"I can't tell weather or not I hate this. I'm pretty sure I hate it."
"Oh stop pouting! You look great." Rose scolded as she slid a bobby pin into her hair. I shook my head, staring down my reflection in the TARIDS wardrobe's full-length mirror.
"But see, by who's standard do I look great?" I questioned. "Because I usually dress according to my own standard, and that standard says I look like a blueberry in a petticoat."
We were travelling to the late 1950's, and the Doctor had suggested a change of clothes in order for us to look the part. I'd gone through several hideous outfit changes before Rose eventually decided that she was going to choose for me. She chose semi-matching outfits for us both, consisting of poofy pink and blue dresses with white petticoats, paired with Harrington jackets of different shades. Hers was Navy blue, while mine was two-toned with pale blue and black. We paired our outfits off with stockings and 50s style heels that matched the aesthetic of our outfits.
Rose, for one, looked great, like 1950s Barbie or something, whereas I felt extremely out of character, given my preferences of band t-shirts and black denim.
She had also insisted on doing my hair and makeup as well, so while she was rocking a stylish up-do held together with a pink headband, my hair was in ringlet curls and pinned out of my face. It wasn't that I thought Rose had done a bad job styling me...it was just very out of my comfort zone.
"Its happening, you're not changing again. I'm putting my foot down this time," She said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the exit. "Doctor, please tell Mary she looks great!"
She dragged me out of the wardrobe and into the console room, where the Doctor was standing in front of a smaller mirror and attempting to gel his hair up into a more 50's look.
"Why's it matter how you look? Who are you trying to impress, Elvis?" He asked, smiling widely as he turned his head to finally look at us. His smile faltered and Rose smiled, glancing at me and folding her hands behind her back.
"I think he'd be impressed, don't you?" She questioned. His eyes were locked on me, his mouth hanging open with the remnants of his fallen smile. His eyes combed over my ensemble, making me all the more uncomfortable as I felt the blood rush into my cheeks.
"That's it, I'm changing again." I insisted, turning around to leave again. Rose grabbed my arms in her hands, draping an arm across my body to stop me from doing so. She moved to grip my shoulders, turning me around to face the Doctor. "This is humiliating! Rose actually looks good, I just look ridiculous."
"You don't look ridiculous!" Rose groaned in frustration. "Doctor, tell her!"
"Y...you don't look ridiculous." He said, swallowing hard. "No, y-you look...nice. You look good-both of you look...good." He quickly turned back to the mirror.
"Look, at him, he doesn't know what to say! He's all flustered." Rose giggled in my ear, moving toward the door of the TARDIS. She stepped outside and I moved to stand beside the Doctor.
"Nice hair." I said, smiling amusedly at him.
"Yeah, right back at you." He said, flicking a curl over my shoulder.
"Oh right, one more thing," I said, reaching into my pocket, "Do you think you could fix the clasp on the locket? I kind of broke it when I yanked it off during the Cybermen attack."
Hold the pendant in your hand. I don't want him to look at it.
"You sure our little wearable friend wants that?" He asked, glancing between my face and the chain hanging from my hand.
"Apparently, as long as you aren't looking it in the pendant, your fine." I said dryly, holding up the chain. He shook his head, holding the clasp in his hand and scanning it with the sonic. A small spark jumped from it, causing me to jump in surprise.
"There we are! Should be good as new." He said, pocketing the sonic again. "Need a hand?"
"Do you mind?" I turned around, taking great care to drape the chains over my shoulders and keep the locket clutched in my hand. He took either side of the chain, his fingers brushing the back of my neck as he clasped it.
"Its almost like the locket's as insecure about its appearance as you are." The Doctor pointed out as I turned to face him again. I rolled my eyes.
"I thought we'd be going for the Vegas era." Rose called from outside. I followed her out, glancing around. "You know, the white flares and the grrr chest hair."
"You are kidding, aren't you?" The Doctor asked, sticking his head out the door to address her. "If you wanna see Elvis, you go to the late '50s. The time before burgers, when they called him 'The Pelvis' and he still had a waist!"
"Not to mention before Colonel Tom Parker destroyed him, the wanker." I threw in, adjusting my skirt around my legs. Rose laughed at this.
"What's more, you see him in style."
The sound of an engine came roaring from the TARDIS, prompting Rose and I to both whip around as the Doctor drove out of the TARDIS on a dark, TARDIS colored moped, with a white helmet on his head and sunglasses on his face. He had a pink and blue helmet dangling from each arm, both the perfect matching shade of our dresses.
He pulled around to a smooth stop, offering us both an Elvis-esque smile.
"You goin' my way doll?" He asked, in his best Elvis impression.
"Is there any other way to go, Daddy-o?" Rose replied, putting her pink sunglasses on her eyes. "Straight from the fridge, man!"
"Hey! You speak the lingo!" The Doctor laughed, tossing her the pink helmet.
"Yeah, well me and Mu, Cliff Richard movies every Bank Holiday Monday." She said, putting it on and climbing on behind him. The Doctor tossed me my own helmet and I shrugged.
"Ah, Cliff. I knew your mother'd be a Cliff fan."
"What do you expect me to do with this?" I asked, holding it up. "Doctor, that thing's tiny, you can't possibly expect to fit three of us on that."
"Oh, sure we can. We'll just have to get a bit creative." He grabbed my wrist, pulling me so that I fell into him, sitting sideways in his lap. I shook my head, holding the helmet in my lap.
"This can't be legal."
"Since when has that stopped us?" He asked, smiling confidently at me. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, pulling the helmet onto my head and looking at the Doctor. His eyes watched as my fingers fastened the helmet under my chin, before gravitating lower to where the pendant of my locket sat on my chest. My hand shot out of its own accord, grabbing his face and smushing his cheeks together before shoving his head up to meet my eyes again.
"Eyes front, Doctor." I said before I could stop myself. He looked at me, confused, and I furrowed my eyebrows as I pulled my hand away from his face, trying to process what had just happened. "You um...you've got to be driving, remember so...eyes on the road."
"Right...course." He said, revving the engine before taking off down the road. I screamed slightly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders in order to steady myself as he took off down the suburban street we'd landed on.
"Where are we off to?!" Rose shouted over the engine.
"Ed Sullivan TV studios!" The Doctor answered. "Elvis did Hound Dog on one of the shows. There were loads of complaints. Bit of luck, we'll just catch it."
"And that would be the TV studios in, what, New York?" Rose questioned.
"That's the one!"
"Say Doctor," I called, "How often do you reckon they deck New York City streets out in British flags?"
"What?!" He asked, just as a bright red double decker bus pulled out in front of us, causing the bike to skid to a stop. Rose giggled.
"Digging that New York vibe." She said, as she and the Doctor touched their feet to the road.
"Well, this could still be New York. I mean, this looks very New York to me." The Doctor tried. I shook my head. "London-y New York, mind, but..."
"What are all the flags for?" I glanced down the road a way to see four men gathered behind a van.
"Well...why don't we go find out?" I asked, jumping off of the Doctor's lap and pulling my helmet off of my head. I tossed the helmet toward the Doctor with one hand and he caught it as I made my way toward the men and the van.
"There we go, sir. All wired up for the great occasion." One of them said, as two other young men were loading a vintage television set out of the back of the van.
"Great occasion?" I asked, prompting the man to turn around and look at me. "Would you mind being more specific?"
"Where you been livin', out in the colonies?" The man asked, pushing the van doors closed as the Doctor and Rose came up behind me. "The coranation of course."
I nodded.
"And what coronation's that, then?" The Doctor asked. I furrowed my eyebrows, turning around to look at him.
"The coranation." I said. He just looked at me blankly.
"The Queen's. Queen Elizabeth!' Rose told him.
"Oh! Is this 1953?!"
"Last time I looked." The man told him. "Time for a lovely bit of pomp and circumstance. What we do best."
"Look at all the TV aerials," Rose said, glancing around at the houses on either side of us, "Looks like everyone's got one. That's weird, my mum said tellies were so rare, they all had to pile into one house."
"Not around here, love," The man replied as the Doctor walked a little ways down the street, "Magpie's Marvellous Tellies, only five quid a pop."
He gestured to the logo on his van.
"Oh, but this is a brillian year, classic!" The Doctor exclaimed excitedly. "Technicolor! Everest climbed! Everything off the ration! A nation throwing off the shackles of war and looking forward to a happier, brighter future!"
Rose giggled at his optimisim and I paused, turning to look at Mr. Magpie once again.
"I'm sorry, five quid a pop you said?" I asked. "Five Quid for a television set? That's cheap. Even for the fifties that's cheap."
"SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE! TED!"
I whirled around at the sudden sound of screams to see a woman watching helplessly as two men forced a person, whose head was covered by a blanket, into a vehicle. I took off running in the direction of the chaos, the Doctor not far behind me.
"What's going on!?" The Doctor called.
"Wait, what are you doing?!" A young boy asked, running out of the same house.
"Police business. Get out of the way, sir." One of the men told the Doctor.
"Who did they take, do you know him?" Rose asked the boy, gesturing to the person being forced into the car. I moved over to the sobbing wife, putting a hand on each of her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.
"Must be Mr. Gallagher," The boy said, as the car pulled away, "Its happening all over the place. They're turning into monsters."
"Tommy!" The boy turned around to face another couple, who were standing in the doorway of the the house he'd just come out of, "Not one word. Get inside, now!"
"Sorry, I'd better do as he says." The boy said, turning back toward the house. The sobbing woman laid her head on my shoulder, and I rubbed her back, whispering comfortingly to her.
"Doctor!" I called, prompting him to look at me. I nodded in the direction of the car and he nodded.
"Right, all aboard!' He and Rose rushed back toward the moped, putting their helmets back on and taking off down the road after the car.
"Its alright. Shh, its alright, they're going after him." I told her. She pulled herself out of my grasp, rushing back into her house and slamming the door shut behind her. I shook my head, turning around to see Mr. Magpie rushing into his driver's seat and pulling away as quickly as possible.
"Uncharacteristically cheap tellies and men being turned into monsters," I muttered, shaking my head, "What are you up to 1953?"