The Doctor hesitated in front of Kathryn's bedroom door. He wasn't exactly sure about all this, but the TARDIS had made her opinion on the subject very clear. After what had happened during the American Revolution, and several other incidents afterwards, it was obvious what the TARDIS wanted the Doctor to do with Kathryn.
He'd tried to reason with the old girl, telling her he was too old for something like that, he hadn't known Kathryn for nearly long enough, and she should probably grow up first. However, the Type-40 was adamant.
Now to tell Kathryn about it.
He reached up to knock on her door when he was interrupted by the sound of panicked running. He heard shouts, then a loud crash. Fearing the worst—it was Kathryn after all—the Doctor opened her door.
Kathryn was standing in the center of her rather large room. She had streaks of dirt and mud on her clothes and face, notes jotted on the inside of her left arm, and her short red hair had small bits of grass stuck in it. She was glaring steadily at an un-potted plant that she was holding at eye level.
"Kathryn? What happened?" The Doctor stepped forward, only to look down when something crunched under his foot. Shards of a clay flower pot were scattered in front of the bedroom door.
"Kathryn?" the Doctor repeated, his tone less worried and more curious. "What happened?"
"Floyd got lose."
"Floyd?"
She held the plant out towards him. It looked like a closed bud on a long thick stem. The plant was about a foot and a half tall and had green splotches all over its red skin. The Doctor blinked.
"Floyd is a plant," he said.
"Yeah. Who else would Floyd be?"
"I heard something running."
"Yeah. Floyd."
"How…" The Doctor shook his head. "You know what? Never mind. Just…put him back where you got him—"
"I grew him, thank you very much."
"You…grew him?"
"Yes. In my greenhouse. I have others in there too. Ruby, Bartholomew, Fredric, Anita…great company."
The Doctor stared at Kathryn for a long moment. "Right. I'm going to save my sanity and not ask."
"I was bored!" Kathryn defended herself. "I go a little off when I'm inactive, and you haven't flown us any place for the past week! Even for the two weeks before that you took us to really dull state parks."
"Being chased by a bear is not dull Kathryn."
"Compared to extra-terrestrials it is."
The Doctor studied Kathryn again. "You really want to go someplace."
"No duh Ping-Pong," Kathryn said, giving him a look. "I live on a time ship. Of course I want to go someplace."
The Doctor smiled. "Then get changed. Something you can focus in. You have some stuff to learn."
"Learn?"
"I'm going to teach you fly her."
Kathryn's eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped into a large "O." "Really?"
"Against my better judgment," the Doctor said, "the TARDIS has spoken, and I don't argue with my transport."
Kathryn beamed, shoved Floyd into the Doctor's hands and dashed into her bathroom for a shower.
The Doctor looked down at the plant. The closed bud tilted up at him and made a hissing sound.
Hastily dropping Floyd, the Doctor beat a retreat back to the console room.
"Don't chuck my plants about!"
"He was threatening me," the Doctor said without looking up from the TARDIS console. "And he called me a rather rude name."
"You speak plant."
"A few dialects. Depends on what planet they're from."
"I thought you spoke every language."
"Plants come under botany. I wasn't quite as attentive in that class."
Kathryn blinked. "I would ask you about Gallifreian schools, but I'm too scared to." She bounced over to where the Doctor was. "So, where do I start?"
"You already made some semblance of progress when you…I don't want to say flew…but it wasn't exactly crashing…"
"Splenix," she interjected.
"That's it, you splenixed it," the Doctor confirmed. He paused. "Isn't that a color?"
"A pinkish green. Seemed like it would work as an adjective."
The Doctor shrugged. "Considering pink is simply negative green, and you were neither crashing nor flying, I suppose it does. Anyway, painting aside, I'm going to try and do this with small steps."
"So that means…"
"You're only steering this time. And landing. The steering wheel and the landing."
"If it helps, I don't have my Driver's Permit yet."
The Doctor looked up at her. "Thank you," he said, sounding anything but grateful.
"Look on the bright side!" Kathryn said with a smile. "It means that you don't have to un-teach me anything."
"It's not exactly encouraging Kathryn," the Doctor informed her drolly. "Anyway, I've already put in a set of co-ordinates; all you have to do is steer. Now, take this wheel—" the Doctor pointed at a half-circle steering wheel—"and just stay between the lines on the screen here." He tapped the glass of the screen in question. Kathryn gripped the wheel and started talking.
"Take the helm and follow the Vortex Nav screen. When the light turns aquamarine, I throw the Temporal Stabilizer switch first, and then pull the Spatial one."
"Right," the Doctor confirmed.
Kathryn and the Doctor stared at each other for a moment before Kathryn spoke first—as usual. "What, I'm not even going to get asked how I know?"
"No."
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?"
Kathryn looked narrowly at the Doctor. "I kind of burst your teaching bubble there."
"I know TARDIS gave you her manual. That's one of the reasons I'm teaching you."
Kathryn pointed at the Doctor. "That's right! I wanted to ask; why don't you do what the Type-40 Instruction Manual says?"
"The instruction book is wrong."
"No it isn't."
"Who's the wise elder in this case?" the Doctor scoffed.
"I'll agree elder," Kathryn said blandly. "Wiser is still under debate."
Without warning Kathryn grabbed the starter switch and pulled it down, sending the TARDIS whirling through the vortex.
The forest was completely calm. The area resembled the redwood forest of earth, but the air was humid. A few birds sang in the heavy air, and invisible insects could be heard chirping and clicking. A bush moved as a small animal that resembled a rabbit, just with six legs, a long tail, and dingy blue fur hopped out. It nibbled at the reddish grass for a moment before its ears shot up. It sat back, knowing that something dangerous was nearby and coming closer, but not knowing what it was.
Vworp vworp vworp. Thoum.
The rabbit creature beat a hasty retreat as a large blue box materialized around a tree with a grating sound. There were sounds of arguing and scuffling inside the box before the door opened with a creak and a red-haired girl stumbled out. She glared at the box as the door slammed.
"As if you always park like an expert!"
The TARDIS faded in and out with her signature sound as the Doctor moved it a few yards to the left, leaving the tree behind without a single mark on the bark. He stepped out of the TARDIS to join Kathryn, fixing the collar on his trench coat as he did so.
"For the record, I always park correctly."
Kathryn crossed her arms, shifting her weight. "What about the time you were trying for the back garden and landed in the middle of the tennis court?"
"It was a palace!"
"There was a tennis match in progress."
"And?"
"I got hit in the head by the serve."
Kathryn frowned. "Hang on." She turned around, smelling the air. She took a few steps, leaping slightly as she did so. She turned back around to the Doctor. "Am I finally on an alien planet?"
The Doctor frowned. "Haven't I taken you to one yet?"
"No. It's always been Earth history."
"I thought we went to Mars once."
"Doesn't count. It was an Earth colony." She grinned. "But I'm finally on a different planet!" She gave the Doctor a mock frown. "And that first day on Zroink doesn't count either."
The Doctor smiled at Kathryn antics. "So then, Kathryn Moore. Where do we go on your first 'real' planet?"
Kathryn paused, thinking. "I say…" Using grand gestures, she pointed to her left. "I say we go that way."
"Sounds like a plan."
Kathryn and the Doctor walked, enjoying the area. It didn't seem to be populated, which neither of them minded. Kathryn asked the Doctor questions about some tricky linguistics and then a few things about the level of math beyond Quantum physics. However, soon she seemed to run out of questions.
It took the Doctor a little while before he noticed that Kathryn was humming. He listened harder, grinning at the tune. He joined in with the words.
Kathryn flashed the Doctor a grin, turning the humming into words.
Oooooooh
Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
And a torso even more so.
Kathryn and the Doctor danced over the tree roots, the song completely ridiculous but all the more fun because of it. They were thoroughly enjoying themselves, carefree because they could be and because no one was around to look disapproving.
Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopidia,
Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo.
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it the wreck of the Hesperus, too.
And proudly above waves the Red, White, and Blue,
You can learn a lot from Lydia.
La la la, la la la. La la la, la la la.
Before they could begin on the next verse of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady," there was a sharp snapping sound and something whistled by their noses. They pulled up short, staring at the dart that had appeared in the tree in front of them.
They looked down wind to where the dart had originated. A large group of human sized green tri-peds with guns stood a few hundred yards off, looking rather peeved. The one in front was taking another sight at them.
"We run?" Kathryn asked.
"Yes," the Doctor answered. "Run."
Kathryn and the Doctor took off down the way they had come.
*Constructive criticisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*
