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

Stuck With You, That's Not So Bad

Stuck With You, That's Not So Bad

(Original Interlude)

An hour later, the click of a door and the quiet mutter of "Now you let me in," made Mallory hold her breath, choking back sobs and scrubbing a hand over her face. She was glad for the fact that the TARDIS had set the room to the equivalent of night—between that and the fact her head was mostly buried under the covers, if she kept still and quiet he might think she was asleep.

It didn't work for a moment.

"Mal, I know you're awake."

She let out her breath in tiny increments, still not moving.

"Are you okay?" Matt continued softly, his voice growing closer. When she still didn't speak, he mentioned, "The TARDIS let me in."

"You—should be—resting," she finally got out, cursing the fact she couldn't get an even breath in her lungs and swiping at her eyes again.

"Yeah, funny story that," he said, perching on the edge of her bed, facing her with one leg tucked beneath him and the other still resting on the floor. She noted briefly he was barefoot. "Donna and the Doctor sent me back for exactly that—they're still at the village giving out medicine—but sometime between getting in the shower and getting back out again the TARDIS turned my ensuite into... whatever the opposite of an ensuite is." He paused, a rueful expression visible on his face even in the dark. "And hid my room."

Despite herself, Mallory let out a single giggle before she sobered again. "So you decided to see if I'd share?"

"No," he said quickly. "I was just seeing if you were all right. I was going to look for the library, actually, but she hid that from me too." He reached out, brushing a knuckle over her cheekbone, before giving a smile. "Sometimes I wonder who ships us more, Stacey or the TARDIS."

That earned him another chuckle that quickly ended in a choke.

"I take it that's a 'no' on the okay category?" he murmured.

She shook her head, then realized he might not know if she meant no, she wasn't or no, he was incorrect. Before she could elaborate, though, another sob tore from her throat and the next thing she knew he was stretched out beside her, one arm wrapping around her waist as she finally let go and wept.

When she finally quieted, she was half on top of him, shifted sideways a little to account for the baby, one leg tangled with his and her head buried against his far shoulder. "I'm so sick of people dying on me," she finally got out.

"I know," he whispered, stroking a hand through her hair.

"You don't. There was... I never said... I made friends with one of the Hath on Messaline, and I fell in a bog and he died getting me out... and so many people in the Year I can barely keep track of the ones I do know, no less the ones I don't... and you... and now Cyndi..." Mallory drew in a breath. "She had no one left. No family. And never a mother, not really, not since she was three, and I... It's probably just hormones honestly, but I wanted... she needed... I'm only ten years older than her but I think she needed someone and I... I could've saved her if she just held on. Why didn't she?"

"I don't know," Matt said softly. "We'll probably never know."

"I don't even know who I am anymore," she said with another sigh.

He didn't answer for a long moment. "I love you," he finally said. "No matter who you are."

She shifted, peering up at him, and couldn't help but note he still had a week's worth of scruff on his face. Either that TARDIS had taken it upon herself to hide all the razors on the ship as well, or he'd simply been too tired to bother getting rid of it.