Even Angels Fall -- General

[A Moment In Subtext]

Doctor Who
Even Angels Fall
By. A Moment In Subtext

The Tardis floated through the Vortex, going. . .well, currently, nowhere. Just floating, because the Doctor had been "repairing" something and accidentally rewired the entire console. Which was bad because he'd been sleepwalking when he did it, and now he couldn't remember what he'd actually done. Not that it was anything he couldn't fix, with his superior brainpower and an awful lot of time.
Stephanie Brown, his current companion, lay sprawled across a chair she'd dragged in, for some reason under the illusion that the Doctor was going to talk to her while he was working. (Because he'd said, "Why don't you drag a chair in, Stephanie, and we can talk.") Neither of them had said anything in the past two hours and the last time she'd ask "how much long" she was told in no uncertain terms that he'd tell her when it was finshed and not before. Doctorspeak for, "I have no idea because I'm making it up as I go along."
She sighed, draped her legs over the side of the chair and leaned back so her head rested on the floor, all her blood rushing to her brain.
"Thats not going to improve your brainpower enough to help me." The Doctor said, causing Stephanie to sit up at an alarming speed, then grab onto the chair to steady herself.
"I thought you were too busy to talk to me." She admitted when the room stopped spinning due to the loss of blood from her brain.
"Ah! I am, sorry. Just thought you should know not to waste your time."
" 'Not to waste my time?' " Stephanie repeated. "What do you think I'm doing sitting around here? How is this any more wasting time than just sitting in the chair?"
The Doctor paused to consider that, then shrugged and stuck his head back under the console.
Stephanie made a frustrated noise had to forcibly restrain herself from either smacking herself in the forehead until she passed out, or walking up to the Doctor and kicking him in the shins until he couldn't walk. After a moment her eyes fell on the door and she got an idea.
She hopped up out of the chair, her shoes making a muted clicking sound that shouldn't have been possible to make between rubber and metal grating, but was nevertheless made, and walked across the room. For a moment, she just leaned against the wall beside the door, tapping her fingers on her knee and waiting for the Doctor to say something, or just to notice she had moved. God, he was infuriating!
After a few minutes more of annoyed tapping her realized she was digging her nails into her leg and was going to start bleeding soon if she didn't stop. (The thought crossed her mind to keep going and then go on and on about 'cutting herself and getting blood all over the new pants, and now she needed medical attention so he can't ignore her now!' but decided against it.) She stilled her fingers and reached for the door.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The Doctor sang out from under the console.
"You can't even see what I'm going to do." Stephanie protested, dropping her hand quickly.
The Doctor poked his head out and propped himself up on his elbows. "Were you or were you not going to open to door and look outside?"
Stephanie felt a faint blush rising to her cheeks. "I'm bored." She complained. "Don't you ever wonder what it looks like out there? Don't you wish we could just. . .open the doors and have a look-see? Just once?"
"That's not a good idea."
"I know." She sighed. "But haven't you ever thought about it?"
"Yep. Once. A long time ago."
"How long ago?"
"A lifetime."
"By which you mean. . .?" She promted with an arched eyebrow.
"Last regeneration."
"Ah. So what did you do?"
"I looked. Opened up those doors and looked out into the Vortex. And do you know what happened then?"
"What?"
"I fell out."
"You what?!" Stephanie shrieked.
"Well I didn't do it on purpose! One second I was standing inside the door, look out, and the next we hit a bump and I just sort of. . .slipped."
"You. . .slipped."
"Yep."
"Now this I've got to hear."
"Oh, alright then. Well, at that point its important that you know that I was travelling with Martha Jones, I've told you about Martha, right?"
"Only about a billion times."
"Just a billion? Could have sworn I talked about my previous companions a bit more than that."
"No, you talk about Rose a bit more than that."
"What about Jack?"
"Fairly often."
"Sarah Jane?"
"No so often."
"Susan?"
"Well, I recognize the name."
"Jaimie? Tegan? Ace?"
"No, no, and once you mentioned that last one in connection with an explosive."
"What about-"
"Not so much, no. Can you get on with the story?"
"Oh, right. Where was I?"
"You were travelling with Martha."
"Ah, yes. It started off just a normal day. We weren't really going anywhere, just resting up between bouts of world-saving. Used to do a lot of that. Did I ever tell you about the time I saved the Earth from the-"
"Maybe, possibly, probably not. I'm waiting for you to tell me about the time you fell out of the Tardis. . .sounding familiar?"
"Sorry. So, anyway, normal day. We were just lazing around, doing nothing. Basically what you and I were doing before you decided we needed conversation - no, I'm not going off on a tangent, this is completely related. Completely and totally related. Yep, related, and-"
"You forgot what it was related to, didn't you?"
". . .Maybe."
"You fell out of the Tardis."
"I did? Again?"
"No, no, I mean, you were telling me about how you fell out of the Tardis." Stephanie sighed.
"Oh! I knew that."
"Liar." She muttered under her breath.
"Okay, Martha Jones, normal day, lazing about, when she says. . ."

[A Moment In Subtext]

"Doctor, the Tardis moved the library again."
"Well, go find it."
"Yeah, like I haven't been trying to do that all mornin' or anything." Martha rolled her eyes.
"Well then, don't read, go lay down or something."
"My rooms gone too. An' so's the kitchen." She added hastily.
The Doctor pressed his palm against one of the pillars. "What is it, girl? What's wrong? Why won't you let Martha go where she wants to go?"
Martha threw her hands up in the air and walked out of the console room. "Un. Be. Lieveable." She muttered at the wall. "I don't have a room, food, or anything to do, and he pets you and asks you if you're alright like - like - like you're his bloody lover or something!" She paused. "You're not, right?"
Not in the sense you mean.
"What does that even mean?"
It means what it means.
"That's real helpful, thanks a lot."
You are welcome, Martha.
"Just so we're clear, that was sarcasm."
I know.
"Then why'd you - oh, nevermind!"
"Martha!" The Doctor called, quickly matching her strides and catching up with her. "The Tardis seems to be under the impression that you're bored."
"Oh, well, that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that she hid the library, my room, and the kitchen, while you were petting her like a favorite puppy!"
Puppy?
Martha rolled her eyes at the wall. "First animal that came to mind, sorry."
The Doctor looked at her. "So you're really bored?"
"Yes! God, do you ever listen?"
He listens to me.
"Oh, shut up." She muttered at the wall. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "No, not you. The Tardis. She's doing that telepathic conversation thing again. She's being really bitchy."
"Don't call her that! You'll hurt her feelings."
I'm telepathically sticking my tongue out at you.
She waved her hands at the Doctor. "I rest my case. Puppy!"
"She's not a puppy! You can't ride inside a puppy! Well. . .you can on Diwue IX, but thats hardly the point. The point, Martha, is that if you're really bored we can go someplace."
"Really? Can we go to an amusement park planet? They do have those, right?"
"Of course they have those. And yes, we can go to one. If, -if -if -if -if -if, you're nice to the Tardis for the whole afternoon."
"Make her give me my room bad and I'll leave her alone." Martha said stubbornly.
" 'Make her give me my room back and I'll leave her alone.' " The Doctor mimiced.
"What are you, five?"
"Ten, actuall- oh, you mean age!"
"Yeah, what'd you think I meant?" Martha asked curiously.
"I plead the fifth."
"That's American. I'm English and you're not even human!"
"Martha, if you don't stop acting like a spoiled child, I'm going to have to send you to your room."
"You can't, Doctor. The Tardis hid it. Remember? Besides, you're not my mother."
Now that is an interesting image.
"Doctor, your ship is a perv."
Doctor, your human is a tattle-tale.
The Doctor looked at both of them as if they were insane, then shook his head. "Okay, whatever's going on with the two of you, fix it. And both of you stay out of the console room until its fixed."
Yeah, fix it, Martha Jones.
"Oh, I'm going to kill your stupid, worthless, alien timeship arse!"
I do not think the Doctor would like that.
"I hate you."
You love him.
"Are you correcting me? And, wait, I never told you that!"
If the shoe fits. . .
"Yeah, well, what's so wrong with it if I do?"
Nothing. My greatest desire is for the Doctor to find a woman he can be happy with.
"But you thought it was going to be Rose." Martha said for her.
We both did.
"Sorry to disappoint you."

[A Moment In Subtext]

"Doctor," Stephanie complained, "You're supposed to be telling me about you falling out of the Tardis. Not about your ship and your companion PMSing."
"Oh, no, that's the Tardis on a good day. She's much worse when she's PMSing."
"Okay, that's another story I'm going to want to hear."
"No. No, no, no, absolutely not."
"Aw, why not?"
"Because the Tardis will probably kill me if I do."
"You've got another couple of regenerations."
"Stephanie. . ."
"Alright, alright. So, you yelled at your fighting females and came back to the console room. Then what happened?"
"Well, I don't know what went on with Martha and the Tardis, I was out of earshot at that point, and neither of them would tell me afterwards. But I was just tinkering-"
"Tinkering? Not 'repairing,' or 'attempting to remodulate,' or any of those other fancy-shmancy words for fixing up the ship, but 'tinkering?' "
"Is it that hard to believe? - No, don't answer that. Yes, at one point I actually played the the wiring of the Tardis when it didn't need it."
"When you were awake."
"Well, obviously. Apparently, there should be a lock on my bedroom door."
"There is a lock on your bedroom door."
"Hmm, that's odd."
"Maybe you're channeling a previous incarnation in your sleep."
"That would be interesting."
"That would be cool."
"Creepy."
Stephanie paused for a minute then nodded. "Yeah, creepy works. So, back to the story. You're in the console room. How do you end up falling out?"
"Well, you remember, I promised Martha I'd take her to an amusement park world. . ."
"Which one'd you take her to?"
"Well, I planned on taking her to Keiend VI. But we didn't exactly make it."
"Because you fell out."
"Yes, yes. Its not that big a deal."
"Is so."
"Is not."
"Is so."
"Is not."
"Is so - I'm not having this arguement with you. So, you set the coordinates for Keiend VI?"
"Yes. I set the coordinates, then I stood around waiting for Martha and the Tardis to stop fighting and join me."
"How long'd it take them to stop fighting?"
"I'm not actually sure. I fell out before that."
Stephanie laughed. "Nice. Okay, so, you're standing around in the console room, essentially, doing nothing but 'tinkering. . .' "

[A Moment In Subtext]

Actually, 'tinkering' wasn't really the word. 'Looking' at was almost the word. 'Glaring' at would probably have been a better suited word, except that the Doctor had no malice in his eyes. So maybe 'staring' was the right word. Alright, staring then.
The Doctor was staring at the inside of the Tardis console, a look of puzzlement etched across his features as he attempted to find out what was wrong with her and why she suddenly seemed to be holding a grudge against Martha. Just up until recently they'd seemed to get along fine. And as far as he could tell, Martha hadn't done anything incredibly stupid, or dim-witted, or human that would set the old girl off like this.
He sighed and rested his hand on the side of the console fondly, resisting the urge to seek out the telepathic presence of the Tardis in the back of his mind. He had banished her until she'd fixed things up with Martha, after all, it would do no good for him to be caught cheating on his own rules in his own domain.
Not that he was calling the Tardis his domain, because she was sentient and alive and entirely her own domain, so while she might be his he couldn't actually call her his without implying that she was property, and his train of thought had gotten completely off track.
With a last, fleeting glance at the console, he paced across the room toward the doors, his shoes making a dull, muffled sound through the bottoms of his un-hemmed, too-long slacks (he'd gotten the wrong size when they'd visited that American shop, stupid non-metric using apes) and rested his forehead against the doorframe.
Truth be told, he had nothing to do. Oh, he hadn't lied when he told Martha that there was always something fun to do on the Tardis. And it wasn't like he was wrong because, well, because he's the Doctor and he's never wrong. He was just. . .mistaken. Which you'd think is the same thing as wrong, but really, its subtly not. (You want to argue semantics with the Doctor? I thought not.)
He could always go exploring, the Tardis was always rearranging herself, and it might be interesting to see what he could find. There were rooms he hadn't been in for hundreds of years. But if he left the console room, there was the chance (a very large chance) that he'd somehow "accidentally" run into Martha and have to act as mediator between her and the Tardis again. (Honestly. As if he didn't do the peace keeping thing enough when they were outside?)
Knowing that didn't make him any less bored, however, and he paced around the central console a few times before his eyes landed, once again, on the doors. He thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. He'd seen to Vortex before, (granted, not in a very long time and not while riding through it, but, again, semantics), so it wasn't like it was going to kill him. And it wasn't like he'd suddenly lose all oxygen, the Tardis's protective bubble would see to that, and even if it didn't, he didn't need to breath nearly as often as the humans he kept picking up. After running that logic through his head (in half the time it would take to go through a human brain), he walked over and cracked the door open just enough to see out.
As he'd suspected, no oxygen lose. Spawned by this obvious success, he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stared out into the Vortex. It was at that moment that three things happened simultaniously. Martha burst into the control room, the Doctor spun to see what all the noise was, and the Tardis jerked violently, sending him tumbling out the door.

[A Moment In Subtext]

"And that's how I fell out of the Tardis." The Doctor said with a nod.
"Wait, that's it?"
"Yep."
"But what happened then?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, obviously you're here now. And alive. But you said once that being in the Vortex unprotected killed your friend Jack."
"Yeah, well, he was human."
Stephanie gave him a look.
"Alright, so it killed me. I regenerated. End of story."
"It is not! How'd you get back in the Tardis?"
"But that's an entirely different story!"
"So tell it."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Then I'll have to ask the Tardis."
The Doctor gaped at her for a second. "She talks to you, too?"
"Jealous, Doctor?"
"She's not supposed to talk to you. She's not supposed to talk to any of you, but she always does." He muttered puzzledly.
"Bit like you then, always breaking the rules."
The Doctor opened his mouth to protest, then grudgingly admitted that she had a point.
"So? How'd you get back?" Stephanie pressed.
"Don't know, actually." He said sheepishly.
"How can you not know?"
"I, er, I woke up in the Tardis and neither she nor Martha would tell me how'd I gotten there. Though Martha mentioned something about 1953, so I assume I ended up there."
"What, and the Tardis found you?"
"Sure. She's very good at finding me."
"You get lost often, then?"
"I'm not gonna answer that."
Stephanie laughed.