Because You're Special - Chapter 21
Doctor Who
Because Your Special
Chubby, Loud, Unloved Bully
The door opened and Cricket-Lord popped out, hat in hand and exhausted smile on his face. Donna noticed a piece of fresh-celery had been pinned on his lapel and was just about to ask about it when he spoke up, "I am buying ice-cream. Come if you wish."
Donna scooted out of his path, just in time for the door to burst open again and the companions to begin trooping into the sunshine. Nyssa scuttled after her doctor, asking him in her delicate voice "What is popsicle?" while Tegan arm-in-arm with the young blond followed. The Scottish lad, the tall man in the suit and the warrior-woman were dragging the motionless metal-puppy with the painted name K-9 out of the beach-house by a chain attached to its neck. Peri-who had somehow escaped from her bullying Doctor-and Ace were shoving the heavy robot-dog from behind.
"Stupid thing." James muttered, staring down at the pretend dog.
"Would you mind giving us a hand?" The man in the suit asked. From his voice, Donna gathered he had been the man on the balcony earlier. In the sunny daylight, he looked more like a school-teacher than a dangerous invader.
"Of course. Is it broken?" Donna reached for the rope.
"K-9 has run out of power." Surprisingly, the bikini-wearing amazon had an intelligent voice with a vaguely English accent, "The Doctor ordered him to stay in our TARDIS to recharge but, as always, he would not listen. He is a very bad-dog."
"Heavy too. Couldn't you just get, like a Chihuahua or something?" Ace commented, straining to shove the useless robot down the beach-house ramp.
"Oh, aye." Agreed the Scotsman.
"I do not know this word." The warrior replied.
The moment K-9's wheels hit the sand, everyone was jerked back. K-9 was immovably trapped like an anchor at the bottom of the sea. James shook his head and pointed to a spot between the beach-hut and a bush. "Just park the tin-dog here. Leela's Doctor will have to transmat it aboard later."
The Scotsman, hands on his knees and sweat on his brow, asked, "Couldn't we just leave the wee useless metal creature here?"
Ace removed her bomber-jacket and tied it about her waist. Like everyone else, she was sweaty and exhausted looking. "I'm with kilt-boy here."
"In the middle of the walking path? The fat Doctor has already tripped upon him twice." The warrior-whose names was Leela, apparently-argued, looking concernedly at K-9. Donna had a cat at home but it didn't love her and she barely tolerated it. But she understood that some people got really attached to their animals.
"Perhaps if we get a board and use it as leverage-" Suit-Man offered.
"Oi, you know what we could do? Spray-paint a big sign with "Danger depowered dog crossing" and stick it here." Ace rubbed sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Please, Doctor's friends…" Leela placed a hand on the metal dog's still head, "Do not let the fat-one trample on K-9."
Donna knelt down and picked the abandoned rope. She fixed James with a look, "This is your dog, Martian boy, you've got to help."
Five minutes later, Donna was sitting next to Ace on one side of a picnic table and licking a sherbet ice-cream. It had taken some more muscle and sweat to successfully stash K-9 in the bushes but with James leading the team, it had been done. Leela had thanked them and piled some inner-tubes and life-jackets over the robot so that no one would notice him.
"Better ice-cream than at Perivale." Ace said conversationally, her lips covered in vanilla and her tongue making intricate swirls on her ice-cream. It made her look like a contented tom-boyish six-year-old and Donna hid a smile to herself.
James returned from "checking on their progress" with the spaceship. From his irritated look and curt shake of his head, Donna figured she had a little more time to get to know the Doctor's old traveling friends.
She'd almost gotten their names down now. Ian was the man in the suit, a young science teacher who traveled with the First Doctor. The friendly highlander, Jamie McCrimmon, traveled with the Fretting-Doctor and Leela of the Sevateem Tribe journeyed in the "magical box" with the Gypsy-Doctor and K-9. Teagan's new friend, the impish Jo Grant was Dandy-Man's loyal assistant. The rest Donna knew, although how she knew Nyssa and Teagan seemed very foggy in her mind. Apparently there were more companions-Barbara, Susan and Adric but they had decided to go swimming earlier rather than sit in the hot beach-house with the fighting Time Lords.
Donna, for once, simply sat and listened to the time-travelers talk. Sitting on her other side, James seemed to enjoy just being in the company of old friends again. It was strange how interacting with his otherselves made him angry or tense but here, he was laughing enthusiastically and reminiscing about the brigadier's mustache with Jo or about some ridiculously exercise-crazed woman named Mel with Ace. He was happy. He had loved these people-missed them like Donna might miss her family-and that made Donna care for him more.
"It is most refreshing." Nyssa announced, her hands holding the sticky dribbling popsicle like it was a precious candle. "My hands are much cooler."
"Nyssa, how can you be a brilliant scientist and not know what a popsicle is?" Teagan scolded in a motherly way, "You're supposed to eat it."
Nyssa raised it to her lips and then paused, "But it appears to have no nutritional value, Teagan."
"Welcome to the planet earth, Velvet-legs." Ace exclaimed.
"Thank you," Nyssa replied sweetly and took a tentative bite. By the time the young alien had finished her dessert, she was covered in sugary-blue droplets. Donna and Teagan tried to help her clean up with napkins, a process that the childish Trakken found inconvenient.
At some point, Ace had rushed off to get her boom-box and soon some sort of Spanish salsa beat was booming in the background. Undisturbed by the lack of appropriate music, Ace started teaching the Cricket-Lord how to the moonwalk and other "hip" eighties dance moves. She wasn't very good at it so Peri eventually stepped in and tried to help. Donna laughed at their efforts, feeling that this was a very surreal beach-party. James-seeming to forget that they had planned a scuba-diving adventure for the day-had kicked off his flippers and pulled Donna into a swing dance.
"Can I just say, you are well-good looking for the Professor?" Donna heard Ace say to Cricket-Lord, "You really don't look much older than me."
"Oh yes." He stumbled slightly, and readjusted his tan hat on his head, "Old head, new body."
"It's a wicked trick." Ace said approvingly. "If it wouldn't kill you, I'd like to see it one day."
Donna shook her head. This regeneration, it was a wicked trick. She couldn't imagine getting so close to one of the Doctor's personalities and being his best-friend and then him changing completely before your eyes. Where did the last Doctor go? Did he have a soul? Was there a Time Lord heaven for James when he regenerated into someone else? Or did they all share some massive diverse conscience?
"Hello new Grandfather." A polite dark-haired teen in a modest red and white striped swim suit greeted James with a mysterious smile. Susan, the teenage Time Lord with eyes that said she knew too much for her age. She took in his outfit. "Have you been swimming, Grandfather?"
"Susan!" James pulled her into a hug. Surprisingly, he dotted her wet hair with paternal kisses and held her back for a minute to look into her eyes. "Growing up so fast. You'll be a proper Time Lady before I can blink. You're gonna be just fantastic."
The unearthly child nodded as if that was never in doubt and reintroduced him to a fragile looking woman, Barbara. Barbara couldn't believe that the younger-looking Doctor was really Susan's grandfather and the "man who kidnapped me" but she finally stopped asking questions.
Donna lost track of time-she really truly did and she hadn't meant to-but for the first time since this holiday, she felt relaxed and happy. Not hounded by the universe, forced to meet perfect strangers by some twist of fate or alien plot, but just surrounded by brave, good people. Eventually, the rest of the Doctors began trickling out to join them. The first couple came with excuses that they needed food or couldn't stand Halo-Boy anymore-but eventually no one really cared why they were shirking their work and invited them in. Donna seemed to be the only one keeping track of who was at the beach-house, and eventually only Halo-Boy was absent from the party. She noted this to James but he put her off. "He'll be happier that way. And as for the work, he's a solid inventor, and without distractions, it might actually save us time."
When Jamie tried to teach Leela and Peri some sort of Highland dance, Adric sat in a beach chair watching a little too intently. Donna didn't like that boy; there was something sleazy and sneaky about his face. His doctor seemed to not notice-intentionally or not. Donna followed the boy's gaze and her jaw dropped. She was about to march over and slap him for Peri and Leela's sake, when the ancient Doctor shuffled over and smacked Adric on the top of his head with his cane. The Professor moved over and took Adric by the arm and hauled him out of the chair. Donna caught a few quiet stern words about "how to treat a lady" before the two Doctors-the only ones that seemed to really get along-took him away, presumably to have a talk to him.
Cricket-Lord only watched, shaking his head, "Oh boys will be boys."
Teagan jabbed her Doctor in the ribs. "I think it's about time."
"Time for what, Teagan?" Nyssa asked, looking somewhat eagerly at the "dancing area", "Is it time to dance again?"
Ace stared after the oddly dressed teenager that was being "escorted away". "I don't like that boy. I hope he blows up."
"Blows up?" Cricket-Lord stared down at Ace, concernedly, "Isn't that a bit drastic?"
"If you have to go, why not go out with a bang?" Ace shrugged.
"Yes." The Gypsy-Doctor added, a yellow-green sticky sweet dangling from his lips.
Cricket-Lord frowned, turning to the Gypsy-Doctor. "A bang? You fell off a ladder."
"There goes all the mystery out of my life." His deep odd voice seemed rather sulky. He leaned a wrinkled bag toward Ace. "Jelly baby?"
Donna smiled and wandered over to James. Standing on the edge of the dancing area, he was deep in conversation with the Gypsy-Doctor about K-9 and whether he was worth the bother or not and possible improvements to his core design. Like a longer battery-life.
"Jamie," Leela's strong voice caught Donna's attention, "You will make a fine mate."
The Scotsman froze mid-step, still holding Leela lightly about the waist. From his expression, he was still trying to process the comment but that didn't stop him from speaking, "Oh…aye."
"I will inform the Doctor." Leela took Jamie's hand from her waist and began dragging him across the sand to her Doctor. Jamie dug in his heels, pulling back from her, but still moving because Leela was a very determined barbarian. He sputtered something, pleading ignorance to what exactly he'd agreed to.
"No. No. No. No! Jamie! You furry-legged highlander, I knew nothing good would come of your constant agreement. I warned you. I did. Oh my giddy aunt." The Fretting-Doctor swayed on his feet, as if he wanted to intervene but was too afraid of Leela. "You must dissuade her. I can't give her Jamie-I've already lost too many companions. Oh dear."
"Doctor, what did I say?" Jamie began walking to keep from tripping or his arm being ripped out of its socket.
"Doctor," Leela pulled Jamie in front of her Doctor as if for inspection. Her doctor was the one with the crazy hair and smile. "I wish to take Jamie as a mate. He is a good protector and he appears capable of fathering many strong children. He also dances."
Jamie blushed pink, and adjusted his belt, "Aye…but…"
"Ah, Leela." The Gypsy-Doctor lifted his floppy hat until it rested on the back of his head, "Yes, I can see why you would think that Jamie is fine material for a husband. Brave, kind and…" he paused, making a long sour-type of face as if he only found Jamie's appearance only to be somewhat tolerable, "reasonably attractive for one of the humans."
"No! Don't encourage her!" The Fretting-Doctor scuttled over to slap Leela's hand. The shock of it made her let go of Jamie's wrist. "He doesn't love you, you half-dressed cave-creature!"
"Love?" Leela frowned, straightening, "Love causes strong women to bear the children of fools, weaklings and cowards. It is not the way of the warriors of the Sevateem." She looked over at Jamie. "I have chosen for better things than love."
"She's serious." Peri muttered in her stuttering American accent, chuckling nervously, "I mean she really means it."
"I claimed him first." Leela said, giving Peri a cold look. "This is not your concern, Peri of the USA tribe."
Jamie scratched the back of his head, face still pink, "Lass, it is not that I'm not-you are a lovely-I…" he looked at the Gypsy-Doctor for help, "This is a wee bit discomfiting, Doctor."
"Are we going to have a wedding?" Nyssa interjected.
"I like a good wedding." James smiled boyishly down at Donna. "'Course can't happen, timelines would be too tangled."
"No! Of course we are not having a wedding! Oh dear!" The Fretting-Doctor flailed his hands as if by making odd shooing motions, he could dissuade the determined, marriage-hungry she-warrior from her goal of taking away his young assistant.
"Leela," the Gypsy-Doctor's voice was deep and firm, "This romance is an impossibility, I am afraid."
"He has agreed." She turned on Jamie, looking a little confused about being rejected by him and his friends. "You did agree. Aye is yes, right? Aye is yes. He likes to travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor-he must move to our TARDIS with my Doctor."
"My giddy aunt-he won't!"
"What on earth does that even mean?" Donna whispered to her doctor, "Do you even have an aunt?"
"Move in with you and your heavy tin-beastie?" Jamie whistled nervously, inching away from Leela, "I'm sorry. I'm just not-look here, we haven't even courted properly."
"Anyone come up to me and tried to run away with me down the aisle, I'd punch them in the face." Ace commented to Criket-Lord, who was watching the chaos with a bemused expression. Ace smirked softly, still looking up at the "well-good-looking "Professor"". "Unless he was some charmer."
Donna shook her head. She stood on her tip-toes to whisper into James's ear. "I'm going to go check on the-well, the rainbow-jacket Doctor."
James looked towards the beach-house as if willing it to look more welcoming for Donna's sake. Ghostly gray-white curls of smoke exited from gaps in the beach-house roof. "Right then, you'd better bring him a snack. Near bit my head off last time I checked in."
Donna loaded up a paper plate with crisps and a hamburger and headed for the beach-house. Last thing she heard about Leela's marriage proposal, before she got out-of-range, was the Gypsy-Doctor promising Leela that when she found the right "mate" he wouldn't stand in her way.
Donna nudged the door open, her nose wrinkling at the smell of mechanical-grease, burned plastic and fried wiring. A haze of smoke drifted in the dim air. Still underneath the table, the only thing immediately visibly of the pudgy Time Lord was his shoes and his ridiculous yellow striped pants.
"The designer should be hanged. Sure this Firespace has a remarkable exterior," he muttered in his loud voice, "but its interior is ridiculous."
"Sort of the opposite of you, eh?"
The Doctor shifted, and stared up at her in a sullen displeased way. "Are you trying to be funny, young lady? I have had quite enough cheap-shots for one day, thank you."
Donna knelt down, laying the snack-plate on the picnic table's attached seat. "How're your eyes, Sunshine?"
Halo-Boy's eyes were bloodshot with the skin around them red, sore and damp from infrequent tears. He blinked and viewed her with suspicion. He held two bolt-like pieces inches apart as if he didn't dare return to work when she was in the room. "What is it that you want, Donna?"
"I want to know why every other Doctor is out in the sunshine drinking soda and eating crisps, while you hole up in this dark dressing room." She paused, nudging his arm with her hand, "Don't you want to have fun with everyone else?"
"Fun? Fun? Fun? While the time-stream is imperiled! The fate of worlds hang in the balance! One must prioritize." He snapped the two bolts together, pursing his lips.
"What you're doing is important, I get that. I really do. It's just…" Donna crawled under the table, lying on her back, next to Halo-Boy. He seemed unnerved by the action and shifted to the side but kept working. "…sometimes, I try so hard to get people to notice me that I end up scaring them away. Big mouth, me." She smiled softly, regretfully, "But that doesn't mean, that I just give up."
"I do not need a therapist." Halo-Boy twirled a socket-like object along a bunched coil of wires, "And the answer for the real reason you're here is: three minutes. If the other Doctors managed to do their work properly-what they did do-there should be no further delays. This miniscule ship should be sea-worthy in no time."
"That's good."
"Hand me a crisp, please." The Doctor ordered casually, wadding the wires and space-ship innards into his hands and climbing out from under the table. He placed the crisp in his mouth, took a seat at the table and began poking the modified parts and wires into panels and sockets in the space-ship's hollow interior. With a nod, he accepted another crisp from Donna. "Is that all you wanted?"
"Actually, I had another question." Donna passed him yet another crisp, "It's about Peri."
"Nothing is wrong with Peri. Young, inexperienced and a great-deal too whiny for my taste but nothing intrinsically wrong." He snapped a panel shut, looking satisfied with himself when some tiny lights on the vehicle turned green.
"Yeah. But you're mean to her."
"Yes."
"But why?"
"My dear girl, I don't wake up in the morning with the intention of being an over-bearing bully…quite the opposite." He wagged a finger in Donna's face. "This regeneration was blessed with an abundance of intellectual prowess, fine intelligent features but a severe dislike of whining…as well as some…other negative qualities. Still, as much as Peri and I argue, we are fond of each other."
"You are?"
"Of course. Think of us as a very dysfunctional family-dedicated to sticking by each other even if being in the same room with each other makes us miserable. Hold that down a moment," He instructed, putting Donna's hand on a button, "Still, it's not like the old days with my Sarah Jane or even Romana or Jamie. My companions used to bring out the best in me and I in them….Is that a hamburger?"
"Oh, right. Yeah."
"I no longer eat meat. A run in with Androgums will do that to a man." He scooped a handful of crisps into his mouth. With a triumphant smile, he closed up the last panel with one of his gadget-tools and turned to Donna. "Finished at last. And, in record time."
Donna checked her watch. "Three hours?"
"It would have been done sooner if I could have gotten my comrades to focus." Halo-Boy said defensively, lifting the box, now sealed and invisible, from the picnic table. Half-way to the door, he turned back and looked at Donna. "Donna, bring my crisps."
Feeling like Peri, Donna smirked, lifting the snack-plate and attempting an American accent. "Coming, Doctor."
"You are a strange ginger tabby." Halo-Boy headed out the door. Surprisingly, he paused at the entrance and waited for Donna so that they could walk together toward the others. "You know, Donna, if we should "break the spell" and be able to travel without being hauled back to your location-"
"Has that been happening?"
"Hmm? Yes. The original doctor-the one with the cane-he's been trying to escape Barcelona for two days now. The TARDIS keeps dropping him off within a mile radius of this hotel."
"Creepy."
"Not really. Terribly inconvenient though." Halo-Boy stopped walking, turning to look at Donna. "As I was saying-if something should happen, and your Doctor declines to take you along…you are welcome to come with me and Peri."
"Why? Cause I can feed you crisps?" She teased, tossing one in his half-open mouth.
The Time Lord sputtered, coughing on the snack, "No, you minx!" He eyed her suspiciously, shifting the weight of the invisible box in his arms. He began trudging through the sand again.
"So you gonna tell me why you want me to come or not?"
"No. It hardly matters-after all-your Doctor seems determined to keep you."
"He…hasn't said anything. I mean, sort of, but not…" Donna bit her lip, "and I don't think he can. I mean according to Bow-tie Boy-"
"Who?"
"The one with the bow-tie and the stupid bangs."
"Ah. Him."
"According to him, I am "destined" to meet and travel with a regeneration between him and James." Donna frowned, stopping and the rushing to catch up, "I haven't met that one. Strange."
"I wouldn't worry about it. You've seen all the Doctors, you've seen the one. Besides, if you end up liking him well enough to travel with-he can't be too outlandish." The Doctor stopped on the edge of the picnic tables that the Doctors and companions had claimed and set the Firespace Six on the ground. He looked more tired and dirty than proud as he announced, "Finished…and…in record time."
Donna wandered into the group to set Halo-Boy's plate on one of the table. It was only then that she noticed that everyone was looking at the curly-haired Doctor as if they were uncertain what to say to him. Unlike with every other Doctor that had arrived, he was not immediately invited into the circle.
Looking at his dirty, tear-stained face and bleary red-eyes, Donna was reminded of that kid in school-the chubby, loud unloved bully that sometimes looked too pathetic to be scary. Of course, most of the time, in Donna's case that kid had been her. The ostracizing had often driven her to seek revenge by biting but eventually she out-grew that. The slapping-phase had never left her though.
Donna blinked, ready to walk over and take his arm and find him something vegetarian to eat. But Peri left the dance-floor to greet her Doctor. The American smiled hesitantly in greeting. "Teagan's teaching us the Charleston. Want to try?"
"I," He began with the arrogant voice that made everyone cringe, "am quite good at a number of things. Dancing-however-is not one of them."
"Well," Peri paused, "I could help you, Doctor."
The Doctor beamed brightly, rubbing a smudge of grease off his chin but only succeeding in smearing it until he looked like an escaped chimney sweep. "Ah, but you must promise not to mind you toes being stepped on. I do have rather large feet."
Donna smiled and watched the odd couple for a minute before finding her Doctor. James Bond had a handful of playing cards and sat at a table with Ace, the Professor, Ian and Jo. He smiled, that goofy childish grin of his, at her.
"I hate to break up the trip down memory lane, Doctor." Donna put a hand on his shoulder, noticing that James had a very poor hand of cards. "But daylight's fading."
"Can't do anything until my sixth incarnation finishes."
"He's finished."
"Oh." Her doctor looked a little saddened. He tucked the cards in the spare pile and stood.
The professor began dealing a fresh hand for everyone, glancing up at James after a moment, "If you come back soon, we shall play another rrround with you. You may have better luck and actually win."
James lifted his flippers from the ground and then leaned across the table, speaking quietly but intently, "Only reason, I'm not winning is cause I wasn't counting cards."
"Professor!"
"Ace, Ace, Ace, you have been around me long enough to know that I am a Time Lord, not a messiah. And…" the Scottish Doctor paused, "I don't like losing."
"Never would have pegged you for a cheater though." Donna commented.
The Professor doffed his hat, and winked at her. "Then you should get to know me better."
James looked up from securing his flippers and frowned at his other-self. "Are you flirting?"
"Oh let the old man be." Donna sighed. She suddenly realized that she still had to get changed into her scuba-diving gear. It was one thing to be dressed in the stupid skin-tight costume in front of Don in a private pool. Quite another to be dressed like this in front of all the Doctors and their friends. This would be so shaming.
At least Adric had vanished somewhere. Thank God.
Author's Note: The Sixth Doctor is in my top three doctors of all time. And I can write him more easily...so if you were wondering why he keeps popping up... that's the reason.