Checkmate (Doctor Who fanfiction)

The Straight Answer

This beginning scene could not have been possible without the help of my best friend, Probably-A-Time-Lord. She not only helped write it, but it's staged in her own story. If you want to learn more about the people Ruby's staying with, go check out her book, For the Love of Books. She's a great writer, and a wonderful person in general. Thanks so much for all the help, girl! <4

At the personal intervention of the King, the unnamed Doctor was incarcerated without trial in the Tower of London. According to contemporary accounts, two nights later, a magical sphere some twenty feet across, was seen floating away from the tower, bearing the mysterious Doctor aloft.

I blinked at the book page I was on, and looked up at my friend, who was sitting next to me on her black leather couch, playing Halo on her Xbox. "Hey Jess," I said, leaning back. She paused the game and looked up, her fiery red ponytail swishing over her shoulder.

"Yes?" She asked, drawing out the vowel. Jess and I were friends. It's a very long story about how we became friends, but long story short, The Doctor took me to a wedding recently, and I met her there. Now, while Amy and Rory took some time out of the Tardis, I decided to spend a week or two with Jess and her friend, Chelsea and Chelsea's fiancé Alexander, who Jess hates. According to Alexander and Chelsea, I got drunk the night of the wedding and kissed Alexander. He stayed a careful distance from me to this day.

I was technically staying with Chelsea and Alexander, but I spent most of the time at Jess's because we were both the kind of people who watch American Horror Story until three in the morning, and eat seventy eight pounds of bacon for breakfast. Also, she has a large collection of awesome weapons, knives, swords and anything sharp and/or pointy being her specialty.

"Where did you get this book?" I inquired.

"It came in the mail," she answered simply with a shrug, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

"When?"

"A couple days ago. No return address or anything, so I had to run it through all my bomb tests, which included testing out Ranger's bomb training."

Ranger is Jess' German Shepard, he's kind of a teenager dog, because he's not necessarily a puppy, but he's not fully grown either. He lifted his head off the floor and perked his ears up at the sound of his name, before deciding he wasn't be called and laid his head back on the floor.

"You trained your dog to be a bomb sniffer?"

"You haven't?" She asked raising an eyebrow, which completed her stunned look.

"Fair point. But I don't have a dog."

"Well what do you suggest I do, rent a bloodhound every time I need to check for bombs?" She asked, slaughtering an alien without even looking at the screen. "I have way too many enemies and people who want me dead, that would get too expensive."

"Rent a- how on earth do you even rent a bloodhound? Who even rents out bloodhounds?"

"It's a long story involving a parrot and a crowbar." She said simply, chewing on her lower lip.

"Huh. You'll have to send me the plans for that." I looked back down at the book, letting her go back to killing aliens while I continued flipping through the book. Weird. It was him, no doubt.

Chelsea's brother, Jake, came down the stairs. Apparently he's living with Jess because he doesn't have a house, or a job. She's letting him live with her for free, but if you ask me, she should charge him rent or something; money, like a normal person, or pieces of his soul, but that was if you were me. "Hey Jess, have seen my- oh, hi Ruby." He said, with a simple nod. I raised an intimidating eyebrow.