Chapter Text
They were sitting around the library, Nate and Zari and Ray, talking about random topics, anything not related to one of their missions.
“Wait, what do you mean you haven’t seen any 13th Doctor episodes?”
Zari stared in disbelief at Ray, who only shrugged. She continued, “I thought you’d seen every episode—that’s available, anyway.” He could not, of course, have seen certain early episodes that had long been lost.
“Yeah—up to my own time. It didn’t seem fair, to watch ahead.”
Nate spoke up. “Wait. You watched all the Marvel movies with me in that marathon last year, when we were stuck in the time stream for weeks.”
Ray looked at Nate with a slightly befuddled expression. “But this is Doctor Who!” he protested.
Zari was about done with this crew. Ray and his scruples. But then she smiled to herself. That meant she could watch him watch it—the biggest Who nerd she knew see the 13th Doctor for the first time. No way was she missing this.
*
“I should go then. Last time I watched was the one with the fez.”
Ray shook his head at Nate, slight pity on his face.
Zari dismissed Nate’s worry. “Naw. There’s no spoilers in this first one—it’s designed for viewers innocent of Who.”
“So you’ve seen Who past 2018.” There was awe in Ray’s voice.
“Every single one that’s out by 2042.” She got disbelieving (Nate) and impressed (Ray) stares. “What?” Zari raised her shoulders briefly as she settled more deeply into the couch she had to herself. Her next words were nonchalant. “We had a very effective black market. And we knew what was important for our own morale.”
*
Later, Zari stopped stuffing her mouth with popcorn long enough to announce: “This one is a game changer. Oh, not the plot, that’s pretty typical, but—well, you’ll see.” Gideon dimmed the lights to half-way.
But Zari didn’t watch the screen. She’d seen this one when she was eight years old, and then many times since, though she refrained from doing what Ray would have done and speaking the dialogue, out loud, anyway. She still couldn’t help mouthing the words when the Doctor finally gave her name: that moment had become important to her years later, the idea of anger and fear faced head on shaping her own sense of who she was—
No, she watched Ray, who might as well have been eight years old again himself, he was so excited and attentive. She could definitely see his younger self in him, eyes wide, smiles unquestionably genuine.
This was almost as good as watching old Trek with Ray and Nate. And when the Doctor said something delightfully daft and Ray freely laughed—eyes shut tight, doubling over on the couch--Zari felt a tension in her finally relax. It was the tension she’d felt every time she’s seen Ray struggle to breathe, or get the scared, weary look in his eyes, that he always tried to spare the team from by hiding behind a mask of cheerful “OK.” Now, the stress was gone from his face as he wiped his eyes and giggled, uninhibited, at the Doctor’s whimsical and entirely unreasonable optimism. She glanced at Nate after that, who smiled a little sadly and nodded knowingly back at her, clearly equally relieved to see Ray laugh again. It had been too long.
And then, the episode itself hit harder than she’d expected it to. She’d watched the adventures of these characters over and over with her family—her parents, her aunts and uncles, her cousins, the children of her cousins—and seeing the characters’ first appearance again, with everything she knew about them—well. Sometimes the events on the screen pulled her eyes away from the wonder in Ray’s face.
Even then, she wasn’t expecting to tear up at that one moment, when the Doctor’s new companions asked about her family, to which the Doctor had acknowledged that they were long gone. That hit too close for Zari. She had somehow forgotten about that, and had not prepared herself with sufficient emotional armor.
She felt two hands warm on her back, both Nate and Ray. There was no judgment: Nate always cried when he watched sad things, and Ray had his own reasons for feeling this episode strongly. She knew he was imagining precisely how Anna would have responded to this Doctor—he’d admitted to her once how he was pretty sure that the 12th Doctor would have joined the 2nd and 7th as favorites of Anna’s.
She looked their way, each in turn. Nate looked down, serious-faced. Ray’s brown eyes caught hers, full of pained recognition and compassion. The warmth of their hands reminded her that she wasn’t alone, that she had new family too.
*
“Wait, you watched without us?” Sara barged in, Mick in tow.
“You’re just in time for the rewatch!” Ray enthused.
Shortly thereafter, Sara and Mick returned with armloads of blankets, pillows, and in Mick’s case, beer. They were all business, all prepared, and were most definitely not going to miss out. Ava, Gary, and John were not far behind.
*
Ava curled around Sara on the rug, with cushions and the pillows and blankets they’d dragged in, Gary and John on the other end of the couch, John’s arms complacently around a giddy, pleased Gary. Mick was there too, sitting in a chair, the small table next to him well stocked with beers—he was always a fan of a good story.
With less room on the couch now, since John and Gary sprawled, taking up quite a bit of it, Zari was squeezed in between Nate and Ray. She didn’t mind. Nate leaned against her shoulder, mostly asleep. Zari herself now used Ray’s shoulder as a pillow whenever she needed to. Ray’s arm wrapped above them on the couch.
As they watched the “new” episode, most folks present, especially Mick and Sara, agreed with Zari that the 13th Doctor was hot—oh, they had so much to look forward to. Then they all dipped into even older Who.
Later, as they watched the 2nd Doctor’s “The Mind Robber,” Zari saw Ava curled up asleep in Sara’s arms, Sara still watching as intently as Mick was, and Gary excitedly whispering to John something about Who lore, John listening with fond amusement. Nate was now fully asleep on her, snoring lightly, and she was trapped in comfortable, safe warmth, and about ready to nap herself on Ray, who sometimes took in the episode, which he must have memorized, and sometimes watched everyone around them with a quiet joy on his face.
Yeah, definitely family.