Christmas Open Thread

[rude_not_ginger]

•deck•the•halls•

• THE DOCTOR LEARNS THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS •

~•~


Christmas Eve. 2009.

The Doctor loved Christmas! Back when he was a wee Time Lord, the first place he ever landed was London on Christmas Eve. He promised himself he'd never miss another Christmas ever, but that promise went into the same pile as "Lose weight" and "Regenerate a better hairline" and "Stop leaving companions in other universes". But the Doctor had never quite gotten the hang of New Years'. (He once spent several hours commiserating on the similarity between the confusing nature of New Years and Thursdays with one Arthur Dent, who will sadly not be appearing in this piece of narrative. -editor)

But! Through all his travels in space and time, he still hadn't quite figured out what Christmas was for exactly. Except as a yearly excuse for turkey, too much wine, and plum pudding (all of which the Doctor approved of). This year, though, as he strode the streets on this wonderful Christmas Eve, the Doctor decided he would figure out exactly what Christmas was all about.

This may or may not have included use of a intergalactic manipulative detector and a full pack of radio stellar isotopian crystals. Oh, and a cup of hot chocolate. In a festively-coloured cup.

There was a lovely light snow, and the Doctor grinned madly at the stars. Christmas. This year, he was going to figure out what it was all about.


~•~

OOC: Open thread, feel free to tag in as if your character is a passerby or as if your character is a long-standing companion! I'll be working on this thread up until the New Year, most likely! Everyone from any verse (or no verse!) is welcome, just let me know if you'd prefer it from a community or specific universe! And, for this thread, threadhopping is totally welcome!

Happy Holidays, everyone! &hearts

Comments

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

Lucy decided not to mention that she did have one Christmas like that, because it had been with Harry and thinking about him hurt too much. She pushed her hair away from her face--new hair, to go along with a new Lucy--to hide her momentary discomfort. "When has that ever been Christmas for you?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"A few times."

Most recently, with Rose, Jackie, and Mickey. Sitting around a table, picking at a clearly underdone turkey, and grinning madly about a successful regeneration and a new start at life. It all felt so good and so right, then.

"But things don't last."

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

With that particular comment, Lucy stared at the Doctor until she was sure he wasn't trying to make some kind of veiled attempt at imparting a Life Lesson. It was something she was always expecting him to do, since she was fairly certain he had only taken her on out of some sense of guilt befitting his martyr complex. Like he only thought of her as something he had to fix.

"Would you like to have a turkey?" she asked.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to have a device that worked," he said, smacking the side of the machine. He sighed. "No, no. No turkey for me this year. Just some hot chocolate and the hunt for the meaning of Christmas."

He turned, giving her a wide grin. "Aren't you glad you came along?"

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

This was another one of those moments where Lucy felt she would never understand the Doctor. Harry's mood swings had always seemed to make some sort of sense to her, at least. The Doctor's didn't. Perhaps loving one and hating the other made the difference.

She didn't return the grin, but she wasn't lying when she replied, "Yes."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Great! Now, hold these crystals here and keep them pointed outwards. We're trying to draw a corrolated subfusion biosector to the psychic energy and hopefully, if I can get this thing working, we can trace it."

He gave the small machine another thwack.

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

Lucy did as she was told and awkwardly snaked her hands in to keep the indicated crystals in the proper place. She had absolutely no idea what his technobabble meant and she didn't ask. More than likely "psychic energy" was a fancy term for "Christmas cheer". The idea that you could track such a thing struck her as faintly ludicrous and again she thought the Doctor silly for even trying.

But she was subject to his whims so there was no point in grousing overlong about it. She watched as he whacked the gadget and tried to keep the crystals steady.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"There," the Doctor said, beaming as the machine finally started churning out interesting information. He scrunched his eyebrows together and looked directly upwards, towards the sky.

"I think we have a problem."

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

"Is it on the moon?" Lucy asked, her eyes following the Doctor's and her voice laced with sarcasm, while her hands continued to keep the crystals in place. A few people passing by gave them odd looks, but she ignored them.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No, why would it be on the moon?" the Doctor asked, looking back to her. He looked back up, and then pointed at a small, white star.

"It's there."

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

She bit back what she considered the obvious--how was she supposed to know where his silly gadget was pointing? Looking, Lucy had to admit that the star he'd indicated somehow seemed to stand out from the others.

"What star is it?" He'd probably say it was a Christmas star.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"It's a Christmas Star!" the Doctor said. "Well, ish. It's off the end of Orion's belt, but we should be able to get to it quick enough."

He considered reaching down and taking her hand, but shook his head and bolted towards the TARDIS, instead.

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

Unseen by the Doctor, Lucy briefly rolled her eyes as she took off after him. Of course it was a Christmas star--though how it could be "ish" was completely lost on her--and what was a Christmas star, anyway? Did it only shine on Christmas? That was preposterous. Lucy knew enough science to know that stars didn't turn themselves off for 364 days of the Earth year.

"And you think," she called as she ran, breath puffing out in front of her, "that you'll find the meaning of an Earth holiday there?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," the Doctor said, sliding to a stop in front of the blue box. He pushed the key into the lock and turned back, giving her a manic grin. "Isn't that wonderful? No idea, no expectations, no guessing your present before you've opened it."

"Gonna be brilliant finding out, though. After you." He held the door open for her and looked back up to the sky.

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

Lucy obediently stepped inside, mentally shaking her head. It was shaping up to be like most days with the Doctor--where she couldn't quite decide what to make of him, where he would remind her more sharply of Harry than he probably cared to know about, where she wished that either she hadn't picked up that gun, or that she had turned it on herself instead of her husband. That it was him, or even perhaps both of them, trapped in this weird half-life of tagging along after the Doctor like a good companion was expected to do, but without the benefits of his complete trust and affection.

Then again, even this half-life was infinitely preferable to what had more than likely awaited her if the Doctor hadn't insisted on taking her on.

"We can expect it's alien," she said, as she went to her accustomed place at the console for dematerialization, and faintly suprising herself by making an effort to sound not so mulish. "Can't we?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Definitely," the Doctor agreed as he dashed to the console and began slamming buttons and levers to set the TARDIS in motion.

He didn't know how much he could trust Lucy. He wanted to trust her, he wanted to believe she'd just been corrupted by the Master and she was, deep down, a good person. He wanted to believe it, but he wasn't sure he could. But he knew he couldn't just leave her to whatever fate the people of Earth would've had planned.

"Something very dangerous and very powerful, to expel so much energy towards Earth." He grinned over the console. "Hold on tight."

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

She was already doing that--bracing herself against the console and trying to dig her heels into the floor grating, for all the good it usually did her.

"It couldn't possibly be friendly?" she asked, half-sarcastic, half-amused, over the noise of the rotor beginning to move.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Well, that's always a possibility," the Doctor said with a nod. "But! I like to be prepared for the worst. Hold on, we're hitting some turbulence as we land!"

And with that, the TARDIS shook violently and the Doctor lost his grip, tumbling first to the side and then to the other, falling towards Lucy.

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

She registered that the Doctor was flailing off-balance, but she was too engaged in trying to keep her own feet steady so she didn't see him flailing towards her until just before his shoulder hit her chest, and instinctively throwing up her hands to stop him meant--

--and that was the floor grating imprinting itself on the back of her head. Funny, she'd never really thought stars could be black before. If the Doctor was nearby she couldn't tell; the air had wooshed out of her lungs, which was making it impossible to complain about their landing.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor, now sprawled awkwardly over Lucy on the floor of the console room, struggled to get up without falling further onto her.

"Sorry!" he said, embarrassed by their position. "Sorry!"

[dreams-in-red.livejournal.com]

It took a few moments of struggling to draw air into her lungs, during which she was pretty sure her arms at least were flailing of their own accord, for Lucy to actually be able to say "I can't breathe!" And that was when she realized she was tangled up in the Doctor and he was making it worse.

"Stop!" she wheezed, and tried bracing a hand on his chest to push herself back and away from him.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Continued here: http://rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com/288767.html