Work Text:
“Don’t drop it now.”
“We’ve been at this for four hours! We’re going to have to stop eventually, you know.”
“This is gonna be a new record for me, Yaz! Longest I’ve ever been able to keep it up is four hours, thirty-nine minutes, and twenty-seven seconds.”
Ryan snickered at that before Graham gave him a look. Leaning back against the console, Graham moved his head back and forth as the ball bounced between the Doctor and Yasmine. “Didn’t tire of hacky sack at university then, eh, Doctor?”
“Oh, I didn’t go to uni,” the Doctor mumbled, most of her focus on kicking and bumping the cloth sack back to Yasmine, “Well, s’ppose I did, but it was nothing like your unis. We had our own games but… oh! You know what? I did go to uni for a bit. I think I’ve got a doctorate. Dr. Doctor, you should call me.”
Ryan rolled his eyes while drumming his fingers against the console. “Better than Mrs. I’m The Doctor, like that kid was callin’ ya.”
“Oi, she was just being respectful, Mr. Ah Oh It’s Just a Kid Sorry I Didn’t See You There.”
“It’s not my fault she thought that was my name!”
“I like how she would always make her voice a little higher with the ‘Ah’ just to let us all know it was a scream,” Yasmine laughed. Turning her head for a moment, Yasmine jumped a little when the hacky sack hit her square in the chest before it fell to the ground.
“Yaz!” the Doctor shouted, rushing to pick it up. “Oh, we were so close! Only fourteen minutes, sixteen seconds more and I would’ve-”
“No, Doctor, look,” Yasmine said, pointing to a screen on the console behind Ryan. Ryan moved away from it as everyone turned to look. “Is that supposed to be there? Seems a bit… urgent?”
The screen, which normally showed wavelengths indicating some sort of spatial-temporal measure (last time Ryan asked about it the Doctor waved her hand and told him that he just shouldn’t mess with it), was instead flashing red. All of the moving Circular Gallifreyan and lines that usually adorned the screen were gone, replaced by an English message in a simple black font.
Do you accept to receive a message from Twilix Correctional Facility? There will be a .03g communications fee.
Under the message was a button for yes, and a button for no. The Doctor furrowed her eyebrows, turning to face the rest of the team who all shook their heads in mutual confusion.
“What’s Twilix?” Yasmine asked as she leaned in closer, “Sounds like some sort of jail or prison.”
“Yeah, I would think so,” the Doctor agreed, turning back to the screen. She stared at it for a moment as the rest of the crew did, then, all of a sudden, hit the ‘yes’ button. “Might as well get to know what they want.”
The screen flickered, and suddenly a video began to play. A short woman in a striped shirt stood before the camera, holding a sign that said ‘Prisoner 326’. After being forced to turn left and right, she faced the camera with a rather annoyed expression. Someone behind the camera spoke.
“How do you plead?”
“I told you, I’m innocent!” She said this forcefully, though she looked down afterwards. It was almost easy to miss her mumble, “Well, I was helping, anyway.”
“Bail has been set at seven g’s,” the voice said. “Please collect the Doctor within the next solar cycle.” The video cut off abruptly.
For a moment, nobody said anything, but then Graham turned to the Doctor. “Called her ‘the Doctor,’ didn’t it?” he chuckled, though it is obvious he didn’t find it amusing and instead was trying to lighten the mood, “Wonder what that was all about.”
Backing away from the console, Yasmine stepped around the Doctor to join Graham. Ryan looked up at them as they talked about the video. But the Doctor did not move, instead staring at the screen that quickly returned to its normal nonsense. She seemed almost lost in it, forgetting to blink as she disappeared into her own thoughts. Slowly the three companions’ conversation died down until they were all left starting at her. “Doctor..?” Ryan asked.
“No, Graham, that wasn’t me,” the Doctor said slowly. With some uncharacteristic hesitation she finally looked away from the screen and instead at her friends. “That… that’s a trap.”
“Oh,” Graham replied, nodding, though he was careful not to say more.
“Then let’s just not put up bail. It’s not like they can force us to, anyway,” Yasmine suggested, looking toward the control panels, “Why don’t we just get away from… wherever we are. We can go to that heat resort you were goin’ on about.”
“Or, you know, a normal beach resort or something else that doesn’t involve lava,” Ryan chimed in, yet the Doctor responded to neither for several moments, instead staring at a spot on the wall.
But then the Doctor nodded her head, finally responding, though rather quietly. “Yeah… Yeah, we should do that.” Beginning to smile, the other three’s demeanors began to shift as the Doctor regained her recognizable optimism. “Let’s go, right now!” She bounded over to the opposite side of the control panel, flicking a few buttons while muttering things under her breath at the same time. Looking up at Ryan, she added, “Oh, it’s really not bad, Ryan. Yeah, it’s hotter than most humans can bear, but that’s what the suits are for! A little boiling never hurt anybody!”
She pulled a lever and suddenly everything lurched sideways, throwing Yasmine and Graham across the room as Ryan held onto the nearest pole. “Doctor!” Yasmine screamed, scrabbling to get a hold of Graham and stand up, “What are you doing?”
“I’m not doing this! This isn’t- Ugh, no! No!” The Doctor angrily smashed some buttons and flicked some switches, but to no avail. “No! They’re not letting us go! We promised to pay her bail when we agreed to receive the message.” She reached up, holding a wire with one hand and bracing herself against the console with another. “Everyone hold on tight, they’re using an attraction beam to pull us in!”
The TARDIS shook as it was pulled, Ryan losing his grip at one point and sliding on the floor before the Doctor grabbed him. Climbing up her arm, he got a grip on the console beside her, and he clung to it as the TARDIS shook even more violently in the final stages of being forcibly moved. For several moments the ground vibrated before there was a final bang as the TARDIS was dropped on the floor. Nobody moved until it was obviously safe to do so, and Yasmine grabbed Graham’s arm and pulled him toward the Doctor and Ryan.
“Is… Is everybody all right?” the Doctor asked, looking around. Besides some frazzled hair and confused expressions, nobody appeared to be seriously injured. “I guess this means we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
“How do you know this is a trap, Doctor?” Ryan asked, looking toward the doors, “What’s out there that you’d want to avoid?”
The Doctor looked at Ryan, then at the doors. Stepping around him, she started to lead the crew toward them. “Just something they’re using to lure me here. But it’s alright; we’ll be alright.” Then she opened the doors, allowing the others to go out before her. After stepping out, she was careful to lock the doors.
The room the TARDIS had been pulled into was humongous if not rather barren. The ceiling was more than seven and a half meters high, and the entire room was white marble. Ryan thought that he could yell and hear his echo for several minutes, though he decided not to test it. “This doesn’t look like much of a prison,” he said instead.
“No, this is just the reception chamber,” the Doctor explained, then moving to look behind her TARDIS, everybody else following. “Ah, yes, look! There’s the door!”
Just as she said it, three men pushed the door at the far end of the room open, walking toward the crew. Ryan was unable to hide his surprise as the three men got closer, revealing themselves to be some sort of bipedal lizard-like race. Yet they were wearing obvious guards’ uniforms, and each lizard carried a big gun slung across its back.
“Welcome,” one of the lizards said, leading the other two. They stopped a few feet away from the Doctor. “Are you here to pick up somebody?”
The Doctor shifted her feet, but nodded. “Yes, guess so.”
“I.D., please,” he said, and held out his hand. The Doctor reached into her coat and pulled out her psychic paper, handing it to the guard. He inspected it for a moment before giving it back. “I.D. sufficient. Who are you here to pick up?”
“Called herself ‘the Doctor,’” the Doctor said, with not a hidden amount of annoyance in her voice.
“Yes, right this way, Jane Smith.” The lizards turned on their heels and started back toward the door, the Doctor starting hurriedly behind them. For a moment her friends stayed where they were, but, when Yasmine began to run to catch up with the Doctor, Ryan and Graham took the hint and caught up as well.
The building outside the room was much more crowded, and the lizard guards, the Doctor, and her companions walked in silence for several moments. The small hallway was bustling with activity, some people sitting on a bench and talking, while others stood in queues to talk to lizard people behind booths. The Doctor and her friends fell back a bit, and Graham moved in front of Yasmine to be next to the Doctor.
“So who is she? The girl from the video, I mean?” he asked.
The Doctor shook her head. “Nobody,” she said, then added, “Nobody real, anyway. She can’t be.”
“That’s not much of an explanation, is it?”
“There’s nothing to explain.” The Doctor walked a little faster.
Yasmine turned to Ryan. “She said it’s a trap, what do you reckon?”
Ryan shrugged. “She’s usually not wrong, but… I don’t know, just seems like a sort of crowded courthouse to me. Look, all the signs above the booths say ‘Pay Bail Here.’” Yasmine looked over at the booth nearest them and nodded. “Did you see her face, though, while she was watching the video.”
“No, just after,” Yasmine said.
“She looked scared. Like, scared, scared. More scared than with those spiders or anything.”
Yasmine considered this for a moment, and was about to say something, but her train of thought was lost when she walked into Graham. During their conversation, she had failed to notice that they stopped moving.
“You will wait here,” one of the lizards said. Yasmine peered around Graham to see the long line in front of the Doctor, all leading to another booth to pay bail. As the guards left, Ryan and Graham said something to the Doctor before going to sit on a bench against the wall, but Yasmine moved closer to the Doctor as the two waited in the queue.
“Jane Smith?” Yasmine asked, and she was glad to see the Doctor smile.
“Yeah, started using that one a long time ago,” the Doctor explained, “Though, mind you, it’s usually John Smith. Just figured I shouldn’t be calling myself the Doctor if she’s calling herself the Doctor. Might get all the paperwork confused.”
“And you know her?”
The Doctor shook her head, and the two moved forward with the line. “No. It’s a trap, like I said. I just need to figure out what sort of trap... Keep on the lookout for anything suspicious.”
Yasmine nodded at this, looking around every once in a while as the queue slowly shortened, though it grew behind them. By the time they finally approached the counter, nothing suspicious had happened.
“Hello, hi! I’m Jane Smith, here to pick up the Doctor,” the Doctor said, sliding her psychic paper through the slot in the glass with a smile. A lizard person picked it up, inspected it, then slid it back to the Doctor.
“It will be nine g’s,” the lizard said, staring at the Doctor expectantly.
“What? You said it would be seven g’s,” the Doctor protested.
The lizard sighed, obviously used to these sorts of arguments. “Yes, it was originally seven g’s for the bail, then one g was added for attempted escape, and another g was added for the crafting of a class sixty-two device on the perimeters.”
“Class sixty-two device? What kind of device would that be?”
“Class sixty-two devices are usually known as sonic devices.”
Yasmine couldn’t help but chuckle as she looked up at the Doctor. “She does sound like you, doesn’t she?”
The Doctor just grumpily shook her head, pulling out her own sonic screwdriver and clicking a button aimed at the screen behind the booth. “Fine. There. Nine g’s. I’m not made of money, you know.”
The lizard looked at the screen to confirm that the transaction was complete, then clicked a button. “Please take that up with the person you are here to see. You may now retrieve them through those doors.” The Doctor looked to the right and noticed the now-open doors that the lizard was talking about. Heading toward them, Yasmine called for Ryan and Graham to come as well, and they all exited the hallway into a new room.
“Now this, this is a proper prison!” Ryan exclaimed. The new hallway that the Doctor and her crew had entered has glass walls and floors, showing the people below them. They were all in prison uniforms and eating lunch in a small eating area. Further beyond the tables were cells that the guards were walking around. But the Doctor and her friends were above the main cells on some sort of sky-bridge, and as they walked slowly, taking in the sight below them, they finally reached another room. After they all stepped off of the glass bridge, a door slammed shut behind them.
The new room was much like the one they started in, large and white. But there were several doors lining the walls, and the Doctor spun around as she took it in.
“What, is that girl in here? How are we ever supposed to find her? There’s about a million doors here!” Graham exclaimed.
“Uh, I think she’s in this one,” Yasmine called out, having started inspecting the doors. She was at one only a few doors down from where they had come in. “I mean, it says ‘the Doctor’ right here...”
“Oh, yes, Yaz, you’re brilliant!” the Doctor said, though she didn’t sound like she meant it. It didn’t help that she didn’t move to open the door at all.
After a while of the Doctor just staring at the door, Yasmine poked her and pointed at the door.
“Yes, yes, you’re right. Sorry.” For another moment the Doctor hesitated, but she suddenly held her shoulders back and grabbed the doorknob. She held her breath as she pushed the door open, making no quips or attempts to lighten the mood as she was instead the one making everyone else nervous.
The room was not very out of place for a jail of this sort. It was white just like the room outside, and in the middle was a table with a light above it. There was a chair pulled up to the table, and on that chair sat a girl who was also handcuffed to the table. She very clearly resembled the girl from the video, but Graham couldn’t help but be surprised by how young she looked. She couldn’t be older than fifteen or sixteen, and she looked just like a typical teen. She smiled as they entered, shifting in her chair but unable to do much as her ankles were also bound.
“Hello!” she greeted, craning her neck as everybody stepped into the room. The Doctor made sure to close the door behind them. “Oh, there’s more of you than I was expecting.” The Doctor didn’t say anything -- her lips were pressed together and she was glaring at the girl. When Yasmine noticed the expression, she decided to step behind the Doctor and instead join Graham and Ryan -- but the girl didn’t seem to notice. “In fact, I’m not sure I was expecting any of you. I mean, I sent out the bail request, but it was supposed to go to someone I know. You must have gotten it by accident; I’m sorry, and I’ll pay you back.”
The Doctor did not respond.
“You said you’re the Doctor?” Ryan asked nervously, but the Doctor did not react. The girl, however, laughed and shook her head.
“No, no, that was an accident! I told them I was the Doctor when I was being arrested because I thought they might let me go if they knew who that was, but they didn’t, and they wouldn’t let me change it later.”
“Wait, so you know who the Doctor is?” Yasmine asked.
“Oh, yes,” the girl smiled, “I travelled with him, a long time ago. Why? Do you know him?”
“‘Course, she’s right-” Ryan started, but the Doctor cut him off with a wave of her hand.
“So who are you, actually?” the Doctor asked, stalking toward the table.
“My name’s Susan,” Susan explained, “Susan Foreman.”
The Doctor paused, then shook her head. Then, suddenly, she banged on the table, lowering her head to be uncomfortably near Susan’s. Her friends couldn’t help but worry as the Doctor angrily hovered over Susan.
“No, who are you really ?” the Doctor asked, almost growling, “Because I know you’re not Susan.”
There was a heavy silence for a few moments, and Susan averted her gaze to look at the three people behind the Doctor. They looked just as bewildered as she did, so she finally looked back at the Doctor. She couldn’t help but make herself look a little smaller under the Doctor’s angry glare.
“Yes, I am.”
“No! No, you’re not! Because Susan’s- Ugh!” The Doctor hit her fists against her own legs, stomping back toward her friends. Yasmine rubbed the Doctor’s arm sympathetically, though she looked just as confused as anyone else.
“And who are you, then?” Susan asked, her own voice growing in pitch as she became understandably frustrated.
Graham cleared his throat, then, upon the realization that no one else was going to answer, finally said, “Well, I’m Graham. This is Yaz.”
“Hello!” Yasmine waved.
“This is my grandson, Ryan.”
Ryan nodded.
“And this is-”
“The Doctor,” the Doctor said and she looked up at Susan. “I’m the Doctor.”
And now it was Susan’s turn to stare. She stared at the Doctor, and the Doctor stared at her. This lasted for several seconds, and Yasmine, Ryan, and Graham stood incredibly still as they watched the two.
“No.” Susan tried to pull away from the table, but the handcuffs kept her in place. Still, she struggled against them, thrashing her legs as she started to mumble worriedly. “No, oh, no -- I knew it was all a trap!” She pushed back hard enough to cause her chair to fall over, and she ended up in a rather painful position on her knees as her ankles were still bound to the knocked over chair and her wrists were still handcuffed to the table. Yet she continued to try to pull herself loose.
“Doctor, what is she-?” Yasmine started, but she fell silent as the Doctor stepped over to Susan. Roughly grabbing her by the shirt, the Doctor pulled Susan up, setting her back into the chair, which she then grabbed the back of.
“ I am not the trick here,” she whispered, leaning down to be in Susan’s face. Susan recoiled, but couldn’t do much to escape the Doctor’s fiery glare. “You are.”
Susan closed her eyes, pressing herself as far away from the Doctor as possible. “The Doctor is dead,” she whispered, “Grandfather died with everyone else during the Time War.” And before anyone knew what was happening, Susan opened her eyes and smashed her head as hard as possible against the Doctor’s, managing, finally, to pull the handcuffs out of where they are bolted down to the table. She leaned forward and grabbed the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver out of her coat pocket, and, with her hands still handcuffed, she deftly pressed a button and aimed it at her feet. Quickly the restraints came undone and she jumped up, pressing herself into a corner. She waved the sonic screwdriver frantically, pressing a button at the same time that caused the handcuffs to fall right off her wrists.
“Nobody move!” she exclaimed, “This does more than just unlock stuff!”
Everybody followed her instructions for a moment, but the Doctor suddenly lunged toward her. Grabbing the sonic screwdriver, they struggled over it, and the Doctor pulled Susan close.
“You’re not real. You’re not Susan.”
“You’re not the Doctor!”
“Susan’s dead!”
“The Doctor’s dead!”
“Um.” And suddenly the two stopped fighting for a moment and instead looked over at Yasmine. Ryan tried to nudge her to make her stop, but she stepped forward. “She really is the Doctor, you know. If it’s the same Doctor you’re thinking of, anyway.”
As Yasmine spoke, Susan’s grip on the sonic screwdriver relaxed, and the Doctor pulled it away from her. She quickly waved it up and down over Susan as Susan looked at Yasmine.
“My grandfather died a long time ago, with everybody else,” she said, but the panic and anger had been lost from her voice. She just sounded tired. “She isn’t him.”
And suddenly all attention was on the Doctor as she dropped her sonic screwdriver. It hit the ground with a loud thump.
“Yes… Yes, I am.” Her voice, no longer angry, instead picked up as she tried to sound more confident. “Yes, I am. I’m the Doctor.” She turned to her friends. “I was wrong, this isn’t a trap.” She faced Susan again, and held out a hand, but she did not touch her. She almost looked scared. “And you’re… really Susan. My Susan.”
“ Her Susan?” Graham asked, but Ryan and Yasmine didn’t seem to notice him speaking. They were too focused on Susan and the Doctor as Susan, much like the Doctor, held out her hand. But, unlike the Doctor, she did actually touch her. Susan pressed her hand against the Doctor’s chest, keeping it there for a few moments before moving it to the left. She breathed in as the Doctor breathed out.
Susan looked up at the Doctor with wide eyes.
“Grandfather?”
“My dear child.”
“Is anybody else confused?” Ryan asked as Susan leapt into the Doctor’s arms, embracing her as tight as she seemed to be able to manage. Both the Doctor and Susan had their eyes closed, and they did not let go of each other.
“Yeah, a bit,” Yasmine agreed.
Finally the two let go, but Susan still held to the Doctor, even as the Doctor turned to face her friends. “Crew, this is my… my granddaughter, Susan. Susan these are my friends, Y-”
“Yes, I remember their names. It’s nice to meet you all. I’m sorry it was like this, I promise I don’t get arrested often.”
Yasmine smiled at Susan, but Graham shook his head. “I’m sorry, grandchild?”
“Yes,” the Doctor laughed, “What, I don’t look old enough? Grandparents on Gallifrey aren’t always actually related to their grandchildren -- like aunts and uncles from your culture. But you should have seen me when we first travelled together; you wouldn’t have had a question about it.”
“Yes, oh!” Susan exclaimed, and she looked up again at the Doctor, “What is this then? The ninth?”
“Thirteenth.”
Susan’s eyes widened, and she hugged the Doctor again. “I’m not even going to ask,” she laughed against her, but she didn’t let her go.
“And you don’t look like you’ve aged a bit.”
“It’s a bit annoying, being thousands of years old and still getting carded,” Susan answered, finally pulling her head away from the Doctor’s side, “I only really looked any older during the- No, no matter. We can talk about that later.”
The Doctor nodded in agreement, and the two simply held each other for several moments before Graham finally chimed in again.
“This is great and all -- and you can explain it to all of us later -- but maybe we should get going. Who knows how long they’ll let the TARDIS stay parked there.”
“You still have the TARDIS?” Susan asked excitedly. “I thought it would have been lost.”
The Doctor shook her head. “Nope, still have her. She’s a good ole’ girl, can survive anything. She has a new interior and exterior and everything; really did herself up. I can show you, if you-”
And as the Doctor looked down at Susan again, her words got caught in her throat. In Susan’s hand was a chain, and from that chain dangled a key.
“I kept it with me. Just in case.”