Fic ~ "Just Us" 1/4
Jun. 5th, 2007 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivydoorTitle: Just Us - 1/4
Characters/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Mickey, Sarah Jane
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for School Reunion
Betas:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kalleah , sensiblecat , & leighleighla
Summary: Between explosions and saying goodbye to an old friend, there are things left undone and unsaid.
A/N: This is a prequel of sorts to the significantly more angsty and more than a bit S3 spoilery Passing Through. And if you squint real hard you might be able to make Always Running fit too. Not that I’d shamelessly self-pimp though. *coughs*
The day had been a long one, the Doctor thought as they finally made it back to the TARDIS still parked in the storage room of Deffry Vale. The explosion had been on the other side of the building and they were able to get past the emergency crews with a flash of the psychic paper. It had been an eventful day, even without all the emotional upheaval of running into Sarah Jane and losing K-9. Everyone was looking like they were worn thin.
He turned to Sarah Jane as they reached the storage door. “Do you want to come in? I can give you a ride home.”
She just laughed. “And what? End up in Aberdeen again?”
“Ah. Right.” He nodded and looked away.
She pointed down the hall. “Besides, I have a car.”
Mickey shifted uncomfortably. She just patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry, my dear. It was for a good cause. I’ll just tell the insurance company it was mangled in a collision involving an infestation of bats. It’s only got a bent bumper and cracked windscreen. Easily fixable and still somewhat road worthy. At least enough to get me home.”
In response, he gave her a half-heartedly relieved smile.
“I’ll just be off then.” She said.
Rose looked to the Doctor, who had already turned to the TARDIS door to unlock it. “Wait.” she said, turning to Sarah Jane and pulling out her cell phone. “What’s your number? We’ll call you and meet you tomorrow somewhere for lunch. We’ll be around one more night at least, right Doctor?” She cast a meaningful look in his direction. The one that said ‘You are going to agree with me if you know what’s good for you.’
He nodded vigorously and gave a goofy grin. “Of course! We’d love to see you tomorrow!”
Sarah Jane smiled. “All right, then.” She gave her number to Rose who immediately programmed it into her phone.
“See you tomorrow!” Rose called to Sarah Jane as the petite woman trotted down the dark hallway to her car.
“Ready?” asked the Doctor.
“Always.” She grinned as she ushered Mickey through the TARDIS doors ahead of her.
_______________________________________
The Doctor flung his coat over one of the coral-like beams of the TARDIS and turned to the console. Mickey hopped up on the console seat.
“All right, Mister Mickey! Ready to head home?” Without waiting for an answer he started flipping switches and turning dials.
Rose stood a few feet away and gently cleared her throat. He glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“I was thinking, we should do something for her. Besides lunch, I mean.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans and shrugged. She obviously felt a little guilty for her earlier behaviour towards the former companion.
The Doctor considered this for a moment and then looked at her hard as he leaned on his hip against the console with his arms crossed. “What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. She just seemed so sad about K-9.”
A slow smile crept across the Doctor’s face. “I’ve got just the thing! Brilliant idea, Rose!” He danced around the console resetting co-ordinates with renewed energy. Rose beamed.
“What?” asked Mickey, clearly wanting to know why he couldn’t head straight home for some Chinese takeaway and a good long sleep.
“We’re going to replace K-9!”
Rose looked a bit shocked. “You can’t just replace a pet, Doctor. I should know. When I was 13, my cat died and Mum thought a replacement would be just the thing to cheer me up. It didn’t. In fact, I ended up giving the new cat to Shireen just because it made losing Smooches hurt more.”
“Smooches?!” the Doctor asked incredulously. Mickey let out a bark of laughter.
“Shut it, Mickey.” She said with a glare and then turned back to the Doctor giving him a daring look. “Yes. Smooches. I was 5 when we got him. And that’s beside the point. You can’t replace a pet that easily.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.” He grinned. “I need to establish a link with his memory banks.”
He slipped on his glasses then typed and clicked at the console for a few minutes while watching the console screen. “There he is! Clever boy!” he whooped and began a flurry of typing.
Rose moved to look over his shoulder, and quickly realized she had no hope of understanding what was going on just by watching. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m downloading his data banks. He kept a small portion of power set aside to keep his memory storage unit alive. It was shielded from the blast by internal bulkheads. I can use that small window to transfer him to a new model!”
Mickey now joined her in looking over his shoulder. “So, where are you gonna find a new body? It’s not like you can just give her a memory chip.”
The Doctor glanced over the rim of his glasses at Mickey. “Actually, I have spares. The model Sarah Jane had was Mark III.” He paused as if in thought and spoke mostly to himself. “I haven’t checked them for a while though, so I’ll need to be sure I have a working version. I should be able to cobble a full model together from the parts I have available, at the very least.”
“Well, get to it, then.” Rose said with a grin. “I’ll keep an eye on this. How will I know when the memory has finished transferring?”
The Doctor pointed at the screen. “When this line reaches this point, turn this dial to here.” He indicated the appropriate dial and showed her the Gallifreyan symbol that meant it was turned off. She nodded her understanding. He turned to the other person on board, slipped his glasses off and stuffed them back into his pocket.
“Coming, Mickey?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Rose grinned again and turned back to the screen. Mickey followed the Doctor out of the console room and down the hall.
_______________________________________
As the Doctor led the way through the inner corridors of the ship, Mickey looked around, taking in all the side rooms and branching halls.
“Just how big is this place anyway?” he asked.
“As big as it needs to be, sometimes more.” was the cryptic answer.
Mickey shook his head in disbelief. “So mate, how long before you dump Rose off like you did Sarah Jane?” He surprised himself with his own bluntness, but he figured the worst the Doctor could do is kick him out and then he could get something to eat.
The Doctor was either deliberately ignoring him or too lost in thought to pay attention. Mickey was inclined to think it was the former, since the Doctor gradually picked up the pace of his walk.
They finally reached their destination; it seemed to be a disused lab or workroom. Along the wall were built in shelves lined with numerous gadgets and bits and pieces of machinery. There was a massive wooden table in the center of the room. It was littered with bits of paper, some rolled into scrolls and some just crumpled and looking like they had been tossed aside. The Doctor picked up a nearby waste paper basket and began clearing a space on the table.
“Now then,” he said as he set the garbage aside, “Help me out would you, Mickey?” He hunched down to the bottom row on the shelves and reached in. Mickey bent over to see what he was pulling out and found it was lined with identical copies of K-9. These hardly bared a resemblance to the battered pup Mickey had seen earlier though. They were gleaming metal instead of dinged and rusty outer casings. As the Doctor pulled out one, he handed it to Mickey.
“Put him on the table there.”
Mickey complied and they repeated this process several times until there were at least half a dozen models sitting along the top of the table. The Doctor hopped up after handing Mickey the last one and brushed himself off.
“Right!” He said. “Let’s see what we’re working with here.” He slipped on his glasses again and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He cracked open the side of the casing on the first model with Mickey looking on.
_______________________________________
Rose tapped her fingers along the side of the console while watching the screen. The TARDIS hummed and beeped in time to her strumming. She smiled affectionately. The events of the past 24 hours or so had been a lot to handle. She had been confronted with the realities of life with the Doctor. He had left Sarah Jane behind, how many others had he done the same to? How many had left him? He had never been very open about his past with her. She knew the basics. She had known there had been others traveling with him before her. He had told her so several times. “I’ve traveled with lots of people, but you’re setting new records for jeopardy friendly.” She smiled at that memory. At least she’d managed to set herself apart from the others in some way, even if it wasn’t the way she’d like.
It was the realization that she’d eventually be left behind, because that’s how it would have to be. She’d never leave willingly. Sarah Jane hadn’t either, she was sure of it. She didn’t know any of the details of their parting, but she could see the hurt on the other woman’s face when the Doctor had been deep in conversation with her while fixing the original K-9 in that café.
“You just leave us behind. Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
“No. Not to you.”
She sighed. He could have made that promise to Sarah Jane for all she knew. Closing her eyes and rolling her head as she rubbed her sore neck, she pushed any further thoughts of it out of her mind and returned to the task at hand.
_______________________________________
Mickey had never seen anything like it. The Doctor was pulling parts from different units at an alarming rate.
“Oh, come ON!”
The Doctor was obviously was getting agitated about something, but Mickey was almost afraid to speak up and interrupt the frenzy. Eventually, he mustered enough courage to pipe up.
“What the matter? Are you missing a part or something?”
The Doctor whipped around and, for one second, Mickey thought he was going to get his head ripped off. Instead the Doctor sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“I’m missing a power source. All of the power cells in these units have corroded over time. It’s literally been centuries since I’ve used a K-9 unit.” He slumped back into the rolling stool that he’d been swinging back and forth in for the better part of half an hour.
“Well, can’t we just go out and get some new batteries? What would it take?”
“Mickey, this is a highly sensitive piece of equipment several millennia from this time’s future.”
“So’s the TARDIS, it doesn’t stop you from using chess pieces and paperweights for switches and knobs.”
The Doctor raised one eyebrow and regarded Mickey with a baleful expression. Mickey plowed on. In for a penny…
“I mean, you make do with what you have right? If you go off to pick up a part from the future, who’s to say you’ll get back at the right time?”
The eyebrow crept up even farther. Sensing he was swiftly digging an early grave, he pushed forward, hoping the last comment would be quickly overlooked.
“So why don’t we go downtown to this big electronics store I know and see if they have anything you can turn into a compatible part?”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes while the Doctor regarded his suggestion.
“Mickey the Idiot.”
“Yeah, figured as much.”
“We might have to change that to Mickey the Idiot Savant. Come on!” With that, the Doctor swept off of the chair and out of the room. A stunned Mickey stood there for a few beats, and then headed out of the room at a jog to catch up.
Characters/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Mickey, Sarah Jane
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for School Reunion
Betas:
kalleah , sensiblecat , & leighleighla Summary: Between explosions and saying goodbye to an old friend, there are things left undone and unsaid.
A/N: This is a prequel of sorts to the significantly more angsty and more than a bit S3 spoilery Passing Through. And if you squint real hard you might be able to make Always Running fit too. Not that I’d shamelessly self-pimp though. *coughs*
The day had been a long one, the Doctor thought as they finally made it back to the TARDIS still parked in the storage room of Deffry Vale. The explosion had been on the other side of the building and they were able to get past the emergency crews with a flash of the psychic paper. It had been an eventful day, even without all the emotional upheaval of running into Sarah Jane and losing K-9. Everyone was looking like they were worn thin.
He turned to Sarah Jane as they reached the storage door. “Do you want to come in? I can give you a ride home.”
She just laughed. “And what? End up in Aberdeen again?”
“Ah. Right.” He nodded and looked away.
She pointed down the hall. “Besides, I have a car.”
Mickey shifted uncomfortably. She just patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry, my dear. It was for a good cause. I’ll just tell the insurance company it was mangled in a collision involving an infestation of bats. It’s only got a bent bumper and cracked windscreen. Easily fixable and still somewhat road worthy. At least enough to get me home.”
In response, he gave her a half-heartedly relieved smile.
“I’ll just be off then.” She said.
Rose looked to the Doctor, who had already turned to the TARDIS door to unlock it. “Wait.” she said, turning to Sarah Jane and pulling out her cell phone. “What’s your number? We’ll call you and meet you tomorrow somewhere for lunch. We’ll be around one more night at least, right Doctor?” She cast a meaningful look in his direction. The one that said ‘You are going to agree with me if you know what’s good for you.’
He nodded vigorously and gave a goofy grin. “Of course! We’d love to see you tomorrow!”
Sarah Jane smiled. “All right, then.” She gave her number to Rose who immediately programmed it into her phone.
“See you tomorrow!” Rose called to Sarah Jane as the petite woman trotted down the dark hallway to her car.
“Ready?” asked the Doctor.
“Always.” She grinned as she ushered Mickey through the TARDIS doors ahead of her.
_______________________________________
The Doctor flung his coat over one of the coral-like beams of the TARDIS and turned to the console. Mickey hopped up on the console seat.
“All right, Mister Mickey! Ready to head home?” Without waiting for an answer he started flipping switches and turning dials.
Rose stood a few feet away and gently cleared her throat. He glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“I was thinking, we should do something for her. Besides lunch, I mean.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans and shrugged. She obviously felt a little guilty for her earlier behaviour towards the former companion.
The Doctor considered this for a moment and then looked at her hard as he leaned on his hip against the console with his arms crossed. “What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. She just seemed so sad about K-9.”
A slow smile crept across the Doctor’s face. “I’ve got just the thing! Brilliant idea, Rose!” He danced around the console resetting co-ordinates with renewed energy. Rose beamed.
“What?” asked Mickey, clearly wanting to know why he couldn’t head straight home for some Chinese takeaway and a good long sleep.
“We’re going to replace K-9!”
Rose looked a bit shocked. “You can’t just replace a pet, Doctor. I should know. When I was 13, my cat died and Mum thought a replacement would be just the thing to cheer me up. It didn’t. In fact, I ended up giving the new cat to Shireen just because it made losing Smooches hurt more.”
“Smooches?!” the Doctor asked incredulously. Mickey let out a bark of laughter.
“Shut it, Mickey.” She said with a glare and then turned back to the Doctor giving him a daring look. “Yes. Smooches. I was 5 when we got him. And that’s beside the point. You can’t replace a pet that easily.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.” He grinned. “I need to establish a link with his memory banks.”
He slipped on his glasses then typed and clicked at the console for a few minutes while watching the console screen. “There he is! Clever boy!” he whooped and began a flurry of typing.
Rose moved to look over his shoulder, and quickly realized she had no hope of understanding what was going on just by watching. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m downloading his data banks. He kept a small portion of power set aside to keep his memory storage unit alive. It was shielded from the blast by internal bulkheads. I can use that small window to transfer him to a new model!”
Mickey now joined her in looking over his shoulder. “So, where are you gonna find a new body? It’s not like you can just give her a memory chip.”
The Doctor glanced over the rim of his glasses at Mickey. “Actually, I have spares. The model Sarah Jane had was Mark III.” He paused as if in thought and spoke mostly to himself. “I haven’t checked them for a while though, so I’ll need to be sure I have a working version. I should be able to cobble a full model together from the parts I have available, at the very least.”
“Well, get to it, then.” Rose said with a grin. “I’ll keep an eye on this. How will I know when the memory has finished transferring?”
The Doctor pointed at the screen. “When this line reaches this point, turn this dial to here.” He indicated the appropriate dial and showed her the Gallifreyan symbol that meant it was turned off. She nodded her understanding. He turned to the other person on board, slipped his glasses off and stuffed them back into his pocket.
“Coming, Mickey?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Rose grinned again and turned back to the screen. Mickey followed the Doctor out of the console room and down the hall.
_______________________________________
As the Doctor led the way through the inner corridors of the ship, Mickey looked around, taking in all the side rooms and branching halls.
“Just how big is this place anyway?” he asked.
“As big as it needs to be, sometimes more.” was the cryptic answer.
Mickey shook his head in disbelief. “So mate, how long before you dump Rose off like you did Sarah Jane?” He surprised himself with his own bluntness, but he figured the worst the Doctor could do is kick him out and then he could get something to eat.
The Doctor was either deliberately ignoring him or too lost in thought to pay attention. Mickey was inclined to think it was the former, since the Doctor gradually picked up the pace of his walk.
They finally reached their destination; it seemed to be a disused lab or workroom. Along the wall were built in shelves lined with numerous gadgets and bits and pieces of machinery. There was a massive wooden table in the center of the room. It was littered with bits of paper, some rolled into scrolls and some just crumpled and looking like they had been tossed aside. The Doctor picked up a nearby waste paper basket and began clearing a space on the table.
“Now then,” he said as he set the garbage aside, “Help me out would you, Mickey?” He hunched down to the bottom row on the shelves and reached in. Mickey bent over to see what he was pulling out and found it was lined with identical copies of K-9. These hardly bared a resemblance to the battered pup Mickey had seen earlier though. They were gleaming metal instead of dinged and rusty outer casings. As the Doctor pulled out one, he handed it to Mickey.
“Put him on the table there.”
Mickey complied and they repeated this process several times until there were at least half a dozen models sitting along the top of the table. The Doctor hopped up after handing Mickey the last one and brushed himself off.
“Right!” He said. “Let’s see what we’re working with here.” He slipped on his glasses again and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He cracked open the side of the casing on the first model with Mickey looking on.
_______________________________________
Rose tapped her fingers along the side of the console while watching the screen. The TARDIS hummed and beeped in time to her strumming. She smiled affectionately. The events of the past 24 hours or so had been a lot to handle. She had been confronted with the realities of life with the Doctor. He had left Sarah Jane behind, how many others had he done the same to? How many had left him? He had never been very open about his past with her. She knew the basics. She had known there had been others traveling with him before her. He had told her so several times. “I’ve traveled with lots of people, but you’re setting new records for jeopardy friendly.” She smiled at that memory. At least she’d managed to set herself apart from the others in some way, even if it wasn’t the way she’d like.
It was the realization that she’d eventually be left behind, because that’s how it would have to be. She’d never leave willingly. Sarah Jane hadn’t either, she was sure of it. She didn’t know any of the details of their parting, but she could see the hurt on the other woman’s face when the Doctor had been deep in conversation with her while fixing the original K-9 in that café.
“You just leave us behind. Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
“No. Not to you.”
She sighed. He could have made that promise to Sarah Jane for all she knew. Closing her eyes and rolling her head as she rubbed her sore neck, she pushed any further thoughts of it out of her mind and returned to the task at hand.
_______________________________________
Mickey had never seen anything like it. The Doctor was pulling parts from different units at an alarming rate.
“Oh, come ON!”
The Doctor was obviously was getting agitated about something, but Mickey was almost afraid to speak up and interrupt the frenzy. Eventually, he mustered enough courage to pipe up.
“What the matter? Are you missing a part or something?”
The Doctor whipped around and, for one second, Mickey thought he was going to get his head ripped off. Instead the Doctor sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“I’m missing a power source. All of the power cells in these units have corroded over time. It’s literally been centuries since I’ve used a K-9 unit.” He slumped back into the rolling stool that he’d been swinging back and forth in for the better part of half an hour.
“Well, can’t we just go out and get some new batteries? What would it take?”
“Mickey, this is a highly sensitive piece of equipment several millennia from this time’s future.”
“So’s the TARDIS, it doesn’t stop you from using chess pieces and paperweights for switches and knobs.”
The Doctor raised one eyebrow and regarded Mickey with a baleful expression. Mickey plowed on. In for a penny…
“I mean, you make do with what you have right? If you go off to pick up a part from the future, who’s to say you’ll get back at the right time?”
The eyebrow crept up even farther. Sensing he was swiftly digging an early grave, he pushed forward, hoping the last comment would be quickly overlooked.
“So why don’t we go downtown to this big electronics store I know and see if they have anything you can turn into a compatible part?”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes while the Doctor regarded his suggestion.
“Mickey the Idiot.”
“Yeah, figured as much.”
“We might have to change that to Mickey the Idiot Savant. Come on!” With that, the Doctor swept off of the chair and out of the room. A stunned Mickey stood there for a few beats, and then headed out of the room at a jog to catch up.
