Mysterious Ways (7/?)
Jul. 23rd, 2008 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aenariasbookshelfTitle: Mysterious Ways, part 7 of ?
Author: Aenaria/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
io_aenaria
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Gemma (an OC), with appearances by Jack, Martha, Donna, and a bunch of other OCs
Rating: This part is PG, however rating is more than likely to go up by the end of it...
Summary: The Sonnetsverse reunion. "She's been lost, found the key, unlocked the door to the universe, wandered about, took a detour, stopped, stopped some more, then started again. Now, finally, Rose Tyler is on her way home." Has gone totally AU after 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', so is safe for people avoiding spoilers for the end of s4.
Disclaimer: Alas, no.
Author's Notes: Even though this whole series has now been rendered totally AU, I'm still going to continue. I hate leaving stories unfinished, even if it takes me years to get them done. In this part we go back to the Doctor's point of view (mostly) and things start to finally come together...
Many many thanks togaladriella1 for her beta job and brilliant britpicking, which is an education in and of itself, and, as always, to Paige for being my sounding board with this epic monster. Thanks as well to solielle for the gorgeous icon! Prior knowledge of the Sonnets stories and the previous parts of Mysterious Ways can't hurt, and all of them can be found here.
Seven: ‘Funny it’s just like a scene out of Voltaire…’
‘Funny it’s just like a scene out of Voltaire, twisting out of sight
`Cause when all the curtains are pulled back we’ll turn and see the circles we’ve traced…’
- Duran Duran, Last Chance on the Stairway
‘Once upon a time, because that’s how all good stories start, isn’t it? You don’t know when this story took place, could be before time, after time, outside of time…but does it really matter? Do you really need to know when it happened? Because maybe the when isn’t important, but just that fact that it took place is what really matters…’
The Doctor purses his lips and glares at the small volume he holds in his hands. Yes, all right, Alexandria Library is so concerned about this little book that they sent Edgar of all people out to retrieve it; however, he doesn’t feel too bad about nicking it during their visit two weeks back due to the fact that he’s mentioned in there. Gives him an honest claim to it, really. He flips through the pages of the story, looking for the few things that caught his eye earlier.
He hadn’t had much time to think about it, as the rest of his visit was primarily focused on making sure the Library didn’t crumble to the ground, but there were a few…odd lines in there that gave him pause. Things that no one but him should have known, but somehow ended up in this little book so far out of its time. Ah, there it is.
‘…carries the words of a lost civilisation within her skin…’
How can the writer of this story have known that? The words were their secret; they’d never told anyone. Everyone out there would have probably looked upon them as odd or strange (well, even stranger than he was usually considered), but it was a way to keep memories alive and it was a way to bring them together, and how was that a bad thing? But it was a secret. The Doctor’s got no desire to share it with anyone else now that Rose is gone; this is something that is theirs and theirs alone, something that will always draw them together, no matter how far apart they are.
But there is something else, something lurking in those pages that sent up a mauve flag in his subconscious. He props his feet up on the console as his eyes quickly scan the remaining pages, taking in all of the details of this very familiar story. Maybe it’s because this story is so familiar and close to him that he missed it the first time around, because when you know exactly what’s coming you can sometimes miss those tiny but important bits.
‘Tragically, or possibly tragically, the Valiant Child is soon lost to a world across the void…but how lost is lost? Maybe we writers of this tale have underestimated this Child, because she’s had the time to grow up into a Valiant Woman. And maybe this Woman has the time to piece the puzzle together, to find that missing key inside of her to unlock the void, to follow the Storm and to find her way home.”
Okay, so what the hell does that mean? There’s got to be some esoteric and layered meaning there, something hidden beneath the words that will show what it really means. Because the obvious meaning is saying…well that’s just impossible. Isn’t it? It should be.
But what if it’s not?
The Doctor’s the first person to say how much he likes hope, but he also knows full well just how dangerous that emotion can be. However, just for that one brief moment, he can entertain the idea that she’s going to come back….
A throat clears somewhere, and he looks up to see Donna and Martha standing there with identical disgruntled expressions on their faces and their arms crossed over their chests. He suspects he knows what the look is about, however it is most definitely not his fault that the planet they have just run unceremoniously from has such a viewpoint on humanoid figures. He carefully shuts the book and puts it on the seat next to him.
“Donna’s come up with an idea of where we should go next,” Martha says, waving a hand at her compatriot. The Doctor resists the urge to gulp nervously, visions of three day long shopping benders with him as unwilling bag-boy flashing before his eyes. He did promise them though that they could decide their next location after the last so-called disaster. Still, his respiratory bypass nearly kicks in before Donna gives her answer.
“I wanna go to Venice,” she says decisively, and the Doctor exhales a bit with relief. “I always wanted to ride on a gondola,” she concludes.
He swings his legs off the console and grins at the two women. “Oh, Venice is so much more than just a ride on floating pile of matchsticks. Settecento Venice, the place to see and be seen by anyone who’s anyone in Europe at that time, how does that sound?”
“Settecento?” Donna repeats, following him as he bounds around to jab at a few random buttons and levers on the console.
“Eighteenth century,” the Doctor confirms. “Ooh, hold on.”
The TARDIS rocks and wobbles a bit, making the crowd inside grab hold of whatever’s available to stay upright.
“Hey, what’s this?” Martha says, making the Doctor turn to check out just what she’s inquiring about. This time he does gulp nervously as he sees her holding up the little book of legends.
“Sudoku,” he says, reaching over with one long arm and deftly pulling it from her grip as the other hand focuses on flying the TARDIS. “Good for giving the brain a workout.” The Doctor slides the book into a little hidey hole somewhere by his knee and slams the door to it shut. As he does this he misses the extremely doubtful look that Donna and Martha share in the meantime.
* * *
It’s times like this that the TARDIS marvels at just how lucky and brilliant humans are. All she has to do is tweak the year of landing a bit, not an unusual occurrence at all, even though it’s never her fault they have a tendency to end up in the wrong time or place more often than not (or so she tells herself). After that, the Time Lord’s on his own. He really had better not screw this opportunity up…
* * *
With a reassuring thump the TARDIS lands and the two women head straight for the door. The Doctor wavers a bit – he’s very tempted to set Martha and Donna loose on Venice on their own while he tosses himself back into the puzzle that book holds. But there’s another, far larger part of him that would feel horrible if something happened to them out there and he wasn’t around to help them out of it. With a twist of his lips he glances down at where the book is stashed, then dashes after the girls, grabbing his coat on the way.
He bumps into Donna right outside the door. For some reason they’ve stopped right outside the TARDIS. “You said eighteenth century, right Doctor?” Donna asks him, a very suspicious tone in her voice.
“Yeeees?”
She points down the small street they’re on – wherever they are it’s obviously European in nature, and the Doctor suspects that they are actually in Venice. There’s just something about the look of the place that’s so hard to duplicate, lots of stone and brick walls rising high into the sky right above them, and if he looks the other way down the street he can just make out a footbridge running over a canal – “Then why’s there a clown riding a Segway on the road?”
He looks the other way to find that Donna is indeed telling the truth, that there is a Pierrot, all sequins and lace and stockings, riding away from them on a Segway. He watches until the clown turns a corner and frowns to himself. “Maybe a little bit off,” he muses.
“Just a bit,” Donna whispers in agreement.
The Doctor pushes ahead of the two women and looks around the small alleyway. “Still, we are most certainly in Venice. Smell that sea air! And,” he begins to walk, beckoning Martha and Donna come with him, “if the presence of that clown is anything to go by, we’ve come just in time for Carnival.”
“What, like the Notting Hill Carnival?” Martha asks, eyes scanning the ground for some sort of stray newspaper or leaflet, anything that could give her a good idea of what the date is.
A slight grimace crosses the Doctor’s face. “Nah, more like Mardi Gras rather than Notting Hill,” he continues, sidestepping a group of people carrying large garment bags. “Carnevale, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, all of them came out of the Christian tradition of Lent, well, the idea of a carnival is even older than Christianity, but that’s beside the point. Lent’s a season full of fasting and praying, going off various foods and whatnot. Basically a very austere time of year.” This time they maneuver around a couple of stately ladies (who just may possibly be men under the masks – the chest hair is a bit of a giveaway). “However, as is the nature of people since they’ve got to get rid of all that good stuff from their lives for the next forty days, they go a bit wild before hand, hence the idea of a carnival.”
“Sounds a bit familiar,” Donna nods as they turn the corner, with a small piazza not that far ahead of them. “I’ve known many a pub back home to do a Mardi Gras night. ‘Course, it’s not for the same dignified purpose, I’ll admit. Most of them are just an excuse to drink until you’re certain to spend the next morning with your head bent over the loo.”
“That actually sounds rather historically accurate,” the Doctor says, looking at the buildings around him with a puzzled look on his face. “What’s interesting though is that Venice only started up its modern carnival celebrations in 1979 after years of not having them for various reasons. So I’m wondering how far off in your future we really are.”
“Actually, we’re not in the future at all,” Martha says, scooping up a newspaper from a marble bench attached to a wall. “According to this it’s Tuesday, 8 March, 2011. Paper’s too clean to have been outside for more than a couple of days.” She looks up at him with an arched eyebrow. “You picked me up barely a week ago from this date, right after Tom went back to Africa for three months, remember?”
Donna nods in agreement, going over to look at the paper. “Huh. She’s right, the last time I went round to see Mum was at the beginning of February of this year. Blimey, two years travelling with you moves fast, don’t it?“
“That’s time for you,” the Doctor says, pulling the paper his way. “Given the presence of wayward clowns, I suspect that today is in fact Tuesday, which makes it the day of Carnival proper.”
“Which means?” Donna asks.
“Which means we picked the right time to land in Venice.” Carnivals are always notorious for being chaotic, the Doctor knows, and maybe he’ll find something to distract him enough to keep his brain occupied until he can get back to the TARDIS and check out that book further. “Anything could happen this time of year,” he says, walking towards the piazza.
The piazza is bordered by yet another canal. There’s a couple of kids sitting with their feet dangling over the side, even though the water doesn’t look really properly clean. On the other side is a small brick chapel, with its circular stained glass window the main feature of its façade. There’s also a small café in the piazza as well, with some outdoor tables set under a green and white striped awning. It’s as they pass this café that Martha stops dead in her tracks and nearly squeals. “Oh my God!”
The Doctor watches as Martha embraces a young woman standing by one of the tables, obviously recognizing her, and begins to back away slowly. There’s the distinct sensation of girl talk looming on the horizon, and really that’s no place for any respectable Time Lord to be. He heads back over to the chapel – maybe there’ll be a long lost fresco or something of the like to discover inside.
* * *
“Martha Jones, how the hell are you?” Priya gushes as she pulls away, making Martha smile. Of all the places to see her old friend from med school, she hadn’t ever expected it to be Venice in the middle of a tour around time and space.
“I’m really good, actually! How about you?” Martha replies.
“On holiday, can’t get much better than that,” Priya nods. “You got time for a chat, play a little catch up?”
“Yeah, absolutely.” Martha pulls out a chair and bobs her head at Donna, who grabs a seat also. “Donna, this is Priya, an old friend of mine from our med school days.”
“Nice to meet you,” Donna smiles, sticking out a hand for her to shake.
“Likewise,” Priya says, meeting the handshake.
“And Pree, this is Donna. I guess you can say we’re on holiday ourselves right now.” She resists the urge to snicker to herself – how exactly does one explain what they do with the Doctor on a daily basis?
“Same here. Spent a week at my parents’ place, now here for a week. How’s, oh what’s his name…Tom! Yes, how’s Tom doing?” Priya says, taking a sip of her wine and waving at the waiter to bring over a couple more glasses.
“Tom’s well. He’s in Africa right now, actually. You know, that Doctors Without Borders thing,” Martha nods, watching as the newly arrived glasses are topped off from the bottle of red on the table. “So while he’s away I decided to take a little trip myself with a few friends. Speaking of which…” she trails off, looking around for where the Doctor could have possibly disappeared to, but he’s nowhere to be found. “Where’d he go?”
Donna shrugs. “Beats me. You know how he gets – attention span of a prawn.”
“He who?” Priya asks, obviously curious. “Your boyfriend?” she asks in Donna’s direction, making the other woman nearly snort wine out her nose.
“Yeah, right, that space oddity? No, we’re really just a bunch of mates who like to travel together.”
Priya nods. “And that’s one of the best things in the world, that’s for sure.”
“Glad you agree,” Donna grins, holding up her glass in salute.
Martha leans back in her chair, a bemused look on her face. “Of all the places in the world and I run into you here. We hadn’t even planned on coming here, it was a bit of a spontaneous decision.”
“It’s nice to have that luxury,” Priya sighs, brushing some straight black hair out of her eyes. “We’ve been planning this thing for months, not to mention scraping together the funds for it.”
“Speaking of which, how’s work going for you? You’re at Massachusetts General now, right?”
“Work’s…” her voice trails off as she grimaces and slugs back another mouthful of wine. “I’m currently assigned to night shift A&E.”
“Ouch,” Martha hisses, a sympathetic wince on her face.
“Yeah. Hence the need for wine,” she nods, clinking her fingernails on the glass. “But I’m not thinking about it until I’m back in Boston. I’ve got a lovely vacation and a hell of a party to go to tonight, and I’m not going to let work thoughts get in the way of that.”
“Party?” Donna asks with an arched eyebrow. Now that’s an idea she can get behind.
It’s obvious Priya can get behind that idea as well, as a wide grin transforms her face. “Oh yes. It’s actually the whole reason for this trip – my roommate’s got family in Venice, and she invited a bunch of us to come along with her. If anything it’s an excuse for fancy dress and lots of good food.” A sudden glint develops in her eye, and she looks around conspiratorially at the two women sitting with her. “You guys interested in coming along?”
Donna and Martha trade a look, both realizing that this idea has potential. “Sounds like fun to me,” Martha says in a low voice to her. “But do you really think he’s –“
Donna cuts her off with a sharp look. “He still owes us after the last disaster. I think a party sounds absolutely divine.” She turns to Priya. “So yes, we are definitely interested in going to a party tonight.”
“Fantastic,” Priya grins. She turns around ,waving the nearest waiter over. “Do you have a pen?” she asks, miming a writing motion on her palm. “Um, a penna?” The waiter finally nods and hands her the pen from his apron. “Grazie,” she replies, then brings her attention back to Martha and Donna as she scribbles the necessary information on a napkin. “All right, the costume ball’s at this address. Cocktails start at seven, and fancy dress is a must. Well, it says fancy, but an evening gown and a mask will do just fine.” She glances up at them, biting her lip nervously. “You’ll be able to find something to wear in time, right?”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got a whole wardrobe at our hands,” Donna grins. “I think we’ll be more than able to find party clothes.”
A familiar voice from behind them breaks in. “What’s this about a party?” the Doctor asks, approaching the table. Whatever had distracted him previously apparently hadn’t held his interest for all that long.
Martha leans back and smiles a winning smile up at him. “We’ve just been invited to a costume ball tonight. You might wanna dust off your tux.” The Doctor nods slowly, but it’s rather clear he’s not fond of this idea to the two women. No doubt he has better, more Time Lordy things to do with his evening. They’re not letting him out of this one though. An evening of attempting to act civilised will be more than enough retribution for them, and Martha and Donna share another nod.
“Is this your other friend?” Priya breaks in, shooting an appraising look the Doctor’s way.
“Right, hello!” the Doctor grins at her, a welcome distraction from the insistent looks his companions are giving him. “I’m – “
This time the Doctor is cut off by the arrival of what could possibly be a five-foot-one hurricane on two feet, otherwise known as Louise. She barrels up to the table, carrying two oversized bags stuffed with paper wrapped packages. “All right Pree, we’ve so got to get moving now,” she says, dumping the bags on the table and taking a swig directly from the nearly empty wine bottle. “My gran just called looking for these stupid masks, and from what it sounds like Gem may or may not have smacked my cousin Luca right in the face. Not that the little brat doesn’t deserve it, god knows his mother takes the prize for personality of the year. However, then she says that when Luca’s mom started to rant and rave, Mari nearly smacked her ‘round the head, so I’ve got to wonder if it’s something genetic in that family. Anyway, now they’ve apparently barricaded the door to the pantry in order to have it out, let’s just hope no one’s scrubbing blood off of the tiles when the dust finally - ” She pauses, finally noticing the crowd around the table has grown just a bit from when she’d left. “Hello…”
“Friends of mine from med school,” Priya says. “I’ve invited them to the ball tonight, actually, if that’s all right.”
“Fine by me,” Louise nods, sliding her bag from her shoulder and beginning to rummage around in it. “It’ll be a nice change to have some sane people there. Ah, here we are.” She pulls out three envelopes and hands them to the Doctor, Martha, and Donna. “All the extra invites definitely come in handy times like this. Anyway, just present those at the door and you’re in. Any problems…you know what?” She looks down at Priya.
“What?” she echoes.
She looks at Martha and Donna. “Why don’t you two ladies come over a little earlier, say around five? There’s going to be a whole bunch of us girls there getting all dolled up for the thing, so why don’t you bring your stuff over and join in the fun? Your friend there can come over later for the actual ball, unless he wants us to paint his toenails.”
“No, ta,” the Doctor says absently, flipping the invite over a few times.
“No surprise there, but yeah, definitely,” Martha says. “Five p.m., we’ll be there.”
“Awesome,” Louise grins, the smile wiping away the tension in her face and making her hazel eyes crinkle just a bit at the corner. “However, we’ve really got to get moving,” she says to Priya, digging around in her purse for a few Euros to toss on the table for the wine.
“Right,” Priya says, standing up and pulling some change out of her pocket. “So we’ll see you tonight then?”
“Can’t wait,” Martha nods, followed quickly by Donna.
“Excellent, I’ll see you then and we’ll catch up even more. See you soon!” The two women begin to walk away, however within two seconds Priya stops short and darts back to the table, practically dragging Louise with her. “Martha?”
“Yeah?”
“Quick question – do you remember that time in med school, when the hospital ended up on the moon?”
“Oh, not this again!” Louise explodes before anyone else has time to react, nearly hitting herself in the head with her shopping bags. “Will you drop it with this story already? It’s not possible.”
“You are such a sceptic,” Priya fires back good naturedly.
“I’m happy that way. And until the time comes that a little green man from Reticula or some other planet lands smack in front of me and waves in my face, I will be happy thinking that aliens aren’t real and you’re a loony. A loveable loony, yes, but still a loony.”
“Um, actually,” the Doctor smirks, unable to resist the temptation to wave his hand in the air. “Ow!” he winces and glares at Donna, rubbing the place where she’s just elbowed him in the stomach.
“Scare the locals later,” she mutters at him.
“All right, we’ve really got to go now, but we’ll see you at five, right?” Priya hollers out as they begin to hustle down another side alley.
“See you then!” Martha calls back, her eyes following them until they disappear around a corner.
“So I guess we’ve got a party to go to tonight then,” the Doctor says, jamming his hands and the invite into his trouser pockets.
“Yes we do,” Donna says, looking up at him. “Better get the tux out of moth balls, Reticulan.”
Bugger. There go his plans for spending a quiet night at home with the book.
T.B.C….
A/N 2: The next chapter may take a little bit longer to get out. I'm in the process of moving apartments (which is a very, very good thing given the place I was last living in) which is leaving me with nearly no time to write. I also have no cable or internet right now (am currently tapping into the wifi from the nearby coffee shop, but I don't know how long the connection's going to last) which is another not so good thing. But I am working on the story, I promise. And see, I told you the cliffhanger wasn't going to be too bad. ;) Thanks for reading!
Author: Aenaria/
io_aenariaCharacter/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Gemma (an OC), with appearances by Jack, Martha, Donna, and a bunch of other OCs
Rating: This part is PG, however rating is more than likely to go up by the end of it...
Summary: The Sonnetsverse reunion. "She's been lost, found the key, unlocked the door to the universe, wandered about, took a detour, stopped, stopped some more, then started again. Now, finally, Rose Tyler is on her way home." Has gone totally AU after 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', so is safe for people avoiding spoilers for the end of s4.
Disclaimer: Alas, no.
Author's Notes: Even though this whole series has now been rendered totally AU, I'm still going to continue. I hate leaving stories unfinished, even if it takes me years to get them done. In this part we go back to the Doctor's point of view (mostly) and things start to finally come together...
Many many thanks to
galadriella1 for her beta job and brilliant britpicking, which is an education in and of itself, and, as always, to Paige for being my sounding board with this epic monster. Thanks as well to solielle for the gorgeous icon! Prior knowledge of the Sonnets stories and the previous parts of Mysterious Ways can't hurt, and all of them can be found here. Seven: ‘Funny it’s just like a scene out of Voltaire…’
‘Funny it’s just like a scene out of Voltaire, twisting out of sight
`Cause when all the curtains are pulled back we’ll turn and see the circles we’ve traced…’
- Duran Duran, Last Chance on the Stairway
‘Once upon a time, because that’s how all good stories start, isn’t it? You don’t know when this story took place, could be before time, after time, outside of time…but does it really matter? Do you really need to know when it happened? Because maybe the when isn’t important, but just that fact that it took place is what really matters…’
The Doctor purses his lips and glares at the small volume he holds in his hands. Yes, all right, Alexandria Library is so concerned about this little book that they sent Edgar of all people out to retrieve it; however, he doesn’t feel too bad about nicking it during their visit two weeks back due to the fact that he’s mentioned in there. Gives him an honest claim to it, really. He flips through the pages of the story, looking for the few things that caught his eye earlier.
He hadn’t had much time to think about it, as the rest of his visit was primarily focused on making sure the Library didn’t crumble to the ground, but there were a few…odd lines in there that gave him pause. Things that no one but him should have known, but somehow ended up in this little book so far out of its time. Ah, there it is.
‘…carries the words of a lost civilisation within her skin…’
How can the writer of this story have known that? The words were their secret; they’d never told anyone. Everyone out there would have probably looked upon them as odd or strange (well, even stranger than he was usually considered), but it was a way to keep memories alive and it was a way to bring them together, and how was that a bad thing? But it was a secret. The Doctor’s got no desire to share it with anyone else now that Rose is gone; this is something that is theirs and theirs alone, something that will always draw them together, no matter how far apart they are.
But there is something else, something lurking in those pages that sent up a mauve flag in his subconscious. He props his feet up on the console as his eyes quickly scan the remaining pages, taking in all of the details of this very familiar story. Maybe it’s because this story is so familiar and close to him that he missed it the first time around, because when you know exactly what’s coming you can sometimes miss those tiny but important bits.
‘Tragically, or possibly tragically, the Valiant Child is soon lost to a world across the void…but how lost is lost? Maybe we writers of this tale have underestimated this Child, because she’s had the time to grow up into a Valiant Woman. And maybe this Woman has the time to piece the puzzle together, to find that missing key inside of her to unlock the void, to follow the Storm and to find her way home.”
Okay, so what the hell does that mean? There’s got to be some esoteric and layered meaning there, something hidden beneath the words that will show what it really means. Because the obvious meaning is saying…well that’s just impossible. Isn’t it? It should be.
But what if it’s not?
The Doctor’s the first person to say how much he likes hope, but he also knows full well just how dangerous that emotion can be. However, just for that one brief moment, he can entertain the idea that she’s going to come back….
A throat clears somewhere, and he looks up to see Donna and Martha standing there with identical disgruntled expressions on their faces and their arms crossed over their chests. He suspects he knows what the look is about, however it is most definitely not his fault that the planet they have just run unceremoniously from has such a viewpoint on humanoid figures. He carefully shuts the book and puts it on the seat next to him.
“Donna’s come up with an idea of where we should go next,” Martha says, waving a hand at her compatriot. The Doctor resists the urge to gulp nervously, visions of three day long shopping benders with him as unwilling bag-boy flashing before his eyes. He did promise them though that they could decide their next location after the last so-called disaster. Still, his respiratory bypass nearly kicks in before Donna gives her answer.
“I wanna go to Venice,” she says decisively, and the Doctor exhales a bit with relief. “I always wanted to ride on a gondola,” she concludes.
He swings his legs off the console and grins at the two women. “Oh, Venice is so much more than just a ride on floating pile of matchsticks. Settecento Venice, the place to see and be seen by anyone who’s anyone in Europe at that time, how does that sound?”
“Settecento?” Donna repeats, following him as he bounds around to jab at a few random buttons and levers on the console.
“Eighteenth century,” the Doctor confirms. “Ooh, hold on.”
The TARDIS rocks and wobbles a bit, making the crowd inside grab hold of whatever’s available to stay upright.
“Hey, what’s this?” Martha says, making the Doctor turn to check out just what she’s inquiring about. This time he does gulp nervously as he sees her holding up the little book of legends.
“Sudoku,” he says, reaching over with one long arm and deftly pulling it from her grip as the other hand focuses on flying the TARDIS. “Good for giving the brain a workout.” The Doctor slides the book into a little hidey hole somewhere by his knee and slams the door to it shut. As he does this he misses the extremely doubtful look that Donna and Martha share in the meantime.
* * *
It’s times like this that the TARDIS marvels at just how lucky and brilliant humans are. All she has to do is tweak the year of landing a bit, not an unusual occurrence at all, even though it’s never her fault they have a tendency to end up in the wrong time or place more often than not (or so she tells herself). After that, the Time Lord’s on his own. He really had better not screw this opportunity up…
* * *
With a reassuring thump the TARDIS lands and the two women head straight for the door. The Doctor wavers a bit – he’s very tempted to set Martha and Donna loose on Venice on their own while he tosses himself back into the puzzle that book holds. But there’s another, far larger part of him that would feel horrible if something happened to them out there and he wasn’t around to help them out of it. With a twist of his lips he glances down at where the book is stashed, then dashes after the girls, grabbing his coat on the way.
He bumps into Donna right outside the door. For some reason they’ve stopped right outside the TARDIS. “You said eighteenth century, right Doctor?” Donna asks him, a very suspicious tone in her voice.
“Yeeees?”
She points down the small street they’re on – wherever they are it’s obviously European in nature, and the Doctor suspects that they are actually in Venice. There’s just something about the look of the place that’s so hard to duplicate, lots of stone and brick walls rising high into the sky right above them, and if he looks the other way down the street he can just make out a footbridge running over a canal – “Then why’s there a clown riding a Segway on the road?”
He looks the other way to find that Donna is indeed telling the truth, that there is a Pierrot, all sequins and lace and stockings, riding away from them on a Segway. He watches until the clown turns a corner and frowns to himself. “Maybe a little bit off,” he muses.
“Just a bit,” Donna whispers in agreement.
The Doctor pushes ahead of the two women and looks around the small alleyway. “Still, we are most certainly in Venice. Smell that sea air! And,” he begins to walk, beckoning Martha and Donna come with him, “if the presence of that clown is anything to go by, we’ve come just in time for Carnival.”
“What, like the Notting Hill Carnival?” Martha asks, eyes scanning the ground for some sort of stray newspaper or leaflet, anything that could give her a good idea of what the date is.
A slight grimace crosses the Doctor’s face. “Nah, more like Mardi Gras rather than Notting Hill,” he continues, sidestepping a group of people carrying large garment bags. “Carnevale, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, all of them came out of the Christian tradition of Lent, well, the idea of a carnival is even older than Christianity, but that’s beside the point. Lent’s a season full of fasting and praying, going off various foods and whatnot. Basically a very austere time of year.” This time they maneuver around a couple of stately ladies (who just may possibly be men under the masks – the chest hair is a bit of a giveaway). “However, as is the nature of people since they’ve got to get rid of all that good stuff from their lives for the next forty days, they go a bit wild before hand, hence the idea of a carnival.”
“Sounds a bit familiar,” Donna nods as they turn the corner, with a small piazza not that far ahead of them. “I’ve known many a pub back home to do a Mardi Gras night. ‘Course, it’s not for the same dignified purpose, I’ll admit. Most of them are just an excuse to drink until you’re certain to spend the next morning with your head bent over the loo.”
“That actually sounds rather historically accurate,” the Doctor says, looking at the buildings around him with a puzzled look on his face. “What’s interesting though is that Venice only started up its modern carnival celebrations in 1979 after years of not having them for various reasons. So I’m wondering how far off in your future we really are.”
“Actually, we’re not in the future at all,” Martha says, scooping up a newspaper from a marble bench attached to a wall. “According to this it’s Tuesday, 8 March, 2011. Paper’s too clean to have been outside for more than a couple of days.” She looks up at him with an arched eyebrow. “You picked me up barely a week ago from this date, right after Tom went back to Africa for three months, remember?”
Donna nods in agreement, going over to look at the paper. “Huh. She’s right, the last time I went round to see Mum was at the beginning of February of this year. Blimey, two years travelling with you moves fast, don’t it?“
“That’s time for you,” the Doctor says, pulling the paper his way. “Given the presence of wayward clowns, I suspect that today is in fact Tuesday, which makes it the day of Carnival proper.”
“Which means?” Donna asks.
“Which means we picked the right time to land in Venice.” Carnivals are always notorious for being chaotic, the Doctor knows, and maybe he’ll find something to distract him enough to keep his brain occupied until he can get back to the TARDIS and check out that book further. “Anything could happen this time of year,” he says, walking towards the piazza.
The piazza is bordered by yet another canal. There’s a couple of kids sitting with their feet dangling over the side, even though the water doesn’t look really properly clean. On the other side is a small brick chapel, with its circular stained glass window the main feature of its façade. There’s also a small café in the piazza as well, with some outdoor tables set under a green and white striped awning. It’s as they pass this café that Martha stops dead in her tracks and nearly squeals. “Oh my God!”
The Doctor watches as Martha embraces a young woman standing by one of the tables, obviously recognizing her, and begins to back away slowly. There’s the distinct sensation of girl talk looming on the horizon, and really that’s no place for any respectable Time Lord to be. He heads back over to the chapel – maybe there’ll be a long lost fresco or something of the like to discover inside.
* * *
“Martha Jones, how the hell are you?” Priya gushes as she pulls away, making Martha smile. Of all the places to see her old friend from med school, she hadn’t ever expected it to be Venice in the middle of a tour around time and space.
“I’m really good, actually! How about you?” Martha replies.
“On holiday, can’t get much better than that,” Priya nods. “You got time for a chat, play a little catch up?”
“Yeah, absolutely.” Martha pulls out a chair and bobs her head at Donna, who grabs a seat also. “Donna, this is Priya, an old friend of mine from our med school days.”
“Nice to meet you,” Donna smiles, sticking out a hand for her to shake.
“Likewise,” Priya says, meeting the handshake.
“And Pree, this is Donna. I guess you can say we’re on holiday ourselves right now.” She resists the urge to snicker to herself – how exactly does one explain what they do with the Doctor on a daily basis?
“Same here. Spent a week at my parents’ place, now here for a week. How’s, oh what’s his name…Tom! Yes, how’s Tom doing?” Priya says, taking a sip of her wine and waving at the waiter to bring over a couple more glasses.
“Tom’s well. He’s in Africa right now, actually. You know, that Doctors Without Borders thing,” Martha nods, watching as the newly arrived glasses are topped off from the bottle of red on the table. “So while he’s away I decided to take a little trip myself with a few friends. Speaking of which…” she trails off, looking around for where the Doctor could have possibly disappeared to, but he’s nowhere to be found. “Where’d he go?”
Donna shrugs. “Beats me. You know how he gets – attention span of a prawn.”
“He who?” Priya asks, obviously curious. “Your boyfriend?” she asks in Donna’s direction, making the other woman nearly snort wine out her nose.
“Yeah, right, that space oddity? No, we’re really just a bunch of mates who like to travel together.”
Priya nods. “And that’s one of the best things in the world, that’s for sure.”
“Glad you agree,” Donna grins, holding up her glass in salute.
Martha leans back in her chair, a bemused look on her face. “Of all the places in the world and I run into you here. We hadn’t even planned on coming here, it was a bit of a spontaneous decision.”
“It’s nice to have that luxury,” Priya sighs, brushing some straight black hair out of her eyes. “We’ve been planning this thing for months, not to mention scraping together the funds for it.”
“Speaking of which, how’s work going for you? You’re at Massachusetts General now, right?”
“Work’s…” her voice trails off as she grimaces and slugs back another mouthful of wine. “I’m currently assigned to night shift A&E.”
“Ouch,” Martha hisses, a sympathetic wince on her face.
“Yeah. Hence the need for wine,” she nods, clinking her fingernails on the glass. “But I’m not thinking about it until I’m back in Boston. I’ve got a lovely vacation and a hell of a party to go to tonight, and I’m not going to let work thoughts get in the way of that.”
“Party?” Donna asks with an arched eyebrow. Now that’s an idea she can get behind.
It’s obvious Priya can get behind that idea as well, as a wide grin transforms her face. “Oh yes. It’s actually the whole reason for this trip – my roommate’s got family in Venice, and she invited a bunch of us to come along with her. If anything it’s an excuse for fancy dress and lots of good food.” A sudden glint develops in her eye, and she looks around conspiratorially at the two women sitting with her. “You guys interested in coming along?”
Donna and Martha trade a look, both realizing that this idea has potential. “Sounds like fun to me,” Martha says in a low voice to her. “But do you really think he’s –“
Donna cuts her off with a sharp look. “He still owes us after the last disaster. I think a party sounds absolutely divine.” She turns to Priya. “So yes, we are definitely interested in going to a party tonight.”
“Fantastic,” Priya grins. She turns around ,waving the nearest waiter over. “Do you have a pen?” she asks, miming a writing motion on her palm. “Um, a penna?” The waiter finally nods and hands her the pen from his apron. “Grazie,” she replies, then brings her attention back to Martha and Donna as she scribbles the necessary information on a napkin. “All right, the costume ball’s at this address. Cocktails start at seven, and fancy dress is a must. Well, it says fancy, but an evening gown and a mask will do just fine.” She glances up at them, biting her lip nervously. “You’ll be able to find something to wear in time, right?”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got a whole wardrobe at our hands,” Donna grins. “I think we’ll be more than able to find party clothes.”
A familiar voice from behind them breaks in. “What’s this about a party?” the Doctor asks, approaching the table. Whatever had distracted him previously apparently hadn’t held his interest for all that long.
Martha leans back and smiles a winning smile up at him. “We’ve just been invited to a costume ball tonight. You might wanna dust off your tux.” The Doctor nods slowly, but it’s rather clear he’s not fond of this idea to the two women. No doubt he has better, more Time Lordy things to do with his evening. They’re not letting him out of this one though. An evening of attempting to act civilised will be more than enough retribution for them, and Martha and Donna share another nod.
“Is this your other friend?” Priya breaks in, shooting an appraising look the Doctor’s way.
“Right, hello!” the Doctor grins at her, a welcome distraction from the insistent looks his companions are giving him. “I’m – “
This time the Doctor is cut off by the arrival of what could possibly be a five-foot-one hurricane on two feet, otherwise known as Louise. She barrels up to the table, carrying two oversized bags stuffed with paper wrapped packages. “All right Pree, we’ve so got to get moving now,” she says, dumping the bags on the table and taking a swig directly from the nearly empty wine bottle. “My gran just called looking for these stupid masks, and from what it sounds like Gem may or may not have smacked my cousin Luca right in the face. Not that the little brat doesn’t deserve it, god knows his mother takes the prize for personality of the year. However, then she says that when Luca’s mom started to rant and rave, Mari nearly smacked her ‘round the head, so I’ve got to wonder if it’s something genetic in that family. Anyway, now they’ve apparently barricaded the door to the pantry in order to have it out, let’s just hope no one’s scrubbing blood off of the tiles when the dust finally - ” She pauses, finally noticing the crowd around the table has grown just a bit from when she’d left. “Hello…”
“Friends of mine from med school,” Priya says. “I’ve invited them to the ball tonight, actually, if that’s all right.”
“Fine by me,” Louise nods, sliding her bag from her shoulder and beginning to rummage around in it. “It’ll be a nice change to have some sane people there. Ah, here we are.” She pulls out three envelopes and hands them to the Doctor, Martha, and Donna. “All the extra invites definitely come in handy times like this. Anyway, just present those at the door and you’re in. Any problems…you know what?” She looks down at Priya.
“What?” she echoes.
She looks at Martha and Donna. “Why don’t you two ladies come over a little earlier, say around five? There’s going to be a whole bunch of us girls there getting all dolled up for the thing, so why don’t you bring your stuff over and join in the fun? Your friend there can come over later for the actual ball, unless he wants us to paint his toenails.”
“No, ta,” the Doctor says absently, flipping the invite over a few times.
“No surprise there, but yeah, definitely,” Martha says. “Five p.m., we’ll be there.”
“Awesome,” Louise grins, the smile wiping away the tension in her face and making her hazel eyes crinkle just a bit at the corner. “However, we’ve really got to get moving,” she says to Priya, digging around in her purse for a few Euros to toss on the table for the wine.
“Right,” Priya says, standing up and pulling some change out of her pocket. “So we’ll see you tonight then?”
“Can’t wait,” Martha nods, followed quickly by Donna.
“Excellent, I’ll see you then and we’ll catch up even more. See you soon!” The two women begin to walk away, however within two seconds Priya stops short and darts back to the table, practically dragging Louise with her. “Martha?”
“Yeah?”
“Quick question – do you remember that time in med school, when the hospital ended up on the moon?”
“Oh, not this again!” Louise explodes before anyone else has time to react, nearly hitting herself in the head with her shopping bags. “Will you drop it with this story already? It’s not possible.”
“You are such a sceptic,” Priya fires back good naturedly.
“I’m happy that way. And until the time comes that a little green man from Reticula or some other planet lands smack in front of me and waves in my face, I will be happy thinking that aliens aren’t real and you’re a loony. A loveable loony, yes, but still a loony.”
“Um, actually,” the Doctor smirks, unable to resist the temptation to wave his hand in the air. “Ow!” he winces and glares at Donna, rubbing the place where she’s just elbowed him in the stomach.
“Scare the locals later,” she mutters at him.
“All right, we’ve really got to go now, but we’ll see you at five, right?” Priya hollers out as they begin to hustle down another side alley.
“See you then!” Martha calls back, her eyes following them until they disappear around a corner.
“So I guess we’ve got a party to go to tonight then,” the Doctor says, jamming his hands and the invite into his trouser pockets.
“Yes we do,” Donna says, looking up at him. “Better get the tux out of moth balls, Reticulan.”
Bugger. There go his plans for spending a quiet night at home with the book.
T.B.C….
A/N 2: The next chapter may take a little bit longer to get out. I'm in the process of moving apartments (which is a very, very good thing given the place I was last living in) which is leaving me with nearly no time to write. I also have no cable or internet right now (am currently tapping into the wifi from the nearby coffee shop, but I don't know how long the connection's going to last) which is another not so good thing. But I am working on the story, I promise. And see, I told you the cliffhanger wasn't going to be too bad. ;) Thanks for reading!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2008-07-24 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 04:52 pm (UTC):)
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Date: 2008-07-24 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-24 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 04:55 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-08-03 03:05 am (UTC)And I know I won't be able to resist the urge to click as soon as you post the next chapter. Oi. At least I am forewarned!
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Date: 2008-07-24 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 04:57 pm (UTC)Yeah, they're close, but it's not time just yet. I'll say this though, by the end of this night in the story, everything will be revealed. ;) It just may take a while to get there, and as I said above I'll be hiding behind the blast shields right after I post each part...Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-24 04:43 am (UTC)Lovely chapter. Loved that the Doctor was all, 'Well, actually...' Hee. Such a lovable dork.
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:01 pm (UTC)Yeah, he is a lovable dork, isn't he? *pets him* I have to say, it's rather fun playing him against a character that's very skeptical of aliens.
Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-24 08:53 am (UTC)Gah. I'm starting to come close to the antsy jumping up and down stage at this point, you are totally milking this aren't you? *g*
I love it.
And seriously, I really wanna go see Venice now. I did before, but even more so. I now have a picture in my head of it that I absolutely love. I really love the AU-ness of this fic though, and landing tweaking!TARDIS is awesome :D
Good luck with the move!
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:05 pm (UTC)My Venice probably isn't totally like the real Venice that's out there. I was only there once for a day or so, which is nowhere enough time to really get to know the city, and online research only takes you so far. But what I saw there was absolutely fantastic, and I want to go back as well. :) I highly recommend it, with a bunch of other places in Italy. :)
Tweaking!TARDIS is doing what she can. All of the girls have their part to play in it, which you can sort of see in the above part, but you'll start to see it even more in later parts.
Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-08-04 10:43 pm (UTC)Everything's always a bit different in reality, but I think you must have the general feel of the place here. And besides, I just need to get out of the States and see the rest of this big old planet.
Excellent, it's the best kind of teamfic, heh.
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Date: 2008-07-24 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 05:08 pm (UTC)I knew the story was going to get Jossed. As soon as I heard that Rose was coming back, while I was happy, part of me was like 'crap. Universe gone AU at this point. Don't care. Writing it anyway. My world canon, RTD can go screw'.
*cough* Yeah.
Thanks for sticking around for the ride, I'm glad you're still into it! :)
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Date: 2008-08-03 08:14 am (UTC)And seriously, I love you universe so much. I'm sticking around until the very end.
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Date: 2008-07-24 11:30 am (UTC)Brilliant! I absolutely can't wait for more.
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:12 pm (UTC)I'm glad you like the characters as well, especially the original ones. I know sometimes OCs come off as annoying as anything and can wreck a story, so to know that you like them is always appreciated. :)
Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-24 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 05:14 pm (UTC)And yeah, things are definitely getting closer and closer. But slowly, the pieces are all winding together...
Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-24 06:34 pm (UTC)I like how you portray the characters and I love that this story is set in Venice, a city that is on my list of places to go.
I love how protective Rose is of her sister and I can't wait to see how Gemma and the Doctor are going to get along.
Thanks for the update and good luck with your new apartment.
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:18 pm (UTC)Glad you like the characters as well - ooh, and remember, technically Gemma and the Doctor have already met, back in the museum.
As for the real Venice, I highly recommend it. I'm a dork though, I'd recommend just about any place in Italy.
Thanks for the well wishes with the apartment! The moving part is over, but now comes the unpacking (something I should be doing right now instead of tooling around on lj...).
Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-25 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 05:20 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading! :)
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Date: 2008-07-25 11:09 pm (UTC)Love, love, love it! Can't wait for more.
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:21 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2008-07-30 12:31 am (UTC)Can't wait to see how it'll unfold - tantalizingly twistingly, I'm sure. ;)
Meantime, good luck with the new apartment!!
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Date: 2008-08-02 05:27 pm (UTC)Tantalizingly twistingly is one word for it, but I prefer to think of it as a dance. The scenes leading up to the actual reunion scene have to be so carefully choreographed to get everyone in the right places and saying the right things, it's going to drive me mad, I know it. But I hope you like it when it gets here. :)
Thanks for the luck! So far, the new apartment is great. Much nicer than the old one, and in a much nicer area. I can actually walk to so many good places around here - most of which are restaurants, but since I'm a food lover this is no bad thing. :)
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Date: 2008-08-10 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 08:51 pm (UTC)Oh, and if you have the Doctor introduce himself as 'Doctor James McCrimmon" I just may die...in the best possible way, of course.
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Date: 2008-08-24 09:47 pm (UTC)No. No, you did just not do that.
Dammit. I know the perfect place and the perfect character to have the Doctor introduce himself as "Doctor James McCrimmon" to. It means adding a bit to chapter eight to introduce the new character, but it's too easy to make it work.
You see what you've just done? *g*
More seriously though, I'm very glad you're enjoying the 'verse. :) It's always nice to hear it as well. The next bit may be a little more delayed now, but it's all for the cause. Thanks for writing!
And I love your icon.
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Date: 2008-08-24 09:56 pm (UTC)Happy to be of service! Lol.
And I love your icon.
Thanks! It's from jubilee_icons, according to the label I gave it ages ago.