queen uncrowned.

gotta love that track!

could you please stop it?

we’ve only got a couple of hours, so let’s use it.

you’re good at this.

i just wanna get my bearings a bit.

see you around?

go along with whatever i say!

okay, you’re just pestering now.

sorry for killing you.

if you don’t already know what _____ is, you probably don’t wanna know.

i’m regarding you.

i feel like i’m being analysed. 

i guess now they’re just kind of a comfort thing.

i figured they were kind of a fashion statement. but then the rest of your outfit is… not.

people try so hard to look how they think they should look.

you’re authentically you.

do you live here?

oh, my god! we have to dance to this!

dance floors aren’t my thing.

oh, let’s not limit ourselves.

why did you run away?

you were like a frightened horse on a frozen lake back there.

i’m kidding! … half kidding.

folks are way less uptight than they used to be.

if they were staring, it’s because i am bodacious.

i’ve never been on a dance floor.

what are you, like, amish? that’s one sheltered existence you’ve got there.

as far as my family’s concerned, i can’t do anything.

no one knows about even half the shit i get up to.

it’s from a place of love, though, right?

just the concept of me enjoying myself would blow their minds.

what would you like to do? that you’ve never done?

why waste time sitting here?

i’m, uh, i’m engaged. i have a fiance.

wanna go to bed with me?

oh… you’re nice.

can you hear me out? please? please.

look, i don’t want some kind of boring romance, okay?

it’s not just sex.

it was just sex.

we made a connection.

waiting for someone?

shall we dance?

can you just make this easy for me?

you never slept with a woman before?

i was in love with him. i really was in love with him.

i really was in love with him… but he chose not to stick around.

she’s worth the shot, right?

i’m sorry, i’m looking for someone.

why are you here?

i was looking for you. where did you go?

how the hell is this your era?

you don’t know who i am! you don’t know what this means!

this is not fun, okay? this is not fun! 

maybe you should feel bad. or at least feel something.

how many of them are dead?

i said i wouldn’t… i don’t know, do feelings. 

i don’t want to like anyone. so you’ve been just totally fucking inconvenient.

i wasn’t prepared for you, for wanting something.

i’m getting married.

you sure you’re going through with that?

i know he pities me. that pisses me off.

without this place, i never would’ve met someone like you.

if we really met– i mean if we really met– you wouldn’t like me.

i’ll give you some privacy. 

you’re ____? holy shit.

let’s go grab a coffee.

wanna marry me instead?

are you sure you’re alright?

you didn’t dress up to see me?

oh, i love it here! i just love it!

be with me.

stay here with me.

can we just enjoy tonight?

who can even make sense of forever?

hey, it’s real! this is real.

come on, you know that was just a gesture.

it’s not so kind to leave.

we got this chance! i just wanna share it with you. 

he could have stayed, but he chose to leave you.

you don’t know what you’re saying.

you should be mad at him, not whipping yourself with guilt!

you can’t know the bond, the commitment, the boredom, the yearning, the laughter, the love of it! the fucking love! you just cannot know!

did you think to ask? did it occur to you to ask?

you think you’re the only person who ever suffered? go fuck yourself.

i wish i could believe he’s with her now, that they’re together, but i don’t. i believe they’re nowhere. gone.

you wanna spend forever somewhere nothing matters?

i’m out! i’m gone! 

all things considered, i guess i’m ready. 

                                         I have it. 

                                                They don’t. 

it’s Mickey’s first trip to outer space in the TARDIS. They find the fireplace, and good old tin-dog Mickey knocks the wrong thing and wheels around into 1700s France

he sees this little girl (and Mickey is good with kids), and he hears the clock—and he’s a mechanic, he knows a six-foot sound when he hears one—he is scared out of his mind, but Mickey Smith is not one to leave scared little kids, his grandmother taught him better than that

and there’s THE AUTOMATON. Mickey Smith, panicked in trying to protect this kid and not get killed in his first outing, catches the Automaton’s attention and gets it over by the fireplace and hooked to the ledge

Frantic, he smacks the thing that got him here and he’s back at the spaceship, automaton in tow, Ten mildly shocked but happy to play with more robots if Mickey will go get them

Ten is so distracted by the robot that he doesn’t notice a certain somebody pressing the thing again—Mickey wants to make sure the little French girl is okay—Rose’s “wait!” falls on empty air.

and oh shit, Mickey is met by this gorgeous woman, who calls him her imaginary friend and seems to remember him as a hero, an angel, not a scared guy—and oh no, this woman is Madame de Pompadour, isn’t she?!

quite a start for your first adventure

And when Mickey gets back through the fireplace, Rose and the Doctor have wandered off—of course they have, that’s what they do—so Mickey, looking for them, wanders through another door and into France again, and meets Reinette some more

and more automatons, of course; but Mickey’s a mechanic, he knows his way around those; delicate parts snap easily

Reinette is a delicate part, and wants to dance

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rose are working it out from the ship—Reinette being 37 is what the droids want; and oh, no, the droids are about to strike.

Mickey doesn’t consult them. He has a horse (after all, he’s let Rose keep the Doctor), he has a mirror, he has Reinette—

Reinette.

Reinette, the only woman who has focused on him, and seen the hero he could be.

Reinette, so loyal that she rejoices even if he only shows up every few years.

Reinette, who is treated as an object by the droids just as much as he is treated as a tin dog by the rest of his life.

Reinette……

Mickey Smith jumps through the mirror, riding a horse. He and Reinette drink wine, and count the stars they would like to visit but never will now.

One wrong fireplace and Reinette is gone forever. Mickey reads her letter in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose leave him alone (alone, again). Mickey decides he will be the hero Reinette saw him as.