It's better than playing the blues (OPEN)

[Adagio Beckett]

Adagio huffed as she walked away from the blazing lights and the many people present at the wedding of a rather uppity and annoying colleague.

Adagio Beckett, teacher extraordinaire, had been working at Cardiff University for over a year to date, and she had loved every moment of it. Her life had been normal until she met a Captain John Hart, and from then on it had never been the same. A lot of people would have hated him for opening their eyes in the way John had, but Adagio could do nothing but love him for it. The only downside though, was that everyday life now seemed kind of boring at times.

Sighing as she pushed a rose bush tendril out of her way, Adagio looked down at her flowing dress and wondered how much longer she might have to stay. The only reason she had attended the wedding and the subsequent party was because she had been hired to play jazz and blues piano. Sure, she was an English teacher, but when school was out she made a little extra money playing gigs for weddings and other little events.

"If I have to hear that woman speak for much longer I might kill her."

For the past hour the mother of the bride had been asking numerous questions about the piano and then giving scathing remarks on the fact that she was a TEACHER not an actual MUSICIAN. As far as she was concerned, if the woman cared that much she should have told her daughter to hire someone else in the first place.

"Where's John when you need him? I need some excitement."

Just mentioning the man made her smile, and suddenly Adagio thought how nice it might be to go on an adventure to another world again. It would sure beat playing the piano for some annoying wedding party.

[The First Doctor]

The song was supposed to be "When You Say Nothing At All", played in a sentimental style and intended for a slow, romantic dance. It should have been played by a woman on a baby grand piano, backed up by a husband and wife on acoustic guitar and bass, and by a man on the saxophone, all four from the Cardiff University Music Department.

That was before the sax player got sick, and they had to pick up a replacement fast. He was good, but he kept working little improvisational riffs into the songs.

That was also before Adagio - and nobody blamed her for this in the slightest - had to take a break before she punched the mother of the bride.

Now, "When You Say Nothing At All" was mutating out of the control of the husband and wife guitar team. The new guy on the sax - Robin Goodfellow, he called himself in what was obviously a stage name - into a smoky (and highly suggestive) jazz number.

The newlyweds hardly seemed to mind. Nobody else on the dance floor was objecting either.

The mother of the bride was furious. As the song wound its way to the end, the sax player wringing extra improvisational material out of the last few bars, she stormed towards the stage. "What was that?" she demanded.

The guitarists started to stammer an apology, but the sax player held up a hand for silence. He peered at the mother of the bride over his sunglasses, and smiled a lazy smile. "Passion, madame. That was passion, distilled into music."

"That is not how that song is performed!"

The sax player lifted an eyebrow. "Really? It seems to me that it was just performed that way, and quite successfully."

"I have a Doctorate in Music Theory, you impudent-"

"And I have passion."

"What does that have to do with-"

He looked startled. "Maybe, if you'd actually experienced passion, you'd understand."

She began to sputter, enraged.

"Now, why don't you go back to your dry theory and let those of us who understand music get back to entertaining your guests?"

A few minutes later, having been escorted by two very serious looking men (and, it must be said, to the general distress of the guests), Robin and his saxophone were sitting outside the hall. "And don't think you're going to get paid for this, you impudent wretch!" the mother of the bride practically shrieked.

Robin's only response was a grin, as the door was slammed in his face.

[Adagio Beckett]

For all her wishing and general calling out in desperation, Adagio was sad to make her way back towards the reception hall without finding John. Hell in the form of one crusty old lady was waiting for her, and she was glad that it had not slipped out to the devil incarnate that she was an English Professor not a music one. God only knew what kind of fit she would throw if she knew that.

Pulling the hem of her dress out of the clutches of a rather gorgeous thistle, Adagio made her way back down the little path to finish the job she wished she had never started. She had just started humming a bit of an opera when she looked up and spotted the saxophone player standing outside the venue looking quite pleased with himself.

"Oh god, whats happened?"

That cheeky grin could mean nothing good as far as Adagio was concerned, and she hoped she had not missed anything too funny. Say, for instance, him punching the mother of the bride in the mouth.

She still had a bit of time for her break, so Adagio stood before the sax player curiously waiting to see what kind of hell fest she would have to face when she got back inside.

[The First Doctor]

"Oh god, whats happened?"

Robin smiled a quirky little smile as Adagio approached him. "Nothing too serious, I'm afraid. A matter of artistic differences between myself and the mother of the bride." He polished an imaginary spot of tarnish from the neck of the sax.

"The difference being, of course, that I was the artist in the conversation. One thing led to another, and I found myself rather unceremoniously asked to leave."

He examined the instrument with a careful eye, then looked up at Adagio. "Sorry I won't be there for the rest of the gig," he said seriously. "Can I make it up to you? Dinner, maybe? Or maybe just coffee, after your final set?"

[Adagio Beckett]

Listening to Robin speak Adagio had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. Sure, he had not punched the lady flat out like she was hoping for, but he had told her off which made him pretty awesome in her book. That old hag needed to learn to let people do their job.

When Robin turned serious and apologized Adagio simply shrugged. The situation could not be helped now, and at a look at her watch Adagio found that they only had to play for another thirty minutes or so.

"No matter, the final few songs can be played simply with piano and bass anyways."

When he asked if he could make it up to her with dinner or even coffee Adagio blushed slightly. She could be flirty, but she was not used to someone approaching her.

"Maybe not dinner, but drinks sound nice. I'm a tea person myself."

Adagio had never understood coffee really. It just made her feel shaky and weird so she tended to stay away from it. That revelation usually surprised her colleagues, but she simply explained that she was used to strange hours so it never really bothered her.

[The First Doctor]

She laughed at his explanation, and accepted his apologies. Both are good signs, he thought.

"Maybe not dinner, but drinks sound nice. I'm a tea person myself."

"Tea?" he frowned in thought for a moment. "Sure. I know a good place. Finish up your set. I'll just go ahead and play along."

[The 11th Doctor]

The Doctor was fiddling with his TARDIS. There had been strange noises coming from the engine rooms, and he'd been working on it. The Doctor came back into the main room of his TARDIS. "Come on, sexy. Why won't you work?" The Doctor sighed, and then walked around to the side of the TARDIS control panel. "Let's take a little visit to Tarvkos IV. I hear the Tyurfigans have developed spacewave technology. The Doctor raced around the control panel of his TARDIS. pulling levers and pushing buttons.

The TARDIS shook wildly, shaking the Doctor to the ground, and made a loud whirring sound. A blue light flashed, and then...all was quiet. The Doctor picked himself up. "OK. It's never done that before, has it? First time for everything." He said as he strode towards the door. He pushed open the doors. "OK. This is not Tarvkos, unless they've done some remodeling, and decided to change the atmosphere, which is highly unlikely."

The Doctor looked around him, then took a deep sniff. "Earth. Twenty-first century, Spring, 23rd of April."

A man and a woman were standing near the TARDIS.

"Hello. I'm...Doctor Gallifrey. But you can call me The Doctor. Who are you? Are you honeymooners? I knew a pair of honeymooners once. The Ponds, I think. Or is it the other way around? If it is, then they're The Williams. If not, forget everything I said, except for the part about my name. Names are important. Without a name you'd be nobody"

The Doctor smiled.

[The First Doctor]

And then he heard it. A distinctive whirring, grinding sound, accompanied by a flashing blue light and a gust of displaced air. Pushing his sunglasses up on his forehead, he massaged the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. "The visible universe is 37 billion light years in diameter right now," he muttered. "How do we keep running into each other?"

"Hello. I'm...Doctor Gallifrey. But you can call me The Doctor."

Robin sighed again, irritably. Yep, it was definitely him.

"Who are you? Are you honeymooners? I knew a pair of honeymooners once. The Ponds, I think. Or is it the other way around? If it is, then they're The Williams. If not, forget everything I said, except for the part about my name. Names are important. Without a name you'd be nobody"

The Doctor smiled.

Robin did not. Instead, he made quick little "shooing" gestures with his left hand - the one that should be out of Adagio's line of sight.

[Adagio Beckett]

Adagio was about to smile and reply in the positive to what Robin said to her when she suddenly heard a commotion coming from behind her. The wind picked up making her skirt flow up showing her knees before she could catch it, and a leaf hit her square in the face.

After a rather interesting 'vworp vworp' sound Adagio turned around to see a man come out of a blue box. He was rather cute, Adagio could not deny that, but his quick talk caught her by surprise.

It was obvious to her that this man was not of her world, and Adagio was instantly curious. On her adventure with John she had seen aliens before, but she had not really seen any alien that looked so...Human.

"Well uh, Doctor Gallifrey."

Adagio was having a bit of a problem deciphering what the man before her had said he had talked so fast.

"We're not honeymooners, we're musicians. Well, honestly, I'm an English Professor, but that's neither here nor there..."

Without really thinking Adagio stepped a little closer to the odd man and fixed his bowtie.

"Curiouser and curiouser..."

Stepping back and standing closer to Robin, Adagio wondered what to say. She was not usually one without words, but at the moment she found herself stumped.

[The First Doctor]

Behind her back, Robin was mouthing "Go away!" in exaggerated pantomime, followed by "five minutes!".

He had a sinking feeling it wasn't going to work.

[The 11th Doctor]

The Doctor's eyes widened as he recognized the man pantomiming for him to go away.

The Meddler.

"Ah. Thanks for fixing my bowtie, and, medddleristhatreallyyou?ican'tbeliveyou'restillalive,andwhydoyouwantmetoleavesofast?"* Said The Doctor, rushing his words. "I'm Doctor Gallifrey. From...Britan." He said to Adagio. The Doctor smiled, then darted behind her, and turned to the Meddler. "Now, what were you saying?"

The Doctor smiled slightly. "Oh, and do you have a Fez? I wear fezzes now. Fezzes are cool."

*(OOC: Meddler, is that really you? I can't believe you're still alive, and why do you want me to leave so fast?)

[Adagio Beckett]

"Not a problem..."

Looking at this Doctor fellow Adagio was surprised to see the look of recognition cross his face when he saw Robin. Instead of keeping at a normal speed, he quickened his speech pattern and Adagio could only barely understand a bit of what he was saying.

Turning to look at the two men before her, Adagio backed away from them both and put her hands on her hips in a way that only a female could. It was her, 'things need to be explained' pose.

"Well, would someone like to fill me in on the story of how Sir Space Doctor knows Robin? Oh, and please don't insult me by acting like at least one of you did not come from another world, I happen to know a time and space traveler myself."

This whole situation was turning strange, and though Adagio had no problem with it, she'd prefer not to be left out of the loop for too long.

[The 11th Doctor]

The Doctor froze. "You know a Time and space traveler? Then I'm sorry for the pretense. I'm The Doctor, plain and simple. I'm from Gallifrey. I'm a Time Lord, one of the last, including the Meddler here. And that is my TARDIS, or Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's complicated. Makes things go all Timey-Wimey. And I'm still waiting for an answer on that fez. By the way, what year were you born? 1984? Now THERE was a good year. Except for that whole thing with the Daleks...ugly little blokes, those Kaleds."

[Jenny]

Jenny was doing what she seemed to be doing a lot of lately; walking the streets of every town, city, and village that she came across and today was no different. It was a nice day, the perfect day to be out in the sunlight and fresh air. Jenny thought that she would never get use to such large, wide open spaces. No roof, no narrow corridors, no silence like there was in the dead of space.

Life here was plentiful and fabulous. Jenny thought it brilliant. As she walked she came upon an area that contained a rather large building. People came and went from the place in what Jenny could only refer to as fancy clothing. Many of the people were bedecked with at least one flower and the people seemed to be in a rather good mood. Jenny figured that something within the building held something of great interest and was cause for celebration.

Jenny stopped briefly and watched the people. A young woman and two men were engaged in a conversation near a large blue box. They seemed very animated in their conversation, especially one of the men.

She slowly made her way up to them and smiled, and was about to ask them what’s going on in. But before she got the opportunity one of the men said he was The Doctor and that he was from Gallifrey. She looked at him closely and decided that he looked nothing like The Doctor and the man was obviously lying, “You don’t look anything like The Doctor,” she said as she started to turn away and carry on with her explorationistic walk.

[The 11th Doctor]

"Ah, but I am." Said The Doctor, spinning around, not fazed at the coming of a new person. "I am the Doctor, from Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous. I am in my eleventh reincarnation, and I can't tell you how happy I am to see you again, "Daughter" . How did you survive, by the way? Oh, and do you have a Fez? Fezzes are cool."