Now that everyone had changed out of their wedding attire, the entire atmosphere felt more casual and calm. Energy still buzzed around the room, delight from the wedding far from running out.
The Doctor stared at the vortex manipulator that was sitting on the table as if it were nothing more than another everday object rather than a time traveling machine brimming with immense power. He took into his hands and looked it over, trying to find some sort of clue from it. What exactly he was looking for was beyond him, but he supposed he might find something of use.
But as he tossed it around between his palms he found that there was nothing extraordinary about this particular vortex manipulator. It was visually exactly the same as the two devices he had come in contact with in the past. A spectator from the twenty first century would likely pass it off as being a strange and exceptionally fancy watch with how much leather it was sporting.
The material was cracked and weathered, showing that this vortex manipulator had been through a lot. That was the only bit of information the Doctor was able to glean from the device, and it was something he easily could had guessed off the top of his head without even giving so much as a glance to the condition of it.
"Doctor, what is that, exactly?" Clara asked. She had noticed his curiosity and had found that she was now intrigued as well.
"It's a vortex manipulator," the Doctor responded. He turned it around in his hands once more, hoping that something of importance would jump out at him. Once again, this was far from the case. "It wants to imitate a TARDIS by traveling through the time vortex, but it's very inferior. Painful, even."
"Oh, Daddy, shush about the vortex manipulator," Brook sighed, pulling herself into the conversation. "It's not really that bad, Clara. Yes, the TARDIS is better, but he's making it sound far worse than it is."
"I'm still not exactly sure how I'm supposed to be using it," Foreman mumbled, both embarrassed of his shortcoming and fearful of what his wife's reaction to his disagreeement would be. "At least a TARDIS makes sense."
"Don't listen to them, Clara. They're Time Lords. Biased, prejudiced Time Lords," Brook laughed. "This is coming from the Child of the TARDIS squared, too."
"Hey!" the Doctor said, getting offended. But no matter how he tried to formulate a way to retaliate, he came up dry. With a sigh, he just decided to move on.
"How did you get this vortex manipulator, anyways?" the Doctor asked. "They seem to be fairly difficult to get your hands on."
"Oh, the story of how I got this vortex manipulator..." Brook began, her voice trailing off at the end of the sentence. She let out a happy sigh, her eyes raising as she found herself drifting back into the memories from this experience.
"I've never heard this story, so I'm just as fascinated," Foreman said, crossing his arms and stepping forwards.
Brook realized that there was no getting around this. There were three sets of fascinated eyes focused on her, and she had to oblige to their demands from a story
The night of her seventeenth birthday stuck in her head like it was glued down. Her mother had shown up for the first time in a long while. That had seemed like a good enough birthday present to Brook. But then she found that she not only had she gotten spent a night having an adventure with her mother, she got the gift of time travel.
The first physical gift that she had recieved was a book. Of course, it wasn't anything particularly unique for her to recieve a book. River Song gave her a new book every time she visited. But on her birthday, Brook recieved a apparently special book. It told a tale of her grandparents and her father, and it was penned by River herself.
Brook held it out in front of her, turning it around to see how much detail she could find just in the front cover.
"Interesting cover choice. I like the title, though-The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery. Alliteration is always amusing, agree?"
River Song let out a laugh, having gotten used to her daughter's way of speech by now. "Well, that's not how I expected you to react, it'll work. Make sure to read that book as soon as you can."
"I'll read it now if it's that imperative," Brook said, her smile falling into a straight face as she let go of the joke. "Kidding. It's my birthday and my mother is here. We can do something together. And I have got the most perfect idea."
"And what is that, may I ask?"
"Well..." Brook said, holding out the "l" sound at the end. Then she spit it all out in a single breath, saying, "I want to time travel. I want a way that I can time travel by myself, without using Daddy's TARDIS or your vortex manipulator."
"Oh, Brook," River sighed. "I wish it was that easy to get a time machine of some sort. But only time agents have vortex manipulators."
"Then how did you get yours?" Brook challenged. If she had to be stubborn about this, she was going to put everything she had into it. That was the only way to convince River Song to do anything: she had realized this fact early in her life and put it into motion.
River hesitated, reacting just as Brook had wanted her to. She then said, "I have my ways."
"And I have my own," Brook said, folding her hands together. "Listen. I've got an idea, but I'll need your help to pull it off."
Soon River found herself waiting outside of Brook's door as her daughter searched in her treasure trobe of a closet. She needed to find the perfect outfit for their escapades.
"51st century, right?" Brook yelled from inside the room.
"Yes, and make sure to dress fancy."
"Well, of course. It's a party," Brook laughed. You could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I'm still your mother, don't speak to me like that. Even if it is your birthday and we're going out to steal a vortex manipulator."
Even though Brook felt a bit of heaviness after being reprimanded, her lips turned upwards. How many families anywhere and any time ever could say those same words? Nope, only her time traveling family could, which made her as happy as could be.
Brook strutted out wearing a black floor length gown, making sure to place each step carefully. She spun around, modeling the evening dress. Though it was a fairly simple dress, it was very flattering to her. There was a reason she had stolen this gown to begin with.
"That's my girl," said River approvingly. Brook walked over to her mother who started typing away at her vortex manipulator. They shared a smile, and then Brook put her hand on the device. The two seemed to flash out of the air like a magic trick-one second they were there and the next they were gone.
River and Brook had set out to 5021. The 51st century was known for the rise of time agents. It was almost certain that there would be one of these agents out partying. The goal of the mother-daughter duo was to find such a person and then take their vortex manipulator away.
"It's awfully risky," River said. "Are you sure you really want to do this now?"
"Yes, yes, I'll be fine." Brook was too busy pacing around to listen to her mother's warnings. She was too busy reviewing her plan and figuring out what to do if something were to go wrong and fall apart.
"You've got a gun?"
"Hidden and ready to be fired at a moment's notice, yes."
"What about the hallucinogenic lipstick?"
"Goodness, Mom. Are you going to ask me if I brought my toothpaste and a pillow next? I've got everything. Don't worry. If something goes wrong we run and you vortex manipulate us out of here," Brook replied.
River tilted her head, seeing that her daughter certainly had a point. She continued, saying, "Sounds like a plan."
"I feel like the worst thing that could happen is that this strapless dress could fall." Brook immediately pushed up the neckline of her gown upon saying this, as if speaking about it had started to make it droop down.
"At least it's the 51st century," River replied. "No one would care if it did fall down."
The two shared a laugh, which ended up being extremely calming. The prospect of going on a heist had made the two of them hyped up on adrenaline and stress, but just spending a relaxing moment together was exactly what they needed.
It wasn't long until the two had found themselves a party, where River split off and hid to the side. Her job was to be ready to run with Brook if anything went wrong. If everything went right, though, she would likely still have to bolt.
Brook walked into the party and didn't waste a moment before she began to survey her surroundings. There were quite a few visitors from other planets, and they had brought along their foods as well. She glanced over and felt herself salivating. But then she caught herself-she was on a mission.
As she scanned over the area again, she found who she was looking for. The time agent was standing right in the center of the room, showing off his vortex manipulator to a wide group of admirers. Brook knew exactly what she had to do.
She strutted up to him and began to flirt.
Come on, you can do this. Flirting is in your genes.
Before she knew it she had whisked the time agent away to a slightly more intimate area away from all of the admirers. After a little bit of dry conversation that the time agent was far too interested in, Brook finally took the action plan.
She planted a quick peck on the time agent's lips. Almost immediately the effects of the hallucinogenic lipstick began to appear up. Brook found herself a bit frazzled, never having used the stuff before. But then she quickly recollected herself. She needed to time travel.
As if she were still flirting with him, she put her hand around his wrist and undid the vortex manipulator. Brook slid it off, and then stood up. It was official at this point in time: she had stolen the device.
She desperately hoped no one was watching her exploits. But hoping didn't help her luck at all. Sure enough, several people had noticed how dazed the time agent was. It was fairly obvious that Brook had been the one to do something to him. It wasn't long until many of the partygoers had connected the dots.
Brook looked up at the group of people slowly gathering to apprehend her, and then back down at the time agent. Looking up again she said, "Well. Geronimo!" Then, as fast as she possibly could wearing an evening gown and high heels, she bolted out of the building as her adrenaline peaked.
"I got it!" she yelled as soon the very moment she got outside. There was a very high chance that she would trip and fall flat onto her face, but at least now she had her mother for support. River waited until they were together and then they began to run.
"I can't believe that actually worked," River exclaimed.
"Neither can I," Brook panted.
"Never mess with Songs!"
River and Brook laughed together through their heavy breathing as they ran on and on. They were eventually able to stop for a brief moment, where Brook was taught a quick lesson on how to use a vortex manipulator.
"Don't worry about it too much, you've got time travel in your blood! Now, we have to go!" River yelled.
Brook wouldn't admit it, but she was immensely worried about operating the vortex manipulator. Her fingers began to quiver as she tried to figure out what she needed to do to get out and to somewhere safe using her new device. Both her hearts were pounding like crazy as she heard the mob from the party approaching.
"TARDIS, help me now," she whispered. Then she hit five buttons randomly, hoping that the "feeling" she had gotten when she looked at them first had allowed her to return somewhere safe.
She disappeared from 5021 and reappeared somewhere pitch black. Her head throbbed a little bit, a side effect of the lesser form of time travel. At first she let out a yell because she was victorious, and had gotten away from them by herself.
But then she realized she had no clue where she was and she couldn't see anything. In a moment of impulse, she started screaming. She had never screamed like this, but she had no idea what was going on. Brook was practically a little kid lost in a mall. She batted around and felt shapes and objects all around her, falling on her and covering her.
"Alright, alright, you can stop screaming!" Suddenly light poured into Brook's eyes and River was standing there in the open doors to Brook's closet. The girl looked rather pitiful, with clothes draped all over her. She blinked a few times and then got up. Immediately the clothes tangled around her legs and she fell straight over again.
"I made it home," Brook said in disbelief, her head on the ground.
"Yes, yes you did," River replied, helping Brook get up. "I'll have to work on you with better aiming, though."
"Well, happy birthday to me then. I've got time travel now."
Back in the present, Brook pushed back all of her memories aside in order to actually tell the tale of her vortex manipulator and how it came into her posession.
Brook quickly ran through the story, trying to leave out details she thought the Doctor and Foreman wouldn't be so appreciative of. Then again, the Doctor may not find any of the story all that appealing. Her new husband started making sour faces as she described the flirting.
Seeing that the men in the room were starting to get a little on edge, Clara felt that she needed to change the subject to something else. Besides, she felt far too curious about Brook to stop here. The more information she learned, the more fascinating Brook became to Clara.
"So, strange question, but have you ever been to school?" Clara asked, tilting her head.
"Sort of," Brook replied in her typical enigmatic fashion. The Doctor raised his brow at this, waiting for the explanation that would soon follow.
"When I was about fourteen years old I started bugging my mother to let me go to school for a few months. After reading about teenagers and schooling for so much of my life, I could hardly stand the anticipation that had dominated me. It took a fair while, but Mum finally caved in for me."
"You were able to convince River Song to do something like that?" the Doctor asked, letting out a slight chortle.
"She can be very, very convincing," Foreman said. "Trust me, I know from experience."
"And you also didn't grow up with my mother," Brook responded. "But yes. Regardless of her resistence to my idea, she ended up deciding to go with it. I was only allowed a few weeks there, but the time I had was more than enough to begin getting into the social scene."
"I won't go into any details, but I made quite a few friends. A few more than friends as well," she said, letting out a sly laugh. But then Foreman turned to her with alarm written all over his face. Brook couldn't help but hustle forwards to change the subject.
"I didn't learn very much, unfortunately. Anything that was meant to have been new to me was something I had scanned over in a book when I was nine years old. Of course, I also had set up a time with Mum for her to come take me back here. That ended up being terrible timing."
"Hm. I didn't think of books," Clara replied. She wished to know more about this terrible timing, but the glint in Brook's eye told her that this was likely another story that would get the Doctor and Foreman riled up.
"I'm smarter than you might think, you know," Brook laughed. She ran her fingers through her hair that just popped right back into their perfect tiny curls again. Her smile seemed to be just as elastic, the corners of her lips always snapping up moments after they began to quiver.
"Well, I haven't even shared a tiny snippet of the infinite creations of my mind," Brook stated. "I've made all sorts of things and you don't know any of them. Foreman, don't you think I should flant one of my inventions?"
"You were made for flaunting, Brook," Foreman laughed.
"Lovely, then," Brook replied. Turning to the Doctor and Clara, she chirped, "I'll be right back!"
She practcially skipped away, her mop of curls bouncing all the way. The rest waited in anticipation for her to return, which was a very speedy process. It seemed to be less than a minute before she strutted back into the room, announcing herself with a "ta da!"
But instead of being impressed or happily surprised, the Doctor found himself shocked and fearful.
Brook's face was etched with such an innocent and pleased look that it seemed almost impossible that she was unsure of the problem. But the Doctor hadn't learned to trust her in the past several hours they had spent together. No, he had a feeling that the new Mrs. Foreman knew exactly what she had done.
As the Doctor felt his face contorting into a scowl, Brook kept the grin wide on her face. Her gaze hadn't stayed over to his yet. But Foreman standing beside her had noticed his look and had reached over to take his wife's hand. If he couldn't be her solution, he would at least end up padding the initial blow.
"Foreman, what is it?" she asked, her smile falling to a look of intrigue. Her eyebrows nearly reached her hairline as she turned to her husband, wondering what exactly was going on with him. But he remained perfectly silent.
The Doctor had only needed a split second to recognize Brook's invention. Whether she had actually created it herself or not didn't matter to him, not at the moment. There were far more urgent things pertaining to the curly haired woman and her surprise.
Perched on her face was a piece of black leather. It was made to conform to her face and cover up her eye. It appeared to be an eyepatch without any apparent form of suspension, with a point on the end making it the shape of a raindrop.
There was no doubt about it in the Doctor's mind.
Brook was wearing a sign of the Silence.
A/N Too lazy to do one of these today. Heh.