two ; school reunion !
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LUNA TRAILED NEXT TO THE DOCTOR, LISTENING AS SARAH JANE AND ROSE BICKERED BEHIND THEM, Mickey following along as well.
She didn't understand their hostility, or why neither of them were trying anything with her. Perhaps it was because she just met the Doctor too. Luna supposed that she hardly knew any of them, really, and it seemed as though Sarah Jane and Rose had a relationship with him.
Luna looked back at the pair, eyebrows furrowed as she glanced back at the Doctor and then to the floor. Sarah Jane looked good for her age, but she didn't know what sort of relationship the pair had. If romantic -- which seemed the most plausible because of the reactions both women were having -- it must have been recent. The Doctor looked quite young, young enough to be with Rose, but probably chase after Sarah Jane. But it seemed as though they just met?
None of it made any sense.
"What sort of Doctor are you?" Luna settled finally, looking up at him.
A sort of smile rested on his lips and he looked around for a moment before glancing down at her. "Doctor of everything."
Luna snorted. "Yeah, okay."
His smile widened. "No really," the Doctor pushed. "I'm a doctor of everything. Time, space, history, maths, medically -- everything."
Luna narrowed her eyes. "I'll believe it when I see it. Right now, you're just a man with a title."
The Doctor smirked. "You'll see very soon."
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"Maybe those rats were food?" The Doctor guessed and Luna stared down at the pointed glow-y thing in his hand.
"What is that? How'd you unlock the door?"
He ignored her, nodding to Rose. "Rose," he called her attention. "You know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school?" Luna blinked, following his trail of sight. "Well, they do."
Luna's jaw dropped at the sight of giant bats hanging from the ceiling, eyes wide in shock. "Oh my..."
"No way!" Mickey gasped, turning around and running from the room. Rose and Sarah Jane followed after, but Luna stayed for a moment, watching the strange creatures in front of her in awe. The Doctor nudged her gently, pulling her out of the room and he shut the door slowly.
"That's incredible," she turned to him. "What were those things? How did you know they exist? God, this is amazing, they're like..." Luna trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence and Mickey nodded.
"Terrible. I am not going back in there. No way."
"Those were teachers," Rose shook her head.
"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people. Come on."
Luna face-palmed gently. "I should've realized. They were so weird, I just thought it was a cult or something. Sacrificing kids or...but this is mad. Bonkers." She grinned. "I bloody love this."
The Doctor beamed down at her. "I thought you'd have run off by now."
She shook her head. "Oh, never. This is so much better than grading papers."
He laughed. "I like you, Luna Peterson," he turned back to the others. "I need to get back to the TARDIS, I've got to analyze that oil from the kitchen."
Luna's head tilted. "What's a TARDIS?"
Rose laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You've got a lot to learn."
"I might be able to help you there," Sarah Jane spoke up. "I've got something to show you."
They walked down the hallway towards the parking lot and Lana spotted her car, glancing back at the group. "Hey," she nudged Rose, who dropped her arm. "Could you make sure they wait a moment? I've got a pair of jeans in there and they'll be so much better to keep up with you lot."
Rose nodded. "Don't worry, I've got your back, that one yours?" She pointed a nicer looking BMW Mini.
Luna snorted. "On a teacher's salary? You're funny, no," she moved Rose's finger. "That one's mine."
Rose grinned. "I like it."
"Shove it," Luna laughed, walking away and heading to her car.
"Leaving already?" The Doctor looked up from the trunk of Sarah Jane's car. Luna fought back a smile. He hoped she'd stay.
"No, I'm just changing out of this skirt. Smells like tea and isn't very comfortable."
The Doctor grinned. "Good," he watched her for another moment before looking down at the trunk again.
Luna moved to her car, unlocking it quickly and grabbing the pair of pants that were on the passenger side floor. She glanced back at the group -- far enough away to keep them from seeing anything, before climbing into the car and leaning all the way back, changing quickly.
"God, that's so much better," She mumbled, zipping up the pants and shutting the car door, thankful she'd worn flats today instead of heels. Albeit a little uncomfortable, she'd feel terrible in heels.
Luna made her way to the Doctor and his friends, leaning against another car, eyes widening when she what looked to be a tin dog in the car. "Oh my god," she gasped. "That's a robot dog, this is amazing! He's beautiful."
Sarah Jane beamed up at her. "K-9, he used to travel with us."
"Travel?"
"Look, no offense," Rose spoke up. "But could you two just stop petting for a minute? Never mind the tin dog. We're busy."
Luna placed up at her with a frown. The change in attitudes was a whirlwind, she didn't seem to care about Sarah Jane in the slightest -- why was she nice to Luna? And at which point would that change?
The group decided to head across the street to a coffee shop -- the one where Luna got the same cup of tea every morning -- and settled into different parts. Rose and Mickey headed to the counter and Sarah Jane and the Doctor moved to sit down with K-9 at a table.
Luna stood near the door for a moment, deciding which pair she wanted to trail along with. Mickey and Rose seemed to be in heavy conversation, Rose munching away on chips as the Doctor and Sarah Jane sat stilled in silence.
If there's one thing Luna was good at -- it was making conversation. She steered over to the Doctor and Sarah Jane, sitting down next to the man.
"So, what's a TARDIS?" She asked inquisitively.
The Doctor smiled. "You'll have to wait and see. I wanna look at your face when you realize."
Luna watched him for a moment, biting her lip as a grin spread on her face. "Are you a wizard or something? From Harry Potter? Or like, an alien? Like the Sycorax last Christmas?"
The Doctor blinked in surprise. "You know their name?"
Luna shrugged. "I'm a history teacher, I've been in love with history since I read about Romans and dinosaurs when I was a kid. Of course I looked up the name of the biggest alien invasion ever documented. My sister was affected, by the blood thing, but she was fine after. That cause of you? Were you there?" Her eyes widened. "Oh my god, of course you were. Harriet Jones, last year, she spoke about you over the telly. She talked about how she needed you, the planet needed you."
The Doctor's smile fell slightly and he watched her closely, something in his eyes she couldn't identify. For a moment, Luna forgot Sarah Jane was sitting across from them and focused solely on his eyes. The deep, brown eyes filled with knowledge -- like he'd seen things she couldn't even imagine, and yet, he focused entirely on her. Her eyes, her words, as though she was the most important thing. Like he saw into her soul.
"And you're here again because of all of this?"
The Doctor nodded, a serious look on his face. "Yes."
Sarah Jane cleared her throat after a moment and the pair broke eye contact. "I thought of you on Christmas Day. That spaceship she was talking about, I thought 'oh yeah, bet he's up there.'"
Luna's eyes widened and she found herself growing uncomfortable by the tone of her voice, picking at a few stray strings on her jeans, trying to pretend she wasn't there. Oh, what she'd give to sink into the earth right now. The Doctor and Sarah Jane obviously had a past -- and for once, Luna wasn't intrigued to learn.
"Right on top of it, yeah," the Doctor agreed, glancing at Luna. He didn't seem to want to speak about this with her around, either.
"And Rose?" Sarah Jane asked again. Luna shifted, glancing at the blonde girl who seemed to sneaking glances at their table.
Luna bit her lip, focusing on other things in the room as the Doctor and Sarah Jane continued their conversation. She focused on the chair that creaked in the corner of the shop and her favorite worker, Lisa, who chatted away with a customer at a table.
"I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed."
Luna frowned at the Doctor's words, looking at him intently. Humans? She closed her eyes. Of course he wasn't human! She should've figured it out.
"I waited for you, I missed you," Sarah Jane sighed.
"Oh, you didn't need me," the Doctor shrugged her off. Luna looked away from him, realizing she'd been staring. He was just as uncomfortable as she was. Interesting. She'd never met a man that handsome so uncomfortable in emotional conversations. Maybe they'd get along after all. "You were getting on with your life."
"You were my life," Sarah Jane exclaimed. "You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?"
Luna's eyes widened. The galaxy? Supernovas? Intergalactic bottles?
"Holy shit," she swore loudly. "Sorry, I didn't mean -- I'm just going to...be somewhere else."
Luna rushed up from the table, moving over to Rose and Mickey, overcome with embarrassment. Blimey, the Doctor and his friends were full of surprises.
"Rose," Luna asked, interrupting their conversation. "Sorry, I just -- does he travel through space? What is he if not human? I'm so confused and I'm trying to go along with it but this a lot. I can't go with basics, I'm going to need something to go off of."
Rose laughed, offering her basket of chips. "Here," she offered. "And take a seat. It's a lot."
Mickey nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't handle it at first. You're pretty strong for taking giant bats on the first go."
Luna smiled. "I've dated men that look like giant bats -- that's nothing."
Mickey laughed and Rose went to open her mouth, a wide smile on her face, but was interrupted by the Doctor.
"Rose, give us the oil!"
Luna stood, sighing at the resolution she wouldn't understand what was going on until everything resolved itself. Great, she'd have to figure it out.
"I wouldn't touch it, though. That dinner lady got all scorched," Rose warned.
"I'm no dinner lady. And I don't often say that."
Luna nodded. "Well, that's good because it'd be a bit strange to travel galaxies with a dinner lady."
Mickey laughed at her comment. "We're gonna get along just fine, Luna," he offered and Luna grinned.
The Doctor smeared a bit of the oil on K-9's probe, waiting for a result.
"Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go."
"Oil," K-9 spoke loudly and Luna raised her eyebrows. Full of surprises. "Ex-ex-ex-extract. Ana-ana-analysing."
"Listen to him, man," Mickey grinned. "That's a voice."
"Careful," Sarah Jane warned playfully. "That's my dog."
"Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil."
The Doctor stilled, looking frustrated. "They're Krillitanes."
Luna grabbed a pen from her pocket -- she carried pens everywhere; years of being a waitress and a teacher would do that to a girl -- and wrote down the word. She'd have to ask him about them later, everything she could figure out. The face that space held aliens? She'd only heard of one species and more would just be...outstanding.
"Is that bad?" Rose asked.
"Very," the Doctor nodded stiffly. "Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad."
Luna pictured her sister's face, beaten and bloodied down, stomach ripped open after the accident, and the piercing scream she'd let out. No. Nothing could quite possibly be that bad.
"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane asked curiously, shaking Luna from her thoughts.
"They're a composite race," the Doctor explained, speaking faster than Luna could think. "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."
Luna's nose crinkled. "Gross, like weird giraffes. Or something from a horror film."
The Doctor glanced at her, lips quirking, but didn't respond.
"What're they doing?" Rose asked.
Luna sighed, figuring it out. She'd been suspecting something from the very beginning, the kids leaving, the odd tasting chips, the disappearances, the lottery ticket --
"It's the children," Luna and the Doctor spoke at the same time.
He looked at her in surprise. "They're doing something to the children."
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Luna watched the Doctor and Rose speak quietly to one another. They appeared to be arguing but she didn't want to get involved. It wasn't her business -- she hardly knew them.
"So this is the TARDIS?" Luna asked, resting her hand against the blue wood. "It's a police box, why would it be a police box? Has he only been traveling since the '20's? I don't understand..."
Mickey smiled. "You've got a lot to learn, sweetheart.
"...That's the curse of the Time Lords."
Luna glanced back at the pair, eyes widening when one of the giant bats -- Finch, it appeared to be -- swooped down over the group. They all ducked and it flew off, not even leaving a mark.
"What's a Time Lord?"
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one more chapter and we're done with school reunion. I'm just trying not to make these long or anything but idk. lemme know if you guys like this! I love this story and luna is so cute so let me know!! leave a comment what you like and vote!! don't be a silent reader please I love loveee your comments and responses!! stay safe!! -osw