[ For timeforamy ; Air-Paris ]

[mmkaternater]

[ OOC: Follows this ]

There are approximately 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. A respectable number, for any galaxy. But that's small potatoes when compared to the number of stars found in the entire universe -- something like ten to the power of twenty-four -- which is a very pragmatic, comfortingly mathematical way of saying that space is big.

Really big.

Bigger than your whole town, much bigger than the little flat you have in the city, with the leaky shower head and the upstairs neighbors who like to stomp around wearing wellies filled with bricks. Space is bigger than your township, your borough, bigger than all the places you have ever been, combined and multiplied by themselves until the math makes you dizzy and you have to lie down for a while. Big. Ten to the power of twenty-four. Countless suns, all burning out in the black. Of those, maybe a little more than half have planets. Of those, approximately half have some form of life. Of those, approximately sixteen-million-five-hundred-and-forty-seven-thousand-one-hundred-and-eighty-six have intelligent life, or some variation of it. Comparatively speaking, that is a depressingly small percentage. But, then again, "intelligence" is relative, especially across star systems.

The Doctor is in the TARDIS's control room, hunched over the console, his nose inches away from a chronofribrilator feed that, apparently, requires up close and personal inspection in order for it to function properly. He's muttering to himself, soft space-themed mutter. Once in a while his eyebrows will jump, as if he's just thought of something, but then he will return to his work, subdued. He left Amy in his bed down the corridor, asleep. He does not quite know what to think about that.

He does know that he needs to take her somewhere -- somewhere spectacular -- and he needs to do it right away. What are you doing, old man? You can't honestly expect to carry this off. Not when you're not even being entirely honest with her. Not when she's only just lost her --

He hears bare feet on the catwalk above his head. "Pond!" he announces, "glad you're finally awake. Listen, we're just about to make landfall. Oh, er', well, spacefall, I suppose you could say. Air-Paris: the entire City of Lights, replicated perfectly, floating in the Sunset Constellation of Ursa Minor Minor. Sort of like Starship U.K., but with much more wine and cheese."

Comments

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor is jostled about like an old mop head, trying to tell 'up' from 'down' while the dragon tightens its claws around his middle. "Ack! --" he coughs "-- not so tight there, you! What are you trying to do, crush me?" He's able to draw breath and it's then that he sees Amy run into the courtyard. "Amy! What did I tell you? Get out of here!" He makes a sweeping gesture toward her route of exit.

The dragon's wings beat wind in great sweeping gusts, flashing Amy's red hair over her shoulders. It hisses loudly and curls its tail upward, lashing out like a whip. It does not seem particularly concerned about the small little Scottish girl shouting at it.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"And I told you I'm not leaving you!" Amy is as stubborn as he can be, but she has a whole world of human emotion bottled up inside of her. She might be a small, little Scottish girl in the scheme of many things, but right now she isn't in the slightest bit perturbed by that.

What matters is her raggedy Doctor, beloved as he is, being jostled about as though he's nothing more than one of the plush creatures she's crafted over time.

"Let him go! The crack isn't his fault, you let him go!"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor looks up at the snarling maw. "I'd listen to her, if I were you." He means it. Not just because his internal organs are currently being rendered into jelly, but because he's seen good old Amy Pond take on bigger and badder opponents than this, and when she doesn't get her way things tend to, well degenerate fairly quickly.

A growl from above. Then, slowly, the Doctor feels the claws starting to unclench from around his middle. He realizes what's happening a second before it's too late -- the dragon lets go and the Doctor plummets like any good old object with its own mass -- right into a tarpaulin slung between two market stalls. He bounces once. Twice. 'Rolls off the back of the canopy and into a large box of nectarines.

"Oof!" as the round little fruits go rolling everywhere. "Excellent plan, Pond," he says hoarsely, hoisting himself out of the rubble. He crosses the square (a little shaky) and stands beside Amy, addressing the dragon:

"Listen, that was very rude and I don't appreciate it at all." He dusts his lapels. "I'm going to give you one last chance: let me help you, or I am going to have to do something that I won't like very much at all."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

That was - slightly - unexpected, if Amy is completely honest with herself. Her anger was great enough to merit taking down the dragon with her bare hands - at least in her mind, sure - but she wasn't entirely sure she had expected the creature to be agreeable in this. At least, not without some sort of fight put forth.

But she wasn't about to question it right now.

Amy runs to the Doctor's side, not touching him but close enough to feel the rapid in and out of his breath. He was shaken and would have been a fool not to, dragons don't seem quite willing to discriminate towards anything, including Time Lords. Even if they are the last of their race.

She doesn't speak, instead just stays near his side.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The dragon growls, but otherwise gives no indication that it is making plans to roast and eat our heroes. Which is a very good thing, because when it came to contingency plans, the Doctor -- well, he didn't exactly have one. (Short of calling the dragon out on not being a very good sport.)

He glances at Amy, then takes another step toward the dragon. "Just let me help you," he says, trying on his best soothing voice, "you can trust me, I promise. I'm just like you." Well, except for the scales.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Amy is finding it difficult to remember how to breathe normally, especially with this great creature showing its irritation towards them. Her fingers curl against her side and she makes it a deliberate point to not show any fear.

Well, at least not much fear anyway.

She stays silent and near the Doctor, but for this time lets him do the talking.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The great beast slowly lowers itself to the ground with the beating of wings. Its large, scythe-like claws make audible clack-clack-clack-ing sounds when they make contact with the rough cobbles of the street. A small crowd has gathered to watch the Doctor and Amy take on the monster. The sound of sirens wails in the distance. The Doctor hopes he can make inroads with the dragon before the calvary arrives. Dragons, he feels safe assuming, do not very much care for policemen.

Slowly, the dragon settles in the middle of the street. It stretches out its long, scaly neck until it's got its face mere inches away from the Doctor's. The representatives of two species stare one another down -- one with green eyes, the other with bright cat's yellow. It's a tense couple of seconds.

Then the dragon does something remarkable. It lifts its tail and puts it round the Doctor's narrow shoulders.

'Puffs two little tufts of smoke from its nostrils.

The Doctor breathes a sigh of relief.

"Yes," he says, "nice to meet you, too."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

It's right up there with one of the most outrageous things she's ever seen, and it takes a great deal of control for Amy to not laugh a great, delighted sound into the air. That might well serve to jostle the dragon's mindset and scare him, and that would just make things that much worse. She does, however, make a pleased and happy cry, bringing her hands to momentarily clasp together and join.

Leave it to the Doctor to make friends with a dragon on the streets of Air-Paris.

"Very pleased to make your acquaintance," she says, giving a polite nod of her head and a smile to go along with it. Well, best to be kind after all.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The dragon curls its tail around the Doctor's shoulders, prompting the Doctor to "oof" in surprise when he gets a good, friendly squeeze of camaraderie. "Oh, hugs," the Doctor observes pleasantly, but is glad when he gets his breath back. The dragon uses its tail to give the ends of Amy's hair a flirty toss.

"Hey now," the Doctor interjects, testily, "that's enough of that."

But he's grinning like a fool all the same.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"All friends here now, yeah?" Amy is all smiles, she can't help it. The Doctor not only has an infectious sort of grin, but they have just made the best of a very, very bad situation. How could she not be smiling? And admittedly, part of her has always wanted to pet a dragon.

Amy lifts her hand and, gently at that, touches her palm to the dragon's great head. The skin is hard and scaly to the touch - she'd expect that - but there's a warm heartbeat beneath.

He does live and breathe, just like we do.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

As the Doctor watches, the dragon huffs a warm, slightly noxious-smelling breath against Amy's fingertips, the big eyes closing dreamily. "Look at that," the Doctor says thoughtfully, glancing at Amy, "I've never seen a dragon do that before. I think it's safe to say that you soothed the savage beast, Amy."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"Looks like I have a knack for that, yeah?" Amy smooths her hand across the dragon's head with the same gentle touch. It's a comfort to know she's having a positive effect. She turns her bright smile on the Doctor's face, a warm flush of colour in her cheeks.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor hesitates, then puts his hand on the side of the dragon's cold cheek, feeling the ribbed depressions between scales. The animal is very much warm-blooded, he is pleased to discover, and there is an incredible amount of intelligence in the yellow eye that tracks their every movement. The Doctor and Amy's fingertips bump on the slope of the big, black nose.

"What do you say we get him back home?" he says gently, smiling.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"I think that sounds like a good idea." Amy looks to the comfortingly familiar face of her raggedy Doctor and her smile is, in this instant, just for him.

"How do we do that? I don't think he'd much like the TARDIS."

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

He pats his pockets.

"Ah ha --" remembering, reaching over to fiddle with the zipper pocket of her dress "-- TARDIS key. Here."

He produces the key and presses it into her palm. "Run back and let yourself in. In the storeroom, well, the secondary storeroom -- the one next to the conservatory, not the one adjacent to the swimming pool -- there's a shelf with a lot of bits of stuff on it. You should be able to find a matter transference bracelet there. Grab it and pop back here, quick as you please."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"Don't go flying him home without me," she retorts, because she wouldn't put it past him to do just that very thing. He has been known to do something along those lines in the past.

Amy takes the key and breaks into a run, back to the familiar blue box, and turns the key in its doors. A few moments later she's in the storeroom he's told her about and a few more, slightly longer moments later she's found what very much would appear to be a matter transference bracelet.

At any rate, it's kind of cute.

Not quite breathless, Amy runs back to the Doctor and their new, large friend. "Got it!"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Ah, thanks," the Doctor takes the bracelet and flips open a small instrument panel built into the strap. "'Bit small for your wrist, old friend, but we'll manage. Just need to calibrate a few things for the journey home --" he flips the sonic from his pocket and touches it to the dials.

Meanwhile, the dragon flicks its forked tail around Amy's legs, purring like a large, contented cat.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Amy turns her attention to the dragon and feels a surge of affection in her chest. It's like nothing she's ever felt before, something that large and that mythical being alongside her.

"It's hard, being that far from home, isn't it? It'll be okay, it won't be long now."

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

Head down, nose practically wedged between circuits, the Doctor answers unconsciously -- "Yes" -- and quickly looks up, realizing what he's done. "Sorry," he says, "you were talking to the --" he glances at the dragon "-- good."

Blimey, Doctor, get it together.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Amy is slightly surprised by this, and she lifts her head so she can look at the Doctor. Her touch doesn't leave the dragon.

"Is that how you feel, too?"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Hm?" he looks up. "Sorry. I was miles away. Right. Well, I think we've got this set --" he slaps the panel shut and rubs his thumb over the latch to work it back into place "-- if you'll just, you know --" he sort of gestures for the dragon to lift its claw so he can slip to bracelet up to the first knuckle joint, like a wedding band.

The dragon watches the Doctor with wide yellow eyes.

"-- There," the Doctor finishes, stepping backward. "I've programmed the band to take you back to your homeworld. You won't have been gone more than a few minutes since the crack appeared. Once you go, it should snap shut behind you."

The Doctor is putting a lot of faith in the word should at this point.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"See? He's got you all set up." Amy is pleased, she wants the dragon to find its way back home without incident, and her fingers are (mentally) crossed that will be the case. She's seen things not go quite right, and while that doesn't mean they work out for the worse instead of the better, she doesn't know if the dragon will be willing to split that hair.

Amy leans down and kisses a patch on the dragon's scaly head. Her hand passes across the surface again and she smiles with tenderness in her face.

"You can go home now. Everything's all right."

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The dragon raises its foot, inspecting the transmatter device. It gives the Doctor the dragon equivalent look of 'If you say so' before it bumps its nose between the pair of them, the purr as loud now as diesel engine. "Yes, yes," the Doctor says, patting the beast's head, "you're very welcome. Just don't go wandering off again, eh?"

He winks at Amy.

The dragon draws back as a series of low beeps chirp from the transmatter device. The Doctor looks sadly and fondly upon the dragon -- "Goodbye" -- as the air in front of them cracks open and swallows the dragon with a bright pop of light.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

There is a sadness in Amy's chest, too, something tight and unmoving, and she thinks she will actually miss the great best, for all the havoc it broke across the city. It didn't mean to, it was just lost and scared.

Amy looks skyward and steps back to the Doctor's side, watching the great beast disappear into white, impossible light. Her fingers bump against his knuckles as she reaches for his hand.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor glances over. He sees Amy's white hand creeping in the air between them, nails bright beneath the flare of her red sleeve, and he joins his fingers with hers. "Are you all right?" he asks evenly.