Walk The Earth: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 2]

A Rose By Any Other Name

A Rose By Any Other Name

What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet; -William Shakespeare, 'Romeo and Juliet'

Mallory Everton woke on a sentient spaceship that was bigger on the inside.

This was not unusual.

What was unusual was were on said spaceship she woke—on the couch in the media room, curled up against Matt.

His heartbeat thrummed under her ear, leaving her in a warm, gentle balance between sleeping and waking. With the terrifying monsters she had faced in her travels, she, too, was prone to the occasional nightmare... but in the few weeks they had been together, she realized, never when he was there.

She felt him stir beneath her and found herself starting to nuzzle and nip at the bare skin she could find, mainly his neck and a small patch of shoulder where his shirt had slipped in his sleep. It was ridiculous how much she loved doing this—not for the physical aspect, but simply for the fact that after so long, she could finally show him just how much she loved him.

"...Mallory?"

"Should hope that's who's kissing you awake," she said teasingly.

He chuckled. "Hello."

"Good morning." She threaded her fingers through his, hyper aware of the thin piece of metal that was his wedding ring.

She supposed it was a side effect of time travel, that things happened in the wrong order. In a way of looking at things, they had been married long before they got over their own stubbornness and admitted how they felt about each other.

They had run into creatures known as the Family of Blood, Hunters who worked by scent. The Doctor, the very last Time Lord in the universe, had a unique scent, as well as an incredibly long lifespan that the Family wanted to use for their on nefarious purposes. In order to avoid them, the Doctor had had to temporarily become human and live a human life, which ended up being at a boys' school in backwoods England in 1913.

It might not have been so bad, if part of the Doctor's made up backstory hadn't involved Matt and Mallory being engaged. As it was, they had rather accidentally been married before the Family was defeated.

Fear and uncertainty had led to them pushing each other away and pretending it never happened. As time passed though, and they grew closer and truths began to be told, the barriers had started to comedown. Just a few weeks ago they had ended up having to infiltrate a couples' retreat to investigate a series of kidnappings and had since put the wedding bands back on... and, apparently, neither of them had gotten around to taking them back off yet.

It was certainly a complicated set of extenuating circumstances. She didn't consider him her husband—but she wore his ring, and 'boyfriend' seemed far too inadequate for what they had.

Presently, she was distracted by the fact he was returning her greeting. "Matt," she whined.

"You started it," he mumbled against her skin.

"Shut up."

~~~

Mallory was looking at a scarf that was a delightful shade of TARDIS blue when past and future collided in a most spectacular manner.

They were wandering an asteroid bazaar in the 807th century, not two hours after waking up in the media room. A lovely place to be, actually, and if they were lucky they might even avoid the typical shenanigans that usually followed in their wake.