Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 69th cycle. Now cycle 70!

GLEEKATHON FOURTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE - It's October again, which means another year of Gleekathon is about to wrap up! At the end of the month it will have been four years since I've started doing my daily stories! As always, I will be celebrating this with a special cycle of stories to touch on my favorite stories I've done throughout the year. There will be two installments each on Thursdays, Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. The remaining days will feature, as they have in the last several months, new chapters of the latest story in my Doctor Who/Glee crossover series. As far as the anniversary stories go, it will be as I've done before, taking those past stories and either doing a prequel, sequel, POV swap, genre swap, alternate ending, or additional scenes.

This story is a ADDITIONAL SCENES to "Padra's Run" a Glee/Doctor Who crossover series story originally posted between November 11 2012 and April 2 2013.

(This is a shift day, which means there will be two stories posted today!)

"Sweet Child"
Padra (aka Sugar) and Toh (OC); (briefly) 9th Doctor
Glee/Doctor Who crossover series extra

Inside the TARDIS

It had been instantaneous, when the Doctor had done his trick, for her to fall into a deep sleep. Her mind would wander from dream to dream, but always when she needed comfort, her thoughts would go to her friend and protector, the alien Toh. He had been with them three years now, half of her life, but she remembered him like he had always been there. This time her mind had gone back two years, to when she was four years old. She couldn't understand it then, but now she knew he was still learning to trust them at the time.

x

The Mercer Colony, in the year 5102

The big man lived under her house. He had chosen it, as he would tell her many times. He could have stayed upstairs with them, but that was what he wanted. There was a trap door, and when lifted it would release the ladder. The big man could see well enough in the dark that he didn't mind how little light there was for him. For Padra though, it meant that, more often than not, if she wanted to sneak up and go see him, she would trip and fall off the ladder. She would fall silently, save for the thump when she hit the ground. He had put a pile of soft blankets there now, to keep her from getting hurt, so rather than climbing all the way down, now she let herself go on purpose and with giddiness.

On this day, she was just reaching to pull the trap door open when the big man had pushed it up from within in order to climb out. Padra fell back in surprise.

"Sweet child, what are you doing here?" his gruff voice called just before he appeared, climbing the ladder.

"I was looking for you," she told him. Her eyes followed as he climbed all the way out of the hole, a giant in dark clothing. He should have terrified her, but she loved him like he was family. Even now, they had to tell her that he wasn't related to them, that he wasn't even human like them. Toh reached down, and she gave him her hands. He pulled her back on her feet and she laughed. "Can we go play?"

"I don't play," Toh shut the trap door.

"Yes you do," Padra insisted. "Please?" The big man looked down at her quietly for ten, fifteen, twenty seconds. Padra never looked away. She wouldn't say that he had smiled in the end, but he had blinked.

"Very well, sweet child," he pulled her back off her feet and perched her on his back. She held on to his neck, like he'd told her to, and all the way out the door her parents would hear her laughing happily.

The giant walked the girl through the fields and to the hill. He would often go and sit under the great big tree there when he wasn't needed at the home. Now he sat there and Padra climbed down from his back.

"Now you have to chase me," she declared.

"Chase you?" he asked and she nodded. "Why?"

"Because that's the game," she shrugged.

"Then I've played it many times before," Toh told her, which made her laugh. "We did not laugh," he pointed out, sitting against the tree.

"Maybe you did it wrong," Padra told him. "Please?" she tried again. Toh wouldn't stand. Instead, he held out his hand so she would come back to him, and when she did, he made for her to sit next to him.

"You like to run, don't you?"

"It's my favorite," she told him proudly.

"Then we will run, but I will outrun you."

"I'm fast," she shook his heads.

"But you have small child's legs. I'll carry you on my shoulders, you will see." This idea pleased her very much. She was on her feet in a flash.

So with the four-year-old on his shoulders, the giant Toh barrelled down the hill, made circles around it. He was tireless, and with the wind beating in her face, Padra felt exhilarated beyond measure.

When at last she had to concede that she was getting dizzy, Toh had walked them both to the top of the hill and sat them down. Her cheeks were flushed and she had to hold on to him so she wouldn't tip over. He had kept his arm protectively around her, and she was sure this was the first time he had not simply held her but allowed her to hold him. There was a difference, and she could see it. For that, she had felt able to ask him something she'd been wondering for some time.

"Toh, where are the people that look like you?"

"Far," he said when he finally spoke.

"Do you miss them?"

"No."

"None of them?"

"I do not need them. I have you, sweet child, and that is enough, you and your family."

"It is?" she blinked. She couldn't believe that he wouldn't have parents of his own that he cared for, or brothers and sisters, or a wife, children, friends… Toh leaned forward so she could see his face easier, and he reminded her of the bears she had seen in pictures.

"It is because of you I live, and I will forever be in your debt. Do you understood what this means, sweet child?" She shook her head. "It means that you have done something for me, and all the thanks in the world could not repay that act."

"We did that?" she asked, stunned and amazed. He gave her a clumsy smile.

"You did that," he touched the tip of her chin with his finger and she giggled.

"How?" Padra wondered.

"One day, when you are older, I will tell you," he vowed.

"Why not now?" She did not want to wait.

"Because now it is time I took you home, it will be time to eat," he stood and pulled her back in his arms, guessing that she hadn't completely recovered from the dizzy spell.

"Can we play the game again?" she asked.

"Another day, sweet child."

She could count the times her caretaker had ever smiled, truly smiled, and this was the first she remembered. The others were few, but she cherished them all. Even years after losing him, they would be the thing that allowed her to carry on, six smiles from the big man.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!