Fight For Freedom |4| The Ascension

Chapter Twenty Eight: A Sweet Song And A Promise

The Doctor raised his eyebrows as he found McKenzie lying facedown on a beanbag in the library, her breathing slow and regular. "How are you?" he asked, biting his lip.

Where she had stiffened upon hearing footsteps, she now relaxed. "Okay, I guess. I just never thought..." She rested her head against him as he sat next to her, groaning quietly. "God, I hate myself even saying this, but... I never thought I was someone anyone would fall in love with, let alone two of you."

"I wish you could hear how wrong that sounds from my perspective," the Doctor sighed, shaking his head.

She rolled over so she could look at him. "We have a telepathic connection. I can hear it, all right, I just can't understand it." She shook her head slightly. "Most of the time, I'm okay, just sometimes..."

"It's okay," he assured her, running his fingers through her hair gently. "I get it. Intrusives."

She nodded, sighing. "I just wish I could switch them off without having to become someone else. I don't really know how to explain it, but there's something so inherently wrong with having to ingest something to become functional. I don't know. I just wish I didn't have to."

"I know," he hummed, bringing her head into his lap and smiling softly. "Need a distraction?"

Her lips turned up at the corners. "God, yes."

He grinned, running his fingers through her hair, and started to sing softly.

***

Pietro was still smiling when he and Zoë came back into the TARDIS to find the console room deserted. "Getting ready for another trip?" he guessed.

"I doubt it," Zoë told him, showing him the image on the scanner: the Doctor and McKenzie snuggled asleep in the library, JENSEN lying discarded on the floor.

He smiled at the picture. "Cute."

Zoë winked. "I know you are."

He chuckled. "Have you been talking to Wanda?"

She frowned slightly. "Нет, why?"

He shrugged. "I just had a little chat with her while you were talking to Clint."

She raised her eyebrows. "И?"

"She told me something, something very important," he confessed, circling around the central console to meet her. "Something along the lines of 'get on with it'." He held up a familiar-looking ring. "And she gave me this."

Zoë frowned, recognising it. "Her ring?"

"It was our mother's," Pietro told her, before making a face. "Our other mother's. Wanda has worn it since we were ten, since... well, you know."

"It's beautiful," Zoë admitted, the blood red jewel glistening in the light.

"It's yours," Pietro added, putting it in her hand and curling her fingers over it. "She wanted you to have it."

Zoë's eyes widened and she looked up from the ring in her hand to his sincere face. "Are - are you proposing to me?"

He tilted his head. "Technically, I think she is." She cracked a smile, and he grinned, cupping his hand around hers. "I am giving you my mother's ring. It's whatever you want it to be."

She thought for a moment, staring at their entwined hands with the jewel between them, then smiled. "A promise," she decided, looking up into his piercing blue eyes. "The rest of my life."

He smiled. "And the rest of mine." He took the ring from her hand and slid it onto her finger, kissing her.

***

Wanda smiled as the six of them walked away from the dematerialising TARDIS, her eyes flashing red. "Gotcha."

~~~

Yes, guys, the Scarlet Witch is shipping this left, right, and centre! Much like me, tbh...

And now, pirates...