OTA - Everyone's Personal Prison

[st_everybodylives]

The first few weeks she'd explored the hotel, generally enjoying the absurdity of it all. And the Doctor did not come.

Then she spent a few weeks testing the boundaries of their prison. And the Doctor did not come.

Then for a few weeks she tried boosting the vortex manipulator, and while she almost ripped a hole in space time, she hadn't gotten anywhere. And the Doctor did not come.

She wasn't quite sure if she was disappointed, or annoyed. Which, frankly, was annoying.

She was still trying to figure this out when she found herself enjoying the garden on the first truly warm spring day with a book and a carafe of hot tea, tucked into a nook amongst rose bushes.

Comments

[st_illunsmeared]

"Almost everyone in my era." Jack, obviously. Phryne found herself more inclined toward monogamy than she had ever been, but only as a matter of preference. She was less interested in the man with the skilled hands than River's domestic arrangements. "Is your husband monogamous?"

[st_everybodylives]

"It's rather more complicated than monogamous or not with he and I." Her relationship with the Doctor was so far outside the realm of normal, everything became complicated.

"When we're together we're together. And when we aren't, well... who's to question? Neither of us is the sort of settle down in one place for long." A night on Darillium was quite the longest stretch for her staying put in one place.

[st_illunsmeared]

"All in all, a remarkably sensible arrangement," Phryne said approvingly. It wasn't unlike what she'd want with Jack under different circumstances, but... "But when stuck in an inn with a very small population for the foreseeable future, it leaves a bit to be desired in the way of freedom."

Alcuin's love as thou wilt offered a good deal more, although for as unconventional as Phryne could be, she couldn't honestly say she had particular desire to love anyone who wasn't Jack.

[st_everybodylives]

"I suppose it's all in how you look at it. I knew a man who waited thousands of years for the woman he loved."

But then her father had been exceptional.

"And she gave up everything to be with him. I can't imagine either of them loving anyone else, it was always them, from childhood til death. It's a rather lovely thing to witness... but I don't think i could live it."

For all that she loved the Doctor, loved him enough to alter time and space if she could, she wasn't built for the life her parents had.

[st_illunsmeared]

"I waited two years and it felt like eternity." And she hadn't even loved Jack all that time. If she had, she couldn't imagine how much it would have hurt. "I would've have kept waiting, I imagine, but not with an empty bed."

Well, that was news to her that she would have waited. She imagined it would be news to Jack, too. Perhaps she'd tell him.

[st_everybodylives]

"Not everyone can separate emotional love from the physical act," River could, but she wasn't what anyone would call average. "I love my husband. I loved him before I met him. But that's all in a place that has nothing to do with sex."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Love as thou wilt," Phryne murmured mostly to herself and then smiled. It wasn't quite the same, since a D'Angeline wouldn't separate sex from love, just see different kinds of love. Phryne's own feelings on the sexual act lay somewhere in between love and a pure separation from it. She certainly wouldn't bed a man she didn't care for, but neither did she need to have any true feelings for him. "Have you met Alcuin yet?"

[st_everybodylives]

"Yes exactly." Love as thou wilt, that was very nearly her motto. Or could have been. And she didn't need to care for someone before bedding them.

"I haven't, but your tone sounds like maybe I should."

[st_illunsmeared]

"He's a very sweet young man. Quite bright and from a fascinating culture." River would like Alcuin, but before she could get the wrong idea, Phryne added, "To sweet for the likes of us, but a lovely conversationalist."

[st_everybodylives]

River arched a brow, "No one is that sweet."

Not even Rory.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne laughed in delighted amusement. "Obviously, you've not met my companion, Dot, either." She gestured at the tea, silently asking if the offer still stood. "Sweet is not the same as innocent nor as being a pushover."

[st_everybodylives]

She pushed an empty cup over in answer and sipped her own tea,

"Dot..." she mused. "I don't think I have met her. But it sounds like you're lucky enough to have two familiar faces here at the inn."

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne poured herself a cup of the tea, which was blessedly still drinkably hot, and replied, "If you've eaten any of the fresh baked goods in the cafe, you've encountered her work. She's an extraordinary girl and I'm even more extraordinarily lucky to have her in my life."

That she had two familiar faces at the Inn, Phryne felt required little comment; River was an astute woman.

[st_everybodylives]

"I've been having her scones in the morning," they really were quite good. But then neither she nor Amy could bake so, there was something special about baked goods.

"Is she extraordinarily lucky to have you in her life?" It didn't always even out, River had found.

[st_illunsmeared]

"You would have to ask Dot," Phryne replied out of not wishing to speak for her rather than any false modesty. "I know she credits me with many changes in her life, and that she likes the person she's become. Beyond that, I couldn't say."

[st_everybodylives]

"Liking the person you become because of another person, it's harder than it sounds." And if Dot managed it, she was incredibly lucky.

[st_illunsmeared]

"Yes, it is." But Phryne smiled, expression softening. She'd been very lucky finding Jack. Very very lucky. She thought she might just go and tell him that, and pushed to her feet. "If you'll excuse me, there's a man I need to speak to."