Chapter 20: The Girl in the Fireplace
Everyone mingles and chats while eating. Sarah-Jane and Mickey chat about K9 and everything he can do. Rose tries to get to know Donna better while Jack and Martha sit and talk about Jack's various exploits. Both Doctors head off into a corner to discuss the future. They note down the events so far that are ones the Doctor will still need to go to and ones that can be missed out. Then they list how to deal with the unavoidable ones. When it comes to Torchwood, Ten runs his hands through his hair in ever growing frustration. Soon after, Sarah-Jane calls them all back to continue watching. They all resume their previous seats and Jack presses the button.
The TARDIS materialises on a spaceship with a long central hub and two rotating sections, one larger than the other. Mickey is thrilled he got a spaceship on his first trip. There are lots of bits and pieces of equipment scattered around. Rose asks if there is anyone on board and the Doctor says nothing dangerous around. Then he corrects himself to not that dangerous and then says he will do a scan in case there is anything dangerous.
"In other words, you have no idea what's around." Donna sniggers.
"Ooh, look at you doing scans." Rose teases.
Rose asks what the date is and he tells her they are about three thousand years into her future. He finds the light switch on a console. Part of the ceiling shows the stars. He tells them they are in the fifty first century and two and a half galaxies away from Earth.
"That's awesome." Rose grins.
"So what's an abandoned spaceship doing just floating in space?" Martha asks.
"The fun part is finding out." Jack winks at her.
Rose asks if he sees anything he likes as the Doctor examines the parts lying around. Mickey replies it's so realistic.
"That's because it's real." Nine tells him in a voice that suggests he is talking to a five year old.
"Play nice." Rose tells him quietly.
"You didn't want him there either." He replies, equally quietly.
"Yeah well, after meeting Sarah-Jane and realising some stuff I probably fancied a bit of time just the two of us. Which is exactly what you're avoiding by bringing him on board."
"Well, I can't imagine ever getting desperate enough to do that." Nine sniffs. "Even with what we just saw."
The Doctor frowns down at some cables and comments there have been some cowboys in there. He notes there is enough power in the ship to punch a hole in the universe yet the ship isn't moving. Rose asks where the crew went and he tells her that's a good question as there are no life readings on board.
"What could possibly take up that much power? They don't even have enough left over to move." Jack frowns unhappily. That doesn't sound good.
"Why did you even land on an abandoned spaceship?" Donna asks.
"Mickey wanted a spaceship." Ten shrugs.
Rose points out they didn't exactly nip outside for a fag and the Doctor replies he checked the smoking pods.
"They have those?" Martha asks in disgust.
"No, course not." Ten laughs.
"Forgive us for not assuming you'd be making jokes." Donna rolls her eyes.
"Oi! I make plenty of jokes." Ten defends. Everyone just looks at him and he sinks back against the couch and grumbles.
Mickey and the Doctor both sniff and he asks if Rose can smell that. She agrees someone is cooking and Mickey eagerly adds on it's definitely sunday roast.
Mickey winces at that as he knows exactly what is cooking.
The Doctor uses the console to open a door behind them. The far wall is panelled, and contains a blazing fire in an ornate fireplace, with an ormolu clock on the mantlepiece. The Doctor notes it is a French, eighteenth century fireplace and it's double sided. Rose looks out the porthole of the same wall and into space.
"Well, you said it had enough power to punch a hole in the universe." Sarah-Jane remarks dryly.
"But why eighteenth century France?" Rose asks.
"Have you see the girls there?" Jack asks with a wink and a grin.
The Doctor says hello to a young girl in a nightgown who is kneeling by the fire on the other side of the fireplace. He asks her name and she tells him it's Reinette. He asks where she is and she replies her bedroom in Paris. She asks what he is doing in her fireplace.
"A fair question." Martha shrugs.
The Doctor pauses before saying it's a routine fire check.
"Really? With a real fire burning?" Rose rolls her eyes.
"Didn't have much time to think of anything else." Ten grins. He'd rather forget this whole adventure ever happened but, as usual, it seemed he wasn't going to get his way.
When asked she tells him it is 1727 and he tells her it's a lovely year but August is rubbish. She looks slightly confused but then he tells her that is all and they wish each other goodnight. Mickey points out the Doctor said it was the fifty first century and he replies that they found the hole. He calls it a spatio-temporal hyperlink before admitting that's made up and he didn't want to call it a magic door.
They all snigger except the Doctors.
"Don't want to call anything magic, do you Doctor?" Martha smirks.
"It's not magic, it's science but scientific door doesn't really work either." Nine frowns.
Rose asks if on the other side is France 1727 and he states she was speaking the right period French. Mickey points out she was speaking English and Rose tells him the TARDIS translates.
"You say that so calmly, like you didn't freak out when I told you." Nine teases.
"Well, my problem wasn't the fact she translates for me, it was that you didn't ask to be tampering with my brain." Rose replies.
Mickey asks even French.
"Nope, it translates every language in the universe except French." Nine rolls his eyes.
"Hey! How was I supposed to know. It's not like I got a crash course on alien technology." Mickey snaps back.
Rose tells him yes as the Doctor calls out 'gotcha' and rotates the fireplace. Rose calls out to him but he is gone.
"You tell me not to wander off." Rose frowns at him.
"Weeeell...I never was one for following the rules." Ten grins sheepishly.
The fireplace rotates into Reinette's bedroom. It is snowing outside. Reinette wakes with a start as a floorboard creaks. He tells her not to scream and introduces himself as the fireplace man. He lights a candle with his screwdriver and Reinette tells him it has been months since he was in her fireplace.
"Months? You were gone a few second?" Donna frowns.
"Loose connection." Ten tells her. "It could have been years later."
The Doctor is surprised and goes over to examine the fireplace before stating there must be a loose connection. Reinette asks who he is and what he is doing there. The Doctor looks at the clock on the mantel. The ticking is fairly loud. He announces that is scary.
"Scary?" Mickey raises an eyebrow. Sure the droids weren't pleasant but a clock wasn't exactly scary.
"Yep." Ten nods.
She asks if he is scared of a broken clock.
"Broken? Then what's ticking?" Sarah-Jane asks anxiously.
"That's a good question and why a broken clock is a little bit scary." Ten tells her.
The Doctor asks what the noise is, if that clock is broken and the only one in the room. He adds it isn't a clock, it's too big and he guesses it's the size of a man. Reinette looks scared as she asks what it is. The Doctor starts talking about how, if you were a thing that ticked, the first thing to do is break the clock as two ticking sounds might make you wonder if you're really alone.
"That's creepy." Rose shrinks back slightly against Nine.
He suddenly stops and looks at the bed before telling her to stay right in the middle and not put her hands or feet over the edge. The Doctor waves the screwdriver under the bed. Something knocks it out of his hand. He then sees a pair of shoes and slowly stands up.
"That thing moved bloody fast." Donna mutters.
"Yeah, it got out from under the bed and stood up in about a second." Mickey frowns. He didn't remember them being quite that fast.
The Doctor whispers for Reinette not to look round. A figure in a smiley mask is standing behind her. He gets to his feet as he tells the figure to stay exactly where he is. Then he looks at Reinette and tells her to hold still. The Doctor holds Reinette's head and looks deep into her eyes. He states the figure has been scanning her brain, asking what they could possibly want with her. Reinette is scared as she asks if they are after her. She turns round and asks what it wants with her. It replies she is incomplete.
"Incomplete?" Sarah-Jane frowns.
"Not old enough maybe?" Jack suggests. "What could they need her for? It's not like she's going to know how to fix a fifty first century spaceship or anything."
The Doctor asks what it means by incomplete but there is no answer. He states if it can answer her, it can answer him. He points his screwdriver at it. It then marches round the bed and a blade comes out of its hand. Reinette tells the Doctor to be careful. He reassures her it's just a nightmare.
"One heck of a nightmare." Rose mutters.
The droid slashes and the Doctor dodges. He continues that even monsters have nightmares. It slashes again and the blade gets stuck in the mantelpiece. Reinette asks what monsters have nightmares about. He calls out him and he activates the mechanism and the fireplace rotates.
"So that thing came from the ship?" Martha asks. "It might not be the only one then."
Rose calls out as the Doctor grabs a tube from a nearby rack and fires its contents over the android. It seizes up. Mickey calls it and ice gun and the Doctor corrects it's a fire extinguisher.
"Not quite as cool." Mickey mutters.
"The point wasn't to be cool, it was to stop it." Ten rolls his eyes. "You're the one who's the entertainment, not me."
Rose asks where it came from and the Doctor tells her it came from the ship. He explains as it went to France it has some basic camouflage protocol, commenting it's a shame about the face. The Doctor removes the android's face to reveal clockwork. He exclaims it's beautiful.
"Least you picked a better time to admire stuff. Stop it first, then call it beautiful." Rose laughs.
He states it would be a crime to disassemble it but that won't stop him. He draws out his screwdriver as the droid reactivates and beams away. The Doctor states it's a short range teleport and could still be on board. Rose asks what it is as the Doctor fiddles with the fireplace again. He tells them not to go looking for it and he will be back in a sec. He vanishes and Rose hefts the fire extinguisher.
"I said don't go looking for it." Nine groans.
"Yeah, well, I guess I follow your example and don't follow the rules." Rose shrugs. "If you're going to vanish every five seconds, we might as well go do something too."
"Not looking for trouble that can chop your head off would be a good start." He retorts.
Mickey looks dubious, pointing out the Doctor said not to look for it. Rose agrees he did. Mickey gets another fire extinguisher from the rack and she grins saying he is getting it now.
"No! He's not getting it. Stop teaching him to not listen to me." Ten rolls his eyes in annoyance.
This is not a little girl's room. It is a big, plush, split level room. The Doctor calls for Reinette and plays a few notes on the harp. Reinette appears and clears her throat.
Jack wolf whistles.
The Doctor looks at her in admiration with a hint of awkwardness saying he was looking for Reinette. A voice calls that they are ready to go and Reinette tells her mother she will join her at the carriage. She congratulates the Doctor on his persistence.
"Imaginary friend?" Jack laughs.
"Well, he did tell her last time he was there was all a nightmare." Martha points out.
He comments on how she has grown and she tells him he hasn't aged a day which is tremendously impolite.
"She's not wrong." Martha mutters.
"Even taking out the fact he doesn't age, it has only been five minutes for him. Me and Rose wouldn't have aged a day either." Mickey shrugs at her.
He states he best be off in case her mother finds her with a strange man. She asks how he can be a stranger when she has known him since she was seven.
"She hasn't known you since she was seven. She met you twice for two minutes." Rose scoffs. "Still a stranger."
"You're one to talk. You ran off with a stranger." Nine points out.
"Still spent basically a whole day with you first. Got a name and everything. Even then I won't deny you were a stranger." Rose replies.
He says she has but he came the quick route. She puts her hand on his cheek and states he seems to be flesh and blood despite reason saying he cannot be real. He tells her you never want to listen to reason.
"Oh really? So when reason says to not go looking for the droid...we shouldn't listen to it?" Rose asks slyly.
"Alright, maybe not never, most of the time don't listen to reason." Ten grins. "Unless I'm doing the reasoning, then you should listen."
A different voice calls that her mother grows impatient. Reinette calls back for a moment and then turns back to the Doctor. She suddenly kisses him, pushing him up against the wall. He kisses her back until the voice calls again for Mademoiselle Poisson.
Jack wolf whistles.
"Reinette Poisson?" Nine looks at his future counterpart in astonishment. Ten grins soppily for a second.
"Yep. Madame de Pompadour!" Rose looks up at the incredulous expression on Nine and then to the happy expression on Ten. She tries not to think about the insecurities welling up about how she can, in no way, compare to such a woman. She realises that she had no claim on him at this point in time but he had told her just the day before that she was special. Then he went off snogging other, more accomplished, women. Nine suddenly looks down and notices Rose trying to shrink into the seat.
"You ok?" He whispers, so as not to stop the episode.
"Yeah, fine." She lies.
"You're a terrible liar." He smirks. She shrugs and doesn't respond. Ten looks over at both of them and frowns when he sees Rose looking like she wishes she could be anywhere else.
Reinette runs out. The servant enters. The Doctor realises who she is and lists of everything she is good at.
Rose sinks further into Nine's side. She wishes violently that he had never changed. Her Doctor wouldn't do that. Or, at least, she likes to think he wouldn't.
"You wanna talk about this later?" Nine asked her. She shakes her head. Nothing to talk about really. So he kissed someone. She's sure it isn't the first, nor the last time. He studies her for a second. "You're fantastic you know. Don't ever doubt that for a second." He whispers in her ear. She lets the words wash over her and snuggles closer to him, though that's not really possible. However she does pull her hand out of Ten's. He looks up at this and frowns again as he really studies Rose's expression. He opens his mouth but Rose shakes her head at him and gestures at the screen.
Meanwhile the servant asked who the hell he was and he states he is the Doctor and he just snogged Madame de Pompadour. He then presses the switch and the fireplace revolves around back to the ship. He calls for Rose and Mickey. They aren't there so he goes off to look for them mumbling about how they do this every time.
"Oi! It's my first trip. Rose is the bad influence." Mickey protests.
"I know." Ten replies, smirking over at Rose. He then notices her still grim face and frowns but Nine shakes his head.
He states there could be anything on the ship and as he turns a corner there is a white horse with a bridle and saddle.
"If there could be anything, why leave us there alone? The 'anything' could have found us by then even if we didn't wander off." Rose points out, more sharply than usual.
"The TARDIS was nearby for you to go into if anything dangerous came along." Ten explains, still frowning, not liking it when she is mad at him.
Mickey is trying to be clever whilst searching the spaceship. A camera with an eyeball in the middle blinks at him. He asks if it is looking at him. The camera extends from the bulkhead for a closer look. Rose approaches. He tells her it's a real eye. The camera goes back into the bulkhead. Rose opens a small hatch and we hear thump-thump, thump-thump. They gaze down along the wires and pipes.
"That's a heart!" Sarah-Jane explains.
"Any guesses what happened to the crew?" Jack asks darkly.
Mickey asks what it is and Rose points out it is a human heart.
"But why would they use the crew for spare parts? That still doesn't explain why they need her." Martha points out.
The Doctor wanders down another corridor calling for Rose. The horse follows him.
"You've made a new friend." Donna sniggers. "Least that one might listen to you."
He turns to the horse, which is walking behind him and tells it to stop following him, he isn't its mother.
"Don't tell me you end up wanting to keep it?" Rose sighs in exasperation. Ten notes she directs the question at his younger self, rather than him.
"I let you keep Mickey." Nine points out with a smirk.
"You allowed him to come. He's yours." Rose sniggers. "You don't get a horse as well."
"My ship, my rules." Nine tells her haughtily.
"Yeah, yeah."
The Doctor opens a pair of white wooden doors and bright light floods in. He asks if this is where the horse came from. Reinette is walking and laughing with a dark skinned woman. The Doctor smiles at the sight but ducks behind a pillar when she turns around.
"Don't want to risk another snog eh, Doc?" Jack winks. "Might snag both of then this time."
"That's more your game than mine, Jack." Ten tells him firmly.
"Well, more fun for me then." Jack agrees happily.
The discuss the King needing a new mistress. The Doctor is watching from behind a stone urn on a wall. A peacock calls and Reinette turns around. He hides. Katherine asks if something is wrong which Reinette dismisses and they continue to discuss the upcoming ball.
"So they all just compete to be the King's mistress? I need to land in eighteenth century France." Jack mutters.
"And become King." Donna snorts.
"No, just comfort all those that don't make it." He winks.
Rose and Mickey are watched as they explore. Mickey states it might not be a real heart and Rose tells him of course it was. He asks if this is an average day and she corrects there are no more average days.
"Average days? Boring." Nine rolls his eyes.
They stop by a large window. Mickey notes they can see France again. Louis enters the room beyond, with two men. Mickey wonders who he is and the Doctor appears behind them telling the he is the King of France.
"Nice to see you found us eventually." Mickey sighs.
"The ship's not that big." Ten smirks.
Rose is pleased to see him, asking what he's been up to. He gives a vague answer about becoming the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat and picking a fight with a clockwork man.
"Did a bit more than become her imaginary friend." Sarah-Jane frowns.
"Well, that wasn't really the important bit." Ten shrugs.
"You seemed pretty damn proud of yourself when you came back out of the fireplace." Martha rolls her eyes.
"Yes...well...it's not important in the grand scheme of things. Besides, imagine how happy you'd be if you got to snog...say...a celebrity crush of yours." He retorts, noting, out of the corner of his eye, how unhappy Rose was looking again.
"You saying Madame de Pompadour is your celebrity crush?" Jack smirks.
"Sort of. The closest approximation." Ten agrees.
He adds he also met a horse as the horse appears. Mickey asks what a horse is doing on a spaceship. The Doctor asks what pre-Revolutionary France is doing on a spaceship and tells him to get some perspective.
"Oi! It was a valid question." Mickey snaps. The past couple of episodes hadn't done much for his mood and he was looking forward to a stopping for the day despite only just having lunch.
"Yet, not a particularly important one." Ten retorts straight away.
Reinette enters the room and curtseys to the King. The Doctor tells them the time windows are all arranged along her Reinette's life. Rose asks who she is and he explains who she is and about becoming the King's mistress.
"Interesting ambition, becoming a MIstress." Donna scoffs.
"Well, easy life, rooms in the palace and being friends with a King all have benefits." Jack tells her.
The King and his servants leave. Reinette checks her appearance in the mirror/window. Rose sarcastically comments how the Queen must have loved her but the Doctor corrects that the two got along well. Rose is sceptical and he calls France a different planet.
"I love it." Jack grins widely.
Reinette turns to see a woman with her back to her in the corner. She demands it show itself. It's the clockwork droid. The Doctor grabs a fire extinguisher from Mickey and rotates the mirror. He greets her by saying hasn't time flown. She calls him fireplace man.
"Not imaginary friend anymore then?" Sarah-Jane asks, slightly amused.
"Hard to find someone imaginary when you've snogged them so thoroughly." Rose mutters.
"Maybe a fantasy instead?" Jack offers with a wink at Ten.
"I knew I hated pretty boys for a reason." Nine grumbles quietly. Rose giggles slightly and Ten looks at them unhappily, trying to understand why Rose is mad at him but not his younger counterpart.
The Doctor sprays the android and throws the extinguisher back to Mickey. The droid creaks. Mickey asks what it is doing and the Doctor states it is turning on to melt the ice. When it doesn't answer his question, he asks Reinette to make it answer.
"Why would it only answer to her when it's trying to kill her?" Donna asks, confused.
"It answered when she spoke to it as a child. It's a reasonable assumption it will still answer to her." Sarah-Jane points out. "But as for why it only answers to her, I'm not sure."
"Well, the ship has a whole bunch of time windows along her life. When she was little it stated she was incomplete. They must be looking for a time she is complete, maybe whatever they need her for is why they only answer to her." Rose notes.
"Seems most likely." Martha nods.
Reinette asks why it would listen to her and he states he doesn't know but it did before. Confused, she tells the droid to answer any of the Doctor's questions. The droid tells them it is repair droid seven.
"Repair droid?" Jack questions. "The ship obviously needs repairing, but that still doesn't explain the lack of crew."
"That heart we found." Rose realises. "They fixed parts of the ship with parts of the crew!"
"That's disgusting." Martha frowns.
The Doctor asks what happened to the ship. It explains there was an ion storm and they had eighty two percent system failure. He asks what has taken them so long to fix it and it states it didn't have the parts. He questions it about the crew but it keeps repeating they didn't have the parts. The Doctor soon realises what happened. Rose points out the parts they found.
"Whoever programmed those droids was a bit of an idiot." Jack scowls. "What can they still be missing though?"
They remember the flight deck smelt of someone cooking.
"I meant someone doing the cooking, not being cooked." Rose looks disgusted.
He asks the droid why it came to France and it replies one more part is needed. When he asks why they haven't got it yet, it replies she is incomplete. Rose asks why her and the droid tells them they are the same.
"Hardly." Sarah-Jane frowns. "What could a girl in the eighteenth century have in common with a droid from the fifty first?"
Reinette protests they are not the same and when it states they are she orders it to leave. The Doctor tries to tell her not to but the droid teleports away. He realises it went back to the ship and tells Rose to take Mickey and Arthur to watch it.
"You named the horse Arthur?" Martha laughs.
"It's a good name." Ten protests.
Rose questions Arthur and he tells her it's a good name for a horse. Rose tells him he isn't keeping it. He retorts he let her keep Mickey and yells at them to go. They go through and the Doctor closes the window.
"I'm not keeping Mickey. You brought him on board." Rose grumbles angrily. "Don't say you thought I wanted him there, I was clearly against it in the last thing we watched." She adds quietly as Ten opens his mouth.
The Doctor turns to Reinette and says he needs to find what they are looking for and tells her it won't hurt.
"Why do you think she would know what they are looking for?" Rose asks sharply. First he kissed her, now looking inside her mind, it was driving her crazy despite having no real claim on him at the time. Nine squeezes her gently.
"I was hoping I would see what they had been scanning." Ten replies with a confused frown.
Reinette states he is inside her mind and he mutters she has had some cowboys in there. In the ship corridor, Mickey is annoying Rose again about the Doctor and women, listing off Reinette, Sarah-Jane and Cleopatra. Rose angrily retorts that he mentioned Cleopatra once.
Ten looks from screen Mickey to Rose in dawning comprehension. At the time he hadn't seen anything wrong with his behaviour, especially since Rose had Mickey. Admittedly he had brought Mickey on board to put some space between the two of them but he had also thought that she would want to spend more time with Mickey and not him. However, he reminds himself it's not like he was flaunting anything in Rose's face. If not for this stupid thing she would never have known Reinette had kissed him and so wouldn't be mad at him.
Mickey calls back that he called her Cleo.
"Would you give it a rest!" Rose finally snaps. "It's no wonder I didn't want you on board if this is what you plan on spending your whole time doing."
"I was just pointing out the facts to you." Mickey defends, looking hurt.
"No, you were trying to rub it in my face I would never be good enough for him!" She cries back angrily.
"Woah now, that is not true. You are far too good for me, Rose." Nine steps in, glaring at Mickey.
"First in that damn chippy, now this and it's only been, what, a day?" Rose continues like Nine had never spoken. "You used Trisha Delaney to try and make me jealous, at least he isn't doing it deliberately to hurt me."
"You were my girlfriend and ran off with another man! Of course I was upset and trying to make you jealous. You just can't see any of the Doctor's faults, you put him on a pedestal and of course that was also going to upset me." Mickey retorts, getting angry himself. "I hate seeing you chasing after him with moon eyes when he is spending all his time looking at other women."
"I am not…" Ten begins.
"I thought you'd said you were ok with this?" Jack cuts him off to address Mickey.
"I thought I was too, but watching it all over again is damn difficult." Mickey scowls.
"Enough!" Nine yells. "Rose, snapping at Ricky isn't going to change comments he's made in the past. He's not making them in here, so just ignore him." She nods unhappily. "We'll talk about the other stuff later." He adds in an undertone before pulling her back against him and kissing the top of her head.
Rose calls out for Mickey as a droid grabs Mickey by the throat. Another grabs Rose from behind. They inject them with something and they go limp.
"Just brilliant." Rose mutters.
Reinette mutters that the Doctor walks among her memories. He tells her to imagine a door in front of anything she doesn't want him to see. He spots a door, telling her she might want to clo, before cutting himself off and saying there are several.
"She's enjoying herself." Sarah-Jane notes, frowning.
She asks if he ever gets used to this and he replies he doesn't make a habit of it.
"How can you still talk to her and she to you? I could barely think, let alone talk out loud?" Rose asks Nine sadly, thinking this is just another thing Reinette is better than her at.
"I was just sifting through her memories, that's different and less consuming than what we did. I wasn't just looking at memories, I was trying to show you emotions, even I had to pull back slightly before any talking was possible as that requires a lot more concentration." He tries to explain. He notices Rose still looks unconvinced.
"Yours in the most beautiful mind I've ever seen." Ten leans over to join the whispered conversation. "Even if was only for a few seconds. Don't ever doubt that." She smiles at him gratefully.
He asks how old she is and she comments that it is promising he asks such an impertinent question so early in the conversation.
"Well, you were just saying you've known him all your life. Hardly makes it impertinent." Donna rolls her eyes.
He tells her it is the droid's question, not his. She is twenty three and that isn't old enough. She shifts slightly and he tells her old memories might reawaken as a side effect. She whispers about having such a lonely childhood. He tells her it will pass and she calls him Doctor, saying very alone.
"You let her inside your head?" Nine asks furiously. He was angry at the personal intrusion anyway, but also angry because of how he expected Rose to take the news that Reinette had been inside his head given how difficult he had told her it was. He was noticing more and more that she seemed to think far less of herself than she should and this whole stupid episode was not making that any better. He mentally cursed his stupid, pretty boy self.
"I didn't let her!" Ten whispered back equally furiously. "She managed to step through the door I opened into her mind."
"You didn't think to close the door behind you?"
"Didn't think I needed to. Humans aren't supposed to be able to do that." Ten retorts angrily. Although he knew his anger was more directed at himself than at his younger self. That thought confused the hell out of him.
"Since when has she called you Doctor?" Martha asks warily.
"Since she looked back into my mind." Ten tells her through gritted teeth.
He scoffs, saying she has never been alone before his eyes snap open and he asks when she started calling him Doctor. She keeps saying a lonely little boy, asking how he bears it. He stands back, breaking the link, asking how she did that. She states that a door, once open, can be used in either direction.
"Not that easily." Nine tells the room at large. "Most humans don't have the ability to do that without guidance."
"Well, if she can do that, maybe that's a reason they want her." Donna suggests. "Not sure why her age matters though."
She asks him to dance with her. He states that he can't. He reminds her it is the night she should dance with the King and she replies she will make him jealous first. Then she asks if his name is more than just a secret and he asks what she saw. She tells him there comes a time a lonely boy must learn to dance.
"I can dance just fine." Ten mutter petulantly.
They walk off and he has clearly given in.
"Brilliant. Mickey and I got captured and you're off snogging her again." Rose growls.
"It was just a dance." Ten protests weakly.
"You'd just sent us off to chase something that was possibly deadly to us while you go off to a party. I can see how much our safety matters to you now." She snarks.
"Your safety is always important." He snaps, angry she would doubt that and even angrier he had given her a reason to.
Rose and Mickey are strapped to slanted tables, opposite the Tardis. Many droids are present. She immediately asks what is going on and calls out for the Doctor.
Ten winces slightly.
Mickey calls out that they are going to be chopped up before pointing out her precious Doctor has been gone for hours.
"Hours Doctor?" Sarah-Jane looks at him in disappointment.
"Well, the time windows always seemed to drop us off seconds after we left, only Reinette's side moved quickly." Ten shrugs.
The droid states they are compatible. Rose tells it to think about that as they didn't come alone and the droids don't want to mess with their designated driver. The droid extends his blade, with a little cogged wheel spinning at the end. She tries to tell them the Daleks had myths about their friend when there is a crash and drunken singing off screen.
"Really Doctor?" Even Jack is frowning at him now. "Don't get me wrong, I love a good party, especially with the French but definitely the wrong time."
"We should just be grateful he came back at all." Mickey mutters.
Rose keeps trying to get out his name when the Doctor sways in, carrying a goblet and wearing his tie around his head.
"Oh for God's sake!" Rose rolls her eyes.
"I can't actually get drunk Rose, at least not on what they'll be offering at a French party." Ten assures her. "I'm just faking it."
"That makes me feel so much better." She mutters sarcastically.
He keeps talking as Rose sighs and states look what the cat dragged in, calling him the Oncoming Storm. He tells her she sounds like her mother.
"My mother might just have a point." Rose tells him.
"Well, let's not go too far." Nine grins at her.
She asks where he has been and he tells her he invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early and to always take a banana to a party. He calls the droids very thick and tells them they have been scanning Reinette for her age. The ship is thirty seven so they think she needs to be thirty seven before her brain is compatible. Only her brain will do. The droid says Rose's brain is compatible. The Doctor states that if it believes that it will probably believe he is holding a glass of wine.
"See? Still perfectly sober. Good job on trying to stall though, didn't say that at the time." He looks at Rose.
The Doctor removes the droid's mask and pours the contents of the goblet into its head. The clockwork seizes up. He tells them it is multigrain anti-oil. The Doctor finds the droid off switch on the console. He frees Rose and Mickey before trying to turn off the ship.
"If you shut down the ship will those windows close too?" Donna asks. Nine nods.
"That would be too easy." Mickey scoffs.
Mickey asks if they are safe and the Doctor agrees. He tries to close all the time windows. Rose asks why they didn't just open a window to when she's thirty seven and he explains that with the damage done it was trial and error. The windows won't close when a bell rings. The Doctor guesses it is an incoming message.
"So one of them is still out there?" Sarah-Jane asks.
"Yep." Ten sighs.
He realises one of them is still in the field. The first droid reactivates and expels the anti-oil out through its finger onto the floor. The Doctor comments that was a bit clever as the off switch moves itself on again. The bell rings again and the Doctor asks if it is anything interesting. The droid states she is complete before they all teleport out.
"They found the right window." Jack guesses.
Rose asks what's going on and the Doctor realises they found the right time. Reinette looks out of a window and Rose comes in. She asks her not to scream.
They all snicker slightly.
Rose states she's come to warn her that the droids will be arriving in five years, sometime after her thirty seventh birthday. She tries to explain before saying the Doctor does it better.
"Well, sticking your tongue down someone's throat often distracts them long enough for no explanation." Jack smirks.
"You'd know all about that." Mickey rolls his eyes.
Reinette tells her to be exact and she will listen. Rose points out there isn't time and Reinette counters they have five years. Rose tells her she doesn't have five minutes so the woman tells her to be quick as well. She explains about the ship and how it has parts of her life there. Reinette catches on quickly and Rose mutters the Doctor was right about her.
"Better than her being completely confused. Makes for a quicker explanation." Sarah-Jane nods.
Reinette asks what can be done about the creatures. Rose tells her to keep them talking as they are programmed to listen to her. Reinette asks until what and Rose says until the Doctor can get there. She is happy the Doctor will be coming but annoyed he can't make the promise in person.
"A bit busy at the time trying to find the window to keep my promise." Ten rolls his eyes.
Rose tells her he will be there when she needs him. Reinette points out you can't have the Doctor without the monsters and Rose mutters to tell her about it.
Both Doctors flinch.
Rose points out the creatures are messing with time and that Reinette wasn't supposed to have either. She isn't happy about that and states she would tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.
"I'm not worth that." Nine whispers.
"Yeah you are. Everyone in this room thinks so." Rose whispers back.
Mickey's voice comes calling for Rose. Reinette and Rose go out. Mickey appears from behind a tapestry. He tells her they found the right time window. Reinette walks under the tapestry while Rose tells her not to.
"Annoying when they don't listen, isn't it?" Ten smirks at Rose.
Reinette comments this is his world when screams sound in the distance and she asks what that is. Mickey explains the Doctor fixed an audio link with the correct window. Reinette realises that is her future and when Rose tells her it is, she agrees she must take the slow path. Her future voice sounds again and Mickey states they need to go. Rose tells him to go on ahead and when he leaves, asks Reinette if she is ok. Reinette admits she is afraid but says she and Rose both know the Doctor is worth the monsters.
"Definitely." Everyone agrees, except Mickey. He stays silent and glowers at the floor.
Reinette goes back through the tapestry. In Versailles the droids are chasing people through a corridor. Reinette calls into a fireplace and the King tells her they should leave. Three droids enter the room and tell her she is complete. Rose runs into the room with the Doctor and Mickey and the Doctor says the droids have blocked off the window so they can't get through.
"The TARDIS?" Martha asks.
"We are part of events, can't use it." Ten tells her.
"I thought that was just you can't cross your own timeline? You've not been to that part of the timeline." Mickey frowns.
"It's complicated and not worth taking the risk." Ten tells him firmly.
Reinette is led by a droid and King Louis is behind her with two more. She asks where the droids are taking her and it states the teleport has limited range so they need to get closer. She tells them their words mean nothing. The ballroom is visible on a large screen in the bulkhead. Rose states they could go in the TARDIS and the Doctor shoots down the idea. Mickey suggests smashing through and the Doctor says they would need a truck. He points out they don't have a truck and the Doctor yells he knows they don't have a truck.
"Snappy snappy." Donna rolls her eyes. She'd never let the Doctor get away with talking to her like he did to Mickey.
"Well he was pointing out very obvious things." Nine shakes his head.
Rose says they have to try something and the Doctor tells her if they smash the glass there will be no way back.
"Definitely not then." Sarah-Jane looks slightly alarmed.
"Surely if Rose or Mickey went through and stopped the droids, you could pick them up in the TARDIS. I get you can't use it to save the situation but you could pick them up afterwards couldn't you?" Jack looks at Ten. He looks sheepish as he hadn't thought of that.
"Well I wouldn't send Ricky through there and there isn't enough time to explain to Rose exactly how to stop them." Nine points out.
Reinette calms everyone down and tells the droids she won't be going with them as she has no desire to step foot in their world. It tells her they don't need her feet. She is forced to her knees and three droids point their weapons at her. She states she is not scared of them as they are just a nightmare from her childhood.
"Nightmares that can actually kill you." Martha points out.
She says if her nightmares can return to plague her, theirs can too. Somewhere a horse neighs, then the sound of galloping hooves. The mirror over the mantlepiece is smashed as the Doctor jumps the horse through it. He winks at Reinette and then dismounts. He grins happily, telling her she looks younger everyday.
"You just smashed the time window! With no way back!" Rose explodes at him.
"I had to save history." He murmurs quietly, not meeting her eyes.
"Rose, he obviously found a way back, or he wouldn't have met any of us." Donna points out.
"Or he stayed on the slow path and picked up his ship. Just because he met you at that time doesn't mean he didn't get stuck somewhere for a very long time." Jack reminds her quietly, his eyes not leaving Rose.
"You thought you'd never make it back. You left me and Mickey alone on a spaceship with no way home!" Rose tries to calm down but her voice gets louder again as her fury and terror increase.
"I will always find a way back to you. I'd have taken the slow path and hitched a lift with one of my past selves. You and Mickey wouldn't have even had chance to miss me." Ten tries to reason.
"With your driving? We'd be lucky if you hit the same damn century." Rose bites out. "It's not like I know how to activate Emergency Program One or have any other way of flying me and Mickey home." Mickey watches the argument with growing pleasure.
"Rosie." Jack tries to intervene. Despite his own anger at the Time Lord, a large argument in front of everyone wasn't going to help. Instead she turns to Nine
"How did you change so much? How did we go from what happened in Downing Street to you doing that without a thought?" She asks, almost begging. A tiny of part at the back of his brain notes that she is definitely happier with him than him as a pretty boy.
"Rose, no version of me could let history be destroyed like that. As a Time Lord that goes against my very being. So, of course, does letting you get hurt. I can't claim to know what was going through his head when he did that but I can sort of understand. Mind you, I'd rather risk taking the TARDIS than doing that." He keeps his tone gentle.
"You are one thick Time Lord." Donna states into the awkward silence that followed.
"Oi!" Ten protests, knowing she directed it at him and admitting to himself wasn't entirely wrong. Jack catches Rose's eye and open his arms. He jumps up and runs over to him. He pulls her into a hug before settling the both down on a bean bag. Both Doctors watch her sadly but don't argue, turning back to the screen.
He tells her she looks younger every day. Louis asks what the hell is going on. Reinette looks awkward as she introduces the Doctor to the King. He looks unimpressed before announcing he is the Lord of Time.
"Are you jealous?" Mickey asks, a smug grin firmly in place. Jack glares at him warningly.
"No, just unimpressed by the title of King." Ten tells him stiffly.
The Doctor adds he is here to fix a clock. He takes the mask off the main android. It points its blade at his throat. He tells it there is no point, it is over for both of them. He glances sadly at the clock talking about seven years of bad luck, for him it's closer to three thousand. There is a brick wall where once there was a portal to the spaceship.
"Could the ship open another one?" Sarah-Jane asks.
"No. Mickey and Rose wouldn't know how, not to mention there is no guarantee when it would come out." Jack mutters.
On the ship, Rose is staring where the time window had been. Mickey is asking how the Doctor will get back. A tear runs down Rose's cheek.
The same thing happens to the Rose in Jack's lap. He squeezed his arms around her tighter and she buried her face in his neck.
The Doctor tells the droids the link between them and the ship is broken. The droids all wind down. One of them falls backwards and breaks apart. He offers his hand to Reinette, asking if she is alright. She asks what happened to them and he explains they have no purpose anymore.
"So stopping them would have been easy. Just smash the screen and they wind down. You could have just sent the horse through by himself." Martha points out.
On the ship, Rose is still staring at the time window and Mickey points out they can't fly the TARDIS, asking again how he will get back. Rose looks up, out of the window to the stars outside. Later, the Doctor is looking up at the night sky. Reinette approaches and says he knows the names of them all, she saw it in his mind.
"She saw an awful lot in those few seconds." Sarah-Jane frowns.
"That is a huge part of who I am. Not surprising she saw that." Ten shrugs, not really thinking about it. His soul focus is the woman in Jack's arms. He wondered if she had resented him in the future. They had never really talked about what happened on that ship. Just moved on as he always did. Maybe she hadn't loved him anymore, was secretly glad to be stuck in that parallel world with her family.
The Doctor asks what's in a name. Adding that titles don't tell you anything. They talk about the stars and then she asks if he knew saving her would trap him. He agrees and she states yet he came. He grins slightly saying he did before muttering about catch him doing that again.
"You would though." Rose mutters, her voice coming out a little thick. "If you thought it would save the Universe you would do the exact same thing again."
"No, I definitely learned my lesson." Ten assures her quietly. "I'm just sorry I had to hurt you to learn it." She looks up at him for the first time in minutes and he offers her a small, sad smile.
"Martha had it right when he could have just sent the horse through." Nine admits. Rose looks over at him and he gives her an understanding grin. She feels bad for punishing him for something he hadn't even done yet but it hurts her that if this hadn't happened, he would have done.
Reinette asks if he could use one of the other doorways and he says they would all have broken. He offers to pay for any damage before realising that he has no money and asking where to get money.
"In that era you can't just make it fly out of an ATM." Donna sniggers. Ten pulls a face at her.
She comments he is stuck on the slow path with her. He grins again and they toast.
"You don't seem too bothered about being on the slow path." Martha raises an eyebrow.
"I was bloody terrified. No use having a panic attack though, wasn't going to help me." Ten sighs.
Reinette states she would have enjoyed the slow path and he reminds her he isn't going anywhere. She tells him to take her hand. In her bedroom she tells him the fireplace isn't a copy but the original she had moved there. She asks if it will still work.
"Brilliant." Sarah-Jane smiles. "Good job she liked you so much."
He explains she broke the bond with the ship by moving it so if was offline when the link broke, saving it. He adds that the link is physical. He starts tapping the fireplace while saying that if he is very, very, very lucky, then he cuts off with an exclamation of joy. He states there is a loose connection and that she needs to get a man in as he pulls out his screwdriver. He tells her to wish him luck and she says no.
"She wants you to stay." Martha rolls her eyes at his obliviousness.
"Not a chance." Ten states adamantly.
The fireplace turns, taking the Doctor away. The Doctor calls back through the fireplace, asking if she wants to see those stars.
"You were going to bring her?" Mickey asks.
"Well, she did give me a way back." Ten tells him. "I owed her one trip."
"You're not very good at that whole, one trip thing. It usually turns into far more than that." Donna laughs.
"I meant it this time. I owed her."
She agrees more than anything. He tells her to pack a bag. She asks if she is going somewhere and he tells her to pick any star. Then he runs and hugs Rose, asking how long they waited. She tells him five and a half hours. He tells her to always wait five and a half hours.
"Not like we had a great deal of choice about it." Rose snaps angrily.
The Doctor shakes Mickey's hand as Rose asks where he has been. He tells them he will explain later as he ushers them into the TARDIS. He runs back to the fireplace as Rose watches him looking sad. He calls to Reinette and then goes back through. He wanders until he finds Louis. He tells her he just missed her. She will be in Paris soon.
"Not going to get that one trip then." Donna sighs.
"If we'd taken her with us, how would be get her back to her time? We couldn't take the TARDIS as we were part of events and we can't exactly kidnap Madame De Pompadour, she's important to history obviously." Mickey wonders.
"The event as over. So many hours after." Ten shrugs.
"So one of us could have gone through and you picked us up?" He presses. Ten glares at him for his inability to shut up but nods grudgingly.
Louis notes he doesn't look a day older and gives him a letter. He tells the Doctor that she spoke of him many times. He looks out of the window and states there she goes, leaving for the last time. He states she was too young when she died and asks what the letter says.
"That's private." Jack scoffs.
The Doctor puts it in his jacket unopened. Back on the TARDIS Rose asks why they needed Reinette specifically and the Doctor says they will probably never know. So much damage, they probably got confused. She asks if he is alright and he tells her he is always alright.
"You're such a bad liar." Rose sighs.
Mickey tells Rose it's time she showed him around, taking her hand and leading her out. The Doctor waits until they are gone before opening the letter. Reinette's voice reads out the letter. He looks about to cry before tucking it in his jacket. The fireplace is on the scanner. The fire goes out. On the spaceship, the Tardis dematerialises to reveal a portrait on the wall labelled Madame de Pompadour 1721-1764, then we move outside to discover that the drifting vessel is the SS Madame de Pompadour.
"That'll be why they wanted her. The ship is named after her so they thought it was her brain they needed." Sarah-Jane realises.
"Well that's one question solved. These really are showing us things we wouldn't know otherwise, even having lived through it." Donna smiles, wondering if they will see any episodes with her in. The screen goes black. Jack whispers to Rose and she kisses his cheek before standing up and moving back over to the couch with the two Doctors. She took her old position, cuddled against Nine's side.
"There's a lot of stuff we should probably talk about." He mutters, glancing at his older self.
"Not now. We can discuss it tonight. Let's just keep watching." Rose states firmly.
"Rose, I don't want to keep watching this with you mad at me and upset." Ten tells her quietly.
"Fine, let's talk." She drags both Doctors to the room she shares with Nine. She slams the door behind her. "How could you? You told me, less than a day ago, when that happened, that I was different and you would never leave me. I can live the rest of my life with you, that's what you said. Then you go running off without thinking, with no damn way back. No way for me to get home, nothing. That is something you would never have done before you regenerated. He might have charged off headfirst into danger but never without making sure I had a way to get home if it went wrong."
"I...there's no real way for me to defend myself. Even I admitted you'd never catch me doing that again. The others are right, for someone so intelligent I can be very thick sometimes." Ten admits.
"I guess it never hit me quite so hard that the universe will always come first to you." Rose sighs.
"That's because it doesn't. You come first to me. Your safety and clearly I lost my head when I didn't make sure you were safe first." Nine glares at Ten. "I will do whatever I have to, to save the universe but I will always make sure your are as safe as possible first."
"I get that you can't guarantee I'll be safe. But being caught by some aliens is different to you leaving me stranded on the a spaceship with no way back. I never have, nor will I ever, ask you to guarantee I will always be safe but there were several other options that time. I know, hindsight is twenty twenty."
"Well, this whole thing is supposed to be about fixing mistakes it seems. I promise you TARDIS lessons as soon as we get back. Maybe your own basic sonic so you can always activate Emergency Program One as well." Nine promises. "I love you Rose and I will never let anything take me away from you if it's within my power."
"I love you too." She gives him a tear filled smile and he pulls her into a hug. Then she pulls away and hugs Ten. "I'm sorry she died before you got to repay that favour."
"Me too. But getting back to you was more important." He sighs and smiles slightly.
"Did you love her?" She asks curiously. He studies her for a second.
"In some way yes. I wasn't in love with her if that's what you mean but I did love her." He admits. "She was brilliant in her own way but mostly I used her to distract myself from you and Mickey. Yes I know I invited him but I was terrified after seeing Sarah-Jane again and what I almost confessed to you that I thought a buffer would be better. Clearly I was wrong but that doesn't mean I had to like said buffer. I was jealous of Mickey while angry at myself for being jealous of Mickey as I had no right to be, no claim on you." He tries to explain.
"Well at least you understand how I felt seeing you snog her. Jealous yet knowing I had no claim on you at that time." Rose confesses.
"I loved you then and always will." He smiles gently. "I was just stupid about it. I'm grateful this has given me, well him, a chance to be less stupid." Rose laughs.
"You'll always be stupid."
"Oi!" They all laugh. Ten hugs her tightly and kisses her forehead. They stayed like that for a few seconds before Nine clears his throat and they broke apart. The trio headed back into the main room. Jack watches them and Rose smiles at him, nodding so he knows she's ok. He grins suddenly and winks at her. They settle back down to watch the next one, Rose's hand back in Ten's while she snuggles into Nine's side.
