SUMMARY: Agatha Orianthe Lixue woke the next morning feeling a ton better than she usually did. True, she was given some pause at the rather cheerful 'rise and shine' from the Doctor who had apparently decided to stick around, but she didn't mind. She had a question for him that she thought he might well be the only person who could answer. Eventually I WILL be giving Rose back to him, just warning you.
Teasing and Hard Questions
She was awake and not nearly as stiff as she had expected to be as she began to roll out of bed and into her scooter. As she settled onto the seat and reached around to unplug it from where she'd had it charging for most of the previous day, she snorted at the 'dream' she'd had. The Doctor. Here. Yeah, right. Would've been nice, but...no. She wasn't quite that far gone yet.
"Ah, I thought I heard you up and about in here." She heard and froze, her upper body following her head to the side and around to stare at the man standing behind her.
"Guess it wasn't a dream." She said in disbelief, tugging absently at the cord to get the spring loaded thing to pull back into it's compartment.
"No. Not at all." He seemed a little nervous. His next comment told her why. "I soniced you while you slept, you will probably be less sore or stiff now. You looked like you were in a great deal of pain last night before you laid down so I scanned you...I'll be able to help more once I have you in my MedBay."
"Huh. Don't know if I trust that...anyone who's familiar with that show knows that's your usename, more of a callsign than anything...and that you're not a medical professional."
"Well, that's true enough, at least about not being a medical doctor, per se, but as many humans as I've had about, for as long as they've been about...I can certainly heal anything on one that isn't life threatening and a great many of the things that are as well."
"Really? I rather thought the TARDIS was just telling you what and how to do that."
"OI! I'm not that useless as a healer, you know!"
She made them both breakfast and he asked questions during the meal, answering the few she put to him, more because they were strangely educated questions due to the show that was...and wasn't...his biography.
"It's rather strange cuz my luck doesn't usually run this good...so I have ask...who or what is chasing you?"
"Oi! Nothing."
"Seriously? Nothing? You?"
"Hey, I'm not always being pursued by something vicious."
"True. Sometimes it's just fan girls on a mission...only apparently, you didn't know that those adore you."
"Really? What's their mission?"
"Usually? To get you naked."
He stared at her until he realized she was serious, then snorted amusement at her. She just shrugged at him, but the mood shifted away from humor and he was looking at her seriously.
"What?" She asked, her voice rather low and he suspected she knew what was coming.
"I can't leave you here. Not in your physical condition."
"I could see that coming yesterday." She grinned. "I've got pets, in case you hadn't noticed. And plants...a whole town full of them. Where I go, they go. All the animals and plants need to be loaded...so it's a good thing that the TARDIS is huge. Do that and I won't fuss."
"Plants...all those pots?"
"And all my pets...yes."
"You drive a hard bargain for someone trying to do you some good."
"Yes. And?"
He sighed. "My TARDIS, full of furry things. The plants aren't an issue, there's garden space for those. But..."
"I can stay right here if you want me to. I'm not going off with you and let my critters starve to death with no one here to feed them."
"You just had to put it like that, didn't you?"
"Seemed to be the fastest road to common sense from you, yes."
He blew out his breath and gave a sharp nod. "Anything else?"
"Livestock needs to be turned loose so they don't overgraze limited pastures or run out of water, leaving them like they are would be cruel. Big animals I'm not concerned with, really, with the exception of a few orphans that I'm bottle rearing...since once they're free to roam about and find their own food and water they will do so, but those dogs I have and my house-cats come with us."
"Wait, you said you had some orphaned livestock on bottles...you don't mean..." He groaned at her nod. "Alrighty then." He told her, annoyance clear in his voice.
"Don't do that, never ever use that phrase again, particularly in that tone. You sounded like Ace Ventura, Pet Detective." She told him, grinning at his wince. "Given that you've got someone here who is well aware that if you were to evenly blend your tenth with your eleventh, you'd get uncomfortably close to the look, as well? Don't push it. Who knows? I might be tempted to share that thought with someone."
"Ew." He stated firmly. "You just had to point that out, I could've finished out my lives without having that pointed out to me. Gross."
"Well, between Tenth's bouncy, Bambi thing and Eleventh's hair...or should we call that a forelock? Like a pony's, yes? Never mind 'Chinny', try Ponyboy."
"Bouncy Bambi...?" He repeated in disbelief. "Ponyboy?"
"You never noticed?" She grinned. "Why do you think Jackie went from slapping Ninth to hugging your neck as Tenth? Your Tenth body was too adorable for words. If she was nice, she got you to press your pajama clad self against her...you do know we could see your rather snugly clad bum...and your underwear through the pajamas? And this is Jackie we're discussing? Ulterior motives on her part, I promise you."
"Rose did seem to be pushing her mum away from me and getting in pretty close there for a while. Frequently..." He paled for a moment, then got up and headed out to get the yard truck. "I think I'll get busy getting the pots in the TARDIS." He mumbled, leaving Agatha grinning and shaking her head after him.
"Oblivious, that's what he is." Agatha chuckled to herself as she rolled her chair to a storage room that had some empty suitcases stored in it. "Megawatt brain, yes, but I really don't think he turns it on all that often. Not sure how much good having it does him if he doesn't actually use it." Outside the open window, the TARDIS stood with her doors open, safe enough without anyone else there, and heard the remark. She tinkled laughter to herself, agreeing with the woman while she readied gardens and living areas for animals. She had also enjoyed her Thief's reaction to being referred to as a 'bouncy Bambi'. She liked the Ponyboy for his Eleventh even more. Because the woman was correct on both counts...he had been. The TARDIS was looking forward to whatever nickname the woman came up with for this version of her Thief. It was bound to be both entertaining and dead on target.
"She gave you windows, three big ones, she seldom does that." The 12th Doctor commented from the hallway door a week later.
"I can't stand or walk far, the scooter is bulky...and I need something to look at besides walls." She turned her head, smiling a little. "She's never had to deal with a disabled human, has she? She's very thoughtful, though and it's appreciated."
He leaned against the door frame and said reassuringly, "The medicines I'm giving you in your food should relieve the arthritis and other joint and connective tissue issues within a few weeks. Your conditions are well advanced, though, so it's as well we've got access to the vortex for your healing. This is going to take some time. I'll admit to being rather surprised you got around as well as you did, once I saw the test results."
"Had to. Wasn't anyone else around to do it so I didn't really have much choice. And the yard truck helped a lot." She told him, scooting from the deep-seated, padded chair next to the flowing stream of the vortex outside her windows to her scooter so she could join him at the door. It took a moment of wrestling with her cane to get into the scooter's seat, but he merely watched from the door. He'd already discovered she didn't like much fussing. She patted his hand and simply told him, "One must make do, as best one can, with what one has, Doctor." She accepted his minor nod of agreement as he backed away from the door to let her into the corridor. It was wider than it had been, to accommodate the scooter she needed to be able to move.
"I've never had a mobility challenged companion, you know."
"Doctor, you enjoy fussing. I'll allow a bit as long as you don't go too hog wild with it." She told him. "If you do, though, I'm likely going to have to start pranking you a bit...as a reminder."
"Pranks? Not fair, I can't prank a crippled woman!"
"Very true...you're pretty healthy though, so there's nothing stopping me if you become annoying."
"Oi!" He glared briefly. He finally sighed, glaring down at a touch on his ankle as one of the cats wrapped around his leg. There were thirty of them, eighteen dogs and six nursing foals in a stable the TARDIS had made for them...though the cats and dogs were all over the place. "By the way, I've found a stable that breeds this breed on a human colony world...they'd love to take them, old blood you just can't find in a live animal anymore. It makes them priceless."
"Well, that's good. I'll be retaining half ownership, mind you, but since these are all colts, that's six eventual studs."
"I told them, they were in shock. Okay, on to other things." He smiled at her. He loved asking this one. "What would you like to see?" He realize a moment later that he probably shouldn't have lumped Aga with the rest of his companions...she'd been atypical right from the start...and even his precious Rose hadn't had an answer ready for him the first time.
"Earth's World Tree."
"The World Tree? I don't think I've ever seen that myself." He thought about it. "World Tree. There's a lot of interesting lore about it, too."
"Like that you can not only touch and see, but reach every Earth in creation from it's branches?"
He paused. "Every single one?"
"Do you know what's always baffled me?"
"No. What has always baffled you?"
"How did Tyler survive long enough to do you any good unless the TARDIS altered her DNA? After all, she devolved Margaret to an egg, why couldn't she Evolve Rose to something more? I want to find the World Tree so you can check to see if she outlived the clone or not...cuz if she did and she hasn't aged a day, you probably need to retrieve her." Agatha pushed the 'go' button on her scooter and headed toward the kitchen. "Before someone decides she'd have her best uses as an experimental animal. Do remember to ask your ship if she did indeed tamper."
He barely held back the deep moan of dread that wanted to sound as he got an affirmative from Sexy. He could understand why the woman was baffled. It made sense for that question to baffle the mind. He couldn't imagine why he hadn't thought of it before now.
"By the way," He said instead. "What's your name?"
"Agatha Orianthe Lixue." She answered. "Usually go by Aga." My parents were third generation Greeks and so the name given to me was both pretty and traditional. The Doctor mentioned as much a moment later, and after a few moments of quiet, he answered my other observation.
"I think you're right, about Rose, I mean. Finding the World Tree would allow me to traverse the multiverse safely, with no threats to the universal fabric or to Time. I should have thought of it before."
"Yes, well...genius you may be, but you are still male. That big old brain doesn't do you much good unless you use it, you know."
"Oi! Rude! I thought my Tenth was rude...but you...you're something else again."
"Yes, but honest. I'll tell you things you need to hear whether or not you want to. True, that'll set off some brooding, but if you turn the brooding into meditation instead, you might get something useful from it. My body is useless and it has been so for a good while now, so I got into the habit of thinking a great deal instead. Now, if we can just get you into the same habit, we'll have something."
"Very rude."
"Very American, too. Don't make the error of expecting English manners from me. You'll be setting yourself up for unpleasant shocks if you do that. Americans tended to have very little patience for people who don't exercise plain, old fashioned, common sense. You will learn to use it, it will keep you out of more trouble than you realize."
"Rude and not English, noted." He still reached out to help her from her scooter to one of the chairs at the kitchen table. "Still, arguing with honesty is pointless. And you're only trying to help."
"True." She smiled as he brought out warmed food from the many metric tons he'd taken from the freezers before they'd left Earth. No sense in wasting food, after all. She noted it was done properly and patted the wall in affection.
"Are you the reason my timeship ignores my cooking directions?"
"Yes. I told her all the packages were labeled and just use those directions instead of your's since I know how to cook and you don't. The first night showed me that if I want to eat decently, I need to make sure you don't get anywhere near the food before it's heated." She smiled. "This means that our food will be edible instead of caked in charcoal and far too crunchy."
"Would you like to meet Jack?" He offered, a grin that held a bit of a threat in it was showing on his face.
"Actually, yes, I do think I would, but not until you've had time to deal with the other issue. I think I'll spend some time in your media room while you're looking into the World Tree thing, since you're going to have to identify it before you can start looking for the Door."
"I want her back in my life...so much so that I can taste it."
"I know you do, poor little love."She patted his hand. "'Tis why I suggested it." She was aware that until he had investigated all avenues of research, he'd be little good for anything else. She only hoped he found the Tree soon...and with it, his ability to traverse the universes freely, soon.
"Little love?"
"Did I mention I get a bit mushy with my muses?"
"I'm not a muse."
"Hmmm. Yes, well...just because I didn't know you were real and do now doesn't mean you're not a very solid inspiration and you always have been...and that's all a muse really is. Inspiration."
He stared at her unable to think of a reply right away, then flushed a little as he spoke quietly. "Thank you."
"I do believe this form is much, much closer to the first, oh, hundred and fifty or so years of your Eighth. Very close to the surface, that you." She squeezed his hand gently. "And you need coddling. And then too, Eighth got a bum deal...keep him close and I'll make sure he feels better. There is this, too...if we can find the Tree and you can get Rose back, she'll provide the leash leaving me free to spoil you rotten. Until then...double duty for me but don't let the disabilities fool you. All you really need is someone to make you think when you don't want to...and a few bone-jarring insults will do that just fine."
He thought about that and just groaned as he nodded.
"You'll be okay. Alright? None of your forms as far as I can tell have had any common sense...so you'll be using mine. I can share, I've got tons."
TBC
