The Bookworm Strikes Again (open)

[first_in_time]

Who: Barbara and Anyone
Where: The Media Library and possible roaming
Summary: Research, tea, discussion and all that jazz. Feel free to simply come and bug her.
Warnings: None

After watching the Daligig slaughter the previous crew twice, Barbara went in search of any kind of material on the Daligig, Stacey, pod-popping and the crews which had traveled on Stacey. She didn't expect to find much more than what GLaDOS had told her but it was worth a look. Especially with all this talk of rebellion and distrust.

So, in a corner of the Media Library Barbara sat with piles books, stacks of visual recordings and audio recordings, plus pot of tea which had been sitting empty for a while. She was lost in her own world, memorising what she could and trying to gain a better picture of the ship, the war and everything else which could be considered relevant.

Comments

[first_in_time]

"She could have but things change, I suppose. Our needs aren't forever the same things and I suppose Stacey wants to monitor all of that so we're getting exactly what we need." That wasn't going to stop Barbara using the food machine, however.

"I say, did you know that the Doctor kept all our things after we vanished?" Because as far as Barbara could tell, the didn't get home, didn't board the Dalek ship and were last on Earth in the year 2050.

[splendid_roman]

"No, I didn't." The Doctor hadn't mentioned it and he hadn't come across any rooms with their things in it. But he supposed the TARDIS was big enough that he didn't need to throw things out that often. "Has he has kept everything?"

[first_in_time]

Barbara pulled a face and sat back in her chair, "I believe so. Although, I don't recognise some of the things in my room - I didn't look in the room labelled with your name, I'm sorry." It didn't seem right to snoop through Ian's room, and she was too busy going through what were apparently her things. "The Doctor said they were from a life I might have lived if I'd stayed on board and not arrived on Stacey."

[splendid_roman]

He frowned. "I remember you living that life." He still didn't really understand how that worked and suspected he was never going to. "What sort of things were in there that you didn't recognise?" He wondered if he'd recognise them.

[first_in_time]

Barbara frowned a little in thought, "all kinds of things. There was a photograph of us with the Doctor and a little light-haired girl who wouldn't have been older than 15 or so, and a fetching Roman dress was laid out across the bed - because he has designed this storage room to look like a bedroom of all things - and I found little ring box but I think I was a little distracted and didn't actually look inside. A few other elaborate and beautiful things hung in the wardrobe, too. I could have sworn that one dress was 12th century Middle Eastern."

She tilted her head to the side, curiously. "I don't understand how you can remember me living that life and I don't

[splendid_roman]

"I don't either, but I know who the girl is and I remember you wearing the dresses." Assuming they weren't other random Roman dresses, but that seemed unlikely. He wondered if he could sneak the ring box out of there without her knowing. "You'll have to show me sometime. Perhaps there's a room for my things nearby."

[first_in_time]

"I'd say there is. It's a corridor full of doors with names." She stared at the books a moment longer before standing up, like she was determined to do something else for a while. "Let's go and look. I've had enough of these wretched records for the time being anyway."

Barbara bent to tidy the table a little before leaving. The books still open were closed and stacked neatly, the scrolls closed and lined up, and the data pad things switched off. She then picked up the teapot and her little cup so that they wouldn't be left behind and the TARDIS wouldn't kick up a stink over the missing things.

[splendid_roman]

"All right." Ian put the chair back and went with her to the TARDIS. "Do you have a key?" He'd tried the door once or twice when he'd been in the hangar, but it had always been locked. He could have asked the Doctor for a key, he supposed, but he'd never had need to go into the TARDIS.

[first_in_time]

"Of course." The teapot and cup were passed to Ian so that she could pull out a little silver key from her pocket. A long loop of twine gave the option of hanging the key around her neck but Barbara found that it scratched, and the loop was so long that even as she slipped the key into the lock, the end of the twine was still in her pocket.

She held the door open for her friend to come through and shut it after him, then led him up a small set of stairs, over the glass floor (which she glanced distastefully at; a developed automatic response), and into a corridor which not only housed the wardrobe room, but also the old companion rooms.

[splendid_roman]

Ian missed the look at the glass floor, not that it mattered because he couldn't see anything wrong with it. It certainly made the room look bigger. "I haven't been down here before," he said, when Barbara led him down the corridor. He looked at the doors on either side of it and saw the one with Barbara's name on it. "Ah, here's yours." He stopped in front of it. "I can tell you if I recognise what's in it, if you like."

[first_in_time]

"We can do that," she smiled and opened the door.

The room - entirely clean and immaculate - looked lived in, even though Barbara had only been there for a short while. There was a small dip in the pillow where she slept, two pairs of shoes sat outside of the wardrobe, beside the bottom of the bed, and not one speck of dust rested on any surface.

She opened the wardrobe and pulled out the robes Nero would have made her wear in the Roman palace, the outfit as given to her by Saladin and a few bits and pieces picked up from various places, including the photograph with the strange woman and the little ring box. Everything was laid out over the bed, bar the ring box. It was small enough to get lost among all the things on the bed, so she kept tight hold of it.

"Do you recognise all of this?" she asked Ian, taking the teapot and cup from Ian to put out of the way.

[splendid_roman]

He nodded. "I do." At least her holding the ring box meant he could ignore that and concentrate on the things on the bed. "That you wore in Rome," he said, pointing to the robes, "that was during the Crusades." He picked up the photo. "That's Vicki with us." He remembered it being taken and he wondered where she was now. Was she sleeping in one of the pods?

"Is this where you're sleeping now?"

[first_in_time]

It did seem a little unfair that Ian should remember these things she didn't. "I would love to have visited Rome. What was it like? And the Crusades, what were they like? Knowing the Doctor you probably landed in the middle of it all and were nearly killed."

Barbara nodded at his question, "it's a lot more comfortable than where I was before and I have an entire room to myself." Ian most likely had a room to himself, too but he also had a room to himself on board the TARDIS while Barbara shared with Susan. Not that it bothered her terribly, but it was nice to have the space when she wanted it.

[splendid_roman]

"Yes, we did." It was still too recent to make light of yet. "We didn't spend much time in Rome. We spend most of the time having a relaxing holiday in a villa outside Rome." He smiled. "It was nice to just laze around drinking wine and eating grapes."

[first_in_time]

"A holiday?" Barbara scoffed in surprise but there was still a delighted smile upon her face. "I can't imagine you being the one to laze around. Weren't you out fighting in the arena and wrestling lions, or rescuing just about anyone including the Doctor?"

"And what about this?" she asked and held out the little ring box before she forgot about it. "Where was this from? Did we go looking for diamonds in Africa or join in on the Gold Rush?"

[splendid_roman]

He could tell her the truth about what happened in Rome, but what would be the point? No one else even knew they'd gone there, so there was no one to dispute anything he said. "No, I just rested and we all had a nice time and got to dress up in nice clothes."

He shook his head at her question about the ring box. "No, it was just a market on a peaceful planet. No one trying to kill us for once." He smiled. "We all went shopping."

[first_in_time]

"You had a 'nice time' and got dressed up in 'nice clothes'?" her eyebrows arched judgingly, "Ian, that doesn't sound like you."

The little ring box stayed in her hand as her other came up to cover it, like she was keeping it safe. She had no idea why she would buy a ring of all things. There was an element of elegance in wearing rings but it wasn't something Barbara did. The most jewellery she wore on board the TARDIS was her watch, the one she arrived with. It was quite peculiar.

[splendid_roman]

He shrugged. "That was what happened. Perhaps we just all needed a rest. it was nice not to have to go anywhere and not to have to worry about anyone trying to kill us." There was only so much he could do if she didn't believe him because it was true, up to the point where they got captured. "Ask the Doctor, he'll tell you that we were lazy and just lay around all day." He said this last a little defensively.

[first_in_time]

"Alright," by Ian's tone, Barbara best thought to drop the subject. "Let's see if we can find your room and if you can recognise everything inside."

[splendid_roman]

He nodded. "All right." He lingered in her room trying to look like she should lead the way, but actually waiting to see what she was going to do with the ring box. He wanted to know if she'd looked inside, but if he asked that would just guarantee that she looked.

[first_in_time]

Barbara waited to see what Ian was doing, and when he didn't move, she gave him a funny look and stepped back out into the corridor. The ring box was still clutched in her hand, too precious to put down just yet.

"I think I saw your door nearby," because the corridor was long. "Here!" she said triumphantly, tapping the nameplate which was drilled into the surface, and waited excitedly for Ian. It was his room, he should do the honours of opening the door.

[splendid_roman]

He opened the door to a room that looked a lot like Barbara's. If it hadn't had a bed in it he would have called it a cupboard, albeit a big one. It also had a wardrobe and when Ian opened it he found the clothes he'd worn at various times: the Chinese shirt he'd worn during the trip with Marco Polo, the toga he'd worn in Roman times and what looked like the remains of his Coal Hill school tie. He wasn't even sure how that had got here.

"I had no idea he'd kept all this lot here."

[first_in_time]

"I remember this!" Barbara said brightly and pulled out his Aztec weapon, holding it gently in both hands. "Imagine if you took it to the British Museum, they'd probably have a fit!"

[splendid_roman]

He chuckled, looking at it. "It would be far too new."

He looked around at the table by the bed, which held a couple of books and the empty wine container that he'd swiped from the Roman villa. "I don't need any of this stuff."

[first_in_time]

"Good thing it's here and not cluttering up your house, isn't it?" she smiled and dug opened the wardrobe more to dig further into it.

"I don't recognise half the things in here," her voice was a little muffled from being in amongst the clothing. "What's this?" she pulled out a hat and placed it backwards on his head, at a fetching angle. "When did you visit the 17th century? Did you rub shoulders with king James or Guy Fawkes?" Barbara chuckled and ducked back into the wardrobe.