DOCTOR WHO:
WHERE THE WIND TAKES US
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(Contains spoilers for "The Ghost Monument")
Graham was always taught you had to assume people were nice until they proved they were not.
So far the mysterious Doctor hadn't proven herself to be, though there were certainly traits about her that made Graham curious about what kind of turn the wind would take with her.
A part of him was protesting his decision making, as he was about to ask her something that would take the turn of conversation away from complimenting her on the miracle machinery that surrounded him.
This vessel, this TARDIS, was simply breathtaking.
And he wasn't going to focus on how magnificent it looked, or how it seemed to be surprising and delighting the Doctor in equal measure. A part of him, the one in awe of her and her surprises, was kicking himself sore for ignoring all of this to focus on something different.
"Doctor, can I ask you a bit of a personal question?" Graham asked
"Sure, fire away" she said as she took another custard cream from the TARDIS dispenser.
"Are you on the level? Are you always honest with us?" he said.
"Sure as a setting sun, well, three of them in Desolation's case" The Doctor revealed.
"I don't think you are, and I'd just like to clear that with you before we do anything else around here"
The Doctor gave him a coy look; she was keen to get to the bottom of what he was feeling.
"You got something on your mind Graham?" she said, having a poke at his nose.
"It's nothing, it's just a small matter" he said
"This TARDIS is the best way not just to see the universe, and tunnel our way through all of time, but it's also the best way to describe the reality we're all living in. Nothing's too big or too small. On the outside of this place as well as within, it's all pretty even. So get whatever it is that's hung you up off your chest"
Graham looked at her intently, taking her sun glasses he gave her on Desolation out of his pocket.
"You said these glasses were a gift from someone you met in the past...Pythagoras or some sort...but when we first met you, you said you had nothing in your pockets"
The Doctor winced, she'd been caught out.
"Ok, you got me, I do lie, but not in a way that takes advantage of anyone. A lie isn't always built to deceive; it can sometimes be used for effect, to give someone an assurance of better things to come. You took to those glasses like a bee to honey, obviously they helped put your concerns at the time to ease, and you blended into the situation like a trooper. Quite a feat for someone still in the grieving process"
Graham smiled.
"My Grace always told me, no matter how dangerous it gets, to keep your chin wagging and keep a warm'n'wicked looking smile on your face"
"Wise words, and now they belong to the echoes of all of time and space's conversations...eternity won't forget what you said, or what Grace taught you...this old girls' alive you know, it speaks to all of time and space, I reckon that, in a backwards way, or forwards, that's how the term I like to use around here came about"
"What term?"
"Temporal grace"
"I don't get it"
"Once upon a time, it was a clever lie. It might still be, depends on where the wind takes us, and that's as honest as it comes from me" The Doctor said.
Graham believed her.