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[longwayaround]

"Well, it's... suppose there's a few things I could teach you, yeah. Won't change much during flight, just some start-up procedures. Can't really keep the TARDIS stable, but... would make for a faster take-off. Y'know, if you... wanted to learn a bit about it." In-flight, all the adjustments had to be made quickly, and needed a little more understanding of the TARDIS' functioning and flight than what would be fast and easy for someone to learn. But if Rose was interested, he always loved teaching, and it was nice to have someone else working around the console.

A TARDIS really never was meant to be piloted alone.

"We'll find it," said the Doctor, a smile on his lips. "Has to be around here somewhere. Until then, we'll just have a nice walk around London. Sounds like a nice day out, don't you think?"

Rose listened to her. "I was going to suggest that you could teach me how to, so I could at least help you." She said. "But that might not exactly be that possible as time goes on." Rose added. Maybe that wasn't the best suggestion. At least not at the moment. She had remembered about how before The Doctor had dropped her, her mother and John back at the beach, almost everyone in the TARDIS was helping with the flying.

Hearing what The Doctor said, she rolled her eyes and laughed. "Of course you have." She said. Rose looked at him and then squeezed his hand. "I guess we will just have to look for it then."

[longwayaround]

"It wasn't me!" insisted Donna, looking down at the lever that she was pretty sure she never touched. Mostly sure. There might have been a slight lurch in the TARDIS that made her lose her balance, and she might have caught herself on the console, but she could swear that her hand had never been anywhere near that lever.

She knew enough to know to stay away from the TARDIS controls unless she was explicitly told to do something. None of it ever made much sense to her — even when she tried her hand at piloting it, it all only slotted in a little better.

Odds were that humans simply weren't meant to understand it. You probably had to be able to see timelines and feel the turn of the Universe to pilot a TARDIS on your own.

"Emergencies, you said? Sounds like now might be a good time to press it!" she shouted over the noise of the TARDIS, eyes falling on the sparking panel opposite to them.

@longwayaround said: “I haven’t touched it!” - donna to ten

Was he annoyed? Okay, maybe he was a little bit. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. But he was doing his best not to show it! "Donna! That lever is not supposed to be pressed except for emergencies!" He told her, flipping the lever back into its upright position with one hand, while his foot reached across the console to press down a button on the opposite side.

The TARDIS wasn't having it, despite his attempts at regaining control. The ol' girl was pretty upset having the lever pushed down, or perhaps there was something else the Doctor wasn't understanding yet. The TARDIS was shakier than normal. He could feel it, and that was what really bothered him. It contributed to his snappier than normal mood.

Suddenly, a panel opposite the two of them exploded into sparks.

[longwayaround]

Time travelers falling for their spouse before knowing that they’re their spouse.

[longwayaround]

Oh, to see Rose Tyler again...

It was never easy, running into someone he knew in another lifetime, someone who hadn't followed him into the next for one reason or another. He'd been someone else when he'd known her, and so much had happened since then, but... she'd always have a place in his hearts. Always.

"A long time," he said, and the smile on his lips was decidedly sad. "I regenerated just a few years after the last time we saw each other. But it's been a long time since then."

A pause, and then he asked, "how long has it been for you?"

How much had he missed? Had she built the life with his other self that he'd hoped she would? Did she even still think of the universe from which she hailed? He wasn't sure what he was even hoping to hear. He wanted her to be settled in and happy, but the thought that she might have left all of that behind still... hurt.

@longwayaround said: stop looking at me like that . - eleven to rose

Rose didn't mean to stare. She really didn't. But she really couldn't believe how much the Doctor had changed. Even though she'd witnessed regeneration once before, it still came as a shock to see he'd changed his face once again. "I'm sorry. You just look...so different." She told him, fingers brushing over her chin. She drew her eyes away, suddenly self-conscious. She knew it was rude to stare.

"How long has it been?" She asked, returning her gaze to him, this time not staring, but to talk to him. "I mean, since you were him?" She wondered if she really wanted to know that answer.

[longwayaround]

"We're her mates, of course we care about her. We're just trying to help." Yaz shook her head.

It helped, really, knowing that the Doctor was like that with everyone, even before she was... who she was. The idea that she could change, that she'd been other people before, was still an incredibly strange one to her. But the truth was that she'd come to accept, frustrating as it might be, that the Doctor simply didn't share, not anything real, and not without a fair bit of prompting and occasional urgency.

And there came more, and Yaz tried to wrap her head around it again.

The Master, a childhood friend and the Doctor's crush, apparently, which was... difficult to imagine, and made so much sense at the same time. Her head was going to start hurting at this rate.

"The Cybermen... they're using the bodies of Time Lords. They converted them," offered Yaz. "That's why the Doctor had to use the Death Particle. I don't know how it works, but it was going to take out all of them. And the Master, he was behind everything. And... the Doctor, too."

And it'd killed her — in the figurative sense, Yaz hoped. She'd been able to see it as the Doctor had left, how much the idea of using the Death Particle had hurt her. It wasn't even because it'd kill her, too, but rather... because it was her home. Because it was Gallifrey.

"What the Doctor tells anyone varies - it'll always be little, but how little depends on the regeneration you get. With this one, I can't say how closed she is. She may be trying to protect you from loving her and being hurt." River massaged her forehead, a dull ache at her temples and at the back of her eyes appearing out of nowhere. "Or she's simply that reserved this time."

There were times River herself had to probe the Doctor for information, to open up to her. A lot of her knowledge came from years of research; both at university where she got her hands on every article, file, and book she could related to them in some way - and through her job.

Some might say she was obsessed with the Doctor, and perhaps she was a smidge, but River's admiration for the Doctor's love of the universe, how they always viewed it with such awe and celebrated it. They were person whose love taught her how to transform hatred into love. Who gave her a chance to be a person, not a weapon.

"When it involves the Master, all bets are off if much makes sense, from the Doctor or anyone else. They're their childhood friend, crush, and an utter pain in the arse." She closed her eyes, thinking maybe it'd help her head. "I don't know what the death particle is... it's too recent of history in this timeline and I could travel forward and look at the university's library, but who knows if I'll find much we need, but I might with what's going on with the Cybermen. But with the Doctor... she had to have some kind of plan to deal with them. Hopefully."

[longwayaround]

"Well... the TARDIS wasn't meant to be flown by just one pilot," he pointed out, shrugging slightly. He was good, sure — well, he had failed his TARDIS piloting exams, but he'd also managed some pretty impressive feats in his time in the console room, so... he figured that counted. So he was good, but even he couldn't quite do the work of six people.

He tugged on his ear at her question, eyes roaming over their surroundings. "Oh, you know... might've forgotten. I do think it had chips in the name. Did it? It's been years. And that was a very long year, too." He made a face, then shook his head. It hadn't happened, in the end, had it? He could remember it all, but for most of the world, it'd never happened.

"If anyone could work that out, it would be you." Rose said as she held on to his hand. She wasn't even sure how The Doctor hadn't even worked that out yet. Or he just liked the running and climbing on the console now and again.

At the mention of this, she nodded in understanding. "Okay. That does make more sense." Rose said. "Otherwise you would have found it already." She added. "What is the name of the place?" Rose asked, glancing around. At least if she knew, she could see if she could spot the place. It would be easier to find if she knew what place she was looking for.

[longwayaround]

DOCTOR WHO (2005–)

5.11 // 7.14

[longwayaround]

Yaz blinked.

Then she blinked again, because she'd spent so long trying to piece together enough about the Doctor's very long life to be able to... relate? To help? Something. And all of a sudden she knew more than she'd ever have been able to imagine, and she didn't know what to do with it, didn't know how to reconcile what she was being told with what she knew about the Doctor.

Because the Doctor she knew would never have done that. She'd have stopped whoever was trying to do it, and she... oh, she loved Gallifrey, didn't she? Why would she ever...

But she hadn't, because it'd been reversed? Maybe it was a mistake, an accident —

She needed some time. And some answers.

But she had neither.

"I'm not," argued Yaz. "I'm not fighting you on her history, I don't... she never tells me anything."

A frustrated sigh, and she made her way over to the console. "But I don't think that's what happened. There were Cybermen, and Gallifrey was in ruins. The Master was there, and... there was something about a Death Particle? I don't know, we only got there towards the end, and she wasn't making so much sense. But I know she was going to use the Death Particle. That was her plan to stop the Master and the Cybermen, and she wouldn't let us stay to help."

"Well, Yasmin - Yaz, just because Gallifrey means a lot to her and is her home, it doesn't mean it's safe for her." She almost felt like someone scolding a child when she said that. "She - he at the time - committed genocide in the Time War when the Time Lords were at their worst, that has now been reversed in some timey-wimey way and brought Gallifrey back."

Now, River still had uncertainty of what the Time Lords themselves even remembered about what happened to Gallifrey. Of what the Doctor had done. And what their plans are with her this time. River really had to reconstructed her knowledge about all she knew and had known about this part of the Doctor's past. And she had the feeling, she'd be very angry while doing so.

"I know your first instinct is to argue because you love her, and you're afraid, and you've been travelling with her for years, and you have no reason to trust me. But I know the Doctor, and I know she's going through her own personal hell, emotionally, even if she shuts it all down. And what we don't need is you fighting me on my spouse's history." She kept her cool as she spoke, hands resting on the console as she took time to process what the TARDIS was showing her and the energy Yaz carried. "She really shouldn't have gone there."

Her voice wavered now and she hung her head. She was going to kill those bastards.

[longwayaround]

Professor Song, the Doctor's wife and... psychopath?

No, that didn't make any sense. Who had she just given all that information to? Except...

She really could believe that Professor Song loved the Doctor. She really could. There was something there, even when it grated at her, even when it felt like — oh, she wasn't sure how to put it into words, but even when it bothered her, she could see it. She could see how this woman loved the Doctor.

And really, could a psychopath do that?

"Yaz," she answered at last, a final decision to trust her. "Yasmin Khan. I've been traveling with the Doctor for a few years."

That bit of backstory — given so easily when she had to pry much smaller details from the Doctor herself with reminders that they couldn't help if they didn't know what was happening — at least seemed to support that decision. She knew the Doctor well, it seemed. and enemies could know one better than one's friends, but...

Again, she could see the love there.

"But that's her home. It means a lot to her," argued Yaz. Really, she couldn't begin to understand what River had said — what war? How could the Doctor regenerate into someone she didn't consider a part of themself? How could that be needed? - but she did know Gallifrey meant a lot to her.

"You should give me your name so I don't constantly think of you as 'woman' or 'the Doctor's companion' in my mind," River said as a moment's reprieve. "It's impolite of me, and I tend to consider myself a civilised psychopath."

After that River let her return to whatever thoughts she had. Taking deep breaths of her own, messing with the console and monitor, trying to get an idea of what the Doctor did with this TARDIS. And what it was capable of.

The Doctor had done it with intention, had made it possible to be opened by others she allowed for it to. This companion seemed to live here, if River Song had to make a guess. An obsession fueled by deep admiration and love, to find the Doctor after all that months that passed.

To carry all that in one's heart without knowing what the Doctor intended had to drive her mad with fear. It'd explain the interrogation of who she was after introduction. And River Song could not blame her.

"She shouldn't have gone back there," River began, "nothing good would come from it. Last time she was there, she had been forced to regenerate into someone the Doctor doesn't consider part of themself, out of necessity. And destroyed the whole planet in a war."

[longwayaround]

Alright, so Professor Song was the Doctor's wife.

Presumably. She seemed to know enough to corroborate that, at least, but again, Yaz had no way of verifying it.

But she'd never met this Professor Song, never heard of her at all, and she was acting like... well, like Yaz hadn't spent years traveling with the Doctor, trying to learn what she could about her, trying to be there for her through all the pain that the Universe kept throwing at her, and —

Oh, that hurt.

Maybe because at the end of the day, she'd had to work for every little bit that she got to learn about the Doctor, every inch of the door that was cracked for her. Even years later, she was all but helpless to find the Doctor, left to wonder whether she was dead or alive.

But Professor Song really must love her, if her first reaction to the possibility of the Doctor being dead was to just think of the impact that she'd had across the stars, and know that without her, they couldn't be there. That was beautiful, really.

And true. Very true.

"I know, I was there. On Gallifrey, when it all happened... me and my mates, we just barely got away. But the Doctor stayed behind. I don't know how she could have survived, but she's got to. Or there's got to be something we can do to help. We've got a whole TARDIS here, but I don't know... she must've left us something. Something we can use to help her. I just don't know what. I haven't figure it out yet."

And she could use the help. She really, really could use the help.

"Well, we know the stars haven't started falling yet. If the Doctor were dead, they'd start going out and fall from the sky," River explained all in one breath as she stood at the console, the cool floor on her bare feet keeping her alert. "So, either she got caught up in something or is imprisoned. ... With her amount of enemies and what I've heard about going on as of late with Gallifrey... My guess the latter. They aren't particularly fond of the Doctor around there."

Now she could be wrong, very wrong... history changed and information shifted to where River Song struggled to keep up with it. With the timelords and Gallifrey.

"She sent you all home because she didn't want you to worry about something you as humans are in danger of. The Doctor's lost too many people they've cared about in the past. She likely worried she'd lose you." River looked to her with a sad smile that touched her grey-blue eyes. "She's been through a lot. Don't be upset with her when she isn't willing to share her problems and burdens."

Although, she as her wife, would not listen to her own advice. But again, that was spouse privilege. Same as knowing her name.

[longwayaround]

Her wife.

The Doctor... had a wife.

Or at least someone who claimed to be her wife, but — well, it was hard to believe, and it also wasn't, because again, the Doctor never told them anything. Sometimes she almost managed not to mind it, not to feel... like not enough for her to let her in, but then something like this happened and she was reminded all over again of the fact that not knowing was a problem.

If she knew more, she could help better. If she knew more, she could know whether this woman was someone she could trust, or someone she absolutely shouldn't.

"She's gone," Yaz finally said.

Oh, she wanted to believe she could figure this out on her own, find the Doctor, but she couldn't operate a TARDIS on her own. She barely knew how everything worked on the Doctor's TARDIS, let alone another one, and one less willing to lend a hand.

Professor Song might. She'd gotten inside, and she — well, she was fiddling with the controls like they made at least a little more sense to her than they did to Yaz. She needed her help.

At least if she was the Doctor's wife, then she might be willing to offer it.

"It's been months. I don't know what happened to her, but when she sent us back home... she thought she might not make it."

There it was. The Doctor hadn't even said her name before in the company of this companion. It stung, if only a little, to see how insignificant she became to the Doctor in the company of others. She dreaded to admit that it happened with her parents as well - the treatment she received harsh at times but brilliant during others, yet they always received the best.

But with love for her parents; Amy and Rory, River always found herself unable to resent the strong love, near-borderline addiction the Doctor had to them.

Shame River had to break it to the woman when the Doctor wasn't around to confirm it. It made her feel like some kind of criminal, being interrogated.

Which, yes, she was a criminal. But not currently.

"Her wife." River sighed and handed the notes back. "I know it's hard to believe, her not being around doesn't help matters either. All she has left here is this spare TARDIS, which is a lite version of her own she probably found dumped on some planet."

She knew, she tried to play around with it and nothing particularly interesting happened. Only some tweaking here and there the Doctor must've done before she left.

[longwayaround]

Professor River Song.

Yaz had never heard of her, but then again, for everything that they managed to convince the Doctor to share, there was so much they still didn't know. Professor Song could be anyone.

She could be an associate of the Doctor's. She could be her mortal enemy — and really, the Doctor was the kind to have one, wasn't she?

She did have the Master, complicated as that seemed to be.

It would be so, so much easier to know how to react in a situation like that if the Doctor just told them things. Why could she never see that?

"What kind of associate?" asked Yaz, though she couldn't see how it would help. There was no knowing whether she could trust this person who'd broken into the TARDIS like it wasn't one of the safest places in the Universe.

Maybe the Doctor had coded the TARDIS to her DNA, too, but how would Yaz know that for sure?

Glancing down at the notes that had fallen on the floor, she quickly collected them once again, holding them to her chest as she tried to decide whether —

Well, if the Doctor hadn't coded the TARDIS to Professor Song, too, then that meant that she had to be able to understand all of this a lot better than Yaz did, to manage to get inside. She could help. Or... Yaz could end up leading someone she shouldn't trust straight to the Doctor.

Would it matter at all, though, if her inaction meant that she couldn't help the Doctor survive whatever she was going through?

Ten months.

Something had to be wrong.

"Notes," said Yaz at last. "She's never mentioned you, you know? Tell me why I should trust you."

"Professor River Song," she answered, hoping that will be good enough for the young woman. But River often came across the problem that the Doctor seemed to forget to mention her to any companions she hadn't met herself.

Whether it was due to distractions or merely fear it'll interfere with how companionship relationships work, River hadn't the slightest.

"I'm... an associate of the Doctor's." If she knew of her as the Doctor's wife, than she'd understand the hesitation. And if yet again, the Doctor made no mention of her, River planned to let her suffer the ordeal of properly introducing them later. "I've known her for many years."

Closing her diary, she stood and walked over to help collect what was dropped. Taking a peek at the top note.

"What are these?"

[longwayaround]

No Ryan, no Graham — it was fine, really.

They'd taken a step back, focusing more on their lives on Earth, which made sense, because it was what the Doctor told them to do. Except... it'd been months. And she'd said she might not make it, which meant that they just had to figure out how to help her. There had to be a way.

But it was fine that Ryan and Graham weren't there. Yaz could handle it on her own. She just needed time, and thankfully she did have a time machine.

If only she could figure out how to work it.

Those days, she didn't leave the TARDIS very often. It just didn't seem necessary when the ship could give her whatever she needed, and... it wasn't the same as the Doctor's TARDIS, there wasn't that sense of fondness and familiarity, like the TARDIS wanted her to be alright, and would go out of her way to help, but it was good enough for her to do what she needed to do.

Still, a quick walk outside, some food that didn't come from the TARDIS' kitchen — it helped sometimes. And her family worried, so it was good to keep in touch.

She already had her notes out as she walked back inside, though.

"There's got to be a reason she coded the doors to our DNAs," muttered Yaz —

And then promptly dropped her notes.

There was someone inside the TARDIS. There wasn't meant to be someone inside the TARDIS, not unless it was Ryan, Graham, the Doctor, or herself.

That person was definitely not Ryan or Graham. She didn't sound like the Doctor, either, so she was going to assume that she hadn't just regenerated, and go from there.

"You can't be in here," said Yaz, glancing between the door and the woman. "How are you in here?"

@longwayaround ft. Yaz

She propped herself in the corner of the spare TARDIS after breaking in, shoes off and diary out as she wrote a line or two about what exactly seemed to be the case currently.

The Doctor not there at all, the message in which River received that left her with more questions than answers. And she hated when that happened, she thought they were relatively over the whole 'leaving my wife out of my business' business.

"Sweetie, have you finally come back - oh." She raised her head now to see it was not her wife at all. But likely one of her companions, as the voice didn't match the one River heard before.

[longwayaround]

thirteen + resolution

[longwayaround]

Oh.

Yaz's eyes widened, a hand moving to cover her mouth in sheer shock — that was the Doctor, wasn't it? She'd known she would change, of course, she'd understood regeneration well enough, especially after what had happened just hours before they said goodbye, but... it was one thing to know what would happen, and something else entirely to see it.

"Doctor," she whispered, lips pulling into a smile as everything slowly sunk in. "It's you, isn't it? Sorry, I didn't — I never saw your new face. Of course I remember you. I don't think anyone could forget you."

@longwayaround said: ❛ Tell me how I know you. ❜ - yaz to fourteen

"You travelled with me," the Doctor replied, pulling on his earlobe and sticking out his bottom lip slightly, looking as nonchalant as possible. "Don't you remember? I was blonde, Yorkshire accent -- a woman," The Doctor tried to remind Yaz.

"We travelled with Graham and Ryan. And Dan, we can't forget Dan," he grinned. He really should check in on them, since it had been a while since he'd last seen them. He wondered where they were now. "We fought the Daleks, the Sea Devils and the Master together. And so much more."

[longwayaround]

Donna raised a skeptical eyebrow at the Doctor.

"It's a fridge," she pointed out. "It'll live. Well, not live. Wait, that's not what you're doing, is it? I don't think anyone needs a sentient fridge."

Either way, she couldn't imagine what kind of catastrophic consequences tinkering with a fridge could have aside from defrosting, and as much as she was sure no one wanted that, well — he'd been at it for hours, anything that could've defrosted would've already done so, and he needed a break. If she let this go and told him to go ahead and finish... well, soon enough he'd be upgrading the microwave and telling her it had to be finished or reality would collapse, she was sure.

@longwayaround: go rest . i’m not asking . - donna to fourteen

The Doctor had got into one of his hyperfocused sessions. This time he was busy upgrading the refrigerator. He'd been at it for hours, doing whatever it was he was doing. He was so focused he hadn't heard Donna's footsteps entre the kitchen. When she finally spoke, he looked up. "But-but I'm busy!" He protested, sonic screwdriver still in hand.

"This is very complicated and must be done in one go or it could result in very catastrophic consequences." He tried to explain, but knowing Donna once her mind was made up, it was made up.

[longwayaround]

making icons for a multi is... quite an undertaking, and not one I really want to tackle right now, so I'll be switching to iconless at least for the time being !!