THE SNOWMEN
edited as of july 23rd, 2021
Charlotte has tried everything. Reading jokes straight from a Victorian joke book, playing modern comedies, etcetera... yet nothing has been sufficient to help him in away way. For her attempt of the day, Charlotte decided to make dinner. Something she hasn't done in a long time due to the fact the TARDIS can do it on her own.
Apparently, the TARDIS made it even harder for her. The ship was out of salt the one time anyone here wanted to make something, so she left for the shop in hopes they'd have something a time machine wouldn't.
Charlotte jumps off the ladder and into the snow. Pushing the ladder back up, she begins to walk in the shop's direction before she felt the wind on her bare forearms. Her dress's sleeves went only to her elbows, thus why she was supposed to get her coat for the freezing late-December weather.
Yet, she wasn't cold. Despite the snow falling down and the wind forcing it onto her bare skin, she was warm- hot, even. With the snow clouds blocking the sun's view, when Charlotte looks up, there was no hope that it was simply getting warming.
Was this sudden warmth a sign? She has been here for nearly a month, could it be a side-effect of Aino's soul being ready at any moment to take over her body?
"I need salt," Charlotte reminded herself, forgetting her lack of coat, and began walking in the snowfall without an ounce of chill.
---
After returning to the empty TARDIS with the salt, Charlotte closed her eyes and opened them in the middle of a poker match in an old building she couldn't locate. She has only played once, a few months ago, and found some enjoyment in continuing the game from Aino until she saw the time: nearly eight.
"Got to go, boys," she says to her opponents, pushing her chips to the right and setting her cards down.
Outside of the building, Charlotte holds her dress up for the snow as she runs back to the park. Jumping up, she pulls on the ladder with her body weight before climbing up. Rushing up the stairs, she reaches the TARDIS with just enough energy to open up the door.
Ten minutes later, she was on the phone with the Doctor while making the salad. Once he finished speaking about the woman he met minutes ago, Charlotte said, "Well, I like seeing you making new friends. Was she nice?"
She could practically hear him roll his eyes. "I just spoke to her. Briefly."
"I'd bet she say something different," Charlotte says as she looks around for the bowl's lid. "Said something impactful to her, no doubt."
"No, no impact at all. Those days are over." Over the speaker, the Doctor hears the salad being shaken. "What are you doing?"
Charlotte continues shaking the ingredients together. "Never mind me. You can't help but make impacts, you do it without realizing." She sets the bowl to the side. "I might be forgetting some of the bits and pieces-" as a result of being here so long. "-but the stories always have the same beginning. Same two words."
As the Doctor continues speaking, Charlotte's eyes widened when realizing she forgot to add the salt, the very thing she was stuck on most of the night. "I have to go..." she says, hanging up.
---
Charlotte, with her coat on this time, stands beneath the ladder while the whistling Doctor approaches from where he jumped the fence. When he gets close enough, she jokingly asks, "Going up?"
He looks around quickly and, when believing no one was around, jumps to catch the ladder. Climbing up the ladder, and then the stairs, Charlotte ignores the person following them and starts a conversation. "How is everyone?" she asks him.
"You saw them yesterday," responds the Doctor.
Walking up the stairs behind him, she sighed. "I know that. Just curious."
"Strax lost his memory from that memory worm."
"Oh," said Charlotte, pausing on a step before seeing the Doctor continuing upwards. "Well, I meant to tell him... Just went over my head is all."
They finally reached the cloud where the TARDIS resides. "That gauntlet went over his head, too."
"Stop that. You're making me feel bad." Charlotte, with her key ready, opens the door. "He didn't lose anything significant, right?" The Doctor goes in before her and she closes the door behind them. "... Right?"
"Nothing important."
Charlotte's reply was interrupted by a quick knock on the TARDIS's door. Confusedly, the Doctor looks over at her but she only shrugs- obviously, Charlotte knew what was occurring.
The Doctor opens the door, looking around the cloud-top for whoever knocked. "Hello?" With no response or signs, he steps out and walks forward. "Hello?"
As he walks around the TARDIS exterior, Charlotte looks up to the ceiling waiting until she heard footsteps beginning to run down the stairwell to run out of the TARDIS. Knowing she'd never catch up to Clara's headstart, she stops in front of the fallen red shawl and picks it up.
The Doctor stops beside her, realizing what happened as he spots her further down the stairway.
"She's bound to show up again," says Charlotte, handing him the shawl and walks back to the TARDIS. "It's time to eat that salad."
---
The next morning, Charlotte arrives at Vastra and Jenny's home. She had thought if she got stressed out by one of their cases, then she'll be able to leave this time. To be frank, Charlotte wasn't even positive if stress was a factor in determining when she leaves, but she hoped.
Last night, when the Doctor hid in a faraway corner, she had learned she had less time than she thought. The one time she had spent a month in one time was the totally wrong moment, and now she is forced to plan where to go in case she must die in 1892.
She knocks on the front door, and Madame Vastra opens it a moment later. "Charlotte," she greets, "Jenny and Strax will arrive soon. Come in."
"Thank you." Charlotte smiles, hanging the coat- which she only wore to not receive odd looks- on the coat rack. "What are they doing out?"
Vastra leads her to her conservatory, a room that could easily make one believe it was summer from the array of tropical plants. "Assessing the snow. Sit."
Charlotte sits across from her. "You called me here for a reason." She crosses her legs. "What is it?"
From a pitcher, Vastra pours a red drink into a glass. "I went to a play a few months ago, it was lousy and poorly written, but there was a character who reminds me greatly of you. Now, why's that?"
Charlotte tilts her head. "What do you mean?"
"The character, he never seemed to have a set personality," she said, looking the brunette in the eyes. "You, like him, act differently at random times. You go from someone who has known us-" Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. "-for a month, to a person who is distant and takes the first excuse to leave."
Uncrossing her legs, Charlotte envelopes herself into the chair. "I don't know what you mean."
"Last night, after an encounter with Dr. Simeon, Jenny and I saw you on your own." Vastra pauses, making the hairs stick up on the back of Charlotte's neck. "...On your way to a poker game."
Charlotte sighs. "Please, there's nothing wrong with me."
"I never said there was."
They locked eyes; Vastra was testing to see how long it'd take Charlotte to back down and admit what is happening to her, and Charlotte holding her ground to do the opposite. Instead of one or the other diverting their gaze, however, the front door opening catches both of their attention.
Strax moves to block the entrance to the conservatory. "Do not attempt to escape or you will be obliterated!" he threatens the woman in front of him. "May I take your coat?"
Charlotte turns her head to see Clara walking behind Jenny, nervously, as she enters the room. With a blink, Aino stands up and gestures for Clara to take her spot. "That's my cue," she said, turning to leave.
Vastra stops her. "Why don't you stay?" And before Aino could deny, Vastra continues to insist. "Sit."
In a chair near the back of the room, Aino sits down despite her better judgment. She looks around at the plants while Vastra spoke to Clara, the latter of who looked at the red drink.
"There are two refreshments in your world the color of red wine." She took a sip of it. "This is not red wine." Vastra sets the glass on the side table.
"Madame Vastra will ask you questions," says Jenny, who stands beside Clara's chair. "You will confine yourself to single-word responses. One word only, do you understand?" Jenny moves to sit in a chair behind her.
Clara scrunches her eyebrows, looking at Vastra. "Why?"
"Truth is singular," responds Vastra. "Lies are words, words, words. You met the Doctor, didn't you?"
Aino leans forward in her chair as Clara says: "Yes."
"And now you've come looking for him again." Vastra tilts her head. "Why?"
Noticing Clara's struggle finding a single word, Jenny leans forward to tell her, "Take your time. One word only."
Clara looks to Vastra. "Curiosity."
"About?"
"Snow."
"And about him?"
Clara nods. "Yes."
"What do you want from him?" questions Vastra.
"Help," Clara answers.
"Why?"
Aino's eyes widen as Clara said, "Danger," as she was previously unaware of what's happening.
"Why would he help you?"
"Kindness."
Aino sighed. "I'm sorry," she says, catching their attention. "But the Doctor isn't kind."
"No?" replies Clara.
Vastra was looking at Aino, noting her comment, before re-catching Clara's attention. "No," she said. "The Doctor doesn't help people. Not anyone, not ever. He stands above this world and doesn't interfere in the affairs of its inhabitants. He is not your salvation, nor your protector. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"
"Words."
Jenny grins at the answer and Aino crosses her arms, ready to hear more of what Vastra has to say.
"He was different once, a long time ago," she began. "Kind, yes. A hero, even, a saver of worlds. But he suffered losses that hurt him." She glanced to Aino, curious about how she would react. "Now he prefers isolation to the possibility of pain's return. Kindly choose a word to indicate your understanding of this."
Clara only thought for a moment before replying, "Man."
Vastra glances back to Jenny, who nods her head at the answer. "We are the Doctor's friends. We assist him in his isolation but that does not mean we approve of it. So... a test for you. Give me a message for the Doctor. Tell him all about the snow and what fresh danger you believe it presents, and above all, explain why he should help you."
Clara takes a large inhale, but instead of giving her message, Vastra puts a finger on her lips. "But do it in one word," she reminds her. "You are thinking it is impossible that such a word exists, or that you could even find it. Let's see if the gods are with you."
After giving her response, Vastra leans back in her chair. All three pairs of eyes were set on Clara, awaiting her response. After a moment's wait, Clara's decision was said. At her word, Jenny and Vastra glance at each other.
Aino didn't know why they acted in that way; however, to her, a pond was only a body of water. To the wives, the fact Clara answered with "Pond" was remarkable and a piece of hope the Doctor will return from his cloud. Vastra took a quick glance at Aino and notices her confusion.
Later in the night, it was still a hot Christmas Eve for Charlotte, who wore minimal layers underneath her coat. She has replaced Aino over three hours ago, during a conversation with Vastra which she was left with very little context of. Now she sits on the edge of the pond's border, her back was to Latimer House as the Doctor scans the pond with the sonic screwdriver.
Stargazing, Charlotte only listens slightly as the Doctor says to himself, "Body frozen in a pond, the snow gets a good long look at a human being, like a full-body scan. Everything they need to evolve." He tilts his head to inspect the frozen water. "Pond. Good point, Clara."
Strax enters the garden and the Doctor turns to the Sontaran, who, as usual, was carrying his gun. "What are you doing here?"
"Madame Vastra wondered if you were needing any grenades?"
Charlotte jumps off the border. "Grenades? Did I hear you right?"
"Of course that's what I said, boy," Strax sneers. "She might have said help."
"Help for what?" questioned the Doctor.
"Well, your investigation."
He rolled his eyes at Strax's response. "Investigation? Who says I'm investigating? Do you think I'm going to start investigating just because some bird smiles at me?" The Doctor pointed at Strax accusingly. "Who do you think I am?"
As the Doctor turns away, about to inspect the pond further, Strax answers with: "Sherlock Holmes."
He turns back to Strax. "Don't be clever, Strax, it doesn't suit you."
"Sorry, sir."
"I'm the clever one." The Doctor pokes Strax between the eyes. "You're the potato one."
While Strax replies with "Yes, sir," Charlotte rolled her eyes at what the Doctor had to say.
"Now go away." He climbs onto the pond's edge, returning to the investigation- even if he refused to call it as such.
"Yes..." began Strax, pausing before he says to Charlotte, "Watson" as he walks away.
"Oi!" shouted the Doctor. "Shut up, you're not clever or funny and you've got tiny little legs!"
Charlotte shakes her head. "You're the one who decided to go in disguise." Knowing she was correct, the Doctor sighs.
Humming, Charlotte looks behind the Doctor as a light turns on in one of the rooms and a curtain is opened. "That's my cue," she whispers. Seeing the Doctor's confusion, she points to the window.
Turning around, his eyes widened before turning back to Charlotte only to see her leaving. "No, no, no," he repeated. "I don't think that's a good idea."
She spins to face him while walking backwards to the exit. "Then come with me." Charlotte spun to face the direction of the exit and left the Doctor to face Latimer House and see Clara wave through her window.
_______
Next Up: The Renaissance (The Snowmen)
GIF FROM scriptscribbles ON TUMBLR
a/n:
two more chapters I'm so sad