#fancy kilt

“You’re bleeding,” said Victoria.

“It’s no’ as bad as it looks.” Jamie pressed a hand over the wound, wincing at the searing ache there, feeling the pulse of blood oozing between his fingers. “I’ll be fine. I –” He staggered, bracing himself against the wall with his good arm. God, he was getting dizzy.

He had to keep it together. They were so lost, in this strange, broken place. Victoria needed him. He couldn’t be hurt, not badly. He just couldn’t.

“Let me look,” said Victoria, pawing at him. “Please, let me look. I can help.”

“I can handle it,” he gasped out.

“Jamie,” Victoria said, using that firm, schoolmistressly voice she saved for special occasions. “Let me look.”

He relented. She made him sit, and held his aching arm, bloodying her hands. At her touch pain lanced through him, and he hissed. “Careful!”

“Oh, Jamie,” she said mournfully.

“It’s no bad,” he said.

“I’ll bandage it,” she said. Fabric tore with a nasty ripping sound.

“Och, don’t!” he said. “You’ll ruin it.”

“So?” she said, tearing a long strip off her dress.

“It’s a nice dress. You shouldn’t spoil it.”

“It’s too late now, isn’t it?” she said. “Take off your shirt.”

“What? No.”

“Jamie,” she said sternly, and he couldn’t refuse. Wincing at the pain, he dragged his shirt over his head and sat shivering, trying not to whimper as she wound the makeshift bandage around his arm.

“There.” She pulled it tight. “Is that better?”

“A bit.” He tested his arm, and winced. “I can manage.” Picking up his shirt, he tried to get it back on with shaking hands.

“Let me,” she said, plucking the shirt from his unresisting fingers. “Arms up, now.”

With her help, he forced his arms back into his bloodied shirt and sat holding his wound. “Thank you.”

“Any time.” Victoria touched his shoulder.

“You’d be a good nurse.”

“Maybe,” she said. “One day.”

“Really, Jamie, it’s only a school.” Victoria fussed over her short skirt. Quite how this was appropriate attire for a school girl she didn’t understand. Her knees were showing.

“Aye, but you be on your guard,” said Jamie. “I don’t like this, what with all those kids goin’ missing – and och, who knows what boys are like this century?”

“I’m sure they can’t be worse than boys in any other century.” Victoria plucked at her striped school tie. “Am I wearing this right?”

“I think you’ve tied it the wrong way,” said Jamie. “Here, I’ll have a go.” Tentatively, he stepped closer and untied it.

“Now, I’m not happy about this either,” said Victoria as he did his best to re-tie it, staring intently at her collar. “I’m rather too old to be a schoolgirl, you know.”

“Eh? Aye, I know that,” said Jamie.

“Well – good,” said Victoria. There were more things she wanted to say to that, but she didn’t quite have the nerve to say them.

Jamie’s eyes flicked to her face, his lips twisting into a knowing smile. “There you are,” he said, straightening her tie. “That ought to do you.”

“Thank you,” said Victoria, aware that they were standing far closer together than was really proper.

“Any time,” he said.

“All ready, are we?” The Doctor tumbled into the room. Jamie let go of her tie, stepping away.

“This skirt is far too short,” Victoria said, tugging it down.

“That’s what they, ah, wear to school in this century.” The Doctor frowned at her, tapping his lips in thought.

“Well, I don’t like it,” said Victoria stubbornly. “It simply isn’t decent.”

The Doctor’s eyes alighted on her collar. “Oh, good gracious!” he exclaimed. “Where did you learn how to tie a tie, young lady? Oh, dear me no.”

“Erm,” said Jamie as the Doctor began to tie her tie – for the third time that morning.

“Thank you very much, Doctor,” said Victoria sweetly. “That’s very kind of you.”

“Hm? Oh, don’t mention it,” said the Doctor, fussing over her collar. “Next time, ask Jamie to help you.”

Victoria buttered her toast.

“Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“D’you care?”

“Of course I don’t care,” said Victoria, still buttering. “Why should I care? It’s hardly my business, is it?”

“Aye. Course not.” Jamie stirred his porridge, not eating it. Perhaps he’d lost his appetite.

“Are you going to see her again?”

“I don’t know.” His ears, she noticed, had turned pink. “Aye. Probably. What’s it to you?”

“Nothing at all.” Victoria looked at her carefully-buttered toast and found she didn’t want to eat it. Perhaps she’d lost her appetite.

Slowly, Jamie began to eat his breakfast.

“Are you in love with her?”

Jamie choked on his porridge. “What?”

“I said, are you –”

“I heard what ye said. I –” He breathed out heavily through his nose. “No. I’m no’ in love with her.”

“Then why are you –” How was she to phrase it? “– walking out with her?”

“Aye, like you said. It’s none of your business,” said Jamie.

“I suppose not.” But it felt like her business. Her stomach hurt.

“It’s no’ like it matters,” Jamie said. “We’ll be away in a few days.”

“And then you shan’t ever see her again,” said Victoria.

She regretted her words at once. A nasty, hurt look crossed Jamie’s face. It was one of those things she tried not to think about, and surely Jamie felt the same: that anyone they met, any friends they met, were lost to them forever the moment they moved on.

“Aye, so,” said Jamie, digging into his porridge.

It was on the tip of her tongue to apologise, because she hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings, truly she hadn’t, she’d only meant to state the obvious. But before she could do more than fiddle awkwardly with her butter knife, Jamie said,

“I’ll no’ see her again.” He looked her in the eye. “If you dinnae want me to. I’ll no’ see her anymore.”

“I don’t care what you do,” Victoria said stubbornly.

“Aye, but if you did,” said Jamie. “I wouldnae see her again. If you dinnae like it.”

She knew what she ought to say, which was that she didn’t care in the slightest, that Jamie could walk out with a girl if he wanted to, and at any rate she was a perfectly nice girl – but when she opened her mouth, what came out was, “yes. I’d like that.”

Jamie gave her a curious look over his porridge, and oddly thoughtful look that she couldn’t quite make sense of. “Alright. So it’s settled, then.”

“Alright,” Victoria agreed.

Be brave, she tells herself but sometimes being brave isn't enough, sometimes the brave fall too. She promises herself she'll keep Jamie and the Doctor safe, just as they do her, but sometimes she doesn't think she'll be able to, doesn't think she'll ever be strong enough.

(she's stood up to villains, to Daleks, to Ice Warriors, beat Cybermen with thermoses, shot Cybermats, stood her ground against arrogant space captains but still, she's afraid it'll never, ever be enough)

She's still shaking all over, still trembling with half remembered nightmares as she stumbles down the dimly lit halls, wishes she wasn't so alone. She thinks she might be imagining the cold, hopes she runs into someone soon, the Doctor or Jamie and-

"No, no Jamie, not there, there."

"That's not what ye said."

"It most certainly is."

Victoria turns the corner, curiosity pushing her fear back and away, and peeks through an open door, sees Jamie and the Doctor frowning comically at each other, bits and pieces of something or other spread out around them.

"I told you to connect this bit here to that bit there, not the bit over there," the Doctor insists, in what Victoria decides is possibly the most confusing instructions ever.

"No, ye didna," Jamie retorts, shaking a clump of wires at the Doctor, who crosses his arms.

Victoria smiles and leans against the door frame, feels fondness well up inside her as she watches them, her silly, silly boys.

"Of course I did, why would I tell you to put that there, when it really goes here?" the Doctor demands, eyebrows up and Jamie can't seem to answer (not that Victoria blames him, she's only been here a few minutes and is already entirely lost).

She bites her lip to fight a laugh and feels her fear evaporate because maybe there are monsters out there, horrors and terrors and real life nightmares, but there's also this, two brave, silly boys and her, a team, a family, stronger and braver together and they'll make it through this, she knows they will.

She knows they'll never let her down, never let her get hurt and she promises to do the same, will be their hero in the dark.

We'll be okay, she thinks, watches them continue to argue.