"The Happiest Place on Earth" -- Commentary, Part 2

[earlgreytea68]

Part One can be found here.

 

They rode Pirates of the Caribbean.

“Not like any pirates I’ve ever met,” said the Doctor.

“Have you met pirates?” asked Brem. “Like Bluebeard? Can we meet Bluebeard?”

“We’re not meeting any pirates,” said Rose.

The girls were too small to ride Splash Mountain, but Brem was so keen to go on the ride that the Doctor consented to ride with him while Rose stayed behind with the girls. They sat in the very front, and the girls shrieked with delighted laughter as they watched their father and brother’s log plummet down the drop. The Doctor emerged absolutely soaked and whining about the state of his hair, but he also almost immediately agreed to accompany Brem on the ride again another time.

They rode the Haunted Mansion but her kids were jaded enough not to entirely get it. Rose supposed when you spent most of your time genuinely running for your life, you really didn’t get the point of some fake ghosts swirling around you.

They rode It’s a Small World.

“Not terribly accurate, this,” sniffed the Doctor. “They don’t have a single off-world species in here.”

“What d’you think they’d put to represent Time Lords?” asked Rose, grinning at him, tongue between her teeth.

“A wildly sexy man with great hair,” he suggested, primly, which made her laugh and kiss him, which had been the point of the statement.

It seemed to Rose that they went on every ride in the Magic Kingdom, some of them more than once if Brem had been particularly fond of one, which he was of both Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad being closed, and the Doctor attempting to ignore Brem’s comments that they would have to come back again when it was open). (This ride is closed every time I go to Disney.) At the end of the day, they found a seat on a patch of grass from which they could view the electrical parade. If the kids had been normal, Rose thought they would have been sound asleep by this point. As it was, they were quieter than usual as they sat and watched the parade. Rose snuggled against the Doctor and watched their children, and thought how to anyone passing by they would have looked like a completely normal little family. The fireworks burst over their heads, and she remembered another fireworks display, so many years earlier, when she had thought everything had been perfect and always would be, when she had gotten back Brem and the Doctor had been like a delighted child with his edible ball bearings. (This is a “Fear Her” reference, of course.) She turned in his arms suddenly, startling him, she could tell, and kissed him fervently enough to daze him.

“What was that for?” he murmured, when she drew back.

“No reason,” she lied. Or maybe she was telling the truth.

And the truth is she both lied and told the truth. Because the reason was just that he’s *him,* which is kind of no reason at all.

“Time to go home,” said the Doctor, as the fireworks finale faded in the sky above them.

The kids did not protest, which was evidence that they were actually exhausted. Fortuna rubbed at her eyes and the Doctor picked her up to carry her.

And then, halfway back to the TARDIS, it happened. Athena, whose hand the Doctor had been holding, stopped short with a gasp, and the rest of the family, following her gaze, saw her.

“It’s Cinderella,” whispered Athena.

Fortuna, sleepy in her father’s arms, suddenly seemed wide awake, lifting her head from his shoulder. The girls stared silently at the princess dressed in blue, smiling as she posed for photographs with children.

“I told you she lived here, Daddy,” whispered Fortuna, as if speaking in a louder tone would chase Cinderella away.

“D’you want to go meet her?” the Doctor asked her, and both girls looked at him in amazement at the idea. “Let’s go,” he said, still carrying Fortuna, hand firmly ensconced in Athena’s.

This moment kind of kills me a little bit. He thinks this princess thing is silly. But his girls love it. And he will do anything for his girls.

Rose stood with Brem and watched as Cinderella greeted Fortuna and Athena, who gaped up at her in astonished respect. “What do you think, Brem?” Rose turned to him with a smile. “Want to meet Cinderella?”

Brem laughed.

“Is it the happiest place on Earth?” she asked him.

“I think if you like princesses it is,” he answered, truthfully.

The Doctor and the girls emerged from their meeting with Cinderella, the girls bubbling over with enthusiasm. Cinderella had said hello to them! She’d asked for their names! She’d asked where they were from, and they’d said TARDIS, and she hadn’t known what that was! Rose listened to them indulgently, as she changed them into pyjamas.

“Mum,” Athena reminded her, yawning. “We’re Time Lords. We don’t sleep.”

“Oh, I know,” Rose said, tucking Athena into her bed and smoothing the rumpled curls around her face. “You might sleep for a few minutes tonight, though. Did you have a good time at Disney World?”

“It was so great,” Athena answered, smiling. “Can you tell Dad we loved it?”

“Yeah,” said Rose, and kissed her cheek before moving onto Fortuna. Fortuna was already asleep, curled under her blanket, and Rose kissed the blonde hair that was the only thing about Fortuna that was visible. She checked on Brem, who was in his bedroom steadily journaling , which could have been predicted.

Rose went to her bedroom, where the Doctor had kicked off his Chucks and was sprawled on his back on their bed.

“That was exhausting,” he said.

Rose’s mouth quirked in amusement. “Yeah? Think you’ll sleep a bit tonight?”

“Possibly.”

She kicked off her own trainers gratefully before stretching out beside him on the bed, resting her head against his shoulder. He automatically shifted to accommodate her, bringing his hand up to smooth over her hair. “The girls had the time of their lives. All of the kids did.”

“I’m glad,” he said.

“Did you have fun?”

“Wellllll. I didn’t not have fun. It’s just a bit…silly. We have the most intelligent kids in the universe, and they went all to pieces over some girl in a pretty dress.”

“They’re young girls. A pretty dress means a lot to them.” She was silent for a second. “We should keep them this young always.”

“I wish we could,” the Doctor replied, wistfully, then she sensed him shake himself out of it. “Anyway. Glad that’s over with. No more Disney.”

“What are you talking about?” She lifted her head up so she could see him. “We haven’t done EPCOT yet!”

The Doctor looked stricken. “What?”

She laughed as she rolled on top of him. “You know what you are?”

“What?”

“You’re my knight in shining pinstripes, in a blue box instead of a white steed. Sir Doctor.”

“Ah,” he said. “And from the positions of your hands right now, I take it that’s a good thing.”

Ah, because wouldn’t you reward him with a shag, too? After that day?