Charlotte Bolton wasn't supposed to disappear in the middle of the aisle. She was supposed to get married. Instead, she finds herself jumping around a fictional character's timeline and learning something new every day.
[#1 in #rosetyler on 1/31/202...
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PRE-THE SNOWMEN
edited as of july 7th, 2021
It was a day later. After quickly telling the Doctor what to tell her when she first meets him ("Pay attention at 204"), Charlotte had left unknowing that it'd be the last time she'd do so as herself. Previously, their group was taking a trip to a hot planet during summertime, and as a result, Charlotte was wearing a tank top and jean shorts... an outfit which became useless when the woman falls into a pile of snow when reappearing.
Looking above herself, she sees a new, 19th-century sign swinging back and forth in the chilly wind. She sits up in the pile of snow, once finding out she was in fact in the 1800s by the sound of horse hooves clomping on the brick road, she groans. But, as a shivering Charlotte stands up, a ding is heard behind her.
"There she is!" whisper-shouted a brunette, Victorian woman pointing out Charlotte for her Silurian wife.
Charlotte turns around at the noise, tilting her head. "Hello...?" she greeted as she steps out of the snow pile and approached them. With her arms crossed, she looks down at the device in Jenny's hands. "Were you tracking me?"
"No," deadpans Madame Vastra. "We were searching for temporal anomalies, which you just so happen to be."
Charlotte raises an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"She's joking," laughed Jenny before handing Charlotte a potato sack. "There are clothes for you in there, been carrying it around the past week looking for you."
Smiling, Charlotte takes the sack and, standing behind them, puts the dress on over her clothes. After a few minutes, and a little struggle, she steps forward with the empty potato sack. "Where to now?" she asks.
The 'where' at that moment was to the carriage and its Sontaran driver, Strax, yelling at a rat to get out of the vehicle's vicinity. "I know what you're planning!" he shouts. "Now get lost! Go away, drunken fool!"
Madame Vastra's eyes widened at the sight. "Strax!" she hissed. "You are causing a scene."
Out of fear of the group, the rat scurries away into the street. "Hazah! Another victory." Strax looks to see Charlotte. "And you found Charles."
"It's-" Charlotte starts before realizing correcting was of no use. "Nevermind. Yes, hi."
After the carriage ride to Vastra and Jenny's house, the Silurian goes into a separate room and straight to the landline and Strax goes upstairs. Meanwhile, Jenny and Charlotte stand together by the front door.
"Would you like some tea?" Jenny asks once they were left alone.
Charlotte nods. "Yeah, thanks."
After Jenny directs her to the table in the kitchen, Charlotte sits down waiting for the tea to finish. While she made it, Jenny asks Charlotte if they've met yet, to which she replies: "No, this is the first I've met you three."
While Charlotte and Jenny were unaware of the phone call Madame Vastra was making in a separate room, her hidden actions were made clear when Strax left and returned with the Doctor. Soon after a lengthy conversation amongst the group, Charlotte and the Doctor left on the carriage.
Charlotte found this time the most alarming. She had hoped she arrived too early to a different adventure, any other one would be ideal to her compared to this. It was utterly silent with the only sounds Charlotte hears during the ride being those coming from outside.
It wasn't uncomfortable silence, nor was it awkward in any means. However, in all her time being around this version of him, silence was a quality he had only when the world fell apart. Amy and Rory had left unwillingly, and ever since he has been shrouded in loneliness and the cold new interior of the TARDIS.
They were both gone, and Charlotte is in the same position. If she were to tell him that was the case, Charlotte knew it would make his grief worse than when she arrived. After all, what are the chances she'd stay a month here?
When they stepped into the empty TARDIS, she closes the door behind herself. As if half-expecting, someone to pop out from a corridor's entrance, Charlotte looks around before re-realizing the harsh reality herself. While the Doctor sits down in the chair, taking the newspaper and glasses out of his pocket, Charlotte moves forward.
The Doctor opens up the newspaper of the day, but a second later it was pushed down by Charlotte. "We need to talk," she says, letting go of the paper while he folds and sets it aside.
"Nothing to talk about," said the Doctor. He stands up, about to leave for one of the corridors but Charlotte follows him instead.
"Doctor! Doctor!" she repeated, quickly going up the stairs before stopping on the last step. "Okay, you're right," Charlotte started, but he continued down the hall. "I won't talk about it, because what is there to talk about...? Doctor? Are you there?"
When he doesn't return, Charlotte sighs before turning around with a sigh and sitting on the top step. A second after she lost the hope he'd return, the Doctor sits down beside her.
Right as she was going to begin, he stops her. "I'm sorry," he apologizes. "I shouldn't have walked away, you're just trying to help. But I..."
Charlotte's eyebrows furrow when he pauses, looking below where they sat. "What is it?" she asks quietly.
"You know..." the Doctor rubs his face with his hands. "Amy and Rory, they're-" in the middle of his sentence, he gets choked up. Noticing this, Charlotte puts a hand on his shoulder. He pats it, before finishing: "They're gone."
Moving her hand to the shoulder furthest from her, Charlotte comforted him as he poured out every feeling that has been hidden since arriving in Victorian London was revealed. Yes, this didn't make either his grief disappear or her worry for him go, but it gave a sense of security.
For the Doctor, it was the fact he wasn't alone anymore. Madame Vastra and Jenny were kind, but they were nothing compared to her.
On the other hand, Charlotte found this gave her security when thinking when she dies, Aino is still going to be here. And, if she is even a shadow of what Aino is, then she'd do the same. What if she doesn't, though? What if she always hates the Doctor for putting her in prison? She'd need someone to tell her what to do.
"Deep breaths," said Charlotte as he began to grow calmer. She knows exactly what to do, but it can wait until later
---
Hours into the night, Charlotte leaned forward to a bathroom mirror. Fixing the fallen bits of mascara, she puts the makeup bag back in its spot before quickly leaving and returning to her bedroom. She closes and locks her door quietly and sits down at the desk.
In front of her, a carefully scripted speech written on two sheets of notebook paper was re-read while an old video camera sits on top of a pile of books ready for use after years of neglect. Figuring there was no time better than now, Charlotte inhales sharply before starting the first take.
Knowing the beginning by memory, she looks at the camera as she says: "Hello, Aino, I'm Charlotte, and if you're watching this, I'm dead." She looks down at the script, nervous she'll say something incorrectly. Once refreshed, she continues.
_______
Next up: The Final Memories (The Snowmen)
GIF FROM gif-hunts-for-you ON TUMBLR
a/n: short and kinda boring, but that's just the calm before the storm :-)
