Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

Man in the Watch

Man in the Watch

(Original Interlude)

After the Ood, the Doctor landed them at 'the best pizza place in the entire universe,' which was apparently a restaurant on one of Jupiter's moons in the sixty-seventh century. All three of the TARDIS's occupants were glad for an uneventful trip after two rough, back-to-back ones.

A month spun past in the usual manner of unusual-ness. Donna proved, again and again, that she could hold her own against anything from an angry horde to a stubborn Time Lord, and had more than earned her place on the ship. Bickering between the Doctor and Donna was frequent but good-natured, and Matt, for the most part, chose to fade into the background and let them.

It was late in the evening—or at least relative evening, since they'd just spent the entire day in the twenty-fourth century. The Doctor had entertained them on a long walk back to the TARDIS with a tale of such ridiculous proportions, even for him, that Donna and Matt couldn't quite believe him. Now, with the two humans on the jumpseat and the Time Lord buried under the console, he topped the entire story with an excellent one-liner that had the other two howling.

"That's one big fat fib," Donna accused, wiping her eyes.

"True, every word!" the Doctor insisted. "Well, nearly every word. Well, most of the words. Well, some of the words."

"Forget Spaceman, call him Fibman," Matt said. "The Fibber from Outer Space."

"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Nah, Matt's right," said Donna. "I like it."

"Thank you."

"Oi!" the Doctor said again.

Donna let out a sigh, the kind that usually escaped after a particularly good laugh. "All right, you two. You can stay up and swap stories all night but I'm going to bed."

"Night, Donna," Matt called as she headed for the door.

"Don't let the sjenernskalibs bite," the Doctor said, odd syllables running off his tongue with astonishing speed.

"The what?" Donna asked, spinning on her heel. The Doctor only lifted one shoulder in a shrug, leaving the ginger woman to shake her head and disappear from the room.

Before Matt could say she had the right idea, the Doctor spoke from under the console again. "Can you hop down here?"

"Sorry?" For as long as he'd been on the TARDIS, tinkering had been a sacred activity to the Time Lord that no one dared interrupt.

"I need you to hand me the—" Another incomprehensible series of sounds came out of his mouth as the Doctor reached out an impatient hand. "I can't reach it."

"The... what?"

"It looks like a wrench with a set of egg beaters on the end of it," the Doctor said, exasperated.

"Oh... kay." Matt hopped off the jumpseat, searching for the tool the Time Lord had described. "This it?"

"Yes." The Doctor grasped it, going silent for a moment, before finally saying, "I'm still trying to figure out why you could hear the Ood and Donna couldn't."

"Oh," Matt said. After a month, he'd assumed the Doctor had dismissed it and dropped the subject. Apparently, he'd been stewing on it the entire time. "Any ideas?"

"Nope," he answered, letting out a soft, Gallifreyan curse as something under the console sparked against his fingers. "You?" he asked, before sticking the burnt digits in his mouth.