supernova (11th doctor)

The Lodger (pt 1) / Court (pt 1)

I ran down the ornate hallway—one of the only hallways in Area 51 that had more to it than just white and gray concrete. There were pillars every few feet, high ceilings with chandeliers, shiny dark brown floors, and intricate marble trimmings along the middle of the walls.

I almost slid on the shiny floor as Dylan caught me in his arms. "Woah, careful—"

"I did it!" I regained my breath, stepping away from him and giving him his cell phone. "I integrated the communication tech we found in Constantinople into our phones, so now it should work across universes, because it's a direct line."

Dylan took his phone back from me, and put it in the pocket of his suit. Dylan wearing a suit was definitely not a sight I was accustomed to seeing, but everyone had to be dressed their best for court proceedings as an unspoken rule of our society. "Are you sure about this?"

"Only one way to find out," I took my locket out from inside my knee-length red dress.

"Scarlette!" Dylan hushed, grabbing my hands, which were holding the locket. "Right here? Right now?" He nervously looked around at the other similarly dressed people loitering the hall around us, waiting to get inside the court.

"Not right here," I stated obviously. There was no way I could just disappear in front of these people and get away with it. "But of course right now!"

"Why can't you just wait until after the hearing?" Dylan asked.

"It's going to take all day. I would have gone back earlier, but I wanted our phones to be fixed in case anything happened. It's been two weeks—I don't know what I missed. I'm not going to wait any longer. But I promise it'll just be quick."

Dylan stepped away from me and let me go, knowing he couldn't argue with me about this.

888

"Just tell her." Craig told himself, staring at the picture of him and Sophie—the girl he should tell, hung on his refrigerator. "Just tell her—I love you. I love you." Craig hit his head against the refrigerator in frustration, trying to practice. "Oh, just. Hey, I don't know if you knew..."

Craig's soliloquy was cut off by a ringing of his doorbell.

He wondered who it could possibly be for only a split second—until he saw Sophie left her fluffy pink keys on his table, and snatched them up. "Oh, every time!"

"I love you, I love you," Craig practiced saying to himself, as he walked over to the door to open it, and finally admit the truth to his best friend.

He opened the door wide, and didn't realize it wasn't Sophie behind it until he had already gotten through the sentence, "I love you."

The Doctor cocked his head, trying not to smile weirdly. After all, it could be a custom he didn't know about. "Well, that's good, because I'm your new lodger. Do you know," The Doctor took the fluffy pink keys from Craig. "This is going to be easier than I expected."

888

I was walking through the court hall as fast as I could while simultaneously trying not to draw any attention to myself. I honestly thought I was doing a pretty good job of it, right up until Sally found me, and stopped me in my tracks.

"Scarlette, I need you to know this—" Sally grabbed my arm. She was usually cool an collected, and always seemed to have a trick up her sleeve, so it was unnatural to see her acting so urgent.

"What is it?"

"I love your father." She blurted out to me. "I would never do anything to hurt him. I would never do anything to hurt you. Okay?" She looked me directly in my eye, telling me this sincerely, waiting for me to say something.