The Journey Begins
"I'm sorry... I am so, so sorry" the Doctor said. He stood in the main console room of the TARDIS and watched as the little girl in front of him sat on the metal floor, knees drawn up together under her chin and rocking back and forth as she cried. "I tried to get others, but not even the woman I was with made it" he added, unsure as to what he was actually saying.
"But why did they have to die?" sobbed Mandy.
"Because I managed to fail" the Doctor said sadly, fiddling with his bow tie.
"What happens now?" the girl managed to stop crying.
"I continue to travel, with you in tow, or I can take you back in time to die with the others"
"If you are a time traveller, then why not go back and give them a warning?"
"I tried that once"
"What happened?"
"I blew up Cambridge"
"Oh"
"You see…"
"Mandy"
"You see, Mandy, people often talk about what they would do if they could go back in time. For example, would you go back to 1939 and kill Hitler?"
"Yes"
"Ah, but then his place is filled by somebody even more ruthless. Certain events can be changed without too many problems, but certain occasions and events are fixed and even I can't do a thing about it" the Doctor loosened his bow tie and sat beside the girl. "If I could go back and change things, Mandy, I would go back and save the lives of those most dear to me indeed"
"Like?" Mandy sniffed.
"Jamie, Victoria, Fred, Fred the Second, Katarina, Donna and my dear, dear sweet and beautiful Susan"
"She your girlfriend?"
"Susan?" the Doctor made a face. "She was my Granddaughter… Started off on my journey hundreds or years ago"
"Hundreds? You don't look that old"
"Its… It's a little trick my people have" the Doctor decided that now was not the best time to explain the whole system of Gallifreyan regeneration. "We were somewhat exiled from our home planet and we wondered around having adventure after adventure until one day I made her leave me. I was a silly old duffer back then and she'd met a boy her own age and I wanted her to have a normal and happy life"
"Oh" Mandy hugged her knees and let silent tears run down her cheeks and onto her school uniform jumper. "So what are you going to do with me?" she asked the Doctor.
"I don't know" he replied. "I can take you back a day and let you die with your loved ones, I can find you a suitable human family to live with on one of the other colonies or perhaps you…"
"Doctor?"
"Perhaps you might like to travel with me"
"Won't that blow up time or something?"
"It'll blow up a planet or something at worst" and then a pained look of hurt, anger and regret ran over the expression of the Doctor – causing Mandy to frown and put aside her own thoughts for a moment. "Wouldn't be the first time" he added bitterly.
"Huh?"
"My people fought a terrible and costly war against a race known as the Daleks"
"I know that!" Mandy said. "Every kid is told about the Battle of Canary Wharf at school. Something to do with metal men and Daleks"
"Sort of like that" the Doctor rubbed the sides of his head, "But this took part in both space and time. In the end, nearly the entire Dalek fleet surrounded Gallifrey to kill my people. But my people were almost as blood thirsty as the Daleks and I decided to…" he stopped. "Bad day, Mandy Tanner - Very bad day indeed"
"So there are other Time-Lords, yeah?" she asked.
"No, there were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story, it was a bad day, bad stuff happened and you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last minute of it, but I don't. Now, I have to decide what to do with you"
"What do you mean?"
"Well you know what happens with the Star Whale, so that leaves me with only a few options"
"Like what?"
"Well I can take you back in time and leave you to die when the time comes, I can take you to one of the other colonies and let them take you in or I could…"
"Could what?" asked Mandy as she let her legs straighten.
"Or I could let you travel with me" the Doctor grinned.
"With you?" Mandy frowned.
"You'd be the smallest companion, but certainly not the most unintelligent. There have been plenty of people travelling with me over the years, right old girl?"
"I'm not old" Mandy protested. She would have said something else but there was a warm breeze around her and the Doctor which puzzled her.
"Ah yes, should have said… The TARDIS is alive. Well not really. Well sort of. Well sort of not and is really"
"I don't understand"
"I don't sometimes" the Doctor admitted. "Soooooooooo" he drew the word out, "What do you want to do?" and Mandy thought as hard as she had ever had to do in her short life. She didn't really want to die at all, and the thought of being put on another of the colonies was too bizarre to her.
"May I stay with you please?" she asked.
"Of course you can" the Doctor looked into the middle of the control room. "What do you think, old girl?" and the TARDIS lights blinked in a strange pattern and warm air flowed round their feet.
"I guess she likes me" Mandy smiled despite the very recent events.
"She likes children" the Doctor replied. "Although I think she is reminded of Susan…"
"Can I ask you for one thing?"
"Just the one?"
"Well it is sort of big" Mandy suddenly wondered if it was a good idea to mess around with Time. From what the Doctor said, it was very important not to play around with it.
"'kay… what?"
"You said that you can't go back and save people, right?"
"Yes" the pain flash over the Doctor's face again.
"Can we at least go back and get my things? I don't suppose any of the ladys' things would fit me"
"I don't suppose that's too bad" the Doctor thought about it. "We can only do this once, though Mandy. I did many trips to the past for the same event once before, but it didn't work out very well"
"Bad things happen?"
"You catch on fast" the Doctor pulled Mandy to her feet and put one arm around her in a comforting hug. "You know, I can't change the rules but I can bend them a little"
#
"Am I doing the right thing?" asked the Doctor.
The air was warm…
"Amy waited for so long for me to come back, and now she dies after they made the wrong choice. Should I bend the rules and get her away?"
The air turned cold…
"Maybe I could do both… She is supposed to die, that much is certain, but perhaps it is not meant to be here. Maybe if I got her off the ship, back to Leavenworth and then came back here for Mandy everything would be alright"
The air was lukewarm…
"Oh come on, old girl!" the Doctor protested loudly at the vast ceiling of the TARDIS. "I've done so much that time and space owe me a few favours"
The air became slightly warmer…
"I can't tell Amy what to do with her life, but perhaps I can give a few hints for her future"
The air became more warm…
"I've followed enough rules in my time – perhaps it is time we misbehaved eh, old girl?"
The air became very warm indeed…
"I thought you might agree to that" the Doctor laughed. "Now, to find a point in time that Amy wasn't near me…" he bent to the console and started working.
The air became even warmer for a moment before dropping to a more comfortable level…
"You old softie…"
#
"I thought you had gone" said Mandy. "I looked over all of the levels but I couldn't see you. I… I was thinking I'd die"
"No… I had to take somebody home first" the Doctor replied, looking at all the boxes laying over the room. A small room with a bed was against one wall and a couple of shelves filled another. A large wardrobe and inset drawers lined yet another. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asked the Doctor. "Once you leave you can never come back again…"
"I'm sure" said Mandy. "I want to see everything I can" she added, "But I know it will be hard to get over what is going to happen" and the Doctor nodded.
"It was the same for me all those hundreds of years ago…" he admitted. "I used to stay awake at night thinking and wondering if I had done the right thing in leaving and taking my beloved Susan with me"
"I guess you liked her"
"She was… is my Granddaughter... Of course I like her. I only wish that I could visit her, but its one of those bad things, Mandy… A very bad thing indeed" and Mandy understood what he meant.
"Where am I going to sleep?" she asked. "I saw some corridors going away, but they didn't look as if they were going to any bedrooms. I suppose I could sleep on the floor" she added, smoothing out her uniform that she was still wearing.
"On the floor? On the floor?" the Doctor protested loudly. "I'm sure the TARDIS can find you a room or even make you one if you'd like – she's quite clever about that you know. She once made me a bedroom in the shape of an enormous bedroom"
"Right" Mandy suppressed a laugh and settled for a smile. "You sound mad"
"Oh I'm quite mad really" the Doctor grinned at her. "I'm really quite mad" and he picked up a box and carried it inside the time machine. "Have you got anything?" he asked the girl as he came back out. "Once you've left here you can never return" and Mandy nodded sadly.
"How long until…"
"Four hours" the Doctor replied. "Why?"
"Can I spend it with my family?" Mandy asked. The Doctor was about to say something when she added "But I promise not to tell them what is going to happen" and the Doctor sighed.
"Perhaps I might be able to do something to help you" he said, making up his mind to change history a little. "Go and find your family and your closest friends and bring them back here"
"Why?"
"There are rules about time, Mandy – but rules can be broken! I've searched all of time and space for what happened to Starship UK and it was never decided how many died and how many found a way off before the Star Whale broke the colony off its back"
"Right?"
"I could take a few people off in the TARDIS to a nearby habitable planet to set up a home there"
"How many?"
"Two or three families should not be missed" the Doctor said. "I would take more but I am breaking the rules even for this, so I don't want a wibbly wobbly timey whimey explosion"
"That a bad thing?"
"Very bad, but even more so for you. Even saving your family and a few others, you can't go with them"
"I thought that might be the case" Mandy replied sadly. She picked up a box and carried it inside the TARDIS and placed it with the others next to the central console. As she stood up, the phone started ringing and she picked it up. "Hello? Doctor? There's somebody calling you"
"Who is it?" he asked.
"Who is it? Say's he is the Prime Minister"
"Which one?"
"Oh, sorry… Um, but which one are you?" and Mandy's eyes widened. "He says he's Winston Churchill"
"Winnie?" the Doctor dropped a box of books and took the phone off the girl. Mandy watched as the Doctor talked for several minutes to the person on the other end of the phone before he slammed it down on the holder. "That man keeps asking me to interfere in his battles…" he muttered.
"Excuse me, Mr Doctor"
"Just the Doctor – no Mr… Mr makes me sound old"
"But you are old"
"I'm only 900 odd years old"
"That's old enough" Mandy insisted with a wrinkle of her nose.
"You sound like Donna. She was another of my Companions, Mandy, but one I can never visit again"
"Why?"
"Think of a water balloon that's full of water. Actually, that's a rubbish idea – think of something else but if it helps, think of a water balloon"
"Water balloon – right"
"What happens when you fill one too much?"
"It bursts?" Mandy was hesitant.
"Exactly… Donna's head became so full of information that I had to take away her memories of me, this old girl and the travels she had with me. Bad day. Now, let's get these boxes in and then we'll see what we can do about saving people"
"Have you ever had a good day?"
"November 23rd 1963" the Doctor replied. "Round about quarter past five I think"
"That's precise timing"
"Yeah, I know… I'm a Time Lord – deal with it. Right then" he clapped his hands together "Let's find you a room" and he picked up the remaining boxes and carried them into the TARDIS. "Oh, I should tell you this now and not later over your body"
"Body?" Mandy stared at the Doctor.
"Ah yes… Really shouldn't the children like that – makes them scared and not wanting to eat fish fingers. Anyway, moving on… There are rooms and rooms and rooms in the TARDIS. So many, in fact, that I often think I haven't found all of them just yet. Some of the rooms have stuff you shouldn't mess around with such as Ace's old cans of Nitro-9, Leela's weapons, Jack's old guns… I'll put up a sticker or something to remind you. There's also lots of labs here and lots of rooms were dangerous chemicals, animals and devices are kept safe and out of sight and mind – never go in there" and Mandy nodded at the warning. If she was going to leave her family and travel with the Doctor, she promised herself to be the best girl ever.
"How will I know which ones not to go into?" she asked.
"You don't at first, but the old girl here simply will not let you inside them until you are much older" the Doctor patted the console affectionately. Mandy was beginning to wonder if the Doctor was somewhat mad or the TARDIS was, perhaps, alive. "I have to do some stuff that's important – actually its not important its really rather boring, but its also important… Why don't you go and find your room?"
"How do I find it?" asked Mandy.
"You'll know because the TARDIS will make a door appear for you when she thinks she has the perfect room for you. Plus, if you want something adding, it'll be in the TARDIS storage rooms so just ask aloud"
"Ask aloud? Now that's silly"
"Really?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Whats your favourite Ice Cream?"
"Strawberry" Mandy replied.
"Any chance, old girl?" and Mandy frowned, looked down and saw a perfect bowl of Ice Cream sitting on one of the boxes as if it had always been there.
"That's magic" she breathed.
"I like to think so" the Doctor smiled. "Now, Mandy, you take your magical Ice Cream and have a little look around the TARDIS – I need to do my complicated, important and not so important things"
"Okay, Doctor" and the girl stepped down from the console and headed out one of the doorways. The Doctor watched and waited for the footsteps to recede before picking up the console phone and dialing a number.
"Martha? Are you busy about two days from now around half past ten in the morning?" he listened to the reply. "I need your help with something? No… You're not going off on another crazy adventure, but I just need your professional help. No, Martha, I am not sick at all – Time Lords are very robust you know. I just need you to give your professional opinion on somebody that's travelling with me now. Okay? Bye, Martha" he put the phone down and stroked the console of the TARDIS. "Do you think that we could make her happy, old girl?" he asked. "That's no answer…!" he muttered as the TARDIS flickered lights in the room and blew warm air around him. "I'm taking her from her home and all that she knows to live with me – she's never going to come home. Will she hate me for it? Am I doing the right thing?" and there was a pause as the Doctor thought and then a screen lit up and displayed a single word.
Yes
"Why do you never do that normally?" he asked.
I prefer my normal manner
"You do! Of course you do! You wouldn't be the TARDIS otherwise"
The TARDIS, not for the first time, wondered why she ever thought about stealing the Doctor all those centuries ago…
A/N:
Well I hope you liked the first chapter of the new fic.
For those who might have forgotten, Mandy Tanner was the little girl that helped both the Doctor and Amy in "The Beast Below" – the one with the Star Whale. At the end of the episode there was a question that either made the Whale leave the colony or stay "alive" but also "dead". The leaving option would result in the Starship UK colony being destroyed. I wondered what would happen if that choice was selected but Amy died and instead managed to save Mandy – to whom he extended an offer of Companionship after he tells her she can never go back to what she knew.
Past happenings include references to past TARDIS occupants, past stories and how the Doctor supposedly left Gallifrey.
The Doctor bending time to go back and change a little bit of history is based on the events of "Fathers Day" when Roses saves her father from death and ends up causing issues. However, if there was never any certainty as to who lived and died in Starship UK's breakup, then he could get away with saving a fair amount of people - and, as he mentioned to Mandy and the TARDIS, time owes him a couple
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Regards,
Pixel and Stephanie Forever