Emerald Green

The Silent House

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The Silent House

Sometimes, Molly thought, the little things were even better than the adventures. The small day-to-day activities, the little gestures, the teasing comments. The way he held two different bowties to his throat so she could help him decide which looked better. When they went to the cinema room to watch a movie, she noticed he'd removed the poster with the words 'the Phoenix' plastered across it.

And now, once again sitting on the floor as he worked on some part of the TARDIS under the center console, she noted that the show had never shown him humming and singing to himself, almost subconsciously, as he worked, at least not that she could recall. She recognized a song from the 60s, and one from the 90s, but others were from probably from other planets or the future.

It was nice, to get to see all these little details of him, of his life on the TARDIS. Since the threat of leaving it all behind, she'd been paying closer attention and noticing more. She was getting to know him more and more as a person instead of a character the last two or three weeks (she wasn't sure), since the lab with the Weeping Angels. They'd spent more of that time in the TARDIS, since she hadn't felt up to accidentally running into another big threat quite yet. She knew he went on his own adventures while she slept.

That was why the TARDIS repairs. He'd said something about an accident involving an asteroid field and how he was surprised it hadn't woken her up. Molly reminded him that she slept even deeper than she'd used to these days.

She was back to her job that reminded her a bit of being a scrub nurse, holding a large pipe of some kind that seemed frayed at the end called a 'Octospanner', listening to him hum some unfamiliar song. In front of her was a game of solitaire she'd long since given up on, thanks to the Doctor continuously commenting on what she'd done wrong or missed every time she touched a card.

As nice as these little moments were, Molly was bored out of her mind. The time spent on the TARDIS had been lovely, but she was ready to get back to the adventures. She was mid-yawn when the Doctor suddenly gave a wordless exclamation, jumped up, and reached into his pocket.

Molly tossed the Octospanner aside and pulled herself back to her feet. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Aha!" he cried, as he pulled out the psychic paper. He opened it, frowned, and then looked at Molly. Slowly, the frown was replaced by an excited grin. "Coordinates."

"Coordinates?" Molly asked. She moved around to look at the paper, though of course it was all nonsense to her. "How did someone send you coordinates on the psychic paper while we're in the middle of space?" It did remind her of an episode, but that seemed to be unique circumstances.

"We're actually more to the left, upper, back part of space," he corrected her. "And I have no idea. Want to find out?"

She smiled up at him. "What do you think?"

"Ha!" He rushed to the controls. Molly watched as he worked, and stepped up to an odd control she'd never seen him use before, that looked like a sort of maze to pull a metal peg through. She examined to keep her mind busy until they landed.

The Doctor rubbed his hands together, practically vibrating with excitement. He headed for the door, and Molly followed quickly behind him. She tried to think of where they could be – an alien planet? A moon somewhere? A military base? Another kind of lab? Space station? The past? So far in the future she couldn't comprehend it? Would there be giants, or land-walking squids, or living mountains made of gold?