"Every time." The Doctor mumbled breaking the minute or so of silence. "It's rule one. Don't wander off. I tell them, I do." Rule one. There could be anything on this ship." He groaned seeing that Rose or Mickey was nowhere to be found.

"Like a horse?" Rita suggested.

"What do you mean like a- oh" he said as a white horse trotted its way around the corner in the view of the pair.

"Hello there aren't you pretty"

"well thanks I do- oh" he said seeing Rita walk right past him and to the horse patting it lightly.

"You're very pretty too Doctor" Rita joked giggling a little and rolling her eyes continuing to pat the horse. "Are you lost?" She asked it obviously getting no response.

"We better-" before he could continue Rita climbed on top of the horse sitting on the saddle and giggling a little more. "Nice view up here Doctor, I'm taller than you now"

"Oh you're still shorter than me" he chuckled shaking his head. "Come on then we need to find Rose and Mickey"

Rita let out a sigh and jumped off the horse then walking over to the Doctor, following him once again.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Rose?" The Doctor spoke aloud Rita walking beside him as they tried to find her and Mickey. Rita noticed that the horse was following them and giggled at the sight.

The Doctor noticed what she found so funny and turned around stopping in his tracks, pointing at the horse snapping at it. "Will you stop following her? She's not your mother."

"Oi" Rita hit him lightly. "She has a name thank you very much."

"Right now, she Cheeky" He smirked.

"That's Rita to you, both of you" She pointed at the Doctor raising her brows then at the horse. The Doctor shook his head lightly then noticed a pair of white wooden doors and opened them Rita groaned a little raising a hand over her eyes to shielded them from the light outside.

"So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?" He asked. "Come on cheeky" he gestured to Rita to follow as she shook her head. He quietly walked over to a wall and watched Reinette, Rita soon joined in and leant on the wall next to him.

"Ooo spying on Reinette fun for us" Rita giggled at the Doctor who gave her a playful glare while he tugged her down hiding behind the stone wall.

"It's not spying," he paused thinking of the right words. "More like us making sure she's okay"

"Looks fine to me" Rita peaked up looking over the wall next to the Doctor. She couldn't hear what was being said but remembered it was something about the king from knowing 'the episode' thankfully the Doctor could hear what was being discussed thanks to his 'superior Time Lord DNA' so he calls it. "So what are they saying" He looked at her frowning with his 'well you should know foreknowledge and all' expression. "I can't remember everything I'm not you." She read him like a book then rolled her eyes something she noticed she was now doing a lot. Cheeky? Maybe he was right about the brunette.

"Madame de Chateauroux is dying" He spoke bluntly telling her what she asked to hear. "Someone asked if Reinette loves the King." The Doctor turned pulling Rita down. "Sorry" he whispered. "She turned this way, don't think she saw us" he slowly rose up again looking over the wall Rita joining him. "Ooo theres a ball and madame de pompadour will dance with the King and become his new mistress" Rita wrinkled her nose. "I hate dancing, never have been good at it, neither have you" She laughed quietly. "'Rose! I've just remembered!'" She quoted "'I can dance! I can dance!'" The Doctor scrunched up his face at her. "You know it's really creepy that you remember that stuff and you wasn't even there"

"Still can't dance" She wiggled her finger in front of his face mocking him and making her way back to the door they had exited with the horse still following them.

"Come on Doctor, you too Arthur," she said over her shoulder.

"Arthur?" He questioned catching up and walking beside her.

"Good name for a horse." She shrugged.

"Fair enough" he shrugged back at her. "What do you think about France then?" He asked interested in her opinion.

"It's nice" she tilted her head. "Always wanted to go to Disney Land Paris as a kid. Never did go, no one to take me."

"So you have no family?" He asked for confirmation He knew about Rita never knowing her parents but the rest of her family was as much of a mystery as much of a mystery as how she even got on that Dalek ship.

"Not that are alive or that I know of." she shrugged again as if the subject didn't faze her in the slightest. "My foster mother died when I turned eight-teen, after that the government didn't care if I lived with another adult seeing as I was then one myself."

"Where did you live?" He asked "when you were younger"

"Heard of Bath?" She looked at him. "The place in England not an actual bath." Rita chucked

"Been there before, quite nice."

"I lived there when I moved to London and worked in Tescos the shop after I couldn't find any schools willing to take me as a science teacher." She explained.

"Sounds interesting." He nodded, his eyes lighting up slightly at the mention of science, not that she noticed this. "Why did you move?"

"Bath was boring me, you know like you feel you have to just go out there and explore. I felt like I had to and London was new and far from home, not too far but didn't feel like far enough" He smiled knowing that exact feeling when he left Gallifrey the first time.

"What is far enough?" He asked as they continued to walk Arthur slowly following behind them.

"I don't know. Never found out. I may never know." She shrugged. "How far is far enough for Rita Stone? The unsolved mystery"

"That could be a book" the Doctor smirked.

"Best get writing then" Rita patted his arm.

"Cheeky"

They walked a little further until they both spotted Mickey and Rose watching Reinette and the King though what seemed like a mirror.

"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" Mickey watched the King.

"The King of France." The Doctor informed them startling both of them a little.

"Oh, here's trouble." Rose groaned. "What you two been up to?" She asked crossing her arms.

"Oh, this and that." He tilted his head from left to right. "Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man." Arthur then appeared behind them neighing. "Oh, and we met a horse."

"He also 'almost'" Rita used her hands to make speech marks in the air "snogged Madame de Pompadour"

"Really?" Rose looked at Rita quite shocked. "Why almost?"

"I wasn't expecting it" He cut in.

"I saw it coming the way she was looking at you, oh yes she definitely likes you" Rita shoved the Doctor playfully chuckling to herself. "And I'm not talking about witnessing it right in front of me."

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest before Mickey cut in. "What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" He frowned deep in thought noticing Arthur and bringing back a dead conversation.

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship?" The Doctor questioned. Not getting a reply he answered his own question. "Get a little perspective." He shook his head. "See these?" He pointed to what looked like a window allowing the four to see France. "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history."

"Wait for it" Rita held up a finger pausing. "Now" she clicked her fingers and Reinette walked in the room.

"Hers. Nice timing by the way" He nodded at Rita who smugly smiled. "Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"

"Not even I know" Rita admitted watching Reinette move over to the mirror.

"Who is she?" Rose asked.

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived."

"Soon to be Madame de Pompadour" Rita added.

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?"

"No, he's already got a Queen." The Doctor nodded over to the King. "She's got plans of being his mistress."

"Oh, I get it." Rose now understood. "Camilla."

"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball."

"Correct" Rita nodded at his good guess.

"In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Like Rita said, Madame de Pompadour"

"The Queen must have loved her." Rose breathed out.

"Oh, she did. They get on very well." The Doctor nodded at her.

"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey said like it was foreign which it ironically was but for the year? Nothing strange about it.

"France. It's a different planet."

"For you quite literally" Rita smiled up at him as he watched Reinette. "Oh, I almost forgot" Rita turned to Mickey. "Can I borrow that? Well, can he?" She pointed her thumb at the Doctor. Mickey nodded throwing the fire extinguisher to him.

The Doctor raised a brow at the brunette who shook her head at him. "Secrets" was all Rita said before Reinette turned around to a woman standing away with her back to her in the corner of the room.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked then harshened her tone demanding the figure now. "Show yourself!"

"Come on fireplace man" Rita pulled the Doctor he flicked a switch and the mirror switched. They both jumped, though.

"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?"

"Reinette" Rita nodded at the woman.

"Fireplace people!" She shouted shocked and in joy.

"You should step away from that" Rita suggested. Reinette stepped back towards the brunette not asking any questions while the Doctor sprayed the droid throwing the extinguisher over to Mickey. "Thank you, Mickey" Rita thanked him. The droid then began to creek.

"What's it doing?" Mickey asked.

"Switching back on. Melting the ice." He replied not taking his eyes off the droid. He stepped closer to Rita a little then a little forward as if he was trying to protect her without her noticing.

"I can see what your doing Doctor" she rolled her eyes. "Not an idiot you know"

"Oh, I know that." He tilted his head. "Worth a try, though" she pursued her lips nodding. The brunette had to give him that one always good to have a try.

"And then what?" Mickey asked. 'Are always going to bring back dead conversation?' Rita thought in her head.

"Then it kills everyone in the room." He said bluntly. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it? Who are you?" He questioned it then asked another. "Identify yourself." He huffed a little and turned to Reinette standing on the other side of Rita. "Order it to answer me."

"Why should it listen to me?" A confused Reinette asked the Doctor then looked at Rita for an answer.

He told her truthfully after she didn't see his gaze while she watched the clockwork droid. "I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it."

Reinette breathed in deeply and turned to the droid. "Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you."

"I am repair droid seven." It finally answered.

"What happened to the ship, then? There was a lot of damage."

"Ion storm." It told him. "Eighty-two percent systems failure."

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"

"We did not have the parts." It simply replied.

"Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts." Mickey chipped in.

"What's happened to the crew? Where are they?"

"Doctor" Rita muttered.

"We did not have the parts." It repeated.

The Doctor didn't hear his brunette friend and persisted with the question slightly altering it to see if the droid would answer. "There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?"

"We did not have the parts." It repeated once more.

"Fifty people don't just disappear. Where-"

"Doctor" Rita now placed a hand on his arm gaining his attention. She looked up at him sadly. "Oh." He breathed not looking away from her studying her face for any other secrets. He then looked over to the droid. "You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew."

"The crew?" Mickey repeated the last two words.

"We found a camera with an eye in it, and there was a heart wired into machinery," Rose told the Doctor her heart sinking a little.

"It was just doing what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu." He looked back at Rose. "What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Someone cooking," Rose said in realisation of what she said.

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque." He then narrowed his eyes to the droid. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead, you come to eighteenth-century France? Why?"

"One more part is required." It told him.

"Then why haven't you taken it?"

The droid snapped it's head in the direction of Rita and Reinette. More specifically Reinette. "She is incomplete."

"What, so, that's the plan, then. Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's done yet."

"Why her? You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically her?" Rose pointed out the obvious question no one else had asked.

"We are the same."

Reinette widened her eyes and fired back horrified with the droids answer. "We are not the same. We are in no sense the same."

"We are the same." It repeated.

"Get out of here." Reinette cried out now terrified. "Get out of here this instant!"

"Reinette, no!" The droid instantly teleported away from them. "It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Get after it. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does."

"Arthur?" Rose frowned confused with what he said.

"Good name for a horse." He looked down at Rita and winked. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly but didn't think anything of it neither did he notice.

"No, you're not keeping the horse." Rose protected.

"I let you keep Mickey. Now go! Go! Go!" He gave her no time to protest any further closing the mirror door behind the two.

"Reinette," he turned to the woman. "You're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for. There's only one way I can do that. It won't hurt a bit." He promised. Rita watched in amazement at what the Doctor was doing as he slowly brought his hands up to the womans temples and closed his eyes.

"Fireplace man, you are inside my mind."

"Oh dear, Reinette. You've had some cowboys in here." He said.

"You are in my memories." Reinette whispered. "You walk among them."

"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it. I won't look. Oh, actually there's a door just there. You might want to cl... Oh, actually, several." Rita giggled a little at this. "Rita hush" he said calmly.

"Sorry" she whispered.

"To walk among the memories of another living soul. Do you ever get used to this?" She asked him.

"I don't make a habit of it."

"How can you resist?" She asked.

"What age are you?" He changed the topic ignoring the question.

"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising. Apologies Fireplace woman" Rita's eyes widened.

"No, not my question," he told her firmly not being fazed by her mentioning of Rita whether he just didn't care about her mentioning or didn't show it was another question in itself. "Theirs. You're twenty-three and for some reason, that means you're not old enough. Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect." He informed her.

"Oh, such a lonely childhood." Reinette sighed.

"Oh no" Rita mumbled through a breath.

"It'll pass. Stay with me."

"Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very alone."

"What do you mean, alone?" He frowned a little. "You've never been alone in your life. When did you start calling me Doctor?"

"Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then and almost as lonely now if it wasn't for her. How can you bear it?"

'Her?' Rita thought. 'Must be talking about Rose. Some things don't play out how they look.' She shrugged it off.

The Doctor removed his hand from her temples. "How did you do that?"

"A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction. Oh, Doctor. My lonely Doctor. Dance with me."

The Doctor widened his eyes. "I can't."

"Quite literally" Rita pipped up then snapped her mouth shut when the Doctor looked over at her mouthing 'not the time'

"Dance with me." She repeated not taking no for an answer.

"This is the night you dance with the King." He told her.

"Then first, I shall make him jealous."

"I can't." He gritted his teeth.

"Doctor. Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it?"

The Doctor and Rita both widened their eyes at the woman. "What did you see?"

"The way you look at her" She smiled at him.

"Who?" He frowned.

"You don't know do you?" She said in realisation. "Hiding it away from yourself unable to see the truth that lies beyond. If you will not dance young Rita shall" she turned to the brunette who frantically shook her head.

"I don't dance" 

"You shall learn" she took the brunette's hand and dragged her away. Rita looked at the Doctor who just stood there frozen trying to understand what Reinette meant by her.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Reinette had Rita given a fine dress to wear. Rita thought otherwise thinking that it was definitely too tight. She pulled the girl into the ballroom and began to 'teach' her to dance.

"You say you are no good yet you look better than me" Reinette commented.

"I'm only copying what you're doing"

"Copying is something people do by using their eyes to see. You have not looked down once" Reinette definitely was good at seeing the small details.

"Why did you make me dance?" Rita finally asked.

"To make him jealous" she smiled a little mischievous.

"Him?" Rita frowned. "Who?"

"Doctor who" Reinette replied.

"Why would it make him jealous?" Rita looked at the woman as if it wasn't obvious enough.

"You will have to see that for yourself when the time is right"

"But what do you mean?" Rita asked again. She noticed Reinette gaze behind the brunette. Out of curiosity, Rita turned around she saw the Doctor leaning against the wall on the other side of the room watching them both.

"So alone without his precious stone" Reinette muttered.

"Excuse me" Rita rose a brow.

"It was in his head" she replied. "Tick tock Rita"

Rita frowned at how much it didn't make sense, she must have been saying something about the droids. "You don't seem scared of the droids at all?"

"They are childhood monsters, nightmares why would one be scared of a child's fear?"

"So you aren't scared at all?"

"Scared doesn't begin to explain it,simple" she told her. "It's my... My apologies" She shook her head.

"For what?"

"For what I did to them years ago, your face" she chuckled.

"My face?" Rita frowned.

"Never mind" Reinette shook her head again then looked back to see the Doctor smiling at the pair. "Go on, you are very good at dancing Rita" she complimented the brunette. "You have to save your friends now don't you"

"How-"

"I could see the worry in your eye. "Go on" she instructed. "Don't say until it is right though" Rita had no idea what the woman was on about. "Your clothes are where you changed before" she whispered to Rita before pushing her in the Doctors direction. She stumbled a little then found her feet.

"Stupid heels" she muttered.

"I thought you hated being shorter than me" the Doctor raised a brow as she walked over. 'Stupid 'superior Time Lord hearing' she thought quoting him

"Oh I do" she walked over to him. "Not enough to kill my feet by wearing heels. Vans are much better"

"Oh come on obviously converse is better"

"Sandshoes" Rita smirked and the Doctor playfully glared at her.

"What were you and Reinette talking about then?" The Doctor then asked looking over at the woman who was watching both him and Rita, she noticed his gaze over to her and nodded at him to say a simple 'hello', she turned around and walked off disappearing into the sea of people in the ball room.

"Oh you know... stuff" she mentally slapped herself at the stupidity of her answer.

"What kind of... stuff?" He smirked mimicking her.

"Now that may just make the universe explode, Doctor" she lied not wanting to tell what they really spoke about.

"Best not then" he agreed.

"We better go now, Rose and Mickey might be in a bit of a situation, I'm going to change first this is literally compressing me to death, feels like Cassandra all over again" she started to walk away then turned back pointing at the Doctor in warning. "Don't you go anywhere TimeLord." He raised his hands before she walked off grinning a little to herself.

This by far is one of my favourite chapters because of the small banter the Doctor and Rita shared as if they had been friends for years. Sorry, it is a little late, completely lost track of time yesterday.