Lost In Temptation

14. Age With Grace

Rory:

Why was Bethy being weird? She was being weird and literally no one else seemed to have noticed. Well, aside from Divvy, but her cat was literally insane and wanted almost everyone to bow down in fealty to her. So was your basic cat, really.

But, she was definitely being strange, especially when it came to her brother. It was like... She was distracting him from something.

"Apalapucia."

Amy blinked at the Doctor, Elizabeth rolling her eyes at him, and what he was doing with the console. But didn't correct him, not like she usually would. "Say it again?"

"Apalapucia."

"Apalapu-"

"Chia."

I could say all the names of prescriptions and meds in work, weird planet names had never been an issue for me. "Apalapucia."

Beth nodded at me with a small smile, scooping up her familiar and holding her like a baby. Anyone else tried that, they'd no longer have hands. "Apalapucia."

"Apalapucia." My wife finally managed. "What a beautiful word."

The Doctor was beaming as he went. "Beautiful word, beautiful world. Apalapucia, voted number two planet in the top ten greatest destinations for the discerning intergalactic traveller."

"Why couldn't we go to number one?"

Now he shuddered. "It's hideous. Everyone goes to number one. Planet of the coffee shops. It's too loud for Sissy, she gets grouchy." When wasn't she somewhat grouchy with you? "Apalapucia. I give you sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades. I give you-"

Then opened the TARDIS door to reveal - a white space with a door. Well, not sure what else I expected, to be honest. "Doors."

"Doors. Yes. I give you doors." He sighed in agreement, following me out as Bethy put down Divvy, then grabbed her jacket to cover her bare shoulders and arms. "But on the other side of those doors, I give you sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades."

"Have you seen my phone?"

"Your phone?" Amy agreed, our tour guide not happy with this. "Your mobile telephone? I bring you to a paradise planet, two billion light years from Earth, and you want to update Twitter."

She now also rolled her eyes at him. We all did, it was a thing. "Sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades. It's a camera phone."

"On the counter, by the DVDs, Wild Cat. I had to move it away from Divinity when it started to vibrate."

"Thank you."

There was no handle to this door. Did doors no longer have handles now? "How do we get in?"

The Doctor gestured to a panel with two buttons on it, one green the other red. "I don't know. Push a button."

"Oh, for..." Before Bethy could complain at the fact that we just pressed buttons, I hit the Green Waterfall button. "Men. Honestly, how have neither of you just blown yourselves up with the buttons you just hit? Though, lets be honest, Jack."

"This is why I kept him, yeah."

"Hang on, isn't that the guy you keep meeting in Cardiff? You literally keep him because he can be blown up?"

"Repetitively. He's rather useful." Beth agreed, going into the room, still stark white, only now with a glass table and three Avant guarde chairs. "Okay, so rain check on the soaring silver colonnades, Brother, your driving is again abysmal."