Work Text:
It was late, and most of the staff at UNIT had either gone home or were packing up ready to go home.
Of course, just as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart was about to finish the mountain of paperwork she'd been working through, the tablet on her desk flashed up a bright red warning. She sighed, dropped her pen, and picked up the tablet.
“Shirley, Colonel Ibrahim, come with me.” She didn't wait for a reply before she marched over to the lift.
“Yes ma'am.” Colonel Ibrahim said, joining her in the lift. Shirley followed behind and slotted herself in between the two of them.
“We’ve got a breach in the time window.” Kate said as soon as the lift doors had closed. She brought up CCTV footage and handed the tablet in her hands to Shirley.
“But the time window’s been completely shut down for months.” Shirley said. “How on earth did someone gain access to the room?”
“They didn’t. According to the security footage, they just appeared in the window. One moment it was empty, the next it wasn’t.”
With a jolt, the lift stopped and the doors slid apart. The room was unlit, and there was a dark shape slumped on the floor of the time window.
Shirley hit a switch, and light flooded in, showing a man lying on the floor, a small device flashing weakly in his hand.
His clothes looked historical, like regency-era formal attire.
“He looks straight out of Pride and Prejudice.” Shirley remarked to Colonel Ibrahim, who chuckled.
Kate walked into the glass chamber.
“I am Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, commander in chief of UNIT, and I would like to know who you are, and what you are doing inside our time window.”
“Rogue. Escaping another dimension.” He managed to sound snarky, despite the tiredness of his voice. “I told the Doctor to find me, and instead I end up in some basement trying to find him.” He muttered.
Kate and Shirley exchanged a look.
“You know the Doctor? Are you a friend of his?” Shirley asked.
“More than friends.” Rogue smirked. “He is rather a good kisser.”
Kate smiled. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
She leaned down and helped Rogue to his feet, before turning to Colonel Ibrahim.
“Send for a medic. Tell them to head for the bridge.”
“Yes ma’am.” He pressed his earpiece. “This is Colonel Ibrahim. We need a medic on the bridge.”
Rogue leant on Kate’s shoulder as they returned to the lift, Colonel Ibrahim taking Rogue’s other arm to support him.
The lift journey back up was quiet. Questions swirled around in Kate’s head, but she knew it was probably best to wait until Rogue was patched up and a little more alive-looking.
—
The medic arrived on the bridge shortly after the four of them did. Kate sat a few metres away, her face unreadable. Shirley placed Kate’s tablet on the desk and rolled over to Colonel Ibrahim, who had stationed himself by the wall, watching Rogue with a strange sort of curiosity in his eyes.
“You owe me a tenner.” Shirley stated, holding out her hand expectantly. “I can’t believe you thought this Doctor would go round kissing women.”
“I didn’t think the Doctor went round kissing people.”
“Oh, you really need to read the files about the Doctor if you think that. Now come on, cough up.”
He rolled his eyes, and pulled a bank note out of his pocket, which Shirley took with a triumphant gleam in her eye. Her gaze followed his.
“You jealous?” She teased.
“No.” Colonel Ibrahim said defensively. “Just impressed.”
“Okay.” Shirley said, with a tone that made very clear she didn’t believe him one bit.
—
After the medic had sorted Rogue out, Kate stood up.
“How do you like your caffeine, Rogue?” She asked.
“Uhh… coffee.” He sounded a little taken aback by the question. “Black.” He added, realising that ‘coffee’ was not the most helpful answer.
“I’ll sort it.” Colonel Ibrahim said. Kate nodded and sat down opposite Rogue.
“If you lot know the Doctor, do you have a way of contacting him?” Rogue asked Kate, really hoping that the answer would be yes. Despite spending so much time running from the Chuldur and trying to find some way out of that barren dimension he’d sent himself to, his want - his need - to see the Doctor again had only increased with time.
“Yes. We could send him a message to his psychic paper.” Kate turned to the other woman. “Shirley, send him our exact coordinates, both spatial and temporal. I don’t want him turning up in the wrong time.”
“On it.” Shirley turned to her desk and got to work.
As much as the thought of finally seeing the Doctor again was keeping him awake, Rogue was glad of the steaming mug of coffee Colonel Ibrahim placed down in front of him. At the other side of the desk, Kate picked up her mug of coffee in one hand, and her tablet in the other.
“Right.” She said, fixing her gaze on Rogue. “Here at UNIT, we like to keep tabs on acquaintances of the Doctor’s. Helps us know who to recruit, and who to avoid.”
“And how to stay in the Doctor’s good books.” Colonel Ibrahim added.
“Yes. That is certainly true.” Kate laughed. “While we wait, I’m sure you’d like to have a hand in what your entry in our database says.”
“Um, yes?”
“Good. Human?”
“Yes.”
“Just Rogue?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. How did you meet the Doctor?”
“I was in 1813 at a ball, tracking down a Chuldur.”
“A Chuldur?” Kate asked.
“They’re shapeshifters. How much experience do you have with shapeshifters?”
“Oh, a lot. But mostly just with one species, Zygons. I’ve never heard of Chuldurs before, how do they shapeshift?”
“They kill their victim and wear their face and body. Naturally, they look bird-like, but they go round the universe looking for drama and excitement and shapeshifting their way into it. The Doctor called it ‘cosplay’.” Rogue took a sip of his coffee and carried on recounting the story.
—
“We realised it actually was Ruby in the trap, and the Doctor was heartbroken and I knew he wouldn’t send Ruby into some barren dimension with five angry Chuldurs, so I kissed him, stole the trap’s detonator, and took Ruby’s place. That was how I ended up in another dimension.”
Kate hadn’t realised how invested she was in the story, until Rogue stopped talking. She decided she liked him, partly because disliking the Doctor’s lover seemed like a bad idea, but mostly because he’d saved Ruby Sunday’s life, and Kate felt rather strongly about people who hurt or helped Ruby.
“So how did you get out of that dimension?” She asked.
“The detonator started flashing one day, so I decided to hit the button, because it couldn’t exactly get worse. Then I ended up in your basement. Very flashy basement, by the way.”
“It’s our time window. Very powerful when used in conjunction with a VHS tape, it turns out.” Kate paused a moment. “Oh, of course! When the Doctor changed the trap, it became predisposed to time, so when we turned on the time window with Ruby’s VHS, the signal it sent out was so strong, your device could latch on and bring you here.”
As if on cue, the familiar whoosh of a TARDIS materialising sounded out. The doors opened and the Doctor stuck his head out, holding his psychic paper.
“All you sent me was co-ordinates and the word ‘boyfriend’, that is so vague. Are you flirting with me, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart?”
Kate looked mortified and turned to Shirley with a questioning look. Shirley just shrugged, grinning.
“Forgotten me already, doc?” Rogue asked. The Doctor’s eyes lit up at the sound of his voice.
“Rogue?!” He rushed out of the TARDIS. “I thought I might never see you again!”
“Well, here I am, in the flesh.” Rogue said, pulling the Doctor into a kiss.
There was a whoop in the background from a very enthusiastic looking Shirley. Kate had to admit, it was nice to see the Doctor looking so happy, and, well, human.
The Doctor and Rogue broke apart, grinning like love-struck teenagers.
“Right, Rogue. We have got a ship to recover.” The Doctor said.
“My ship! Is it still in 1813?”
“No. I sent it up into orbit around the moon, still cloaked. I should be able to land the TARDIS inside it.” He opened the TARDIS’s doors, and held them open for Rogue.
“Back in the shed.” Rogue remarked as he walked in. The Doctor made a sound of indignation.
“It is not a shed!”
“If you say so…”
And then the doors shut, and the TARDIS was gone.
“I think that might hold the record for least eventful meeting with the Doctor ever.” Kate said. “Makes for a lot less paperwork than usual, that’s for sure.”