*The opening part in a series I’ve been brainstorming for a while. Thoughts and brainstorms appreciated. A very reference heavy work. All pop-culture references are owned by their respective creators.* 

“Where are you going?” Kaitlin asked, raising a surprised eyebrow at the look of determination which had suddenly crossed her usually introverted friend’s face in the pulsating, purple light of the party. She knew Julie had been pretty buzzed, but as she nursed the pint glass of beer, her face seemed to morph.

“I shouldn’t have had that last beer,” Julie said, setting her half finished Guinness down on one of the many tables set up around the ballroom. In the time it took to have two sips, she had passed buzzed, and gone straight to drunk. Julie paused, squeezing her eyes closed, trying to steady the room, which had gently started to spin around her. The pint of alcohol had hit her stomach like a ton of bricks.

“What?” Kaitlin asked, still surprised at what she was seeing. She stood up and ran a hand through her sweaty hair as she scanned the dance floor, trying to spot what might have been object of Julie’s interest.

“Don’t wait up,” Julie said, her eyes fixed across the room. As she walked, she quickly straightened her Union Jack t-shirt, anxiously pulling it down over her hips. Looking down, Julie was secretly glad that she had chosen the Rose Tyler, Union Jack cosplay. The gray tennis shoes were much easier to walk in then the pink, strappy heels she had been planning to wear.

The sprawling Magnolia Ballroom pulsated with almost frantic energy, even at the late hour of two am. People practically spilled from the ballroom. Even though the air-conditioner was working overtime, the sticky, late August air reeked with the loaded musk of sweaty humanity.

“You look like you need a companion, Doctor,” Julie said, leaning against the wall next to the boy she had spied from across the room. She looked over him, her wide blue eyes shining up at him with drunken interest. The boy in front of her had pulled together the best Tenth Doctor cosplay she had ever seen. Like most girls with nerdish tendencies between the ages of twenty and thirty, Julie had spent a depressing number of quiet nights writing out adult fantasies involving the Tenth Doctor.

“I can’t be that drunk,” Kevin Sherman said, mostly to himself, as he turned to face the gorgeous girl who had crossed the room, and was now leaning seductively against the wall next to him. He couldn’t help himself, he checked her out openly, a stunned look crossing his expressive brown eyes. He paused, struggling to come up with something appropriately flirtatious to say, “My name’s….”

Julie took a step forward, brushing a gentle finger over his lips. She leaned in close to him, her voice barely a husky whisper into his ear, “Call me Rose, Doctor.” A small smile crossed her face as she looked him up and down.

Kevin bit back an excited shiver as his hand lightly brushed over her jeans. He could hear a drunken stammer in his voice as he spoke, “Hi…”

Julie cut him off as she gently backed him into the wall. Their faces hover together for just a moment. The air felt heavy with the musk of the crowded room, as Kevin gave into the urge he could feel building in his body to kiss her.

“Where’s your room?” Julie asked. She looked up into his eyes, an excited smile spreading slowly across her face. Her full cheeks were flushed. He couldn’t tell if it was with excitement, the alcohol, or the close dance floor.

“I’m upstairs,” Kevin said. He spoke slowly, deliberately trying to not slur his words. “Room 10123.”

“Can I see your TARDIS, Doctor?” Julie said, trailing her fingers playfully down his bicep, coming to rest flirtatiously over the button of his dark brown slacks. With more than a hint of seduction in her expression, she bit her lip as she looked up, holding his glance.

Kevin looked around the room, Jason and Howard were suitably entertained on the dance floor. They were clustered near the DJ, where a drunken game of limbo had formed, the scarf from a Fourth Doctor cosplay standing in for the stick.

“This way,” Kevin said. He grabbed her hand inside his, cutting a direct path through the crowded ballroom towards the door. He paused, letting a conga line, lead by an Eleventh Doctor in a Deadmau5 head pass by.

“How did those things get up to the 10th floor, Doctor?” Julie asked, smoothing her ruffled blonde hair. She looked over at Kevin, the adrenaline building in her system bordering on arousal as they pressed themselves flat into the bland, standard issue wallpaper which seemed to be in every hotel. “Can they get through doors?”

“Stay down!” Kevin said, practically kicking open the door to room 10123. As she crouched at his feet, he pressed his sonic screwdriver to the doorknob, the space age tool engaging with a high pitched buzz.

“Exterminate!”

“That should keep them busy for a while,” Kevin said, an adrenaline fueled smile crossing over his face. He dropped to his knees next to her, pulling her into a passionate kiss.

“You’re beautiful,” Kevin said, pulling the magnetic key out of the lock for the third time. By the time they had gotten out of the elevator, she couldn’t keep her hands off of him, and the urgency of her touch had increased as she waited for him to break into his own hotel room. Kevin let out an audible sigh of relief as it finally flashed green, and the lock disengaged.

They practically fell into the room as he pushed the door open. A hazy autopilot washed over them as they moved towards the bed, shedding pieces of their costumes as they went.

Pulling her snug Union Jack shirt over her head, Julie pressed her body into his as her hands dropped to the button on his slacks.

BUZZ

She stepped back, pulling her hands back with a start.

“Sorry,” Kevin said, pulling his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, a sheepish grin slowly spreading across his face. He dropped it onto the floor, kicking it under the bed. “Forgot I had that in there.”

“I’m just sorry I didn’t ask, ‘Is that a sonic screwdriver in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?'” Julie said, briefly suppressing a smirk.

In a whirl of a trench coat, they fell into one of the two double beds, the old bed frames creaked loudly underneath them as they landed. Kevin looked down at her, as he struggled with the knot of his maroon colored tie.

“Can you leave it on?” Julie asked. She gently brought her hands up, bringing his hands back from the necktie.

“Really?” Kevin asked, unable to hide the disappointment from his voice. The thought of sex in a necktie was stiff and uncomfortable.

“Please?” Julie asked again, she toyed with the knot. Her lips adopting a playful pout. “Doctor?”

“Allons-y,” Kevin said, sliding his hand to the front of her jeans.

Julie’s eyes snapped open, a blinding burst of sunlight shone through the gauzy curtains came to rest right on her forehead. She exhaled sharply, a sickening nausea pulsated through her body as she struggled to recognize the unfamiliar plaster ceiling above her head.

Tentative, Julie glanced to her right. Kevin had curled up on the other side of the bed, and was still sleeping soundly.

“Shit!” Julie mouthed silently, seeing her shirt and bra crumpled on the floor near the door. She softly slid her feet to the floor. Her eyes scanned the room, trying to locate the various places where her clothes had ended up.

BUZZ

Jumping back, her eyes shot to the figure curled up in next to her in the bed. The noise hadn’t seemed to phase him. She bent down, wrapping her fingers around a sonic-screwdriver which had been kicked under the bed, next to a pair of maroon converse in what she only remembered in a foggy haze.

On the other double bed, another young man sprawled, snoring loudly. His blankets had been kicked off in the late night heat. Jedi robes and a rather expensive looking toy lightsaber laid on the floor near the bed.

There was another boy passed out on the sofa, still wearing what looked to be a Battlestar Galactica flight suit.

The pounding of her heart in her head was deafening, and as she tried to silently slide back into her clothes, she felt certain that the noise would wake up the entire hotel room as she hoped to make her stealthy exit.

Checking her phone, it was just after 8am as she stepped out into the hallway, sliding the door shut quietly behind her. As she moved down to the elevator, she noticed with a sense of relief that she hadn’t left the hotel.

As she pushed the down arrow, she leaned against the wall, focusing on taking deep, centering breaths. A sickening nausea pulsated through her muscles, and she suddenly remembered why she usually shied away from drinking. No matter how fun the night may have been, it never seemed worth it during the miserable morning. She said a silent prayer that she could keep the little food left in her stomach down, at least until there was a trashcan in sight.

With a ding, one of the elevators slid open. Julie stood aside as two girls, dressed as a gender bent Thor and Loki almost stumbled off the elevator. The girls’ make-up looked slightly smeared, and their costumes were askew as they ducked into a room just off the elevator bay.

As the doors closed, the elevator seemed to rattle as her TARDIS text tone went off.

She groped in the pocket of her jeans for her phone, frantic to silence the pulsating jackhammering sensation it was causing in her head.

Looking at the screen, there was a text message from Kaitlin.

Okay, gurl. You’ve had plenty of time for fun. Meet me at the lobby Starbucks in ten minutes, or I’m calling the police.

Julie chuckled softly to herself as the hit the button for the lobby.

Not dead behind a panel room. Be there in five minutes.