Work Text:
The only thing Ace could hear was the sound of her own footsteps as she walked down the forest path. No wind, no birdsong, no distant hum of the town that shouldn’t have been too far from here. It was a nice path—well kept, well lit by the light of the sun that conveniently peaked out from the trees. It all screamed big trap for dumb hikers, of course, because Ace knew for a fact that this forest hadn’t been here the week before and so who the hell would have been maintaining the path?
Still, Ace wasn’t worried. She had handled worse than an enchanted forest springing up overnight. She had found, over the years, that there weren’t a lot of problems that an enchanted baseball bat (and a can or two of Nitro-9) couldn’t solve. There was something the Doctor used to say, about springing traps. She couldn't quite remember it, but she had a plan. Step 1: Get into the forest. Step 2: Follow the path to the end. Step 3: Beat the bad guys waiting to eat her (or whatever) at the end of the path.
Ace had also learned to be really good at improv, over the years. She’d also worked on directing her senses. She was just plain human, still, and had no interest in changing that. But there was something to be said for knowing how to focus, how to really look. And more importantly, how to really listen.
Like right now. She could hear the sound of her boots against the path. And, a little ways ahead, she could hear someone—whistling? The song sounded familiar, somehow, but she couldn’t quite place it.
She held her baseball bat at her side loosely. Her Nitro-9 was only a quick grab away. She was as ready as she would ever be, so she kept walking.
The man was just sitting there, whistling as he leaned his back against a tree near the path. He didn’t even look in her direction. He was doing something with his arms. It took her a few seconds to recognize that he was miming playing a guitar. Then his gaze caught hers.
It was something in his eyes. Not human, a prickle at the back of her mind told her. She had learned to recognize these things, over the years. He looked human, but he wasn’t. But not human didn’t necessarily mean bad. Sometimes people had good reasons to wear a disguise. Ace knew that.
There was something piercing in his gaze. Something searching. He had stopped his whistling, going very still, and his focus was totally on her. Then, in a move that seemed just a bit too easy for the age he seemed to be, he was on his feet, his gaze not leaving her. He seemed to be drinking in the sight of her, as if he hadn’t seen another living being for weeks. Maybe he hadn’t.
“Oh, look at you,” the stranger said, a strange sort of smile on his face. “I wasn’t expecting-” He caught himself suddenly. “Er, I wasn’t expecting anyone to come down this path.”
She shrugged. “I’m Ace,” she offered, trying for friendly, but still not letting go of her bat.
His grin only seemed to get wider. It was a little creepy. Maybe like a three out of ten on the creepy scale. “Yes, yes you are,” he said, inexplicably.
“Is this, uh, your path?” Ace asked. This wasn’t how things like this usually went, but Ace was an open minded girl. Sometimes things could be solved peacefully. “I mean, did you create this forest? It’s kind of a problem for the farmers, ‘cause you sort of took their crops, so if we could resolve this-”
“No, sorry,” the man said. “It’s not mine. I’m afraid I’ve been caught up in here too.”
“You were investigating the forest too?” Ace asked.
“Of course,” the man said. “An enchanted forest springs up overnight, not too far from—well, not too far from where I’ve been working. I thought I could take a day trip, sort it all out. Don’t even need to tell anyone where I’m going.”
“How long have you been here, then?”
“Long enough that Nardole is going to kill me when I get back,” the man muttered. “A week, maybe. It turned out that the witch who made this place—well, we go back a ways, and she wasn’t exactly happy to see me. I’ve been cursed. I can’t leave this forest until someone figures out my name.”
“Your name?” Ace asked. “That doesn’t seem too hard. Could you give me a hint? Maybe we can do charades or something?”
“No. I’m prevented from giving anything away that could lead to you figuring out my identity,” the man said gravely. “No hand gestures, no Morse code, no leading silences.” The stranger looked thoughtful. “It’s a tricky curse, using your own mind against you. Any hint that I could come up with to give you, and I’ve thought of quite a few of them, the instant I realise that they could be helpful, I can’t say them.”
“Sorry, mate,” Ace said. And she was sorry—she’d been cursed a few times in her career, and it was never fun. “I don’t really do curse breaking. I can try to guess it?”
“I really doubt that you’ll be able to guess it,” the man said. “And what is it that you do?” The stranger’s voice was just a little bit too casual to be genuine.
“A little bit of everything,” Ace said. “I travel. I try to help people, where I can.”
The man was looking at her weirdly again. If she didn’t know any better, she would think that the expression she saw in his eyes was pride. But that made no sense. She’d never met this man before. Frankly, he didn’t seem like the sort of guy you would forget meeting.
“Look, if I can’t break the curse, I could convince the original caster to break it. I came here to confront whoever made this thing anyways. I’ll just persuade the witch to break your curse as well.”
“I’ll help you,” the man said, again his voice just a little too casual for her to believe that he was really as blase as he seemed. He kept looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. Just observing her, like he couldn’t quite believe that she was there. Ace wondered how long he had really been alone here.
“What, are you experienced in this sort of thing?” Ace asked. “Don’t mean to offend, mate, but you haven’t exactly done that well so far. Maybe you should just stay here?”
The man looked offended. “I’ll have you know—I, er, can’t actually talk about that.” The stranger closed his eyes for a moment. “This is actually really frustrating.”
“Alright, I can read between the lines,” Ace said. “Two hands are better than one, anyway. Let’s go, Harold.”
“I—my name’s not Harold.” The man looked disturbed. “Do I look like a Harold now?”
Ace smiled. “It’s just a guess… Thomas?”
“This is going to get very old, very quickly.”
“Sure it is, Arthur,” Ace said, setting off down the path once again. “Follow my lead, alright?”
“Are you just guessing old man names?” The stranger asked sourly. “What a nice young lady you are.”
“Who said I was nice?” Ace asked with a grin. For some reason, she found herself actually kind of liking this guy. It had been while since she had travelled with anybody else. She had forgotten how fun it could be, to have someone by your side.
A little farther in the forest and a few dozen name guesses later, the stranger managed to coax her story out of her. “Since I can’t talk about myself,” the man said. “It would be nice if you could tell me about yourself. How did you start travelling?”
“If you insist, Henry,” Ace said, ignoring the stranger’s dirty look. “I, uh, used to travel with this bloke when I was younger. We met in the Kingdom of Ice. I had been swept away from my home. Caught up in something I couldn’t even imagine. There was a dragon—and, well, the rest is history. We started travelling together. Righting wrongs.”
“What was he like?”
“He’s called the Doctor,” Ace said. “But I always called him the Professor. Wicked smart, always three steps ahead of everyone. Including me, more often than not.”
There had been a time when it would have hurt to talk about the Doctor. But if time didn’t heal all wounds, it at least made them easier to live with. The details to old arguments forgotten, scars healed over, and old hurts covered up by fond memories.
“Well, he couldn’t have been that bad,” said the man. “You’re smiling.”
Ace laughed. “Yeah, I guess I am. He was a funny little guy. He wore this little hat and had this umbrella that looked like a question mark. With matching question marks on his jumper. And before you ask, to this day, I have no idea why.”
The stranger smiled at her. “Sounds like a weird guy.”
“Oh, he was!” Ace laughed. “The weirdest guy I ever met. Though you’re pretty strange, too, Victor. No offense.”
“None taken,” the stranger said. He was looking at her again. His gaze was intense, fond, and still strangely familiar-
“I still hear about him every now and then,” Ace said thoughtfully. “The rumours don’t ever check out, though. You’d be surprised how many different people go around calling themselves the Doctor. They’re never my Doctor, though.”
“How do you know?”
“What do you mean?” Ace asked.
“I mean, how do you know it’s not your Doctor if you’ve never actually seen him?”
“The description never checks out,” Ace said carefully. She slowed her pace, and then she stopped. “He’s a pretty recognizable guy, like I said. Everybody always remembers the little bloke who likes to wear a lot of question marks.”
“I can imagine,” he said sardonically, then he glanced at her uncertainly “Ace? Why have you stopped?”
“I don’t know, Doctor,” Ace said slowly. “Why don’t you tell me?”
The Doctor's face lit up. “How did you know it was me?”
“You’re still the strangest guy I ever met,” Ace said, finding herself smiling as well. “I think I’d know you anywhere, Professor. Even if you’re taller than me now.”
He gave her a look. “Ace McShane, I was always taller than you.”
“This was your plan, wasn’t it?” Ace said “As soon as you saw me, you’d get to talking, and you knew that eventually you’d give yourself away, even unconsciously.”
“I wouldn’t say it was a plan,” the Doctor said.
“I know how you are, Professor.” Ace said. “So how come you look different?”
“I’m not human, Ace,” he said. “You know that. I thought I told you about regeneration?”
“I don’t know—I mean, you mentioned that you change,” Ace said. “I didn’t think you meant it this literally! God, it was really you, wasn’t it, all those rumours I that checked out over the years? You’ve kept busy, Professor!”
“Well, at least you found me while I’m still Scottish.”
Ace gave him a baffled look. “Not Scottish was an option?”
“Even I have off years,” the Doctor said lightly. “You know, I actually am a professor now.”
“You’re kidding!” Ace said. “You’re telling me you went out and became a real professor? Teaching classes and grading papers and stuff?”
The Doctor shrugged. “It’s more of a… side job.”
“It’s hard thinking of you in a classroom.” Ace shook her head and then she gave him a teasing smile. “To be honest, I never thought you’d make a very good teacher.”
“I’m a great teacher, actually,” the Doctor said, mock-offended. “I have this student, Bill—I think you’d like her.” The Doctor looked away for a moment. “I could introduce you to her. If you'd like.”
“I’d love to, Professor.” Ace said. “But first we need to handle this forest.”
“Do you still carry around-” the Doctor started, but then he saw the look on her face. “Oh, do I even need to ask? Just try not to burn down the whole forest, will you?”
Ace just grinned at him.