Once upon a time, nyaaaaaauuuuuuu gave me a prompt, and I hope this lives up to it! It diverted a bit from the original prompt, but I got a sudden bolt of inspiration one day and just had to follow it. I admit I got a bit silly with this, but it's all in good fun. Thanks for reading!
St. George's Dragon
by Aenaria
"Octavia's bring a dragon for show and tell tomorrow, you know," one of the children said in a hushed whisper from somewhere behind Rose. The words caught her ears and she turned around, shooting a look in the direction of the kids huddled around the braided multicolored rug. None of them noticed her, but she supposed that was just ones lot in life when one ended up being an assistant for a harried year 1 teacher, who was currently on the other side of the room trying to separate two girls who both had latched onto one specific doll and weren't letting go any time soon.
They had been on their way to Ziggy Stardust's retirement concert but the TARDIS had spotted a major temporal issue hovering right around St. George's Preparatory school out in the English countryside and refused to budge until they had checked it out to her satisfaction. One week later Rose was the new pre-prep year one assistant, the Doctor was stuck teaching history to the 'most ungrateful bunch of stupid, immature, twelve year old apes I've ever seen - I've seen a lot of stupidity across various species in my time, but this lot is stupid beyond compare really', and there was no sign of making any progress with the temporal disturbance. At least she wasn't a dinner lady this time.
Rose glanced over at Ms. Ibbott once more, still attempting to get between the two girls who looked like they were about to descend to the depths of hair pulling, and shuffled a bit closer to the whispering kids. "Dragons ain't real," she heard one of them shoot back.
"Oh yes they are," the boy said, attempting to look like he knew what he was talking about even though his school sweater and trousers were beyond grimy from a busy game of football during recess. "S'true. My brother's in her class, and he said she promised she'd bring her dragon in for show and tell tomorrow."
"Liar," a girl said, her bright red hair bouncing along in pigtails.
"I'm not lying. Ms. Ibbott said she'd take us to see it tomorrow too."
Rose just nodded to herself and backed up a few steps, moving over to where Ms. Ibbott was sticking the infamous doll on a high up shelf and setting the two culprits to sit at desks on the opposite side of the room until playtime was over. "I offered one of them that shiny new truck that we just got in," she muttered to Rose as she sat against the side of her desk, "but no, they both wanted that damn doll."
"Girls just like dolls," Rose shrugged, not one to talk. She'd had more than her share of dolls at that age.
"Bloody gender stereotyping," she mumbled, trying to keep her language out of the ears of her young and impressionable students. "You try to enlighten the parents, tell them that it's okay for their girls to play with trucks or their boys to play with dolls, but nooooo, talk about underlying gender assumptions…"
Adeline Ibbott was a pretty young woman, and intelligent to boot, but when she rambled on about the plight of women over the ages of history, it had a tendency to annoy everyone in the school. In the week she'd been there, Rose had even seen some of the other teachers throw small bits of paper at her in the break room when she started to lecture on about how modern American television shows had no respect at all for women. "Addie?" Rose asked hastily, cutting her off.
"Sorry, what? Got a bit distracted there."
"I can tell. Octavia's dragon, what's up with that?"
Adeline sighed and ran a hand through her curly dark hair. "It's not a dragon, it's an iguana, or so Octavia's teacher has assured me. Or, at least, that's what Octavia's mum has said. Year three's show and tell's during our recess, so I'm going to take them up there to observe just to keep them quiet." She glanced up at the clock. "Oh thank god, day's done." She stood up, moving out to the middle of class. "All right, time to go! Get your coats all." The two women worked fast, getting the kids bundled up for the fall weather and guiding them to their various modes of transportation.
Rose sighed and leaned against the side of the old stone building, watching as the buses and cars brought the children away. It was a gorgeous autumn day, with just the right amount of color on the leaves and a slight chill in the air to make it just perfect. Air scented with just a slight bit of burning wood whipped around her, and she leaned her head back to soak up a bit of afternoon sunlight. Really, it wasn't a bad place to be. She'd rather be back on the TARDIS though, flying across the stars. Once the TARDIS got over her fit of stubbornness, of course.
And speaking of which…Rose turned on her heel and headed back inside. Instead of heading back to the year one classroom, however, she went up a couple of flights of stairs to where a certain someone was probably tearing his hair out in frustration over something or the other. It didn't take her long to get to the classroom he was currently inhabiting. She glanced through the window quick, making sure that no one else was in there, and slipped inside.
"Rose, pop quiz," the Doctor called out, not looking up at her from where he was slumped over the desk top. "What's the Battle of Hastings?"
"Battle of Hastings?" she repeated, strolling through the aisles of slightly askew desks towards the front of the room. "1066, William the Conqueror coming to England from France, defeated the Saxons, and pretty much established England as we know it today." She perched on the edge of his desk, looking down at his slumped head.
His head shot up and he gave her one of those grins that made her insides go a bit funny in the best sort of way. "Very good," the Doctor said. "And you were taught that when?"
Rose shrugged. "God, couldn't tell you, it's been years."
The Doctor waved one of the quiz papers currently spread out over the desk in a haphazard fashion. "According to this, I quote," he pushed his glasses up, settling them in place, "'The Battle of Hastings was when Adam Hastings beat the snot out of Michael Perkins on the village green.' Or, alternately, 'Battle of Hastings was in the Americas when the French fought the Indians a few centuries ago'. Do they have no concept of history at all?" He slouched back in the chair and ran his hands through already quite messy hair. It was kind of weird, seeing him like this. Almost too normal.
She nudged his leg with her foot, bringing his eyes back to hers. "They're just not as brilliant as you are, that's all," she flattered. "And at least your class isn't totally distracted by a dragon coming to school tomorrow."
"You mean the gila monster? Yeah, Octavia's brother is in one of my classes — not, thankfully, the one with these geniuses in there. He said it's just an overgrown lizard." The Doctor ripped off his glasses and tossed them on top of the stack of papers. "I can't deal with this rubbish anymore."
"Any luck with finding the source of the temporal disturbance?" Rose asked. "The sooner we find it the sooner we can get out of here."
Carefully the Doctor pushed Rose's legs to one side, neatly draping them over his lap, and pulled out the drawer below her with his foot to reveal a contraption with lots of blinking lights, metal coils, a small monitor, and what could have possibly been a tower of Legos. "Nope, nothing. We've managed to puzzle out that there is a disturbance, and that it's coming from somewhere inside this school building, but other than that there's nothing. Oh, however, a few days ago village police found what they reckon is an honest to god medieval knight wandering around the main road through town. Thought it was a bit of a prank at first, but then one of the cops got speared through the foot by the man's broadsword, at which point the knight was hastily hauled off to the local mental ward."
"Knights and dragons, blimey," Rose muttered. "What's going to turn up next, King Arthur himself?"
"Arthur's just a legend, an amalgamation of various medieval Celtic, Christian, and French traditions and one real life fifth century tribal chieftain all mashed together to form one of the more enduring tales in your planet's history," the Doctor replied as he kicked the drawer shut.
"Don't spoil the magic, Doctor," she warned, winking at him.
"Far be it from me to deprive you humans of your magic," he said, raising his hands in mock surrender.
"So, when are we breaking the knight out of the loony bin?" Rose asked, grinning a bit. This was more like it, adventure, danger, saving the innocents (well, innocents who knew how to handle five foot swords but still innocent in the eyes of a twenty-first century mindset).
The Doctor looked over at her, eyebrow arching as his lips quirked just a bit. "Got any plans tonight?"
Rose hummed thoughtfully. "Well, you know, the usual, make dinner, do a bit of laundry…" she trailed off as she felt the Doctor's finger start to circle around her ankle. St. George's had an old fashioned quirk that dictated that the female teachers were still required to wear skirts every day…but right now she definitely wasn't complaining, as his finger wandered a slight bit higher up her stocking covered calf. "You cheat," she said, resisting the urge to let her eyes flutter shut.
"I didn't do anything," he protested. He didn't remove his finger from her ankle though, and his eyes didn't look anything like innocent at the moment. His fingers curled around her calf and stroked lightly. Rose, not really willing to argue at the moment, leaned back on her hands and watched the Doctor's face.
So of course at that moment the door to the classroom just had to open, bringing yet another teacher inside. This one was a fellow history teacher, an older man in traditional tweeds. Rose hastily removed her feet from the Doctor's lap and twisted around to see the teacher standing just past the doorway with a very suspicious and knowing look on his face. To be fair, they had said nothing about their personal relationship when they first got there, however part of their cover story was that they were staying at the same hotel in the village while waiting to find accommodation together. It wasn't hard to figure out what people would think after knowing that.
The Doctor leaned forward, bracing his arms on the desk. "Professor Powell, how can I help you?"
Powell nodded towards the door. "Staff meeting in two minutes, Smith, in the Headmaster's office. Everyone's requested, even you two."
"Thank you; we'll be right there," the Doctor said, standing up as Powell walked off.
"Staff meeting, sounds…thrilling," Rose said flatly as she hopped off the desk.
"Just smile and nod and you'll be fine. Although…" he grabbed some of the more dreadful test papers off of the desk. "Maybe I can bring to light just how disastrous this class is, see if they can do something to change it."
"I know you like doing the impossible, Doctor, but that might be pushing it, even for you."
"Now, Geoffrey, you just hold tight here for a little while and we'll have you home in no time at all, okay?" the Doctor said, backing out of the room and pulling the door closed. "No, no really, you'll be fine, don't worry. We'll see you in the morning." He pulled the door firmly shut and exhaled deeply, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Well, it was nice of the TARDIS to make ol' Geoffrey in there a habitat he'd feel comfortable in. Looked just like Medieval France in there."
"Smelled like it too," Rose frowned, wrinkling her nose as she sniffed at her shirt, hoping that the odor of unwashed people, overcooked meat, and animal offal wouldn't linger in the fabric. "What say we leave Geoffrey to his own devices, hmm?" She began to walk off, but then yawned widely and stumbled just a bit. "Actually, I think I should head to sleep. You might have boundless energy but I still need at least-" she checked her watch, wincing when she saw just how late it was, "-well, if I can get four hours of sleep before we have to be at the school tomorrow I should be all right." She attempted to walk off again, but this time almost walked into the wall, so overtired she could barely see straight. The adrenaline of the adventure was over and done with, and this was the inevitable crash.
"That's it," the Doctor said, moving fast and scooping her up. "Come on, let's get you to bed. Before you injure yourself or the TARDIS." When they arrived at her room Rose was placed on her bed, bouncing with a quiet giggle. "Now sleep," he said as he pulled off the practical black shoes she had worn for breaking Geoffrey out of the mental ward. He moved up to her face and stroked a few pieces of hair out of her eyes. "I'll wake you in a few hours."
Rose didn't say anything, just reached up a hand to cup his cheek, gently stroke her thumb over his lower lip. This was the Doctor, dark and dangerous, that oncoming storm that could devastate anything in his wake…but also quiet and giddy and surprisingly tender, a damaged soul that only rarely showed its face to the universe; a face that she was lucky to be able to see sometimes, when his walls dropped.
He took her questing hand in his and kissed the pad of her thumb. Feeling a bit more awake and a bit more playful, she tugged on her hand, pulling him forward until his lips met hers. Rose could feel him smile against her mouth…how could she not smile back?
It was safe to say that not much sleeping was actually done that night.
The next and final part will follow in a few days time. Thanks so much for reading!