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Title: Redemption 40/?
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katherine_b
Rating: PG
Summary: When you have lost everything, what do you do to get it back?
Characters: The non-Doctor first glimpsed at the end of Name of the Doctor and a lot of old friends.
Part XL
Being almost the Doctor’s like being no Doctor at all.
Those had been the words reported used by the duplicate Doctor to describe his state of being during the events in St John’s Monastery.
So what did that mean for the Vadlott?
As he stares down into his eleventh whiskey, a tiny part of him hopes that the conversation was not real, just another of the legends that had come about from the tales passed down of what happened there.
The larger, logical, sensible part of him knows that the Doctor would have said exactly those words, and meant every one of them.
Containing the knowledge of over nine hundred years of time and space. That was all the Doctor said was needed to be the Doctor, and yet that had been denied to him.
Okay, so maybe it was a little more than that...
But if anyone was ever ‘almost the Doctor,’ surely he must qualify.
He gulps down the drink and raises his hand to draw the attention of the barman so he can order another.
“You’re thinking about him again,” a new voice interrupts, and the Vadlott drags his eyes away from the study of the table-top to see River slide into the seat opposite him. “Actually,” she adds as her eyes study his face, her tones dripping with sarcasm, “it seems like you’re resenting him again. How unique and original of you.”
“Can I get you a drink?” he offers, in what he considered to be rather a generous gesture given the circumstances.
“Only if you’re letting me fly the tardis afterwards.” She rests her elbows on the table and sinks her chin into her hands. “You never do it well when you’re drunk.”
“I’m not drunk!”
“The empty glasses all over the table would seem to contradict that.”
He glances out of the corner of his eye at the untidy stacks, wishing that someone had removed them before River arrived. He also notices that she is particularly dressed up in a silvery-grey suit, complimented by a fur muff, and with her hair piled on top of her head. He wonders if that is for him, or if it is the Doctor who will get the benefit of it. And thinking of the Doctor again only makes his mood darken.
“When did it become your job to mother me anyway?” he snaps. “I thought I was the one who carried out the parental duties in our relationship.”
“Children grow up,” she reminds him, waving away the barman when he comes to take their order. “Sometimes they have to take care of their parents.” She reaches out and places her hands over his. “Or sometimes they just want to.”
Although he knows – or at least suspects – that she is only being nice to him in order to get her way, he finds himself appreciating the sentiment.
“Were you just passing by,” he demands gruffly, “or do you actually need me for something?”
“The Doctor asked me to meet him on the banks of the Thames on my birthday in 1814. He said he had a surprise for me.”
“Ah, the Great Frost Fair,” The Vadlott rolls his eyes. “The Seine was better,” he grumbles, nevertheless getting out of his seat.
“The Doctor doesn’t know that,” she says with a flirtatious wink. “Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of the bill. Come along, sweetie. And I’m definitely driving!”
“That’s what you think,” he retorts, holding the door for her and snatching his coat off the hook where he hung it earlier before following her to the tardis.
* * *
“And here is our ride,” River’s voice announces even before the Vadlott has managed to bring the tardis properly in to land.
“Doctor!” calls an eager female voice from outside.
“My apologies,” he announces as he opens the doors and steps across the threshold, “but no. I’m not the Doctor. Wrong tardis.”
“He’s not the Doctor,” agrees River. “He’s the Vadlott. Vadlott, I’d like to you meet Rory and his wife, Amy.”
“Ah, Mr and Mrs Williams.” He casts an amused glance at the redhaired woman, whom he is calling this specifically because he knows it will irritate her. “Good to see the family reunited at last – or was that a spoiler?” he asks River.
“A few minutes earlier and it would have been.” She nods at the other members of the party. “And these are...”
“We’ve met,” the Silurian interrupts, turning to smile at the Time Lord, although her eyes remain tense. “Vadlott, it’s good to see you again.”
“And you, Vastra. And Jenny.” He nods at the girl and then digs around in his pocket. “River asked me to bring this. She thought this would be useful,” he adds, tossing an object to the two women. “It should help your Sontaran. You can keep it when you’re finished.”
“Strax,” Vastra tells him as Jenny points the device at the slain body and activates it, restarting the Sontaran’s heart. “His name is Strax.”
“And Lorna?” asks Rory at once. “Where’s hers?”
“I’m sorry.” The Vadlott glances at the young woman’s lifeless body before returning his gaze to the anxious man standing beside Amy. “Lorna’s life is over, Rory. Strax’s is not. Using the resuscitation device on him won’t affect time the way it would if Lorna was brought back.”
An expression of bitterness crosses the man’s face. “You could try!”
“No,” the Vadlott says quietly. “I can’t, and I won’t. But what I can and will do is make sure that Lorna Bucket, Cleric of the Church and resident of the Gamma forests, is buried with all due honours after falling in battle. She will be remembered and honoured for her bravery.”
Rory is clearly silenced by his knowledge as much as his words, and the group watches as the Vadlott crosses the floor and gently lifts Lorna’s body into his arms.
“The Undertaker of the Universe,” River suggests solemnly. “The Shansheeth will have to surrender that title to you, Vadlott.”
“Only where the Doctor’s involved,” the Time Lord tells her bitterly, “since death is really the Doctor’s most constant companion. It’s just a shame he never bothers to hang around for the aftermath. Still, that’s him all over, isn’t it?”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” snaps Amy furiously, and her anger draws a mocking laugh from him.
“My dear girl,” he taunts her, “I know Doctor better than you do. Better than anyone in this room, in fact!”
Even River does not contradict this statement, although he had half-suspected she would. Instead she nods at the tardis. “Time to go?”
“Yes, it is,” he agrees. He watches River and Rory enter his blue box before turning to Amy, who has not moved. “Do you intend to accept my offer of a lift home,” he asks, “or does your insistence on defending the Doctor even when he doesn’t deserve it mean that you feel you have to take the slow route instead?”
“Amy, come on!” calls Rory from inside the tardis.
As the redhead storms into the ship, the Vadlott turns to the two women, who have also stayed where they were, although he understands that it is for a different reason.
“You don’t have long, Vastra,” he warns. “This place will be evacuated, and if Strax is still unconscious, you may have to leave him or risk being trapped here forever.”
“We will leave with the last evacuation if necessary,” Vastra promises, glancing at Jenny, who is on her knees beside Strax. “But we won’t be left behind, I can promise you.”
“All right. Take care.”
“You, too,” she says with a smile, and he turns to the tardis to take all of his passengers home.
* * *
“Left hand down,” the Vadlott warns. “Careful, not too quickly!”
“This is fun!” Melody tells him, grinning at him over her shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” He taps the screen. “Keep an eye on this number. If it goes too high, we will have a problem.”
“Ooh, I like problems!” Melody’s grin becomes cheeky. “Causing them usually.”
“Not in my tardis,” he warns, “or you’ll be home again before you know where you are and I won’t give you any more lessons.”
“I’ll leave it for the Doctor’s TARDIS then.” Melody frowns a little. “Is his the same as yours?”
“More or less. Things can be in different places, but they do the same things, and you’ll find them easily enough. If you can develop the same sort of connection with his TARDIS as you’ve got with mine, she’ll show you what to do anyway.”
As if to emphasise his point, three dials spin on their own in different directions without anyone having to touch them, and the girl in charge of the controls laughs.
“You’re doing a good job,” the Vadlott says encouragingly.
“Nobody ever calls me good.” Melody looks lost for a few seconds before her jaw sets firmly. “I’m not good. But,” she casts a glance at him, “I think you are. And if I’d stayed with you, then maybe I would have been good, too.”
“If you’d stayed with me,” he replies somewhat wearily, because they have had this argument more than once, “you would never have lived the life you did. That’s made you the person you are today.”
“A psychopath,” she reminds him. “That’s what I am.”
“That’s not the word I would use. Now, that button there!”
“What about this one?” asks Melody, pointing at something he has so far not shown her.
“Oh, I never use those.” He smiles. “They’re the stabilisers. All they’re good for is making things stable and boring.” He presses it and the ride smoothes out noticeably, so he presses it again and it returns to normal. “See?”
“And the handbrake?” Melody demands. “Where’s that? Because there’s always one in a car, so there has to be one on a tardis.”
“Why would you want to use that?” asks the Vadlott in surprise, nevertheless showing her the location of the handle. “I like the noise she makes when I leave it on.”
He steps back and lets her do the landing on her own. She materialises the ship with only a few bumps and with a distinct lack of sound.
“See?” he remarks. “Much less interesting. Now,” he lightly grasps her arm as she is about to head for the door, “I have a present for you, my girl. I think you’ll like it, too.”
“For me?” Her dark eyes light up in excitement. “I love presents! What is it?”
“Here you are.” He hands her two thin tubes. “Now, this is powerful stuff,” he warns. “You could get away with anything when you use this – even murder,” he adds as she tears off the wrapping and pulls off the top of one tube to reveal red lipstick, with the other, when she looks at it, being dark pink.
“I love them!” Melody declares, replacing the cap and dropping them into her pocket before hugging him. “Thank you, Vadlott! Now,” she turns to the doors, which open with a faint creak, “when are we?”
“Autumn,” he replies, “2011. And for you, Miss Melody Malone, life is about to get very exciting indeed!”
She grins at him, gives him one final hug, and runs out of the tardis.
Next Part
Author:
katherine_b Rating: PG
Summary: When you have lost everything, what do you do to get it back?
Characters: The non-Doctor first glimpsed at the end of Name of the Doctor and a lot of old friends.
Part XL
Being almost the Doctor’s like being no Doctor at all.
Those had been the words reported used by the duplicate Doctor to describe his state of being during the events in St John’s Monastery.
So what did that mean for the Vadlott?
As he stares down into his eleventh whiskey, a tiny part of him hopes that the conversation was not real, just another of the legends that had come about from the tales passed down of what happened there.
The larger, logical, sensible part of him knows that the Doctor would have said exactly those words, and meant every one of them.
Containing the knowledge of over nine hundred years of time and space. That was all the Doctor said was needed to be the Doctor, and yet that had been denied to him.
Okay, so maybe it was a little more than that...
But if anyone was ever ‘almost the Doctor,’ surely he must qualify.
He gulps down the drink and raises his hand to draw the attention of the barman so he can order another.
“You’re thinking about him again,” a new voice interrupts, and the Vadlott drags his eyes away from the study of the table-top to see River slide into the seat opposite him. “Actually,” she adds as her eyes study his face, her tones dripping with sarcasm, “it seems like you’re resenting him again. How unique and original of you.”
“Can I get you a drink?” he offers, in what he considered to be rather a generous gesture given the circumstances.
“Only if you’re letting me fly the tardis afterwards.” She rests her elbows on the table and sinks her chin into her hands. “You never do it well when you’re drunk.”
“I’m not drunk!”
“The empty glasses all over the table would seem to contradict that.”
He glances out of the corner of his eye at the untidy stacks, wishing that someone had removed them before River arrived. He also notices that she is particularly dressed up in a silvery-grey suit, complimented by a fur muff, and with her hair piled on top of her head. He wonders if that is for him, or if it is the Doctor who will get the benefit of it. And thinking of the Doctor again only makes his mood darken.
“When did it become your job to mother me anyway?” he snaps. “I thought I was the one who carried out the parental duties in our relationship.”
“Children grow up,” she reminds him, waving away the barman when he comes to take their order. “Sometimes they have to take care of their parents.” She reaches out and places her hands over his. “Or sometimes they just want to.”
Although he knows – or at least suspects – that she is only being nice to him in order to get her way, he finds himself appreciating the sentiment.
“Were you just passing by,” he demands gruffly, “or do you actually need me for something?”
“The Doctor asked me to meet him on the banks of the Thames on my birthday in 1814. He said he had a surprise for me.”
“Ah, the Great Frost Fair,” The Vadlott rolls his eyes. “The Seine was better,” he grumbles, nevertheless getting out of his seat.
“The Doctor doesn’t know that,” she says with a flirtatious wink. “Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of the bill. Come along, sweetie. And I’m definitely driving!”
“That’s what you think,” he retorts, holding the door for her and snatching his coat off the hook where he hung it earlier before following her to the tardis.
“And here is our ride,” River’s voice announces even before the Vadlott has managed to bring the tardis properly in to land.
“Doctor!” calls an eager female voice from outside.
“My apologies,” he announces as he opens the doors and steps across the threshold, “but no. I’m not the Doctor. Wrong tardis.”
“He’s not the Doctor,” agrees River. “He’s the Vadlott. Vadlott, I’d like to you meet Rory and his wife, Amy.”
“Ah, Mr and Mrs Williams.” He casts an amused glance at the redhaired woman, whom he is calling this specifically because he knows it will irritate her. “Good to see the family reunited at last – or was that a spoiler?” he asks River.
“A few minutes earlier and it would have been.” She nods at the other members of the party. “And these are...”
“We’ve met,” the Silurian interrupts, turning to smile at the Time Lord, although her eyes remain tense. “Vadlott, it’s good to see you again.”
“And you, Vastra. And Jenny.” He nods at the girl and then digs around in his pocket. “River asked me to bring this. She thought this would be useful,” he adds, tossing an object to the two women. “It should help your Sontaran. You can keep it when you’re finished.”
“Strax,” Vastra tells him as Jenny points the device at the slain body and activates it, restarting the Sontaran’s heart. “His name is Strax.”
“And Lorna?” asks Rory at once. “Where’s hers?”
“I’m sorry.” The Vadlott glances at the young woman’s lifeless body before returning his gaze to the anxious man standing beside Amy. “Lorna’s life is over, Rory. Strax’s is not. Using the resuscitation device on him won’t affect time the way it would if Lorna was brought back.”
An expression of bitterness crosses the man’s face. “You could try!”
“No,” the Vadlott says quietly. “I can’t, and I won’t. But what I can and will do is make sure that Lorna Bucket, Cleric of the Church and resident of the Gamma forests, is buried with all due honours after falling in battle. She will be remembered and honoured for her bravery.”
Rory is clearly silenced by his knowledge as much as his words, and the group watches as the Vadlott crosses the floor and gently lifts Lorna’s body into his arms.
“The Undertaker of the Universe,” River suggests solemnly. “The Shansheeth will have to surrender that title to you, Vadlott.”
“Only where the Doctor’s involved,” the Time Lord tells her bitterly, “since death is really the Doctor’s most constant companion. It’s just a shame he never bothers to hang around for the aftermath. Still, that’s him all over, isn’t it?”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” snaps Amy furiously, and her anger draws a mocking laugh from him.
“My dear girl,” he taunts her, “I know Doctor better than you do. Better than anyone in this room, in fact!”
Even River does not contradict this statement, although he had half-suspected she would. Instead she nods at the tardis. “Time to go?”
“Yes, it is,” he agrees. He watches River and Rory enter his blue box before turning to Amy, who has not moved. “Do you intend to accept my offer of a lift home,” he asks, “or does your insistence on defending the Doctor even when he doesn’t deserve it mean that you feel you have to take the slow route instead?”
“Amy, come on!” calls Rory from inside the tardis.
As the redhead storms into the ship, the Vadlott turns to the two women, who have also stayed where they were, although he understands that it is for a different reason.
“You don’t have long, Vastra,” he warns. “This place will be evacuated, and if Strax is still unconscious, you may have to leave him or risk being trapped here forever.”
“We will leave with the last evacuation if necessary,” Vastra promises, glancing at Jenny, who is on her knees beside Strax. “But we won’t be left behind, I can promise you.”
“All right. Take care.”
“You, too,” she says with a smile, and he turns to the tardis to take all of his passengers home.
“Left hand down,” the Vadlott warns. “Careful, not too quickly!”
“This is fun!” Melody tells him, grinning at him over her shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” He taps the screen. “Keep an eye on this number. If it goes too high, we will have a problem.”
“Ooh, I like problems!” Melody’s grin becomes cheeky. “Causing them usually.”
“Not in my tardis,” he warns, “or you’ll be home again before you know where you are and I won’t give you any more lessons.”
“I’ll leave it for the Doctor’s TARDIS then.” Melody frowns a little. “Is his the same as yours?”
“More or less. Things can be in different places, but they do the same things, and you’ll find them easily enough. If you can develop the same sort of connection with his TARDIS as you’ve got with mine, she’ll show you what to do anyway.”
As if to emphasise his point, three dials spin on their own in different directions without anyone having to touch them, and the girl in charge of the controls laughs.
“You’re doing a good job,” the Vadlott says encouragingly.
“Nobody ever calls me good.” Melody looks lost for a few seconds before her jaw sets firmly. “I’m not good. But,” she casts a glance at him, “I think you are. And if I’d stayed with you, then maybe I would have been good, too.”
“If you’d stayed with me,” he replies somewhat wearily, because they have had this argument more than once, “you would never have lived the life you did. That’s made you the person you are today.”
“A psychopath,” she reminds him. “That’s what I am.”
“That’s not the word I would use. Now, that button there!”
“What about this one?” asks Melody, pointing at something he has so far not shown her.
“Oh, I never use those.” He smiles. “They’re the stabilisers. All they’re good for is making things stable and boring.” He presses it and the ride smoothes out noticeably, so he presses it again and it returns to normal. “See?”
“And the handbrake?” Melody demands. “Where’s that? Because there’s always one in a car, so there has to be one on a tardis.”
“Why would you want to use that?” asks the Vadlott in surprise, nevertheless showing her the location of the handle. “I like the noise she makes when I leave it on.”
He steps back and lets her do the landing on her own. She materialises the ship with only a few bumps and with a distinct lack of sound.
“See?” he remarks. “Much less interesting. Now,” he lightly grasps her arm as she is about to head for the door, “I have a present for you, my girl. I think you’ll like it, too.”
“For me?” Her dark eyes light up in excitement. “I love presents! What is it?”
“Here you are.” He hands her two thin tubes. “Now, this is powerful stuff,” he warns. “You could get away with anything when you use this – even murder,” he adds as she tears off the wrapping and pulls off the top of one tube to reveal red lipstick, with the other, when she looks at it, being dark pink.
“I love them!” Melody declares, replacing the cap and dropping them into her pocket before hugging him. “Thank you, Vadlott! Now,” she turns to the doors, which open with a faint creak, “when are we?”
“Autumn,” he replies, “2011. And for you, Miss Melody Malone, life is about to get very exciting indeed!”
She grins at him, gives him one final hug, and runs out of the tardis.
Next Part
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Also, one little error. You forgot 'the' in this sentence:
“I know Doctor better than you do. Better than anyone in this room, in fact!”
(And I love that River didn't fight him on that! Seriously, you're making me wish I had a River Song icon...)
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Thanks, fixed!
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Yes, definitely how you included her in the fic helped A TON! Unlike the show there were no moments where I wanted to smack her. And you made it make sense in the places where Moffat dropped the ball!
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Very glad to hear it! That is always my aim when I write characters. I felt much the same way about Amy - that I wanted to slap her - and wanted to give her a sympathetic spin, too.
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That is why I'm so glad that RTD had Mickey and Martha get together because even if he did it so Martha's name could be Smith-Jones, at least they are both in a relationship where they understand being pushed aside by and/or for the Doctor, AND they both had to go on journeys where they were like the most knowledgeable of what was going on (Martha in the Year That Never Was, and Mickey when he was fighting the Cybermen in the parallel universe).
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