kore_logs | A Return to 'Normal'

Entry tags:

A Return to 'Normal'

Who: Mina, the Doctor
Where: Mina's house
When: Night of day 85
What: After the Doctor's return to sanity, he talks with Mina.
Warnings: none

After the Master had come and assisted the Doctor in repairing his shattered mind and memories, the Doctor slept nearly 48 hours. Part of that was doing his best to fix the remaining cracks and holes still exposed in his mind, and the rest was out of pure exhaustion.

That morning, Donna had laundered his clothes, and he slowly began eating again, and spent the afternoon fixing a few things that had been mostly repaired in Mina's kitchen. Donna had left in the late afternoon, after the Doctor's insistence he was fine, and he waited for Mina to wake. His pin-striped trousers had seen better days as had his button down shirt with his sleeves rolled up a bit as he sat in a chair flipping through a book in Mina's room.

Privacy? What was that to the Doctor? He had a distinctive disregard of boundaries which was rather ironic given his own in the TARDIS to his companions. Lucky for him, he had a ship that knew what they were, and kept those traveling with him, away.

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"Because it has value to you." He replies simply, well knowing the sentiment. When Rose left, he refused to let anyone use her mug in the kitchen, even himself, and then felt slightly offended Martha had used the same lotion once. Luckily he bit his tongue on that one and realized he was being ridiculous.

He nearly wished he could say the same for his own marriage, but none of it was based off of love. They got along alright, but they were very different when it came down to the Time Lord politics and school of thought.

Releasing the ring, his fingertips traced one of her collarbones that was peeking out from her shirt.

Mina watched him, eyes roiling like the ocean. Not anger or sadness or lust or any other simple emotion. More like a storm of thousands.

"The sentiment attached to tokens dies," she mused. "When you learn that everything you thought you believed about that sentiment was built on a lie. I think it's more old age and habit than value."

She unfastened the top button of her shirt. If he wanted collarbone, he could have collarbone.

"Then why do you continue to wear if, if it has no meaning? It's not especially pretty, per se." He wonders if he's treading on dangerous waters, and pulls his hand away. It was a topic he probably shouldn't have brought up, but when had that ever stopped him before?

It was a good question, and it didn't offend Mina overly. It did make her wonder, though.

She looped her thumb through the chain, lifting it up and away from her skin. The ring bobbled a little bit, but she pulled the chain tighter and it came to rest. "I suppose it's a reminder," she said, "of why I chose the path that I chose. Even if the marriage turned out to be a sham, it brought me to where I am today."

Admittedly, Cape Kore wasn't where she wanted to be. But by and large, Mina liked the person she'd become over the years.

He nods, assuming that meant something good and he stretched out his legs before him. "I used to carry little things like that around, but I'm afraid everything was confiscated from me. My pockets were completely empty last time I checked."

He would've been concerned about losing the TARDIS key, although, not so much after Professor River Song had told him he could open the doors with a snap of his fingers -- and it had worked! Momentarily, he dwelled on her, wondering who she was to him, but then turned back to Mina.

"Soldiers do that," Mina said, with a bit of a nod. "For luck. For remembrance. Or whatever else." She played with a piece of his hair for a moment. And she couldn't help but wonder about his tokens. Who did they remind him of? She'd heard so many names and places and things she couldn't even describe, in all of his rambling. And none of it meant a thing to her.

The question became of how brave was she?

Well. Mina's ego wouldn't allow her to back down.

"Who was Rose?" she asked quietly.

Now that was a good question and he's very quiet for a moment and replies softly, "A very good friend of mine." Which was true, but in reality, she was much more than that. "I was angry, bitter, and lost after the Time War. She was the first person I met afterwards... I rescued her from Autons, and she stayed with me for a while. She saw me through a regeneration - to what I look like now," He grows quiet as he thought about his travels with her.

It hadn't seemed as long ago as it really was, "And then I lost her to an alternative time line." He inhales slowly and releases a sigh, "I was stupid, really stupid in letting her help me, but she's fine. More than fine, really. On the beach of Bad Wolf Bay, I said goodbye."

Mina was reasonably certain she could read between some lines. Men were men, Time Lords or not. But the fact that she saw what she saw didn't bother her all that much. Quite the contrary. It made him easier to understand. He was still a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, of course. But little bits and pieces? She'd take little bits and pieces.

And enjoy the ride.

"You spoke of her quite a lot over the last few days," she murmured, absently running her fingers through his hair. "And regeneration too. Tell me. What did you look like before? When you met her?"

"She was... pretty important to me." He comments and then rubs at his eyelid, "Ohhh, I dunno! Big ears, shorter hair - but not ginger - longer nose, northern accent, blue eyes, really great teeth... Still tall."

He vaguely wondered what he'd look like in his next regeneration, but shrugged it off. "It's a bit dodgy, the process. I've been blonde, curly hair, short, tall, straight hair barely any hair..." There's a playful shrug, "Rose's face..." He remembers her shock upon his regeneration, "Well, she was surprised."

"There are Kindred who can do that," she commented, trying to match his light, playful tone. While fully aware that neither of them were feeling particularly playful. "Change their faces. It's not like what you would call a 'regeneration' I suppose. Just a brief spell to look like someone else. Although there was one Kindred I knew who was a master at it. Joseph Brown. Doctor Brown. He was a primogen...a senator...in Chicago. Like me."

What was it they used to whisper in those final days? 'We have ninety nine problems and all of them are Doctor Brown.' Perhaps more like twenty six problems, but still. They had been him.

She frowned, withdrawing a little as her eyes dimmed. "It turned out he was a time traveler. Like you. Well. Not quite like you. He was...an enthusiastic amateur. Which, unfortunately, led to a complete and total disaster."

"Can you do that? Temporarily? Mine is a way to cheat death, if you will." Just like her, he enjoyed hearing about her past and different species. It was an entirely new world to him and one of the only things keeping him from going mental in this place. He still had so many questions.

"'Enthusiastic amateur'..." He mused outloud, "I suppose that's what they called me in the Academy."

"I was being generous when I called him an 'enthusiastic amateur,'" she said dryly. "By about the time I arrived here, he was known as the world's greatest fuck-up."

Mina didn't understand it all herself, so she spoke haltingly, considering her words carefully. "At some point, in my future, I suppose, Doctor Brown decided to build a time machine. I don't know how or why. All I know is that when he used it, he traveled back in time and collided with a creature known as 'the Baron.' A True Fae. Like m-"

She almost said Like me. But that was the Queen talking, not her.

"Like the thing inside of my," she amended. "And when he collided with the Baron, he shattered himself. Into, at last count, at least twenty six different incarnations. Probably more. And they were scattered through time, all across the earth. And some of them went mad. Others assumed new identities. And some...well, in the end, they all found each other again. Because one of them landed in ancient Rome and founded a cult of vampires, dedicated to chaos and destruction. It was because of that cult that my order formed. To combat them. And both groups existed well into my time. When I had the misfortune of encountering them."

"I've been to ancient Rome. I can't say I recall anything about that during my visit." There were plenty of other things, including his causing Volcano Day, but nothing related to vampires or supernatural beings.

"So... a warrior, then? You?" He offers an amused smile. "With that face, really?" Now he was teasing, knowing first hand how tough and commanding she could be. He had no doubt in her ability to lead or get the job done.

The flattery was sweet, if not misplaced. She smiled ever-so-slightly. "Not always. When I was very, very young, I worked as a footboy to a countess who lived in a country estate outside of London. And I was a cabinboy for a little while. But the army paid better. And it was more exciting."

She enjoyed excitement a bit too much for her own good back then. And perhaps even now, although she wanted to believe she'd developed a better sense of self control.

"I didn't know it, at the time," she murmured, "but I met my first vampire in the army. He was old. So old and so studious that he'd learned to walk in the daylight. And so old that he'd forgotten he was a vampire at all."

Mina hesitated for a moment, curling her lower lip under her teeth. No one knew, outside of Jacqueline and Rosa. And she hadn't said it aloud before. "His name...at least, what he thought his name was...was Tom Barrett."

It takes a moment for this to register, and the Doctor sits up on his elbow, looking a bit shocked, "Your... husband? Was he the one that 'created' you?" He wasn't sure if that was the right terminology, even Time Lords said "birth".

She certainly did lead an interesting life.

"No," she said quietly, "he didn't make me. He'd forgotten what he was, thought he was human, in fact. We met in the army. Fell in love in the not quite usual way."

She rolled onto her back, one arm flopped over her head, the other lying against her side. "After we married, we used our army pension to open an inn in Devon County. Nothing posh, but it was a living. And I would say we were happy. Until one night. There's always that one night. Three hooded men broke in through the window of our bedroom. Two of them took Tom. The third stayed behind to try to kill me. I rammed a broken chair leg through his chest. And I learned that vampires existed."

Absently, she ran her tongue along the tips of her teeth. "What I didn't realize, until many years later, was that they didn't kill Tom. They never intended to. They were just there to take him home. Because, you see, they, and Tom as well, were all Joseph Brown."

It takes him a moment to put the pieces together, and then he realized what Mina was saying and sat up. "It was too late by then, wasn't it?" He inhaled slowly, taking it all in and rubbed the back of his neck, lost in thought.

It was a bit tragic, wasn't it? "Was this before or after gallivanting the sea?" Most likely before, he assumed, and he felt like perhaps he knew her past better than he ever expected. At least a taste of it.

His, on the other hand, was just as complicated, but perhaps not quite as tragic, though there was plenty of blood stained on his hands.

She smiled sadly. Anyone else might have gotten confused by how twisted and circular her life was, but not him. He could follow the lines. Which she supposed could only make sense, given what he was.

Or had been.

"Before," she said. "Once I knew vampires existed, all I wanted was to know what they'd done to my Tom. So I dressed in his clothing and I left Devon County. Learned as best I could, about all the things that went bump in the night. I heard a rumor that there were great hordes of them in the New World, so I joined a ship and headed for the Caribbean. It was, tragically, taken by Calico Jack."

"Did you ever find out?" He watches her with great intensity, somewhat familiar with this part of her life, but he had to admit he was quite curious.

Was she as curious about him as he was her? Funny enough, he felt he wasn't terribly exciting given the TARDIS was gone and couldn't show her anything. Then there was the dilemma of how he returned after being away. His time lines all blurred and crossed, making him wonder what all had he said to her. Rose apparently was a popular topic and he mentally winced at that.

"Oh, yes," she murmured. "But not until one death and over two hundred years passed. That's always the way of things, isn't it? It's when you stop looking for answers, stop caring, that they have a way of finding you."

She trailed a finger along his shoulder and arm, the storm in her eyes gradually subsiding. At least a little bit. As much as it ever could.

"It was in Chicago, near the end," she murmured. "We broke into a Centurion stronghold to find some answers about the situation in the city. It was a church, with a sprawling basement beneath it. More of a dungeon, really. And as we were running for our lives, someone in one of the cells saw me. I heard him call out. 'Mark?' he asked. But we couldn't stop to help, we had to keep running. I was with my niece at the time, however. She returned a month later and broke him out."

Somehow her story, in a very vague way, made him think of the Master, how he went rogue, went into hiding, and fooled the Doctor in his last regeneration, and ironically was here in a faulty regeneration. Funny how time worked.

"But he had his memories back?" It was a guess, given how bitter Mina had mentioned him at the beginning. A shame. He'd like to see her happy after hearing all this.

"No," she said flatly. "He still thought he was Tom Barrett. But my niece? She has the ability to see through a false face. And she could see what he really was. Just another Joseph Brown."

Hearing that had nearly destroyed Mina. But she was strong. She was powerful. And she was far to stubborn to ever let herself be defeated by any man. In any way.

Mina shook her head. "Things happened so quickly after that. The True Fae were destroying the city, destroying me as well. And then Joseph Brown had his time machine and there was a battle and the city was burning. And then...well...here I am."

"And what do you suppose you would do if you returned?" Would she return to her death?

Mina's timeline was tricky to read, from a Time Lord's perspective, not that he would try to change it anyway. He couldn't and if living by the rules didn't stop him, learning that when he did try to control the laws of time, it wouldn't obey him. Time Lord or not, they weren't meant to be tampered with.

"I don't know," she admitted. And Mina sighed softly. She didn't particularly enjoy the game of 'what might have been' or 'what could be.' She had to live with what was. And as much as she hated Cape Kore, she supposed, she couldn't complain about it too much.

Because one thing was clear. Returning didn't mean returning to Chicago.

"I'd be in Arcadia, I suppose," she said. "The land of the Fae. I might be better off than the rest of the Kindred down there. At least I have a Fae inside of me. I imagine the others are suffering quite horribly."

He looks away for a moment, then speaks up, "I'm dying." Glancing back towards Mina, he clarifies, "There was a prophecy spoken to me just before I came here your song is ending... he will knock four times. I don't know when or where, but not long after going back, something is to return."

It still surprised him that the scientists hadn't forced him to regenerate here as punishment, making him to believe a fixed point is to come and something he couldn't change. The Master had something to do with it as well, and the Doctor wondered if it's he who kills him.

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