ᵐᵉʳᶜʸ!

     “Ah, very good then, yes, of course. We have got work to do, haven’t we?” He beams, cheerfully lacing his fingers together to wait. Had he remembered to start the toaster in the first place, he might have been reminded of the fact as he absently rests an elbow against what should have been a hot surface, mind adrift. As it is, the toast will go forgotten, the notion of homework taking its place. Homework! Yes, that’s right. Trigonometry. ASTRONOMY…!

     “Hmm   ? Oh, without crusts, please, thank you…” The Doctor joins her by her side, peering curiously over her shoulder to watch like a rather large house cat.

    smiling indulgently, victoria cut out the crusts and set the sandwiches on the table, briefly ruffing the doctor’s hair as she passed by him. “it looks very easy. at first it looks daunting and magic, but the teacher briefly mentioned we could use a matrix to solve the problems and it became so much easier!”

    “but, i am struggling in understanding how i can cut the line in four pieces, using three points  that have the same distance from another. it just doesn’t make any sense!” she says taking out the book, setting it down next to the plate with the sandwiches. 

      “I was just saying that he looks very different.” She had crossed her arms in front of her chest; her eyes wandering to the OTHER Doctor. Of course, she knew about regeneration by now but THIS was still a surprise to her and meeting another companion, that was not from the Doctor’s home world but another human being (about her own age?) was tickling the horrible feeling of jealousy. Especially because the other had put more effort into staring at the Doctor than listening to her.

“this one doesn’t look like he needs a nap.” she says, mostly to herself. victoria is quite pleased with the other doctor’s appearance, his clothing and hair remind her of home, a different style than the one she grew up in, but familiar through paintings.

“oh, no. we can’t possibly take him to the hospital” victoria said as jamie pulled the doctor away, “my father is scared of them, it will only make the whole situation worst. we can control the bleeding at home.” explaining why her father has two hearts would be... well, very bad.

“victoria! what happened to the professor?”  the scottish man asked after the doctor calmed down a little. 

He had checked each control on the old girl, one by one, every single data who could possibly create a short-circuit, something than the console room couldn’t bear — the Doctor finding himself into a self-obligation to repair what he could done. Possibly it was another source of the problem — another of these instants he had overlooked; maybe just in front of his nose but unable to saw it. For once, the Time Lord had passed forgotten moments with his ship, however it wasn’t for pass the time — he couldn’t risk his companion’s life.

When Victoria offering him a cup of tea, he immediately accepted with a smile hiding during a short moment all the stress he had carried away. Tension he sadly gets in permanence, the old girl’s problem showed it openly — taking a sip of well-deserved tea.

“Thank you” Taking a sip of well-deserved tea, he added. “Yes. The old girl never reacted that way…I hadn’t yet found the source of the problem”

resting a hand on his arm, she glances at what he is working on, and as she presumed, she has absolutely no idea what is going on in front of her. just like when she watched her father working. oh. 

“why don’t you take your tea back to the library?” she suggests, squeezing his arm. “look away from the problem for a few moments, coming back to it with fresh eyes might make it easier for you to see what you are missing.”

sometimes her father would spend days struggling with something, barely pausing to eat or sleep. victoria would have to remind him and force him to eat. and take breaks. they always seem to work for her father, perhaps they can work for the doctor too. 

“Well,” Jack said, sitting back and picking up his cup of coffee again. “The whole thing felt…. staged, I guess. Like everything that we expected to find was put there. It didn’t feel natural. I couldn’t really explain it at the time - still can’t, if I’m honest - but everything just felt off. If it’s a copycat, though, that explains it. So it’s someone who knows the original murder, but also knows us. And that’s a lot more worrying.”

“i really hate to even suggest this, but is it possible that someone from your team is behind all of this? it would explain why you felt it was staged.” the suggestion feels wrong in her lips, but she has to mention the possibility. someone who works for torchwood would have access to files, materials and would be aware of how the investigation works. 

     “ohh?” he follows closely and eagerly behind, already imagining the sorts of puzzles her homework promises. “analytic geometry? i seem to remember descartes was a bit stubborn, or   ”

     the doctor pauses, just about to drop several slices of bread into the toaster. descartes. descartes… it seems he has drawn a blank. he drops the bread into the slots and frowns at them.

     it occurs to him instead that one of these days, he must take this little toaster apart and see if there are any useful or particularly interesting bits inside. good thing he’s already stowed the dissected blender well away from jamie and victoria.

     “oh, good,” he leaves his more inscrutable thoughts behind, happy not to be on his own this afternoon. “yes, i suppose that would be alright - although i have been doing cartoons for a good hour or two - and i’m rather interested in all this sunshine. you don’t suppose we could go outside for a bit?”

    “if the weather permits, i guess that’s okay.”  opening the refrigerator, she takes out the cheese and ham, grabbing from one of the cupboards the bread. “with crusts or without crusts?” she asks him. 

“A weapon? No, I was just makin’ a molotov cocktail,” Ace says this as if it answers all questions, putting every worry to rest. It takes a moment for her to realize she might need to explain herself. Maybe it’s because Vic’s from ancient Victorian times, that’s why she didn’t get it. 

“Vic, a molotov’s not a–okay, technically it’s a weapon. But that’s not what I was gonna use it for! I was just preparin’ a bit of pyrotechnics. Harmless fun, really. Like fireworks!”

“fireworks?” the word brings back pleasant memories of her mother, of a wonderful night they spent in their london townhouse -- they both stayed in, and spent the night in front of the piano, only stopping to watch the fireworks from a party nearby. “oh, i do love fireworks! they are so beautiful!”

“The tabloids don’t know I’m gay, pet. I just hope the picture did me justice.” Jake can’t help but snicker at her comment on Pete. He probably does import his pastries from France. No – he probably hires an in-house pastry chef. It seems like the kind of thing Pete would do.

“Bet’s been on about a week now. Rose ‘n’ I agreed we’d split the money if I won.” His eyes lit up. “Hey – d’you think I could just take pictures of the two of us and sell them to the tabloids anonymously for good money? Like, uh – Spiderman did that, didn’t he? Or was it Superman?”

“don’t you worry, you looked quite handsome in the picture.” by this point the other workers have picked up that she is going to chat with jake a little bit and have begun covering for her.