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The Doctor ([info]fromgallifrey) wrote in [info]vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-04-16 19:42:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current location:The Art Museum
Current music:Martha's Theme
Entry tags:!complete, day 04, location: museum, shannon rutherford, the doctor (ten)

Evening, Day 4
Who: Shannon and the Doctor
When: Evening day 4
What: Listening to what goes bump in the night
Where: The museum
Rating: PG-13 for suspense and probable language
Status: Complete

The day had been a roller coaster. More people had gone missing; a body found in the woods; and Martha Jones nowhere to be found. It was not hard to believe that the Doctor was a basket case - well, at least internally. Thus, the habitually hyperactive Doctor was eager to go look for supplies from the thrift store and petrol station with Shannon. He couldn't stay in one place - there just wasn't a chance of it. He had a basket on each arm, a can or two of this and that in one; and a couple extra blankets in the other. Shannon had warned that the floor was hard; so, the Doctor figured it would do him well to gather some padding.

Coming up through the door that had Shannon's note of occupancy on it, the Doctor hardly paid any attention. It was kind of strange, though, coming in to a place where he had felt formerly so unwelcome. Peeking within he looked left and right, half expecting to run in to Sam. Sam wasn't much taller than him - three inches, perhaps; yet, the Doctor found himself looking up for him.

Looking around he found a cleared spot and waited for Shannon to point which way they ought to actually be heading. This was her and Sam's place, wasn't it? Narrowing his eyes for a moment he took a few slow steps up Van Gogh's Starry Night - the canvas much bigger than it ought to be and the colors just a shade off. It was clearly a fake; but, it was almost surreal to see it there, strung up like a real piece of art. "Well look at that?" He said, pointing, "You know he painted this while in asylum," the Doctor quipped, straightening the frame just a bit. "Not a half bad fake, I'd say."

Letting his mind wander he started to think that Martha would have liked to have met Van Gogh. Letting his mind shift a bit he wondered what he'd have to do once they got out of there to convince her to travel with him one more time - just one more time to see Van Gogh. My, he was worried about her.


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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 07:54 pm UTC (link)
Shannon looked up at the sound of someone coming back in. She was still emotionally drained and raw; she hoped, selfishly, that it wasn't Sam. Or Dean. Or, really anyone, other than Domeki or the Doctor. Mostly Domeki; she was still worried sick about him. Literally worried sick: when she thought about it, it made her nauseous. Assuming Rorschach was right, at least Domeki wasn't the body in the woods, but that still meant there was a possibility that something awful had happened to him.

When the Doctor walked in, she gave him a small smile. Her face felt hot in spite of her nose being cold and her, well, everything else being cold. Disentangling herself from her curled up position on the floor, wrapped in her sweater, Shannon stood and brushed her hands over the seat of her jeans reflexively. "Yeah?" she asked at the Doctor's comment about the painting having been done in an asylum. "Fun fact for the day?" she asked with a small smirk. She drew the sweater in around herself more tightly. "Makes me feel a little better that it's a fake since pretty soon it won't be a painting at all," she said grimly. She meant that it would be a torch sooner than later, most likely.

"Okay, the gas station is closer...thrift store is a longer walk in the other direction. Which way do you think we should go first?" she asked. Shannon found her eyes moving to the Doctor's baskets. He had blankets. He had blankets. Her glance was longing, but she didn't make any move toward him or his finds.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-16 08:05 pm UTC (link)
Setting down the baskets he shrugged. "Fun fact?" Fun fact would be that Van Gogh didn't go into the priesthood because of an inconvenient run in with a priestly sect of flatulent Slitheen," he wasn't kidding, either. Some how, it seemed less their pushy nature and more their gas passing that made Van Gogh disinterested in preaching with them.

"It's not a bad fake, but a fake still. He watched as she looked over his baskets; focusing on the blankets in particular. Without a second thought he leaned over and chucked a blanket in her direction.

"What other sort of things do they have in here, anyway? Oh, you have got to be fooling..." He gasped, stopping in front of a Ming vase. Running his finger over it he could tell that the paint was of the wrong era; but, it was a neat little reproduction.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 08:29 pm UTC (link)
"A run in with a what?" Shannon asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste and furrowing her brow in confusion.

She hadn't expected him to throw a blanket at her, but when he did, she caught it and pulled it tightly around herself, giving him a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said softly.

As the Doctor made his way around the room, checking out the digs, Shannon smiled to herself, watching him. "Uh...I didn't look around the whole place to any point further than just checking the floors to see which room would be the best to sleep in," she admitted. "So I'm not sure. But--"

She was interrupted by a loud, low howling sort of whistle and her eyes widened. Shannon knew that sound. That sound brought back memories. That sound... "Did you hear that?" she whispered, shaking. Part of her wanted him to say he hadn't; that it was just in her imagination and that fucking thing was here. But, the other part of her wanted him to say he had, because then she wouldn't be crazy.

A moment later, she could hear the sound of trees rustling and whether or not the Doctor heard it, she crossed the room and yanked the door open, making her way onto the small patio surrounding the building. The trees were swaying as though there was no stability or weight to them at all, some even falling away from sight behind other trees. The next sound, still familiar, was strange and she couldn't have described it if she tried. Though a loud metallic thump off to the left made her turn her head sharply toward the sound, trembling as she pulled the blanket more tightly around herself and staring, wide-eyed with terror, silent tears already streaming down her face. "Please not here...please not here..." she was whispering to herself.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-16 08:39 pm UTC (link)
She had started to explain that she hadn't looked at what was on the walls, and the Doctor felt a hint of disappointment. He liked museums, generally, they were good in the broadest sense. He'd stolen borrowed his TARDIS from a museum. It was an antique then; he couldn't help but wonder what they'd call it now. A relic, perhaps? An artifact?

He was about to open his mouth and comment on the vase, his attention caught on a rather strange chip in it's side when the noise crept up through his ears. The Doctor froze, instinctively trying to catch a hint of sentience in the sound. It was a howl of sorts, a metallic howl. He turned just in time to catch sight of Shannon scurrying out the door, a trail of blanket behind her. It wasn't a question as to whether or not he would follow. Outside was exactly where he wanted to be.

When he reached the door and caught sight of the trees dancing and flapping and falling the Doctor was enthralled. It was like something was manipulating them - an unseen hand stroking them this direction and that. Like the wind, but not.

It took him a moment, another howl of the unseen, and the Doctor realized that Shannon was not sharing in his curiosity, she was petrified. Walking up in front of her, turning slowly to put himself between she and the forest he spoke quietly. "Let's go back inside." She was shaking like a leaf. A hand gently came up to rest on her shoulder, trying to guide her back in toward the shelter.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 08:48 pm UTC (link)
Another metallic crash sent Shannon's head whipping to the left to follow the sound as it moved. She could almost see the other Oceanic survivors following her eyes even when they weren't there to do so.

She jumped at the sound of the Doctor's voice and looked up at him, practically convulsing in fear, still wide- and teary-eyed. He had put a hand on her shoulder and, it seemed, was suggesting not only verbally, but physically that they go back inside. She heard another howl and looked over his shoulder in the direction of it. "No, I know what that is," she gasped, shaking her head even as she found herself shrinking against him. It was only sort of a lie.

The trees went on moving and falling. "I've heard that before. I've s-seen that before." When she closed her eyes to shut out the sight, she could see Michael pulling Walt to him; Claire cowering under the wing of the fuselage. Boone leaving her there on the sand to join the others, Jack, Kate, Sayid... She heard Charlie's voice soft and sarcastic echoing in her head. Terrific...

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-16 08:57 pm UTC (link)
The Doctor, for all he was worth was currently ignoring the fascinating noise and tree-show going on at his back. He could tell from Shannon's eyes that the sound was moving, that the crashes were shifting, and that whatever was causing this event was making a sure and simple spectacle of the thing.

However, what he knew for certain was that she was petrified. "Alright, you recognize the sound," he said this quietly, reassuringly, looking over his shoulder as another wail and thump came and went and the trees surged with motion beyond their own means. She was shrinking in to him, and it was all he could do to slowly push her back toward the door they had come from. "I promise you, whatever is making that noise will not be coming into the museum. I won't let it," there was a cold, quiet confidence in the Doctor's tone - because as far as he could tell it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Carefully he pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, a gap still residing between they and the door. "Shannon," he said, making a tip of his head toward the door, "I promise."

He looked over his shoulder one more time, feeling like he was looking into the heart of a storm.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 09:08 pm UTC (link)
Shannon's breath had gone shallow and ragged as she looked back at the Doctor with the same raw fear she'd looked at Jack with when she'd been having her first asthma attack on the Island. She opened her mouth to speak and a hiccup of a squeak came out instead, but she nodded.

Feeling paralyzed with fear wasn't something Shannon recognized. Even back on the Island, she hadn't felt as much fear as she felt now, if only because back then she'd felt a certain sort of denial that anything could happen to them before the rescue boat came. Here, she had no bubble of security whatsoever and it was worse, still, because at least the Island hadn't been an enclosed space.

"They're coming," she whispered. "Like they came for Claire and Charlie... The Others, it's them, I know it's them. The Smoke Monster..." she babbled disjointedly, pausing to hiccup over a sob she didn't want to release. Her eyes went back to the Doctor's face just before he looked over his shoulder. You can't stop it; nobody can, she thought miserably.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-16 09:19 pm UTC (link)
She was breaking. She had told him that she had stress induced asthma. He could already see and hear the signs. The Doctor was not about to let her slip down that slope.

"Look, right here," he said, forcing her eyes right on his. "Alright, now I want you to listen. You say there's a smoke monster out there, yes? Something fearsome and nasty, yes?" He took a breath, he was fairly certain she would be nodding and weezing any time now.

"Now, listen to me. I've dealt with worse then smoke monsters. How much worse? Flesh eating creatures worse. They took one look at me, heard my name, and they ran, Shannon. Now, listen to me, we're going to go in there where it's warmer and a bit more quiet. We're going to close the door, and if something is unfortunate enough to come through it, I promise you that it will regret it."

There was no movement by the Doctor to look over his shoulder again. As far as he was concerned there was no noise, no whipping of the trees and no talk of smoke monsters. He had a girl who was going to wind herself up into not being able to breathe if she wasn't careful. He needed her to trust him - if he picked her up and carried her inside she never would; so, the Doctor held his ground - that space between she and the howling.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 09:32 pm UTC (link)
At his command, Shannon looked back at the Doctor, feeling her chest tightening in that uncomfortable tell-tale way she knew all too well as a warning sign. At least she had inhalers stocked in the museum, now, thanks to Domeki. With each "yes?" Shannon nodded rather than waste her breath speaking.

The Doctor sounded so calm and confident even when he had no idea what was out there. Shannon had never seen the Smoke Monster. She'd heard it like this and she'd heard whispers of people talking about it when they thought no one else was listening. Still, Shannon nodded again and, with effort, forced herself to back away from the railing and back into the museum.

She could feel the rumble in her chest and could hear the wheezing when she took a breath. At that all too familiar sound, she forced herself to turn and paw through her stash of alcohol, tea, water, apples, and SlimFast bars for one of the inhalers. She didn't hesitate pulling off the cap and taking a puff on it, even as she looked back toward the door in fear, looking probably like a scared little girl, huddled on the floor with her asthma inhaler and wrapped tightly in a blanket. She was exhausted and afraid...and all she wanted was to be numb.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-16 09:46 pm UTC (link)
He could hear the rumbling of her breath as it passed through her lungs and back out again. It was the asthma, taking hold. With a quiet sense of relief he watched as she backed into the museum and through the door. Carefully, quietly, he shut the door, walking to the left of the entry to push one of the heavy display stands against the door. If Sam came back in the middle of this, he'd have to wait for the Doctor to let him in because that case was going to be rough to move on it's own.

He heard her rifling through her things, searching for an inhaler. When the Doctor finally found a spot to sit he wasn't very far away - but he didn't want to impede. He was fairly certain it would be best to let her have some air. Some quieter, more restful air.

"I wish you could meet Rose," he said off handedly. "She's not too different in age from you. She has this funny way of not being afraid of anything - never seen anything like it, actually. One time she actually stood up to the Sycorax. Can you believe that? A species that lives for conquest like locusts, and she was standing there spouting off about the Shadow Proclamation, and the Gelf, and Raxacoricofallapatorias like she'd spent her whole life there. Meanwhile, whole time, shaking in her boots. Though, she did it because she was the defender of the earth. Well, that and daft."

The Doctor knew he was babbling - but he needed to babble. He needed to fill that silence. He needed to fill it with the happiest thing he could think of - and in that moment it was Rose.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-16 10:02 pm UTC (link)
As the inhaler worked its magic, Shannon looked over at the Doctor. Half of what he was saying didn't make any sense at all to her, but he was talking about a girl, at least. Shannon had gotten that much out of it. And, apparently, a fearless one. While she wasn't sure the point was to make Shannon feel a bit badly for being so afraid, whether or not he realized it, that was sort of the effect it was having. She was pretty sure, though, that it wasn't intentional.

"Is Rose your girlfriend back home?" she asked reflexively, trying to ignore the residual sounds in the night outside. Small talk was as good a way as any, as far as she was concerned.

Her eyes moved away from the Doctor and back toward the door. She was glad to see that he'd barricaded it without her having had to ask him to do so. If Sam came back - or Dean, for that matter - she hoped that the wait they'd have to endure wouldn't be to terribly long. It hadn't occurred to her to notice how long it had taken the Doctor to move the display there to begin with; mainly because she hadn't realized he'd been doing it.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-19 06:53 pm UTC (link)
The Doctor wished that he could say that Shannon had calmed and that's why her breathing had leveled and her speech returned. His mind knew it was the inhaler and not the loss of panic.

"Oh, no, she's gone." Really, what he ought to have explained was that she was stuck on a parallel world out of his grasp for the rest of eternity unless he wanted to risk ripping a hole the size of Belgium into the fabric of space and time. He could, if he wanted, rip a hole. Then again, it probably wasn't a matter of want - it was a matter of restraint and responsibility and sensibility. It just wouldn't do saving the world just go and ruin the universe for her. It ripped him in half, honestly. Even though the years went by the ripping never truly seemed to stop - just slow down a bit.

He watched as she looked to the door and tried to think of something else to chat about - to keep her calm as the noise began to sound distant outside the barricaded door. "Did you see the stew they had in the convenience store?" He asked off handedly, pulling up a spot on a bench probably once intended for looking at the fake-Van Gogh.

"I'm not usually too partial to stew; though, I thought perhaps the rest of you might like it," he motioned to the forgotten basket and it's few canned goods.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-19 07:15 pm UTC (link)
Shannon looked back at the Doctor and frowned slightly. "I'm sorry," she said softly, tucking her hair behind her ears. With a sigh, she looked down. "I know the feeling," she added sympathetically. On a couple different levels, she supposed. Not that she really would've missed Boone otherwise, but now that there was absolutely no way to ever see him again, she sure as hell did. And then, there was Sayid. Even if they ever got out of this place, he'd still be on the Island and she had no way of knowing how to get back there even if she wanted to. There was also the possibility that he wouldn't live through the Island. He wouldn't be the first, she thought miserably.

"Hmm?" she asked, distracted slightly as she looked back up at the Doctor. "Oh. Thanks," she replied with a small smile as he motioned toward the basket. Her eyes shifted back toward the door when everything went quiet. The silence made her breath catch. It was almost more frightening than the sound itself. Shannon forced herself to look back at the Doctor. "Thanks for moving in here," she said. "I appreciate it."

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-19 07:36 pm UTC (link)
Her sentiment didn't go unnoticed as the Doctor set his elbows to his knees and his chin to his palms in turn; crouching a la thinking man on the bench. He was trying to place the noise. As much as he enjoyed learning about new things and exploring, it bothered him greatly when other people were terrified of things he knew nothing about.

"You invited me, afterall. I should be the one thanking you," he offered still looking rather blankly at the fake Van Gogh. "Don't you think it's interesting that someone went to so much trouble to even fill up a museum with fakes and a convenience store with food?"

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-19 07:45 pm UTC (link)
Rubbing the back of her neck slightly, Shannon shrugged. She hadn't asked the Doctor to move in to be nice. She'd had her own motives behind it. The Doctor was someone she trusted and she'd wanted a buffer zone. It was especially important to her now that Dean had moved in as well. Two big guys could take her on really easily if they wanted to. Maybe the Doctor wasn't as tall as Sam or as built as Dean, but he was still a man and she had a feeling he would somehow be able to find a way to diffuse the situation if ever one was to arise. "Yeah, I know, but don't mention it. Really. You're doing me a favor," she replied.

Shannon's eyes moved to follow his, looking at the painting on the wall. She shrugged. "I guess I hadn't really thought about it...but Sam thinks we're lab rats. So, it makes sense, I guess. If that's why we're here, maybe this place is supposed to be, like, a habitat. Like, you know, at the zoo or something." She paused. "God...that is so fucked up when I say it out loud..." Without realizing it, she started to hug her knees to her chest after shifting herself a little closer to the Doctor out of sheer reflex to be nearer to the only other person in the room.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-19 07:50 pm UTC (link)
"He may not be quite off," He said quietly, his tone thoughtful and a bit murky. As much as the Doctor hated to admit it; they were currently holed up like prisoners for observation. What really sort of amazed him was that they hadn't found any cameras yet. That would be the clincher - to find the watching and listening devices. Well, unless their captors were among them. He'd keep mute on that last thought for the moment.

"Well, we'll get out of here sooner or later, I'm fairly certain of that," he let the corner of his mouth curl into a lazy sort of smile.

"Think you can tell me a something about that noise we were hearing before? How you know it?" He knew the question was sort of vague; but, he liked it that way. It left her an easy route to dodge it if she wanted to.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-19 08:14 pm UTC (link)
Furrowing her brow, Shannon hugged her knees tighter. "Yeah, but who's watching?" she asked, frowning. Although, in all honesty, she had an idea. There was a mole or moles among them; it was the only thing she could think of...and while she hated very much to think so, all signs pointed at Sam. The knife, the census, the first one to guess that they were being watched... "...what do you think of Sam, anyway? I mean, you've talked to him, right?" she asked quietly.

He said he was fairly certain they'd get out. Shannon wasn't so sure. "Didn't you hear about the body in the woods? I don't think we're going anywhere," she said miserably, setting her jaw so that her chin wouldn't quiver.

Shannon shifted slightly in discomfort. "I heard it the night we crashed on the Island," she said. "I heard it was the Smoke Monster. I've never seen the thing and I don't want to. I also heard that people were hearing whispers in the jungle after...but I didn't and I hope I never do. I heard a lot more than people thought I did. It's easy to blend in when you're being useless," she said softly, resting her chin on her knees and casting her eyes downward.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-19 08:23 pm UTC (link)
The Doctor shrugged when she asked his opinion of Sam. If there was anything the Doctor knew well enough - it was that one does not question the current appointed leader unless absolutely certain they were thick, incompetent, or otherwise unsuitable. For now, Sam seemed well enough for his post.

"I did hear about the body," he said quietly, trying to set back his momentary insecurity to the back of his mind. He still hadn't heard from Martha. "That doesn't mean we won't get out. It could have been one of those animals that was set lose that did that. I'm not so quick to assume that it was whoever is behind this that did that," he couldn't assume that; not yet. He didn't have any evidence that they did whatever to that body.

"Sometimes I'm too busy to listen - it's this thick head of mine," he smirked a little, "Too full of memories and thoughts and plans to work properly sometimes. It's like my ears close up."

He was piecing together in the back of his mind the things she described about the noise and a smoke monster and whispers and this creature didn't sound like anything he was familiar with - which made it actually seem a bit less threatening.

"No one is ever useless," he said rather pointedly in a tone that didn't leave much room for argument.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-19 08:38 pm UTC (link)
Looking away again, Shannon shrugged in reply. She'd originally thought the Doctor was an Other, anyway. Maybe her skills in judging people were far rustier for having been stuck on Craphole Island. Maybe Domeki was right and Sam was fine; maybe that was what the Doctor was trying to say by saying nothing. "Listen, you don't have to say anything, you know, I get it, but...it's just I trust you. I don't know why, but I do. And Sam makes me...a little uneasy. I just wonder if I'm the only one that feels that way, is all," she revealed without looking up at the Doctor's face as she did so.

Either the Doctor was eternally optimistic or he hadn't heard about the shape the body was in. To Shannon, it didn't sound like the work of an animal, but then again, she wasn't exactly an expert. So, she let that sleeping dog lie.

Shaking her head, Shannon rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised. You should get out more if you really think that," she murmured. Even Shannon had to agree that she'd been pretty useless on the Island. With the sole exceptions of having translated a little French from the transceiver and Sayid's maps from the French woman in the jungle.

Boone hadn't been wrong. She'd sat around staring at dead bodies and crying; she had given herself a pedicure that first night. She'd manipulated Charlie to catch her a fish when she'd been too lazy to go find her own source of food. She'd been absolutely useless on Craphole Island. Maybe the Doctor seemed to think the opposite of her because she was trying so damn hard to keep from letting the people here feel the same way about her that the Oceanic survivors had. If that was the case, good on her, she thought; mission accomplished. But, it didn't really mean anything and it certainly didn't change the past.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-21 08:36 pm UTC (link)
It was strange to actually think about; but, the Doctor was more used to being mistrusted by those he didn't know than the opposite. People on buses, especially. It was something about the confinement. So, when it came to a giant glass jar; he half expected to be cast the villain.

"It doesn't matter what I think right now of anyone here - the only thing that matters is that we are going to get out of here. We are, in fact, going to escape this place."

He watched and listened as rolled her eyes and spoke. He didn't like the tone of her response. Sure, she didn't have to believe him; but, he'd seen the most unlikely and arguably 'useless' save entire worlds. People had said hie TARDIS was useless, an antique - and look how very wonderful the Old Girl had been to him?

The forest had gone quiet. The Doctor found hismelf wondering how long the entire episode had gone on. Getting up he pulled the display back a bit, peeling back the door to peek outside. What he saw was astounding; but, he was careful not to react beyond a quiet bit of shock. Some of the trees had been knocked clear over, severed at their trunks; while others were leaning awkwardly their roots yanked from the ground.

Pushing the door shut; leaving the display where it was he went back to Shannon, sitting on the floor this time. "I think it's moved on."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-21 09:02 pm UTC (link)
Chewing on one of her thumbnails, eyes still downcast, Shannon nodded mutely in response to the Doctor's having said that it didn't matter what he thought of anyone; that it only mattered that they were getting out. She disagreed with his confidence, but who was she to piss on his parade?

When the noise in the forest stopped, Shannon looked up sharply. She tugged the blanket more tightly around herself. "Don't," she said quickly, but made no move to try to stop the Doctor when he got up. He was already moving the display. Shannon tensed when he moved the door slightly open, but nothing seemed to happen. Then, he closed the door again without pushing the display back in front of it, and came back toward her, sitting on the floor.

Swallowing hard, Shannon nodded and stopped chewing her nails. "It'll be back," she said grimly. Her eyes studied his face for a moment. "Don't leave me," she said softly. Shannon wasn't sure why she felt like he was itching to do just that; to go check out the damage that the Smoke Monster had inevitably done. She just had a feeling in her gut that he did. It might've been the calmness he'd displayed outside or the confidence in his voice when he spoke about keeping the thing out of the museum or getting them out of this place. "Please?" Once again, she started chewing her thumbnail, casting her eyes down as she did. She rubbed at her face with her free hand where the tear tracks had dried and were itchy. This place had already driven her to drink...what was next?

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-22 07:40 pm UTC (link)
His mind was going a million miles a minute trying to determine if he'd ever heard the noises from the forest before. He had 900 years of experience to draw upon - there had to have been something he'd heard that was remotely similar.

The Doctor, in his moment of searching had almost completely forgotten about Shannon as she sat, chewing at her fingertips. In fact, thought it wasn't intentional, he was nearly ignoring the way she was shutting down there on the floor beside him. His brain was feeling sluggish - like a computer with too little memory trying to execute it's millionth program. 'Don't leave me,' she said, and the Doctor started, as if woke from a long slumber.

"What?" He blinked, his face puzzled as he turned to face her. 'Please?' she followed up. "Why would I do something like that?" His tone was genuine. He didn't typically leave anyone. "It's always people who leave me, actually. Taking off for lives, or jobs, or teams, or parallel worlds..."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-22 07:56 pm UTC (link)
Shannon shrugged back at him and attempted a smile that didn't reach her face. "You and your adventures," she said, wrinkling her nose slightly as she reminded him of the invite she'd declined the first day she'd met him. "You seem like the type that's just dying to go out there and look. I just...want you to stay," she added, looking down again and picking at her nails.

Yeah, she was afraid, but mostly she was asking because Shannon didn't like to be alone unless it was on her terms. Chewing on her bottom lip, Shannon looked back up at him when he said people usually left him. "Well, that's stupid," she muttered. She didn't necessarily mean it as an insult to those that had apparently left him behind, but she barely knew him and she wouldn't. He made her feel better about herself. And he was nice. ...and he has good hair, she thought, tipping her head just slightly to the side as her eyes moved to the coif in question.

"I wouldn't," she added absently. "It isn't like I've got anywhere to go or anyone to go back to," she finished with a shrug before pulling the blanket more tightly around herself and looking back at his face.

After a pause, Shannon looked down again. "So what do you do besides travel, back in the real world?" she asked in hopes of getting her mind off the Smoke Monster outside. "When are you from? I don't think I asked that before...I don't think I knew we were all coming from different times, then."

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-22 09:02 pm UTC (link)
She had him pegged, more or less. He did like his adventures and mysteries and excitement. "Well, I'm a scientist, that's what we do, we look."

I want you to stay, she said. He hadn't really expected that - though, he was fairly certain she was saying she wanted him to stick around because she was petrified. It was sort of understandable, he supposed.

"Eh, it's what they need to do to make them happy - can't travel forever; well, unless you're me, that is."

He listened as she said she didn't have anyone to go back to or anywhere to go. He knew how that felt. He didn't really have a home, either. Or anyone to get back to, either. Well, unless you counted the whole of time and space.

"I don't have much in the way of a home, either," he divulged. "Well, It was 2008 when I was snatched up from London. I had been traveling with my friend, Donna." His stomach kind of knotted a moment. The TARDIS had just gone mauve and here he was stuck in a blasted glass prison.

"It seems like there are parallel worlds, as well. I met a girl today, Luna, who said something about being from wizarding London - she's not of my earth, that's for certain."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-22 09:04 pm UTC (link)
"Scientist or not..." Shannon started, letting her voice trail off. She'd already inferred and flat out said that she thought it was a bad idea to go looking around to see what was causing the ruckus. If he didn't want to listen to her, he wasn't going to and she wouldn't be able to stop him. Not that she'd try.

She nodded slightly at the second sentiment. "I guess not. Eventually, you'll run out of places to go," she replied. "Although, if I had the means, I'd travel once we got out of here. There's a million places I've never gotten to see. I've never seen any of the other states, for example. Just California. I'd love to check out more of Europe. I've never been to Asia..." she gave him a small smile. "And I wouldn't hate seeing the places I've been without the strings that came attached the first time," she added, the smile fading slightly and a shrug taking its place. "Not that I'd ever take another fucking airplane," she was quick to add.

"Where do you go when you're not traveling?" she asked. Shannon could only assume that he didn't make homes the way she did. He didn't look like the sort of guy who would, essentially, stoop the way she had just to stay away from Sabrina. "2008, really?!" she asked, eyes wide. "What's it like? Is it way different than 2004? Anything significant in history I'm missing out on by being stuck here?" she paused. "Like...did they ever find us? The survivors of Oceanic flight 815?" It was a longshot, but she couldn't help wondering if Sayid was still alive in the Doctor's time. If he'd made it off the Island while Boone had not.

Shannon nodded again. "I talked to a guy on the journals earlier. He didn't know what the Gregorian calendar system was..." she replied. "Luna, yeah I met her. She's...interesting..."

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-22 09:26 pm UTC (link)
He could tell she didn't want him to go exploring - it was just a vibe he'd gotten used to picking up on. Sometimes, the vibe came from his companions - though, more often than not it was the unfamiliar onlookers who didn't really like the time lord's affinity for poking his nose into chaotic situations. It seemed like they always thought he was going to somehow make things worse.

He smiled fondly as she rattled off places she wanted to travel to. "I never run out of places," he said in a voice that trailed off slowly. "The only place I can't go is home." His eyes went sort of sad - like they always did when he thought of Gallifrey. Not of the time war, or of the ridiculous rules of his people - but just of that glass domed city on the mount with mountains that shone in the sunset.

"A flight?" His brow scrunched. He didn't remember much about airplane crashes that didn't involve alien influence. "I can't say I remember."

"Not knowing about the Gregorian calendar? That's not so surprising, not everyone always uses it, you know."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-22 09:43 pm UTC (link)
"How can you not run out of places? I mean, I guess unless you haven't been traveling long or you stay in one place for a long time or whatever...I mean there's only so many places in the world to go, you know?" Shannon asked, raising an eyebrow and then reaching behind herself for a bottle of peppermint schnapps. She gave him a sympathetic frown when he said the only place he couldn't go was home. "You want?" she asked, holding it out as an offering to share. Domeki had gotten her another before the meeting in the carnival, for which she was infinitely grateful. "I'm suddenly finding myself much better at sharing these days..."

Her eyes cast downward just slightly and she nodded when the Doctor said he didn't know. "I hope so," she said absently. It'd be a horrible shame, she thought, for anyone else to die on the Island. She sincerely hoped that Boone was the only one unlucky enough.

Furrowing her brow slightly, Shannon looked back up at the Doctor, confused. "...yes they do..." she said slowly. "I mean unless things change that much by 2008..."

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-24 08:21 pm UTC (link)
The Doctor knew he had a choice to make now, either come clean or dodge. Well, I'm a 973 year old time lord, give or take a couple of decades. I travel all about in a big blue police box and make it habitual saving the world. She raised the bottle in offering and the Doctor casually waved it off. He wasn't generally one for alcohol. It was hanging on the tip of his tongue, to respond in truth - instead he just let her assumptions ride.

"Well, we're not all coming from the same time, or planet I suspect. So, it wouldn't surprise me if not everyone used the same calendar."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-24 10:18 pm UTC (link)
"Suit yourself," Shannon replied softly with a small smile as the Doctor waved off her offer to share. "All the more for me," she added, taking a healthy pull from the bottle as she listened to him.

An eyebrow arched in a mixture between doubt and curiosity as she lowered the bottle and gasped for air, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "So far everybody looks pretty human to me," she remarked with a shrug. "Time, yeah, I'm starting to get that...but other planets? That's kinda...I dunno, sci-fi chic, don't you think?" she asked.

The idea of sharing this place with aliens made her shudder. Creepy little green men with huge black eyes on top of the Smoke Monster? She'd rather die. "Besides, wouldn't that insinuate that there's aliens here, too? Monsters, okay. I wouldn't have believed that until I saw it for myself - did I mention that, by the way? Dean and I nearly got eaten out in the forest earlier looking for apples. Those were the ugliest effing things I've ever seen, whatever they were," she said, shuddering again. "But aliens? I dunno. I guess I'll believe it when I see it, Doctor," she finished with a shrug.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-24 10:29 pm UTC (link)
She took a long drink from that bottle and the Doctor just kind of stared off into space for a minute. It was always an odd impulsive choice to be honest with people and to allow himself that sort of vulnerability. It was one thing to let coy remarks slide when he had the out of the TARDIS and the chance of escape back into the ether. Instead, he was trapped inside a glass enclosed world where one never quite knew how these humans might react to him.

Any doubt the Doctor had as to acceptance, by Shannon at least, was confirmed as she went on about aliens and other planets. Of course, the Doctor wasn't left feeling slighted - perhaps just a bit disappointed.

"You may be surprised," he said nonchalantly, watching the door with a quiet sort of expectation. "How is Dean?" He'd heard that Dean was back, though as yet he hadn't managed to run into him again.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-24 10:49 pm UTC (link)
"You think so?" Shannon asked, raising her eyebrows again, this time in honest curiosity. She shrugged again and took another drink. "Maybe. Like I said, I'm one of those gotta see it to believe it kind of people. I'm surprising myself every day, though, so maybe I wouldn't freak out if I met an alien. I don't know, I guess it'd depend on what they looked like, though," she laughed. "I mean, if they looked like ET or whatever, I think I could handle it, but maybe not so much those, like, super tall, skinny white ones with the huge heads and black eyes. That'd freak me out," she rambled. Shannon wasn't normally one to ramble, but filling in the silence kept her from thinking too much about the Smoke Monster outside and wondering if - or when - it'd be back.

She shrugged again, this time with a somewhat sad look on her face, when the Doctor asked how Dean was doing. "You're the only thing he really remembers," she told him. "He's a snarky fucker, though," she added with a small smirk. "I like that. Keeps me on my toes instead of bowing down to everything I say. That's nice sometimes, but it gets old, too."

Taking a deep breath and sighing as she followed the Doctor's eyes to the door, Shannon went on. "Also, I have a feeling having Dean around will be really useful. He sort of saved my life. He's a quick thinker and he's fast," she said, looking back at the Doctor. "Like...I wonder if he's a cop or a firefighter in the real world or something," she added by way of explanation.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-24 11:01 pm UTC (link)
"I do," he said, fidgeting with his shoe laces. "They," he said carefully, "could look just like you and me." Though he could think of few species that really mirrored humanity as closely as time lords, he could think of many who came fairly close if one didn't count eye color or skin tone. There were also those who tried, like the Slytheen and their compression suits, and those who didn't.

"Me? That's an odd sort of memory, isn't it?" The Doctor was very good at slipping away and being carefully forgotten. People didn't hear about him at the fires of Pompeii or the sinking of the Titanic and whatnot. Some of his guises have been more forgettable than others; but, still this one was very much the most easily passed off of them all.

"Something like that," he responded to her assumption about Dean's occupation. Dean had told him he hunted things that went bump in the night - either he hadn't wanted to tell Shannon or it was among the things he didn't quite remember yet. Either way, it wasn't really the Time Lord's place to divulge it to everyone.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-24 11:18 pm UTC (link)
"You really think so?" Shannon asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. She hadn't really thought of it that way, what with all the pop culture aliens looking all crazy and creepy. "They never do in the movies, do they?" she mused more to herself than to the Doctor. She took another drink, pulling heavily on the bottle. At this rate, she was going to be so sick of peppermint schnapps in a day or two that she'd never touch it again as long as she lived...

Putting the bottle down and shifting her position slightly. "I don't know, I'd remember you," she replied. "Mr. Ball of Energy," she teased, smirking slightly.

When the Doctor responded to her guess on Dean's occupation back in the real world, Shannon sat up a little straighter. "Really? That's awesome," she said, chewing her bottom lip. Huh. Dean was a real, live hero, then. Cool...

"I think, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go take a minute to myself in one of the back rooms," she told him, looking back at the door. "It's been...a freakin' long day and before a spill my inner emo all over you or get insanely drunk and try something stupid..." she let her voice trail off and blushed a little, cocking her eyebrows once and looking down as she picked up the bottle again.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-24 11:28 pm UTC (link)
"In the movies? I suppose not," though, the Gallifreyan supposed, the movie producers probably hadn't managed to ever actually meet an alien. Well, except for M. Night Shymalan - who was still recovering. It made the Doctor sort of sad for the director - he was always trying to out do the experience he had actually had on screen. That whole Signs plot? Based almost entirely on his interaction with a Gerfon who had traveled to earth just to get an autograph for his copy of the Sixth Sense. That had been a sticky situation.

"Oh," he responded to notion that she'd remember him. She'd really remember him if she found out he had two hearts, a respiratory bipass system, and the ability to regenerate.

"I'll be here watching the door," he said as she excused herself. "If you do need an ear to bend, you know where to find me."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-24 11:46 pm UTC (link)
A small smile crossed Shannon's lips at the Doctor's response. "Maybe it just wouldn't translate well to screen if aliens looked like you and me," she joked feebly. Although she wouldn't say so right to the Doctor, Shannon still couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea that an alien could possibly look like herself or the Doctor. But, then she snorted slightly and laughed to herself. Maybe Rorschach was an alien. It'd explain a lot, in any case. Pursing her lips together and quieting herself, she didn't look at the Doctor; she didn't want to explain her outburst.

He hadn't seemed terribly flattered or, conversely, offended that she said she'd remember him, so she left that alone entirely as she got to her feet, taking her bottle. "Thanks. You'll be okay if I take my torch, right?" she asked, not really liking the idea of trying to navigate the still slightly unfamiliar hallway in the dark.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-25 01:19 am UTC (link)
"Perhaps," he said with a smile that was certainly off in another place.

Truthfully, he was sort of disappointed. He thought he might be able to come clean with Shannon and be honest. She, after all, had been fairly honest with him, hadn't she? Still, it wasn't the time, not the time at all. To try and say he was a time traveling alien was a delicate enough subject as it was. Best left unsaid.

When she snorted the Doctor sort of snapped out of it, canting his head a little in amusement - apparently something very funny had just passed her mind.

"Oh yes, I'll be just fine," he remarked, not too worried about sitting the dark for a while. He'd been sleeping practically out in the open at the carnival as it was, so the museum lent itself to a certain additional amount of security.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-25 01:37 am UTC (link)
Shannon gave the Doctor a timid smile. She should probably show him how to make his own torch, but she wasn't really in the mood to right then and after watching Sam make his with a knife, she was less than enthralled by the idea of going back to tacks to cut the canvas; that took forfuckingever.

"I can show you how to make one when Sam comes back, if you want. He's got a knife; I'd been using tacks. It'd be exponentially easier to use his knife," she explained almost apologetically. She felt bad about not wanting to do it now, because he'd have to sit in the dark until Sam and Dean came back, but...she just couldn't make herself feel like it.

With a soft sigh, Shannon started toward the hall. "Likewise if you need me," she murmured, not that she thought anyone would need her, but she figured she ought to repeat the sentiment.

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-25 01:42 am UTC (link)
He nodded to her sentiment. It was kind of her to think of showing him - or at least to realize that to do a proper job a knife would be better than tacks. "No worries," he relented, getting comfortable there on the floor, the door still slightly ajar from where he'd never replaced the display stand.

"Shannon," he said, emerging from his own thoughts for a moment. "Thank you." He was, of course, genuinely thankful for being let into the museum. More so, he was thankful that she'd given him an opportunity to glimpse what he'd been outside of here - the confident, useful, ingenious Doctor. It was hard not to feel a bit unlike himself hanging about in a carnival or wandering around looking for others who even thought escape was possible.

"Really, thank you."

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-25 01:47 am UTC (link)
At the Doctor's nonchalant response, Shannon nodded and turned away again, starting into the hall. When she heard her name, she stopped and turned again, peeking around the wall and holding the torch up so that she could see him better.

He was thanking her. Shannon furrowed her brow slightly in confusion. "For what?" she asked, not bothering to mask the confusion in her voice. She hadn't done anything...

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[info]fromgallifrey
2009-04-25 01:52 am UTC (link)
Perhaps it was because he was tired that he was managing to remain to unaffected by his disappointment. No matter.

"For letting me stay," he said from the now quite dark spot he was calling his own. "Be careful with that liquor," he teased, shaking his head and miring himself back into thoughts of escape.

Tomorrow he'd construct a sonic pulse emitter. It would work.

It had to work.

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[info]ballerinadreams
2009-04-25 02:03 am UTC (link)
"Oh," Shannon said with a small smile. "You're welcome." It was no problem having him, really. He wasn't imposing. If anything, Shannon felt infinitely better having him there, because it meant one more warm body at night and one more set of eyes. Never mind the fact that even though she was slowly starting to think that maybe Sam wasn't an Other, after all, there was always a chance her gut instinct was right and having the Doctor there with them meant she wouldn't have to be alone with Sam very often, in case things got crazy.

She laughed airily and nodded. "I will," she told him, even if it wasn't true. If her body would let her, she planned on downing the lot of the bottle, but she wouldn't tell the Doctor that.

"I'll be back," she said vaguely to him, although he seemed to be off in his own little world before she could get the sentiment out, so Shannon turned again and disappeared down the hall.

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