"The Mistaken M. Jones"
22. What Befell
Earth, in the year 4524
The Doctor had followed the others and shut the door once both Merit and Clara were on board. Before any kind of introductions or reintroductions could be made, the TARDIS had taken flight once again, leaving behind the detention facility and the planet itself.
"Merit?" Mercedes blinked when she saw him and recognized him. He looked at her, still in his sister's old clothes, the ones he'd given her ten years ago. She looked the same; he was now thirty-one, had been imprisoned for those last five years… "Are you okay?"
"Better now," he promised her before turning and spotting Annabel. "I know you…"
"Ah, yes, Merit, meet Annabel, the new owner of your old house," the Doctor pointed from one to the other. Merit bowed his head to the woman. It wasn't as though he had any desire – or possibility, really – to return to his former residence. They'd only come and lock him up again. "Why don't the two of you go to the kitchen, you must be famished, and then maybe stop to change clothes," the Doctor pointed.
"Where's the…" Annabel started to ask.
"You'll find it," the Doctor insisted, pointing the way again. So they went.
"Doctor, who was that, the… the shimmer girl?" Clara asked.
"What?" he turned to her, unsure for a moment. "Oh, her, yes, well… She's a girl… who shimmers," he enunciated.
"You fancy her or what?" Clara frowned, still unclear.
"Clara…" he stared at her as though she'd said a bad word. "She shimmers, she… appears," he mimed. "Been following me, popping in for years, and I've never gotten her to tell me why…"
"Or her actual name," Clara nodded.
"Or that," he confirmed.
"She came to me," Mercedes spoke, and they turned to look at her, having forgotten she was there for a minute. "After my first jump, when they almost sent me on that ship, to the asteroid. She came, and she said you'd come, at least I'm pretty sure it was her. She disappeared, like you said."
"Always helpful that one," the Doctor looked back to the controls. He remembered a time when he could only feel as though someone was following him, or staring at him. Then he'd glimpsed her, earning her the only name he could put to her, and he'd tried to catch her in the act… That they were now interacting so casually, with no explanation on her part as to what she was doing, was maybe a concession on his part, having decided that she was no threat, that she was helping… And he remembered what she'd told him, the first time he'd gotten to speak with her…
"There's something else," Mercedes spoke. It took a moment before the Doctor realized she was talking to him, and he turned back to her.
"Sorry?" he asked. Mercedes looked around, making sure the others hadn't returned yet.
"When we watched that message from Lenton... I think…" She didn't want to say it, didn't want it to be real. She'd started to care for Merit, and she thought she understood something about him, and Lenton, and if what she thought was true, then…
"He was the one you met in the park, the one who put that cuff on you?" the Doctor guessed, and she stared up at him, speechless and nodding. "Yes, of course he was."
"But… he died," Mercedes reminded him.
"I know," the Doctor looked as sad as he sounded. Clara had the same sort of morose face, standing silently next to him. "For now, let's just keep this to ourselves, agreed?" the Doctor asked, and they both gave silent agreements, just before Merit and Annabel returned. "There, now, that's more like it!" the Doctor turned on a smile, and Mercedes didn't know how he could do it so seamlessly.
"Nothing to be done about this, unfortunately," Merit touched his hair, which had been tied back, for lack of a better treatment.
"I've seen worse… I've had worse," the Doctor reassured him. "And you should see what Clara's got under that wig… ow!" he flinched when she gave him a sharp little kick. He stood back up straight, taking a step sideways away from her. "Right then, the asteroid… We will have to track it again, I'm afraid. It should have been in here somewhere, but it seems to have gotten lost… So much clutter."
"If you can put things in my head, can you get them out, too?" Mercedes asked. He stared at her, about to ask why she wanted to know, and then he pointed at her, smiling.
"Yes! You saw it, you… oh, Mercedes Jones, you wear the name well, come here," he dashed to her. "Now, concentrate on that moment, when you saw it, much faster. Ready? And…" he put his hands to her face, closed his eyes. She did the same, following his instructions. "Oh, there's me… and me again… I would have looked dreadful in that rainbow hair, wouldn't I? Ah ha! Here it is, the asteroid! Good, now…" He was already running when he let go, and Mercedes would have tripped forward if not for Clara being there to stop her momentum.
Soon the TARDIS was in flight, following the coordinates the Doctor had gotten out of Mercedes' memory. For each of them, reaching the asteroid would have some meaning, whether they'd been waiting or not. For Merit and Annabel, the asteroid held answers, just as it meant finding long lost loved ones. For Mercedes, it meant possibly the end of this adventure she'd been pulled into by mistake. For Clara, having known so little, was already feeling for those people trapped there. For the Doctor, it was the end of a centuries' old mystery.
But for the TARDIS, it was the last place it wanted to be, they gathered, because as soon as they got near enough, the ship gave a sudden and violent shake, as though bucking away from a blaze, or the edge of a cliff… It would not take them there.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)