Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [78]
Ace blinked and stretched. A proper bed, with proper bedclothes. Light was leaking in through a curtained window, soft, summery morning light. She felt warm.
She was lying next to the Doctor; actually, she was lying half on top of him, one arm thrown across his chest. She could feel her hand rising and falling with his sleeping breath. She was only wearing her bra and knickers.
‘I hope Bernice doesn’t catch us like this,’ she murmured. The Doctor did not stir.
Yesterday started to filter into her mind, backwards.
She remembered Bernice and Mme Thierry fussing over her and the Doctor.
Benny had made her get into the bed with him. He was in his shirtsleeves now. Classic hypothermia treatment.
She remembered shooting the boy in the face. The axe-and-cabbage sound, the – she folded up the image and packed it away in her mind, where she could deal with it later. She could handle it.
They were buried in a huge pile of blankets. She sat up and pulled on her shirt.
She remembered hitting the Doctor, trying to stop him from shooting the child. There was a long, purple line under his left eye. Had she done that?
No, she had seen it before, on the ship –
There was a great purple bruise on his left cheekbone, the impact of a human fist, the skin split open with the force of the blow.
Which meant – which meant – he hadn’t died, he was still alive, he –
Ace’s hands went to her mouth. Her vision blurred. She forced it down, she could handle it, she could –
The Doctor’s soft blue eyes were open, looking up at her. He gave his head a tiny shake. ‘Let it out,’ he told her.
Ace sobbed into his shoulder, her hands clutching the fabric of his shirt, her arms and chest jerking violently as she cried. A little awkwardly, he put his arms around her. He held her, held her, even after the sobs and the movement had diminished into silence.
‘Are you alright?’ she mumbled.
‘Of course I’m alright. I’m always alright.’
‘The boy,’ she said, ‘the little boy. You wouldn’t really –’
‘He wasn’t a little boy. He was a machine. I doubt he could think much beyond calculating coordinates.’
‘But if you had to –’
‘I’m not like that.’
‘You are,’ she said. ‘You would if it was important.’
‘How do you know?’
153
‘Cos I would.’
The Doctor sat up. Ace snuggled up to him, and he put a gentle arm around her. ‘I met another one at the other end. A man. He could talk, and think . . .
He must have been the deluxe model.’
‘To Ship, we’re all machines. Humans, Ants, everyone.’
‘God, it’s good to see you.’
The Doctor didn’t say anything, just held her a little more tightly.
She reached up and tickled him under the arm.
He jumped as though something had stung him. ‘What are you doing?’ he said, wriggling under the blankets.
‘A-ha, the all-powerful Time Lord can dish it out, but can he take it?’ Ace pounced and started to mercilessly tickle her victim. He yelped and nearly fell out of the bed, but the sheets were tangled up around him, so that he ended up suspended over the side.
‘You’re giggling!’
‘I do not giggle!’ The Doctor, grinning all over his face, reached up and grabbed Ace’s arm. They both tumbled onto the floor, shouting with laughter.
At this point Benny walked in the door. ‘What on Earth is going on in here?’
‘Benny!’ they both shouted.
‘What a memory!’
Ace said, ‘Tickle machine is out of control!’
‘Right,’ said Benny. She snatched a pillow off the bed and boofed Ace in the head with it.
Ace reached out and grabbed Benny’s ankle, tripping her up so that she fell onto the bed.
The Doctor scrambled out of the way as Ace started throwing cushions at Benny, who deflected them with her pillow. ‘Stop this at once!’ he protested.
Ace chucked a cushion at him. Benny took the opportunity to thump her again with the pillow.
‘This has gone on long enough.’ The Doctor picked up the other pillow and beat them mercilessly about the head and shoulders.
Ace grabbed hold of his arms, and Benny pulled away the pillow, laughing, but Ace’s giggling was turning into sobbing, great gasping sobs. ‘Shit.’
The