flames!" he proclaimed in a dire tone.
"And global warming," the Doctor finished with a grin. With a surge of energy, he spun around to face Molly, using his hands wildly as he spoke. "Oh and yes, entertainment! Popular entertainment for the masses." He started to look around as if searching for something, craning his neck to get a better view over the crowd. "If I'm right, we're just down the river by Southwark right next to..."
He seemed to have found what he was looking for, for he gave a sudden grin. The Time Lord grabbed Molly by the hand and started pulling her down the street and around one of the corners.
When they'd passed the corner, they could see a tall, rounded white building. It stood out in stark contrast from the dull browns and grays of the smaller houses surrounding it. The Doctor grinned appreciatively at the sight. "Oh, yes, the Globe Theatre! Brand new. Just opened. Through, strictly speaking, it's not a globe; it's a tetradecagon – 14 sides – containing the man himself."
Molly drew in a sharp breath as she realized what he was hinting at. "Wait, no. You don't mean..."
"Shakespeare!" The Doctor proclaimed. "The genius himself." He offered Molly his arm as he offered dramatically, "Miss Hooper, would you accompany me to the theater?"
Molly linked her arm with his, still grinning like an idiot. "Of course!" She had never been a huge Shakespeare fan, but she'd enjoyed reading Hamlet and Macbeth. And even if some of his work was hard to get through and boring, there was no denying he was one of the best, most brilliant minds of his time. And she was actually going to get to meet him!
SCENEBREAK
The play wasn't one Molly had ever heard of before. "Love Labour's Lost" was an amusing comedy about three men who swore off of female company for three years for the purposes of studying, only to fall comically in love with three noble ladies. Molly soon found herself enjoying the play more than she'd been expecting. It was easier to understand Shakespeare's words when they were being acted out in front of her.
When the play finished, the crowd began clapping appreciatively. Molly joined in, trying to control the idiot grin still on her face. "I can't believe we just watched an actual Shakespeare play, in Elizabethan times." She turned to the Doctor hopefully. "Is Shakespeare himself going to come out?"
The Time Lord shrugged, but someone next to Molly seemed to have heard her, for they called out, "Shakespeare!" in a loud tone. The cry was repeated and was soon taken up by the whole crowd. "Shakespeare! Shakeaspeare!" The Doctor watched the crowd with amusement. "Well, looks like he'll have to now," he observed.
As the cry continued through the crowd, a man came out onto the stage. He had quite a bit more hair than in his portraits, and he seemed a bit better-looking, but just from his bearing and the way the crowd went wild when he came out, there was no doubt of who he was. "Oh my god," Molly breathed. "That's William Shakespeare."
The Doctor seemed almost beside himself with excitement. "Genius. He's a genius - the genius. The most human human that's ever been. Now we're gonna hear him speak. Always, he chooses the best words. New, beautiful, brilliant words."
The man on stage gave a hearty laugh at the crowd's excitement, then leaned forward and shouted, "Shut your big fat mouths!"
The audience laughed appreciatively, but the Doctor just slumped back in his seat. "Oh well," he said with disappointment.
Molly held back a chuckle as Shakespeare continued smugly, "You have excellent taste! I'll give you that." He pointed out to some man in the audience. "Oh, that's a wig!"
The crowd roared with laughter as the famed author continued, "I know what you're all saying. 'Loves Labour's Lost', that's a funny ending, isn't it? It just stops! Will the boys get the girls?" He paused dramatically for a few moments as the audience held its breath, then held up his hands in a gesture of concession. "Well, don't get your hose in a tangle, you'll find out soon. Yeah, yeah. All in good time. You don't rush a genius."
Shakespeare gave an over-exaggerated bow as the crowd went wild cheering for him. Molly wondered sadly for a moment why it was all the greatest men seemed to be so smug and conceited. Then again, it wasn't like they didn't have reason to be.
Suddenly, the playwright jerked back, face going blank for a second. Molly wondered if something was wrong, but the expression was gone in a matter of moments, replaced by a confiding grin. "When? Tomorrow night."
The crowd went wild, but the Doctor just frowned thoughtfully. Molly wondered briefly what was going through his head before turning back to watch Shakespeare again. "The premiere of my brand new play. A sequel, no less, and I call it 'Loves Labour's Won'!"
The author preened under the audience's cheers, and Molly felt a thrill of excitement. History was happening right in front of her. This man had been dead and buried for hundreds of years, and yet here he was, right in front of her, coming up with new words and new ideas.
If that was what one trip on the TARDIS was like, what would it be like to live there every day?
SCENEBREAK
"Doctor?" Molly asked a little nervously. "Er, would you mind if we stay here another night? I kind of want to see 'Love Labour's Won.'"
The Doctor still seemed worried about something. "To be honest," he said thoughtfully, "I'm not sure there's going to be a performance.
Molly's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why not?"
"Because 'Love Labour's Won' is better known in your time as the lost play," he told her. "It doesn't exist — only in rumors. It's mentioned in lists of his plays but never ever turns up. No one knows why."
"Well, it's been a few hundred years," the pathologist reasoned. "Maybe all the copies were lost for some reason. It doesn't mean it was never performed."
The Doctor nodded and said, "True," but he didn't seem convinced. "Either way, only one way to find out I guess. And I think I know just the place to room."
Arm in arm, the Doctor and his companion walked through the streets of Elizabethan London, wondering what the next day would bring.
So here's the start of the second chapter for you. I really hope I got Molly right, I've been having a bit of trouble writing her lately. The problem is that in Sherlock, she's always in a situation where she's either being insulted or ignored, so there's nowhere to draw her reaction to being in the limelight from. I hope you guys like it regardless.
You'll also probably notice I started describing Molly as a pathologist rather than a coroner. Someone informed me of my mistake with her career earlier. At some point I'll go back and edit the rest of the story to match.
EDIT: The rest of the story has been changed so that Molly is consistently called a pathologist.