Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

Rise of the Cybermen

The TARDIS crew were currently taking it easy, drifting in the Time Vortex. The Artist was in her room getting changed, having had a swim in the pool. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey were in the console room, with the Doctor and Rose slumped on the jump seat while Mickey stood by the console listening to them reminiscing about a past adventure.

"And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes, d'ya remember?" the Doctor asked Rose enthusiastically, "The way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fires comes out!"

"I thought I was gonna get frazzled!" Rose chortled, "Good thing the Artist pulled me back."

"Yeah!" the Doctor grinned, "One minute she's standing there, next minute, rrrrr!" He and Rose mimicked fire coming out of their mouths and killed themselves laughing.

"Yeah..." Mickey spoke up, feeling somewhat forgotten by them, "Where... where was that, then? What happened?"

"Oh, it was on this um... uh, this uh... planet thing, asteroid." the Doctor waved him off, "It's a long story, you had to be there."

"It was on Wanlockhead IV, Mickey." the Artist's voice said and everyone turned to see her walk in.

Rose smirked when she saw the Doctor's face light up at the sight of the Time Lady. Earlier, she'd seen him coming out of the Artist's room and it didn't take eating chips cooked in Krilitane oil to work out that the Time Lords had slept together.

"It was just before Cardiff." the Artist explained to Mickey, "Jack was flirting with everyone, as usual, and some locals didn't take too kindly to it. Hence the fire lady." Mickey nodded, grateful that at least the Artist included him in conversations and made him feel welcome in the TARDIS. The Artist then noticed that Mickey was holding a button down. "Why're you holding that down?" she asked him.

"Cos' he told me to." Mickey replied, gesturing to the Doctor.

"When was that?" the Doctor frowned, not quite remembering when he'd said that.

"About half-an-hour ago." Mickey told him.

"Um, you can let go now." the Doctor said sheepishly. He'd completely forgotten about that.

Mickey took his hand off the button. "Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?" he asked.

"10 minutes?" the Doctor shrugged, "20...? 29." he admitted, causing Rose to roll her eyes and the Artist to facepalm. The Doctor had been like this ever since France. He'd been focusing his attention on the Artist, trying to compensate for how he'd upset her, but in the process, he'd become somewhat forgetful of the two humans that were also in the TARDIS.

"You just forgot me!" Mickey fumed.

"No, no, no!" the Doctor defended weakly, "I was just... I was calibrating, I was just... no, I know exactly what I'm doing."

No sooner had those words left his mouth when an explosion erupted from the console, sending sparks and flames flying everywhere and the quartet all jumping back.

"What happened?" Rose gasped as they all struggled back to the console.

"We've lost the Time Vortex!" the Artist hollered, checking the monitor, then she and the Doctor frantically tried to operate the controls.

"That's impossible, it's just gone!" the Doctor cried. Then, the TARDIS gave a rough jolt. "Brace yourselves!" the Doctor warned, "We're gonna crash!"

There was an almighty jolt, throwing everyone backwards. The TARDIS stopped and all the lights went out. The Doctor was the first to recover. "You alright?" he asked the Artist.