Work Text:
Ping
The Doctor rolled her eyes at the loud noise that rang throughout her console room. Here she was explaining something about a really interesting planet to her new friends and their phones were going off. And, oh great, now they're taking them out to check their notifications.
"Don't mind me," the Doctor muttered to herself, turning to the console to check something.
Graham chuckled beside her, the only one who didn't have his phone out. Come to think of it, did Graham have a phone? Probably, actually. He was from the twenty-first century. Practically everyone had one then.
"Kids, eh?" Graham huffed good-naturedly.
"Humans," the Doctor replied.
"Oh, ta very much," this time it was Graham who rolled his eyes.
"Just kiddin'! I love you lot, you humans," the Doctor grinned widely.
"Doctor? It's for you?" Yaz's confused voice interrupted hers and Graham's banter.
Looking up, the Doctor furrowed her brows, mimicking Yaz's equally beffuddled expression.
"Who's messagin' the Doctor through your phone?" Ryan asked what the Doctor was thinking.
"I dunno. It's an unknown number and it just says 'Doctor'," Yaz answered.
"Uh," the Doctor started, grasping for straws, "just ignore it. It's probably me from the future."
"Wait, can you to that? Message us from the future?" Ryan asked excitedly.
"'Course I can! I have a time machine!"
"Wicked," Ryan's eyes shone the way they did when he truly thought something the Doctor had said or done was awesome.
Several quick pings rang out from Yaz's phone without pause, interrupting their conversation again. The Docor looked at the offending phone, an eyebrow raised. So, maybe it wasn't her from the future. Obviously someone wanted her attention by the way Yaz was looking at her with worry.
Scratching her head with thought, the Doctor sighed.
"Pass it here," she eventually requested, holding out her hand.
"Whoever it is, they must really want your attention, Doc," Graham pointed out.
"Clearly," muttered the Doctor, half way through replying to whoever was messaging Yaz's phone.
With a simple message sent asking who it was, the Doctor felt satisfied that she now had a tiny bit of control over the situation. Rule number thirty-three, always try and take control over a situation, no matter how little. Keeps things in order.
No more than five seconds later, there was a reply that came in sync with that annoying ping Yaz had her notification bell set to.
"What're they sayin'?" Ryan questioned, practically leaning over the Doctor's shoulder.
"They said... 'I'm bored’," The Doctor answered, dejected. So maybe she didn't have control of the situation.
Fingers typing fast, the Doctor sent off her own reply. 'I've always wanted to meet someone called bored,' she messaged. Ryan snorted next to her and she looked at him. She didn't see why he was laughing, she was deadly serious. His smile fell when he realised that.
Ping
"Who do you think it is?" Yaz asked.
"I think I've figured it out," the Doctor said, reading the unknown person's message.
"So who is it?" Graham eagerly asked.
Looking at the newest message, the altered lyrics to a song called 'Hey Mickey', the Doctor sighed in annoyance.
"An old friend of mine," admitted the Doctor, staring at the message as if it mught disappear if she looked away.
She hadn't seen Missy since the Mondasian ship when the woman had scurried off with her past regeneration instead of standing with the Doctor. She'd been thrown into a new body only a little after half an hour later and ultimately fallen from her TARDIS into a train on Earth.
She hadn't really had much time to think about Missy, what with everything moving at such an incredible pace.
Ring ring... ring ring...
Looking at the phone in her hands, the Doctor noticed that rather than hers and Missy's chat, there was a call coming through. It was from the unknown number, the one she now had memorised as Missy's.
"Ain't you gonna answer it?" Graham asked cautiously.
The Doctor shrugged unhelpfully.
"Didn't you just say they was an old friend of yours?"
"Yes," the Doctor simply said, unwilling to elaborate further.
"Doctor!" A high pitched voice came through the phone, startling the Doctor to the point she almost dropped Yaz's phone. Her friends also jumped a mile high, not expecting the voice. "I know you can hear me! And can I just say, it is very rude to ignore a call from your friend!"
With a dramatic eyeroll, the Doctor put the phone to her ear.
"And what makes you think we're friends, Missy?" The Doctor retorted.
Missy laughed, making the Doctor cringe.
"Doctor, we'll always be friends. No matter what I do, who I kill, how many of your pets I shove inside a Dalek case," Missy trailed off, leaving the rest to the Doctor's imagination.
As much as the Doctor wanted to deny her claims, she kept her mouth shut because she knew it was true.
"Okay, fine, what do you want?" The Doctor demanded.
"I told you, I'm bored!" Missy groaned dramatically. "And it doesn't help that you and that bald bloke haven't come to see me in three months."
"Three months? What are you talk- oh," the Doctor realised. Missy must have been in the point in time when the Monks were ruling Earth and everyone's memory of the entire human history changed.
"Yes, 'oh'," Missy mimicked, "so I've had to take things into my own hands and order my own food and entertainment, but it's getting dreadfully dull."
"Wait, how did you even get a phone?" Demanded the Doctor, her brain catching up. "You shouldn't have any access to the outside world. You're in that Vault for a reason!"
In the back of her mind, the Doctor briefly registered her friend's shared looks of confusion.
"Well, what do you want me to do? Just sit in here and... think about all the bad things I've done in the past?" Missy suggested sarcastically.
"Actually, yes, that's why you're in there, Missy," the Doctor pointed out.
"While that may be true, Doctor, it is also very boring. I mean, you won't even get me the 3D printer I want! Or a pony! What's the point in having you around of you won't get me what I want?"
"Missy, I am not guarding your vault for the sole purpose of buying you ponies and 3D printers," the Doctor stressed, making wild hand gestures.
A sigh came through the phone and the Doctor put her hand on her hip, looking like an unimpressed mother.
Something came into her line of vision and she blinked at the hand holding a steaming cup of tea. She grinned up at Graham gratefully and took the #1 Dad mug from him. She wasn't sure when he’d wandered off to make a cup of tea, but she wasn't complaining.
Taking a noisy sip of the hot tea, the Doctor listened as Missy ranted on about being left alone in the Vault for three months and being bored out of her mind.
"I mean-" Missy stopped talking and there was silence on the other end.
For a moment the Doctor wondered if she was having some stress-induced hearts attack, but then her annoyed voice came through again.
"Are you drinking a cup of tea, Doctor?" She demanded.
Looking at the cup in her hand, the Doctor frowned.
"Yes?" She answered, unsure.
"Don't test me drinking a cup of tea! Do you know how long it's been since I had a cuppa? Three months! And even then, the one that bald bloke brought me before you all vanished tasted like cat's pi-"
"Okay! I get it! Sorry, I won't drink this then," the Doctor muttered, whilst trying her hardest to silently drink her beverage. What? Graham's cups of tea were the best, she couldn't help herself.
A dramatic sigh.
"Ugh, okay. What do you want me to do to help with your boredom?" The Doctor rolled her eyes. Honestly, she just wanted to go to Ancient Egypt with her fam.
"Strip," Missy's innocent tone answered.
The Doctor choked and spluttered on her cup of tea, her eyes watering as she fought to empty her airways. All the while, Missy laughed hysterically on the other end of the phone.
"Blimey, Doc!" Graham fussed, hitting her back.
"Y'alright?" Ryan frantically questioned.
"Fine, fine," the Doctor wheezed.
She straightened up and put her cup of tea down on the console. Probably not the best resting place for it, but it was better than the pilot choking to death on it.
"That wasn't funny, Missy," she huffed into the phone.
"No, dear, it was hilarious," Missy retorted and the Doctor could hear the smile in her voice.
"If you're just gonna to be like that, then I'm gonna hang up now and you can stuff your boredom," the Doctor decided.
"Oh, fine," Missy drawled with an eyeroll that the Doctor could practically hear. "Just talk to me for a bit."
"Okay, I can do that. I can talk for Gallifrey."
"Yes, you can. You don't ever shut up," Missy agreed as the Doctor settled on the floor for a conversation of Rassilon-knows how long.
And that is the story how the Doctor talked her oldest friend through her boredom whilst also running up a pricey bill on Yaz's phone. She eventually paid it off.