InsaneJournal

It had taken some time, but Lara had made it up to the observation lounge. She wasn’t sure why she’d procrastinated on it. Maybe because she feared it would make her situation actually real. Besides, there’d been so much to read and watch on the computer. It was reassuring that the basics of her field were unchanged, and it would simply be a matter of learning how to utilize the futuristic tools that gave archaeologists unprecedented glimpsed into the past. But ultimately, it was all still about digging in the dirt.

It was also still a new experience being in clean clothing again. She’d almost forgotten what that felt like.

If there was anyone else on the deck when she entered, she didn’t notice them. Her eyes were transfixed on the starfield.

The view was worth waiting for.

It was hardly Rose's first time among the stars. She'd seen them many times, up close and personal. Since arriving on the Enterprise, she'd taken to visiting the Observation Deck often. Honestly, she was surprised more people didn't. You just didn't get a view like that back on Earth. And she missed it, to be honest. Living on the TARDIS, visiting the stars and distant worlds. It was still sinking in that she'd never have that again.

So she was already there when the pretty dark haired woman entered. A woman who looked like she could probably break Rose in half if she wanted to. And she happened to turn around to greet her, just in time to catch her awe-struck expression.

“Incredible, isn't it?” she asked, her voice admittedly a bit wistful.

“It really is.” Lara lifted her hand up and rubbed her arm, focused more on the view than the woman. She gave her a passing smile, before approaching the window. “I’ve been avoiding it since yesterday. It’s so…Big.”

A vast understatement. “I’m sorry. I’m usually more articulate than that.”

Rose didn't need articulate. She needed honesty. “No, you're right. It's huge. It's kind of overwhelming and you never entirely get used to it.” She liked to think they weren't just floating along aimlessly, that they actually had some place to be. But then, she'd spent plenty of time traveling with no real intended destination.

“Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler. I've been here a couple of weeks, now.”

“I’ve spent my life chasing the unknown and the forgotten. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to discover things no one had seen before, or had been lost to time. But this is… something else entirely.” Lara offered her hand, finally tearing her gaze from the view to the woman. “I’m Lara Croft.”

Oh, she liked her already. Lara had very easily just summed up the last several years for Rose. “Things lost to time happen to be some of my favorite things.” She accepted the outstretched hand with a smile, then turned back to the stunning view. “Where is it you're from, Lara?”

The name was familiar but she couldn't quite place from where. She didn't exactly have the Doctor's extensive knowledge of pop culture. He'd lose it here, surrounded by science fiction and superheroes and the like.

“London, in the UK on Earth.” Lara’s hands were calloused. She also thought it prudent to specify when, “2013, last I checked. Though I was in Tokyo when I was taken here. Recuperating from misadventure.”

She’d really wanted to add the word ‘fucking’ to emphasize the scope of the misadventure, but she refrained. It was admirable, honestly.

Rose's eyebrows lifted. “We're probably like, cross dimensional neighbors at some point. London, Earth, I guess it's about 2008 now. Though thanks to some awkward dimension travel, I don't expect many people to come from my world. Unless zeppelins are a common form of transportation where you're from?” It was five years later for Lara, but time meant little to Rose anymore.

“I've been a lot of places, but never Tokyo. What were you looking for?”

Lara thought back five years. She’d been finishing school and preparing for University then. It was before she’d met Sam, and everything about her life had changed.

“No, no zeppelins past the 1930s in my world. There were still blimps, but they stopped using them for people or transportation a long time ago.”

Looking back out to space, Lara tried to frame her answer, “A lost island kingdom called Yamatai. Sam claimed to be descended from it’s queen, and legend had it that the queen had power over the weather.”

She glanced back at Rose. “It was true. She tore our ship apart and we wrecked on the island. We had no idea it was her, of course. Not until later.”

Now that was the sort of story Rose was interested in. She motioned towards one of the couches, encouraging the woman to join her. She intended to settle in for a good tale. “Did you find her kingdom? Did you meet her in person? Is Sam really related to her?”

Most people might have found the story fanciful and a bit mental. Rose, however, had fought aliens made of gas with Charles Dickens and werewolves with Queen Victoria. Not much was out of the realm of possibility for her any longer.

Lara realized she’d gotten trapped into sharing her story. It wasn’t a bad thing, but she wasn’t used to people actually being willing to believe her or Sam about what really had happened. When she sat on the couch, it was a little stiff, before she made herself relax. “Yes, yes and yes. We wrecked on her island, she was still around but little more than a possessed corpse. There were other wrecked ships, and they’d all mostly lost their minds and formed a cult worshipping the queen. Their leader thought if they could complete a ritual which would allow the queen to possess a new body, they’d be able to escape the island. Naturally, he kidnapped my friend, and started killing the rest of us.”

Somehow she hadn't considered how hard talking about it might be. That wasn't like her at all. The last year had hardened her, and now that she had time to slow down, she was only just now seeing it. That was...frightening, to be honest. She'd have to think on that. There was only so much of that young Rose she was willing to lose.

“I'm so sorry,” she murmured. A part of her wanted to reach out, to touch the other woman on the arm and reassure her. But she knew after so much trauma, that might not be the smartest idea so she just leaned in a bit further. “You said you were recuperating?”

"It's all right." Lara nodded, leaning back in the couch. "Three days with little sleep, and only the food I could hunt or scavenge. Most of the time awake was spent being hunted, or hunting the bastards back. And my first injury was the worse. I fell on rebar. The medical technology on the Enterprise is amazing though. They cleared up my infections right away."

Much better than weeks and months of recovery, at least. Lara's foot bounced in place, and she tapped her fingers on her thigh. "By the end of everything, I lost my father-figure, Roth, and a friend named Alex. But I saved Sam, and Jonah and Reyes."

Something about Rose made it easier for Lara to talk about. Or maybe it was just so close in her mind that she needed to. It wasn't like Rose was anyone back home.

In Lara’s defense, Rose was usually fairly easy to talk to. It had earned her friends all around the universe, from her very first trip to Victorian era Wales on. “I’m sorry. It doesn’t help, I know, believe me, I know. But I am.”

She leaned towards the arm of the couch, half looking at the other woman and half facing the huge screen. “The first time I ever went to space I went to a place like this. A large observation deck.” Maybe it would help to change the subject. Or maybe Lara would want to keep discussing the unfortunate portions of her life. They’d have to see.

"I think it helps." A lot of pitying looks had come from doctors and nurses, even behind the how friendly they'd been. But Rose seemed genuine.

"I don't blame you. I've seen some incredible wonders on Earth. There's something peaceful about staring into the distance, and feeling the age of the Earth around you. Or the universe in this case."

Rose flashed a little half grin. “It was peaceful...sort of. We were there to watch the day the sun finally burned the Earth. And then we were almost burned alive by the last human… It's a bit complicated.” But she did know what the woman meant. The way you felt watching the stars all around you. You somehow felt huge and yet never more small. It really made you look at your place in the world. Or the universe.

“I was just thinking when you came in how different the stars are here than at home. I can easily feel the differences that the technology has made here.” Maybe it had something to do with that alternate dimension she'd read about on the PADD.

“You weren’t kidding about getting around.” The heat death of everything was inevitable, and Lara had a momentary sadness for all the lost cultures and history. She assumed by them most humans would have taken off anyway.

“We’re far away from Earth. All the constellations are alien. I’m sure the stars look somewhat the same from Earth. I can only imagine what the people of a nearby planet might call that formation there, or the one there.” She pointed them out. Maybe it was too human a thing to attribute to aliens who might not have the same kind of pattern recognition, but Lara still wondered. “I could lose myself in just learning one planet’s cultures. Let alone dozens or hundreds.”

“Just a bit,” Rose replied with a small smile. She knew her life was different. Even here, surrounded by geniuses and superheroes and even fairytales. And that was fine. She liked the feeling. It made all of the loss from the couple of years worth it, somehow.

“You like culture then.” Well, obviously. “Are you an archaeologist? By trade, I mean? Obviously it sounds like you do way more than that, but you kind of sound like a modern and way more fun Indiana Jones.”

“I’ve got degrees in the trade, yes.” Lara’s nose wrinkled up. “But I’m not a fan of those movies. They paint a completely wrong picture of my field! At least, this was before my time on Yamatai. But I like the idea of being more fun than him. I’d look better in the hat too.”

She couldn’t deny she’d raided actual tombs, dodged traps, and dealt with the supernatural. She just didn’t want to accept it.

“The next time we're stopped at Earth, we're definitely getting you the hat.” Rose gave a decisive nod, as if the matter was entirely important. “Maybe it's a wrong assumption about your work, but I'd still absolutely watch a television show about you.” Lara made it sound exciting, something Rose would never have pictured herself saying just years ago.

“I guess anthropology would be more my thing. I love the history of the people, but I enjoy the people themselves more. Hearing their stories and all.”

Lara wondered if it could be replicated, but didn't really mind the potential delay. It would take a lot more than that for her to get over her bias against Indiana Jones.

"I guess it would be an exciting show. It might have to be in a late night slot, or have a lot of clever editing to reduce the violence." Rose's excitement offered Laura a different kind of perspective, and she looked down at her hands.

"One of my friends at UCL was a Cultural Anthropologist. She transferred out about a year ago. The two fields go hand in hand. You use the past to educate the present, but the present helps you understand the past."

It was times like that where Rose was actually sorry she hadn't stayed in school, tried to go on to university. Lara made the study sound fascinating. But would she have that sort of interest if she hadn't lived the things she had?

“Maybe I'd do better in sociology, then. I was never very good at school. I liked what I liked but hands on was always better. And to get a degree in such things, you have to suffer through the classroom work.” It wasn't all exploring and cave diving and scuba diving. Or settling on to space ships next to black holes or jumping from dimension to dimension.

“I suppose it doesn't really matter, now. We're here.” And she wasn't doing those things anymore. Even back home, she was running a branch of a business, nothing like the field work she was used to. Even if she did get some field work out of it.

“Working with people has its pluses, I’m sure.” Lara actually smiled. “I lived in the library, but Sam insisted I actually go out and live a little. In return, I kept her from going too crazy. It was a good balance. Even our fields worked well together. She’s a filmmaker.”

Lara would study and do little else if given half a chance. “There’s a lot of information on this ship, and they do offer classes if you want to consider it. I’m sure all the travelers and most of the crew could benefit. Not everyone is comfortable talking to a bartender, though that was one of the few ways I got socialization. My family had money, but I chose to pay my way through school by mixing drinks.”

Maybe if she'd come from money it would have been different? Rose doubted it, though. “I'm not sure what I want to do here, honestly. Back home, I work with...well, aliens. Things aren't nearly as smooth between humans and aliens as they are here.” Then again, home was nearly three hundred years in the past. She knew it got better. It just didn't happen overnight.

“Now bartending I can get behind. Or, well, bar drinking anyway. You're well ahead of me.” She laughed, shaking her head to try and cover the embarrassment. “That was more how I spend my school years.”

"It's going to take me months to get up to date on modern Archaeological techniques, though from what I can tell the basics are the same." So maybe not that long. But she liked to keep busy.

"I enjoyed it. And throwing some bloke out onto the sidewalk was always entertaining." She flexed. "You sound like Sam."

“I've been doing some reading. I think a lot of things have remained the same. We've just also started being archaeological explorers on other worlds now, too.” And, typical Earth humans, they'd believe they were superior, that they had every right to explore every inch of this universe. As if no one else was up there doing much the same.

Hmm. Maybe there was a place for her on the Enterprise.

“From what little I know of Sam so far, I'm going to take that as a compliment,” she added with a laugh. “On the plus side, I was never thrown out? That was all my ex, Jimmy.”

Lara would rather work with an alien researcher. Even in her time, there’d been a growing push to respect local scientists, and ensure that discoveries remained the property of their country of origin. Something Lara believed in. Though she wasn’t sure how one of her finds had been in her pack. It was supposed to be with the Japanese.

“You two would get along, and also drive me batty at the same time.”

The fact that she'd only just met Lara and already the woman knew Rose would join forces with her friend to drive her batty just made her grin. It meant she still knew how to do this. How to be that person who made friends wherever she went. “Like I said, total compliment. We'd take turns tormenting you, even.”

Lara groaned, leaning her head back on the couch. “In every universe, there must exist a woman who torments me. I’m going to assume that’s a natural law of creation.”

Rose grinned. She already liked this woman. Quite a bit. Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad. “I don't know, I don't remember reading that in any of my science texts. But it has been a few years.”

"It's a law, I've decided." She ran her hand down her face. "Do you want to get a drink? I'll even mix it for you. It's been a few months, so I might be rusty."

Rose grinned brightly at that, pulling herself to her feet. She gave the skies in front of her another loving look. It wasn't as if they wouldn't still be there later. “A drink made by a real professional? Well sign me up!”