the present: a doctor who fanfiction (11th doctor)

dreams

Somewhere in Orbit, Time unknown

For the past few hours, Lauren had effectively avoided the Doctor after their previous conversation. She hoped that possibly he would find something else to occupy his mind and wouldn't ask any further questions. In order to escape the torment of the ring box sitting beside her Lauren read Madame Bovary, the french edition. It reminded her of days in France where she would spend hours translating different books and poems by the pool. The Mediterranean air would fill her and nothing else would seem to matter. France had always been and would always be her escape, and she was quickly realising that being with the Doctor felt a whole lot like being in France. The only thing missing was salty air and sun that rests on your skin like a blanket.

While Lauren was escaping her engagement, the Doctor was messing about. Lauren's odd behaviour was still settled in the back of his mind, but he chalked it up to the headache. He would go and annoy her but he figured she was probably asleep like Amy.

Maybe it was all the translating that made her tired but without realising Lauren had dosed off.

There she was in the cove, the one just a little ways from her grandmere's. As she stood in the clear water, Lauren realised she had no recollection of how she had gotten there. Looking in front of her she came face to face with the familiar cave side. It was still there, the crack. Her feet met with the hard packed sand as she moved closer to it. Nothing about it had changed even though it had been so long. Her fingers pressed against and she could have swore it felt like something was flowing through the touch. Every time she saw the crack the same questioned popped in her head, how could it be here? With a blink of her eyes she was standing before the crack once again but this time it was the crack in bedroom wall from when she was a child. Hidden behind her bed for so many years because it scared her. Terrified her even, but it was just a crack in a wall. A crack that was an exact copy of the one in the cave, how?

Lauren sat up in her bed and checked her watch, it had only been an hour since she fell asleep. The dream ran through her mind as she felt her face and was met by sticky tears. She then noticed that she was still crying from the dream. Freddie rubbed against her arm making it seem as though he knew what happened. Taking a deep breath Lauren began her usual routine after she had a nightmare. First she stretched before taking a shower. In some way she believed that maybe she could scrub off the bad dreams and pretend as though it never happened. It took about half an hour before she finally felt clean. The next step in her routine was possibly her favourite, a mug full of sleepy time tea. That tea had never failed to make her fall asleep.

Sitting at the small kitchen table Lauren sipped on her tea allowing herself to relax. Just as she finally began to feel the effects of the tea someone joined her in the room.

"I figured you were asleep," the Doctor said pulling out the chair from beside her.

"I was."

"Didn't sleep too long then."

"Yeah, only about an hour," she replied keeping their conversation small.

"Do you ever really sleep? I mean Amy has been knocked out for at least six hours."

"I was planning to get back to sleep, I just had an odd dream is all."

"And what was this odd dream about?"

"Can't really remember," she lied. In her head she could vividly remember every detail. If she tried hard enough she could feel the rough stone press against her fingertips.

The Doctor picked up the box of tea on the table, "Sleepytime tea? Are you trying to go back to sleep? I mean you should, wouldn't want a grumpy Laurie on our next adventure."