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Chapter Text

It was December 1st 1970 and Ralph Cornish's days as a hot 39-year-old were numbered. At least, that's what it said on the slightly ominous note he found wedged into his top desk drawer when sat down in his office to eat a Tupperware of cous-cous for his dinner. Work had gone on late tonight. Often in Ralph's life working late had been a source of pleasure. The space centre had been his favourite place to be for a long time, and having an excuse to spend his evenings there - no need to face his silent flat, make a proper dinner, or come up with some entertainment for himself - had taken a load off his shoulders.

   That had been pre-Toby, and occasionally reinstated when Toby went out of town. Now he had Anne, a couple of friends, and a vibrant world of memories from the past year that he could dip in and out of whenever he liked. Added to the fact that the late work was to prepare for a visit from some minor politician that Ralph had to pretend was basically the president of the world, he was a lot less keen these days.

   The cous-cous was nice though. That had been the Doctor's suggestion one day, as something that would provide an injection of Mediterranean colour into his evening after a long day of checking, confirming, ordering, and other such bland communications - as the Doctor termed them. Ralph was having a hard time convincing the Doctor that he actually enjoyed his job even when there weren't exciting Mars visits going on or Probe crises to resolve. He persistently seemed concerned that Ralph was going to tire of ordinary life on Earth - projecting much?

   That was why it did not shock Ralph to find this note taped to the lid.

   Dearest Ralph,

   I understand you are coming to the end of your days as my favourite hot 39-year-old (you're not going to believe this, but Rogue turned 40 about two months before you met him so you've had that honour all to yourself). Birthdays aren't really a thing for Time Lords, but I've known people to celebrate them over the years. And I know the big round number ones are especially important, and remind humans of their mortality. I'm writing to you from the year 2306, so unless your clever scientist brain perfects some sort of elixir of life, your mortality will have been in full effect by now, but back there, in the dying days of 1970? You've nothing to worry about, my dear.

   Presents! That's what we do to distract from the inevitable passage of time! But I need some help with yours. I understand this may be somewhat uncouth (does that sound like a word your Doctor might use? I'm trying to double up, babes) and that presents are meant to be a surprise, but I want this to be just right. So with that in mind, please follow these instructions:

• Write down the name of your favourite historical figure. Someone you'd love to meet.

• Sign whatever piece of paper you do so on, or otherwise identify it as yours. Space centre letterhead would do the trick, for example.

• Leave the paper in the bin at geo-co-ordinate 324.51.26

• Consider having a costume party for your celebrations. They're really fun. Granted I have the benefit of the TARDIS wardrobe but I'm sure you could be creative.

   Happy birthday, Ralph Cornish. I love you I love you I love you! I don't know if my saying that will mean you have to burn this note now, but I hope not. Hide it in a bedside drawer that only you or Anne is ever going to see. Speaking of Anne! Give her my best!! And all the others - her father, Liz, Brig, the astronauts (including Frank, I suppose), oh, but NOT me! How are you with keeping secrets, Ralph? Pretty good I suppose. But I wonder, has this been hell?

   If I sound for a moment like I'm thinking about skipping your party, you have my permission to manhandle me there by the collar (that came out kinkier than I meant) because I am not going to want to miss this. Does such an incident happen? Who can say. Telling would be risking a paradox.

   I'm going to stop here before I blow up the universe.

   Love you!!!!

   The Doctor

   Ralph folded the letter back up and slipped it into his inside jacket pocket while he thought over question 1. A historical figure he'd love to meet… Nikola Tesla! He held up his pen like a Eureka! moment and clicked it. There was indeed a British Space Centre branded notepad on his desk and he set quickly to work.

   Evening, Doctor. Or indeed whatever time it is for you. I would love to meet Nikola Tesla, if the entirety of time and space were open to me… Thank you for the birthday wishes. I can see why it wouldn't make much sense to you, so I appreciate the thought. And I love you too…

   Well, now I've done it, eh? I suppose I’ll have to hide this piece of paper up my nose!

   I have absolutely no idea what you mean by geo-co-ordinate with those numbers, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Say hello to Rogue for me (quite frankly I love him too). I suppose I'll think about the costume party? Not sure if I'm even having a big party… Alright, I'm going to go find this bin.

   Lots of love,

   Ralph Cornish

   He signed the note with a flourish. He wasn't sure if the tone came through in his written words, but he was much less frightened of discovery these days. If the worst came to absolute worst, and someone managed to capture a moment of familiarity between himself and the Doctor - and it wasn’t as though blackmailers required anything particularly explicit - Charlie would have his back. Frank hadn't mentioned it once since they'd got back from Mars. Perhaps that was what he could count on - the middle-class English need to ignore anything awkward, anything that didn't fit.

   Well, Ralph may go to work every day in a suit and tie, keep his face clean shaven and provide a sober, trustworthy point of contact for visiting politicians. But at least now he had cous-cous, and the sun-dried tomato that burst in his mouth just at that very moment was like a vibrant reminder of the more magical parts of his life. He finished his dinner, then followed the wizard's instructions and set off on his quest.

Chapter Text

Before Ralph went anywhere, he had to figure out where the hell that co-ordinate was directing him. It was complete nonsense by the reckoning of lines of latitude and longitude, but nonetheless it felt vaguely familiar. He had stood up, ready to set out on his travels, but then it had set in that he didn't know where he was going, so now he sat back down at his desk. Maybe if he sat still and thought for a moment, he'd remember where he'd seen the co-ordinate before.

   Then it came to him. He raised his eyebrows at the empty air. Really? He stood up and put the lid back on his Tupperware, packing it into his big grey backpack. Slinging the straps over his shoulders, he headed back out to the control room and jogged up the stairs to the overhanging mezzanine. He whistled to himself as he turned the wheel on the map machine, rotating through various surfaces. His whistle echoed around the empty space centre, then came to an abrupt stop when the co-ordinate popped up in front of him.

   It was a surface map of Mars, which could have been a little alarming. One wouldn't necessarily trust the Doctor not to send one to Mars as part of a birthday-related fetch-quest. But Ralph knew what he was getting at. He remembered every little detail of the day of the Probe Crisis, especially the bits where he'd sassed the Doctor. He looked down at his chair, imagining what it must have been like for the frustrated Doctor, unable to find what he needed.

   Can I get a map of London on this thing?

   Ralph had twisted round. A what?

   A map of London.

   Rolling his eyes, Ralph had turned back around to his console. That machine will give you maps of every surveyed planet. But a map of London? He'd looked back up at the Doctor and given him his sweetest smile. No.

   Useless gadgets, the Doctor had muttered.

   Ralph smiled again now, but ruefully. It seemed the Doctor had taken his sweet revenge and now it was he who needed a giant map of London to put on the machine. Well, this was a space centre, so most of its efforts were focused outward from Earth, but still, in such a compendium of knowledge, there had to be a map of London somewhere.

   In a way, being in the space centre by himself felt like a birthday treat in and of itself. He could do this any time he liked, what with him having a full set of keys for the whole building. But why would he ever do so? What would he do here? Surely it was at least better to sit around being lonely in his own flat rather than hanging around his workplace like a resident ghost. He could bring Anne here sometime though. That could be very romantic. As it was, he ran down the steps from the mezzanine to the control room floor like he was a kid let loose in a school with no teachers.

   It took a lot of running up and down more flights of stairs, ducking in and out of rooms, drumming his fingers on the side of his head to try to kick his brain into action. Eventually he realised that short of an actual digital file of a map to put into the machine - and he still wasn't sure he understood half of this IE tech - what he needed was a good old fashioned overhead projector. Frenetic brainstorming no longer required, he strolled calmly back to his office and had a look through the cupboards at the end of the office that he used for meetings.

   The projector was where he'd left it last time he'd had a politician over. Sir James Quinlan's successor, Miss Emily Brown, had been aware of Sir James's rather grisly end but seemed not to mind too much. In fact, she seemed slightly over-eager. If Ralph was being uncharitable he'd call her an adrenaline junkie. But she'd been helpful to him so far, so he'd been happy to show her the plans of Daxas' space centre on Mars. He just wished slightly fewer of her questions had focused on the Ice Warriors and their guns.

   In any case, this meeting had taken place only last week, so he was confident the overhead projector would be in working order. As he opened the cupboard door, he found a few sheets of the transparent plastic, with his dry-wipe markings sketched on them, sitting on top of the projector. There was also one with a little bit more than scratches of black marker. Quite a lot more, actually. He lifted the projector out onto his coffee table, then frowned as he removed this particular sheet from the cupboard.

   It was a map of London, rendered in spectacular detail with tools clearly more subtle than marker pens. There was one little sentence scrawled in the corner, in what looked like cursive, from the nib of some sort of dry-wipe fountain pen. Ralph rolled his eyes. Only one person would possess such a ridiculous object. And that person had clearly predicted him. He rotated the map and read the sentence.

   Told you you'd need a map of London.

   Ralph couldn't dry-wipe the smile off his face as he lugged the map and the projector back to the console room. He balanced it on one of the smaller desks dotted around the room, pushing the desk up next to the mezzanine so that he could point the projector's beam at the giant map machine, which was dotted with Mars-related co-ordinates. Unsurprisingly, a big X on the map of London landed perfectly on the co-ordinate the Doctor had given. Well, Ralph had his orders. He noted the postcode, looked up the corresponding street address, put all the equipment back, then headed off into the night.

---

God in Heaven, it was cold. Since when did the snow arrive perfectly on schedule on the first of December? Ralph turned up the collar on his heavy black coat and tightened his woolly scarf. It wasn't as though Daxas had brought any Davhunian weather controlling technology over from Mars so that Earth could have weather on schedule. In fact, no Davhunians had braved Earth at all since the Crisis. Understandable. So other than news reports about the Earth visit to Mars - in which Ralph had managed to guilt John Wakefield into playing down his utter abandonment of post - they were as much on their own as they'd always been. Nevertheless, here they were, first day of advent and London looked like a winter wonderland.

   Driving from the space centre had been less than fun, but the strings of fairy lights more than made up for it. They were rolled out like red carpets above his head, affixed to lamp-posts and awnings and metal poles that seemed to have been set above the shopfronts especially for the purpose. He wove along through the late-night Christmas shoppers, keeping in mind the address to which he was headed.

   Eventually he spotted it. It was just a little alley down the side of one of the department stores which would currently be prepping for the heavy footfall of Christmas season. He hoped he didn't look too shady as he slipped between the high buildings but wasn't overly fussed. He had a mission to focus on.

   The bin in question was black and bulky with a built-in ash tray on top. If anything it actually looked more out of place than Ralph down this side street - it nearly blocked the passage entirely. It must have started life out on the pavement of the main street, but perhaps the Doctor had been worried about it being disturbed before Ralph could visit it. He supposed if anyone looked down the alley they wouldn't be baffled by the existence of the bin; it just didn't quite look right.

   He crouched down beside it to put the note underneath it, but was startled to discover something was already wedged in there. It was quite thin, but as his fingertips hit against it he felt hard plastic. He dug out an inch or so of snow and found a narrow black case slid under the bin, about an inch of it poking out towards him. Gripping it as well as he could, he pulled  it out and opened it up.

   Inside was another note, and a vinyl record.

   Skip the DJ, said the note.

   Ralph looked from note to record and back again. In exactly how much detail was the Doctor intending to plan this birthday from centuries in the future? He saw the shadow of some more writing on the other side of the note and turned it round to have a look.

   Leave your reply in here and put it back under the bin.

   Sorry about how elaborate this all is. When I got back to the 21st century after our Mars trip time was a bit wonky so I'm a little wary about landing in 1970 again. Hopefully it's at least been fun solving my puzzles? I put the record and this note in here in 1969 (don't worry about the record; the case is from the forty-second century) and I'll come grab this some time in the future.

   Ralph frowned even has he placed his reply note into the case. If the Doctor was that reluctant to land again, how was he going to whisk him off for a birthday trip to go meet Nikola Tesla? Well, what was the point in trying to figure out the Doctor's plans. He'd said it himself; he was unfathomable.

Chapter Text

The address the future-Doctor had directed him to was quite near UNIT headquarters, and the frock-coated-Doctor's lab within. Ralph took the hint and decided to drop in on his Doctor before he headed home for the night. Anne had been unsure when she was going to finish at work this evening so she was staying in Cambridge and Ralph was staying in London (they'd talked about fully living together, but they'd decided it was useful to have somewhere to sleep in each city) so he was at an independent bachelor-like loose end. He'd happily help the Doctor tinker away at some TARDIS control long into the early hours.

   The receptionist let him through with a cursory glance - he'd been a frequent visitor to the lab in both personal and professional capacities for nearly a year. He wandered through the corridors, snooping absentmindedly at open doors to see what shenanigans UNIT was getting up to at the moment in their mission to keep Earth safe from alien invasion. Daxas said they'd been in touch quite regularly to keep on top of the Ice Warrior situation, and especially to keep it hidden from the public. Maybe it proved the conspiracy theorists right, but Ralph thought this was a solid course of action.

   He remembered a tabloid journalist who'd come to him once, before the word Probe had become attached to the word Crisis. He'd had a lot of questions about UNIT and about Ashley Chapel and the whole IE affair. Ralph had done his best to brush him off, keep himself clean out of trouble, but couldn't resist nudging the fellow in the right direction. He'd seemed awfully sincere for a hack.

   Anyway. He shook away the memory as he arrived at the door to the Doctor's lab.

   As he entered, he heard the Brigadier say, "And I can bring Yates and Benton."

   There was a murmur of agreement from the assembled group. Because there was a group in here, quite an extensive list of everyone Ralph knew, in fact. There was the Doctor of course, and the Brigadier. But there was also Liz, who he had no idea was in town, and Anne, whom he'd been led to believe was absolutely not in town. And Charlie?!

   They all turned to face him and immediately stopped talking. From the lying, the secrecy and the incongruity of the group, and despite having never had one before, Ralph was immediately one hundred per cent certain that this was a birthday party planning committee.

   And I can bring Yates and Benton, the Brig had said.

   Oh God. They didn't have a big enough guest list. The Brig was suggesting he rope in his underlings to bulk it up. Other than two more astronauts and an assistant, a couple of Davhunians, an ex in Australia, and two sort-of-boyfriends who couldn't land in 1970 for fear of imploding the universe, it was true that everyone Ralph knew was already in this lab. And it was not cramped. It amused Ralph that the Doctor seemed to be the least engaged of anyone in the room, busily toying with some sort of contraption on the nearest worktop. It was a far cry from his future self, who was pulling out all the stops to make this some sort of Fairytale Forty.

   "Hello everyone," said Ralph, settling his gaze on Anne. He raised one eyebrow sharply.

   "Ralph!" Anne exclaimed. "Hi! Er, um, Liz asked me along to, um, from Cambridge I mean - we were both in Cambridge, like I said."

   Ralph smiled and crossed the lab to take her into his arms. He kissed her in greeting and said, "For someone who likes a practical joke, you're a terrible liar."

   Anne sighed, but smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Well, you got us." She turned him around so they were facing the rest of their friends. "What would you like for your birthday party, Ralph?"

   "Oh, come on, we could absolutely have saved that!" Liz put her hand on her hip, shaking her head. But she smiled. "It's good to see you, Ralph. I hear you've had quite the adventure on Mars."

   "Big British Space Centre day out, it was." Ralph nodded towards Charlie. "Bit stressful, but, you know, we got through it."

   "Oh, I remember those days," said Liz.

   Ralph smiled. "Listen, now that I'm in on the secret planning meeting, why don't we stop crowding the Doctor's lab and decamp to the pub?"

   The Doctor glanced up from the day's contraption and Ralph spotted the corners of his mouth flicking upwards before he got back to his work.

   "What time is it?" said Charlie.

   Ralph checked his watch. "Eight-thirty."

   "Hmm… I'd like to get home before Angie's bedtime, but another day?"

   "Course," said Ralph. "No problem. Tomorrow?"

   "Sounds like a plan," said Charlie. Then he said goodbye and headed off to try to catch his daughter in time for a bedtime story.

   Ralph looked to Liz. "Oops, hope I haven't wasted your trip."

   Liz shrugged. "We got a lot done before you got here. And besides, I'm sleeping on your couch tonight anyway."

   "You're what?"

   "Oh, yes, did I forget to mention the conference in London we're going to tomorrow?" Anne winked at him. "You were going to very graciously provide us with bed and board in our time of need."

   Ralph laughed and slung his arm around her shoulders. He kissed her on the top of her head. "It helps that you have a key."

   "That was going to be important if you had gone to sleep early, yes," said Anne.

   Laughter rattled Ralph's shoulders as he leaned down against Anne.

   "I'll see you all tomorrow then," said the Brigadier. He gave them a sketch of a salute and his cheeks were clearly beaming beneath his moustache. Then he headed out the door and either home or back to his own office.

   "Shall we, then?" said Ralph, looking from Anne to Liz.

   "You don't want to stay a while?" said Anne. "I assumed you came here to see the Doctor."

   "I did," said Ralph. "But then birthday party planning committees rather got in the way."

   "Well, I'm in no rush," said Anne. "If the Doctor will have us for a while?"

Chapter Text

The Doctor set down his contraption and stretched his arms. "Jo left some biscuits for the meeting and I completely forgot about them. They're over in that cupboard, help yourselves."

   Ralph headed in the direction he'd indicated. As he opened the cupboard door he looked over his shoulder and asked, "Where is Jo? I'd have thought she'd be useful to have around for party planning. She's very stylish."

   "Oh, she's taking a night class. Self-defence," said the Doctor. "Now that we've managed to take the TARDIS on a few trips, and of course there was that incident with the Daleks, she wants to be sure she's well on top of things, you know, in the physical department. She's had a few close scrapes."

   "Gosh," said Anne. "You know, I remember that week we had the trouble with the Yetis in the London Underground tunnels. I barely slept a wink, even when I was sure I was in a cleared area. I can't imagine going through that for months on end."

   "That was my life until I got stuck here," said the Doctor.

   Ralph brought the biscuits back over and offered them around. "I know what she means, Doctor. The Probe crisis probably knocked a solid year off my lifespan. We don't all have centuries to burn."

   The room lacking tables and chairs, they all sat down on the ground and held their hands under their mouths to catch the biscuit crumbs.

   "What are you saying, Ralph, that you wouldn't take a trip in the TARDIS?"

   Through a mouthful of ginger hobnob, Ralph said, "I've got a job, Doctor. I can't disappear like that." That being said, I look forward to meeting Nikola Tesla sometime soon. Presumably the later TARDIS was more reliable, and whatever trick the future Doctor was planning on using would get him home in time for his morning commute. But of course he couldn't say any of this, because this Doctor wasn't supposed to know that Ralph had met his future self.

   The Doctor drew up one leg and rested his hands on his knee. "No, but theoretically. If I ever manage to fix this directional circuit. I could take all three of you somewhere nice."

   "Hmm…" said Liz. "We could go to a restaurant. You know, something grown-up with nice wines and elegant clothes, but hanging off the side of a gravity-defying cliff."

   Ralph leaned against Anne, feeling her warmth. "That sounds like quite the date."

   Anne didn't say anything, but turned to face him. Her mouth was small and pursed, not an expression he was used to seeing. He smiled slightly and squeezed his hand where it rested on her waist. No pressure, honey. He supposed even with a reliable return date, TARDIS life wasn't for everyone. And she had had a truly horrible time of it with the Yeti. Her shorter haircut had made her look a little younger, impish perhaps. Suddenly Ralph felt his heart tighten and he moved his arm even further around her waist, holding her close. Nobody was going to put Anne Travers in danger if he had anything to say about it.

   "So, Liz, how's Cambridge?" said the Doctor, in a rare combo-move of smoothly redirecting conversation and taking an interest in academic matters.

   Ralph could feel the tension all through Anne's body and he suddenly wished they'd headed home after all. What was the matter? There was no chance of a directionally-secure TARDIS anytime soon anyway, so all this had been purely theoretical. Was she remembering the Yeti week? Or maybe the time she'd spent not knowing where Ralph was?

   Luckily Liz had lots to tell the Doctor about, so they were able to carry the conversation while Anne's trembling lessened. Ralph rested his chin on top of her head, doing his best to turn his body into a protective cage around her as she calmed.

   "Love you," he whispered, planting a silent kiss on the top of her head.

   She squeezed his hand, but didn't say anything, looking instead towards Liz and the Doctor as their conversation continued.

   "Yes, as far as I can tell his papers seem quite genuine," said Liz.

   "Papers?" said Ralph.

   "I looked him up, found him in a couple of the more niche journals," said Liz. "But for all the lack of prestige, his theory seems to have a solid foundation. Almost old-school, really. Going back to basics, but dreaming big."

   "Oh, you're talking about Dokic," said Anne. Ralph loosed his arms as she sat up a little.

   "Dokic?" said Ralph.

   "You haven't heard of him yet?" said Liz.

   "Does he live on Mars?"

   "Fair point. Well, he's a new physicist out of America. Miomir Dokic. People call him Mischa. He seems to be something of a genius," Liz explained. "But I guess he must not have cut through from academic circles yet."

   "What sort of a genius?" said Ralph, absentmindedly holding a biscuit halfway to his mouth.

   "You mean, could one recruit him to a space centre?" said Liz.

   "Well he had better things to do." Ralph pointed at the Doctor. "I have to talent scout where I can. You two both seem tied to Cambridge as if they're holding you down with bungee cords."

   "Aw, nobody wants to play rocket ships with Ralph," said Anne, patting his hair.

   Ralph smiled, glad to see she'd relaxed a little.

   "I think you'd be interested in his studies, yes," said Liz. "Actually, Anne, I know you're more of a particle physics sort of gal, but I think your dad would be fascinated. He writes like he's never read a word of Travers, yet somehow knows it all instinctively, and has some fascinating ideas about long-range communication. He's reinventing your father's wheel, except with fancy double-spokes that make the whole bike work twice as efficiently."

   That did sound intriguing. Ralph was about to ask for some journal references - he had allocated a pot of Space Centre funding for academic acquisitions, journals and new textbooks and the like - when the Doctor spoke up instead.

   "If his stuff was so good," he said, frowning, "Why didn't they want him in America?"

   "They didn't?" said Ralph.

   Anne shook her head. "Yeah, he's not here because he likes the weather, poor thing."

   "What happened?" said Ralph. "Was there some problem with his research? It doesn't sound overly controversial."

   "Politics, Professor," said the Doctor.

   "Ah." Ralph nodded. "Who'd he upset?"

   "It's more of a general… atmosphere?" said Liz. "He doesn't fit their image of what a great American thinker ought to be, so he ruffled feathers just by being himself, his extremely clever and, I'm told, rather handsome self."

   Ralph's heart hammered briefly before he got it under control. Now didn’t that just sound like someone he knew? An electric man of genius who didn't quite look or behave how everyone expected? One who'd come largely out of nowhere but made such a big splash people couldn't help but take notice? One who had to take creative measures to land himself in England in 1970 without destroying the world? One who'd perhaps been lurking in America for over a year so that he wouldn't bump into the other TARDIS in the vortex?

   One he wasn't allowed to talk to this one about, Ralph thought, looking at the cloudy-haired Doctor before him.

   "Are you alright, Ralph?" he said.

   "Sorry?"

   "Great scientific minds not being accepted for who they are…" The Doctor gestured vaguely.

   "I'm going to take that as a compliment to my intellect, so thank you," said Ralph. "But no, I'm fine, just thinking I'd like to get my hands on some of these papers."

   "I've got some in my bag," said Anne. She yawned a little and said, "We could read them over breakfast."

   "While that does sound like domestic bliss," said Liz, "You might actually be in even more luck. What I was saying to the Doctor is that he's currently in talks with administration at Cambridge. The physics faculty is trying to wrangle him a guest lectureship. They're looking at open entry as well."

   "Wow, that's quite something from Cambridge," said Ralph. Open entry would mean that for the duration of the man's lectureship, anyone who wanted could attend, whether a Cambridge scholar (or any other scholar) or not.

   "Alright, Oxford," said Anne. She gently elbowed him in the stomach. There were some areas of life in which Oxford and Cambridge truly were fierce competitors - rowing, for example - but usually if Ralph's alma mater came up between the three of them, it was not an especially heated rivalry.

   Ralph grinned. "I meant from either of them, or assorted other fusty old ivory towers."

   "Well, either way," said Liz. "What it means is if he gets to give one of his lectures, you're all invited. We can have a Ralph's Birthday Party Planning Committee field trip."

   "Sounds delightful," said Ralph. He finished off a biscuit. "For now, however, how about that sleepover?"

   They all stood up and Ralph hugged the Doctor goodbye, to the Doctor's slight surprise, it seemed, but he hugged back after a moment. Then Ralph and the girls headed off to a night of nail painting and pillow fights, or whatever sleepovers entailed when you were fifteen days away from turning forty.

Chapter Text

"It feels a little odd getting naked with Liz in the next room," said Ralph, sitting down on the edge of the bed as he pulled off his trousers.

   "Well you could always keep your pants on if you wanted," said Anne. She pinged the waistband for emphasis.

   "Ow!" Ralph twisted round and smiled down at her. She was already snug under the covers and he was rather desperate to join her. He leaned over and kissed her as he undid the buttons of his shirt. "No, it's fine. I'm an English public school boy; if I stopped every time I felt shame I'd never leave the house." Eventually he escaped all his clothes and slipped under the covers. He pulled her into his arms and said, "I do draw the line at actually having sex though."

   Anne nodded, spreading her hands over his shoulders and down his back as she settled into a comfortable position. "Too hard to control volume," she agreed. She yawned into Ralph's collarbone. "I'm pretty sleepy anyway."

   "Me too," said Ralph. "Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you. And, Anne, whatever was bothering you today, we can talk about it any time. You know that, don't you?"

   "I know," said Anne. She whispered, "I love you too." Then her breathing steadied, and she began the slow drift off to sleep.

---

"Oh my goodness, that smells good," said Ralph. He'd emerged from his bedroom fully clothed, a habit he'd held fast to ever since the Travers incident. He had on a pair of brown suit trousers and a dark blue shirt, though now he rapidly removed the green jumper he'd put on over the top. The kitchen was warm.

   "Just my way of saying thank you for the crash," said Liz, carrying a frying pan full of bacon over to the table.

   "You needed a place to crash because you were planning my birthday party," said Ralph, nonetheless sliding himself into a chair at the table. There were sausages, eggs, bacon, little quartered tomatoes and tall glasses of orange juice.

   "Still," said Liz. "Nice to be nice."

   "Indeed, Dr Shaw," said Ralph, with a grateful incline of the head. "Hang on, I'll go get Anne before the food gets cold."

   He stood up and nipped back to the bedroom. Softly, he pulled the cover back from up around her head and said, "Annie?"

   She groaned and turned over to face him. She frowned. "Are you going somewhere?"

   Ralph looked down at himself. "We have company."

   "You only need to cover yourself," she said, sitting up. "I'm sure a t-shirt and sweats would have been adequate."

   Ralph shook his head. "English public school boy, I told you. Now, Liz has cooked us a gorgeous breakfast. Are you coming?" He clambered over her and sat on top of the covers. "I could always give you a hand." He tugged lightly at the duvet, threatening to pull it off.

   Anne pulled it back, strong enough to take it from his hand. He started to laugh, but then realised she wasn't smiling.

   "Anne? Are you alright?" he said.

   She hesitated, then sighed and said, "You remember how last night you said we could talk about what was bothering me any time?"

   "Yeah?" he said. He threaded his arm between her shoulders and the headboard.

   "I sort of want to talk about it now," she said. She sighed again. "But obviously that's silly, because Liz is out there and she's made breakfast and it'll get cold."

   "I'm sure she'd understand," said Ralph. "She's not going to be that put out."

   Anne shook her head. "I know, I know, but I don't like to let such a lovely thing go to waste."

   "Okay," said Ralph. "Whatever you want to do, that's fine. We can talk about it later, yeah?"

   Anne nodded. "Yeah. Thank you, Ralph."

   Ralph gave her a hand up and wrapped her into a hug. "Of course, Annie."

   Anne got dressed quickly and followed Ralph out into the living room.

   "Everything alright?" said Liz, looking round from where she'd sat down at the table. She was nose deep in a heavy brown book - one of the journals Dokic had been published in.

   Dokic. Ralph snorted inwardly to himself. He wondered if the mysterious genius ever shortened his name to Dok.

   They settled down to breakfast and cracked open some more of the journals. Well, not literally cracked. They were library loans after all. It was also important not to get bacon juice on them. The truth was, there would probably be more convenient times for reading. But it was just so grown-up to sit with the papers and a nice breakfast spread. And as someone who was now turning forty in fourteen days, Ralph rather liked the feel of it.

   "Are you sure he's never read your dad's work?" Ralph said to Anne. "It is awfully similar. Say, here, for example, when he's talking about global wireless coverage. Ed keeps hounding me so that I'll ask Daxas for help with setting up something like that!"

   "Ed?" said Liz, pausing with a piece of toast partway to her mouth.

   "Yeah… You know, Anne's dad," said Ralph, not looking at Anne. "He said I could call him Ed."

   "In return for you helping him out with Daxas?" Anne asked, but the intonation of the sentence was downward, hardly a question.

   "Maybe," Ralph mumbled. "But I did what Ed said and so I'm going to reap the reward!" He crunched down on a sausage, which was mercifully cool enough not to burn off his mouth.

   "Anyway," said Liz, looking from one to the other of them. Ralph reluctantly looked at Anne and found her hiding her laugh behind her mug of coffee. Liz went on, "I think there's difference enough in the origin of his theory. And that makes sense. It's not as if he was down there with you in the underground tunnels seeing the Yeti up close."

   "Oh aye, that's right." Ralph grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

   "Sorry?" said Anne.

   "Well, I have a little theory," said Ralph. He set down his knife and fork and told them everything that had happened yesterday before he'd interrupted the planning meeting. "Obviously I couldn't say anything about this in front of our Doctor. You know, in the interests of not imploding the universe and all that. So that meant I couldn't mention my theory either."

   "Which is…?" said Liz. They were both watching him intently.

   "That this Mischa is more Doktor than Dokic," Ralph said. He sat up straight, pleased with himself for getting that wordplay straight in his head. "I think it's how the Doctor's getting around the TARDIS problem! Maybe he's even going to secretly come to the party! He did say I should have a costume party. Maybe if he comes in disguise it won't be so destructive."

   "It's certainly possible," said Liz. "It… I don't know that it sounds like something he would do, not the man I know. But he's got a sort of… infinite mind? I could see him with a grand plan."

   "We'll find out soon if the talks with Cambridge go well," said Anne. She placed her hand over Ralph's and stroked his palm with her thumb.

   Ralph adjusted his position so that he was holding her hand properly. "Or maybe it's not about the party so much as just picking me up for this trip to meet Nikola Tesla." He turned to Anne, whose posture curled inward ever so slightly. "Obviously, it's okay if I'm wrong. Either way, the Doctor will be at my birthday party. Our Doctor. Frock coat, frilly shirt, cloud of white hair. And it's going to be wonderful."

   Anne smiled and patted their held hands with her free one. "So, can we listen to it?" she said.

   "Huh?"

   "The record! I'm dying to know what the Doctor, of all people, would choose for a party."

   "Oh gosh, yes." Ralph stood up and headed over to the couch, behind which was his backpack. "I should get it out of here before it warps." He dug into the bag and pulled out the record in its plastic casing. As he brought it over to the table he said, "I wonder if it's all one album or if he has a custom record press in that spaceship of his."

   "Ralph, honey, do you have a record player?" said Anne, looking around the flat.

   "Oh, sorry, yes. I do." Ralph moved away from the table again and started tidying up some old newspapers and clothes and dish towels strewn about. Ralph had been significantly less invested in the upkeep of his flat before he'd met the Doctor and Anne. With Toby it just… hadn't been like that. He felt a sudden pang of guilt that he was having a morning like this with Anne, like he was leaving Toby behind, which was a preposterous thing to think about someone who literally moved to Australia.

   It was just different, really. Relationships that were secret versus relationships you didn't have to worry about. It changed everything.

   He let out a breath as he dug the turntable out from under his settee. He had a party track to listen to.

Chapter Text

The days passed; the party came more into being. Briefly the space centre had been floated as a venue, because they knew it worked for social events. But, with Ralph now being part of the planning committee, he was able to veto this. Networking nights at the space centre were dull as hell. To be true to the future-Doctor, Ralph was determined that this night should not be dull, whether said Doctor found a way to attend or not. He hadn’t recognised a single song from that record, but the magic had run through his bones the moment it started playing. Surrounded by his friends, human and Gallifreyan, Ralph was sure this could make up for every boring cocktail party and miserable night spent hiding from the world.

   So they'd found a nice hall. It was a recently converted church and it was one of the most gorgeous rooms Ralph had ever seen. Sunken a floor below ground level, it was hung with green and purple fairy lights and had strings of ivy curling around its pillars and balustrades. Two staircases led down from the ground level entry, one on each side. Between them the wall was decorated with hardwood panelling and little recesses with busts of poets from hundreds of years ago and, slightly randomly, a couple of tennis stars from Ralph's childhood. The one of Suzanne Lenglen was a small statuette rather than a bust and between the poise of her limbs and the whooshing shapes of her tennis dress, she looked like she was about to fly out of her niche.

   As Ralph wandered around Hertfordshire and London over the next week and a half, his spirit was sitting patiently in that little hall in Cambridge. The only problem was, it was now December fourteenth and he still hadn't heard any more from the mysterious Dokic. It seemed that he wasn't wrong to accuse Cambridge of institutional stagnation. Even if Anne and Liz were right, and the majority of the department wanted to host his guest lectures, it was taking forever to approve the theories he would be proposing. It was only making Ralph think more and more that it was the Doctor. Who else would be that obtuse making his way through the machinery of academia?

   But then, one day, he got the call. Anne screeched down the line with the good news as soon as he picked up.

   "Ralph! They got him! It finally worked!"

   Ralph held the receiver away from his ear and smiled. Then he said, "That's fantastic. And it's going to be open entry for the lecture? I don't need to be a member of the faculty?"

   "Actually, that's still to be decided."

   "Oh. Well, could I come as your date?"

   "Ah! I mean, yes, of course, but also that's where it gets really interesting. Whether it's open to the public or not you are definitely invited."

   "Wow, how'd you swing that?"

   "I didn't."

   "Liz?"

   "Nope."

   "… The… Doctor?"

   "Not him."

   "Well then who?"

   "Mischa Dokic."

   "Sorry?"

   "He asked for you personally."

   "What?" Ralph blinked, taking this in. But he thought about it for a moment then said, "Maybe I'm right then. Maybe it is the future-Doctor."

   "The thought did occur to me."

   Ralph blew some air out between his lips. "Wow, alright then. When's the lecture?"

   "I'm not sure about that either actually," said Anne. "But I have even more news."

   "Well then carry on, carry on!" Ralph grinned at how excited she was getting.

   "It doesn't matter so much when the lecture is because he wants to meet you tomorrow."

   "… Oh, it so is the Doctor, isn't it?"

   "I still have no idea because I am yet to see him. Particle physics got annoyingly busy this week."

   "Anything the world should know about?"

   "No, no, it's fine. Nothing about to explode."

   "Good."

   "The thing is, about the Doctor. Wasn't he dark-skinned?"

   The Doctor had crashed Ralph and Anne's Mars to Earth video calls from time to time when Ralph had been in Daxas' space centre, leaning over Ralph's shoulder to peek his head into shot.

   "Yeah. Dark brown skin, shorn hair, big bright eyes and some of the sharpest cheekbones you ever saw."

   "Oh, yes, I remember."

   There was a pause.

   "Good to know we have similar taste in men," said Ralph.

   "Agreed."

   "Anyway, why do you ask? If you haven't seen Dokic to compare?"

   "Well, people have been describing him as tall, dark and handsome, not unlike yourself, my dear."

   "Thank you." Ralph nodded his head, like he was giving her a tiny bow that, of course, she couldn't see.

   "But I think they probably do mean like you. Dark as in dark hair, rather than ruddy cheeked and fair. Not dark as in literally brown-skinned."

   "Hmm…" Ralph screwed up his mouth. "Maybe he regenerated again?"

   "Possible."

   Ralph shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'll find out soon, eh?"

   "Tomorrow."

   "Tomorrow," Ralph agreed with a grin.

   "What are you up to tonight?"

   "I've not got a lot on here, so I was going to finish up quite early and go see the Doctor. Meet me there?"

   "I like this plan."

   "Great. Alright, see you later. Love you."

   "Love you!"

   "Bye." Ralph smiled.

   "Bye."

   Oh. Damn. He'd forgotten again. They still hadn't talked about whatever had been bothering her that day he'd walked in on the party planning. The rest of their day with Liz after the sleepover breakfast had been so fun that they'd both got distracted. And then in the days following, their jobs had kicked back in and the birthday party preparations had entered full swing. He sighed to himself as he packed his work things into his backpack. He'd find the time - he'd make the time. He just didn't want to push Anne, make her feel self-conscious about it. She seemed so much more comfortable when he was the one making an emotional mess of things.

   He had an inkling that it was still about her dad, but Travers hadn't had any more health issues since that initial mini-stroke. He was quite the globetrotter at the moment, in fact, having taken on an international negotiation role on behalf of the Silurians. Maybe that was part of the problem. Maybe Anne was worried about that, and thought he should slow down, or even just wanted to see him more.

   Ralph slung his bag over one shoulder. Well, he'd find out soon enough, as long as the Doctor didn't mind sitting in on another heart-to-heart.

Chapter Text

Ralph was first to make it to the Doctor's lab, which was nice. When he'd come over after he'd found the note and the record, he'd been looking forward to spending some time just the two of them. He really ought to make more time for this, except for the fact that he didn't seem to have time for anything at the moment. Well, they had a little time now. Ralph strode into the room, spotted the Doctor working at a chemical analyser, and strolled up to his right-hand side.

   The Doctor didn't notice him in the slightest. Ralph grinned and tapped him on the left shoulder. The Doctor looked left, saw nobody, furrowed his brow and looked to his right, then snorted at Ralph.

   "Afternoon, Professor."

   "Hi, Doctor," said Ralph. "What you working on?"

   The Doctor looked back through a scope on the analyser. "Oh, just something I brought back from Peladon. Shh, don't tell Aggedor."

   "Who's Aggedor?" said Ralph. He squinted at the circle of glass embedded into the big metal machine. About a foot below, there was something green and powdery sitting on a slide.

   "Oh, just a cow god I made friends with," said the Doctor.

   Ralph smiled. "Of course you did. And what's this?"

   "A bunch of ground up cave rocks," said the Doctor. "But I think I'm going to call it Aggedite. Listen, I can make it sing. I think it must be why the lullaby worked so well on him."

   The Doctor tapped at some of the controls and turned a few dials, then went dead silent. He gestured for Ralph to lean closer in with him and put his hand on Ralph's back to keep him steady. Ralph's heart had a brief hiccup at the touch, but then it settled down and quiet descended.

   In the silence, he could hear a humming. As he zoned in on it, he started to recognise a rise and fall, a melody. It was sweet, reassuring.

   "The planet made this sound?" Ralph whispered.

   "Not by itself, at least not for those of us with ears like ours," said the Doctor. "But maybe Aggedor could hear it. I think that poor soul must spend a lot of his time quite confused."

   The Doctor reset the controls and they stood back up. Ralph felt like he'd emerged from the sea, or just got out of bed with Anne. He took a deep breath and went and made some tea, English public school boy that he was.

   "You want anything?" he called over to the Doctor, who was back to his experimentations.

   "Two sugars, please," the Doctor replied.

   Ralph whipped around. "You what?" The Doctor never took sugar.

   Without looking up, the Doctor said, "I've been at this for eighteen hours."

   "Doctor."

   "Relax, there's nothing flammable involved."

   "Still," Ralph said as he bustled off to the little side table with the kettle and the pots of teabags.

   He made the Doctor stop working when he brought the mugs of tea over and, as was tradition in this room that the Doctor still hadn't properly furnished, they settled down on the floor to have a chat.

   "Did you hear Mischa Dokic wants to meet me?" said Ralph.

   "Oh, does he? Fancy."

   "Well, I'm a very important space controller. Sometimes people want to meet me."

   The Doctor smiled. "You're certainly the most important space controller I know."

   "How many sp- Ah. Very funny."

   The Doctor sipped his tea through some very tightly pressed lips.

   "So tell me more about Peladon," said Ralph. "I think I've mined you for everything you're worth about that space colony, but I've been so busy I feel like I've barely heard a word about Peladon."

   The Doctor sighed and stretched out his legs. "It's a tale of federations, nobles, one cow-creature who may or may not have been a god - probably not - and one King trying to keep it all together. It started with a rather bumpy landing…"

   Ralph held his left hand just a few millimetres away from his mug, holding in the waves of heat. The Doctor's words flowed over him like a warm bath. His voice was slightly scratchy, as if he'd been smoking for decades, even though he'd only had the body for a couple of years. But there was something about his tone, his inflections, that felt like magic to Ralph. He let that pleasure lift him, carrying him through the dark of space to the far-off planet of Peladon, where Hepesh was going head to head with the Federation for the soul of his planet - or at least, that was how he saw it.

   Just as Jo was getting stuck in the chamber of the Ice Warriors - Ralph had had to try very hard not to give away his alarm when he'd heard them mentioned - Anne wandered into the room, poured herself a cup of tea, and sat down beside Ralph. Ralph wrapped his free hand around her waist and pulled her in close, and they sat there together listening to the Doctor's stories.

   Ralph let out a big sigh when the Doctor was done. He'd just finished his cup of tea as well, and in some ways he felt like a small child finishing a meal.

   "So do you think Peladon - the King, I mean - will manage to navigate it all?" he said.

   "I think I left him with the best possible chance," said the Doctor.

   Ralph nodded. "I think you did too." He hooked his left hand up to rest on Anne's head and gave her bob a scritch. "Hi, honey."

   "Hello," said Anne. She turned her head to face him and smiled. "Have you had a nice evening?"

   "Wonderful."

   "As have I," said the Doctor. "Thanks for sparing him a while."

   "I haven't spared him," said Anne.

   "That's not what it's like," Ralph agreed. "I've just been busy."

   The Doctor hesitated a moment, then smiled and said, "Well, fair enough."

   "Would you like to come to dinner?" said Anne. "We don't have anything planned but maybe we could-"

   "Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That reminds me!" He shot to his feet, turned around, and disappeared into the TARDIS.

   Ralph and Anne looked at each other.

   "Any idea?" said Anne.

   "Not a clue."

   Not long later, the Doctor returned with a lidded metal dish. He crouched down so they could see it clearly and pried off the lid. Within were three white strips, a bit like chewing gum. But Ralph remembered this description, and knew they weren't chewing gum.

   He looked up at the Doctor, grin spreading wide. "The food machine! You fixed it!"

   The Doctor nodded, a smile on his lips betraying how proud of himself he was. "I did, and with no Time Lord interference."

   "Oh, that's wonderful," said Ralph. "Well done, my friend, very well done."

   "What does it taste of?" said Anne, peering at the strips.

   "I didn't want to give away the surprise by taking orders, so I've gone with a nice, simple tomato soup."

   Ralph reached his hand out for one of them. "Can I?"

   "Go ahead."

   He picked up a strip of tomato soup and popped it into his mouth. The warm taste of homely tomato soup was immediate; the texture was… acceptable. Ralph could absolutely see how this would be essential to a Doctor travelling around the universe in his blue box. Hm… He hoped the Doctor didn't spend even more time in here, not even requiring a UNIT soldier to occasionally bring him sustenance.

   "Hey, Doctor, it's a lovely starter, but still, come with us for a main course?" said Ralph.

   Anne nodded, and Ralph noticed she hadn't gone for her strip yet.

   "Ooh, main courses," the Doctor said. He stood up again and hurried over to the TARDIS. As he entered, he turned to them. "Roast chicken? Fish and chips? Curry?"

   "I meant, you know, a nice Italian restaurant," said Ralph. "Maybe we could go back to San- and he's gone."

   The Doctor had disappeared inside, presumably to bring them back strips of spaghetti Bolognese.

   Ralph sighed. "Think he might be in one of those moods."

   Anne leaned against him.

   The Doctor appeared at the door again. "Ralph, I can't remember what was in that pasta dish you had that night we went out. Was it aubergine?"

   "Um, courgette, but-"

   "And carrot?"

   "I think so."

   The Doctor waved his hand and said, "You know what, never mind, just come here. You can enter it on the machine yourself."

   He disappeared again.

   Ralph ran his hand through his hair. "Maybe the fastest thing would be just to go along with it. Coming?"

   He stood up and reached out his hand to Anne, starting to walk towards the TARDIS. Anne came with him to the door, but then shook her head. Ralph had stepped over the threshold before he noticed her hesitation. He turned around and stepped back out, taking her hand.

   "You alright?"

   Anne didn't say anything, only peered into the darkness.

   He put his hands on her shoulders and bent down to look in her eyes. "It's alright, you know. It's really strange, but it's worth seeing."

   Anne still couldn't say anything, only shook her head.

   Ralph heard footsteps behind him and a moment later the Doctor was beside him at the open door. He was holding another dish, but a quick look from Ralph to Anne and back seemed to snap him out of his excitement. He checked the lid on the dish, slipped it into his pocket, and touched Ralph lightly on the shoulder.

   "I'm sorry," said Anne.

   Ralph shook his head. "What's wrong?" He stepped out of the TARDIS and took her by both hands. The Doctor stayed in the doorway, but Anne gestured for him to follow and they all sat back down on the floor.

   "I think it's time to talk about what's wrong now," Anne said quietly.

   Ralph nodded. "I'm here, sweetheart."

   "As am I," said the Doctor.

   Anne looked from one to the other, nodded, then started to explain.

Chapter Text

"Ralph, do you remember when you asked if I wanted to come to Ma- Margate?" said Anne. Her gaze jumped briefly to the Doctor, but then she cleared her throat and asked for some water. The Doctor grabbed her empty mug before Ralph could and went over to the table with the teabags to rinse it out and fill it with some water from the tap.

   Ralph stroked her chin with his knuckle. "Did you nearly say Mars there?"

   "M-hm."

   "Can you do this without mentioning it?"

   She nodded as the Doctor brought the water over, and took a long drink.

   "Look, forget Margate," said Anne. "Insert any trip I may or may not have taken."

   "Like Birmingham?" said Ralph, remembering the conference she'd gone on while he was on Mars.

   She put her hand over her mouth and her brow furrowed. Her cheeks got a little red. "Ralph, I've lied to you."

   Ralph shuffled up beside her and put his arm around her, putting his long limbs to good protective use. "How so, honey?"

   "I didn't go to Birmingham," she whispered.

   "Well, that's okay," said Ralph, waggling her slightly by the shoulders. "Nobody ever needs to go to Birmingham."

   "Hey, I like Birmingham," said Anne, with a big snotty breath in.

   "Then how come you didn't go?"

   "Because I can't go anywhere!" She looked up at Ralph, then at the Doctor, then turned her attention to the TARDIS. "I can't even get on a bus anymore!" Her voice broke towards the end of her words and she curled into Ralph's chest. Ralph felt like his heart was being yanked through his throat and it was all he could do to stop himself from crying. For now, he would refrain. She needed someone solid right now, whatever was going on.

   Anne cried for a while, which Ralph reckoned was good. He rested his head on top of hers and looked to the side to check that the Doctor was okay. The Doctor gave him a wink, and sipped at a cup of tea Ralph hadn't noticed him making.

   Eventually Anne sat back up and wiped her hand across her face. The Doctor produced a lace-trimmed cloth hankie, perfectly clean, and passed it to her. She smiled at him and used it to wipe her eyes and nose.

   "So," she said, "It all started when my dad had that mini-stroke. You remember how nervous I was in Tibet? And then what happened to you there, Doctor, when you fell down the hole. That could have been him."

   "But, if you'll forgive me," said Ralph.

   "Go on." Anne nodded.

   "He has since kept travelling around all over the place, trying to find somewhere for the Silurians to live," said Ralph. "Much farther than Birmingham."

   "I know," Anne said quietly. "I know it doesn't make sense."

   "That's okay," said Ralph. He kissed her on the forehead.

   "For a while after we got back from Tibet, I saw him as much as I could. Pretty much all my time I was either at work, with you or with him. Sometimes both of you, and those were the best days. And then he had his trips start up, but I stayed like an anchor in Cambridge so that… So that… " She sighed. "I don't know. After a while I realised it made no sense. But it was… It was sort of too late? I realised I was in trouble when the Birmingham trip came up and I was scared to go. Ralph… This isn't me. You know that too, Doctor. I was brave when you first met me. And you, Ralph, I told you I wanted an adventure. But one day I woke up and realised I hadn't been on a bus or a train in six months and I certainly can't set foot in that." She pointed at the TARDIS.

   Ralph rubbed her back. "I reckon it's pretty normal not to want to go into an erratic time machine, but I can see why you might need to go to Birmingham one day after all."

   "I don't want to be like this." Anne shook her head and took another drink of water.

   Ralph wrapped both arms around her and breathed in, out, in, out. "It's going to be alright, Anne. Alright." He lengthened the 'a' for extra emphasis. "We're going to figure this out, and I will be back in my rightful place as the emotional dunce in this relationship before you know it."

   Ralph heard the sound of Anne laugh from somewhere within his protective basket of arms and legs. He looked at the Doctor again, who stuck out his bottom lip and put his hand to his breast. Poor thing, he mouthed.

   "I think I'm done with talking," Anne said. "I… I'm really glad to get that all out but… I hate it. Dad's fine, isn't he? The doctors all think he's fine. So there's nothing real to worry about. It's all in my head, like I'm going crazy."

   "It's okay, all okay," Ralph said softly. "Just another adventure, eh?"

   Anne nodded. She sat up a bit straighter and Ralph loosened his hold as she wiped at her face with the hankie again.

   "Oh, God, I can't leave the lab like this," she said. "Wouldn't want the soldiers seeing me in such a state."

   Ralph stroked his thumbs lightly over her cheeks, which had gone all red and blotchy from the crying. He slightly raised his eyebrows at her.

   "Oh, who cares how you see me?" She chuckled. "You're stuck with me." She glanced at the Doctor. "You both are."

   The Doctor smiled at her. "I count my blessings every day, Dr. Travers."

   Anne smiled wide. "Oh hell, you're going to make me cry again." She took a few deep breaths, pursing her lips tightly together. She sighed and said, "I just need a minute."

   Ralph nodded. "Hey, idea."

   He offered her his hand and glanced from the Doctor to the chemical analyser. The Doctor nodded and strode over to it, getting it set up.

   "How about a sing-song to end the night?" Ralph led her over and they listened to the sounds of Peladon, soothing them all halfway to sleep.

Chapter Text

Anne was still half asleep the next morning as Ralph drove them back to Cambridge. Ralph didn't mind. This was his favourite direction to drive - away from London. Living in London was useful for official dinners and disappearing into the multifold lives and stories of the metropolis - very handy when you hadn't wanted anyone to look too closely at your own story. But trying to drive from one end to another was a nightmare. Sometimes he thought about moving somewhere nearer the space centre, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that long a drive and there wasn't that much nearby to the space centre - which is sort of the point. You don't want a bustling town deafened periodically by rocket launches.

   But as he eased past the little rows of two bedroom houses and their tufty front lawns, he couldn't help wondering if one day he and Anne might make a home out of somewhere like this. As he waited at a red light he glanced over at her. She was awake enough to notice, and her eyelids fluttered gradually open.

   "Mmm… Happy birthday, darling," she murmured.

   Ralph smiled as he turned his attention back to the road. "It's tomorrow."

   "Oh, that's right, yes. So you're still- what was it the Doctor said in his note?"

   Ralph grinned even wider. "Yes, today is my final day as a hot thirty-nine-year-old."

   "You're going to be the handsomest forty-year-old in the country. You know that, don't you?"

   "Only the country?"

   "Hah." Anne yawned, and settled back down to sleep.

   Ralph had felt her turning and kicking all night. In fact it had been so constant he'd struggled to get a solid chunk of sleep himself. But he'd concentrated and focused on slowing his breathing, knowing that today he needed to drive to Cambridge pretty much as soon as he got up. They had a mysterious American scientist to meet, after all.

   And, if it was the Doctor, he needed the strength to tell him he couldn't come meet Nikola Tesla right now. Anne needed him.

---

There was a meeting room on the bottom floor of the physics building, very near the main door, and with a long strip of window showing the avenue outside. After their slightly groggy start to the day, Ralph and Anne knew as they approached that Mischa Dokic was probably already inside. Hopefully he hadn't been waiting too long. Well, if it was the Doctor, he could deal with it. But if it was a brand new acquaintance who'd asked to meet Ralph specially, then it wouldn't be an ideal first impression.

   Ralph knocked on the door of the meeting room. There was a short clatter as someone pulled out a chair and knocked something over in the process. Ralph was already overthinking, he knew, because he was trying to decide if the Doctor - either Doctor - was too smooth for such clumsiness, when the door was pulled open.

   The man who stood before him was neither Doctor that he had met. He was tall, like Ralph, but he had slightly more rugged hair and an excellent moustache - Ralph would never tell the Brigadier, but a good deal more impressive than his. Above the moustache was a fairly prominent nose and some deep-set eyes that looked like they would be fast and clever if they weren't wide with surprise and nerves.

   That didn't seem like the Doctor at all. But again, he could have regenerated, perhaps into this tall jumpy fellow.

   "Ralph? Er, Professor Cornish? And you must be Dr. Anne Travers," said the man. He did seem to have an American accent, tinged with something else too. Which would make sense if he was simply Mischa Dokic. But then why would he call Ralph by his first name like that?

   Ralph reached out and shook the man's hand. "Yes, sir. And you must be Dr. Dokic?"

   The man laughed thinly. "Not a doctor, sir." He welcomed them into the room.

   One of the chairs amongst the well-ordered rows had a pile of papers on it and one large envelope, with Dokic's bag tucked under it and a little pool of liquid where he had knocked over his coffee. For now, they stayed standing, while Ralph and Dokic regarded each other. 'Not a doctor' should have been fairly conclusive, but why had he laughed as though it was funny?

   "Yes, sorry, I should have explained," said Anne as they all took some chairs from the front row and arranged them in a rough circle. "Part of the reason these lectures have been so hard to organise is that technically Mr. Dokic is not an 'academic' as such, more hands-on. Bit more like you, really, Ralph."

   Dokic looked at Ralph. "I thought you were a professor?"

   Ralph shrugged. "I got in early in a field."

   "Still, impressive for one under forty," said Dokic.

   If you're not the Doctor, are you some sort of stalker? Ralph's biographical details were probably available in some sort of Oxford or Space Centre records, but still.

   "Oh, sorry, yes. I have something for you," said Dokic, as if realising Ralph needed an explanation. He swivelled the little desk attached to the arm of the chair so that his way was clear, stood up, and went over to the desk with his pile of belongings. He picked up the envelope and came back. "He said to give you this."

   "Who did?" said Ralph as he took the envelope. It was huge, the length of A4 but square instead of oblong, and whatever was inside felt quite sturdy too.

   "The Doctor," said Dokic.

   Ralph, halfway through opening the envelope, stared up at Dokic.

   "You're not the Doctor then?"

   "No, no, sir. As I say, not a doctor."

   "But you know him."

   Dokic nodded. "That I do."

   Ralph finished opening the envelope and gripped the piece of thick cardboard within.

   "So you really are just Miomir Dokic, scientist extraordinaire, friend of a friend?"

   "Some of that is accurate." Dokic started to smile to himself. "Open it, go on."

   Ralph pulled the card out of the envelope.

   It was a giant birthday card. The front was decorated with a picture of the sun, and a tiny Earth with a little 'Happy Birthday' flag poking out the top of it. The Earth was on a big racetrack that went all the way around the sun like one of Saturn's rings, and there were blurry motion lines shooting out from behind the Earth as it bore down on the chequered line. Ralph forgot the question of who this man was, and simply smiled at the card - which was clearly hand-painted watercolour - as he opened it up.

   Happy 40th, space controller!

   Lots of love,

   Your spaceman.

   The words were written absolutely massive in what looked like blue crayon. Towards the bottom of the card, in smaller biro, was a more detailed message.

   Hi, Ralph! Many happy returns from me and my friend Nikola. I happen to know that he doesn't have any plans for the sixteenth so, y'know… Anyway, I hope you two get along well (I'm sure you will) and that you have plenty to talk about (you definitely do). Give my very best to Anne (tell her she'll get through this travel stuff, she's got this!) and have the most wonderful time tomorrow and all the rest of your forties, you're going to absolutely boss it. I love you, my friend. P.S. Rogue says hi and happy birthday and that he loves you too. Okay byyeee be nice to Niko!

   - The Doctor

   Ralph looked up from the card, mouth agape.

   "Oh my God, that makes so much more sense. The Doctor is also padding the flipping guest list, like Brig bringing Yates and Benton," he said, slapping his forehead with his palm. He handed the card to Anne and looked at the man known as Dokic. "Well then, Mr. Tesla. Would you like to come to my birthday party?"

Chapter Text

The sun set and rose once more. The sixteenth of December arrived, and it found Ralph Cornish showing Nikola Tesla around the British Space Centre on a private tour. Apparently the future Doctor had promised him this VIP treatment when he'd agreed to his plan.

   "To tell you the truth, it's not my area of expertise," said Ralph, pointing to the computer at the back of Bruno Taltalian's old office. "But we, er, rather lost our computer man."

   "Defection?" said Nikola Tesla, looking up from the computer, which he was bent double to give a right good close examination.

   "Amongst other things," said Ralph. "Tell you what, if you're still here tomorrow, I'll get the present day Doctor in to explain it, or Dr. Shaw."

   Nikola had started inspecting some cabling running out the back of the computer. He looked over at Ralph. "Why wouldn't I still be here?"

   Ralph shrugged. "Mightn't you disappear when my birthday is over?"

   "Turn back into a pumpkin, you mean?"

   Ralph laughed. "I did only learn of this plan yesterday, you know."

   Nikola smiled. "I'm here for a while. I can't get a lift home immediately."

   "The future Doctor's coming back for you?"

   "He's got a theory that either enough space or enough time between himself and his past self - and can I say, by the way, that this is a very confusing sentence for me because the last time I met her I'd have used different pronouns entirely - should be enough to counteract the spacetime fluctuations caused by getting too close. Either I get back to the states, or I wait here for a few more years." Nikola had a nose around the lockers and pulled out a small gold device. "And what's this?"

   "Oh, gosh, didn't realise we still had any of those," said Ralph. "That converts radioactive impulses to human speech."

   "Radiation? Like the Curies experimented with?"

   "The machine itself is not radioactive, that's for sure," said Ralph. "And, well, it was actually created for wildly different purposes. Um… Did the Doctor mention my friend Daxas?"

   "I don't think so… Is this Daxas coming to the party?"

   "No… I think perhaps we should go back to the control room. There's some more I should explain about our recent space missions." He gestured for Nikola to follow him out of the room.

   "Yes, humans have been to the moon, is that right?" Nikola said.

   "And quite a ways beyond," said Ralph, opening the door to the control room. As he held it for Nikola, he said, "Are you seriously saying you might be stuck here for years? Under a false name, seventy odd years from anything you know?"

   Nikola shrugged as he headed through the door. "The Doctor said I would see many amazing scientific discoveries."

   Ralph grinned to himself as he strode over to his desk. He really hoped Daxas was around to receive his call.

---

It had been nice of Daxas to wish Ralph a happy fortieth birthday, given that her home years passed at a completely different rate, and Mars a different rate again. She'd already been exposed to the slightly chaotic timeline of his friendship with the Doctor, so she didn't seem too baffled when Ralph had explained the journey Nikola Tesla had taken. Nikola on the other hand trembled and gasped, scarcely able to believe he was really talking to friendly alien life. Eventually, with a glance at his watch, Ralph had wrapped up the video call and the tour, closed the space centre for the evening, and headed into town.

   "Thank you very much for that," said Nikola, as Ralph drove them along through softly falling snow.

   "Not at all, my pleasure," said Ralph. "You know, despite the time difference, you asked much more interesting questions than my usual clientele."

   "What sorts of questions do you normally get?"

   "Oh, almost exclusively funding related."

   "Ah."

   "Indeed. Besides," said Ralph, "a deal's a deal. You're coming tonight, yes?"

   "Absolutely," said Nikola. "Free food, music from the future, a little dancing. You couldn't keep me away. So have you had a good fortieth birthday so far?"

   Ralph smiled. "Feels strange that it's finally here. But yes, I'd say it's been a good day so far. I'm with you on looking forward to tonight."

   That morning he'd woken with a start, struggling for breath. He'd panicked, but as he blinked and came to and heard the giggles in the air above him, he'd realised he was being smothered by kisses from a very excited Anne. He'd sat up, taking her with him, and made a show of gasping for air.

   "I'd like to live longer than forty years, you know," he'd groaned. But after a pause he'd snuck another kiss, a loud 'mwah' planted right on the lips.

   "Good morning, good morning, good morning!" Anne had twisted back and forth, grinning at him. "Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday!"

   A relaxed smile had spread across Ralph's face. "Thank you, my love."

   He'd reached for her again but she'd sprung off the bed and hurried off to get dressed. Ralph had been so startled he hadn't said anything until she was nearly at the door of her bedroom.

   "Um, Anne, what?"

   She'd turned around, one hand on the doorknob. "I gotta go set up the hall, honey!" She'd darted back over to the bed, given him one more kiss, then headed out the door.

   Ralph had sat blinking for a few moments, then he'd shrugged to himself, stood up and got ready to give Nikola Tesla a tour of the space centre.

   Now Ralph tilted his head forward, pointing out the building they were headed for. "That's the hall there."

   "Wonderful," said Nikola.

   They parked relatively near the building, then walked along to the entrance. Ralph was sure he recognised the bouncer, but it was only once he was inside that he realised it was a UNIT soldier. Just how big of a platoon had the Brigadier brought with him? Inside the building, there were lots of people milling around the balcony level - way more than mathematically made sense if the guest list had been constructed purely from Ralph's phonebook. He did spot Charlie talking to Gina Rutherford, and that was when he realised several of the people he hadn't initially recognised were in fact technicians he saw pretty much every day. Great management there, Ralph. After a few more seconds of trying to see who he could see, a blur of purple powered through the crowd and jumped out towards him.

   "Ralph!" Anne exclaimed. She threw her arms around him. "You're here!"

   As she stepped away, Ralph took in the giddy smile on her face and the wide, intense eyes. "How much have you had already, Anne?"

   She frowned. "What? Oh no, nothing actually. I've been too focused on getting everything set up perfectly. I'm just excited, Ralph. If you would just take my hand and come with me you will see why. You too, Mr. Dokic. Come along!"

   He followed her through the loosely assembled crowd until they arrived at the balustrade. She straightaway looked down over the balcony, but Ralph paused for a moment, trying to go slowly. Her dress was lilac and shimmering, and went rather well with the deep green suit that had been hung up on the wardrobe for him this morning. Her dress hung just slightly off the shoulders and the neckline was high, with luxurious folds of material draped down over her chest. Ralph took in a lovely image of her, saved it in his mind, before turning towards the rest of the hall.

Chapter Text

"Oh my word," said Ralph, taking in the hall below him.

   A carpet of fairy lights twinkled in the ceiling, rows and rows of them swooping from above his head all the way to the far end. The walls were papered a deep blue, and, like Anne's dress, shimmered where the fairy lights fell on them. Octagonal wooden pillars went from ceiling to floor, wrapped in wreaths of deep ochre tulle. And all the tables were covered in burnt amber linens, centrepieces of intricate metal and streaky pebbles providing stark contrast. The view was striking.

   "Do you get it?" said Anne.

   Ralph thought for a moment, running his eye quickly over it all. "Oh, holy moly, Anne. It's Mars. You've made Mars. The blue sky, the stars, the red ground."

   "What do you think?" she said.

   Ralph turned to her, and with a smile put his hand over hers on the balcony. "It's amazing, Anne. I haven't had a Mars party in twenty-eight years!"

   "You've had a 'Mars party' for your birth- Oh, wait, just did the maths."

   Ralph nodded. "I was very, very briefly the coolest kid in school."

   "Wouldn't your twelfth birthday have been in the middle of the war?"

   Ralph glanced back towards the hall. "It was a tad more makeshift than all this… There were no air raids all day though, so that was nice."

   "Well, that was very considerate of the Luftwaffe."

   "Heh. Must have been a birthday present." Ralph lowered his voice and leaned in towards her. "Not every day they took pity on a queer after all."

   As he stood back up straight, he noticed Nikola Tesla watching him and Anne. He immediately looked around as if there was something he was supposed to be doing.

   "Sorry, Mr. Tesla, sorry," said Ralph. "Wartime air raids is rather random conversation for a birthday party, I know. Especially a war you haven't heard of yet. Shall we all head downstairs?"

   They took the right-hand staircase to descend to the hall floor. At this end of the hall there was a low stage from which announcements and speeches could be made (Ralph surprised himself with how much he was looking forward to this portion, and the chance it would afford him to thank his friends for being there) and then it opened out into a dance floor, which continued for about fifteen yards before the tables crowded in.

   Standing in a cluster at the announcement end of the dance floor was pretty much everyone Ralph knew - the Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier, Charlie, Joe, Frank, Gina, Jo, Yates and Benton. They were chatting in groups of two or three and all looked up as Ralph, Anne and Nikola arrived.

   "Ah, there you are, my dear man," said the Doctor, absolutely beaming. He reached out for Ralph's hand and shook it in both of his. "Happy birthday, Ralph."

   Ralph smiled with delight. "Thank you, Doctor."

   What followed was a series of handshakes and kisses on the cheek until he had passed all the way around the circle. He went to stand beside Anne again but, with a gasp, stopped in his tracks.

   "Happy birthday, Cornish!" Edward Travers exclaimed, clapping him on the shoulder.

   "Sir! I'd no idea you were coming," said Ralph.

   "How many times, my boy, you earned 'Ed' fair and square," said Travers. He pulled Ralph in by the shoulders and wrapped him in a hug.

   As he pulled away he nearly bumped into Nikola, who ducked out of the way.

   "Ah, sorry, Mr…?" said Travers.

   "This is Mr. Dokic, Ed," said Ralph. "You may have heard of him. He's been making quite a storm in America the past few weeks."

   Travers nodded and shook Nikola's hand. "Miomir Dokic, as I live and breathe. Good lord, there is so much I'd like to talk to you about."

   Ralph ducked past the two of them on his way to Anne and whispered in Nikola's ear. "You can tell him who you are."

   "We could take a table," Nikola said to Travers. "Perhaps some of us could sit down for now?"

   "That sounds like a plan," said Liz, who was also quite eager to meet the famous Mr. Dokic.

   "Alright, great," said Ralph.

   Some of the group moved off, leaving a little more space around Ralph. It was only then that he noticed a man and a woman, a very tiny person in the man's arms, behind where Jo had been standing.

   "Ian! Barbara!" Ralph exclaimed. "Hello! And oh my goodness, who is this? Is this Susan or Tommy?"

   "Susan in the end," said Barbara, stroking the baby's head.

   "She's adorable," said Ralph.

   "Absolutely gorgeous," agreed Anne.

   "How old is she?" said Ralph.

   "Two weeks," said Ian. "A December birthday, just like you."

   "Wow, that's early for a first party," said Ralph. "Is she going to be alright?"

   "We'll probably not stay too long," said Barbara. "Especially not if the music's loud."

   "Well, thank you for coming to my birthday party," said Ralph. "It means a lot."

   "We're delighted," said Ian. "Though there is one small ulterior motive."

   "Oh?" said Anne.

   "Yes." Ian looked to Barbara, who nodded with a small smirk. Ian looked back to Ralph and Anne and in a loud whisper said, "We're desperate to see the Doctor on a dance floor."

   Ralph's eyes widened. "Oh goodness, yes. That may be a sight to behold."

   No more surprises seemed to be in the offing, so Ralph and Anne guided the new parents to a table near where Nikola and Ed had gone. The Doctor had come along, and his frown of recognition on seeing the Chesterton-Wrights made Ralph chuckle. The Doctor listened in silence for a moment to the scientific chit-chat of his companions, then slowly realisation dawned across his brow. He looked up.

   "Chesterfield?"

   Ian rolled his eyes, but passed baby Susan to Barbara and went over to shake the Doctor's hand.

   "You silly bugger, did you really think you could get away from us?"

   The Doctor looked at him in seeming wonder, his mouth falling open. He swallowed and said, "I see you've met my friend, Ralph."

   "You have a friend?" Ian raised his eyebrows, smiling slightly.

   "Several, these days," said the Doctor.

   "Well, you've two more on this table over here. Three, in fact, if you count little Susan."

   The Doctor's mouth closed, and turned into a happy smile with that glint of understanding in his eye. "Can I meet her, Chesterton?"

   "Of course," said Ian, and led the Doctor over to their table.

   They settled in for drinks, food and chit-chat. Ralph's eye kept drifting over to the little DJ station they'd set up for the Brigadier of all people. Apparently he used to run a radio station for his army base but had had to stop when all the 'newfangled pop' came in. I can't understand a word of it, Cornish, can you? Ralph had smiled to himself at that, and handed him a vinyl disc with even more modern music, so modern none of them had even heard it yet. Ralph had wondered how that would interplay with the rules about time travel and knowing the future, but the attitude from the future Doctor seemed to be eh, don't worry about it, otherwise he'd never have given him it. Anyone who was here tonight could simply claim to be a very early adopter of the artists on this album; they'd heard them long before they were cool.

   For now, the Brig eased the crowd in with some easy jazz which sounded more like it came from the year Ralph was born than any time within the past decade. There'd be time for the future later.

Chapter Text

Ralph had never danced so much in all his life than he did that night. Even when he was a student, he usually gave up after a few songs and sat down with his friends to gossip about professors, classmates and anyone else they frequently saw around campus. But tonight, one by one his friends had demanded dances from him, and the elated butterflies in his stomach had given him more than enough energy to keep going. And now, just as he thought about stepping away to get a drink, he saw the Brigadier at his little DJ station, brandishing the blue paper slip that housed the record from the Doctor.

   They hadn't wanted to start the night with it. No need to draw too much extra attention. But now, as the night spun on, the Brigadier must have decided the moment was right. Ralph had listened to the record enough times to remember the order of the songs and even learn a few of the words, and he knew what was up first. He stuck his head up like a meerkat and looked around the crowd for Anne. When he spotted her, he dove through the throng towards her and took both her hands.

   "Hey," said Anne, smiling, as the song started.

   "Hey," said Ralph, grinning back. "I'm looooking up for my Staaaaar Girl."

   They started swinging towards and away from each other, hands always held, throwing in a few twirls. It was definitely a pop song, and Ralph was not at all sure the Brig would approve, but it had a delicate bridge in which he could take Anne into his arms and sway her back and forth, followed by an enthusiastic trumpet solo which saw the whole room swinging and jumping.

   "Galaxy defender stay forever!" Ralph spotted the Doctor and stuck out his tongue. "Never get enough of yoooouuuu."

   The next song was what could only be described as rock 'n' roll, and seemed to be somehow to do with bees. Ralph was potentially with the Brig on this one. Still, he took the opportunity to mingle with more of his friends, thoroughly enjoying a headbanging session with Jo and Yates. Yates even did a devil-horns sign with his right hand which, after everything that had happened at Devil's End, seemed either defiantly reckless or, well, just plain risky. Benton was playing with two small children on the dance floor, one his and one the Brigadier's, letting them stand on his toes to dance and twirling them around. It took Ralph a moment to find Liz, then he spotted her off to the side getting distracted by science chats with Nikola Tesla, which he supposed was fair enough.

   An even sillier song followed, a very short one about what it would be like if the planet Earth wore socks and then had those socks rocked right off. Ralph watched Benton lift one of the children up onto his back and start swinging her around. Jo was just beside him, also watching. She glanced at Ralph and stuck out a questioning bottom lip. Ralph, more than a little tipsy by this stage and well up for a laugh, sank to his haunches and let her clamber onto his back. He stood up and started doing the twist to see if she could hold on. She responded by kicking her legs out, alternating one then the other, until he ended up just joining her rhythm as if she was conducting him.

   Then that song came to a close, and Ralph remembered what came next.

   "Where is he?" he muttered, looking around the dance floor.

   "Where's who?" Jo shouted into his ear.

   Ralph turned his head as far as it would go and shouted back, "The Doctor! Have you seen him?"

   "Oh, I'm not sure," said Jo, into the quiet of the space between songs.

   As the next song started, Ralph groaned and looked around again. "Hrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhh… WHERE'S MY SPACE MAN?!"

   "There!" Jo cried, pointing about thirty degrees to their left.

   Ralph spotted him and started to charge. He dodged past Benton and the children, he slid past Liz and Nikola as they approached the floor, he flew past a thoroughly merry Ian and Barbara, he smiled at Anne as he belted into that far corner.

   "Hey, put me down," said Jo as they arrived. She hopped down from his back and melted back into the crowd, but not before she'd cast him a sly, knowing grin.

   Ralph looked back at Anne, who beckoned for him to lean in close.

   Into his ear she whispered, "The Doctor's got a very special birthday present for you. Don't worry. He cleared it with me."

   Ralph looked into her eyes. "Are you sure?"

   "Dance with your spaceman; I'll be fine," said Anne. "Ah, there's my dad."

   "Your dad?"

   Whatever the Doctor had planned for him, Ralph was not at all sure it was something he wanted Edward Travers to see, but Travers had already gathered Anne into his arms to dance with her and the Doctor was at Ralph's elbow, saying something over his shoulder.

   Ralph turned around, slightly breathless from the sudden sprint. "What's going on, Doctor?"

   "Dance with me, Ralph."

   Ralph nodded, and took his spaceman into his arms.

   I wandered out in the world for years

   While you just stayed in your room

   I saw the crescent

   You saw the whole of the moon

   Ralph forgot everyone around him and yanked the Doctor in for a hug. He squeezed him tight, then separated part of the way so they had space to dance. It was a jangly, futuristic sort of song.

   I saw the rain dirty valley

   You saw Brig o' Doon

   I saw the crescent

   You saw the whole of the moon

   The Doctor twirled him around, threw him across the front of his body with all the care and control of a professional dancer. As the Doctor wrapped his arms around Ralph from behind he said, "They taught us this at the academy. We had to pick a partner."

   Ralph spun as gracefully as he could around to face him. "We learned to dance too. But never anything like this."

   With a torch in your pocket and the wind at your heels

   You climbed on the ladder and you know how it feels

   To get too high, too far, too soon

   "Doctor, am I going to regret this in a moment? We're so close."

   The Doctor shook his head. "Look around, Ralph."

   Ralph had been decisively avoiding doing so. Even on the off chance that all Edward Travers' adventures had opened his mind, and the intimacy of two men wouldn't shock him, Ralph was seeing the man's daughter! How could he possibly be alright with this? But Anne had been so confident, so purposeful in bringing her dad up alongside her rather than squirrelling him away. As Ralph took in the dance floor around him, he saw why.

   All he could see were the backs and sides of people, but they were all the people he knew best. Anne, Ed, Ian, Barbara, the Brigadier, Yates, Benton, Jo, Liz (and Nikola), Charlie, Gina and even Joe, they had all formed a circle around he and the Doctor. They were still dancing; it wasn't as though they were on guard - that would only have drawn attention. But in every direction, the view of the more tangential guests and acquaintances (including Frank) was just about blocked by one or more of these central party-goers. Ralph and the Doctor were shielded. With a baffled shrug Ralph turned to the Doctor, and kept dancing.

   Unicorns and cannonballs

   Palaces and piers

   The Doctor stopped dancing so exuberantly. Ralph could see him tense slightly as he slowed down his movements. But whatever he was feeling he stepped forward and reached his hand up to Ralph's cheek, brushed it. Ralph's heart fluttered; his chest tightened.

   Trumpets, towers and tenements

   Wide oceans full of tears

   He let the Doctor pull him in closer, his hands on Ralph's waist. He ran his hands up the Doctor's sides, up onto his shoulders, into his hair.

   Flags, rags, ferry boats

   Scimitars and scarves

   Every precious dream and vision underneath the stars

   Ralph remembered what Anne had said, Don't worry. He cleared it with me.

   The Doctor nodded once, seemingly to himself, then leaned in and kissed him. Ralph's world span in circles, spiralling up into the heavens. He kissed back, kissing and kissing and kissing because he didn't know when or if this would ever happen again - maybe when he turned fifty? The Doctor could be gone by then.

   Yes, you climbed on the ladder

   With the wind in your sails

   You came like a comet

   Blazing your trail

   Too high, too far, too soon

   You saw the whole of the moon

   Ralph squeezed the Doctor's arms as if he would never let go, even though he knew keenly, piercingly, that one day he would. The two most important people in his world, and they had wildly different relationships to travel. But just as he was going to offer every bit of himself to Anne in the coming months, helping her with whatever she needed, Ralph knew damn well that when it was time for the Doctor to go, he'd let him, no matter what it took from his heart.

   He leaned deeply into the warm, sweet kiss, eyes closed, their bodies rippling in waves. For now, for this song, for this night, the Doctor wasn't going anywhere. For his fortieth birthday, Ralph had his spaceman.

   And you see the whole of the moon.