DnDoc, The Flowers We'll Remember #1 - Hard Times & #2 - Love Forty Down
Previous stories:
DnDoc, Coming Home
DnDoc, Space Band
DnDoc,A Man's a Man
DnDoc, The God of Rock 'n' Roll
DnDoc, The Loch o' the Lowes
DnDoc, The Mushroom Planet
Hello! So, bit of backstory for this one. I made this here narrative playlist about my favourite tennis player Andy Murray upon his recent retirement from professional tennis. Each of the chapter titles is a reference to one of the songs on the playlist, and one or two others from the playlist will be referenced within each chapter.
This retirement was very emotional for me, and I really wanted to tell the story of how I experienced Andy Murray's career. Ruby isn't that much younger than me, so I decided to have it be sort of her thing, sort of the Doctor's now too. The title of the playlist and of this story is a reference to this story within the Ali Smith novel 'Summer' and that'll become more relevant in the story later on.
Also, since they're not the most plot-heavy chapters, some of these are quite short, so much like New New Who, I'm kicking off with a double bill!
It was dark outside the TARDIS. In the small antechamber in which they'd landed, the air was close and still. Slight slits could be spotted on the walls, around waist height where the blinds came down to the windowsills, but only a dim, shadowy light crept through. Even the London skyline couldn't light up a room in the dead of night.
The TARDIS door swung open with a creak that split the silence. The Doctor poked his head out, looked one way then the other, then waved his two companions forward.
“Great,” said Ruby, walking out into the dark room. Rogue followed after her, and closed the TARDIS door behind him with a thud and a click.
“Hey,” the Doctor hissed, “Quiet!”
“But if it's all clear...” said Ruby. The Doctor could barely see her in the dark, but he could tell from the change in the direction of her voice that she had turned back around to face him.
“It's all clear right now,” the Doctor said, “But who knows what cameras are active around here. If Kate hears us, this night is toast!”
“Okay, okay,” Ruby whispered. “Just point me in the right direction.”
“You're about two corridors west from when you were last here. But the stairwell is right here so we'll go down to the right floor and reorient ourselves from there,” said the Doctor. Rogue was currently excelling at staying quiet, so the Doctor took his hand to make sure he didn't roll so high on his stealth check that he got lost.
The Doctor's stomach was bubbling with excitement as they descending the stairs in the dark. It had been Ruby's idea to do a time-tour of the history of professional and amateur tennis, and they still had many plans to go and see more matches, but they figured it would make sense to give Rogue a crash course first. And where better to start than the most prominent tennis player from Ruby's childhood, Andy Murray?
The Time Window was going to be such a fun way to do it.
They'd only turned on a few lights in the Time Window room, enough to be sure the Doctor could see what he was doing as he loaded up the playlist of tennis matches. After that he'd turned them back off, so now there was only the light of the remembered moment from the Queens Club tournament in 2005 London. In the reflected green of the grass and the red of the advertising boards, the Doctor watched Rogue's eyes screw up in bafflement, flick between the Doctor and Ruby to see what he was missing, then eventually widen in shock as the young Andy Murray hit a miraculous drop shot/lob combination to outwit his older, more experienced opponent. Or really, the Doctor thought, opponents. Because as they watched the Time Window jumped from match to match to show Murray doing it again, and again, and again.
“He's pretty good this kid,” Rogue said, leaning back against the cushions they’d set up for themselves. They were sitting right on the court, because why not, if the tennis ball came near them it just flew right through them. “But like, why is that song playing? This seems like a good start to a sporting career.” He pointed up to the speakers in the Time Room window ceiling.
The Doctor had had the sound system play - at a very low volume - a playlist Ruby had created to soundtrack the career of the legendary player. The first two songs were called ‘Halfway Right' and ‘Hard Times.’
“Well, ‘Hard Times’ is because no matter how well he plays in this match, he's going to lose to Nadal or Federer sooner or later when it comes to Wimbledon,” said Ruby. “God I hated Nadal and Federer when I was a little kid. But also, there was the cramping thing, where his body would- ah, there he goes.”
Just as she was talking, Andy Murray toppled straight forward from a standing position, all the way through ninety degrees, and found himself lying on the ground with his face buried in the grass. His legs were tensed and twitching slightly.
“He got really bad cramps when he was young,” explained Ruby. “And the line from the start of ‘Halfway Right', you know ‘I scream at myself when there's nobody left to fight’ that's because most of my earliest memories of Andy Murray are him screaming at himself.”
It didn't take long for the Time Window to demonstrate this to Rogue. In the next match, Murray would squeeze the racket in one taut hand between points and scream in rage at himself. His lips were pulled back into a vicious snarl and it made his mouth into a wide angry square shape.
“He is calling himself all sorts of horrible things right now,” said Ruby.
The Doctor saw Rogue shudder. Rogue had told him some of the things he'd said to himself in the time between losing Art and meeting the Doctor. He hadn't always been angry at himself as such, but there'd been a cold acceptance that he had nothing left to bring to the world, that he was basically a robot going through the motions of his bounties, that he shouldn't try to properly make friends because he couldn't offer them love.
Rolling into Rogue's side, the Doctor squeezed his hand and kissed him on the side of his head, right at the point where his hair curled away from his forehead. The Doctor was wearing his Rosalina dress again, which Rogue had bought him using some of the coins from the sale of the Yossarian. It had turned out those coins were only legal tender on the Mushroom Planet, so the TARDIS was currently stacked with the highest tier merchandise the giant theme park had had to offer. Rogue was currently wearing a t-shirt with a big purple upside-down L for Waluigi on it. And whether he was just regretting not bringing a jumper, or because of the unpleasant thoughts running through his mind, or indeed the little kiss, the Doctor could see and feel goosebumps beginning to rise on his skin.
“He gets better, I promise,” said the Doctor.
The Time Window had changed to the next match, which was in California. In the dark blue of the floodlit desert night sky, Rogue smiled at the Doctor. “He sure does."
Note: Much like the Time Window, I'm doing this from memory, so I can't guarantee 100% accuracy in the words spoken and the shots played, but I was in a whirlwind of hyperfocus when I wrote this and didn't want to stop. I don't think granular accuracy matters too much, just take it with a pinch of salt
“Wait, bit of backstory before the next one,” said Ruby. “Can you pause this, Doctor?”
The Doctor extricated himself from Rogue's arms – with a groan – and made his way back up to the control bank outside of the main Time Window chamber, righting his slightly crumpled dress as he stood up. He had worn dresses before in his life, but not as much as he ought to have, he thought now. Even when people perceived them as a woman, she hadn't worn that many. Part of it was that they were less convenient, but clearly a properly tailored one like that from the Mushroom Planet's precise specifications was unlikely to be restrictive or get caught in things. He felt the air catch the back of it behind him as he jogged up the steps; it felt like he was swooping through the air like Rosalina herself. He grinned to himself. He'd only taken this dress off to wash it for a whole week now, and he regretted nothing.
He paused the moment in the Time Window in a truly horrible shot of Andy Murray screaming his fury at his own missed passing shot into his outstretched hands.
Ruby turned quickly to Rogue. “Okay, so, at some point before the World Cup – that's football – Andy was doing this interview with Tim Henman, another former tennis player. Tim, who is English, asked Andy, who is Scottish, who he would be supporting at the World Cup. Andy, who was basically a kid at the time, said ‘whoever's playing against England.’ But my mate Selena who grew up in Dumfries says that's what any self-respecting Scot would say, as a joke at the very least. But it didn't go over great with some of the public. This match though, it changes everything.”
“Can I press play now?” the Doctor called down to her.
The Doctor resumed the feed then nipped back down to lie beside Rogue. Suddenly they were on centre court at Wimbledon, lounging around right in the front row. Andy Murray walked out on court for his first ever Wimbledon final, then after him the great, the unbeatable, the nemesis Roger Federer. By this point in the playlist, the Doctor was starting to hate Roger Federer too, and he considered himself neutral on matters of nationality. But the man barely looked like he was breaking a sweat, whilst this complete basket case down the other end hauled himself through match after match to get himself where he and the entire British watching public wanted him to go, whether they all liked him or not.
“Fuck that guy,” muttered Rogue, snarling at Federer. The Doctor chuckled.
Murray actually won the first set but then, the horror, it started to rain in England. The retractable roof was closed over the top of the court which, for air density reasons, meant the ball zipped around much faster and was harder for Murray to scramble and retrieve. The next three sets slipped away, and Roger Federer was crowned the victor.
“Why did you make us watch that?” said Rogue, gaping at the desolate Murray who stood before them all.
“Wait,” said Ruby. “The good part's coming up.”
As she said that, Murray walked over to the side of the court to do his post-match interview with Sue Barker, another legend of the game. He tried to take the microphone and speak, but had to stop as his face got redder and his eyes got glassy.
“I'm going to try and do this but it's not going to be easy.” The last word shot up in pitch and he put his hand over his mouth.
Rogue sat up straight and put his hand on the Doctor's leg. He watched the poor man with an open mouth.
“I'm getting closer,” said Andy. The whole crowd laughed warmly, giving him a moment to compose himself. He managed to croak through some more of the speech, and the Doctor heard Rogue choke up a little himself when he said, “Everyone always talks about the pressure but it's never hard to play in front of you, you all make it so special.” The camera panned around the crowd, patron after patron on their feet and mirroring Rogue's concerned expression, or with their hands over their mouths and their eyes brimming with pride.
The playlist played a song called ‘The Heart Never Lies.’ Andy Murray couldn't have hidden his emotions if he'd tried.
“That's the day he won the sceptics over,” said Ruby.
Rogue nodded, frantically wiping at the corners of his eyes. “That's great, but, you got anything happier queued up?”
The very next match was on the same court with the same opponent – flipping Federer – but they were wearing national colours on their t-shirts and shorts and there were Olympic symbols everywhere. It was the 2012 London Olympics. The other key difference, Andy won! He won Olympic gold mere weeks after the most painful defeat of his life.
Rogue grinned and clapped his hands loudly, cheering along with the British public.
“About a month later, he beats Novak Djokovic to win his first grand slam in New York,” said the Doctor. “And then...”
The Olympic colours melted away and they were back in their white shirts and shorts, the dress code of the official Wimbledon tournament. But this time it wasn't Roger Federer; it was Novak Djokovic, another stratospherically good player but about Andy's own age this time, so still in the middle of building his own legend. Andy won the first two sets, and found himself up a break in the third, serving to take his first Wimbledon title. He won the first three points, putting him ‘40-0’ up and needing only one more point.
“Wait, why is the playlist playing ‘Love Forty Down'?” said the Doctor, looking to Ruby.
Ruby gulped. “Because it’s thematically the same as what's about to happen.”
The Doctor watched as Andy lost one point, then another, then another, until it was 'deuce,' which essentially meant they had each won three points in the game, and one of them was now going to have to win another two points before it was over. But then Djokovic won the next point, and suddenly Andy was about to not be up a break anymore. Ruby's knees were drawn up to her chest even though she knew the outcome. The Doctor knew the outcome. He had a feeling Rogue had even guessed the outcome. But that didn't mean they couldn’t see Andy's arm shaking as he desperately tried to serve the ball.
He saved the break point. Back to deuce. He won the next point, so it was match point again. One more point, and he'd have done it.
He served. Djokovic made a good return, Andy hit it back. Djokovic tried a big backhand – which went into the net. He'd done it! Andy had done it! He took off his cap and crumpled it into his face, screaming for once in elation rather than frustration, before climbing up into the stands to find his friends and family.
The Doctor looked round to Rogue, expecting him to whoop and cheer like Ruby currently was. Instead he was staring at the scene in front of him, colours and shadows passing over his face, seemingly unable to look away.
Without looking at the Doctor he said, “Wow.”
@off-traveling-in-the-stars @casavanse @monster-donut @randomwholocker (let me know at any point if you no longer wish to be tagged in each post especially since it's a new story)
