It was relatively quiet in the TARDIS, the Doctor was in the control room attempting to fix K-9 for what seemed like the 5th or 6th time. He had the manual next to him but he wasn't looking at it, the Doctor always got frustrated by manual's, he preferred to do his own thing. Romana wandered in reading a book, she wasn't really watching where she was going and incidentally she tripped over and fell straight on her face. Her fall made a large bang and broke the Doctor away from his work.
"Oh, Romana, I do wish you would keep quiet." The Doctor sighed, he turned to find Romana entangled in a long scarf on the floor. "Are you alright?"
"I would be, if you wouldn't leave your scarf on the floor," Romana exclaimed as the Doctor helped her out of the mess she was in.
Once Romana was free the Doctor went back to his work on K-9 as Romana hanged his scarf on the cloak wrack. She turned to find a bright yellow-white light by the wall. It looked like some kind of portal was opening up, right inside the TARDIS.
"Doctor?" Romana asked as she walked towards it.
"Not now Romana," The Doctor said busily.
Romana continued to look at the portal and suddenly a little girl fell out of it. The portal closed behind her immediately and she was left on the floor. Romana quickly rushed to the girl only to find her unconscious.
"Doctor, I really think you should see this," Romana said.
She brushed the girl's hair out her face and checked her pulse in her neck, it was a double pulse but it was constant and at a reasonably good level. Romana then placed her hand on the girl's forehead and her temperature wasn't out of the ordinary.
The Doctor finally pulled himself away from his work and gasped when he turned to see the girl now in the TARDIS. He walked over and bent down next to Romana.
"How did this happen?" He asked.
"There was some kind of portal and she just fell through," Romana paused, "She's got a double pulse too, but I think she's alright."
"Double pulse you say?" The Doctor asked as he checked himself. He withdrew his hand and placed in on his chin as he thought. "I don't see how this could have happened."
He got up and began to check various components on the TARDIS. Romana picked the girl up and cradled her in her arms.
"I'm just going to take her to the sick-bay and make sure she's not hurt," Romana informed him as she walked past.
"A-ha!" The Doctor exclaimed. "The TARDIS' shields went down for less than a second, long enough for her to come through,"
"But how did she get here?" Romana asked. "It's just not possible,"
"Oh don't say that Romana. It's just improbable. Perhaps you could run a scan on her whilst she's in sick bay, you know species and all that?" The Doctor said whilst he went about checking various things that might lead him to some conclusion of the events.
Romana just nodded and carried the girl to sick bay. She laid the girl carefully on the bed and carefully scanned her, first for injury and then for species. She was just carrying out the species identification when she heard a soft groan.
Romana turned round to see that the girl was waking up. She carefully sat on the edge of the bed and smiled sweetly, she placed her hand on the girl's head and stroked her hair.
"It's alright, your safe," She cooed.
"Romana?" The girl asked.
"How do you know me?" Romana asked, but she was interrupted by the machine which beeped.
Romana wandered over to the screen. She read the Gallifreyan writing, the girl was healthy, gender: female, age: 55, species: Time Lord.
"You're a Time Lord?" Romana asked and went back to sitting on the bed.
"Yes, so are you." The girl said rather confused.
"Yes, but how do you know?" Romana asked.
"You're friends with my parents, don't you remember me?" The girl said sadly.
"I'm afraid I don't, sorry," Romana said, "What's your name?"
"Arianna," The girl replied.
"Arianna, that's a lovely name, rather unusual for a Time Lord," Romana stated.
"Yes, it's from Earth, my father choose it." Arianna said.
"Your father was fond of Earth?"
"Yes, my mother liked it too, but my father had visited it a lot," Arianna said.
Romana helped her out of the bed and onto her feet.
"Where am I?" Arianna asked.
"On the TARDIS," Romana said.
"But I was on the TARDIS a minute ago, and it didn't look like this, and you weren't there," Arianna trailed off.
"That explains it, you must have been on a future TARDIS or a past TARDIS and the shields must have been down there too and you just slipped through." Romana thought out loud.
"I've never heard of that happening before," Arianna said.
"No, neither have I, but there's no other plausible explanation I can think of right now." Romana said.
"Romana, have you found out anything?" The Doctor came striding in.
Before Romana had answered the girl ran to the Doctor and gave him a big hug, although she was only small so she was effectively hugging his legs.
"Romana, could you explain to me why there's a girl attached to my legs?" The Doctor asked.
He patted the girl on the head awkwardly.
"But… Daddy?" She asked.
The Doctor frowned, he and Romana exchanged looks before he bent down and took the girl by her shoulders gently.
"I'm not your father," The Doctor said, he saw her eyes beginning to water.
"I know you've regenerated, I don't know how, but it's still you right?" She asked tearfully.
"Regenerated? Goodness no, I've been like this for a long time. And I'm afraid either way I'm still not your father." He said.
Arianna backed away from him shaking her head, she sat against the wall and hugged her knee's tightly to herself. The Doctor looked to Romana and was about to ask her something when he realised she wasn't even watching them, instead she was fiddling with the computer.
"Romana, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
Romana ignored his question, "She's a Time Lord, yet she has a name from Earth and she said she was just on the TARDIS, but a different one, a few minutes ago."
"So she fell through…" The Doctor began before he turned to her and asked her again, "That still doesn't explain what you're doing,"
"I'm running a DNA scan," Romana paused and turned to him, "She said her father chose her name, and I only know one Time Lord who would give his child an Earth name."
"What me?" The Doctor exclaimed whilst pointing to himself and emphasising the 'me'.
Romana nodded and turned back to the screen.
"But I'd know if I had a daughter," The Doctor said.
"Not if she was from the future," Romana said. She completed the scan, "There it is, she's definitely your daughter,"
"But of course," The Doctor's eyes widened. "From the future, that would explain why she recognises me even though I'm from before she was even born."
"Biological instinct, in the future you're her father so she can recognise any of your regenerations, the natural instinct so you always share that family bond, she couldn't know you were from her past." Romana said.
"But that shouldn't happen, surely." The Doctor said whilst looking at the screen closer. "You can't just wander right into the past of your parents."
"The shields were down for less than a second, long enough for her to fall through, it shouldn't happen, but it did." Romana said.
Arianna let out an involuntary sob. And Romana looked at the Doctor as if to say, 'you do something'.
'Me?' he mimed back. Which received a very sharp nod from Romana.
The Doctor sighed and walked over to Arianna.
"It's alright, you're safe, nothing's going to hurt you here." He said gently as he crouched in front of her.
"I want to go home," She cried.
"I know, I'm sorry," The Doctor said.
"Well we can't just take her back to Gallifrey, she'll be out of her time zone, and it's against the law to travel into Gallifrey's future, goodness' knows what problems that would cause." Romana sighed.
"Yes, but she was on the TARDIS." The Doctor said to Romana, he turned back to Arianna, "Do you mean home, as in the TARDIS?"
"Yes," Arianna mumbled.
"Right," Romana said, "Well that's not any easier to do,"
"Hmm," The Doctor murmured, "Why would future me, let you live on the TARDIS?"
Arianna looked away and kept crying. Romana gave him another one of those 'you're her father, do something' looks. The Doctor crouched there for a bit before spontaneously jumping up. He held out his hand for Arianna.
"Come on, let's get you a drink," He said
Arianna nodded and took his hand. She followed him into the kitchen and waited patiently and silently for him to fetch a drink. Once the glass was full he bent down and gave it to her, she drank it quite quickly.
"You want another one?" He asked rather shocked at how thirsty she was.
She shook her head and handed back the glass.
The Doctor took it from her and placed it on the side, he turned back to her only to find more tears running down her cheeks. He sighed and gently picked her up, she clung to him tightly and rested her head against his chest.
"It's alright, I've got you," He tried to comfort her.
He softly stroked her back and carried her to the main console room where he found a comfy chair and sat in it, with Arianna on his lap. He cradled her in his arms and it wasn't long before she fell asleep. He gazed at her and wiped her tears with his thumb.
"You are an adorable little thing, aren't you…" He said quietly.
"Yes she is," Romana came in.
"Shh!" The Doctor said and Romana realised she was sleeping.
"I wonder who her mother is?" She whispered.
"So do I," The Doctor whispered back.
"Well, I know it's not me," Romana said almost as if she was thankful, "She wouldn't have called me Romana if I were."
"That's true, who else could it be? Very few Time Lords can stand me at all. Let alone marry me and have my child." The Doctor said and looked down at Arianna who was sleeping peacefully.
"You might not be married, you might have just loomed a child," Romana said.
"Why would I do that? No, I know myself, I would only have a child if I was married, but that still leaves the fact of whom to." The Doctor concluded.
"I suppose you'll just have to wait and see." Romana said. "But we should focus on getting her back. The future you is probably worried."
The Doctor looked back down at Arianna, "More than worried, I should imagine."