"And what's this?"
"Netflix!" Bill replied, with a beaming smile on her face as she clicked onto the programme.
"Well yes I can see that, but what does it do?" Her tutor retorted back as he watched her. When Bill had brought in her laptop that day he'd expected it to be something to do with the assignment he'd set her on free will. An assignment 6 months overdue.
This was decidedly not that.
"It's got movies! And shows. Lots of them. I was thinking, you don't seem to know about many good ones right? This should help you get right caught up. And...done! There you go." She moved back, clearly done and turned to The Doctor with a pleased look on her face.
The Doctor's face betrayed no reaction. It's not that he wasn't happy to see her happy, even if the familiarity of the smile packed a sting with it along with many memories from long before Bill was even born, but...
"You said this was essential. How is this essential?"
"Essential viewing! Come on! You can't live in the 21st century and not know who Buffy is! Think of it as my thanks for helping save the day so many times!"
A pause.
"If you get that free will essay on my desk by Monday then I'll have a look."
"That essay? You're really not letting that go are you? But- you know what, ok, deal! But only if you look at it tonight. Don't think I won't quiz you!" Smile turned to attempted seriousness with a very pointed look at him.
Pfft. "You can't quiz me!"
"Yes I can! And I will! Tomorrow morning! I'll see you then and I want you to tell me who Buffy is!"
And with that she left, apparently having some errand to run for Moira. Her foster mother.
The Doctor stuck to his promise too, if only that it would be embarrassing to fail at some pop quiz. If he found something fitting he could perhaps take it down to the Vault. Missy would appreciate the entertainment and they could use the opportunity to talk again.
...would it be too obvious to show a movie with redemption? Where the big bad monster learns it can be good?
But as he scrolled another thought wouldn't leave his mind.
"my thanks for helping save the time so many times!"
But it hadn't been him this time had it? He delivered the photos but in the end it had been down to Bill. Bill and-
There was someone else he needed to see.
"We are the watchers of the time that we alone can unlock
Six chapters of us each as essential as every stroke of a clock
There are the Pyrodians of red and gold, with a repute to be bold
The Arcalians are brown and green, with our technology they'll be seen
And don't forget the Patrex of heliotrope to perceive as well as those you haven't a hope~"
The start of a lullaby, being sang to the most precious baby there was on Earth that he knew was inside the flat whose door his fist hanged over, hesitating.
He knew the lullaby well, he'd done his best to sing at as well as he could in his gruff voice to all of his children who he'd gotten to see grow up.
And then to Arkytior, from the very day that his eldest boy had announced a daughter.
But he'd never heard her sing it herself before.
"Hello grandfather! I can tell you're out there! You're allowed to come in you know, the door's unlocked."
And with that he pushed open the door to the flat, where he was greeted to the sight of blue walls, toys strewn across the floor and Susan, Susan with the smile her daughter had inherited and an amused look at her old grandfather as he nearly stepped on one of the afore mentioned toys.
The baby herself was cradled in her arms. She'd apparently resisted her mother's attempts to placate her and was looking decidedly determined to escape the confinement.
Typical Bill.
"I think she almost said her first word yesterday! Didn't you Billie? You almost said mumma! My clever little girl!"
And with that she'd already gone from looking at her grandfather to the baby again, a look of pure devotion on her face.
It took everything the Doctor had to not say there and then what had just happened in the time he'd come from.
How her daughter would not only return that love, but that it would save the world she'd came to call home.
He couldn't ever tell her that. No matter how much he wanted to, just like how he'd couldn't tell River the truth on how he'd first met her.
You can't say spoilers.
"Of course she did! She's got your brain after all, hasn't she?" And with that the Doctor sat next to his granddaughter with one of his rare, rare full grins and tapped the head of an indignant Bill.
A small laugh from Susan at that. "Do you want to try hold her?"
"Well first I've got to set up this!" He presented the laptop and put it down on the coffee table, trying to once again find the movie he believed be'd marked "to watch" earlier in Netflix.
"...Is that a laptop? Grandfather that looks like it's from the 21st century earliest. You know I said that I want her childhood to be in chronological order with nothing like-" Susan started, face growing uneasy at this development.
"Don't worry it's just a movie! Essential viewing! Frozen I think they call it. Perhaps it'll get this little one out of her mood!"
She still looked uncertain.
"It'll be three generations worth of fun and there aren't even any warp matrixes or time travel involved!"
And with that a sigh. "It's you she takes after with that...and I suppose just one movie won't do any harm. Only because she's still a baby, I don't want you still doing this when she gets older-"
A pang at that and a smile forced to remain static.
"-so. What's it about then? Is it good?"
As it turns out, it was good. Baby Bill was fascinated by the strange snowman and Susan seemed to relate to Anna for some reason. Even the Doctor found himself enjoying it.
It was a fun time.
But it ended.
In fact, it had ended over two decades ago.
Even as he said farewell to Susan and baby Bill, as a physical pain gripped him as he knew what was to come to the woman waving goodbye, he also knew he would be going back to a time where a grown Bill, a grown Bill who he had almost gotten killed numerous times already, he would be seeing the very next day.
He knew he should stop visiting these times. He should be guarding the vault and protecting Bill in the 21st century, not clinging onto an era where he'd truly gotten to be happy, to have a family again.
Because it was a gone era. He knew that if he kept on visiting he could end up letting something slip, a warning, a reassurance, any of which could damage the timeline.
The reality is, even as he told himself that this was it, one final visit...he should have stopped these visits to this time long ago.
But he never could quite bring himself to let it go.