Epilogue

The Doctor, Nita and Ace arrive back at the TARDIS on Bleasdale Avenue. The Doctor unlocks the door and the trio step inside.

"Tea?" he suggests.

"Yes, please!" Ace and Nita sing in unison.

They make their way to the kitchen and the Doctor begins to make them some tea. Ace and Nita sit down at the table. After the tea is made, the Doctor joins them with their mugs. He observes Nita chewing on her thumbnail, and staring into space.

"What's up, Nita?" he finally asks.

Nita starts. She didn't even notice the Doctor sitting down at the table. She takes a deep breath and looks the Doctor in the eye.

"You know how, earlier, when you asked where we wanted to go, and I said 'home', and then clarified that by saying 'the TARDIS'?" begins Nita.

"Yes," replies the Doctor, starting to feel worried.

"Well, I was thinking," continues Nita. "I've been travelling with you for two years now. I think it's about time I went home to see my family."

"Oh," the Doctor says, looking glumly into his cup of tea.

"Just for a visit," Nita clarifies quickly. "Not to stay!"

"Oh, yes, of course," replies the Doctor, relieved that Nita didn't want to leave for good.

"And I'm sure my family want to meet you and Ace," continues Nita.

"Ah…well…I'm not so good with families," the Doctor says, sheepishly.

"Neither am I, actually," puts in Ace.

"Well, they'll want to see who I've been running around the universe with," Nita insists firmly. "I want to introduce you to them."

"Oh, very well," grumbles the Doctor. "If it will make you happy."

"Ok, I suppose I can do it," sighs Ace.

"Excellent! Let's get some sleep and go in the morning," suggests Nita.

"No such thing as morning on the TARDIS," the Doctor reminds her.

"Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean," says Nita, getting up and taking her cup to the sink and washing it out. "Well I'm going to bed. The excitement of the Cheetah planet wore me out. Good night." She moves to the doorway.

"Night!" calls Ace.

"Good night, dear," says the Doctor.

The next "morning", after breakfast, the three of them assemble in the console room. Nita is very nervous about seeing her family again after two years. About a year ago, the last time that they were on Earth in her time, she had written them a letter from England, detailing what they had been doing. The Doctor had warned her that because she had sent that letter, he could not return her to the same time that she had left, as he had planned. She didn't think that was a problem, because she had left notes for her family and friends, explaining where she had gone.

Now Nita is actually going to see them again. How would they react to seeing her? Would her mother fuss, plead with her not to go again? Most likely. Would her grandfather be angry with the Doctor for taking her away? Probably. The question is, would she have the courage to leave them again? She hopes so. She really does not want to stop travelling with the Doctor.

The Doctor sets the co-ordinates for Brisbane, Australia, and pulls the dematerialisation lever.

"Hopefully this will go smoothly," he says. "The TARDIS doesn't really like short hops like this."

The time-rotor barely starts moving before it stops again. The Doctor looks at the read-out on the console. "There you are, Coopers Plains, 7th of December, 1989," he says, pulling the lever to open the door.

As the door opens, they hear a dog barking madly outside. "That'll be Manny," says Nita.

"Manny?" Ace scrunches her nose at the name.

"Short for Mandrake," Nita explains. "My cousin named him, and he was mad on Mandrake the Magician comics at the time."

"Right," says Ace, shaking her head. "Well, off you go and see your family."

"Aren't you coming?" asks Nita.

"Yeah, yeah, lead the way," replies Ace.

The Doctor and Ace follow Nita out of the TARDIS. They are in Nita's back yard, and Manny throws himself at Nita in excitement. Nita is surprised he remembers her after two years. She hears the back door of the house open, and braces herself for her mother's reaction to her arrival. As her mother walks around the corner to see what Manny is barking about, she suddenly stops on catching sight of the trio in front of the TARDIS and her mouth opens in shock.

"Nita! You're home!" she cries, running towards Nita. Nita meets her in the middle and hugs her. Manny is still barking and growling a little at the Doctor, although he seems quite happy with Ace, who is scratching his head.

"Manny, stop it!" Nita scolds him. He quiets. "Mum, this is the Doctor and Ace."

"It's an honour to meet you Mrs Llewcots," says the Doctor bowing to her.

"Hi!" says Ace, waving awkwardly.

They hear the screen door open and close again, and then Nita's grandfather comes around the corner. He stops dead in his tracks and stares at them in disbelief. "Stone the bloody crows!" he cries.

"Hello Grandad!" Nita cries, running over to give him a hug, which he joyously returns. "This is the Doctor and Ace."

"Pleased to meet you, sir," the Doctor steps forward with his hand outstretched.

Grandad just stands there staring at him, making no move to shake his hand. "You've got a nerve showing your face here after running off with my grand-daughter!" he says angrily.

"I went willingly, Grandad!" Nita defends. Oh dear, this is not going well.

"How could you do that to us?" he addresses Nita. "We were worried sick! Had the police looking for you and all!"

"But I left a note for you, telling you where I'd gone!" Nita cries.

"Oh, do you really think we'd be satisfied with that?" asks Mum, incredulously. "'I've gone travelling around the universe with my friend the Doctor in his space-ship'?" she quotes. "Like I'm going to believe that! And then, no word for a whole year! Of course we're going to think you're dead!"

Nita sighs. "I'm sorry, Mum. I had intended to come back on the same day that I had left, so you wouldn't even notice I'd been gone. But then I stupidly sent that letter to you a year ago, which meant I couldn't go back to that day."

"But nothing since?" asks Mum, in an agonized voice. "For all I knew, you could have been killed wherever you were on your travels, and I'd never know."

"Well, we haven't been back on Earth in this time since then, so I had no way of contacting you," Nita defends. "Look, can we go inside and have a cup of tea or something? And then we can talk about this calmly."

"All right, come on," Mum concedes.

They all go upstairs into the kitchen. Grandad goes to tell Grandma, who is sick in bed, that Nita has returned. She is very excited and Nita goes into her room and hugs her. Nita tells Grandma that the Doctor and Ace would like to meet her, so Grandma agrees to get out of bed and have a cup of tea in the kitchen with them.

As Grandad helps Grandma to get out of bed, Mum makes the tea and the Doctor, Nita and Ace sit at the table.

"You know, your grandmother is quite sick," says Mum. "It would be a shame if she died while you are away. Couldn't you stay home for a while and spend some time with her?"

Nita looks at the Doctor uneasily. She had been afraid that something like this would happen. "I understand how you feel, Mum. And it would be sad if that happened. But I don't want to stop living my life, just in case something happens."

"She makes a good point, though, Nita," the Doctor pipes up. "It would be useful if your family were able to contact you, should your grandmother take a turn for the worst. I might be able to come up with something. I'll have a think about it."

Grandad brings Grandma out to the kitchen in her wheelchair, and the group manages to enjoy pleasant conversation, without anyone getting angry about Nita going away again. The family catches Nita up on all the news. Aunt Desley got married. Cousin Shelley is engaged. Cousin Malcolm has a girlfriend. Nita's old boyfriend, Mal, still comes around looking for her, in case she had returned. Nita feels a bit guilty about that. She had hoped he would have moved on by now.

Nita then brings the family up-to-date with what she and the Doctor and Ace had been getting up to, purposefully leaving out any frightening parts. She tells them about the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax where the three Gods of Ragnarok force visitors to put on acts for their amusement. She fails to mention that those that fail to entertain the family are annihilated!

She then tells them about Morgaine, a sorceress from another dimension, who summoned the planet-devouring Destroyer in England, where she also sought to take the sword Excalibur for herself.

"Are you saying that the legend of Excalibur is real?" asks Grandma.

"Oh, yes," replies the Doctor. "Most legends are based on truth."

Then Nita talks about their excursion to a mansion house in Perivale in 1883, where Josiah Smith, a cataloguer of life forms who comes from another planet, sought to assassinate Queen Victoria and take over the British Empire.

"I think you've gone troppo," says Grandad. "Do you really expect us to believe all that?"

"I know it sounds far-fetched, but it's true," replies Nita. "Why don't we show you the TARDIS, then you'll find it easier to believe."

After showing her family is shown inside the TARDIS, they are more inclined to believe her stories. Of course, her mother pleads with her to stay. The Doctor is rummaging in a box under the console. "Ah! Here it is!" he exclaims. He is holding a small device.

"What's that?" asks Nita.

"This is a mobile telephone from the 21st century," the Doctor explains. "Now, if I perform some jiggery-pokery…" He inserts the device into a slot on the TARDIS console, and there is a flash and a beep. The Doctor picks it up and turns it on. "There! A super-phone!" He hands the telephone to Nita's mother. "Whenever you want to contact Nita, press this button," he indicates a button at the bottom of the phone. "Tap the telephone icon, and tap Nita's name. This is gives you a direct line to the TARDIS. And I've super-charged it, so the battery will never go flat."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Mum says, hugging him. "But don't stay away so long next time, please!"

"I promise I'll try to get her home more often," the Doctor assures her.

They say their goodbyes, and Nita's family leave the TARDIS. The Doctor sends them into the vortex.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," says Nita, relieved.

"I'm glad you didn't stay behind," says Ace, clapping her on the shoulder.

"So am I," the Doctor says, giving her hand a squeeze. "Right! Where to now? Future, Past or Present?"

"The future!" Ace and Nita say in unison. They look at each other and giggle.

"To the future it is!" announces the Doctor, pulling levers with a flourish.