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Title: Finding A Way Home – The Subject of Love
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor has time to consider his feelings for women in his life.
Word Count: Approx 2,000 words
Characters: The half-human Doctor, Victoria and Albert
The Doctor can’t help smiling as he watches the Time Lord whirl Donna around the floor. It may be a little less elegant than the half-human Doctor had managed, thanks to those lessons Donna had taken, but it’s still perfectly respectable.
But he thinks it’s the sheer happiness in their eyes at being in each other’s company that he enjoys seeing most.
A soft ‘ahem’ from behind him causes the Doctor to look around and he bows low at the sight of the new young Queen who has moved to his side.
“Your Majesty.”
“I believe I missed your name when you and your friends were announced this evening,” Victoria tells him.
The Doctor tries not to look conscious, because they weren’t actually announced. They simply used the sonic screwdriver to sneak in and the psychic paper to get past the guards. The look on the new monarch’s face, however, suggests that she’s aware of this. Still, he’s relieved to see that she doesn’t look angry.
“I’m the Doctor,” he replies with his best attempt at an easy smile.
Albert, who is standing beside the Queen, looks curious and gestures towards the dancers. “Your brother is also called ‘the Doctor.’”
“Well,” the Doctor thinks fast, “actually it’s more of a title we both use,” he says in the end
“Does that not get confusing?” the young Queen asks mildly.
“Not to us,” he replies with a shrug.
He notices them watching the Doctor and Donna dance and wonders what they’re thinking. He supposes that, with both Doctors in identical tuxedos, it is a bit more complicated than normal. Still, the important that is that Donna doesn’t get them mixed up – and that’s never going to happen!
“Your friend is in love with your brother,” Victoria states.
“Yes,” he agrees, “she is. Very much so.”
“And he loves her back,” Albert suggests.
“One man in love recognises another,” the Doctor says, trying, somewhat clumsily, he has to admit, to push the key players in this delightful romance together a little earlier than history manages it, even though he knows he shouldn’t.
“Perhaps,” the Prince Consort replies with a small, knowing smile, before turning away to speak to someone else.
Victoria, however, remains at the Doctor’s side, watching the dancing. A small smile is playing around the young woman’s lips as her eyes dart from couple to couple.
“What are you thinking, Your Majesty?” he asks in the end.
She turns her brightest smile on him. “I am thinking, sir,” she says lightly, “that I would very much appreciate the honour of your hand in the next.”
“It is yours, ma’am,” he agrees at once, unable to help feeling delighted by the honour of the request. “For as many as you wish.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The set ends and the Doctor offers his hand, feeling the silken gloves smooth against his skin as he leads her onto the floor. The other Doctor catches his eye and offers a grin, even as he guides Donna to a chair and gets her a drink from one of the waiters passing at that moment.
The half-human man can’t help smirking a little as he finds a place for them among the other couples. He bows low as the music starts and then they begin to dance.
At first, he concentrates on ensuring that no harm comes to his partner, because he doesn’t want to go down in history as the man who injured Victoria during her coronation ball. As he becomes more comfortable with his partner, however, which is no small matter considering the height difference between them, he becomes aware that she is studying him.
She smiles a little as he finally meets her gaze. “You have very old eyes for one with so young a face.”
He smiles down at her. “Shall I take that as a compliment, Your Majesty?”
“It was intended as a comment upon your person,” she replies in a calm voice. “Would it be very rude of me to ask your age, Doctor?”
“Only if I may return the favour, ma’am,” he says somewhat cheekily. “So perhaps it would be a subject best avoided.”
She smiles and acquiesces in silence. He leads her gracefully through several step patterns and they hesitate briefly in front of a group that includes Albert. There is a soft smattering of gloved applause for the Queen before they continue around the floor.
“I suspect,” Victoria begins thoughtfully, “that you are a man of much wisdom and experience, Doctor.”
“I would like to think so, Your Majesty,” he agrees, wondering where this is leading.
“And your manner encourages confidences,” she tells him. “Will you speak with me on a somewhat intimate matter – the subject of love?”
“As long as I’m not the subject of it,” he retorts, chuckling at the smile on the young queen’s face.
“Certainly not, Doctor. Although,” she goes on, “in one sense, perhaps. Your friend, and the other Doctor…?”
“What about them?” he prompts, intrigued.
“They’re very happy.”
“They deserve to be,” he says, catching a glimpse of them, the Doctor’s jacket around Donna’s shoulders as, hand in hand, they head out through two large doors that lead into the garden.
“Have you been in love?”
He thinks about this for a moment. “I believe I have, ma’am, yes,” he agrees.
“Do you believe in the idea that there is one special person in the world for everyone? That we all have one true love?”
“I believe that that idea is the right one for some people,” he says carefully, “whereas others may love over and over again. I think it depends on the individuals involved.”
She nods a little, and he notices that her eyes have strayed to the people around the outside of the dancing floor – most particularly Albert.
“Have your friends loved before?” she asks, bringing her gaze back to his face with what the Doctor likes to think is an effort.
“Yes, they have,” he agrees, thinking of Rose and of Lance.
He usually tries not to think about Rose, but there are moments when it’s inescapable. Still, with thoughts of her come a mass of regrets. He wishes there was a way he could have stayed to give her what she wanted, and what he knows she deserved – a future with the man she loved, or at least a version of him.
He’s always known that it was for Rose, and not for himself, that he told her what he did on the beach. He whispered those words into her ear because he knew that the Time Lord could never have brought himself to say them. He’s often wondered, if Rose hadn’t kissed him, how the other Doctor and Donna would have been able to leave.
“Did you share your brother’s feelings for the woman he loved?” Victoria asks suddenly, and he stares at her in surprise, wondering how she could have guessed at something like that.
“I thought I did,” he admits after a few seconds to gather his scattered thoughts.
It’s more complicated than those relatively simple words would imply, but he knows there isn’t a possible way to explain the truth of the situation.
What he does know is that, although he has a memory of the strong emotions that the Doctor has had for Rose in the past, he never fully shared them. He suspects that it may have something to do with the point in time in which he came into being and the fact that the Time Lord was slowly falling in love with Donna then.
During one of his many times of musing on the subject, he came to believe that the timing of his creation aborted his feelings for Rose so that they weren’t as strong as the original Doctor’s were.
He knows he would have stayed in the parallel universe with Rose, but only because he felt he had to. Oh, he’s sure he would eventually have fallen in love with her again, just like the Time Lord did, but he knows he wasn’t feeling that way during the all-too-brief period of time they had together before he came back to save Donna.
He has to admit that he’s never regretted leaving that world with Rose behind. He knows how stifled and restrained he would have felt without the TARDIS and the constant adventures and dangers that face them. He would never have been happy without being able to save people and planets.
After all, that’s what the Doctor does.
However he knows he can’t tell any of this to his current dance partner. He’s certain that the truth about their existence would have all three of them banished even faster than the older Victoria will manage in forty-two years’ time.
“And what of Donna?” the Queen prompts, once more drawing his attention away from his own thoughts. “Do you love her, too?”
“As a brother to a sister,” he responds readily. “Nothing else, ma’am. I’m only glad that they finally realised their feelings for each other – and admitted them. They were dancing around each other for a while there,” he finishes with a chuckle as he remembers those awkward days.
Victoria joins in his laughter. “I hope they will have a long, happy life together.”
“So do I.” He sends her out into a curtsey as the first song of the set ends, but it’s as they are taking their places for the second piece of music that realisation strikes.
It isn’t the fact that he appears to be alien and dangerous that is the reason the older Victoria will banish him after their adventures at Torchwood House. It will have nothing to do with the wolf or the Koo-I-Nor.
No, it will be because he’s there with Rose.
He thinks back to the memory of that time and several facts spring to light. Victoria had clearly known from the moment she saw his face on the moors that he was putting on a façade, that his Scottish accent on that occasion wasn’t real, and that he hadn’t been assigned to act as her Protector. In fact, he recalls the rumours he heard of Victoria’s intelligence and wonders if she would have seen anything on the psychic paper at all. Her prior knowledge of him was the reason she was so quick to accept him in her presence, and why she was able to comment on his voice even in that moment of high tension. She was giving him an opportunity to explain what was happening, and when he didn't, because he didn't know, she became angry enough to treat him the way she did.
It had nothing to do with the werewolf at all.
No, he understands at last, it was simply that she was furious to see him there without Donna.
He can only imagine how bad the teasing and silliness he and Rose carried on with at the time must have looked to a woman who clearly believed that the Doctor’s love for Donna was as deep as her own devotion to Albert.
“Doctor?” Victoria prompts, her voice carrying a note of concern.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” The Doctor realises he’s being rude and returns his attention to his partner.
“Perhaps we could speak of happier things,” she suggests with a half-smile.
“An excellent idea.” He leads her into a turn. “But what shall we talk about?”
“If Albert were here in my place,” she says with a shy look, “he would wish to discuss with you the stars and the beings that he believes dwells among them.”
At that moment the Doctor glimpses Albert through the window. The future Prince Consort is staring at the sky, pointing upwards at what the Doctor guesses are the stars. Clearly the Queen knows her future husband very well indeed.
“Begging your Majesty’s pardon,” he replies with a wink as he looks back down at her, “but if Albert were here, I believe it would be in my place and not yours.”
“So true, Doctor,” she exclaims, laughing. “Very true indeed!”
Their conversation for the remainder of the dance is on frivolous matters, for which the Doctor is thankful. It’s only as the music ends that he allows himself to consider the future meeting he will have with this woman.
“I hope, ma’am,” he says in heartfelt tones as he leads her from the floor, “that you will never have cause to be angry with me.”
Her gaze is open and trusting, with no hint of the animosity that he will see in her eyes almost half a century later, as she allows him to brush her fingers with his lips. “I hope the same, Doctor.”
Love Is In The Air
Author:
katherine_b Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor has time to consider his feelings for women in his life.
Word Count: Approx 2,000 words
Characters: The half-human Doctor, Victoria and Albert
The Doctor can’t help smiling as he watches the Time Lord whirl Donna around the floor. It may be a little less elegant than the half-human Doctor had managed, thanks to those lessons Donna had taken, but it’s still perfectly respectable.
But he thinks it’s the sheer happiness in their eyes at being in each other’s company that he enjoys seeing most.
A soft ‘ahem’ from behind him causes the Doctor to look around and he bows low at the sight of the new young Queen who has moved to his side.
“Your Majesty.”
“I believe I missed your name when you and your friends were announced this evening,” Victoria tells him.
The Doctor tries not to look conscious, because they weren’t actually announced. They simply used the sonic screwdriver to sneak in and the psychic paper to get past the guards. The look on the new monarch’s face, however, suggests that she’s aware of this. Still, he’s relieved to see that she doesn’t look angry.
“I’m the Doctor,” he replies with his best attempt at an easy smile.
Albert, who is standing beside the Queen, looks curious and gestures towards the dancers. “Your brother is also called ‘the Doctor.’”
“Well,” the Doctor thinks fast, “actually it’s more of a title we both use,” he says in the end
“Does that not get confusing?” the young Queen asks mildly.
“Not to us,” he replies with a shrug.
He notices them watching the Doctor and Donna dance and wonders what they’re thinking. He supposes that, with both Doctors in identical tuxedos, it is a bit more complicated than normal. Still, the important that is that Donna doesn’t get them mixed up – and that’s never going to happen!
“Your friend is in love with your brother,” Victoria states.
“Yes,” he agrees, “she is. Very much so.”
“And he loves her back,” Albert suggests.
“One man in love recognises another,” the Doctor says, trying, somewhat clumsily, he has to admit, to push the key players in this delightful romance together a little earlier than history manages it, even though he knows he shouldn’t.
“Perhaps,” the Prince Consort replies with a small, knowing smile, before turning away to speak to someone else.
Victoria, however, remains at the Doctor’s side, watching the dancing. A small smile is playing around the young woman’s lips as her eyes dart from couple to couple.
“What are you thinking, Your Majesty?” he asks in the end.
She turns her brightest smile on him. “I am thinking, sir,” she says lightly, “that I would very much appreciate the honour of your hand in the next.”
“It is yours, ma’am,” he agrees at once, unable to help feeling delighted by the honour of the request. “For as many as you wish.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The set ends and the Doctor offers his hand, feeling the silken gloves smooth against his skin as he leads her onto the floor. The other Doctor catches his eye and offers a grin, even as he guides Donna to a chair and gets her a drink from one of the waiters passing at that moment.
The half-human man can’t help smirking a little as he finds a place for them among the other couples. He bows low as the music starts and then they begin to dance.
At first, he concentrates on ensuring that no harm comes to his partner, because he doesn’t want to go down in history as the man who injured Victoria during her coronation ball. As he becomes more comfortable with his partner, however, which is no small matter considering the height difference between them, he becomes aware that she is studying him.
She smiles a little as he finally meets her gaze. “You have very old eyes for one with so young a face.”
He smiles down at her. “Shall I take that as a compliment, Your Majesty?”
“It was intended as a comment upon your person,” she replies in a calm voice. “Would it be very rude of me to ask your age, Doctor?”
“Only if I may return the favour, ma’am,” he says somewhat cheekily. “So perhaps it would be a subject best avoided.”
She smiles and acquiesces in silence. He leads her gracefully through several step patterns and they hesitate briefly in front of a group that includes Albert. There is a soft smattering of gloved applause for the Queen before they continue around the floor.
“I suspect,” Victoria begins thoughtfully, “that you are a man of much wisdom and experience, Doctor.”
“I would like to think so, Your Majesty,” he agrees, wondering where this is leading.
“And your manner encourages confidences,” she tells him. “Will you speak with me on a somewhat intimate matter – the subject of love?”
“As long as I’m not the subject of it,” he retorts, chuckling at the smile on the young queen’s face.
“Certainly not, Doctor. Although,” she goes on, “in one sense, perhaps. Your friend, and the other Doctor…?”
“What about them?” he prompts, intrigued.
“They’re very happy.”
“They deserve to be,” he says, catching a glimpse of them, the Doctor’s jacket around Donna’s shoulders as, hand in hand, they head out through two large doors that lead into the garden.
“Have you been in love?”
He thinks about this for a moment. “I believe I have, ma’am, yes,” he agrees.
“Do you believe in the idea that there is one special person in the world for everyone? That we all have one true love?”
“I believe that that idea is the right one for some people,” he says carefully, “whereas others may love over and over again. I think it depends on the individuals involved.”
She nods a little, and he notices that her eyes have strayed to the people around the outside of the dancing floor – most particularly Albert.
“Have your friends loved before?” she asks, bringing her gaze back to his face with what the Doctor likes to think is an effort.
“Yes, they have,” he agrees, thinking of Rose and of Lance.
He usually tries not to think about Rose, but there are moments when it’s inescapable. Still, with thoughts of her come a mass of regrets. He wishes there was a way he could have stayed to give her what she wanted, and what he knows she deserved – a future with the man she loved, or at least a version of him.
He’s always known that it was for Rose, and not for himself, that he told her what he did on the beach. He whispered those words into her ear because he knew that the Time Lord could never have brought himself to say them. He’s often wondered, if Rose hadn’t kissed him, how the other Doctor and Donna would have been able to leave.
“Did you share your brother’s feelings for the woman he loved?” Victoria asks suddenly, and he stares at her in surprise, wondering how she could have guessed at something like that.
“I thought I did,” he admits after a few seconds to gather his scattered thoughts.
It’s more complicated than those relatively simple words would imply, but he knows there isn’t a possible way to explain the truth of the situation.
What he does know is that, although he has a memory of the strong emotions that the Doctor has had for Rose in the past, he never fully shared them. He suspects that it may have something to do with the point in time in which he came into being and the fact that the Time Lord was slowly falling in love with Donna then.
During one of his many times of musing on the subject, he came to believe that the timing of his creation aborted his feelings for Rose so that they weren’t as strong as the original Doctor’s were.
He knows he would have stayed in the parallel universe with Rose, but only because he felt he had to. Oh, he’s sure he would eventually have fallen in love with her again, just like the Time Lord did, but he knows he wasn’t feeling that way during the all-too-brief period of time they had together before he came back to save Donna.
He has to admit that he’s never regretted leaving that world with Rose behind. He knows how stifled and restrained he would have felt without the TARDIS and the constant adventures and dangers that face them. He would never have been happy without being able to save people and planets.
After all, that’s what the Doctor does.
However he knows he can’t tell any of this to his current dance partner. He’s certain that the truth about their existence would have all three of them banished even faster than the older Victoria will manage in forty-two years’ time.
“And what of Donna?” the Queen prompts, once more drawing his attention away from his own thoughts. “Do you love her, too?”
“As a brother to a sister,” he responds readily. “Nothing else, ma’am. I’m only glad that they finally realised their feelings for each other – and admitted them. They were dancing around each other for a while there,” he finishes with a chuckle as he remembers those awkward days.
Victoria joins in his laughter. “I hope they will have a long, happy life together.”
“So do I.” He sends her out into a curtsey as the first song of the set ends, but it’s as they are taking their places for the second piece of music that realisation strikes.
It isn’t the fact that he appears to be alien and dangerous that is the reason the older Victoria will banish him after their adventures at Torchwood House. It will have nothing to do with the wolf or the Koo-I-Nor.
No, it will be because he’s there with Rose.
He thinks back to the memory of that time and several facts spring to light. Victoria had clearly known from the moment she saw his face on the moors that he was putting on a façade, that his Scottish accent on that occasion wasn’t real, and that he hadn’t been assigned to act as her Protector. In fact, he recalls the rumours he heard of Victoria’s intelligence and wonders if she would have seen anything on the psychic paper at all. Her prior knowledge of him was the reason she was so quick to accept him in her presence, and why she was able to comment on his voice even in that moment of high tension. She was giving him an opportunity to explain what was happening, and when he didn't, because he didn't know, she became angry enough to treat him the way she did.
It had nothing to do with the werewolf at all.
No, he understands at last, it was simply that she was furious to see him there without Donna.
He can only imagine how bad the teasing and silliness he and Rose carried on with at the time must have looked to a woman who clearly believed that the Doctor’s love for Donna was as deep as her own devotion to Albert.
“Doctor?” Victoria prompts, her voice carrying a note of concern.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” The Doctor realises he’s being rude and returns his attention to his partner.
“Perhaps we could speak of happier things,” she suggests with a half-smile.
“An excellent idea.” He leads her into a turn. “But what shall we talk about?”
“If Albert were here in my place,” she says with a shy look, “he would wish to discuss with you the stars and the beings that he believes dwells among them.”
At that moment the Doctor glimpses Albert through the window. The future Prince Consort is staring at the sky, pointing upwards at what the Doctor guesses are the stars. Clearly the Queen knows her future husband very well indeed.
“Begging your Majesty’s pardon,” he replies with a wink as he looks back down at her, “but if Albert were here, I believe it would be in my place and not yours.”
“So true, Doctor,” she exclaims, laughing. “Very true indeed!”
Their conversation for the remainder of the dance is on frivolous matters, for which the Doctor is thankful. It’s only as the music ends that he allows himself to consider the future meeting he will have with this woman.
“I hope, ma’am,” he says in heartfelt tones as he leads her from the floor, “that you will never have cause to be angry with me.”
Her gaze is open and trusting, with no hint of the animosity that he will see in her eyes almost half a century later, as she allows him to brush her fingers with his lips. “I hope the same, Doctor.”
Love Is In The Air
good