Firefly/Doctor Who crossover fic: A Different Kind of Companion (5/20)

[locker_monster]

Title: A Different Kind of Companion (5/20)
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Rose, Ten/Rose, Mal, Inara, Mal/Inara
Timeline: A week after "Heart of Gold" for Firefly, and just before "Army of Ghosts" for Doctor Who
Summary: After an encounter in the 26th century, Inara and Rose find themselves in unfamiliar settings.
Disclaimer: Firefly and Doctor Who belong to their respective creators and showrunners. Too much awesome would happen if Joss Whedon and Russell T Davies ever worked on something together.
A/N: The biggest thank you goes out to browncoat_2x2 for betaing this story and helping with the minor changes.

Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four.

            Inara woke with a gasp.

            She expected to find herself in the infirmary with Simon looking over her and Mal hovering in the doorway. But when she opened her eyes she was greeted by the sight of unfamiliar walls. They almost seemed to glow. She reached out with her right hand to touch the wall beside her, but a sharp stab of pain raced through her shoulder. Inara let out a hiss.

            “Oh, sorry.” The man in the long coat, though he wasn’t wearing it any longer, appeared in the doorway of the room she was in. “Everyone reacts differently to dermal regenerating. You’ll be sore for a few days at least.”

            Inara slowly sat up, making sure to use her left arm to prop herself up. “Dermal regenerating?” She had heard of a dermal mender, Simon had used one once to reattach Mal’s ear, but this sounded like a completely different concept.

            “You, uh…” The man scratched the back of his head. “You were shot.”

            Scattered memories resurfaced at the back of her mind. A gun. Searing pain. Inara looked to her right shoulder. The shoulder of her dress was caked with dried blood. With her finger, she probed a hole in the fabric. “Where am I?”

            “On my ship, in one of the spare rooms.”

            “We made it to orbit?”

            The man hesitated. “Not exactly. We’re… on another planet.”

            Another planet. Inara shook her head. This was the outer rim. To fly to another planet would take days. Had she been out that long?

            Planting her feet on the floor, Inara stood up from the bed she was lying on. The room looked to be no bigger than the interior of her shuttle. All four walls still looked as though they were glowing. When she reached out with her left hand, the texture of the walls felt like coral.

            Another memory flashed before her eyes. A blue box, bigger on the inside.

            Inara let her hand fall from the wall. She turned to the man. “Who are you?”

            “I’m the Doctor.” She waited for him to add a last name but none came. His accent vaguely reminded her of people from Dyton Colony.

            Something else came to her. “Rose. Your friend–”

            “She’s back on the planet where we just came from.” Something in the Doctor’s voice caught Inara’s attention: a hint of sadness.

            “Then we should return.” She took a step towards the doorway, but the Doctor held up his hand.

            “That’s the problem. We can’t.”