Chapter Two
The time rotor pumped up and down as the TARDIS travelled through the vortex. The Doctor was lying on his back under the console, 'tinkering'. His jacket was folded on the console and his shirt sleeves were rolled up, showing off his hairy forearms.
Rose was sat curled up on one of the jump seats reading a book she had found in the library. She glanced up and watched him 'tinkering'. She smiled at the sight of him lying there. She wasn't sure if the TARDIS needed all this 'tinkering' but he just couldn't seem to help himself. He just loved to 'tinker' with things.
He glanced in her direction and caught her looking at him. She blushed and quickly looked back at the pages of the book, trying to pretend that they were infinitely more interesting than he was.
He grinned and pulled himself from under the console. "Where do you want to go next then?" he asked her, running a hand through his dishevelled hair.
"What...? Oh." She pretended to have just noticed that he was in the room. "I don't know. Where and when haven't we been before?" she asked him.
"Y'know, I really don't know," he told her. "That Krop Tor thing has thrown me a bit; I'm still a bit spooked by it."
Rose uncurled herself and put the book down. She walked over and slid her hand into his. "Hey, it all worked out alright in the end," she reassured him.
"Yeah, but it very nearly didn't." He had a concerned look on his face. "I destroyed the energy field holding the planet in place before I knew the TARDIS was there! I had condemned us all to that horrible fate," he confessed to her.
"Oh come here you." Rose pulled him into a hug. "You did what had to be done," she whispered into his ear. "I trust you... Always have, always will." With that she released the hug and without thinking, almost gave him a kiss on the lips. She hesitated and kissed him lovingly on the cheek.
"Tell you what, let's go to someplace where I can dress up," she said with a beaming smile. "D'ya remember meetin' Charles Dickens? I loved getting into costume, and if I remember right, you paid me a compliment," she said with a giggle.
His dark mood was suddenly forgotten, filed away in that superior Time Lord brain of his. "Okay. Here's a first. Let's get the TARDIS to make the choice. She usually does anyway!" he said with a glance up at the rotor.
The lights flickered in a 'huffy' sort of way. The Doctor rolled down his sleeves and put his jacket on.
"Right then Rose, come over here and you can set the coordinates," he said holding out his hand. She rushed over, took his hand and hugged his arm all excited.
"What? I get to fly the TARDIS?" she said disbelieving.
"Welllll, sort of. You're going to select the 'where' and 'when' and I'll do the flyin'." Rose squealed with delight and clapped her hands together.
He grinned at her. That was so cute. "Okay. See that dial? Turn it clockwise and anticlockwise about, oh, let's say five times and let it come to rest somewhere in the middle."
Rose did as he said and looked up at him with expectant eyes. "What's next?"
"Grab that graduated lever and move it up and down, say, five times and let it come to rest somewhere in the green zone," he instructed. They did this with a few more controls until the time and space coordinates were set and no paradox warnings were visible.
"Right then, here goes, grab your ears and grab your nose, where we end up, nobody knows." He engaged the drive with his usual flourish as Rose collapsed in fits of laughter. The level of wheezing changed as the TARDIS made its way through the vortex and into normal space.
The rotor stopped and the Doctor took the systems off-line. They both went over to the view screen which was suspended over the console.
"Where are we then?" Rose asked as he examined the readouts.
"Oh, this is great!" he said with enthusiasm. "Early 6th century England. The last time I was in this period, I had white curly hair, wore frilly shirts and a velvet jacket," he announced quite matter of fact.
Rose snorted a laugh. "You're kiddin', right? You used to dress like Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen? You must have had a great sense of humour." Rose howled with laughter.
The Doctor looked hurt. "Actually, I was quite a serious fellow and a bit of a sour-puss, but Sarah Jane didn't seem to mind. She thought I looked quite 'dapper'. In fact, it was this time period where we had our first adventure." He had a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered.
Rose wiped her eyes with her fingers. "So come on then. Are you gonna tell me where we are?"
His eyes went wide in amazement; he put his hand over his mouth. "Oh Rose! This is brilliant!" He gave a little giggle and grinned at her. "No, really. Absolutely brilliant! The stuff of legend."
"What?" she laughed. "Where are we?" She was getting excited as she picked up on his emotion.
He quickly went into lecturing mode. "We are on Earth. 510 A.D. 21st of June. It's a Monday. We are in the City of Legions, also known as Chester, and this is the really cool bit, outside of those doors..." He pointed at the wooden doors of the TARDIS.
"What? What? Tell me. Where are we?" she squealed.
He waggled his eyebrows and grinned. "The courtyard of Camelot castle. The home of the legendary King Arthur!"
Rose's mouth fell open, her eyes like saucers. "No! You are kiddin' me."
