Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

In the centre of the universe, or as close to the centre as you can get without ending up in a black hole, there was a planet. 

Orbiting two suns within the constellation of Kasterborous at roughly 10-0-11-0-0/0-2 from the galactic zero centre, this red planet and it’s timecentric inhabitants, were known by the far reaches of the universe. Just how they were known depended on the planet, the year, the day and, in fact, the weather. 

This planet had many names: some called it Jewel, on account of it’s shining appearance, others Gallefrey, there was the Homeworld, the Houseworld, even Base of Operations. The real name of this planet was, in fact, Gallifrey, the literal translation of which was “they that walk in shadows” and indeed was very fitting for nature of the planet’s inhabitants. 

This was all from a, since deleted, entry in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe - not to be confused with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which, while loosely based on this, did not actually contain much that was factual. The Hitchhiker would like to note that this was not his fault, though he does vaguely recall a conversation with a man named Douglas. However, if you were to continue to blame him (misguidedly, he might add), he would also like to note that the fact his recollection was vague, and the many inaccuracies in the similarly named book, may have had something to do with him finding something called a ‘Bargain Booze’ and proceeding to drink it. You can hardly blame one on what comes out of one’s mouth when spectacularly drunk. A quote that can be found in section 38.7 Apple Alpha of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, which details the rather sensitive disposition of the Retrogon race when approached in a bar. 

If you were to look up Gallifrey in this book now, the entry would simply say this: May she be remembered as she was and not what she became. It was an entry that confused many, angered some, and was simply never read by most. 

This book was extremely popular throughout the universe, particularly for travellers and intergalactic delivery services, partly due to its vast number of planets discussed, partly due to the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on it’s cover, and largely due to the fact that it was cheaper than most other books of the same nature. The book was even taught in many schools on many different planets, though some argued about it’s validity. Whenever the Hitchhiker was confronted with these arguments he always responded the same: you go there, then. 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, was thought to have had many authors - largely due to the fact that entries had been getting updated for roughly 700 years. This of course, was false, though The Hitchhiker never felt the need to correct the rumour. For the last 50 or so years, entries to the book had been slow to update. This was largely due to the fact that, by nature of his name, The Hitchhiker had been left stranded on a small, backwater planet by the name of Earth for several decades, unable to catch a ride from a place that seemed to know nothing of the universe around it. 

Much to his relief, The Hitchhiker did eventually manage to escape the drudgery of the Earth, only to end up stranded twenty years later in a completely different place. He would argue that his luck had at least began to look up since he was at least now stranded on a ship. The fact that this ship was drifting in space, unable to go anywhere, was neither here nor there. 

It was on this ship that the story really starts.

It begins, as many of The Hitchhiker’s stories do, with him hitching a ride. 

The Girl in the Fireplace 

With no crew on board, the SS Madame de Pompadour was a dreary thing. The hallways were dark and disused, wires hanging down from the tray work they had once been attached to, various parts and components in the midst of repair left laying about here, there and everywhere. While there was enough power to keep the warp engines going, there was not enough of the engine or the navigation system left to go anywhere - the ship was drifting just on the edge of the Dagmar Cluster where the ion storm that had caused the damage had left it. 

Here’s what The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe had to say about the Dagmar Cluster: 

The Dagmar Cluster, like any other galaxy cluster, is made up of thousands of galaxies (2047 to be exact) held together by their own gravity. There is lots of hot plasma, if you go for that kind of thing, and a large amount of invisible dark matter. 

The cluster is very pretty to look at - swirling blues, purples and oranges with the specks of blue and orange stars dotted within. This does, of course, get boring after a while, especially when the dark matter you need to power the broken down ship you occupy is 1000 light years away.  

This was a new entry and, despite the fact the Hitchhiker has now been here for a few months, did not appear to be getting any longer any time soon. 

As with every other day of the last two months, The Hitchhiker woke up to ticking. He also woke up with a headache, though whether that was the ticking or the spectacular hangover he was sporting was anyone’s guess. He also woke up to a clockwork head directly in front of his face. 

The Hitchhiker flinched back against the mattress, but scowled instead of crying out. “How many times have I told you not to do that?”

“Thirty-eight,” the digital voice came.

“And how many times will it take for you to listen?” He asked. 

The clockwork man didn’t answer. 

The Hitchhiker sighed and gave Clock a shove. He wasn’t strong enough to make the droid shift, but never the less, Clock jerked upright and moved away from the bed in just as jerky of a manner. Hitch had wanted to fix that for quite some time, but short of taking Clock completely apart, he was unable to do so, besides, the desolate ship did not have the parts for it. 

“I thought you’d want me to wake you,” Clock said, somehow, despite their digital voice, they managed to sound very downtrodden. 

“Why would you think that?” Hitch said, sitting up and digging his fingers into his eyes. 

“People have boarded the ship” 

Hitch got up blearily and wandered over to the sink at the corner of the room. He had to roll the tube of toothpaste right up in order to get some out. He would have to venture to the rest of the ship to get more soon. He started to scrub his teeth. He eyed himself in the little mirror. His brown curls had grown to the nape of his neck - it was much longer than he had ever worn it before but he thought he was getting rather attached to it. 

He spat the toothpaste froth into the little sink and wandered over to the other corner of the room to put the kettle on. The word people wandered through his mind for a moment in search of something to connect with. 

He picked a crewman’s jumpsuit off of the ground, sniffed it, and then put it on, hopping on one leg to get his second leg in and then tying the arms at his waist, not bothering to change from the t-shirt he had slept in. 

The kettle beeped. He put a tea bag into a mug then poured in the hot water. He had no milk, but he was beginning to get used to that. The only chair in the bunk room was falling apart, one of the legs shorter than the rest and the stuffing coming out of the back. Hitch sat down, rocking slightly due to the aforementioned short leg, and looked at Clock. 

‘People,’ he thought. 

He took a sip of tea and his stomach turned. He had risked a trip to France yesterday in search of alcohol. He found it terribly tragic that a ship that had once housed 50 people didn’t already have any, but he supposed they were no longer around for him to ask how they could live such a way. It wasn’t a terribly long trip, just in and out, in order to avoid catching the attention of the other clockwork droids. Rassilon, what a terrible hangover it had earned him, though. The constant ticking did not help. 

‘People,’ he thought again. Again the word wandered his mind in search of connection. This time it got one. He sat up straight and cursed when half of his tea went sloshing over his hand. 

“How do you mean people?” He demanded, scowling down at his hand as he tried to shake off the tea. “What people?”

“Unknown,” Clock said. 

Hitch scowled at Clock instead. 

He put his half full cup of tea on the ground and went to the television set up in the middle of the room. It was a strange set up. The TV having many more wires and parts attached to it than a TV normal did, one such connected the keyboard of what appeared to have once been a laptop, only half of it was missing. Hitch powered the strange TV contraption up and pressed several keys on the keyboard. An empty hallway. An empty bunk room. An empty smoking pod. Finally it showed the old flight deck and, there they were, people. Two men and a woman. Also in the room that Hitch was sure hadn’t been there before was a big blue box. 

“What’s that?” 

“It appears to be their ship” 

“But what’s a police telephone box?” 

“Unknown” 

Hitch scowled at Clock again. He often scowled at Clock. 

“They look like you,” Clock said. 

“Lots of things look like me,” said Hitch absentmindedly. 

He tapped some more at the keyboard, hit the side of the TV, cursed, kicked the side of the broken warp drive he had wired into the system, typed some more, and then made a victorious sort ‘a-ha’ sound. 

“Now that’s odd, look at that,” one of the men’s tinny voices sounded from the screen. “All the Warp engines are going. Full capacity. There’s enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe.” The man looked up. The camera’s vision didn’t allow Hitch to see what he was looking at, but from his initial exploration of the ship he’d assume it to be the sky light. “and we’re not moving. So where’s all that power going?” 

“Where’d all the crew go?” The blonde woman asked. 

“Good question, no life readings on board” the first man said. Hitch snorted. He had done a good job at making the ship forget this room had existed, he would be quite put out if he had been found from a simple life readings check. 

“Well, we’re in deep space, they didn’t just nip out for a quick fag,” The woman said. 

Fag, according to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is a word found in three places. The first is old Earth Britain, meaning, bewilderingly, a cigarette. The second is a derogatory term, also from Earth, for someone liking someone else of the same gender. A bizarre thing to feel derogatory about, but then Earthlings were derogatory of many strange things. The final place is in Sector 7 of the Drundelmar planet, meaning a here-so-far untested weapon of mass destruction.

Humans, Hitch decided. They must be humans. He had been suspecting so since he had seen their clothing, but it was nice to have the confirmation. They could be Drundelmartians, of course, but they had neither tails nor snouts, nor were they ten feet tall. 

“No, checked all the smoking pods,” the first man said. Hitch nodded. Humans, had to be. “Do you smell that?” He asked. 

“Yeah,” the woman said. “Someone’s cooking” 

“Sunday roast, definitely,” the second man said. 

Hitch wrinkled his nose. He didn’t think humans cooked and ate each other. When he had been on earth Sunday roast had consisted of meat (animal meat, that was, usually cow or chicken), potatoes and veg. Of course, he had no idea what time period these humans came from. He hoped they didn’t come from a time where they had begun to eat each other - one could never tell with people like that where they drew the line on the menu. 

The three of them finally seemed to notice the French fireplace to the side of them and they walked over, the first man at the front. Hitch was beginning to deduce that man must be the leader of the group. 

“Now, there’s something you don’t see in your average space ship,” the first man said. “18th Century. French. Nice mantel.” He scanned the fireplace with something that Hitch tried to squint to see, but he put it away before he could. “Not a hologram.  Not even a reproduction. This actually is an 18th Century French fireplace. Double-sided. There’s another room through there” 

“It can’t be,” the woman said, looking through one of the windows. “That’s the outer hull of the ship. Look!” 

“Hello,” the first man said, squatting in front of the fireplace. 

The TV contraption was not able to pick up through the fireplace and Hitch scowled at Clock. Clock said nothing, though their ticking seemed more pointed than before. If they were to say something it would probably be something along the lines of pointing out the fact they had nothing to do with the making of the contraption, but they didn’t, so it went unsaid. 

“What’s your name?” The man asked. “Reinette, that’s a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?” The man continued, responding to something Hitch wasn’t able to hear. 

Hitch sighed. “Ah, Reinette, Reinette, Reinette, it’s all about Reinette” 

“We had thought it was,” Clock responded, their digital voice sounding even more despondent than it did before. 

Hitch rolled his eyes. When he had first encountered the clockwork droid he had found it terribly sad that their entire existence was about repairing a broken down ship so had cracked their head open to make some alterations and give them more of a personality. Had he known how dour they would turn out to be at finding out their entire plan of getting Madame de Pompadour’s brain was a fruitless endeavour, he wouldn’t have bothered. In fact, he never bothered with the rest of them. It would, perhaps, have made his life a little easier if he didn’t have to avoid the other clockwork droids less he get sliced up and used for spare parts, but he figured the excitement of having an enemy to avoid when going out to get supplies would at least make the time on the ship go a little quicker. 

When he looked back at the TV, he realised he had missed some of the conversation. The man was now stood up and looking back at the other two. “-said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. We just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink.” 

Hitch’s brows ticked up. 

“What’s that?” The second man asked. 

“No idea, just made it up” the first man said.

Hitch’s brows came back down.

“He’s much better at making up names than I am,” Hitch commented. 

“More accurate than French hole” Clock replied. 

Hitch scowled at them over his shoulder. 

More and more Hitch was regretting giving Clock a personality. While he had initially done so out of pity, that pity had quickly run its course in the face of a depressed droid complaining and ticking all day and night. He had often thought about cracking their head back open and undoing his work, or perhaps just putting the droid out of their misery once and for all, but he figured he would quickly get bored being all on himself. 

He debated letting himself go insane, a thing he had allowed himself to do on no less than seven occasion in his 1002 year existence, but figured this wasn’t the place for it. Going insane was much more pleasurable when you were somewhere like the Gamma Forest - communing with the trees was a nice pastime. 

As such The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe had this to say about the Gamma Forest: Trees, nothing so wonderful as trees. So wise and old and the secrets they know! Head’s could burst with the knowledge trees have and the pebbles! Look at the pebbles! So pretty and grey and swirly. Nothing so pretty as a pebble. This was then followed with what was either words in an unknowable language or letters from someone smashing their hand against a kraeyboard several hundred times. Needless to say, the sales of the book Guide to the Gamma Forest: Everything You Need to Know did not drop at all following this entry. 

He had missed some of the conversation again, and the first man was disappearing through the fireplace. 

“Doctor!” The woman shouted. 

Hitch frowned. Perhaps they were a medical ship responding to a distress call. It had been known to happen for them to come after disaster had already struck: medical ships weren’t best known for their response times. 

“Did any of the crew call for a doctor as you were killing them?” He asked curiously. 

“No,” Clock replied. “Some called for help, some called out for God, none for a doctor” 

Hitch hummed. There went that theory. The other two seemed a bit lost as of what to do without the so called doctor. They stood staring at the fireplace, seemingly just waiting for him to come back.

Though she was used to it, Rose was no less sick of the Doctor running off. Often times she would simply do the same back, as it served him right, though that rather required there to be somewhere to run off to. She let out an impatient sigh and glared at the fireplace. This was just like him - he got to do all the interesting bits. She could feel Mickey glancing at her, but she felt no need to try and impress him at the minute. 

The fireplace spun. 

The Doctor had not come back alone. 

“Doctor!” She threw out an arm in front of Mickey. 

The Doctor darted past them, grabbed something from off to the side that Rose never noticed, but of course the Doctor had taken note of, and pointed it at the rococo style man, blasting him with an icy mist that made her shiver. She watched, cautiously as the jerky motions of the man stuttered and then stopped. 

“Excellent!” Mickey grinned. “Ice gun” 

The Doctor tossed it back to her and Rose caught it without thinking.

“Fire extinguisher” the Doctor said back. 

“Where did that thing come from?” She asked, fumbling with the fire extinguisher to get a better grip. 

“Here”

“So why’s it dressed like that?” Mickey asked. 

Rose eyed it some more. She could see now that it wasn’t a man at all - even disregarding the fact that the Doctor wouldn’t hurt a man like that, no man would freeze the same way this thing did. 

“Field trip to France. Some kind of basic camouflage protocol” The Doctor explained. “Nice needle-work,” the Doctor said, getting closer to squint at the thing. “Shame about the face,” he reached out and pulled the mask off. “Oh, you are beautiful!” 

Rose’s jaw fell open. Beneath the mask was some sort of mannequin-esque head. The transparent material it was made of - Rose didn’t want to say plastic because it looked much clearer than that - allowed them to see the gold clockwork mechanisms inside. She crept closer to get a better look, Mickey not far behind. 

The Doctor put on the glasses that Rose was doubtful he really needed. “No, really, you are! You’re gorgeous! Look at that!” He exclaimed, turning to them. “Space age clockwork! I love it! I’ve got chills!” He turned back to the clockwork man. “Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism, to disassemble you,” he held up his sonic. “But that won’t stop me” 

There was a creaking noise as the clockwork man moved its head - and then it was gone. Rose flinched and glanced around, but it really had, well and truly, vanished. 

“Short range teleport,” The Doctor said, much more calmly than Rose thought he probably should have since they had no idea where it had gone and, based on his reactions thus far, it was not something friendly. “Can’t have gone far. Could still be on board” 

“What is it?” Rose gasped. 

The Doctor pointed at her sternly. “Don’t go looking for it”

“Where you going?” 

“Back in a sec,” was all he said and then he disappeared around the fireplace again. 

Rose huffed, looking down at the fire extinguisher. Yes, she was well and truly getting sick of that habit of his. Sometimes she thinks he would rather her wait in the TARDIS as he went off and did his thing. Well, he can forget about that, she’s not a child. 

She adjusted her grip on the fire extinguisher, one hand on the trigger she figured must activate it. If she ran across it again, she at least knew what to do. 

Rose looked at Mickey. 

“He said not to go look for it” Mickey said.

“Yeah, he did,” Rose said back. 

For a moment, he stared, then, slowly, he grinned. He turned around and grabbed another fire extinguisher from the wall. Rose grinned, remembering all the reasons she loved Mickey. 

“Now, you’re getting it!” She laughed. 

They went looking for it. 

Hitch lounged back in the solitary chair, feet kicked up on the counter, sipping at his second cup of tea. The woman and the second man were at least proving more interesting to watch than he had initially thought. He had also never thought to use the fire extinguishers to freeze the clockwork mechanisms, though, he reasoned, not having to run and plan escape rather took the fun out of the whole thing. 

“Aren’t you going to see them, I think they would be much more interesting to talk to than me,” Clock said solemnly. 

Hitch hummed. “No point.” He took a sip of tea. “They don’t seem to be leaving any time soon. You can’t hitch a ride from people who aren’t going anywhere” 

“No…you could take their ship” 

Hitch looked at them, askance. “I’m a hitchhiker, not a thief!” Clock’s ticking got pointed in a way that Hitch could only distinguish due to prologued exposure. “All the crew are dead! You can’t steal from dead people!” Hitch said, defensively adjusting the sleeves tied at his waist. 

“If you say so,” Clock said, dourly. 

The second man, who Hitch now knew was named Mickey from idle conversations as they explored the ship, darted through the hallways, even doing a funny little sideways roll. If he didn’t know this was the security feed, Hitch could almost think he was watching one of the action movies he could sometimes get the TV contraption to tune into. Suddenly, his face got very close to the camera feed. Hitch didn’t particularly like that it had been fixed with a crewman’s eye, but needs must. 

“Are you looking at me?” Mickey asked. 

Hitch snorted. 

“Look at this,” he said to the woman, Rose. “That’s an eye in there. That’s a real eye” 

“Now they’re getting it,” Hitch muttered into his tea. 

Rose bent down, getting close to the wall. The camera wasn’t able to get much of a view beside her back, but Hitch could guess what they were about to find. It had been exactly what he had been horrified to discover when he had first arrived. It’s amazing the things you can get used to when given enough time. 

“What’s that in the middle there? It’s like it’s wired in” 

“It’s a heart, Mickey, it’s a human heart” 

The two of them quickly took their leave after that. Hitch watched their progress. He figured, at least, he had confirmation that the two of them probably weren’t cannibals. No cannibal would sound that horrified to find a human heart lying about. At least, he figured not, he assumed that hearts would be something cannibals would also eat, though he had no experience in the matter to say for sure. 

“Maybe it wasn’t a real heart,” Mickey said.

“Of course it was a real heart” 

“Is this, like, normal for you? Is this an average day?” 

“Life with the Doctor, Mickey, no more average days” 

Rose came up short as they reached the end of the hallway, still feeling rather sick to her stomach. She had learned to take things in stride over the last year, but something about seeing a human heart beating inside a spaceship’s wall got to her. Still, she had to keep moving forward, she figured, otherwise she thinks she would just stop. 

“It’s France again,” Mickey said. “We can see France”

The room was fancier than any Rose had seen before, like something that belonged in a museum. The room didn’t look like it served any particular purpose, scarcely furnished save for a couple of rococo style chairs, a big rug and several side tables with lit candelabras on top. 

“I think we’re looking through a mirror.” Just as she finished talking several men walked into the room, dressed similarly to how that clockwork man had been, though sans the creepy mask. 

“Blimey, look at this guy!” Mickey said with the same tone of voice he used when looking at the suited men that walked the streets in Bank. “Who does he think he is?” 

“The King of France” 

Rose looked over her shoulder with a grin at the sound of the Doctor’s voice. “Oh, here’s trouble! What have you been up to?” 

He didn’t comment about the fact she and Mickey had done exactly what he told them not to. The Doctor took things in stride too. 

“Oh, this and that,” the Doctor said glibly. “Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man,” - a neigh made her smile drop as she looked, wide-eyed, past the Doctor’s shoulder - “oh, and I met a horse”

Rose was beginning to think the part of her brain that registered shock was going to break soon. Of course he met a horse on a space ship, why the hell not? She had learned not to ask. 

“What’s a horse doing on a space ship?” Mickey, who hadn’t learned not to ask, asked.

“Mickey, what’s pre-revolutionary France doing on a space ship? Get a little perspective!” The Doctor snarked. 

That was exactly the reaction that had taught her it was better not to ask. 

“See these,” the Doctor said, gesturing to the two way mirror. “They’re all over the place, on every deck. Gateways to history.” The horse whinnied behind him, but Rose decided to ignore that. “But not just any old history.” The Doctor pointed to the woman, clad in a princess-like gown, who was just entering the room. “Hers. Time windows, deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the 51st century stalking a woman from the 18th! Why?” 

Rose was a little gratified that he was as confused about this as she was - it was rare that that happened. 

“Who is she?” 

“Jean-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette,” the Doctor said, as if that meant anything to Rose. “One of the most accomplished women who ever lived.”

“So she got plans on being the Queen then?” Rose asked, watching as Reinette circled the King. 

“No, he’s already got a queen. She’s got plans on being his mistress.” 

“Oh, I get it,” Rose said, a slow grin forming. “Camilla!” She shared a laugh with Mickey. 

“I think this is the night they met,” said the Doctor. “The night of the Yew Tree Ball. In no time flat she’ll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title - Madame de Pompadour” 

The King had left now and Reinette approached the mirror, looking over her appearance and adjusting her skirts. It appeared even the most accomplished women in history could get nervous. 

“Queen must have loved her,” Rose muttered, struck by her beauty. 

“Oh, she did. They got on very well” 

“The King’s wife and the King’s girlfriend?” Mickey asked, dubiously.

“France,” the Doctor said by way of explanation. “It’s a different planet.” 

Says a lot, coming from him, Rose figured. 

Abruptly, Reinette frowned. She had seemed to catch something in the reflection and she whirled around. “How long have you been standing there? Show yourself!” 

Rose frowned, squinting. She hadn’t been paying attention to anything but Reinette, but now that she looked, she could see a figure standing in the shadows of the room. 

“Doctor” 

“I know” his face had gone serious in the way it always did when he spotted something bad. 

The figure whirled around and Rose jumped at the same time as Reneitte. It was the clockwork man. Mickey’s fingers must have gone slack in surprise as it was easy for the Doctor to pull the fire extinguisher from his hands. He pushed on the mirror and Rose and Mickey jumped back so as to not be hit as it swung around. 

“Hello, Reinette, hasn’t time flown!” The Doctor said, walking into the room, brandishing the fire extinguisher like a weapon. 

“Fireplace Man!” 

Rose and Mickey followed him into the room. The Doctor activated the fire extinguisher and once again froze the clockwork man where it stood. He tossed it back to Mickey, who stumbled slightly as he caught it. 

The clockwork man was making loud, creaking, whirring noises. Rose lifted her own fire extinguisher, getting ready to use it if she had too, watching the clockwork man for any sudden moves. 

“What’s it doing?” Mickey asked. 

“Switching back on” the Doctor said, getting close. “Melting the ice” 

“And then what?” 

“Then it kills everyone in the room.” It reached a hand out for the Doctor’s throat and the Doctor jerked back. Rose’s heart thudded in her chest, but she felt safe in the knowledge that Doctor was between them and it. He would figure something out. He always did. “Focuses the mind, doesn’t it? Who are you?” He demanded of the clockwork man. “Identify yourself!” It’s head ticked to one side, but it didn’t answer. The doctor turned to Reinette. “Order it to answer me” 

“Why should it listen to me?” Reinette asked. 

“I don’t know, but it did when you were a child” the Doctor said. Rose had learned that most of his ‘I don’t know’s’ usually turned out to be right. He moved around to stand behind Reinette, leaning in close to say “Let’s see if you’ve still got it” into her ear. Rose tried not to let that bother her. 

“Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you,” Reinette ordered. Rose could see how she could be the mistress of a King with a voice like that.

Rose’s eyes darted to the Doctor, then back to the Clockwork man, which slowly lowered its outstretched arm. 

“I am Repair Droid Seven,” it said in a digital sort of voice.

“So what happened to the ship then? There was a lot of damage” 

“Ion storm. 82% systems failure” 

“That ship hasn’t moved in over a year. What’s taken you so long?” 

The Clockwork man whirred. “We did not have the parts”

Mickey chuckled. “Always comes down to that, doesn’t it? The parts” 

Rose supposed she could see some amusement in the fact that 3000 years into the future, mechanics still have the same problems. It was kind of comforting to know that some things never change. 

“What’s happened to the crew?” The Doctor asked. “Where are they?” 

“We did not have the parts” 

“There should’ve been over 50 people on your ship. Where did they go?” 

“We did not have the parts” 

“50 people don’t just disappear, where…” the Doctor began to approach the clockwork man, but paused, a sort of realisation hitting him. “Oh…you didn’t have the parts. So you used the crew” 

“The crew?” Mickey asked, confused, but Rose thought she got it.

Her stomach sunk and the thoughts she was trying to push down came right back to the surface. “We found a camera with an eye in it,” her voice shook and the Doctor turned to look at her. “And there was a heart…wired into machinery” 

The Doctor looked grim. “It’s just doing what it’s programmed to…repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it can find. No one told it the crew weren’t on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelled of?” 

“…someone cooking…”

Rose looked back at the clockwork man. Before she had been curious, cautious, now there was a heat to her gaze. Sure, the Doctor said it did what it was programmed to do, but that thing had killed people, it had taken them apart. 

“Flesh plus heat. Barbecue” Rose wished he didn’t put it like that. She took a breath, trying to settle her stomach, to settle her mind. “But what are you doing here? You’ve opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy, why come here? You could’ve gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to 18th century France. Why?” 

“One more part is required.” 

The digital voice hadn’t changed, but Rose swallowed, unable to help the idea that it sounded more threatening than before. The clockwork man’s head ticked to the side until the empty eyes of its mask were pointing at Reinette. The Doctor turned his head to look too, Rose and Mickey soon following suit. It couldn’t mean…it couldn’t mean it means for her to be a part…could it? 

Reinette looked terrified and Rose felt sympathy rise within her. 

The Doctor turned back to the clockwork man. “Then why haven’t you taken it?” 

“She is incomplete” 

For a second, Reinette’s eyes darted over to Rose and Mickey, as if to check that she was hearing right and then back to the Clockwork man, horrified. Rose kept her eyes on her face. 

“What? So that’s the plan then? You just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking if she’s done yet?”

“Why her?” Rose asked. She glanced at Reinette, then back to the clockwork man. “If you’ve got all of history to choose from, why, specifically, her?” She cut her gaze back to Reinette, wondering what could possibly make her special to robots 4000 years into her future. 

“We are the same” 

“We are not the same. We are in no sense the same!” 

“We are the same.” 

“Get out of here! Get out of here this instant!” 

“Reinette, no,” the Doctor tried to protest, but it was too late. The clockwork man raised it arms, pressed one hand to the opposite wrist, and then it was gone. “It’s back on the ship! Rose, take Mickey and Arthur, get after it, follow it, don’t approach it, just watch what it does” 

Rose stared. “Arthur?” 

“Good name for a horse”

Rose shook her head, exasperated. “No, you’re not keeping the horse” 

“I let you keep, Mickey,” The Doctor said defensively. “No go, go, go!” 

Rose spare him one last look (her having Mickey come aboard, especially when she had barely wanted him to be aboard, was in no sense the same as having a horse wandering around) and then moved to follow his orders. 

“They’re back on the ship,” Clock said despondently. 

Hitch looked up from the paper. It was a report about the war between the hive-mind race Ba-El Craft against the Cancri and The Human Empire about diamond mining. He had first read the report two months ago and he had read it every day since. It never got any more interesting, but he thought, it was at least better than watching footage of empty hallways when all three of the strangers disappeared into 17th Century France. 

Rose and Mickey had in fact re-emerged from the French hole and were hurrying down the hallway, still brandishing their fire extinguishers. 

Hitch frowned. “They look in a hurry. Think they finally figured it out?” 

“I could not begin to say,” Clock despaired. 

Hitch sighed and kept watching. 

“So! That Doctor, eh?” Mickey was saying.

“What are you talking about?” Rose asked. 

“Well, Madame de Pompadour, Sarah Janes Smith…Cleopatra…”

Forget action movie, Hitch was beginning to feel like he was watching a soap opera and not even a good one - that cheesy one about droids who fell in love that Clock liked to pretend they didn’t enjoy watching. They can say that they enjoy nothing all they want, but Hitch noticed they always got more depressed that their usual level of depression when Hitch wouldn’t let them watch it. Hitch wouldn’t even mind the show so much if it weren’t for the catchy theme tune that always got stuck in his head afterwards. ‘Androids…everybody loves good androids…’. Give him a break. 

“Oh, Cleopatra! He mentioned her once!”

“Yeah, but he called her Cleo”

They couldn’t see it, but on the camera, Hitch certainly did and he sat up straight, watching as the clockwork droids honed in on their location. That couldn’t be good. 

“Mickey!” 

One of the droids got Mickey by the throat, another grabbed Rose around the neck. Both droids injected them with anaesthetic and then they were out. The droids teleported, taking the two humans with them. Hitch hit some more keys on the keyboard until he got a view of the med-bay turned slaughterhouse. 

“I do hope they’re okay, I was beginning to like them” Clock said. 

Hitch turned to them in surprise. “Really?” 

“No” 

Hitch’s brows ticked up. “Was that a joke? I didn’t know you could make those” 

“I can, but why bother?” Clock said, downtrodden.

Hitch sighed. 

Rose opened her eyes blearily, head fuzzy. She looked up and for a second her eyes wouldn’t focus, then…one of the clockwork men.

She tried to move away, but she couldn’t move her arms or legs. “What is this?” She gasped. “What’s going on? Doctor!” 

Mickey called for her, frightened. Rose craned her neck to try and look at him around the clockwork man that would not stop creepily staring. “They’re going to chop us up,” he said, voice frantic. “Just like the crew! They’re going to chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship.” Rose’s heart pounded. “And where’s The Doctor? Where’s the precious Doctor now? He’s been gone for flippin’ hours, that’s where he is!” 

Rose really didn’t think that now was the time for Mickey to spout on about his jealousies, but when the Doctor finally came around he better have a damn good explanation for himself. 

“You are compatible,” the clockwork man closest to her told her. 

Rose scrambled for something to say, something that would get them out of this. She needs to stall for time. She needs to keep them away until the Doctor came back. And he would come back. He always did. “W-well, you might want to think about that. You really, really might, because me and Mickey, we didn’t come here alone. Oh, no, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to mess with our designated driver.” 

The clockwork man didn’t seem to cave and its hand darted out, bearing a knife at her throat. Rose gasped out, terrified. 

“Ever heard of the Daleks?” She asked. She needed to make them scared. She needed to make them too scared to touch them. Could robots feel fear? She hoped they could. “Remember them? They had a name for our friend. They had myths about him and a name. They called him the…”

There was a bang somewhere outside the room and was that…was that singing? It was. It was the Doctor and he was…singing? 

“T-they call him the…”

The Doctor came swinging into the room, still singing and apparently dancing. Rose stared, mouth agape. He was stumbling around with a drink in his hand, sunglasses on his face, and his tie, which she had never seen him without, was wrapped around his forehead. 

“Have you me the French? My God, they know how to party!” 

Rose glared. Was he drunk? She and Mickey we strapped down and about to be scrapped for parts and he was drunk? She could kill him sometimes. 

“Well, look at what the cat dragged in. The oncoming storm!” 

The Doctor lounged against what she assumed was some kind of medical equipment. “Ooh, you sound just like your mother” 

Oh, she was going to kill him. She really was. “What have you been doing? Where have you been?”

“Well,” The Doctor said, casually, apparently paying no mind to the clockwork men about the room or the fact that Rose nor Mickey could move and Rose had a knife to her throat. “Among other things, I think I just invented the Banana Daiquiri a couple of centuries early. Do you know,” he started, moving closer so that he could get in close to her face. “Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good!” 

She looked at him, incredulous. Was he being serious? 

“Oh, Brilliant,” he said, stepping back and finally seeming to notice the clockwork men. “It’s you.  You’re my favourite, you are!” he laughed. “You’re the best! You know why? ‘Cos you’re so thick. You’re Mr Thick, Thick, Thicketty, Thick-face from Thick-Town, Thickania. And so’s your dad!” 

Rose took in some shaky breathes, half expecting the robot to bring down the knife on her throat in the face of the Doctor’s rambling. 

The Doctor wandered the room some more. “Do you know what they were scanning Reinette’s brain for?” The Doctor laughed. “Her mileometer. They wanted to know how old she is. Know why?” The Doctor span, brandishing his hands at the room and the ship at large. “‘Cos this ship is 37 years old. And they think when Reinette is 37, when she’s ‘complete’, then her brain will be compatible. Cos that’s what you’re missing, isn’t it, hmm?” He staggered across the room to say this into one of the clockwork robot’s faces. “The command circuit from your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do.”

“The brain is compatible,” the clockwork man holding the knife to Rose’s throat said. 

Rose looked cautiously at the knife as the little wheel at the top of it began to whir. 

“Compatible?” The Doctor asked, climbing around where Mickey was strapped down so he could stand right next to the robot that had spoken. “If you believe that then you probably believe this is a glass of wine.” He pulled the mask from the clockwork man’s head and poured whatever it was in his glass - apparently not wine - all over its head. 

The clockwork made and horrible grinding, whirring noise. The clockwork man froze…and then it dropped forward. Rose sighed, heart about to beat out of her chest, and relaxed back at the absence of the knife at her throat and the knowledge the Doctor wasn’t just going insane. 

“Mult-grade anti-oil. ‘If it moves, it doesn’t’” The Doctor explained, completely sober. 

The other robots in the room ticked and whirred into motion. The Doctor moved over to a device in the middle of where Rose and Mickey were strapped down and flipped a lever. All at once, all the other droids froze. 

“Right, you two, that’s enough lying about,” The Doctor said, using his sonic to free them. “Time we got the rest of the ship turned off.”

“Those things safe?” Mickey asked, scrambling to his feet. 

The Doctor pulled his tie back around his neck and removed the sunglasses. “Yep, safe. Safe and thick. Way I like ‘em. Ok, all the time windows are controlled from here. Need to close them all down. Zeus plugs, where are my Zeus plugs?” The Doctor asked, searching his pockets, then searching around the room when he didn’t find them. “Had them a minute ago, I was using them as castanets” 

“Why didn’t they just open a time window to when she was 37?” Rose asked. 

He seemed to have found his Zeus plugs because he went back to fiddling with the controls. “Amount of damage in these circuits, they did well to hit the right century. Trial and error after that. The Doctor flicked a switch. When it didn’t do what he was after, he fickle them a few more times. “The windows aren’t closing. Why won’t they close?” He asked, frowning. 

There was ding. 

“What’s that?” 

“I dunno. Incoming messaged?” 

“From who?” Asked Mickey. 

“Report from the field,” said the Doctor. “One of them must still be out there with Reinette. That’s why I can’t close the windows, there’s an override!” 

The clockwork man behind the Doctor stood up, squirting the anti-oil out from it’s finger. The Doctor frowned. “Oh, that was a bit clever” 

Rose stiffened, not daring to move as all of the other clockwork men stood up with a creek. She whirled around, trying to keep an eye on all of them at once. 

“Right, many things about this are not good,” said the Doctor. There are several more dings from the controls. “Message from one of your little friends?” He asked the robots. “Anything interesting?” 

“She is complete,” said one of the robots. “It begins” 

One by one, the clockwork men teleport away. 

“What’s happening?” Rose asked, half relieved that they’re gone and half worried about why they’ve left. 

“One of them must have found the right time window. Now it’s time to send in the troops. And this time they’re bringing back her head” 

“Tell you what,” Hitch said “I never thought you lot would find it.” He was sat on the edge of his seat, he kept the screen on the navigation room where the doctor had found the right time window, even as he sent Mickey off to get Rose.  

Clock didn’t answer, though their clockwork head was angled toward the screen. 

Hitch watched as the doctor fixed an audio link and his brows tick up. That was very clever of him, Hitch hadn’t figured out how to do that. Though, he comforted himself, perhaps if he had tried harder. In the months he had been stuck on the ship, Hitch had been less interested in the French holes and the goings on with the droids than he had with trying to ping off any nearby ships. 

“You found it then?” Rose called as she and Mickey returned. 

“They knew I was coming, they’ve blocked it off!” 

The doctor raced around, pressing buttons and trying to reopen the link. Hitch wondered what he was doing, unsure that even he would be able to do that, and he’s self-proclaimed genius. What a mind this doctor must have. 

He wondered, once again, who these people were. They didn’t respond to a mayday call, in fact they hadn’t even appeared to know anything was wrong at first, and yet they were staying, trying to save Madame de Pompadour. Why? Was it because this doctor had gone through the windows and gotten attached? Would they have left had that not been the case? 

“I don’t get it. How come they got in there?” Rose asked. 

“They teleported, you saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick”’

“We’ll go in the TARDIS!” 

Hitch froze. His hearts pounded. TARDIS. There’s only one species that can fly a TARDIS. Even if the wreckages of Gallifrey were scavenged, even if someone managed to find one, the only way they could fly it would be if they were…

Not a doctor, The Doctor. He had heard of him, of course he had. The Doctor may have come after him, but he was still the most famous of the renegade Time Lords. The Hitchhiker let his mind expand like he hadn’t for decades and there, like a speck of light in an endless sea of darkness, there was the Doctor. Hitch was not the last. There was another. 

“I can’t use the TARDIS, we’re a part of events now!” 

“Can’t we just smash through?” Mickey asked. 

“Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We’d need a truck”

The TV was still on, but Hitch was no longer watching.

He raced about his room, grabbing his satchel and rifling through it - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, a change of clothes (dirty now), and…his towel? Where was his towel? He glanced around the room and found it hung by the little sink in the corner. He gave the towel a quick kiss and stuffed it inside the satchel. 

“Come on, come on, we’re going to them,” Hitch said, waving an impatient hand at Clock. 

“I thought you were waiting for them to be done” 

“Well that was before! Keep up!” 

He darted out of the room, Clock, seeing no reason not to, followed with quick, jerking steps. They raced down the hallway, and the next, up a flight of stairs, and finally, Hitch took off at a run down a corridor that led to the Navigation room where the time window was. 

Hitch scampered into the room, almost falling in his haste. Mickey let out a startled yelp. Rose whirled around, gasping “What?” When the two of them noticed Clock, they both stepped back, pressing together.

Hitch paid them no mind looking about the room.

“Where is he? Where’s the Doctor?” Hitch demanded. 

“Who the hell are you?” Rose demanded right back. 

Hitch looked passed her and his breathe, well, hitched. The French hole - it was gone, all that was left was smashed hyperplex. If the Doctor wasn’t here…if the Doctor wasn’t here…

Hitch let out a furious yell, punching his fists down into the navigation system and the useless controls that opened the window. Rose and Mickey jumped back, staring. He was so close, he was so close to another of his kind and he missed it. He missed it. 

“The portal is closed,” Clock said, morosely. 

“I noticed that!” Hitch shouted, whirling on them. 

He stood there for several moments, chest heaving, and then he slumped to the ground, putting his head between his knees. The Doctor was gone - he had missed his chance to be reunited with another Time Lord. This was just his goddamn luck.

“Who are you?” Mickey asked. “How do you know the Doctor?”

Hitch picked his head up, but didn’t move from the position on the floor. “I know all of you, I’ve been watching you on the screen since you arrived” 

“But the Doctor did a search for life-forms, I saw him,” Rose said, then shook herself. “Wait, what do you mean, you’ve been watching us? You’ve been watching us and you didn’t help?!” 

“Well, up until now you seemed to have it handled,” Hitch huffed. 

“Yes,” Clock said. “When they were almost used for parts, in particular” 

Mickey and Rose both jerked at the sound of their voice, expression caught between caution and incredulity. 

“Don’t mind Clock, they’re a depressive” 

“Only since you showed me the truth”

Hitch tilted his head back to scowl up at them. “Well, if I hadn’t you’d have been stuck in 17th century France with the rest of them, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, there is never a good outcome,” Clock said, depressed. Hitch looked at the other two and waved a hand in Clock’s direction as if to say ‘see?’

For a second, Rose and Mickey just stared. Then, “You didn’t answer, us, who are you?” 

“The Hitchhiker. Two months I’ve been on this ship waiting for a ship to pass near enough for me to hitch a ride, and then you lot just stumble your way in and I think, great, as soon as they’ve finished saving the day or whatever it is they think they’re doing, I’ll hitch a ride. Then I realise you’re with the Doctor and I - I miss my chance.” Hitch’s voice lowers down into a mumble and stared mournfully at the remnants of the time window. “Of course I miss my chance” 

“What, you hitchhiked onto a ship with no crew?” Mickey asked, looking at him suspiciously. “how’d you manage that?” 

“Kind of in the job description,” Hitch replied. He stuffed a hand into his satchel to reach past his towel and grab The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. As soon as he pulled it out, he got to his feet and tossed it in Mickey’s direction. 

Mickey fumbled and almost dropped it, before turning it over in his hands. He looked down at it for a moment confused, then pressed the big button on the bottom. Rose eyed Hitch and Clock suspiciously one more time before going over to look over Mickey’s shoulder. 

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe,” Rose read out. 

“Don’t panic” Mickey read out. 

Hitch hummed. “Most important thing to remember. What did you do when you first found out about all this? I bet you panicked didn’t you? You look like a panicker” 

Rose snorted. 

“Ah, see,” he said, pointing to Rose. “And I bet it didn’t help you any, so…” he idled closer and pointed to the large, comforting words with a flourish. “Don’t panic. Best advice there is, and always nice to have a reminder.” 

“Well,” Rose said, sounded so depressed she could almost rival Clock. “You can’t hitch a ride with us anymore, The Doctor…” she trailed off, looking at the place the time window used to be. The look on her face was something awful. 

Mickey looked at the side of Rose’s face.

“We can’t fly the TARDIS without him,” Mickey said, not noticing Hitch’s face light up at his words. “How’s he going to get back?” 

“You’ve got a TARDIS!” Hitch exclaimed. He jumped up and down with a wild laugh. “I forgot you had a TARDIS” 

“What’s it matter?” Rose snapped, turning to glare at him. “Weren’t you listening? We can’t fly it!” 

Hitch’s smile dropped and he looked at them, non-plussed. “Well, no, but I can” 

For a second they don’t seem to know how to react. Then they both look at him incredulously. Then they look at each other incredulously. Then they stare back at Hitch. Hitch watched all this, not sure what to make of it. 

“How d’you mean, you can fly the TARDIS?” Mickey asked. 

“The Hitchhiker,” Rose muttered, then raised her voice a little. “You weren’t just saying you were a hitchhiker on this ship, you mean The Hitchhiker”

Hitch grinned, winking. “Pleasure to meet you” 

“Wait,” Mickey gasped. “Wait, you mean The Hitchhiker, like The Doctor, you mean he’s - he’s whatever it is the Doctor is?” 

“A Time Lord,” Rose said, looking like she still didn’t really believe it. “But the Doctor told me he was the last. He told me you were all gone” 

Hitch sobered and looked at the broken time window. “Yes. I thought that too” 

“If you’re really a Time Lord then…” Rose said, breathless. “Then you really can fly the TARDIS? You can get us back to him?” 

“As long as you have the key,” Hitch said. Rose gave a relieved little laugh, eyes wet and pulled a gold key from her pocket. Hitch grinned. He turned to Clock. “Can you get the coordinates from this?” 

“I suppose,” Clock said, sounding rather put upon. 

Rose and Mickey still seemed rather dubious of them, but they didn’t flinch when Clock moved passed them to the controls. 

Hitch grabbed the key from Rose’s hand and crossed the room towards the TARDIS. He felt the thrum as soon as he put the key in the lock and he felt a thrill go through him. A TARDIS. The last TARDIS. He never thought he’d see one of them again. He turned the lock and he stepped inside. 

She was beautiful. She had a sort of coral theme - coral climbing up above and far below, making the TARDIS look like the living creature she was. There were roundels covering all the walls and around the console was grated flooring, disappearing off into different hallways. Oh, the console. The centre of the room and the heart of the TARDIS, it glowed a fantastic, beautiful blue. 

Hitch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It almost smelled like home, or as close as he would ever get to it now. He felt gentle, curious prods at his brain. He smiled and prodded back. A delighted hum sounded about the room and when he opened his eyes, they were wet. 

For decades now he had been alone, his mind closed off and cold in the places that used to be abuzz with energy and, all at once, on a day he thought like any other, he had brushed against another Time Lord, he had been touched by a TARDIS. 

“Hitchhiker?” Rose prompted. 

He turned and saw they were stood behind him, waiting to get in. Hitch quickly turned back, sniffed hard and ran a hand quickly across his face, not wanting them to notice his tears. 

“Come on, then!” He shouted, joyful and dated to the controls. 

Rose and Mickey quickly followed, Clock boarding much more sedately, in fact they seemed very disappointed at having to board at all. Hitch’s hands hovered over the controls, fingers wiggling, scarcely believing he was getting the chance to do this again. He hadn’t flown a proper TARDIS since he was about 300 and was taking his test, the battle TARDISes that were common in the War being quite different. He had wanted to take a TARDIS with him when he ran away, but hadn’t quite managed to figure out how to steal one - god knows he wasn’t going to be allowed to take one legally. It all worked out, he knows, hitching was always going to be his way of life, but, still, it would have been nice. 

“Hello, Gorgeous,” he whispered. 

Inside his head, there was song. 

He grinned and flipped the lever to his side, the console sighed up and down, preparing for flight. He turned to Clock to get the coordinates. He gave them to him in a very despondent sound of voice, but Hitch didn’t let it get him down. He keyed them in and darted this way and that around the console. This TARDIS had much more chaotic controls than any he had driven before - with hot and cold taps as the stabilisers, a bungie chord as a time displacer and many other bits and bobs. It was also a type 40 that was meant to have multiple drivers, but Hitch made do. Finally, he landed and pressed the break - or rather, wiggled a funny shaped knob that was apparently the break on this ship. 

He stood back, proud of himself, and grinned at Mickey and Rose. 

They stared back at him. 

His smile slipped. 

Rose’s eyebrows raised and Mickey grimaced. 

“Well?” Hitch asked, gesturing to the door. 

Rose faltered. “We haven’t moved” 

Hitch blinked. “Of course we have.” He pressed some buttons to get the view up on the scanner. “See?” 

Mickey and Rose circled around the console, giving Clock (who was sulking off to one side) a wide birth, to come and look at the scanner. It was a hallway to the palace. Beautiful wooden floors and ornate green wallpaper, portraits adorning the walls on either side. 

“We’re here,” Rose breathed, not seeming to believe it. “But I barely felt it”

“Yeah,” Mickey agreed. “And it didn’t make that noise” 

Hitch frowned, looking between the two of them, bewildered. “What noise?” 

He was startled when Mickey proceeded to make a weird, groaning sort of wheezing noise from his chest. Hitch looked toward Rose for some explanation, but she was nodding as though to say ‘exactly.’ 

Hitch cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t know that is meant to be, but regardless, we’re here” 

“Right, we’re here” Rose said, calmly. Her eyes went wide. “We’re here!” She exclaimed and darted for the door. 

Mickey and Hitch followed. Despite her haste, Rose only made it just out the door and was looking up and down the hallway, put out. 

“How are we meant to find him? He could be anywhere in here and we can’t stop to ask we’ll be arrested for - for nakedness or something” 

Hitch sniffs at the air. It takes him a second, but he catches it - that smell like home. “He’s this way,” Hitch said, pointing a thumb behind him. 

Mickey and Rose stare. 

“Are you…smelling him?” Mickey asked with a wrinkled nose grimace. 

“Yes” 

Rose and Mickey shared a glance, shrugged and then followed him down the hallway. Hitch directed them down several hallways, through a ballroom where he had to circle and sniff a few times, knowing the Doctor had been in there, but trying to work out where he’d gone, before taking them down several more hallways before finally stopping at a door. 

“He’s in there,” Hitch said, hearts pounding in anticipation. 

Rose wasted no time and flung the door open. The Doctor and Reinette were stood at the window, each with a drink in their hand. They looked up as the door banged against the wall, both of their eyes going wide. 

The Doctor’s mouth moved for half a second before he breathed, “What?” 

“Doctor!” 

“What?” The Doctor said louder this time. 

She went running across the room and threw herself into his arms, holding tightly. The Doctor’s arms seemed to go around her more out of instinct than really thinking about it, not caring, or not noticing, the wine glass careening to the floor as he did so. Rose gave a sort of half laughing, half sobbing sort of noise against his shoulder. 

“What?!” The Doctor said, louder still. 

Mickey, having followed at a more sedate pace, clasped the Doctor’s hand in a shake over Rose’s shoulder when he got close enough, grinning wide. 

“H-how - how did you get here?” The Doctor sputtered. He pulled back from Rose, putting a hand on either side of her face and looking into her eyes. “You didn’t-”

“No, no,” Rose said, grin fading to a smile. “We - err - well -”

She looked passed the Doctor’s shoulder over to Hitch, who had only made it a few steps through the door before faltering. The Doctor turned, following her gaze before looking at her over his shoulder, confused. Hitch’s hearts pounded and his mouth had gone dry. He realised, rather suddenly, that he had forgot to think of what he would say when he saw him - part of him just wanted to grip him by the shoulders and scream “You’re alive! You’re alive!” at the top of his lungs, but he figured the Doctor could do without a Frankenstein reenactment. 

Rose’s smile had gone, she, too, looked at a loss of how to voice everything. “He’s erm…” she trailed off. 

The Doctor looked at Hitch, brows furrowed. He would put it together eventually, Hitch knew, but he expanded his mind and brushed it against the Doctor’s own to help him along. 

The Doctor’s eyes widened and for a minute he seemed lost for words. Hitch stared back, his eyes, rather without his permission, got wet again. He thinks he would rather like to give him a grin and a wink and say ‘can’t get rid of me that easily’, but instead all he can manage is a trembling smile. 

“It can’t be,” The Doctor breathed. He turned to Rose, seeming to trust her more than his own senses. “It can’t be” he said again. 

Rose’s lips twitched in an awkward sort of smile, but she gave a little nod. “He said his names The Hitchhiker.” 

The Doctor looked back at Hitch, eyes still wide. For a moment he didn’t seem to know what to do. Hitch took a halting step forward and that seemed to be all it took. The Doctor ran across the room, closing the distance. Hitch’s hands came up to grip at the Doctor’s arms when he came close enough and the Doctor gripped him right back, hard enough to bruise. His head tipped forward to bump against his own and…there it was, the connection. Buzzing and buzzing and so, so alive. The surface level thoughts burst across synapses and a wet laugh burst from Hitch’s chest as all he could hear was: alive, alive, alive. 

For a minute they stood, breathing each others air, thoughts entwining with another for the first time in such a long while. It was a more intimate gesture that was normally accepted in Time Lord culture, something that required a lot of trust, but Hitch didn’t care. This was another Time Lord, for the time being he felt like there could be no such thing as close enough. 

Hitch pulled away first and looked at the Doctor’s face, mapping features he could now see clearly when they’re not in a fuzzy little screen. For a second the Doctor’s eyes remained closed, basking in the sharp connection that soon faded to a pleasant buzz. When his eyes opened, they were wide and wet, his expression like something breaking open. 

Hitch met his eyes and, very slowly, he smiled. “Hello” 

The Doctor let out a disbelieving laugh. “Hello” 

Eventually, Hitch led the group back to the TARDIS, constantly looking back at the Doctor, unable to resist the temptation to check that he was still there. Every time he did, the Doctor met his eyes, doing exactly the same thing. When they got back to the TARDIS, Rose and Mickey assuring Reinette that the Clockwork man in the corner was not like the others, they all sort of stood, no one quite sure what to say and Reinette looking around in amazement, taking up the space of about three people in her huge sparkly gown. Finally, Mickey and Rose guided Reinette, and, rather reluctantly, Clock, from the console room under the pretence of showing them around. 

Hitch’s whole business was exploring, was plonking himself in the middle of places he had never before been but acting like he belonged, but for once, he was at a loss of what to do. He tightened the sleeves of the jumpsuit at his waist, not sure what to do with his hands. He looked up at the Doctor, whose hands were hovering over parts of the TARDIS console, seemingly having the exact same problem. 

Hitch licked his lips. “I suppose you didn’t think this day would end like this, either?”

The Doctor gave a short burst of a breathless laughter. “Not at all” 

Hitch propped himself against the seat in the corner. “Two Time Lords, two humans, Madame de Pompadour, and a manically depressed droid in a TARDIS” he mused. 

“There’s a joke in there somewhere,” The Doctor grinned. 

“I rather think that is the joke,” The Hitchhiker grinned back.