This is basically a filler scene, a real quickie, in
between "Castrovalva" and "Four to Doomsday"--I basically
did it as a writing exercise, to see how well I could characterize the 5th
Doctor and Tegan (hard characters to write for, I've found). So if you could tell me how close I got,
it'd be much appreciated (yeah, I know, they're not arguing for once--this is
early in their acquaintance, all right?).
*grin* Anyway, don't own the Doc
or the Aussie, don't own the TARDIS; the Beeb does (but all that will change
when I take over the world, yes it will...hmm, perhaps I shouldn't have
mentioned that), and I make no money off this.
Pity, I could do with the extra cash...
The Origins of a Brave Heart
She'd come to the cloister room to
be alone. Funny, that--you'd think
seeing this particular room again so soon after not being able to get away from
it would drive her batty. But there was
too much going on in her head for her to worry about where in particular she did
her thinking.
Unfortunately she wasn't thinking
right now. She was reacting again,
dammit. The first real chance she'd had
to consider, work through everything that had happened between accidentally
joining the Doctor and leaving Castrovalva, and instead of being logical about
it all, she was letting her emotions get to her again.
Her aunt was dead. She'd been pulled away from her life, her
future career, her bloody planet, and
thrown into an impossible-to-understand position. She was out of her league and couldn't even admit it to anyone.
And she was damned if the brat, the
kid, or the all-mighty Time Lord were going to see her cry.
So at her first opportunity after
getting back to the TARDIS she'd slipped away from the others in the console
room and found herself here--hopefully far enough away and isolated enough that
the others wouldn't find her. Or even
think to look for her here. If they
came looking at all, for that matter.
She'd sat down on the bench in the center of the room, slipped her
aching feet out of her heels, and now her knees were drawn up to her body and
tears were sliding down and tickling the tip of her nose. Silence pervaded the room, a comforting
silence that didn't ask to intrude on her problems.
The Doctor strode into the room, a
pensive look on his youthful face. He
stopped when he saw Tegan, his expression sliding into unreadable mode.
She sat up as soon as she heard
footsteps, knowing who had entered the room even though her back was to
him. She put her feet on the floor,
next to where she'd dropped her shoes.
"You can come in, you know," she said, trying her damndest not
to sniffle.
"You don't mind?" His
voice had a slightly breathless quality, almost unnoticeable, of nervousness
and concern.
"It's your ship," she
pointed out.
He walked around so he could face
her. "Are you all right?" he
asked.
"I'm fine," she said
stubbornly, refusing to look up and meet his eye in case he saw the tears in
her eyes. Rabbits she thought in self-disgust.
He sighed and sat down on the bench
next to her, staring at the pillar in front of him. She also stared straight ahead, furiously. There was a pause, awkward on the part of
the Doctor's, angry and unhelpful on the part of Tegan's.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Events overtook you. Events overtook me, and you were rather caught up in things
unexpectedly." He turned to give
her a hopeful smile, but it faded when she again refused to look at him or
soften her expression. He faced the pillar
again in defeat. "I promise to get
you home, Tegan," he said softly.
"I just don't understand,"
she said. "My life was normal
until you showed up! And now all of a
sudden there's spaceships and aliens and other planets, and my Auntie Vanessa's
dead, and you're switching bodies like I would a pair of shoes--" Tears started streaming down her face again
and she rubbed at them angrily.
The Doctor placed a hand on her
shoulder sympathetically. "I'm so
sorry, Tegan," he repeated.
"But you must have a
brave heart. You must be strong and
accept things as they stand until they can be changed."
"It's not that easy," she
said with a loud sniff. "You
just--don't expect this sort of thing to happen. Not if you're human from the twentieth century you don't. I haven't had time to adjust to it; I've
just been thrown in the deep end and have to keep making do. I'm not sure I want to adjust to it."
"I'm trying to get you
home," the Doctor repeated softly.
"Thank you," she
replied. She knew she shouldn't take
her anger and frustration out on the others, not even on the Doctor. She'd gotten into this herself; she'd have
to get out of it herself. He was
right--she needed a brave heart. She had one, dammit.
She took a deep breath and glanced
to her side at him, managing a tiny smile, sniffling a wry laugh. "And thanks for coming here to talk to
me."
The Doctor smiled back, standing up
and shoving his hands into his pants pockets as he looked down at her. "You'll be all right," he told
her. "Come back to the console
room when you're ready."
She picked up her shoes, sliding
them on her feet and grabbing her bag.
"I'm ready now," she said firmly.
"Good," he grinned and
they left the room together.
