THE DUMBBELL NEBULA
edited as of January 4th, 2020
Charlotte didn't leave after Amy went to her room, after staying in the console room with the Doctor for a few minutes, she finally yawned when she retired to her bedroom. Putting on her pajamas, she almost immediately fell asleep once her head hit her pillow.
She's at a funeral... At least, she thinks it's a funeral. Charlotte aided a group of people in carrying a casket down the aisle. And as she kept her head forward, in the direction of the priest standing at the front of this church.
Once her group sat the casket down at the table in front of the rows, Charlotte could feel the unnatural sadness again. Yet, even in her dream, she didn't cry when she listens to the priest's opening statement.
Charlotte woke up on her side with a burst of energy before it quickly dissipated. Even in her tired state, she knows well enough that she isn't going to fall asleep again. Rubbing her eyes, Charlotte groggily stood up.
---
The TARDIS corridors were awfully quiet. Despite it being "nighttime" throughout the spaceship, Charlotte finds the hum echoing throughout it to be eerie without the addition of talking. So, of course, she is highly relieved after passing by the control room and seeing the Doctor sitting in the open TARDIS doorway looking out to a magnificent nebula.
With a mix of bright pinks and blues, Charlotte wondered how he could sit in front of the blazing nebula for so long without getting a headache. Mesmerized, she walks forward only to be noticed by the Doctor when she sat down beside him, both of their legs dangling out of the TARDIS.
"I thought you went to bed?" he asked her.
She shrugged. "I woke up."
"Ah." The Doctor looks back up to the nebula, then down back to her, who admired it in silence. "First time here, then?"
"I don't even know where here is."
He opened his arms wide as if he was a tour guide- which he is if you think about it. "Messier 27, M27. Or, just Dumbbell Nebula, if you like."
She gave a small smile. "Yeah, that one fits it the best."
"And..." the Doctor raises his arm, squinting as he points to a speck in the distance. "- there's Earth."
Following his finger, and looking closely, Charlotte was unsuccessful in finding the Earth. Nonetheless, to see such a familiar planet so far away left her open-mouthed. "I've... I've never seen it from far away. Wow..." Charlotte laughed. "This is insane."
"Nothing insane about it."
"That's what makes it insane." She looks from the console to the Doctor, who looks back at her strangely. "Here's you, with a time machine. That's normal, as far as normal goes, but then you bring me to places like...!" Charlotte waved her hands at the nebula, glancing back up at the Earth's general direction. "And, the Earth, it's so small. And it makes sense when you don't think about it, but, when you do, it's insane!"
While her eyes get lost in the space beyond them, Charlotte had a simple thought that brought down her grin easily. This basic thought, which, while true, made her falter. The split-second thought being, 'This is the best thing to ever happen to me.' Not the birth of her niece, not her graduation, but leaving her home for the TARDIS is the best thing to happen to her.
Charlotte had a family, she had friends, but when she boiled it down to the truth, her friends were her family. Her best friend was her sister and then her parents were the ones she went to when she needed help. She had friends from work, but those friendships always ended or never had a chance to grow.
For the most part, Charlotte's only trusted her family. Then, she's here, not as in Dumbbell Nebula, but in this universe. Here, with all of these semi-new people, with the majority trusting her, and every one of them she trusts back.
Minus Aino, she still doesn't like her much.
Then, she thought of the time where she was desperate for him to tell her he trusts her. When it hurt when he said he didn't. Now, she brushed past it, but the reminder caused her to look over to the Doctor.
"I trust you," Charlotte affirmed. "I. Trust. You not because you've saved my life, but because-" her shoulders slumped down when the words got stuck on her tongue. "Because you're my best friend." When he said nothing, just studying her face, Charlotte continued, "No, the best friend I've ever had."
The Doctor's shoulders slumped, not sure what more to say more than the obvious, "I trust you too."
She nods. "Then I trust you'll tell me the truth, Doctor: Who's Aino?"
That caused him to sigh, looking back into the nebula for a moment, before looking back to her. He tried to find the perfect lie, but nothing seemed to sound good enough, so, he tried to deflect. "Who's River?"
"Can't tell. Who's Aino?"
Knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere, the Doctor groaned. "We met a while ago." He stopped and Charlotte beckoned him to continue. "She tried to steal the TARDIS. Was pretty close to, 'course I caught her when she was about to."
That made Charlotte like her less, glancing back at the console with her mouth agape, she exclaims, "What?! How?"
Even though this was bringing back a memory where he nearly lost the TARDIS, which happens a scary amount, the Doctor got a glint in his eye. "It was quite brilliant. It wasn't just her, her and her ex. He was the worst, like the feeling of chalk." His nose scrunched up. "He's still in Stormcage."
Charlotte sighed. "For a second I thought it was going to be murder, so that's better, I guess."
"That too," he adds, "for aiding in a few murders, but those charges were dropped."
"I just... I don't understand."
Knowing it could sound rather confusing, the Doctor paused before he decided the right thing to say. "Aino told me she had this device that made people think she looked a certain way, then she went back in time relocated the people, made herself look like each of them, and then. Well, and then, she died for them. Got her pardon through that."
This highly confused Charlotte. What was the purpose of trying to steal the TARDIS? How did she even reverse the deaths? Charlotte groaned from the onslaught of new questions, but most of all, and the only one that she managed to ask was, "How did she even survive?"
"Easy. She regenerated."
Charlotte rubbed her face. "But, I thought..."
The Doctor looks down at her as she tried to take in the new information. "There isn't anything to worry about," he assured her. "Aino, when we saw her, she didn't know her and I are the last. Doesn't even know about the war."
Charlotte took in a breath and held it. Occasionally, their conversations could get deep but never has he brought up the Time War to her. While she would be thankful later he could mention it to her by choice, at the moment, Charlotte was clueless on what to say. With too many questions on Aino still floating in her head yet unable to get any out, she sat in silence as she looked back up at the nebula.
Obviously, it hadn't changed since she last glanced at it. But, after all of this news was thrown down at her, the Dumbbell Nebula seemed brighter.
"Anywho," interrupted the Doctor. "There's something else."
Raising an eyebrow, Charlotte turned her head. "Yeah?"
"One second," he says to her as he began shoving his hands down the pockets of his jacket as if searching for something at the bottom of the pockets. A moment later, he took something out before throwing it to the side and continuing to rummage through the pockets until he grinned as he took out something that caused Charlotte's face to drop.
"My watch?" she exclaimed in a whisper. If this couldn't get any more confusing, there her watch was, staring back at her.
"You told me to take it from you. Didn't know why at the time, but I realized it was because it would've burned up on Midnight," he revealed to Charlotte as she took the watch. "I replaced it with a fake one so you didn't go looking for it and didn't get any chance until now to give it back."
Yet again, in such a small period of time, Charlotte was at a loss of words. Inspecting it closely, she saw the cracks left on it from her childhood and needed no more explaining to understand this was the real watch. "... Thank you," she tells him. "Just thank you."
After saying not much more, and she filled him in on the situation with Amy and Rory, including what would've happened if he went in Amy's room, the two continued to sit outside the nebula. Neither taking into account as their hands interconnected nor when a far more tired Charlotte dropped her head onto his shoulder. Charlotte's time outside of the Dumbbell Nebula came to a halt not because she decided to get up, not because she left this part of time, but because her eyes drooped down as she finally went back to sleep.
In her last moments awake, she knew she liked it here with her legs dangling outside of the TARDIS and this specific nebula in front of her. She liked it enough to swear she'll go back one day.
Only if it meant she wouldn't go alone.
_______
Next up: Cap'n (Boom Town Part One)
GIF FROM gif-hunts-for-you ON TUMBLR
a/n: can you tell I wrote this at midnight