✒ oo1

[waterfield]

( a sob is the first thing that can be heard, rather than spotting her. she always was louder than she was vibrant, but here she is in all her glory, on her knees, acting like a child. soft and quiet, though she remains sobbing. hiccoughing soon follows, sniffles and for a short time, all that can be produced from the girl are the sounds of misery and despair. this is the second time she’s found herself in this strange area, neither one of said two times could she recall really wanting to stay. or, rather, she thought it was — but nothing made sense at the moment, nothing but sobbing seemed to be the right thing to do )

Is someone there…? ( preferably someone she might know? her voice whimpers the words and her palms, finding her eyes, rub the heels against to try and dry the tears that relentlessly fall ) Please, can someone hear me…?

( Victoria is far from being aware of whom she’s trying to talk to. for some reason, she can recall someone from before but can’t see anyone this time. slowly, she inhales a shaky breath, picks herself up from the ground and awkwardly begins to walk )

I remember, from before, there was someone… Please, aren’t you still there? ( another choking sob, as she realizes that she might have just imagined seeing someone. what if she’s imagined this whole situation? it might even be some dream, or rather nightmare, that just feels as though it’s real. but then again, when she had returned home, it hadn’t felt right for some reason. what had that woman’s name been? oh, that’s right )

Meredith? ( another shaky breath ) Meredith… Sault? That was it, wasn’t it? Oh, please… Please, I’m frightened and I— I thought I’d gotten away from all this stuff!

( she proceeds to walk along the Plane, not that she realized that’s what it was called or even began to fathom wherever it was that she might be. the walk was seeming endless, there really didn’t seem as though there was much of a destination for her to find and so realizing that she was extremely lost, and so once more, she falls to her knees in a heap )

Mister Harris! Missus Harris! ( she choked on a sob ) Please, I don’t want to be alone! I don’t understand, what is going on? Where am I…? What happened?

( she whimpers and mutters before burying her head into her hands ) …if I wanted this, I would have stayed on the TARDIS…

Comments

[bonnypiperlad]

[Jamie doesn't say anything for a moment, stunned into silence by the slap. That felt...real. Absolutely real. He brings his hand up to touch his cheek. It's still tingling a bit, and that, more than anything, makes the situation start to sink in.]

It's ye. It's really ye. You're here.

[...oh god. What must she be thinking? Almost automatically, he reaches to draw her into a hug, but then stops, uncertain. It's been years, and she looks the same, and his mind is tripping over itself trying to even figure out where to start.]

I-I'm sorry, Victoria. It's just...I've not seen ye in so long. And this place...look, come with me, and I'll try to explain.

[waterfield]

( still rubbing her arm, she lifts her gaze to look at him and is just about to apologize for the stinging that is surely tingling at his cheek from her slap when he lifts his arms but hesitates

for a moment she forgets to be terrified, distracted by his awkwardness )

What's wrong? ( swallowing a lump, her brow wrinkles into a frown and rather than stop herself this time, she grasps at his forearms — perhaps to remind herself that he's real )

So long? But it's only been three weeks, then again, no... You look so much older... ( well maybe not that much older, but it remains fact that the man has certainly aged some ) What is this place? Where is the Doctor?

How...
How did I get here without the TARDIS? I don't understand...

[bonnypiperlad]

[He's about to head back towards the kitchen, thinking that it'd be the easiest place to explain things, but her touch stops him - and he makes no move to pull away. There's still a hint of uncertainty as his gaze flicks back and forth from her to the kitchen, then back again. But it fades as he looks down into her eyes.]

It's been five years for me, since I've seen ye last. Maybe a wee bit longer than that. The Doctor's here, too. But he's...different from what ye remember. At least on the Plane.

It's, ah, a wee bit complicated. But this place is what ye might call an inter-dimensional nexus-thing. [The words are said slowly, deliberately, more familiar now then when he'd first heard them, but he can't quite get out of describing them in a way he's more used to.]

Like a...a...meeting place of sorts. People come here from different places, different worlds. Different times.

[waterfield]

( briefly, she's winded at the length of time he's been apart from her, at least, in his reality that is )

Five whole years? Five whole ... ( she trails off, deciding to stop herself from being upset at the time they've been apart. and with his comment about how long it had been since he'd seen her, she could assume that in his 'world' he hadn't ever managed a visit or two back to the Harris' )

How do you mean? ( she tilts her head at the mention of the Doctor being... different. he was already different enough, why change even more? ) What do you mean on the Plane? This is it, right? The Machine? All of it, this place... We're stuck here, aren't we?

( stuck among the stars, worst places to be — but not for Victoria )

Inter-dimen— ( and she gives up, just letting him talk. once he's explained to the best of his ability, which is surprisingly a lot better than it was when she had first met the lad and joined him on the TARDIS, she frowns )

But how do I go back?

[bonnypiperlad]

[Something inside him contracts uncomfortably at the notion that she wants to go back right away. That small, selfish part of him that never wanted her to leave in the first place whispers that he could avoid telling her, at least for now. And they could stay, and visit again for a time...but he knows that's not right. It still has to be her choice, and he can't keep that from her.]

No! No, ye can go back whenever ye want. [Most times, anyway, but he doesn't have the heart to tell her about that. Not just yet.] All ye have to do is think about it. Take a step forward, if it's easier for ye. And you'll be with the Harrises before ye know it.

[He takes a breath - a bit deeper than he means to, originally, and steels himself for what she might do next.] Try it, if ye like.

[waterfield]

( she's heard some loony things before, but this is just taking the cake. she frowns, briefly wondering if this strange new place as caused Jamie to end up a bit, well, touched. London, or rather Earth, is no where to be seen — she can't just imagine her bedroom and be within it. that's just silly, preposterous. but she can appreciate his attempt to make her feel as though she can.

still, she sighs )

Jamie, I can't just go back. There's no where to go back to, it's not here. ( with that, she steps back from him, opening her arms to motion around themselves ) No beach, nothing.

( for the moment, her inability to believe she can return does just that: hinders her ability to do so )

[bonnypiperlad]

[That...is she not even going to try? He winds up blinking at her for a moment, surprised. Then his mouth pulls off to one side, that faint worry that she is going to leave and not come back temporarily overridden by a mild vexation.]

Och. Ye would think after all we've been through, ye would actually believe me when I tell ye something, for once. Fine, then. I'll show ye instead.

[It's never hard to think of the TARDIS, after all, and in the blink of an eye, he vanishes. He's gone just long enough to raid the kitchen there - helps that he's able to think himself there to start with - and comes back with two apples, one of which he offers out to her.]

Hungry?

[waterfield]

( exasperation overwhelms her. she's just about to tell him that he's lost his mind from being stuck in some Astral Plane when his figure just up and vanishes. her lips part, shocked, as her eyes dart around the immediate, surrounding area )

Jamie...? ( at first, her voice is so small that she barely recognizes it herself. something in her chest wrenches and Victoria finds her mouth going dry as her mind races, her heart pounds and that irritating familiar panic she thought she had gotten rid of once and for all settles in ) Jamie!

( how could he do that to her? up and leave like that? how did that even happen? her breath hitches as she realizes she's alone.

the feeling only lasts so long when he suddenly reappears. great; it really is a dream and her nightmare is playing games with her mind. it must be. Jamie wouldn't just leave her like that, right? it couldn't be a dream, though, she had touched him and felt warmth on him when she had. he was real. he was real and he left her alone.

Victoria doesn't even bother to register the apple he's holding out to her. without thinking, she pulls her foot back and swings a kick to his shin. she then, again, chokes on a sob only this time it's shortly followed by a wail as she breaks down into tears )

That was cruel!

[bonnypiperlad]

H-hey! [Ow, that hurt. Much worse than the slap, and he reflexively tries to hop away from it, the apple he was holding out to her rolling out of his fingers in the process and bouncing off into the distance. Rather frustrated himself, he's about to give her a piece of his mind when she dissolves into tears.

All his old emotions boil up to the surface, and without even consciously realizing what he's doing, he closes the space between them. He reaches out, ignoring any potential future damage to his shins, and goes to wrap his arms around her, voice gone quite soft.]

Victoria. Hey, Victoria, it's alright. I'm here. I only wanted to show ye... Look, I'm sorry. Please, don't greet so.

[waterfield]

( he could relax, his shins were no longer in any danger. she was far too distracted by her sobbing to even think about swinging another kick in his direction.

her petite frame now wrapped in his arms, she pressed her face into his chest to muffle her wails into his clothing. well, they had to have some use apart from decorating his body, right? her fingers clenched at his sleeves, finding warmth and familiarity in his embrace. Jamie had, after all, protected her so many times before that Victoria's crooning was easily hushed just by his hug alone )

What did you do? ( the words whimpered from her lips against him. and how, and where had he gone...? )

[bonnypiperlad]

[Jamie McCrimmon, human handkerchief? It doesn't matter if his clothes get a wee bit damp. They'll dry eventually. For now he simply holds her and tries to explain again.]

Went back to the TARDIS. It's like I told ye, ye can go back to where ye are by thinking about it. And ye can come here the same way. Time doesn't pass back there when you're here, so even if you stay awhile, things'll be just as ye left them. You'd be surprised how handy that comes in sometimes.

And there's a lot ye can do here. There's the forest, and the ballroom, and the theatre, and lots of other places to see as well. It...it's not always so nice here, though.

[waterfield]

That doesn't make sense... ( he had to at least understand that it didn't, right? how? how did it work? thought? but she didn't have some sort of mind powers to vanish and appear elsewhere. shaking her head against him, she simply chooses to ignore the idea of leaving him for the moment. it's much too difficult to work out, so, why not just be with him for some time longer?

feeling herself smile at the list of places they could go, safe places, Victoria relaxes in his grasp, content to be somewhere that isn't entirely terrible for the moment.

then again.

she tenses at the mention of it not always being 'nice.' what does that mean? she and Jamie have a different definition of 'nice,' so — )

— what do you mean, not nice?

[bonnypiperlad]

[Well...maybe not entirely. For instance, this - getting to hold Victoria again - is nice. More than nice, actually. Even though he hasn't given up on clinging to people when the situation calls for it (especially a certain Time Lord), it's never been the same since she's left. Until now. So it's with reluctance he draws back, although his hands still linger on her arms.]

Aye, well, for starters, those experiments I mentioned before? They're things that happen to people who are here. Some of them ye may only notice happening to one person, like if ye see someone around here who's grown wings. Or the time the Plane made me think I was back in the Land of Fiction, and I wound up calling my best friend here Gulliver for a time.

[His mouth curls up for a moment in a slightly rueful smile at the memory, but it quickly fades as he becomes serious again.] But some happen to all of us. Not often, but they do.

[waterfield]

( lifting her head, she listened. the thought of being someone experiment wasn't really settling well with her. was that what it mean to be part of this machine they had been discussing? it sounded like another one of a certain Time Lord's misadventures, which was causing the young girl to just tense more and more at the ideas of what these experiments could —

— sorry, did he just say wings?

nope, nugatory. not happening. it was time to go home. )

Wings!? ( and it controlled his mind into thinking he was elsewhere? oh no, no no. no.

where were the Harris', it was time to get going and leave. )

—and mind control?!

No, I want to go home! I want to go home right now!

( ... and she did.

it was with a gasp that Victoria noted sand under her feet rather than the 'floor that never was' when she was with Jamie. lifting her feet cautiously, she pushed one to make a line in the crumbly dirt and raised her brows in shock.

how was it possible?

glancing over her shoulder, weary eyes spotted her home and relief washing over her, Victoria turned and broke into a run toward the house. oh thank goodness, it had all been a dream. there was no strange plane or machine, whatever they wanted to call it. no experiments, no mind control, no wings!

she had almost reached the house when it dawned on her —

— no plane, no Jamie.

and then she fell to her knees in a spectacular heap. it was almost as though the air had been ripped from her lungs and her legs had turned to mush. palms pressed flatly and firmly to the ground, she stared into it, losing herself. everything faded away while she thought it over.

the Harris' ... or Jamie? )

Jamie...

( suddenly her hands were pressed firmly against nothingness. the twinkle of stars surrounded her and there before her were a set of legs, covered mostly by a kilt.

no.
now that she'd found him, even in a dreamworld — a frightening one — she couldn't just go away again. could she?

no.
at least...

not yet. )

Jamie... ( once more she had been brought to tears. this place, Plane, whatever it was —

— it really was just something awful. )

[bonnypiperlad]

[In that split second before she dropped, he had seen the look on her face, and inadvertently let go - which may have been a good thing, otherwise he might have very well gone with her, and wouldn't that have been a thing to explain.

When she reappears on the Plane, he's still there, although with an expression on his face that's a mix between worry for her and dismay over what he's done - and a unconscious fear that she won't come back at all underlying the whole thing. He hides it by trying for a small, encouraging smile, hoping she won't notice.]

There, ye see? I told ye can go home again. Do ye not understand what that means?

[Home, with the Harrises. Where it's safe. Even if the Plane isn't always, most of the time it's an option for her. He reaches out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.]

I'll no let this place hurt ye, Victoria. But you'll not have to stay here, not if ye don't want to.

[waterfield]

( Victoria keeps her head low, so, for the time being, she's yet to see the fear of her not coming back to him manifest on his features. she didn't need to see it, she knew that it was there. it hadn't been nearly as long for her as it had been for Jamie, he and the Doctor had only just left her and if she recalled properly, Jamie had been extremely displeased with her staying behind.

she could recall the look on his face, the sadness — she almost swore it was heartbreak.

he didn't have to say anything or visibly show her that he would be upset if she went away again. she knew. it would be like having to relive it again and honestly she was still working on getting over having left those two lugheads behind when she'd found herself here. )

But, if I don't stay here... ( her voice broke just a bit as she spoke ) ...I won't get to see you...

( ahh, and so the truth comes to light )

[bonnypiperlad]

[Even with all that, she still wants to stay, to see him again. It's more than he dared hope for, and a part of him that had been expecting her to say otherwise relaxes, leaving a relieved feeling in its place. Rather than tell her how he's feeling, though, he decides lightening the mood might be a better idea. Deliberately, he lets a hint of a light, faintly teasing tone creep into his voice.]

Oh, aye? Well, if you're sure... [That small smile stretches into something more pleased, and maybe a touch mischievous.] I suppose I'll just have to go and show ye around, then. I've just the place to start for it. We can talk on the way, and I'll answer any questions ye like.

What do ye say?

[waterfield]

( her lips pressed into a thin line and her brow furrowed at his taking delight in her confession of not entirely being alright with just up and leaving him all over again. her look was made all the more severe (or so she told herself) from it being glared up at him from the 'floor' below.

lifting herself, Victoria brushed off her knees, not that there was any dirt on them really and folding her arms she tapped her foot while she tried to ignore the mischievousness in his smile )

Oh, aye. ( yeah, she's mocking him. she then gestures with her hand for him to commence walking since she's not aware of where he wants to bring her ) Lead on then, Jamie McCrimmon.

[bonnypiperlad]

[For a second, he pretends to be surprised at her reaction, although the twinkle in his eyes is completely at odds with the expression. Then his face softens into a genuine smile, and he goes to retrieve the errant apples, pressing one into her hand and adding a warm squeeze that lasts longer than it strictly needs to - because, despite his teasing, he really is happy that she wants to stay.]

Aye. It's this way.

[He munches on his apple as he starts to walk, figuring he can just talk around it if he needs to. Leading them past the kitchen, he heads towards a large, ornate looking building that's not yet close enough to make out.]

So what do ye want to know about, then?

[waterfield]

( are her cheeks pink? Victoria can feel a blush prickling at her skin warmly when his hand lingers, shaking it off (literally) the girl looks over the apple and rubs it off on the fabric of her skirt. it wouldn't be right to just put it into her mouth after it was on the floor, after all. how many people might have stepped there? ugh.

bounding after him, she closes the distance between them when he'd picked up walking and hesitates on taking a bite of her apple. how long had it sat there again? )

How about, where are you taking me, for starters?

[bonnypiperlad]

Aye, well, I figured ye might want to get away from all these stars for a wee bit. And unless ye want to try out one of those batting cage-things they have over there...

[Which, frankly, he doubts. Even he doesn't see much of an appeal to hitting a ball with a stick without someone to make a game out of it, and he suspects she'd be bored to tears by the whole thing.]

I thought I'd show ye that ballroom I mentioned, to start. Of course, I suppose I could take ye somewhere else if you'd rather.

[However, the structure that houses the ballroom is now close enough for her to see the doors leading inside, certainly not far for her to walk at all. It all depends, he supposes, where she'd like to go, and he looks at her expectantly.]

[waterfield]

Batting cage? Perhaps not, no, thank you.

( not really wanting to eat the apple, Victoria discreetly threw the fruit off in the distance to keep from having to tell him she really wasn't in the mood for dirty dishes. wiping her hands on her skirt, she shrugs softly to herself, satisfied with her 'stealthily' getting rid of it )

Oh, a ballroom! ( and suddenly, she perked right up! it had been such a long time ever since she had been in a proper ballroom, her father hadn't been to many events after the death of her mother but she had gone from time to time and always had a relatively good time.

she imagined that he wasn't inviting her there to dance, but it would be nice enough to look around at a ballroom and get the old feeling back. it might remind her of home ) I'd love to see a ballroom!

[bonnypiperlad]

[It's successful enough for now, certainly - Jamie is looking at her eyes and not her hands, and therefore fails to notice that she's 'disposed' of the apple. His own is gone by now, as he was hungry enough to make short work of it, although he wraps the core up for later disposal.]

Aye. There's not much dancing that goes on in the place, but...well, you'll see.

[Right now, actually, as they arrive. He pulls the doors open, revealing a glimpse of red carpeting, ornately decorated walls and the elegant furniture that's in the entranceway. He looks back at her again, part of him still surprised this is happening at all. But...she's here. And he hopes that she'll like this a wee bit more than the rest of what's happened to her so far.]

Here we are. Go on in if ye want.

[waterfield]

( Victoria arched a brow and tilted her head to the Scot. )

No dancing? In a ballroom? What a perfectly good waste of space, sheesh.

( still, she follows him into the large, opulent entrance of the building. glancing around to take in the luxuriousness of the decor, Victoria feels a smile tug to her lips. somewhere this nice looking cannot be all that bad, right? still, one can never be too careful. so, glancing to the boy at her side briefly, she takes a few cautious steps further into the ballroom area )

Oh, Jamie... ( there's a softness in her tone, appreciative for the less than frightful area, as it were ) This place is so beautiful!

[bonnypiperlad]

People come and go here a lot. Maybe it's just no one's thought to use it that way. [Although...there was that conversation he'd had once that had culminated in an invitation to dance. Not one he'd ever actually taken the other party up on, because he thought they were pulling his leg. But it makes him wonder if perhaps other people do still use the place after all.]

At least, not with a lot of people about.

[While he's about to continue on, something about that softness stops him, and he finds himself giving the room a second look. For a second it looks as though he almost might agree. But then he shrugs, dismissing it, much like the time he'd done so with the dress she found in the chest.]

Aye, well...it's not so bad.

[He motions with his head down the hallway where a few doors can be seen, as well as the entrance to the main ballroom itself.]

There's something over here I wanted to show ye, though. Come on.