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

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

(Original Story: Part 1)

What was he supposed to do now?

The reality hadn't sunk in yet. Matt took a circuitous route back to the console room and the TARDIS let him, giving him time to stew over things.

His world had upended in a matter of hours. This morning he'd woken up as usual, not knowing he was going to see Mallory again, not knowing of how they'd snipe at each other after drawing wildly different conclusions, not knowing she was pregnant with his child.

He was certain that was going to take weeks to sink in, the reality that there would soon be a baby in the world that was part of him and part of her. How had the universe ever lined up for that to happen?

He took long enough that Mallory had beat him to the console room, now wearing a plaid flannel shirt rolled up to her elbows and hanging open over a gray undershirt, with her hair still up in a ponytail.

"Ah, there he is! The new team," the Doctor said cheerily. It was plain he was entirely avoiding everything that had happened with Jenny, but for once Matt had enough on his own plate not to call him on it. Donna waved from the jumpseat as the Time Lord moved to the console, the ship landing with a bump a few moments later.

"Where are we?"

"Go find out," he said, gesturing to the door.

Donna was the first to step outside, a breathy 'oh' of wonder escaping her as she did that quickly had the others following.

"You never cease to amaze me, Doctor," Mallory said, looking around. They were surrounded by trees in every color from the palest of golds, through burnt orange and crimson red, all the way to a dark maroon. They stood on a thick carpet of grass, but instead of being the bright green of summer or the dull brown of winter, it was a soft, buttery yellow color. Above the shortest trees an adobe red wall could be seen, crenelated like a medieval castle.

"Lovely, yes, I admit," Matt said. "But this doesn't look like any sort of restaurant I've ever seen. I thought we were just having dinner?"

"We are!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Right now, we are the forty-fifth century, on the planet Clypso II, in the city of Sefen, where the monarchy's summer palace is located. And there just so happens to be a lovely farmers' market just outside the castle."

"Well, let's get on then, I'm famished," Mallory said, shrugging out of her overshirt and tying it around her waist.

They started off, the Doctor in the lead and Matt in the rear, and after about three minutes Donna fell back beside him. "You all right?" she asked as they made it through the first row of trees and found themselves in a quiet town.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"You look a bit freaked," she noted.

"It's like you said earlier, Donna," Matt said wryly. "Dad shock."

Her eyes went wide and she shot a glance at Mallory ahead of them. "I thought you said—"

"I was wrong," he said softly. "I was very, very wrong." Donna elbowed him in the ribs with a grin. "Hey!"

She only rolled her eyes. "Far be it for me to tell you what you have to do, but are you two gonna give it another shot then?"

He blew out a breath. "Suppose we'll see."

The buildings around them were, for the most part, short and squat. The streets were packed dirt or gravel instead of pavement, while wooden stalls with brightly colored fabric tops stood quietly, most of them closed up. "'Scuse me, which way's the farmers' market again?" the Doctor asked a plump woman who appeared to be human.