Because You're Special - Chapter Thirteen
Because You're Special
All Scarves and Candy
The Doctor awoke suddenly, rising from the hotel bed with a gangly leap and yanked the door to the hallway open. He was still fully clothed.
In the hall, yes, near to Donna's door, was a familiar blue police box, although slightly less weathered and aged than his own. Another TARDIS. Or, he noted the bohemian-like man standing at Donna's door, rather the same TARDIS.
"Hullo!" He called rather cheerily, grinning broadly.
His younger, more hairy, counterpart, lifted his chin from its cocoon in his long scarf to look at him. A sudden wild maniac grin appeared on the man's face. "Helloooo," He began walking toward him, hand pulling a wrinkled bag of sweets from his pocket, "I'm the Doctor. Would you care for a jelly baby?"
The Doctor had to laugh at his younger-self. "Fantastic, you're all scarves and candy and…you know what? You were one of my favorites…" He reached for the offered bag of candy and popped a few in his mouth at the same time.
"Am I? Well, that's certainly something. A good something, I trust." And he smiled that wide enigmatic grin again. "Could you please tell me where… and when I am…?"
"Right." The Doctor consulted his watch, as if he hadn't the slightest idea that this was more than a 'what is the time' question. "Spain, 1:05 A.M. on December 23rd 2007."
"Ah…Earth. Again."
"Can't seem to escape it?" He asked innocently, knowing how many times a random landing of the TARDIS sent them to Earth. It wasn't even as if he programmed it for "more Earth than is rationally possible". She just seemed to like landing on the back-water little blue planet.
"Doctor?" A woman's voice came from the TARDIS's door. He knew who she was before she even exited the time-ship. Sarah Jane Smith. His best-friend…even after all these years, and even though so much time had passed, since he'd last seen her. She smiled at him, a vague surface-level smile, with no sign of recognition and then turned to his forth incarnation. "You should have told me we had landed."
"You know how it is, Sarah. People to go, places to see. Unfriendly red-heads to meet. Jelly baby?"
"I already told you, you keep eating those things like that and you'll lose your teeth? Do you want to be a toothless time-lord?" Sarah Jane scolded lightly.
"Not especially, no."
She shook her head, an affectionate gesture for the strange, often grumpy Time Lord at her side. Sarah turned to him, introducing herself with a wide smile. "I'm Sarah Jane Smith."
"Nice to meet you, Sarah." The ninth Doctor took her hand, holding himself back from hugging his old friend, "I'm…James Bond."
"You don't look like Sean Connery." Sarah Jane replied with a laugh, squeezing his hand before releasing it.
"I get that all the time. It the ears, right?"
"I didn't mean to…"
"Ears aren't everything." The other Doctor added thoughtfully, "If they were elephants might have survived extinction in the year…"
There was a loud clank that came from the staircase down the hall. "Watch it! That is delicate equipment! Do you want to remain trapped on Earth for all time?"
"I'm sorry, Doctor." Came the replying whine, "but I'm losing my grip. I told you I couldn't carry it all."
The staircase door banged open, and in a burst of mismatched colors and gold curls, another Doctor strode into the hallway. "Come along, Peri! You are carrying exactly as many time rotator couplings as I am!"
"Did we really have to buy seven of them…?" The petite brunette complained, thin arms buckling under the weight of several long metal boxes. "I can't carry as many as you…"
"Because you're a weak and pathetic woman, or because you are an insipid and useless human? Hmm? Which card are you going to play now?" Artfully balancing his own boxes, the sixth incarnation of the Doctor unlocked the door to a hotel room and vanished inside before reappearing to rip the remaining boxes from Peri's arms. "And, naturally, we must buy spares. We don't want to be prevented from our explorations and adventures again by a silly thing like a busted time rotator coupling! Forced to rely on the antique flying machines and irritating stewardesses of earth. Not to mention poorly trained pilots too medicated on caffeine to fly the aircraft proficiently. Hah. Hardly the ideal method of travel."
Peri rubbed her arms, crossed them, and said with an insincere agreeableness, "Whatever you say, Doctor."
"Time rotator couplings." The Doctor repeated from his doorway, looking over the fourth's regeneration's floppy hat as best as possible to watch the odd couple of the sixth Doctor and Peri. He remembered calling Celino from where the Tardis had landed in England, buying tickets to Spain, parts of the plane ride, picking up the couplings at Celino's…but he couldn't recall Donna. Yet, that regeneration, had met Donna. Why didn't he remember?
"Do you know them?" Sarah Jane asked him, in her prim, precise voice.
"Nope. Not in this lifetime." The doctor said with a grin, feeling slightly unsure what to do with his hands because he'd left his leather jacket in the hotel room. Pockets really were such a good place to put them. He crossed them instead, tucking his fingertips into his armpits.
The sixth Doctor, his hands full of Peri's boxes, turned slightly at the sound of their voices and his eyes brightened when they caught sight of his old companion. "Sarah…Sarah? Sarah Jane!" He rushed across the hall, boxes falling to the carpeting with dull clangs and thuds, and wrapped his heavy arms about the unsuspecting young woman. Hauling her into the air, he spun her about. "I haven't seen you in ages! My dear Sarah Jane Smith!"
He dropped her rather unglamorously again, keeping an arm around her shoulders. "Peri, this is my best-friend, Sarah. Oh the memories! Sontarans, Cybermen, robot-mummies and those-what we they called-aliens. Those alien…do you remember the ones the large bubble-wrap slug bugs. Wirrens! That was it! Narrowly escaped them, good thing for that ventilation shaft!"
Sarah emerged from his embrace rumpled and wide-eyed. "Are you…?" She moved away from her exuberant, reminiscing attacker, "Are you the Doctor…? Another what-are-they-called…one of the regenerations?"
"I have the pleasure," The sixth Doctor said in a pleased tone, straightening to his full height and clasping his hands in front of him, "of being the sixth regeneration. A timely change, I assure you," he paused, adding rather conspiratorially, "my previous regeneration was simply not me."
"Well," Sarah tried to recover from the unfortunate hugging, "It's nice to meet you. What an…interesting coat."
"Could do with a scarf though, couldn't it?" The fourth Doctor interjected, looking at the strangely dressed incarnation with critical, solemn eyes. He leaned a bit closer to Sarah, "A rather wide one, no doubt. I do have a spare in the TARDIS."
"A scarf. A scarf? A scarf! I have no need of a scarf. Running about the universe rescuing civilizations, tripping every step I take? Entirely unpractical. A scarf is the most absurd, unpragmatic item of superfluous value that has ever graced the neck of a renegade Time Lord."
"Ah. Yes. But the same could be said of that cat-pin on your lapel." The fourth incarnation turned to Sarah, bending down to speak to her, "Judgmental fellow, isn't he?"
"Oh whatever rubbish the scrawny clown speaks, I care not, for I am most pleased with this regeneration. A true friend with any sort of taste would agree. What do you think, Sarah?" The sixth Doctor preened, fluffing his blue, white spotted ribbon-tie at his neck and settling his hands on the lapels of his jacket, as if for inspection. From his bright eyes and satisfied smile, this Doctor seemed to expect a positive reply.
Behind him, Peri, his unwillingly patient companion, rolled her eyes, kicked some of the sixth Doctor's spare time-rotator couplings out of her path and shut herself in the hotel-room. Obviously, she didn't care for her estimation of the Doctor's new regeneration to be compared to the estimation of his old companion.
"You seem to be," Sarah Jane paused, "rather less color-coordinated than others."
"Never mind the coat."
"How can we not mind it, when it's staring at us…" The fourth Doctor interjected, looked untrustingly at the garish garb, "or is it glaring at us? Sarah likes things all one color. Very odd habit."
"Right then," The Ninth Doctor said rather loudly, deciding he really didn't want a long reunion with his younger-selves. After all, it was nostalgic for a bit but his younger version's arrogance was often off-putting. "I'm off. Big day of adventure ahead of me. By the way," he pointed toward Donna's door, "My friend is sleeping in that room. Try not to wake her. She's a bit on edge at the moment."
"Yes." The fourth Doctor smiled, "Rather unfriendly lady, still, we can't have everything in life, can we, Sarah?"
"Yes, of course, Doctor. And one of the important "everythings in life" is the friendliness of complete strangers who only want to rest on their vacation." Sarah Jane retorted in that playful, tongue-in-cheek spirit, that the Doctor still missed sometimes. Her eyes were twinkling with good humor. "We won't bother your friend, sir." She turned back to her Doctor, "Well, Doctor, we have landed. We might as well explore."
"An excellent suggestion!" The Sixth regeneration's bombastic voice was a lot more painful to the Ninth Doctor's ears than he'd remembered. But then again, one's voice always sounded different in your own head.
"Now, Doctor, I shouldn't wonder that you would like a good bit of exploration on your own, or rather with your own friend." The Fourth Doctor, while he physically looked as calm as ever, seemed to be speaking a little faster than normal. "You know what they say about threes."
"Three's a cord that cannot quickly be broken?" Sarah suggested.
The fourth Doctor stared down his long nose at her, and lifted the brim of his large hat back a bit, silent and displeased. Noticing this, the Sixth Doctor placed his hand on his lapels and turned to Sarah Jane.
"I believe he is referring to 'two's a company and three's a crowd'. Very well." The blond Timelord sighed dramatically, "I suppose I'll go listen to Perpegillium whine about life in general and drag her out on another unwanted adventure. It was so much easier in the older days when companions were actually good company…" Dramatically, and surprisingly gentlemanly, the Sixth Doctor bent, took Sarah's hand and kissed it before backing down the hall. It was then that he noticed the boxes fallen on the floor. "Peri! Whatever have you done to my couplings! I told you to be careful!"
"Goodnight." The Ninth Doctor said, noticing that Sarah was looking up at her Doctor in confusion and rubbing at her kissed hand. He wandered over to his hotel-room window, and for a moment, thought he saw a light flashing and swirling to the side of his balcony. Whatever it was, it was gone by the time he craned his neck out to get a better look. He saw nothing else unusual for the rest of the night.