Danielle couldn't sleep. She'd always found it very hard to stay at other people's houses, she guessed because she never really did sleep around other people's houses. She supposed that this wasn't technically a house, rather a time machine. Still, she found herself wandering around the hallways of the TARDIS, just marvelling at the way it really did seem to stretch on forever. She didn't open any of the doors she came across, because even though her curiosity was what had her finding the TARDIS and the Doctor, she didn't really want to be nosy in places she'd not been given permission to look.
The TARDIS had provided her with the best room. A lovely cream and brown room that she could have only dreamed of. She'd tried decorating her room in her flat, but school and then university always seemed to get in the way, and all she'd ended up with was one three-quarter brown wall and the rest were a pale pink. The room the magical blue box had offered her was everything she had wanted in her bedroom. A swirl of browns and creams with the double bed she had always dreamed of.
There was also loads of clothes. She couldn't actually believe what she found when she'd opened the wardrobe. Dress after dress hung there, all beautiful and for a variety of occasions. The dresser had been filled with underwear, t-shirts, socks and pyjamas. She loved the pyjamas. She'd immediately changed into a pale pink pair with cupcakes on them, and that was what she was wearing as she walked through the hallways.
She found the Doctor still in the console room. She did wonder what his room looked like; she could see him in a dark blue room, with a bed and not much else. Definitely not the large wardrobe she had been gifted.
"Is this how you spend your time when you're not travelling around to different times?" She asked him, startling the man. He seemed to be cleaning the top of the console with a yellow cloth. "Bake banana bread and clean your car?"
"She's much more than a car," the Doctor protested, placing the cloth down and turning away from his task. "Compared to the TARDIS, a car is like… it's like those wheels you can attach to your shoes to make them inline skates."
"Oh, those are harsh words," she teased back. "Rose called the TARDIS an it, but you called her a she, is that more correct?"
The Doctor hadn't really thought about it, but decided to nod all the same. "She's alive, I don't think anyone would like to be called an 'it'."
"Point taken," Danielle agreed.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" He asked her. "You humans need a lot of it."
"What, and you Time Lords don't?" She challenged, dusting over her own insomnia.
"Not half as much as humans," he replied. "It's such a silly past time. All that wasted time."
"It's not wasted," she protested as she sat on the pilot seat. Her legs swung in the air and the Doctor noted with a little amusement that she was wearing fluffy slippers. "It's where you dream, isn't it? Of faraway lands and lives you couldn't live."
"I can go to faraway lands, and live any life I wish," the Doctor relied, waving at the console.
"Well," she replied, trailing off because he was right. His magical blue box was just magical. "Well, what about that feeling when you wake up from a dream, and your bed is nice and snuggly, and you don't want to get out and just want to drift of again? And then you realise you can just snuggle back in and go back to sleep? That's one of the best feelings there is!"
She said it with such seriousness, such conviction that the Doctor couldn't help but chuckle and agree. "You are right, that is a wonderful feeling," he agreed and she grinned back at him. "One you should be looking to be indulging in very soon. Why are you here talking to an old man instead?"
"You're not old," she defended.
"I'm nine hundred years old, remember?"
"That doesn't mean anything," she retorted. "For a human, it's impossible to be that old, but for a Time Lord, you could be like a toddler."
"I can assure you, I'm not a toddler," he replied.
"Then why are you up late playing with your toys?" She teased back and he shot her a look.
"You're getting quite cheeky already, aren't you?" He commented and she shook her head.
"Nah, I've always been like this," she promised then shrugged. "I can't sleep. I struggle in strange places."
"Oh," he replied. He didn't want her to be uncomfortable, but he couldn't blame her. He'd taken her to two very different places now, but neither of them had gone well. "Do you want me to take you home?"
She scoffed. "No, of course not," she told him like she thought he was an idiot and he grinned, happy to take that description. "I'll get used to it, I'm just not very good in new places," she swung her legs backwards and forwards. "Do you just wait around, then, for Rose to wake up?"
"Sometimes," he replied. "Not every time," he looked down at the cloth he'd put down on the console, and realised that was exactly what it seemed like. "Like, right now, I could take a trip to some uncharted moon just for to go for a walk, and maybe call into some friends, and still be back in time for her to wake up."
"Oh?" Danielle replied teasingly. "Am I standing in the way of your fantastic night out?"
"You could come with me," he offered.
"What? And leave Rose on her own?" Danielle asked, sounding like she didn't like that idea even though a grin was spreading on her face. "What if she wakes up?"
"She hasn't before," he replied. Danielle looked guilty, he could tell she didn't quite like the idea of leaving Rose behind, but he also knew that she was warring with herself to actually listen to that guilt.
She jumped up off the pilot seat. "Just one quick trip," she told him. "I just want to see somewhere new."
He grinned. "I can do that," he told her, sending them into flight. She stumbled forward, grabbing onto the console. The two shared a grin as the TARDIS shook, then there was a soft thud as it landed on the other side.
"Aren't you going to get changed?" he asked her and she shook her head.
"What's the point in going somewhere knew if you can't go in your pyjamas?" Danielle retorted. "Am I allowed to go first this time?"
"Do you want to go first?" he asked and she nodded eagerly. "Then go ahead."
She turned and rushed to the door, her heart pounding heavily and giddy eagerness rushing through her. This was her third trip now in the magical blue box that she'd found in the courtyard outside her tower block, and yet it felt like the first.
She chucked the doors open, and was greeted by a grey, dusty landscape and not much else. Uneven rocky floor, stars out as far as she could see, it was a completely barren wasteland.
"Where are we?"
"The Moon," the Doctor replied, joining her at her side as she looked out in her pyjamas. "Where I should start more often with you humans, to be fair."
She looked up at him. "What? Not good enough for your space friends?" she teased.
"I can fly us away if you…"
"No, I didn't say that," she quickly interrupted, just like he expected her to. "Where's the Earth?"
He leant out of the open door, pointing to the right. "Just over there," he told her. "I've parked facing the wrong way."
She leant out and her breath caught at the sight. Without thinking, she stepped out in just her socks onto the dusty landscape. She'd seen the Earth on Satellite Five, but it had been dark and covered in pollution. The Earth she was looking at shone brightly in the sky.
"Every human on Earth, at some point, looks up at the Moon and wonders what it would be like to be on it," the Doctor told her. "For a moment they'll imagine the lack of gravity, the sight they will see, but in your time only a few have ever gone. It's all just a dream, a kick up the backside that gives you the drive to do things you can do, to make up for the things you can't."
Danielle waved her hand through the air. "It doesn't feel any different."
"That's because I extended the gravity field around us," he replied in his jolly tone. "Can't have you bouncing around without being prepared."
She spun on her heels, eyes bright with excitement. "Can we?" she asked. "How do I get prepared?"
He pulled out his screwdriver. "See that rock over there?" he told her. "The big one with the two in front of it that makes it look a little like the Mickey Mouse Logo?"
She scanned the floor and saw what he meant. "What about it?"
"That's where the field ends, don't go past it," he said with a grin. "There, now you're prepared."
He held up his screwdriver, and with a quick buzz, Danielle felt the shift. She turned to look back at him, but the resistance seemed to have disappeared in the air, and she lost her footing on the ground. With a yelp, she fell onto the dusty floor, which created a cloud around her.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you okay?"
She laughed. "Are you kidding?" she cried, struggling slightly to get up. "This is amazing!"
She jumped on the spot the moment she could stand, once again losing her footing on the way down. Well, she had always been a bit clumsy, it was normally the gravity that stopped her hurting herself more often. "I can't believe it. I'm on the fricking Moon!"
"This is just the start," he told her. "The Moon is just the start, the spark that got the human race thinking, talking, planning. It's what got you wondering what was out beyond it, and what got you off your lazy backsides and explore the universe around you. The First, Second, Third, Fourth Human Empires all started with this little piece of rock floating in the sky."
He watched her taking in his words at the same time that she took in the sights around her. He had done something a little similar with Rose just to see how she would react with all the potential, and just like the blonde, he wasn't disappointed. Her curiosity had already been seen, but that wanderlust appeared in her eyes as she imagined everything he was saying. All that possibility was not lost on the red head at all.
"There's so much more to see," he continued. "So many weird and wonderful places to explore, soon enough the Moon won't seem anything special at all."
She shook her head enthusiastically. "Definitely not," she disagreed. "This will always be amazing."
He smirked slightly. "Want to put that to the test?"
She nodded, bouncing unsteadily over to him. "Take me to the Universe, Spaceman," she commanded and he waved his hand, gesturing her inside.
"Oh, I meant to ask," he said as he shut the door behind them. "Is it Danielle or Danni?"
She looked vaguely surprised, before realising where the question had come from. "Danielle," she replied. "I know I said 'Danni' to Suki, but that's really to stop people shortening my name to 'Dan'. I hate that nickname."
"I don't know, I'm quite fond of Dan," he teased as he flew them away to somewhere new.
"You're pushing your luck, Spaceman," Danielle warned.
The TARDIS faded out of existence, oblivious to the one that fading into it just behind where the Doctor had landed. The door opened, and a man with a bowtie and quiff stuck his head out, looking around the area like he was thinking back on a very old memory. He then glanced back into his TARDIS, to the red head who was just walking into the console room.
"Danni-Girl," he called to her temptingly. "I've got something new to show you."
~0~0~0~
Hope you are all enjoying this so far! A lot of people have been asking some very interesting questions on my Tumblr, (dannifielding), so make sure you head over there and check it out! You also don't need an account to ask a question, and you'll get a quicker response if you ask on there as well :)
Reviews -
serenitysaiyan - You know I'm just going to keep you in suspense :P x
scarlet rose white- Thanks sweetie! Maybe not quite the alone time you were looking for :P
Guest - I'm glad you're liking it, sweetie! Red heads unite!
PopstarJ01 - Thanks sweetie! I'll get the super secret thing finished for you soon, honest :D x
bored411 - Adam deserved so much more! He still angers me to this day! So selfish! Thanks sweetie :)