Vignette 2: Jamie McCrimmon and the TARDIS, continuation of the first.
The camera incident had all been a joke to Ben, and even though Jamie knew that it had just been Ben's way of teasing him, he was still in a very sour mood from having been utterly humiliated, and he proceeded to lock himself in his room for the rest of the day, only stepping outside to go to the TARDIS library so that the Doctor could give him his daily lessons on how to read and write.
But even the Doctor could see that Jamie's heart wasn't in the lesson, and, so, he ended it early, asking the Scot if he wanted something to eat. But Jamie's response was a sullen refusal; he wanted nothing more than to just disappear.
The Doctor would have tried to coax Jamie into talking in order to get his troubles off of his chest, but, as it was, he knew that he still had to earn the Scot's trust, and pressing the issue was not going to help.
He let him go, casting a glance up at the ceiling.
"Look after him, won't you, Old Girl?"
The TARDIS let out a quiet whirr in response.
Jamie eventually returned to his room to see a hot meal waiting for him. He briefly considered eating, but, having lost his appetite earlier, he decided against it, placing the cover back on the tray of food. To his surprise, heating coils emerged from the walls, glowing red to keep the food warm for later.
He marveled at this for a moment and then sighed, lying down on his bed.
He wanted to go home—back to his own time, to 1746, where he knew he wouldn't be ridiculed for not knowing about cameras and photographs. Even if he was going to be thrown back into the midst of the Battle of Culloden, perhaps that was where he was meant to be; he was a McCrimmon, the last of a long line of wartime pipers. With his father and brothers having fallen in battle, there was no one left to carry on the tradition now that Jamie was traveling to places and times unknown.
With a twinge of his heart, he realized how much be missed his family—and how, even if he went back, they couldn't be there to welcome him. His mother had died from illness when he had been a child; the battle had taken everyone else.
As he shut his eyes, refusing to allow his emotions to get the better of him, he vaguely became aware of the room gently rocking back and forth. At first, he thought it had been due to some unexpected turbulence that the TARDIS had encountered, but he soon realized that the rocking was in a rhythmic fashion, with purpose.
With a start, Jamie realized that it was all too reminiscent of how, in his very young childhood, his mother used to cradle him to sleep.
He looked around the room again, at the walls and ceiling, and then as the lights began to dim on their own. The gentle rocking continued, and that's when Jamie realized something simultaneously incredible and shocking—
The TARDIS was doing this for him—to try to make him feel better. The TARDIS was keeping his dinner warm for him. But that was impossible, surely; if the TARDIS was doing all of that, then…
…The TARDIS had to be alive.
And if the TARDIS was alive, then she must be the one deciding where they went during the times the Doctor complained that things were out of his hands; Jamie had suspected that, despite insistence of the contrary, the Doctor sometimes had no control over where they ended up, and this revelation suddenly explained a lot of things.
And it also opened up numerous possibilities.
"Can ye take me home?" he asked, softly. "I want to go back… Please…"
The TARDIS continued to gently rock him, dimming the lights in the room further. A low hum filled the room—a typical mechanical hum, but one that was changing pitch.
She was singing a lullaby.
Jamie tried to protest, but even as he opened his mouth, he felt himself getting sleepy. Her efforts were working.
As he drifted off, Jamie conceded that, perhaps, there was more here for him than he first thought—and certainly more than he had left behind.
Perhaps… he'd reconsider his request.