A Proper Wedding (Part 2)

Suddenly the Tyler house was aflutter with wedding plans. Jackie and Rose bent over books full of color samples and venues, putting post-its (stolen from the Doctor’s never ending supply) on things they wanted to replicate or details they gushed over. Cakes were tasted, caterers were scrutinized, invitations sent to everybody and their cousin.  Pete took Tony and the Doctor to get proper tuxedos (the Doctor initially argued that his blue suit would do just fine, but Jackie practically had a heart attack about it, screeching that it would clash with the color scheme of the wedding), while Rose took her mother with her to look at dresses.
Tony was given the duty of ring bearer, which he took with the upmost of seriousness. After his assignment to the position, he was often found with his bed pillow held ahead of him, walking slowly and deliberately up and down the halls. The rings themselves the Doctor said he would take care of, retreating again to his TARDIS at any opportunity. Rose decided to follow him one night, to check on his progress.
The TARDIS hadn’t grown a proper chameleon circuit yet, and looked more like a large pillar of coral than the blue police box she was so accustomed to. This proved to be a problem, as she couldn’t seem to find the door. Eventually she settled on just knocking on the side of the thing and hoping for the best. As she waited, she looked up at the pillar and wondered if he’d program it to mimic the old shape again.
There was a muffled crash and yipe from within, and a few moments later a frazzled-looking Doctor swung open the door (which had suddenly appeared moments before it was flung inwards) and grinned madly at her.
“Hello! Sorry about that, was working with the neuron-calibration unit, I wasn’t expecting company,” he said cheerily. “Want to come see how she’s growing?”
He swung open the door further, not needing to hear her answer to know it. She stepped inside, examining the main room. It seemed smaller than the old one – white, with circles cut into the paneled walls. The hexagonal, silver console had a center piece that was enclosed by what looked like glass, and was rather short and square compared to the towering cylinders she was used to.
“It looks so different,” she said, running a hand over the edge of the console fondly.
“Aah, this is just the default setting. Once she gets closer to full maturity I can change the desktop theme; make it look like how you remember it. Or I could even change it up a bit – there are hundreds of possible configurations.”
“I like the orange,” she said, more than a hint of nostalgia in her voice.
He nodded, smiling and slipping his hand into hers. “It’s more us.”
“Definitely more us,” agreed Rose, matching his grin. “How goes ring synthesization?”
His grin somehow grew in a way it seemed only his could. “Oh, simply brilliant! You don’t mind if they’re not a surprise for the ceremony, do you?”
“Not at all, bring them out!” She agreed partially for her own curiosity, but mostly because he was just so excited about it. He ran off down a corridor, and she leaned against the console, waiting for him. Eventually she turned around, examining the new set of controls and trying to pick out which did what. A few looked similar, but there were several that she couldn’t find, and several others she didn’t recognize. The Doctor would have to give her a crash course when he got the chance. As a matter of fact, she kind of wanted to explore the TARDIS in its ‘default’ form. Exploration in mind, she wandered off towards the corridor the Doctor had disappeared down.
The corridor ended in what must have been the wardrobe the Doctor had talked about. Clothes from all eras and planets were stuffed in rows, and ladders led up and down to more levels. Peeking trough racks of Hawaiian shirts and sweatervests, she realized the Doctor must be on another level. She was sure she’d find him eventually if she explored. She chose to climb down the ladder to start.
Here seemed to be all the fancier clothes. Puffy dresses and fitted suits adorned the walls, along with gorgeous accessories from all sorts of cultures. She ran her fingers down a sky blue Victorian era ball gown when her eye caught on two prominently displayed pieces in the center of the room. They were hanging seemingly from thin air (upon closer inspection, she saw cleverly hidden metal supports that snaked up from the floor to hold them) and separated from the other things on racks around the edges of the room. Both made of a gorgeous scarlet material with gold details, the first was a sweeping cloak that seemed to radiate power and dignity. The second was one of the most gorgeous dresses Rose had ever seen- a high, curving collar that she imagined would frame the face of the wearer perfectly; sleeveless, but with interesting gold wrist cufflets that were connected to the main dress by a billowing arrangement of an airy, transparent fabric; a cut out back, lined in a twisting golden design similar to a figure 8. The whole dress and cape were draped in golden fibers – from some of the lowest of which hung pendants with shapes Rose didn’t recognize.
As she was staring in awestruck wonder at the garments, the Doctor poked his head up from the level below. He saw her first and grinned up at her, and noticing her fixation, he followed her line of sight to see the suspended clothes. His face immediately flushed red as he scrambled up the ladder.
“I found the rings! Sorry, I got a bit lost, but I’m all good and found now so let’s head back to the console room-“ he spoke quickly, wrapping an arm around her waist and trying to steer her back towards the ladder.
“What are they?” she asked, wonder in her voice.
“Clothes, just clothes like the rest of them. There’re an awful lot of clothes in here, aren’t there? In fact, I found an entire room just dedicated to bedslippers. Let’s go see that room, shall we?” tried the Doctor desperately.
Rose broke away, stepping towards the garments, much to the Doctor’s distress. “Yeah, but they’re set out away from everything else, so they must be special. Besides, they’re simply gorgeous…” she ran a finger along one of the golden trims of the cape, noticing the overlapping pattern of circles engraved into the design. “This… this is Gallifreyan, isn’t it?”
Sighing in defeat, the Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets, shuffling up beside her. “Yes. They’re traditional Gallifreyan.”
“What were they used for? Don’t tell me your people would walk around daily in things this posh.”
“They’re Gallifreyan Wedding Robes.”
Rose stopped. The Doctor sighed, smiling wryly.
“The TARDIS stocks the Wardrobe partially through the psychic connection to its passengers. It picks up taste, style, size, all that. It must have… picked up that we were getting married, and made these.”
Rose looked from the Doctor to the robes and back again. “So, the TARDIS wants to help with the wedding plans?”
With a fond smile that was only half because of a laugh, he strode forward, running his fingertips over the heavy yet feather-soft fabric of the cape. “She was adamant about making the rings herself, at least. Figures she’d want to lend a hand in other ways.”
She watched his face, noticing the tiny hint of nostalgia and sadness beneath his smile. “The entire affair on Gallifrey was a bit ridiculous. I told you how vain Timelords are?” he motioned to the figure-8 open back of the dress. “The seal of Rassilon. It had to be incorporated in the ceremony somehow, for the glory of the magnificent Timelord race.” The last part was said with humorous sarcasm, but he couldn’t hide the fondness beneath. Rose wondered just how much he missed his home. There were so many things that went unsaid with him, especially about his home planet. It was difficult for him – he had survivors guilt, she could tell. But not only that… He’d told her once that he’d been the cause. He had been the one to condemn his planet to death, for the sake of the universe itself. How he could cope with that fact daily was beyond Rose’s comprehension.
He shook his head, pulling his hand away. “Ah, que sera sera. Let’s get back to the main room.”
Rose complied, looking back more than once on her way out, still soaking in the sight of the garments. She desperately wanted to ask more about the specifications of a Gallifreyan Wedding ceremony, but the Doctor’s demeanor was being pretty clear that he didn’t want to talk about it.
Besides, she had one other idea of where else she could go for the information she needed.
He spun as they got to the console room, resting against the hexagonal control panel as he faced his fiancé. As she approached, he pulled a black box out of his pocket, holding it tenderly. She grinned, putting herself beside him and leaning into him. One of her hands found itself around his waist naturally, and she fell into his shape like they were two pieces of a puzzle. She felt him shift his weight so that he was partially leaning into her, as well.
He flipped open the box in his hands, showing her two golden bands. One was broader, for him. The other was actually split in half lengthwise. She looked at him curiously.
“It’s made from a special type of metal from the Quasi-Quadrant. When it touches your engagement ring,” the Doctor motioned to the vine-wrapped design on her ring finger, “It will begin to meld together. That way, you’re keeping the same ring, but it’s… better. Kind of like the shift from engagement into marriage in the human custom. I’d show you how it works, but it’ll stick pretty quickly, and there’s not a way to reverse the process. Also- it will take maybe a week or two to bind completely. I slowed down the assimilation reaction so it won’t produce as much heat, that way you can wear it right away. It might be a bit warm, but it shouldn’t hurt.”
She plucked the two halves of her ring from the box, examining them without letting them touch. A few lines engraved into the inside of the ring caught her eyes.
“What’s that?” she pointed it out to her fiancé.
“Ah, that’s circular Gallifreyan,” answered the Doctor.
“What’s it say?”
He grinned impishly, kissing her temple. “I’ll tell you after we’re married.”
She tried to scowl, but ended up smiling through her distain. “But how do I know it doesn’t say something like ‘big stupid ape’ or something?”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me,” he grinned, moving the ringbox to the other hand so he could slip his hand into hers. “You do trust me, don’t you?”
“With my life,” she answered, not bothering to hesitate.
“Then trust me with this. It’ll be a surprise.”
She grinned, hoping that he wouldn’t be the only one with a surprise prepared.


She waited until the Doctor was snoring, then stole away to the TARDIS. Getting back in posed a bit of an issue, seeing as the door had disappeared again. She poked and prodded and pulled at the organic thing, trying to get it to open up. After her umpteenth unsuccessful attempt, she huffed, plopping down on the ground and crossing her arms. It was then that she noticed the warmth emanating from her pocket. She’d grabbed her jacket on her way out, since it was a bit of a nippy night. She reached her hand into her pocket, pulling out a small silver key. Of course – she’d nearly forgotten she had it. She’d slipped it in her jacket pocket, the same one she’d worn when she’d jumped the void to get back to the Earth where the Doctor was. The key was glowing with a golden aura, and seemingly in response to its presence, the TARDIS warped, forming a keyhole in its surface. Rose eagerly jammed the key into the hole, and a door appeared and opened. A small noise of glee escaped her as she pushed open the newly formed portal into the spaceship.
It hummed in greeting as she entered. She grinned, turning off towards the Wardrobe. It took some effort, but eventually she got the dress and cape into the main console room, panting from the effort of hauling them up the ladder and through the corridor. She located a screen on the console, faced it, and motioned towards the garments.
“Alright, I know you can communicate telepathically or pick up my brain waves or… something the Doctor would know,” Rose flinched. Really getting off to a great start, here… “Anyway, I need you to tell me how a Gallifreyan Wedding works.”
The screen buzzed to life, emitting a non-welcoming noise and flashing red with black circular figures like the ones on the rings and the cape.
“Oi, don’t be difficult, I’m just asking a question!” defended the girl.
The screen made the same unwelcoming noise, the display not changing.
She put her hands on her hips. “Alright then, let’s try this. You were made from the old TARDIS – the other universe’s TARDIS, right?”
The words disappeared, and the screen turned a neutral blue. She got the inexplicable feeling that it was listening closely.
“Then you remember me. You remember exactly what I’m willing to do to get what I want. I’m still the Bad Wolf. If you won’t tell me, I won’t think twice about pulling your console open to find out, got it?”
The screen, for a moment, didn’t change. Rose took a step towards it threateningly, and suddenly it chimed, turning green as lines of the circular language flashed across the screen. Relaxing physically and offering the console a lopsided grin and a ‘thank you,’ she approached the screen, looking at the figures in confusion.
“Can you translate this? I don’t read Gallifreyan,” she tried. The screen turned red again, different information scrolling across that she didn’t understand. She suddenly remembered how the cape didn’t translate, nor did the rings. Her memory also brought to light the screens in the old TARDIS, and the random post-its with the circular figures that the Doctor would stick on various bits of his magnificent machine, and how none of them had ever translated.
“’Course,” she sighed. “It doesn’t translate because a Timelord doesn’t need it to. That’s brilliant.” Rose crossed her arms, trying to think of another solution to her problem. Then she leaned forward, bracing her arms on the edge of the console. “Okay, let’s try this – do you have any sort of visual mode? Pictures, videos, diagrams that I would-?” before her sentence was finished, the screen was already pulling up images of a woman in a similar red dress to the one that sat on the console room floor, walking up an isle to meet a man in a high-collared cape. And when she said high-collared, she meant it. The thing fanned out around his head like a peacock tail made of one solid piece of red material. There was something inexplicably different about the woman’s dress, but Rose couldn’t put her finger on it. As she approached, she reached for her partner, helping him remove his robe, which was then taken by who was probably the equivalent of the best man. Then she reached for her neck, unfastening a clasp and removing the collarless cape she was wearing over her dress (that was the difference Rose couldn’t make out before). Rose glanced at the red cape at her feet, then back at the screen, recognizing the resemblance. The woman was putting the cape around his shoulders. Two people approached, and from their apparent age and the way the bride reached out to them, she assumed they were her parents. They said something that Rose didn’t quite make out, then returned to their original places.
Then, the screen flashed away from the couple, showing a strip of what looked like a ribbon. It showed a man pulling a hem off of his cape, a woman pulling a strip of it from her hair or around her wrist, and a ribbon placed on the table (altar?). The view went back to the earlier couple, who wrapped this ribbon around their hands, binding them together. The woman leaned forward, whispering something in his ear, and then he did the same. Then they shared a kiss, and their guests started cheering.
“That’s it, then? A Timelord ceremony?” she asked the TARDIS. The screen flashed green.
She nodded. Looked at the garments. Nodded again. Then she looked at the screen, uncertainty stirring in her chest.
“Can you tell me…” she hesitated, closing her eyes and composing herself with a breath. “When the Doctor told me that he wanted to marry me… ‘Properly’… What did he mean?”
She watched the screen closely, absorbing what it was showing her. She looked back at the garments, then at the door behind her, processing. After a moment, she nodded, turning back to the Console.
“I need a favor.”