Chapter Text
“Doctor?” said Sally, somewhat apprehensively. The TARDIS was in flight, and the Doctor was down on a lower deck, apparently in the midst of repairs, while Sally sat on the steps.
“Sally?” said the Doctor, mimicking her rising inflection.
“I was… thank you, for the book spa. It was marvellous. The galleries, the museums, the deserted paradise planets – wonderful. But… could you maybe… Doctor, I want to connect with other people.”
“You can connect with me! Sally Sparrow, what is on your mind?”
“That’s just it, Doctor… I want to connect with someone around my age. And species. And… eligible.”
“Ah,” said the Doctor. “OK, I see where this is going.” There was a twinkle in his eye and a grin across his face. Oh no. “Come on,” the Doctor said, as he bounded up the stairs past Sally. She followed him up to the main deck of the control room, around the central console. Once again, the Doctor revealed the telepathic circuits.
Why is it always telepathy with the Doctor? Sally asked herself, but she stuck her hands into the circuits anyway. The TARDIS’s central column began to rise and fall.
“Woah, careful, you could damage something!”
“You said it was like walking down the stairs.”
“It is! But you wouldn’t hop down the stairs blindfolded with both hands tied behind your back. A human could never manage that. Oh well. It seems to have worked out this time. Sally, our aim here is to find exactly the person you need right now.”
“You mean… like a soulmate?”
“There’s no such thing as souls and definitely no such thing as soulmates. There are millions of people across space and time that you could be extremely happy with. However, nonetheless, it is true that there are a small number of individuals who will make you unusually extremely happy at a given point in your life. For most people, there’s almost no chance of meeting them at the right time. But you’ve got me, and I’ve got the TARDIS. So…”
The central column stopped moving. They had landed. They left the TARDIS. It had brought them to a street that Sally recognised as distinctly British – English shops, cars driving on the left, and paving stones that couldn’t be anywhere else. By the same token, it wasn’t recognisable as any specific British place. The buildings were taller and denser than Sally would expect, and there was nothing that immediately gave away the city to Sally’s untrained eye. The weather was brisk and overcast, which could be anywhere in the British Isles at any time of year. The café they were stood outside was not one of the chains that Sally was familiar with, but its name – Simply Coffee – was the most generic name possible. The Doctor, of course, knew exactly where they were.
“Manchester. September 2067. Hamilton Academicals are top of the SPL, but Kilmarnock will go on to win the league. We’ve just missed the hundredth anniversary of the summer of love. Last year was the hundredth anniversary of England’s first World Cup win and the thousandth anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. And November 2063 was the hundredth anniversary of…”
“Doctor, who are we here to see?”
“… the Kennedy assassination. Sorry,” he said, noticing the alarm on Sally’s face, “just finishing my previous thought. Honestly, I think you should just do whatever you want. In theory, the TARDIS has put us down in the most natural place for you to meet this someone.”
“But… it could be any of these people, rushing past!”
“If it is, then they’ll bump into you. Don’t worry about it. Just relax and have faith in the TARDIS. It found Barry, didn’t it?”
“In that case,” said Sally, “I would like a coffee. It’s chilly.”
They went in the coffee shop. There was a short line. Sally scanned the board above the counter to try and select her order. The options were not quite the ones she was used to. It seemed like she was limited to cappuccino with her choice from a wide range of milks.
“Hi, can I take your order?” said a woman’s voice with an accent that was somewhere between New York and London. Sally looked at the server and was momentarily struck dumb. Her server was absolutely gorgeous. She had dark brown hair, and big blue doe eyes, and the loveliest smile Sally had ever seen. Her name badge said Róisín.
“Yes, hello,” said the Doctor. “I will have a venti skinny decaf quad caramel no-whip iced hazelnut macchiato with extra cream.”
“I can give you a decaf hazelnut cappuccino with extra cream?”
“The TARDIS must have made a mistake,” the Doctor whispered to Sally, “nothing good can ever happen in a place as terrible as this.”
“I-I’ll have a cappuccino, thanks,” said Sally. “Sorry about my dad, he’s a little stuck in his ways.”
“No problem!” said Róisín, flashing a dazzlingly white smile. Sally’s heart fluttered away in her chest. She told herself that Róisín was just being polite, that it was her job to make customers feel appreciated, but she couldn’t stop herself crushing hard on the girl. They shuffled to the side while the next customer gave their order to the next server.
“Decaf hazelnut, extra cream, and a cappuccino?” Róisín announced. The Doctor and Sally stuck their hands up. Róisín beamed at them and handed over the cups. “Have a great day, gorgeous,” she said, with a wink.
“You too,” said the Doctor, tapping his psychic paper against the card reader, and he hurried Sally out of the shop. “What a waste of time. Best thing about the 2020s is the options for coffee, and now you’ve gone and regressed back to the 90s. Humanity’s capacity for depravity never fails to surprise me.”
Sally could only mumble agreement. She was still stunned by her encounter with Róisín. She was used to unwanted attention from men – it was rare for a day to go by without a stranger trying to flirt with her – but to her surprise, she found that she liked Róisín’s affection.
“We’ll have to try again,” said the Doctor, who had already downed his coffee and thrown his cup in the recycling and was now unlocking the TARDIS. “Sometimes the TARDIS gets things wrong, but if we give it a few goes then eventually she’ll find someone you like.”
Sally took a sip of her coffee. It was very good, rich and aromatic. Then she had a proper look at the cup. “Doctor,” she said, and she turned it towards the Doctor, who was stood in the threshold of the TARDIS.
Hey cutie – call me. 07700900796. Róisín.
“Oh. Oh. Oh. That’s the last time I doubt you, dearest,” he said to the blue box.
“What do I do?” said Sally.
“Well, you call her…” said the Doctor.
“I can’t call her now, she just served me, she’s at work…”
“Then it’s a good job we have a time machine,” said the Doctor, stepping into the TARDIS. Sally followed, and they hopped forward. It was dark. Sally pulled out her mobile – remarkably, it still had signal and credit. She called Róisín’s number.
“Hello?” It was definitely her, the mid-Atlantic accent was a giveaway. She sounded a little tired.
“Róisín? You served me earlier and gave me your number…”
“Oh, hey, gorgeous, I didn’t think you were going to call!” Róisín had immediately brightened up.
“Yeah, er, hi, my name’s Sally… I was wondering if you’d like to go for coffee?”
“Well, I work in a coffee shop, and it’s late, so how about dinner?”
“Di- dinner. Yes. Dinner would be great. Where do you want to go?”
“How about Marco’s for 7:30?”
“Marco’s, 7:30, sounds good. Looking forward to seeing you.” Sally had butterflies in her stomach. She felt like an excited teenager. Was this what love was supposed to feel like? Sally had spent years living with Larry because it felt like the natural thing to do, but she hadn’t been truly happy. She’d felt safe around Larry. He was fundamentally a good man. But if Sally had known that feeling like this had been an option, she would have left him a long time ago.
The Doctor showed Sally to the TARDIS wardrobe, and she sorted through the clothes to find something to wear for her date. Almost everything there was too masculine. She recognised the suit the Doctor had been wearing on the DVD Easter Eggs all those years ago, but for every suit there was a gaudy number or something with too many question marks. She did find women’s clothes after a while, but most of them were either too small or for someone both taller and thinner than Sally. There were period costumes, but that seemed inappropriate. There were clothes that were probably intended to be practical, but Sally couldn’t work out what purpose you’d ever actually need them in. And just as Sally was about to give up and go in what she was wearing, she found the perfect ensemble.
The TARDIS landed in exactly the right spot, outside the only restaurant in the city called “Marco’s”. The Doctor had tripled-checked that they had also got exactly the right time. Sally swaggered out wearing a brown faux-leather jacket, plain white t-shirt, and an emerald midi skirt. She strode into the restaurant. She was feeling very nervous, but, well, if hallucinating Esmerelda Weatherwax had taught her anything it was that confidence was 90% bravado. She stood by the door of the restaurant as a waiter approached her.
“Hi,” said Sally. “I’m supposed to be meeting someone here, she’s possibly the prettiest woman in the world, have you seen her?”
The waiter smiled at her. “I know who you mean. I wanted to seat her in the window, but she asked to be placed upstairs. She described you the same way you described her.”
Sally’s heart did a somersault. She knew Róisín found her attractive, but this was going better than she had possibly expected. The waiter showed Sally upstairs and to a table where Róisín was perusing the drinks menu. She looked up and beamed at Sally, standing and giving her a hug hello.
“I’m so glad you came,” Róisín said.
“There was no way I wouldn’t.”
They sat and drank a rich-bodied Burgundy that Róisín picked herself.
“So, Róisín,” said Sally, rolling the name along her tongue as she swirled her wine in the glass. “Tell me about yourself.”
“Well, there’s not a huge amount to tell,” said Róisín. “I was born near Toronto. Went to McGill and majored in astrophysics…”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Oh yeah. I’m not just a pretty face.”
“So how did you end up in Manchester?”
“Well, my mom was British, so I had always thought about studying here. Did a Masters at the University of Manchester, and now I’m working as a barista while I wait for opportunities. What about you?”
“I did a literature degree. My parents both died when I was in my early 20s. Spent a few years floating around and living off the inheritance, started an antiquarian bookshop, it failed, and since then I’ve been travelling.”
“I’m sorry about your parents.”
“Thanks. It was a long time ago, and they were quite old. I was adopted in infancy, and they were quite a bit older than most parents.”
“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it sucked.”
“The guy you’re travelling with…”
“Oh, er…” This was already not going well – mentioning dead parents on a first date? Sally was kicking herself. She didn’t want to lie to Róisín, but she really didn’t want to explain the Doctor. “He’s… he’s my biological father. I reached out after… well. He’s a total riot. Would have made a terrible father but a fantastic uncle. I see a lot of myself in him.”
“I’m sure you’d make a fantastic uncle.”
Sally laughed.
“So, travelling. Been to anywhere special?”
“Oh, here and there. Lots of culture. Libraries and theatres and gigs, that sort of thing.”
“That must be really nice.”
“Oh, it is. I’ve really learned a lot about myself. Don’t know how long it’s going to go on for, but don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to stop. And I don’t know what I’d do if I did.” She paused for a second in thought. “What about you? What are your plans?”
“Well, first and foremost I want to get a job in astrophysics, somehow,” said Róisín. “I’m not fussy right now, but ideally I’d like to work at the Shackleton Crater.”
“The Shackleton Crater?”
“You know – the permanent Moonbase?”
Sally tried to keep the surprise off her face. There was a permanent Moonbase? In 2021, it seemed like humanity had lost interest in the Moon. If people talked about space, they tended to talk about Mars, which was new and exciting and also impossibly remote. The Moon was very 20th Century, not the sort of thing that it seemed there was any long-term interest in. “Oh, of course. That would be pretty incredible.”
“Yeah… yeah, it would. But if that’s not an option… I don’t know. Any job that uses my skills will do. Settle down, raise a normal Earth family in a normal Earth apartment in a normal Earth city.”
“You make marital bliss sound so sad.”
“Oh, I like sad. It’s-“
“-Happy for deep people.” They said it together. It was almost imperceptible, but Sally was sure that Róisín licked her lips.