Short Story - On Darillium, the celebration of Diana and David's marriage is well underway, providing mixed emotions for the newly weds and their seemingly out of place Doctor.
The party continues on Darillium. Somehow, the events of the Singing Towers turning multiple people's brains into sticky mush and frightening a bunch of people on an extra-terrestrial planet did not put them off the festivities. Whilst the Doctor continues to ponder over the mysterious Gallifreyan device that caused this mayhem in the TARDIS, the show goes on in the intergalactically renowned restaurant.
In the reception room, Diana and David continue conversing with their guests, who have began to enjoy themselves following the events before the actual tying of the knot. They might be shaken up by the horrors of the deaths, and their powerlessness on a foreign planet, yet their chauffer, the Doctor, reassure them that nothing bad will occur - he and Elizabeth successfully defused the situation.
"Does this happen all the time for you guys?" one of David's friends, Aaron, asks.
David nods fervently. "Yeah, pretty much. Well, not all the time, but there is a lot more to travelling with the Doctor than just trying not to die on alien planets and defeating invasions."
"Were you in London when those tin thingies came around?" Aaron follows up, intrigued.
"Yeah! And when Pompey froze over for a bit too. Me and Di were there, so you'd be either very cold or very exterminated without us!" he jokes, with his good friend laughing along with him.
Simultaneously, Diana is talking to Elizabeth about what happened on top of the Singing Towers. Diana also is aware of the Doctor's emotional reaction to the discovery of the Time Lord involvement on Darillium, and shows plenty of concern for him, despite the fact it's her wedding night, and there are plenty of things she could be doing.
"...and the box was covered in circles, circles which I am aware is the natural born Gallifreyan language, no?" Eliza starts. Diana nods. "And you know the Doctor better than I do, I only first met the guy after his regeneration. But he doesn't seem too willing to open up about his emotions, keeping that exterior shell. Might be a Time Lord, but he's still a bloke."
Diana laughs. "He says he's always like this early doors, but we know more than most that he's just a big softie."
"Why would he be so affected?" Eliza asks. "I believed the Time Lords were still somewhat in contact with him after three of him saved Gallifrey?"
"It's a little complicated...but long story short, some guy called the Master wrecked it, it was reversed, but then the planet went missing out of nowhere," Diana exposits. "He never really tells us. He did once, but seemed reluctant and definitely left a lot of blanks."
"Wow. Seems like a big case of missing home I guess," Elizabeth attempts to joke to lift the mood, much to the annoyance of Diana.
"You know where he is?" the companion asks. UNIT's chief points to the TARDIS with a sombre look, and heads back to the celebrations with David, and the rest of the guests.
Diana knocks on the door of the TARDIS, and after waiting a second, the doors fly open at the click of the Doctor's fingers. Walking in, she hears the hums of the TARDIS console room, with the Doctor sat silently examining the box with his sonic screwdriver, still dressed in his burgundy blue tartan suit in full, despite the amount of running he had to do barely an hour ago.
"You alright?" she asks, to break the silence in the room. The Doctor takes a second to look up at the wall, but continues his work silently. Diana walks along the neon blue floor and up the stairs to the console, and still no reply from the Doctor. Walking over to stand to the north east of the Doctor, with his back still facing her, she tries again. "Doctor, come on. Speak to me. You can't just ignore me."
The Doctor once again looks up, and this time puts the box and sonic screwdriver onto the ground... only to remove his blazer, and resumes work straight afterwards.
"Stop being a child. What's wrong?" Diana more tenderly asks.
Offended, he finally replies. "I'm not being childish, but this is personal. And come on, it's your wedding night, just go and celebrate that. I'll come out in a minute if that's what you're after."
Diana facepalms, really sarcastically. "Well, that is what we want. You're our best friend, and it's our wedding. You've got to be here."
"And I am. And will be. Besides, all these wedding receptions aren't really my thing. I'll always do the dancing, so just call me when that's on," the Doctor replies, with a fake, joyous tone in an attempt to get Diana off of his back. Diana sees straight through it, and the Doctor can sense her disapproval without even looking. "Okay fine."
The Doctor stands up, and places his sonic screwdriver into his waistcoat pocket, and the box onto the chair he was sat on. Turning to face Diana with a blank look, she worriedly looks back. Instead, the Doctor simply hugs her with no words said, eventually reciprocated by the newly christened Mrs Redgrave. After a few seconds, the hug is broken, and the Doctor steps back to take a deep breath before finally speaking.
"Gallifrey went missing, like I told you. It went missing a while back, when I used to be a woman," the Doctor starts, with Diana having to remember that he was a woman before his regeneration. "And okay, I have a complicated relationship with my lot. But it does hurt, and I don't enjoy talking about it. Yet, with the Renegade when you guys spent a month off, and with the Monk in Paris, there are STILL Time Lords hanging about somewhere. And this box confirms another one. And to be honest, I'm quite frankly tired with whoever this is laying clues and little Easter eggs to find them. So, I want to get it over and done with, find them, and then find Gallifrey."
The Doctor unloads a lot of information, causing Diana to realise the depth of his struggle of dealing with the disappearance of his people and home. Sighing and rubbing his eyes, he returns to his seat to fiddle with the box, with Diana still stood silent. She's only stood silent in reduced shock that the Doctor had been bottling up such a remarkable amount of emotion. Continuing to use his sonic screwdriver to play with the box, Diana sombrely pivots and slowly exits the TARDIS in silence.
Upon hearing the TARDIS doors close, the Doctor looks up at the wall of the time machine for a second, almost regretting his rebuttal and decision to continue focusing on the indescribable box.
"Go dance later, Doctor. Busy busy, for now," he quietly says to himself, shaking the box in an attempt to see how it works.
By now, the wedding reception had successfully gotten fully underway, and Diana's return from the TARDIS causes a rupture of excitement and cheers from the guests. Initially hesitant to join in celebrating with all the guests, she eventually decides to put her worry about the Doctor's emotional state.
David walks through the crowd of twenty guests to grab Diana's hand, leading her back to the altar, which the TARDIS has moved to be directly opposite of. Clearing his throat, but noting Diana's slight but present dismay, David speaks.
"Ladies, gentlemen. Please enjoy yourselves! Food and drinks will be provided by the greatest restaurant in the Galaxy, and all music is handpicked by bride, groom... and uh... Time Lord," David says, as Oasis's Some Might Say rings out. "Yeah, this is the Doctor's choice. To be fair, not that bad."
As the guests begin to dance, and the food begins to be brought in, David quietly pulls Diana over.
"Is he okay?" David asks, referring to the Doctor.
Diana shakes her head. "Nope. He just rambled about the whole missing Gallifrey thing again. And you know you mentioned you think we should consider, you know, going home? To be honest, I think we have to at this point."
"Woah woah woah," David repeats, his hands in the air. "Calm down. What's brought on this sudden change?"
"He just... doesn't talk to us. Like, you know," Diana says. "He is so quiet when it comes to his own life but we're so open with him. And now that we're married and these lot know about our lives, people are going to start to notice when we're gone."
David rubs his forehead. "He's a bloke. I'll go talk to him. Mano ah Mano." His wife looks to protest, but by the time she formulates that protest into words, David had already entered the TARDIS in order to talk to the Doctor.
Walking in, the Doctor is immediately that it is David entering, and not Diana as it was last time. Still fiddling with the box but choosing not to greet him first, the Doctor attempts to force it open, to no avail.
"Doctor, come on. You can't hide in here forever," David starts, closing the TARDIS doors behind him. This agitates the Doctor enough, as it was clear he wished to be left alone. He throws the box to the ground in anger, shattering it to large chunks, and stands up from the chair.
"Do you even know what 'leave me alone' means? You definitely spoke to her, so you definitely got the hint that I wanted you both to leave me alone whilst I'm in here," the Doctor says.
David shakes his head. "You were nice to her. You vented, and you pretended to be happy. So why don't you fake it to me?"
Rubbing his eyes, the Time Lord then raises his hands. "Because Diana worries too much, and I assumed you understand that 'leave me alone' means leave me alone."
"It's our wedding reception, and you're literally our most valued and important guest. Not to mention you've been stressed and acting off at random times for a while now, maybe even a few months, come to think of it," David responds with.
The Doctor doesn't appreciate David judging his behaviour - he's the Doctor after all, he's the one used to time travel and the effect of not always saving everyone. "I don't think you get to judge here, mate. I'm the one in charge here."
David is confused by this response. "Never said you weren't? This is to do with you avoiding our wedding ceremony! You literally administered it and disappeared."
"I had more important things to tend to," the Doctor begins, beginning to collect some of the chunks of the box. "Like figuring out who's behind these things. Someone seems to be following us. London, Paris. Now Darillium. Would like to know who."
"So would we," Diana says, walking into the TARDIS without either David or the Doctor noticing.
The Doctor sighs. "Diana, look. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to figure this out okay? There's not many people this could be."
"Okay, I'll list them then. Because I need to know too. How's about the Renegade?" she first lists.
"Nope. Too sneaky for her. She's up front and blunt. It's not the Master either, he's been dead forever - though that doesn't usually stop him. And we know it's not the Monk. Rani, Rassilon, both missing. Just like home," the Doctor lists. "Either that or I'm wrong. And that would be new."
"Right. That's it. You're coming out now. You need to relax. You can't just work at 100 miles an hour every day," Diana pleads in return.
The Doctor realises he isn't getting anywhere. "Fine, fine. One night. I'll tidy up here, put all this mess into some container or something," he starts, gesturing to all the destroyed remains of the box on the floor. "And everyone goes home after this. The UN would wipe the floor with me if they found out I've taken a bunch of humans to a rogue planet, not to mention nearly seen them dead."
"But, isn't Eliza here?" David enquires, bringing a cheeky smirk from the Doctor and a quiet yet noticeable chuckle from him. "One more round. They're on you too."
The Time Lord pats his pockets. "Me? Money? Come on, I'm technically a stowaway on my own ship."
The newlywed Redgraves aggressively roll their eyes. "Whatever. Fine. We'll let you off this time. But you owe us a damn good holiday after our honeymoon," a sarky but cheeky Diana responds.
"Nah, you can go one better," David starts, walking over to place his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "You can drop us off somewhere for our honeymoon and pick us up later on." He pats it twice, as he and Diana move to leave the TARDIS as the Doctor proceeds to tidy up the damaged box.
At the threshold between the dimensions of the TARDIS and the dimensions of Darillium, Diana takes a moment to speak to her husband, careful about the volume of her voice as so the Doctor does not hear them. "Maybe it is time. But not right now. Think he still needs us."
"I guess. But we've got jobs lined up, and he's a big boy, he can look after himself," David responds quietly, wrapping his arm around his wife.
Perhaps they don't know as much as they should - Time Lords have augmented hearing, the Doctor certainly no exception. Hurt that they wouldn't consult this with him, he places the box on the chair he sat on, and moves to leave the TARDIS and join them.
"Many thanks for such outstanding hospitality, young man," Diana's mother poshly says to her new son in law, politely kissing the cheek of him.
Laughing in embarrassment, David gently rebuffs her. "Nice accent there Fern. And of course, my mother in law is fully deserving of such exquisite attention." He plays along with her posh antics, before turning around and grimacing before walking on to talk to other guests.
Diana's coworker Janice finishes her second glass of wine. "So, any clue when you and the hubby will be back to normal at work? I'm not blabbing to the highest up but you're one of our best."
"Soon, just not right now. We're still enjoying our time with the Doctor and we know how lucky we are," she responds. "But roll out the bunting, we won't be long." She gently nudges Janice and she smiles, with Diana feeling slightly confused as to whether or not she's actually going to be back on Earth as normal sooner rather than later.
The Doctor, somewhat dismayed by what he overheard from Diana and David, removes the blazer from his three piece tartan and perks on one of the chairs, people-watching as he waits for the go ahead to take everyone back home. Eliza sits down next to him, unnoticed at first but flicking his head from behind to get his attention.
"Sorry. Long day, poor responsiveness," the Doctor weakly smiles.
"Oh come on, relax a little. You just saved the whole restaurant from becoming brain soup. And you stopped the invasion in London, and the freezing in Portsmouth straight after regenerating," Eliza begins, flattering the Doctor. "Not to mention the stuff you've done not on Earth or at different times. Take the evening off, maybe a bit of tomorrow."
"How did someone like you end up in charge of UNIT?" the Doctor asks, at first offending Eliza. "No no no I mean, how does someone with a social life end up in charge here? I mean Kate god love her wasn't exactly pristine in her communication with people. And that's coming from me."
Eliza chuckles slightly. "Charming. No literally, charming. And hard work. Gets you up in the world quickly. Changed Lethbridge to Jago just so they didn't know who I was, like my mum did."
"Fair play," the Doctor concurs. "Fair play."
Diana's audible laugh from her conversation with Janice irks the Doctor. She looks over to her best friend and smiles, but the Doctor looks away. Eliza reopens the conversation. "Trouble in paradise?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," the Doctor says. "Might have a vacancy soon."
"Ooh, you better let me know if it becomes available," she laughs with the Doctor, which in turn irks Diana, looking overly forlornly.
"Sorry, give me a moment," Diana excuses herself from her conversation with Janice and pulls over David, clearly flustered. "Maybe he's got our replacement already."
Slightly annoyed with being pulled away from his conversation, David is even more annoyed that the Doctor would be so seemingly quick to move on past them. But he also attempts to slow down and think rationally, he's always said the Doctor is just another bloke, whether or not he is a Time Lord.
"Right. He might be some three millennia old Time Lord, but he's just a guy trying to make two friends who are thinking of moving on a little jealous," David explains. "Language of a bloke. Besides, I was in the army, remember? I know exactly the type of people in UNIT, and the Doctor would last about three minutes with someone like her."
Diana shrugs. "He seems to be relaxed around ex military, or UNIT. He's mentioned that war against the Daleks and how he was a part of it, and grew to realise that it is not the fault of the soldiers, but the fault of the men in charge. They're just hooked in." She looks back over to the Doctor and Eliza, still deep in conversation. "I'm going to talk to him when we're all in the TARDIS. And I'll try and be as disarming as possible."
"So relaxed as ever," he replies, cuddling her and kissing her on the head. "That's why I married you. And for the looks."
Diana smiles at her husband, and they go back off together to enjoy the rest of their wedding reception.
A few hours later, everyone is packed back on the TARDIS, as the Doctor completes his roll call that confirms everyone is onboard. Fiddling with the controls, he puts the TARDIS on a delay to ensure they reach their individual destinations.
"Right. May take about 10 minutes to get everyone back home. She's on a bit of a delay so everyone gets home at the right time and place, so for now have a jolly or whatever you guys call it," the Doctor announces, to confused faces. "What's the issue?"
"Who's 'she'?" one individual asks.
Bemused, the Doctor quickly analyses every word he said in his head to find out why everyone is so confused. And he realises. "Ah. The TARDIS is on a delay." The statement causes the time machine to make a noise of disapproval to a lack of human understanding that TARDISes have a sex.
As the TARDIS traverses the time vortex on its way back to 2022, the Doctor makes a point of avoiding the Redgraves for as long as he can, spotting them in his peripheral vision and casually walking away when they're nearby. However, within 6 minutes of 10, the Doctor cannot escape their desire to talk to him - relenting, he leans against the console, attempting to relax and 'play it cool'. Diana and David approach the Doctor apprehensively.
"So, how's married life?" the Doctor awkwardly laughs. Diana looks at him disarmingly, and the Oncoming Storm sighs. "Wrong question I see. What's the problem?"
The Redgraves share a look. Diana is the first to speak. "We've not left yet, you know." Surprised, the Doctor moves to speak, but Diana interjects before he can. "I won't lie, we are thinking that we want to spend more time back on Earth, back home. But we still want to travel with you, for now anyway. So don't go looking for our replacement just yet."
He realises what this is all about. "Oh," he laughs, before placing a hand on Diana's left shoulder. "If this is about Eliza, we were just having a joke." Patting her shoulder, the Doctor walks on, leaving Diana and David confused.
His walk takes him up the stairs, and the Doctor realises he's left it in an awkward airing. Stopping mid march, he smiles.
"I was thinking either cocktails in Andromeda or jousting with Henry VIII. Your vote this time," he chimes back, bringing a smile from both of his companions. The TARDIS continues on its travels back to Earth, with everyone still somehow having a good time after the antics on Darillium.