Chapter Text
“Dr. Smith, we’ll be landing shortly.” Looking up John Smith found his PA, Donna Noble standing by his chair.
“Thank you Donna.” He replied, turning his attention back to the papers in front of him. Donna moved back to her seat where she set about organizing her things in preparation for their landing. Finishing off the last page and making a few quick notes John hastily shoved his work into his own briefcase before settling back in his seat to watch the city of Paris rush up to meet them.
Four months. He told himself. Just four months and he would be free to return to his laboratory outside of London. But first he had to return a favor. When his good friend Sarah Jane Smith had helped him get his start after graduate school John had thought nothing of agreeing to her stipulation that she would be calling in a favor at some point in the future. He was too excited about the new equipment that would allow him to study interstellar travel to really consider much else. Soon after his work had taken off, allowing him to pull in a number of grants, which led to a Nobel Prize in Physics, contracts with the ESA and NASA, and eventually, his own private company, Gallifrey Industries. He was only 34 years old and already considered to be the leading expert on space exploration.
His rapid ascent through the education system had earned him the nickname “Doctor” at a very young age. He had graduated high school at 15, college by 17 and completed his Ph.D. from Cambridge at 21. He was, in his own words, quite brilliant, and was capable of solving any problem put in front of him. Except now, sitting in an airplane on his way to a visiting professor appointment at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie that he couldn’t find a way out of. It didn’t matter that he had almost completely forgotten about his agreement with Sarah from more than a decade ago. She had it in writing, with his bloody signature, so here he was. He had no idea why she wanted him to take this position, she had tried to explain, something about someone needing resources and something to do with a sabbatical and well, he’d pretty much tuned out. All he needed to know was that for the next four months he would be lecturing to a bunch of teenagers instead of making progress on his newest anti-gravity stabilization shield.
Shifting in his seat he felt the wheels of the plane touch the tarmac and soon after the captain came on the speaker system.
“Welcome to Paris Dr. Smith. We’ve arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Your driver will be waiting for you in baggage claim. We appreciate you flying with us today and we hope you have a lovely stay.”
“Yes. Lovely.” He grumbled to himself but no one heard.
Rose settled herself into a chair across the table from her best friend Amy. It had become their ritual to meet here every Wednesday afternoon to catch up since they had first met at a fashion shoot three years before and struck up an instant friendship. Aside from being the only two girls from the UK in their Parisian modeling agency, they also shared a love for 1950’s cinema and chips. They had roomed together for two years until Amy’s boyfriend, Rory had transferred to a nursing school in Paris. By then Rose had enough saved up to get a flat of her own and had gladly taken over her new space, making room for the love struck couple. She’d found a lovely little apartment in the 17e Arrondissement. It was a low profile neighborhood 30 minutes away from popular tourist destinations such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. It housed mostly musicians and artists and she adored it.
“Glad you could make it.” Amy greeted, her Scottish accent giving sass to her sentence. Her long red hair was pulled to the side in a low, casual chignon. She wore a boat neck black sweater with gold button accents on the left collar, white skinny jeans and flat black ankle boots. A bright red scarf tied across her hips as a belt was her only accessory.
“Sorry. Shoot ran a bit late today. Reinette kept insisting on retakes.” Rose explained, giving her order “Une café noisette s'il vous plait” to the waiter. She was wearing a pair of navy twill shorts, nude espadrilles that wrapped around her ankles, a white tee shirt and a white blazer. Her golden hair still fell in the ringlets it had been coaxed into from her shoot and a pair of golden hoops adorned her ears.
Amy scrunched up her nose at the mention of Reinette and took a sip of her café creme. “Boy am I glad I did not have to work with her. She’s a piece of work. Someday I’m going to figure out how to trip her and make it look like an accident.”
“Amy!” Rose admonished but she was laughing. Truthfully she’d love to see Reinette fall on her face too. Reinette Poisson, the blonde french beauty, was an absolute pain. She was from a rival agency but Rose had found herself working with the woman on a half dozen different occasions. She was four years older than Rose and Amy and had been out in the modeling world for longer. She resented how quickly Rose had shot to top model status and was constantly making rude remarks during shoots.
“What? I can see your brain working. Don’t think I don’t know you were just thinking the same thing.” Amy teased.
Rose gave her friend one of her trademark tongue in teeth smiles as her café was placed in front of her. Taking a deep sip she savored the flavor. It had taken her a while to grow accustomed to the coffee but no one made a pot of tea like her mum, and after she developed a taste for it she’d found she enjoyed the flavor of parisian coffee immensely.
“Okay, I’m bored with Reinette. How’s Rory?” Rose asked and for the next hour the girls chatted about everything they had missed in the past week as they enjoyed the late summer afternoon.
The Doctor looked around the apartment that would be his for the next four months. It was a one bedroom place in the 4e Arrondissement, a short ten minute walk from the University. Donna had taken care of securing and furnishing it with all of the necessities he would need, including food. A large window in the parlor overlooked the Seine and the Doctor could see the sun glinting off the water. Donna had seen him settled then left to attend to her own needs. She was staying in a smaller apartment a few blocks away.
There was still a week before school began. The Doctor had wanted an opportunity to get used to the city and, he still needed to pick up on the language. He had tried to explain to Sarah Jane that he didn’t speak French but she had simply reminded him of the time he had learned fluent Russian in less than a month simply so he could read a textbook. “You’re a genius Doctor. A silly little thing like a language isn’t going to hold you back. Just go find a tutor or something. You’ll figure it out.”
So now he had a week to learn enough of the language to get through his first few lectures. Heaving a deep sigh he scratched the back of his neck and wandered into his bedroom where he spent the next 30 minutes unpacking. He might be a billionaire now but he still preferred to keep things simple. Pack his own bags, cook his own - okay, well, he didn’t exactly cook - but he did order his own food to go. Usually.
By the time he’d put everything away he was feeling tired. He decided he would grab a few bananas from the kitchen, take a hot shower and go to bed. There would be time to learn the language, and the city, in the morning.
Rose looked at the clock, surprised to find it was already 23:00. There had been a time when this would have still been early, when she would have been heading out to the clubs or pulling an all nighter for an exam. But since entering the modeling world she’d had to change a number of her habits, including getting a decent amount of sleep at night.
She scanned through the sketches she’d been working on for the past few hours; two cocktail dresses and a blouse. She thought they were pretty good but what did she know? She’d moved to Paris four years ago intent on studying fashion at l’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. It was one of the best fashion schools in the world and had been her dream since she had discovered her idol, Yves Saint Laurent, had attended. And while the school had accepted her, she had found that living in Paris and paying tuition was more challenging than she’d anticipated. Her mother, Jackie, had enough trouble as it was and Rose couldn’t bring herself to ask for the funds, so she’d started working, struggling to make ends meet and keep up in school. Then she’d gotten lucky. She’d made friends with a regular at the restaurant where she worked. He was always bringing different dates and it became something of a joke between them. His name was Jack Harkness and eventually he revealed that he was a model. He’d picked up on Rose’s situation and said he’d told his boss about her and that his company was interested in bringing her in for a test shoot.
A few weeks later she had her first job and from there things just exploded. She had a natural talent behind the camera as well as on the catwalk, able to draw people in with her enigmatic smile, bright personality, and expressive eyes. Plus she was absolutely stunning. The offers kept rolling in and with it, the money. Soon, Rose didn’t have to worry about her rent, or her tuition. But she also found herself with less and less time to attend class. At first she had seen it has a minor detour, take a few years to do this modeling thing, save up enough money, and then go back to school. But this past spring she had signed on for another 3 years. The money had been good, very good in fact. Good enough that she was able to get her mother a decent flat in London and take care of her in the way that she deserved. It felt like a waste to turn down the opportunity. But she missed her fashion school and at times felt a bit like she’d become a sell out. She’d only really attended for a year and a half before dropping out. Now she could only draw in her free time, taking her lessons from the streets around her, the experiences she had during her shoots, and what she could find at the library.
Setting her sketchbook aside she made sure her alarm was set before turning off the lights and snuggling into her bed. She had an early shoot in the morning and then the afternoon free and she fully intended to spend it outside watching the people and sketching as much as she could.