Time Tinker

Follow that Hearse

Tink sat on the flight chair cringing slightly as Theta attempted to teach Rose to help fly the Tardis. An incredible feat since he himself didn't truly know what he was doing most the time. The Type 40 TARDIS had been made with many pilots in mind and her stubborn mate had thrown the manual into a supernova somewhere around the 18th century.

"Darling, can't I just..." She tried again to help him before he upset the old girl too much. He pointed at her to sit back down. "No! We've got this." He then looked to Rose and shouted.

"Hold that one down!" "I'm holding this one down." Rose argued. The buttons he wanted being on opposite ends of the panel. "Well, hold them both down." He repeated, glaring at Tink when she went for the button. "It's not going to work." Rose exclaimed.

Still, Rose tried to stretch across half the console. "Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"What happened in 1860?" Rose asked curious. "I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!" The Doctor warmed as the Tardis basically crash landed. Having enough Tink jolted up and ran to the panel to run a diagnostic on her beautiful ship. Mumbling about stubborn mates as her fingers flew over keys and buttons.

Sighing in relief as what looked like circles to Rose came up on the screen. "Well, luckily, it seems you haven't damaged her...this time." She said with a pointed smirk directed to her husband. "Of course I didn't." He huffed, though his look of relief said otherwise.

They heard a groan from beside them. The human! How had they forgotten their new companion. They quickly turned to Rose checking on the girl. "Are you ok?" Tink asked as she worriedly hovered.

"Yeah. I think so. Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?" Rose said standing up slowly. "I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860." He looked so proud of himself that Tink didn't have the heart to tell him his landing was off.

"That's so weird. It's Christmas." Rose said in awe. "All yours." The Doctor said in agreement. "But, it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you two. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still." The couple shared a look, it seemed their newest crew member was starting to understand their world a little.

"Not a bad life." Theta agreed as he wrapped his arms around his mate. "Come on, then." Rose was over her shock and back to see and excitement. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" The Doctor exclaimed as Rose made for the door.

"1860." Rose said almost as a question. "Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella. There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!" The Doctor
as usual made things more complicated than need be.

"Come on, Rose. I'll show you the way." Tink said laughing as the girl had been trying to remember the directions. The Doctor was handing Tink tools as she worked under the console when Rose returned, appropriately coiffed and attired for 1860.

"Blimey!" The Doctor exclaimed surprised at how well the attire suited the girl. "Don't laugh." Rose protested. "You look beautiful, considering." The Doctor said as he held his hand out to help Tink back to the main floor.

"Considering what?" Rose asked insulted. "That you're human." He said simply. "I think that's a compliment." Rose said confused. Tink smiled and patted her mates cheek. "He meant it as one as backhanded as it sounded." Rose smiled glad she was correct that it was a compliment.

"Aren't you two going to change?" Rose asked seeing their normal attire. "I've changed my jumper. Come on." Theta said excited to begin a new venture. "Our clothes tend to be...timeless." Tink said with a giggle. It did make Rose laugh as well.

"You stay there." Rose said as she saw The Doctor making for the door. "You've done this before. This is mine." With that she almost skipped to the door.

Rose opened the door and steped gingerly out into the fallen snow. "Ready for this? Here we go. History." Tink watched her mate and waited for him to realize his mistakes. She didn't have long to wait. Feeling the inconsistency he went to the nearby stand and took a newspaper.

"I got the flight a bit wrong." He admitted. "I don't care." Rose was still admiring the street. "It's not 1860, it's 1869." That wasn't such a big blunder. Tink waited for him to continue. "I don't care." Rose repeated. "And it's not Naples." He said ruefully looking at his wife. "I don't care." Rose said one more time.

"It's Cardiff." He said stoping Rose in her tracks. "Right." Rose said with just a little less excitement. Her expression quickly changed as they heard screams coming from down the street.

"Now that's more like it." The Doctor said with a grin. He grabbed Tink's had before running with Rose towards the center of the chaos. A blue gas entity is coming from a corpse in the audience and flying around the auditorium as the enter. The audience is fleeing as quickly as possible through every exit.

"Stay in your seats, I beg you. It is a lantern show. It's trickery." Yelled a man from the stage. "Excuse me." A man wearing black said as he pushed past the couple going into the theater. "There she is, sir!" A young maid with the man yelled pointing to the body in the theater seat.

"I can see that. The whole blooming world can see that!" The man snipped back. "Fantastic." The Doctor exclaimed as he watched the corpse once again collapse and the entity seeming to have disappeared for a moment. "Did you see where it came from?" The Doctor asked rushing towards the man on the stage.

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!" He yells. Unfortunately, The Doctor and his mate missed the next moves as one was busy arguing and the other admiring who she now realized was Charles Dickens.

"Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I'll get them." Rose shouted as she followed the man in black and his maid who carried the body away. "Be careful!" He shouted back distracted before returning to his discussion. "Did it say anything? Can it speak? I'm the Doctor and this is my wife, Tinker, by the way." Tink pulled a slight curtsy as she was introduced to the genius writer.

"Doctor? You look more like a navvie." "What's wrong with this jumper?" The Doctor asked his wife looking sad. "Oh, nothing darling. I think you look very handsome." She said giving him a small kiss making him grin.

Suddenly the figure appeared before disappearing into a gas lamp. "It's gas!" Tink exclaimed happily. Running out the theater doors to check on Rose they were furious to see the teen being shoved into a hearse carriage.

"Rose!" The Doctor yelled. "You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?" Dickens accused as he followed the couple to the street.

"Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks. Oi, you! Follow that hearse!" The Doctor yelled as he helped Tink into a carriage.