Red ⋆ Doctor Who

Chapter Forty

Cherry fixes her red bow into her hair, glancing over at the Doctor through the mirror as he ties his red bow tie around his neck. It took a while for her to get her bow clean after their excursion on the pirate ship with the siren doctor, but it's finally wearable again. She's grateful that the Doctor saved it for her after it fell out of her hair, and she made sure he knew it when he gave it back to her. They've been on a few adventures since meeting the pirates on their ship, and Cherry and the Doctor have even had time for their own little dates and trips when Amy and Rory are sleeping and the Doctor is too restless to lie with Cherry while she sleeps. They even broke River out of Stormcage one night and they visited a bazaar on a faraway planet. The Doctor treated the two girls to countless snacks, claiming that they had to try everything they came across to get a proper feel for the planet. He even got Cherry a new kind of nail polish, which is supposed to change colour depending on the weather, but she has yet to try it out. He told her it was adapted from the properties of bazoolium metal. So, despite both of them being constantly worried about the other, they have managed to enjoy themselves.

While they are apart, Cherry and Amy spend a great deal discussing what will happen to the Doctor in the future. Amy is struggling to come to terms with the fact that they cannot tell him, Cherry can barely think about it without crying and feeling sick, so she doubts she could be the one to tell him about it, and Rory is adamant that they cannot tell him because of what River said.

"You forgot your jacket," Cherry calls after the Doctor plants a kiss on her cheek and makes a move to leave her room. They both glance down at the tweed jacket discarded on the floor with a pair of trousers.

"I'm going to get a different one," he replies, flashing her a smile before he exits. Cherry applies some light makeup, leaving her eyelashes bare and then she paints her lips red with her usual red lipstick, and then she pulls on a red and blue checkered shirt over her white t-shirt. She quickly picks up the Doctor's discarded clothes, folding them up and placing them on the right side of the bed, which he has claimed as his own before she makes her way into the console room. He's wearing a new tweed jacket, conversing with Amy and Rory.

"And then we discovered it wasn't the Robot King after all, it was the real one," the Doctor retells the story of one of his, Amy and Cherry's days spent together. "Fortunately, I was able to re-attach the head."

"Do you believe any of this stuff?" Rory asks Amy and Cherry, staring incredulously at the cousins.

"We were there," Amy deadpans, her boots banging against the glass fall as she stalks across the platform and then walks down the stairs, away from them all. Cherry and Rory quickly follow and the Doctor gets distracted by flashing lights on the console.

"Oh, it's the warning lights," he complains, running around the controls. "I'm getting rid of those. They never stop."

"Idiot!" Cherry calls up to him, laughing to herself as he sticks his tongue out at her and then quickly gets to work trying to figure out what the lights are trying to warn him of.