Title: State of Shock
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Spencer Reid
Fandom: Doctor Who/Criminal Minds
Rating: PG
Table: 100moods
Prompt: 88, Shocked
Author's Note: Continuation of Trust in Me.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Spencer Reid, unfortunately. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor led Spencer along the street towards where he knew he'd left the Tardis, wondering just how he was going to explain the ship to this young man. Maybe it was a mistake to take him there now, when he was obviously not at his best.

But what else could he do? he demanded silently of himself. Spencer needed help, and he wasn't getting it here. Maybe his friends didn't even know that he had a problem with drugs; he didn't seem like the kind of person to make it public knowledge.

And he didn't want this young man put into a rehab facility. He knew that those places no longer treated patients outlandishly, and that Spencer would be taken care of there. But somehow, he couldn't bear to let the other man out of his sight.

For some strange reason, he couldn't help feeling that if he let Spencer disappear from his life now, even for his own good, that they wouldn't be able to find each other later. He'd become just another part of what, for Spencer, must be a waking nightmare.

He wasn't going to relegate himself to such a background part in this young man's life. He could be good for Spencer, a small inner voice insisted. And he knew that Spencer could be good for him -- and that this was what he wanted.

Oh, all right, he might as well admit it. He was being selfish, thinking of his own desires before the other man's. But they could be mutually supportive. He could help Spencer overcome the drug problem, and Spencer could be with him and assuage his loneliness.

That is, if Spencer actually wanted to be with him, once he'd seen the inside of the Tardis and knew just what the Doctor was. He might not even believe what he saw, thinking that it was all some sort of drug-induced hallucination.

No, this man was more perceptive than that, the Doctor told himself, glancing at Spencer as they walked along. He already seemed to be more steady, not weaving as they moved, with all of his faculties about him.

"Where are we going?" Spencer inquired, as though he'd somehow managed to divine the Doctor's thoughts. "Whatever you want to show me must be fairly close, or you wouldn't have wanted to go walking around the city at night."

"There," the Doctor said, pointing to the end of the street. He could just make out the silhouette of the Tardis, looking slightly incongruous against the brick wall of the silent block of buildings. "That blue police pox. That's what I wanted you to see."

"I know those are everywhere in England ...." Spencer frowned, looking perplexed. "But what's one of them doing here? Unless somebody brought one overseas and it's just sitting there as a kind of decoration. I guess that's possible."

"That's the Tardis," the Doctor said abruptly, deciding to plung into his explanation before Spencer had seen the inside of his ship. "She's not just a police box. She's my ship -- and my home. She's something you've never seen before."

"Your .... ship?" Spencer raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical, then smiling. "All right, I know that it might have been a shock to find out that I have a problem with drugs, but you don't have to say crazy things to make me feel like you can relate."

The Doctor shook his head, a small, rueful smile on his lips. "It's not crazy, Spencer. I'm not making things up." They had reached the ship by now, and the Doctor reached out to pull the door open. "Go on, go inside. Believe me, you'll be amazed."

"Go inside?" Spencer hung back, his brows knitted in a frown. "Why? It's just a police call box. I've been in one when I was in London -- I know what they look like. If you're trying to trap me in there, it's not going to work."

Sighing, the Doctor shook his head and stepped back. "This isn't a trick, Spencer. I'm not trying to trap you, and there aren't any men in white coats waiting to jump out and take you to rehab. Just go inside. You may be shocked, but you're not imagining things."

Spencer stopped in front of the Tardis, standing there and looking at the ship as though he wasn't sure just what he was letting himself in for. Finally, he took a few steps forward, heading into the ship with the Doctor right behind him.

He almost bumped into Spencer as the young man stopped in his tracks; he could hear the sharp intake of breath and wondered just what his young companion was making of all this. He'd certainly never seen anything like the Tardis before -- at least, the Doctor didn't think so.

He leaned against the wall of the ship, letting Spencer walk slowly up the few steps to the main part of the control room. He simply stood there as Spencer looked around him, turning in a slow circle, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

"How ....? What ....?" They seemed to be the only words that the young man was capable of uttering at the moment. The Doctor couldn't keep back a smug smile of satisfaction; the Tardis hardly ever failed to affect people like this, especially humans.

"'Tardis' stands for 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space,'" the Doctor told Spencer, coming to stand by his side. "She's .... much bigger on the inside than she looks on the outside, as you can see. And she's even bigger than you can imagine."

"This is .... a ship," Spencer said, his eyes still enormous as he looked around him, trying to take everything in at once. "That means that you're ...." His voice trailed off, and he looked at the Doctor cautiously, taking a few steps away from him. "What are you, exactly?"

The Doctor spread his hands out in front of him, cursing himself for letting things get a bit out of hand. "I'm a man, Spencer," he said softly, shaking his head. "There's nothing to fear from me. I'm not here to take over your planet, or rain down destruction on it."

"You're telling me that you're .... not from this planet," Spencer whispered, backing up a few more steps and looking as though he planned to bolt out of the door of the ship. "But that's impossible. Things like that don't exist outside of science fiction."

"That's where you're wrong." The Doctor met Spencer's gaze with his own, hoping that he could calm the young man with words. "The last thing I want to do is bring any harm to Earth. I've spent my life trying to keep your planet safe. Please, try to trust me a little."

Spencer gulped audibly, looking towards the door of the Tardis, then at the console. Evidently his curiosity was greater than whatever fears he had; he took a few steps forward, scanning the console and then turning to the Doctor.

"I don't know exactly what you are, or why you're here, or why I even believe you," he said slowly, "but this is a chance I can't pass up. I know you can't be lying about not being from this planet, because you have --" He waved a hand with a nervous laugh. ".... this."

"I'm not lying, Spencer," the Doctor said quietly. "I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from a planet called Gallifrey, in another galaxy. I travel through space and time the in the Tardis. I'm over 900 years old. And ...." he took a deep breath, speaking softly. ".... I'd like for you to travel with me."

"Me?" Spencer blinked, looking shocked. "Why would you want me with you? You know I've got a drug problem. You know I --" He stopped abruptly, looking the Doctor up and down. "You're over 900 years old? Best looking older man I've ever seen."

The Doctor couldn't help laughing at those words, but he sobered almost instantly. "Spencer, I don't want you to feel forced into anything. But I'd like for you to come with me -- at least for a while. Just to see what it's like. I can bring you back to the time you left."

Spencer looked around him again, then back at the Doctor, as though he was taking a measure of the Time Lord and weighing his words. After what seemed like a very long time, he took a deep breath, nodding, seemingly coming out of his state of shock.

"Okay. I'll come with you. As long as you promise you can bring me back -- because I think the people I work with wouldn't be happy if I suddenly disappeared." He thought for a moment before saying softly, "And I don't know if I'd want to leave what I do for good."

The Doctor could feel his hearts clenching in his chest; so Spencer wouldn't want to stay with him for good, then. Only for a short while, only a little time to find out what it was like, to have a new experience. There wouldn't be time for anything to develop between them ....

What was he thinking? he admonished himself. He didn't need that kind of relationship. As attracted as he was to Spencer, he couldn't expect this young man to feel the same. He needed to maintain a distance, to keep his hearts safe.

Aloud, he only said, "Then let's go out into time and space, shall we, so you can find out what it's like. And I'll answer any questions you might have in the bargain." He averted his eyes from Spencer's face, hoping that those questions wouldn't be too hard for him to answer.

Spencer laughed softly, approaching the Doctor and surprising him by taking both of the TIme Lord's hands in his own, his eyes still searching the Doctor's face. Whatever he was looking for, he must have found it; a few moments later, he nodded, still holding the other man's hands in his.

"I've got a feeling that there's a lot more to this than I think -- and that I'm going to find out more about the world than I'd ever have dreamed existed." He smiled, squeezing the Doctor's hand in his. "This is going to be one wild ride."

The Doctor grinned back at him, wondering if Spencer had even an idea of just how right he was.

***

Next story in series - Come Undone.