Slowly Shining (Book Two of The Creators Saga)

Tooth and Claw

"I'm telling you, I like you better in the jeans and the tank top," the Doctor was saying as Rose stepped into the console room the next morning, making her pause in confusion.

Then she understood what it was as the Alchemist poked her head up from underneath the grating. "That was in Cardiff," she reminded him, "and I wasn't Bonded then, either."

"Your point being?"

"I had people to show off to."

The Doctor snorted. "And the catsuit doesn't?"

The Alchemist smirked. "You suggesting something?"

"What do you think of this?" Rose asked loudly, stepping in and interrupting before the Doctor could make a saucy comeback, judging by the matching smirk that had begun to grow. Really, she didn't need to hear her best fr - big sister, she reminded herself, it was big sister now - and her Pilot flirting. She just . . . didn't. She looked herself over, in denim overalls and a pink T-shirt. "Will it do?"

Thankfully, the Time Lords abandoned their flirting and turned to her. "In the late 1970s?" the Doctor snorted. "You'd be better off in a bin bag." Rose squeaked indignantly, and the Alchemist burst out laughing. "Hold on," the Doctor said, holding up a finger. "Listen to this."

The Alchemist listened as he put a CD into the player, then began bopping her head. "Ian Dury and the Blockheads," she identified. "Number One in 1979."

Rose burst out laughing as the Doctor actually started dancing and snapping his fingers. "You're a punk!"

"It's good to be a lunatic!" the Doctor sang.

"That's what you are," Rose choked out, pointing at him and laughing as the Alchemist grinned wildly. "A big old punk with a bit of rockabilly thrown in!"

"Would you like to see him?" the Doctor asked.

Rose blinked. "How'd you mean? In concert?"

"What else is a TARDIS for?" the Doctor asked.

"Not stealing?" the Alchemist suggested innocently.

Rose burst into a fit of giggles as the Doctor stuck his tongue out at her. "Well, I was going to say I could take you to the Battle of Trafalgar, the first anti-gravity Olympics, Caesar crossing the Rubicon, or Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November, 1979." He raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

Rose grinned. "Sheffield it is!"

"Hold on tight!" the Doctor crowed, flipping levers.

The Alchemist yelped and clawed onto a grip on the grating, not out of the bottom, and Rose had to hang onto the railing. Both girls were laughing as the Doctor kept banging out the beat on the console. "Stop!" Rose laughed.

The TARDIS suddenly stopped suddenly, and the Doctor was sent down into the grating with the Alchemist. Rose burst out laughing as she fell to the ground as well, rolling around, seeing the dazed looks on their faces. Oh, it was so worth seeing them together! "1979!" the Doctor whooped, jumping out of the grating and pulling the Alchemist up before getting his coat on. "Hell of a year!"

"China invades Vietnam," the Alchemist continued, helping Rose to her feet. "Then there was the Muppet Movie."

"Love that film," the Doctor grinned. "Margaret Thatcher." He made a face. "Urgh. Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from me. Nearly took my thumb off. And I like my thumb," he told them, opening the TARDIS doors. "I need my thumb. I'm very attached to - " He broke off when he got the end of a rifle in his face. "My thumb," he finished slowly, looking around and slowly raising his hands as they took in the soldiers on horseback around them. He winced, looking at the Alchemist as she gave him a look. "1879?"