Title: Warning Signs
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Mick St. John
Fandom: Doctor Who/Moonlight
Rating: PG-13
Table: DIY, 100_situations
Prompt: 59, Alarm
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Tenth Doctor or Mick St. John, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

This was one of the strangest situations he'd ever found himself in, Mick thought, glancing at the Doctor. Here he was, talking to an alien -- something that he never would have thought existed before he'd met this man.

Of course, most people didn't believe that vampires existed, either. He was something that the general population took to be nothing more than a myth, a figment of the imagination -- and since he existed, there was no reason to disbelieve that aliens did, too.

Besides, he had the feeling that the Doctor was a man who never lied unless he absolutely had to. This wasn't someone who would glibly proclaim himself to be an alien if he wasn't. And he'd felt those dual heartbeats. They definitely weren't human.

Yes, he was walking along with an alien, being taken to a spaceship. It sounded too impossible for words, but ever since the night he'd been turned, Mick had opened his mind to any possibility. He didn't believe everything he heard, but he didn't discount anything, either.

"Ah, here we are!" the Doctor exclaimed, slowing his steps and moving towards what looked like a blue wooden box. One of the phone boxes that Mick knew were commonplace in England, but which looked more than a little out of place here.

"She doesn't look like much, I know," the Doctor said, his hand on the door of the blue box. "But she's much bigger on the inside, I can assure you. She's a Tardis -- that stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

Privately, Mick didn't think that both of them could fit into that box at one time, though he didn't want to say so. "Are you sure that it's big enough for two people?" he hedged, looking around to see if there was anything that looked like a spaceship around.

The Doctor had to be kidding. This wasn't a ship. It was a box. Mick shook his head, a smile starting to form on his features. The Doctor was making some weird kind of joke; he was positive of that. There was no way that this was a spaceship.

"Come inside," the Doctor told him, holding the door open. Mick squinted, unable to believe what he was seeing. Was it just his imagination, or did that small blue box look huge and lighted up past the area right around the door?

He took a hesitant step forward, then another -- and found himself moving forward through the door and up the three steps that led him into the interior of what was indeed a spaceship. What he was seeing was beyond anything he could possibly have imagined.

There were viewscreens, buttons, wires -- all the things that he would have expected to see in a ship, and other things that made him squint and feel as though he was caught up in some kind of strange dream right out of a science fiction movie.

"It is a spaceship," he managed to say, his voice barely above a whisper. "Holy shit, it's a ship. A real spaceship." It was the only thing he could think of to say; his brain had apparently stopped working, and all he could do was stare around him, his mouth hanging open.

"Yes, it's a spaceship," the Doctor said, coming up the steps after him and looking at him curiously. "But she doesn't like being called 'it.' Tardises aren't built, you see. They're grown. She's an organic creature, and she can get annoyed quite easily."

"You mean this ship is sentient?" Mick was shocked at that; to him, it looked like nothing more than a .... well, a spaceship, something that had been built, put together. Could it be possible that this structure could actually think?

Of course it was possible, he told himself. The Doctor was an alien; who knew how far the technology of his planet had advanced? He could be from far into the future, or even from this same time frame. There was no telling what his planet had achieved.

The Doctor shook his head, then hesitated, sighing and shrugging his shoulders. "In a way, yes," he said softly, laying a hand on the console. "But only with me, I'm afraid. I've .... well, bonded with her, in a way. There's an understanding between us."

"It sounds like you're involved with your ship -- or married to her," Mick said, raising an eyebrow in question. He didn't really believe that, of course, but it was the first thing that had leapt into his mind at the Doctor's words.

The Time Lord laughed, this time shaking his head in a definite negative. "No, no, nothing like that! But there is a bond between us. For example, she's not sending out any alarm signals to me at your presence. Which means that she approves of you."

"Yeah?" Mick looked around him, wondering just what it was about him that the ship approved of. "I'm guessing that she doesn't know what I am, then? Or she just can't tell because I look like a normal human?" He wondered what the answer to that question would be.

"She knows," the Doctor said softly, his gaze meeting Mick's. "And if she doesn't feel that you're any kind of a threat to me, then I know I can trust you. I did already, but having her opinion on the matter doesn't hurt," he added with a laugh.

Mick reached out to lay a hand on the console, next to the Doctor's. He was surprised to feel a warmth emanating from the ship, a warmth that didn't feel like the impersonal heat machinery exuded. No, it felt as though the ship was .... well, welcoming him.

"So I guess she doesn't have a problem with me being a bloodsucking vampire," he said, trying to keep his tone light. He didn't want there to be any doubt of what he was; if the ship decided to set of an alarm, he wanted to be prepared for it.

But the Doctor shook his head, smiling. "If you were some kind of evil creature, she'd have known -- and she would have sent me a warning signal that you couldn't have seen," he explained. "I would have felt it, but it wouldn't have been something outward."

Mick nodded, feeling a surge of relief at knowing that both the Doctor and his ship didn't have a problem with what he was. Why should he feel such a rush of happiness at knowing that this man didn't consider him some kind of threat that should send off warning sirens?

Because most people would, a voice in the back of his head piped up. Nearly anyone who found out what he was would run away from him screaming at the top of their lungs, but this man simply took it in stride, without blinking an eyelash.

That acceptance meant more to him than he could say. There would be no sirens going off, no witch hunt, no alarm being sounded. He wouldn't have to keep anything from the Doctor; he wouldn't have to be careful about what he said, or hide any part of his life.

He was so tired of doing that! But here was a person outside of the vampire community he was a part of who accepted him wholeheartedly -- and who even seemed to want his company and enjoy talking to him. That in itself was refreshing.

"I'm glad she accepts me, then," Mick said, feeling awkward and not knowing what else to say. "If she didn't, I'd have a hard time going anywhere with you, wouldn't I?" He blinked, unable to believe that he'd said those words to the Doctor.

Was he actually planning on going somewhere in this ship? Was the going to let the Doctor take him out into space, maybe even to see another planet? There were a million reasons that he couldn't let himself do that. He had to stay here on Earth and ....

And what? he asked himself. There was no case that he had pending at the moment -- well, other than finding out who it was that had jumped him in that alley. But that could wait. This was a much more interesting prospect.

The ship wasn't sending out any warning signs to the Doctor. There was nothing to keep him here on Earth, even though he couldn't leave for too long. Josef would worry, though he wasn't sure that anyone else would even notice he was gone.

"Would you like to spend some time exploring the universe?" the Doctor asked, sounding hesitant. "I was going to ask you, but I wasn't sure that you'd want to come along with me. Usually people do -- but they can change their minds awfully quickly."

"I won't change my mind," Mick told him, throwing caution to the winds. What could it hurt to bum around in space with the Doctor for a while? He could address any problems here when he got back. Besides, he needed a vacation.

"Then let's go!" the Doctor said, a smile spreading over his features. That smile made Mick's heart thump in his chest, and even skip a beat or two. This definitely looked like it was shaping up to be an experience that he was never going to forget.

***