PEOPLE WATCHING ― doctor who

NINE

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CHAPTER NINE:
KRILLITANES
AND TIN DOGS

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IRIS got to work immediately, leaning down to the computer and resting her head on the floor, fiddling with the wires and sonic'ing what needed extra help understanding.

"You need help, Iris?"

"No," Iris called back to Rose, ignoring the snarky tone in her voice. "I'm alright, thanks. I actually do this for fun, believe it or not. This is a different sonic than what I'm used to, but it's similar enough."

"Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?" Sarah Jane spoke up at Rose's scoff.

"I've got a feeling you're about to," Rose responded.

"I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding," she began.

"I don't feel threatened by you," Rose responded. "If that's what you mean."

"Right. Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off."

Iris rolled her eyes at the pair, nibbling her lip as the larger wire snipped off. "Bingo," she grinned to herself. "Oh, shoot," her smile fell and she moved out from under the desk.

"It's deadlocked," she pouted a bit. "I can't move it," she informed the other two, but neither responded.

"The thing is, when you two met they'd only just got rid of rationing," Rose continued jabbing at Sarah Jane. Iris raised her eyebrows. Not again. Not in front of her. "No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you."

"I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe," Sarah Jane countered.

"Try me."

"Mummies."

"I've met ghosts."

"Robots. Lots of robots."

"Slitheen, in Downing Street."

"Daleks!"

"Met the Emperor."

"Anti-matter monsters."

"Gas masked zombies."

"Real living dinosaurs."

"Real living werewolf."

"The Loch Ness Monster!"

Iris looked between the two like a game of ping-pong. She hadn't done any of those things, but she wondered how many of her own adventures she'd go on with the Doctor.

Dates, she recalled with a soft smile. He'd called them dates.

"Seriously?" Rose asked in disbelief and Sarah Jane shook her head, both girls smiling sheepishly. "Listen to us," the younger woman continued. "It's like me and my mate Shareen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and we're arguing over the Doctor." The girls laughed and Iris sighed, wishing she had a snack.

Digging in her hands, she was pleased to find a small pouch of jelly babies with a note reading "doctor's!! - don't touch, holloway" and laughed softly to herself, opening the bag and popping one in her mouth.

"With you," Rose started. "Did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go, what? and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?"

Not to insult their intelligence, but it was likely he was speaking perfectly normal, just in terms they weren't properly educated on and she knew he didn't take kindly to repeating himself.