RP for times_student

[rude_not_ginger]

Ace! It was Ace! He couldn't believe it was Ace! She was alive!

He was completely certain that with the destruction of Gallifrey, Ace had been one of the students to die, just another of the people he loved lost amid all the turmoil of War. He remembered wishing he had never sent her away. Wishing he'd never said goodbye.

Now! Now she was alive. And regenerated! Which was a positively terrifying aspect in and of itself. A full Time Lady. He doubted her rebellious younger self would've believed it.

He followed the instructions Ace gave him as carefully as possible---he landed in Cardiff first by accident, then somewhere else he had to run away from, and then, then he got it right. Shoreditch. Excellent name for a town.

He parked the TARDIS on a little streetcorner and stepped out. 2008. Just after the Year That Never Was. He even capitalized it for significance in his diary.

The question was, though! Where was Ace?

Comments

[times-student.livejournal.com]

Ace - Manisha - was at a shop nearby. She had no idea when or where the Doctor would arrive, just that he'd said he'd be there. That was enough for her. And then she heard it, the TARDIS, his TARDIS, and the sound sent shivers up her spine.

Vworp vworp. Vworp vworp.

She dropped the piece she was holding and took off at a full run for the source of the sound. There it was. There he was, wandering down the street in a skinny new body and a sharp looking suit. Would she have recognized him if she hadn't been expecting him? Yes, she told herself. She'd recognize him anywhere, anywhen, in any form.

She stood for a minute and just took him in. It was true, she wasn't alone. And not only was she not the lost, but he was the one that had survived. The Doctor. Her best friend.

"Professor," she whispered, happily. And then louder: "Professor! I'm over here!"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

There she was.

Quite the new look on her, too. Still a blonde, but significantly sleeker. Very nice job! He wondered if she did as Romana and chose her own form, or just let fate decide as he did.

It didn't matter. He turned and practically ran towards her, a grin on his face so wide---well, he couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled so wide. Would it be improper to scoop his former companion up in a hug? He hoped not, because that's exactly what he planned to do.

[times-student.livejournal.com]

If it had been any one else... even if it had been him, another lifetime ago, she'd have been quite put out by the hug. Did they used to hug? She remembered walking close together, she remembered him tweaking her nose, but she couldn't remember if they'd hugged.

Oh well, they were hugging now. That's all that mattered. "Oi, put me down. I'm not a little girl anymore, Professor."

Despite her words, there was a smile on her face nearly as wide as his.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He laughed, and put her back down to her feet.

"No, you're not," he replied, brushing her nose with his forefinger. "You're a proper Time Lady. Time Lady Ace. Brilliant, it is!"

He was so certain she was gone. Gone the way the rest of Gallifrey had---but no, no, there she was! It was so wonderful!

[times-student.livejournal.com]

"Manisha," she corrected softly, wrinkling her nose as his finger brushed across it. "Manisha Smith." The surname brought the smile back to her face. "Seemed like a good name for getting started again on Earth."

She took a step back and looked at him and shook her head. "It's funny to be a Time Lady and to see you, Doctor. But it's good. Gordon Bennett, it's good. Been stuck here with no one to talk to properly for going on six months now." She grinned at him. "What took you so long?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Smith. That made the Doctor ridiculously proud. His little Ace, all grown up. It made him a little sad, in a way. He didn't like to see things change from the way they were.

"Six months?" he tugged on his ear and looked back at the TARDIS. "Think I need to readjust the corrorillation coils. Shouldn't have happened."

He leaned back on the balls of his feet. "So, go on. Tell me what you've been doing and all that! Where's your flat? Where're you working? When do I get to steal you off for a quick trip?"

[times-student.livejournal.com]

"You've needed to adjust the corrorillation coils since the day I met you. And from what I hear," she gave him a playful wink, "long before that even."

She reached out and took his hand, and tugged him back off towards the direction she'd run from. "My flat's this way. I've got a few things you may want. From Gallifrey. I don't have a job, not officially. Been working a bit with UNIT and a bit with Torchwood, trying to do what I can and to find you, Professor. Mostly with UNIT, though. Harry says hello."

She stopped short at the idea of a quick trip, and sighed. "Whenever you'd like. I'd rather it not be so quick, though. I lost my TARDIS, and... I can't say I fancy being stuck here permanently. Maybe you could at least drop me off somewhere where I can buy a decent time ship?"

Ace hadn't turned to look at him. She couldn't. The first time she'd gone with him, he promised her the roundabout way home. Now she was home, except it wasn't the right one anymore. The right home was behind her, in the shape of a blue police box and the man that piloted it. Both of which she had thought were very very dead.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Harry, really? Well, it's been just around forever since I've seen him. I'll have to stop by at some point. Haven't blown anything up, have you?" He curled his fingers with hers and followed her lead.

Lost her TARDIS. Something he'd never really experienced, and he was grateful for that. Some Time Lords said the loss was too much to bear. And now she was without TARDIS and, technically, on a foreign planet. After all, Earth wasn't really suited to her anyway (if you asked the Doctor).

"Well, there aren't many places out there with decent time ships, we can always shop around a bit."

[times-student.livejournal.com]

the talk of explosions brought a smile to her face again. "Professor!" She shook her head. "Did your last regeneration fry your memory? Of course I've blown something up. You know, UNIT gets a bit cranky about all that."

Ace pulled him around one last corner to the door of her flat. "It's just up here. And..." She turned from the unlocking the door and beamed widely at him. "I'd like that. Shopping around. I think it'd be a good idea. I can't have a second rate time ship, right?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't allow it!" the Doctor replied. "My Ace---sorry, uh, Manisha---that one's going to take some getting used to---running off in something that's imperfect? Absolutely not!"

And while he'd never admit it aloud, the knowledge that she was still blowing things up, still his Ace beneath all that Time Lady-ness, made him happy. Proud.

[times-student.livejournal.com]

Ace was silent as they walked into her flat, thinking things over. On the inside she was jumping for joy, the way she used to when she was younger. When she was the Ace he remembered.

She turned back to him, smiling brightly. "You can call me Ace still. I call you Professor, Professor, and we both know that's not your name." Her tone said that they both knew Doctor wasn't, either. But that wasn't something they needed to discuss right now.

"I took Manisha for my first best mate and Smith for my second. I didn't think I could be Ace anymore, what with you being dead. Only you're not, are you?" She shook her head and laughed. "It's wicked, isn't it?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I thought you were," he admitted. "Thought everyone was."

Then there was Ace. And the Master. But Ace was a much more welcome sight, in his mind.

"Still! Nothing to think about now, is it? You and me, well, we're here. Two Time Lords and a TARDIS. Sounds a bit like a reality show."

[times-student.livejournal.com]

"Suppose not." She wanted to ask him about some of the things she'd heard while doing work with Torchwood in Cardiff, but that could wait for another day. If it was important, he'd tell her. Or, at least, plan to tell her at a future date when it would better serve his master plan. Ace sighed, then shook her head with a laugh.

"Let me pack up some of my junk. You know what I have now? An iPod. Bloody brilliant, these things are. Remember that Ghetto Blaster I used to carry around? It looks like the Great Wall of China in comparison."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"An IPod? Honestly, Ace, I don't know what's happened to you. Once upon a time you used to think of blasters that size to be a fashion accessory!" He grinned widely, though. Of course she'd grow up, take a change to the time.

"Did a little remodeling on the TARDIS, I should warn you."

[times-student.livejournal.com]

Ace laughed. "I guess I appreciate subtlety a little more. But don't worry, it's only a little. Having an iPod frees my hands for two big guns, one each. See?"

She tossed some of her belongings into a duffel, then grabbed up some old Gallifreyan relics and placed them more reverently on top.

"Okay, Professor, ready to go. Even still have my key." Ace patted her chest. She had her two TARDIS keys - one to his, one to hers - on a chain around her neck.