| Date: 11 January 2008
Characters: The Tenth Doctor, Kurt Harding Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #30950 |
 The Doctor skipped down the street, humming to herself as she looked into shops, trying to avoid thinking about the reason she was currently exploring shops instead of dragging her companions off on another adventure. Well, dragging her companion off on another adventure after dropping her unexpected passenger off in Cardiff. She really didn't like the idea of having Jack in her TARDIS for too long, no matter how much the woman pouted. It really just was... well, wrong.She shook her head, peering into another window, studying the jewelry displayed. "Now that's a girl's best friend. Especially if the girl has a TARDIS which needs parts," she said out loud, not particularly caring if someone heard her. It wasn't as if she had companions to complain she was acting funny at the moment, anyway. "Wonder if that's the right size to fit..." she muttered, quieter, trying to visualize the repair she was contemplating. After all, if she was outside time and space, she could finish up some repairs she'd been intending to make, and still have time for some proper exploring in the bargin. |
 "Well, that's not the sort of thing you hear a pretty lady say every day," Kurt said warmly, leaning a shoulder against the shop window and flashing a blinding smile at said pretty lady.He raised his eyebrows high. "Did I overhear you saying something about a TARDIS?" |
| The Doctor looked up, smiling cheerfully. "Hello there! Didn't see you there. Yes, you heard me say something about a TARDIS, she's a cranky old thing, but she's all mine, the dear. Oh, and I'm the Doctor, by the way. Who are you?" |
| He blinked. Then he took another look at her and a slow smile spread over his face. "Cap'n Kurt Harding," he announced. "Nice to meet you, Doctor." He took her hand and raised it to his lips, eyes twinkling at her as he deliberately took his time before giving her her hand back. |
| "Quite the flirt, aren't you, Kurt?" The Doctor's smile widened slightly, her expression one of mingled mirth and interest. "Reminds me of someone I knew. Know. You wouldn't happen to be related, would you? I mean, Jack is quite the pretty girl, certainly, but it's the flirting, always there. It's rather nice, sometimes, got us out of some rather sticky situations once or twice." She paused, chuckling a moment. "Oh, and listen to me, I do tend to chatter on, and I'm sure half of it isn't at all interesting..." |
| "You really are the Doctor, aren't you?" Kurt chuckled, shaking his head slightly in wonderment. "Never thought I'd meet you as a girl! Tenth regeneration, by any chance?" He stuck his hands back in his pockets and tilted his head to lean it against the window. "This... Jack. Wouldn't have a surname something like Harkness, would she?" |
| "Tenth one, yes, and rather pretty, if I do say so myself. Better than the last one, certainly." The Doctor glanced at her reflection in the window, preening slightly. "Oh, and yes, Harkness. Picked the name up off an American flying supply planes in the second world war, she said. A bit of a heroine, that one, didn't always listen, rather like my Jack. Never listens very well." |
| "Little bit prettier than the male version, though don't tell him I said that." Kurt winked. "And yeah, that sounds like me. Long time ago, when I was travelling with my version of you. Huh. So I'm a girl in your reality? That... feels weird." |
| "Well, it's all quite strange here to me, what with everyone seems to be surprised that I'm female, and I'm rather afraid I've never seriously contemplated it being the other way around until I ended up here." The Doctor drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh. "Though I must say it was nice running into Koschei without the insanity, even if it was Koschei as a he, not a she. Miss that, really." She beamed at Kurt, bouncing on her toes a moment, unable to keep still. "So, you traveled with a version of me? How long ago? What happened?" |
| Kurt just let most of that speech wash over him (he'd got pretty good at that over the years) and somehow kept his face pretty expressionless at the mention of Koschei and a sane Koschei at that. He'd worry about what that meant later. He concentrated on the last couple of questions, and raised his eyebrows. "Do you really want to know how long ago? Because the last version of you who asked that really wasn't prepared for the answer." |
| "Well, if you're a version of Jack, than I'd expect that you have rather a problem with dying, and so it could be rather a long time, though I expect I'd have more trouble if it were my Jack standing here, but she's not." The Doctor shrugged, sticking her hands in the back pockets of her her jeans, tilting her head. "So, really, how long ago, and what sort of adventures have you gotten up to?" |
| "3,000 years, give or take. Well, that's when I met him and travelled with him for a couple of months. Got exterminated, got brought back - forever. Waited 140 odd years to find him again, hitched a lift to the end of the universe, got caught up with the Master, spent a very unpleasant year which never actually happened, and decided I'd had enough. Went back to Torchwood. Still there. He pops back to visit me once a century or so. You?" |
| The Doctor chewed on her lip a moment. "Picked her up in 1941, spent a great few months adventuring with her and Roland, ended up on the Game Station, she died to give me time to get a Delta Wave generator finished, and I couldn't quite bring myself to use it. Roland figured out a solution, but humans aren't supposed to hold the Time Vortex like that, no one is, and I ended up with this body out of the bargin, and Jack ended up rather a bit more permanent than is entirely comfortable. I ran away, and she tried to chase after, but..." She shrugged. "Just ended up at the end of the universe with Mark, my current companion, and Jack holding onto the outside of the TARDIS - she needed bearings, because Jack threw her all off. Ran into the Master, and she bloody stole my TARDIS, kidnapped me, and left Mark and Jack at the end of the universe and ended up here." She pulled one hand out of a pocket, running a hand through her hair, bouncing agitatedly on her toes again. "Oh, I hope she doesn't do anything too stupid. I mean, it's bad enough she's gotten us lost outside of time and space, but it could be so much worse if she'd actually gotten what she wanted out of the bargin. She's intent on taking over the universe, you know. Probably a lot like her male counterpart." She looked up at Kurt, a soft smile on her face. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for whatever the Master did. Even if it wasn't the one I know who did it." |
| "It's all right. Not your fault. And it was a long time ago. Not so long for my version of you, though - you might want to avoid talking about the Master if you run into him. Well, if you can with so many versions of him running about." He turned, leaning back against the glass, and looked at the Doctor sideways. "Your Master is here too?" He paused, and grinned. "And that sounded far kinkier than I intended!" |
| The Doctor laughed in response to Kurt's grin and comment, shaking her head. "Always with the innuendo! And she's bloody not mine, not in that sense. Never has been." Not that she'd admit to him, not for anything. And it had been a long time ago, before they'd left the Academy. "I'll keep in mind not to talk too much about her if I run into a male version of myself. Not that I like to talk about her, really, not right now." She leaned against the glass next to Kurt, tucking her hands into her pockets again. "It doesn't matter if it's not my fault, I can still be sorry for what happened. Though Mark and Roland both have told me I'm very good at guilt. Not particularly healthy, but it's still there. At least I'm not brooding about it all the time any more, I really did enough of that last regeneration. All dark and broody and it's just depressing, don't you think?" She tilted her head to look at Kurt, leaning her head against the glass. "I mean, really, there's only so much of tearing oneself apart one can take before one goes absolutely mad." |
| He sighed. "Can you go and tell that to your alter ego? He's got enough guilt going on for the both of you right now. And somehow his brooding just isn't as sexy as it was in his last regeneration... Now that one could pull off dark and broody. Damn sexy, that was." |
| "Oh, I will, if I run into him. But do you think he'll listen to me? I mean, well, to himself, myself. I know I rarely have, even when I've had some decent advice to give myself. Well, usually don't listen at the time, usually think I should have later." The Doctor shrugged, letting her head roll around so she was looking out at the street again... well, more the tops of buildings and the sky than the street itself, leaning her head back against the glass like she was. "That's really odd, don't you think?" She squinted up at the sky, searching for a source of light in the brightness. "No clouds, no star, just light. Bright enough for daylight, but it's not really. Like we're in some sort of construct, not on a real planet. A simulation, maybe. On some sort of station, like the Game Station, perhaps?" She let a thoughtful expression cross her face. "Now that would be rather interesting, a station outside of space and time that gathers people, but looks like a planet. Wonder what it looks like at night, if there is a night. Is there a night?" She glanced over at Kurt without moving her head, watching him out of the corners of her eyes. |
| "You know, I never thought it was possible for anyone to talk more than the Doctor, but..." Kurt let it trail, laughing lightly. "Yeah, there's night. Even stars, though the contellations are none I've ever known. I have absolutely no idea what this place is, but, yeah, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out it's a construct." He shrugged slightly. "Honestly, I'm just using it as a break and taking what comes." Well, now the Doctor had convinced him to stop obsessing about the Master, anyway. |
| "It's a gift." The Doctor beamed, giving in to a small shimmy of delight. "I like to talk, it keeps people off-balance, or just listening. It works on almost everyone, though there are some people who just ignore me. I mean, me, the last Time Lord! It's just rude, that's what it is. "Anyway, so you're taking a holiday? Sounds like an excellent idea. I mean, when I'm not trying to keep an eye on the Master. Well, maybe. I mean, if I'm stuck here, so is she, and she's probably going to get sidetracked by all the opportunities to meddle with people, and forget to look for a way to get out. I might even be able to leave her here when I leave, I mean, not that I'd want to inflict her on anyone, but at least here she can't do any permanent damage." She shrugged, shifting her weight so she could pull her hands out of her pockets, leaning her back against the glass instead. "And the shops are marvelous! I think I found half the parts I need to do repairs on the TARDIS already, and I've only been exploring for a few hours. "Well, and I've met a couple interesting people, I mentioned Koschei already, but there was also this rather cute young man named Mickey. Reminds me of the Mickey that was Roland's girlfriend, only I never was daft enough to call her an idiot. Can you believe that? I mean, how daft is my male counterpart to call that kid an idiot?" |
| "Pretty daft. I think it was just loathing at first site between those two. There was a bit of jealousy over Rose, I think." Kurt shifted again, turning to face the Doctor and putting a foot up on the low sill. "This... Koschei. Doesn't sound like you're talking about the eight year old I met." |
| "No, no, not a child. He's all grown up, and sane, and still calls himself Koschei, which is an absloute delight! It's like everything that went wrong in the Master didn't go wrong in him. Well, as much as I can tell, as I didn't spend all a huge amount of time with him. Just an hour or two. Talking, mostly." The Doctor rotated, her shoulder and head still leaned against the glass, watching Kurt. "He even has a TARDIS with the chameleon circuit still working. I don't know that mine has worked in...well, in centuries, at least." She paused, a curious expression on her face. "An eight-year-old Koschei is here? Does she already here the drums? Oh, I hope not, that was so hard, they took her away from me, changed my friend so much. Not my friend anymore, and I miss that sometimes. She could have been so much, and she's just..." The Doctor shrugged. "Lost." |
| "He," Kurt corrected. God, this gender thing was confusing. "And yeah, he has the drums, poor kid. But the Doctor thinks he can get rid of them. It's worth a try, I guess. "And that Koschei sounds fantastic. It's good to know that there is a universe where he's sane, and good, and..." He backtracked through what she'd said, and quirked an eyebrow. "'Talking, mostly'?" |
| "Well, there was the checking to see if his TARDIS had any more clue where and when we are than mine, and I gave him a hug because it's really nice to meet a version of Koschei who still goes by Koschei, but really, nothing salacious or anything." The Doctor rolled her eyes. "And if your Doctor can get rid of the little Koschei's drums, that's good, because I never could, can't get in her head, she won't let me. Doesn't want to get rid of her drums, hasn't in, oh, centuries. I do wonder sometimes what it would have been like if she'd let me help her inthe first place, if I'd even been able to help her, to get rid of the drums, but that's really pointless, because I can't go back and change the past, now can I?" It was a rhetorical question, since she knew the answer, and she was fairly certain that Kurt would as well. |
| Kurt smiled sadly. "Too many things that can't be changed," he said, reaching out for her hand and squeezing gently. "But if the Doctor can do this, maybe there'll be one more reality where the Master doesn't become the Master. And the kid really seemed to want help." He rubbed soothing circles on her hand with his thumb. "I'm sorry about your Koschei. I've seen enough of what my Doctor's gone through not to wish that on anyone else." |
| "I just... I don't know what I'm going to do with her, because I can't let her roam around the universe, because she'll try to take it over, and I can't just... get rid of her, she's the only thing I have left of home other than the TARDIS, and for all that the TARDIS is my friend, she's sometimes... well, it's just not the same." The Doctor sighed, returning the squeeze a moment. "I'm just..." She shook her head, sitting down on the small sill abruptly, running one hand through her hair. "Oh, I've been trying not to think about her, or how I got here, or any of that, because it's just all too painful and easy to brood over and get upset over, and I don't like to do that, and here I am babbling on and on about Koschei and it leads to thoughts of who got me stuck here, and why she's like she is, and that my companions are still at the end of the universe, and it's all just rather a bit more than I want to deal with." |
| Kurt was beginning to feel like the Master was taking over his life, just by being here, messing up everyone he knew, or threatening to. He crouched down next to the Doctor on the sill and put an arm round her shoulders, hugging her tight and kissing the soft, dark hair. She might not be his Doctor, but she felt mighty familiar all the same. "I'm sorry," he murmured against her hair. "You've had a lot of shit happen to you. If it's any consolation, though, you should get back to your companions the moment you left them. They'll be okay." |
| The Doctor laughed, shakily, with little mirth to the sound. "Oh, I hope they will be. I really do. Well, I know Jack will be ok, she always lands on her feet, and Mark is good at taking care of himself, but..." She leaned against Kurt, just. Allowing herself to let go, for a little bit. "I don't know if I'll be okay if anything happens to them. I've already lost... so many. Burned Gallifrey, and I thought, I told that idiot that there had to be another way. I just... I didn't have time to find one. And so many, so bloody many, paid the price. And it's... I know I can't change it, and I really shouldn't keep on and on about it, but... there's no one who can understand, not in my universe. No one who is able to make that connection that I keep reaching for, and will never find again." |
| "No-one except the Master," Kurt said softly. He understood. Oh, how he understood. He pulled away enough that he could look round at the Doctor. "I take it back. Maybe you should go talk to my Doctor. I know it wouldn't be like getting your world back for either of you, but he's gone through exactly what you're going through, and a bit more besides." |
| The Doctor tilted her head, looking at Jack for a long moment. "Maybe. Eventually, I'm sure. But... Not right now, you know. I mean, who wants to get into a misery-fest over double-genocides when they're already upset? And there's all these shops I haven't finished exploring yet, and I need to get parts for repairing my TARDIS, and..." She was making excuses, not really sure she wanted to run into someone who would be a mirror of her. Well, male. And probably older. And who knew what she would turn out like as a male?... She was really stuck on that, at least when it came to herself. Just... "You really are bigger on the inside, no matter what universe you come from. It's really nice, that." She leaned forward to hug him, a bright smile on her face that didn't quite mask the mix of tired and guilt and just plain afraid that she felt. Not that she was about to admit to two out of the three. |
| Kurt held her close, breathing in the scent of her hair. It was partially like his Doctor's and partially not. Very disconcerting. "You want any help with your TARDIS?" he asked, over her head. "I do have a certain way with the lady. Or - hang on, if everything's reversed, is your TARDIS a he?" |
| "No, she's a she." The Doctor chuckled quietly. "That's really amusing, actually, because one would think they'd be gender-reversed like everyone else, but if you're used to a lady, than they're not. Though mine isn't a lady, really. Female, yes, but a lady?" She didn't pull away yet, just... well, she wouldn't admit to herself to clinging at the moment. Just... hiding. Hiding the emotions that she was sure were still readable on her face, and the suspicious amount of extra moisture in her eyes. She really didn't like the idea of crying. Always ended up looking a fright, at least according to her reflection in the mirror. |
| He continued to hold her against him, giving her all the time she needed. "Oh, she's always a lady," he said warmly. "You just gotta know how to talk to her." |
| The Doctor snorted, pulling back. "You've been flirting with the TARDIS, haven't you? Is there anyone you don't flirt with?" The second question was asked with a teasing grin, and laughter in her voice. |
| "Not many," Kurt acknowledged, with a crooked grin. "You feeling better now?" |
| The Doctor shrugged one shoulder, leaning back against the shop window again. "As much as I'm going to be. I'm still worried about Mark and my Jack, but if time doesn't pass while I'm here, I'll be alright. Eventually. Maybe." She shrugged again. "Doesn't really matter, anyway. Holidays aren't something I've had much luck with before, maybe this will be the exception. And I would appreciate the help with the TARDIS, though I have to go find some parts first. Haven't bought parts in a while, and I think I'm running low on spares." She looked over at him, a half-smile on her face. "My TARDIS is parked in the hotel bar. I mean, she's landed some strange places, but at least this is better than landing in the loo of some gentlemen's club in England in the 1890s. Met King Victor, though, that was fun." |
| "King Victor?" Kurt laughed. "Huh, that gender reversal thing is going to take a bit of getting used to!" He looked her over with a soft smile. "I'll leave you to it, then, eh? But I'll be back at the hotel this evening so I'll check in on you then, see if you need me? It'd be nice to say hi to the old girl again, anyway, even if she's not quite the one I used to know." |
| "I'll make sure to leave the TARDIS unlocked. And if you can't see me when you step inside, yell for me. I've probably gotten into the console or underneath trying to fix something." The Doctor gave Kurt a quick hug before bouncing to her feet, at least back to pretending everything was fine, even if she wasn't feeling that way. "See you around!" |
| He blew her a kiss instead of his normal salute, and winked. "See you later, Doctor," he smiled, and watched her go. |