Disclaim: The only dream is me owning Doctor Who. It's a dream, I don't own.

Gaining Respect

(S. 5 Ep.7)

Amy's choices unravel a few mysteries and teach some lessons to both sides.

-o0O0o-

Lady Storyteller passed the entrance to the kitchen, froze and slowly turned to carefully peek into the room.
An undignified snod escaped her, because yes, she had seen right.
Both of the Doctors human companions had fallen asleep in the middle of their meal.
Roderick laid on the floor in a puddle of tea lowly dripping out of the kettle he still held in one hand, while Amelia was slumped in her chair, head resting on the Table with her face missing her plate filled with this thing called sandwich by mere millimeters.
Really?
Humans were a strange species and no one was or would be able to convince her otherwise. She cleared her throat loudly to make her presence known, but they didn't even changed the pattern of their breaths.

How carless. One had to assume the Doctor knew about the acquirements of this so much more fragile species regarding the time he had spent with so many of them, but apparently he did not. Even she was aware of their far longer resting cycle, which even increased with high activity. And running around all day, jumping from Planet to Planet was clearly able to be considered high activity.
It exhausted her, so it had to be far worse for those two. Still, she had not thought the Doctor able to go so far for them fainting from exhaustion in the kitchen. And he lectured her about treating them in the right manner.

She cleared her throat again before calling their names, even going so far as abandoning their little power games and used their preferred and real ones. "Amy? Rory?"
Nothing.

How did the Doctor expect her to keep their fragile truce, the one those very humans did help to accomplish, when he constantly pulled stunts like that! Presenting himself like a founding member when arguing with her, humiliating her in front of them for things she simply did not know, accusing her to do those things on purpose, while he himself knowingly treated them far worse.
Treating them like equals, sure!
Using his impact, their own naiveté to follow him willingly, even trying to impress him by staying constantly on their feet or by becoming as ridiculous and childish, pretending to be as full of energy as him and therefore pushing themselves to utter exhaustion. And he was aware of it, otherwise her words were not able to anger him like they always did.

The truth did hurt the most especially if you were aware of it and not very happy about it.
Which was the only reason she still were here.
His defiance was proof of his regret even if he didn't change anything about his behavior.
And who was she, Lady Storyteller, the Celestial Storyteller, to judge him if he still was able to feel regret. Maybe one day she were able to get that one lesson in his head she tried to constantly teach him.
Actions spoke louder than words.

The essential, cruel truth of Gallifrey, where words had lost their meanings in all the pomp and ceremonies and polite smiles, where every single gesture every action instead was so much more, every single break of the ritualized life a scream of the true intentions of a person. And although the Timelords had practiced this into extremes – as everything they did- one thing she knew certainly about all the other life forms in the Universe: this simple rule applied to most of the known species, humans being no exception.
They just trusted blindly. Such a curios species. So fragile, not only in body but mind.
Which was the only reason she turned and left to notify the Doctor, giving him a change to change his behavior, to wake them and actually treat them in the way he always lectured her about.
When did she started to give him second chances?
Guardians, she always had cared too much about other beings.
And those two humans, well, nobody deserved to sleep in a puddle of tea like Rory currently did.

-o0O0o-

"Is it because of me complaining about the Doctor, again? I assure you, I will not lecture him, only tell him his humans sleep in your Kitchen in very undignified circumstances."
Nothing.
Seriously? She wasn't aware this model being this irritating.
The distance between the kitchen and the Controllroom were roughly 2 minutes and 39 seconds including seven corridors and as many crossroads.
Normally.

Lady Storyteller was walking the same corridors for about 26 minutes now, the TARDIS constantly shifting them leading her into dead ends and the same rooms over and over again. Including the Kitchen.
But the worse thing about this was her not answering or even reacting to the Storytellers reasoning. This TARDIS was horribly stubborn. But so was she, too. And she was going to get an answer, even if she had to link herself in the TT's telepathic field.

"Is it about me not waking those two up? It is the Doctors responsibility, he took them from their home, he has a duty of care for them. Yes, I might use them- again- but it is to help the Doctor. You wanted me to accept him, and I do and that is why I want to help him. I will not harm either him nor them. They are far to interesting for that. There, I said it. They might be not that barbaric and useless as I was taught. Now, please? The Controlroom?"
Nothing.
Just the soft vibrations of the engine.

A spark of the thing in her mind, that tiny speck left from her former regeneration whispered about her being a Timelady, her power to force that stupid machine into submission and As…. Lady Storyteller instinctively bite into the more fleshy part of her hand right under her thumb. As always the pain shooed that thing away and cleared her thoughts. The moment she realized what she was doing she nearly vomited and sunk to the floor. This need for pain also was a habit of her former regeneration something she thought she had left behind, something she did left behind.
"Look at me", she whispered bitter, closing her eyes and leaned against the wall. "I completely understand your resentment against me. But please, leave them out of this. Show me the control room so we can wake up those two."

Silence.
She opened her eyes and turned her head to the side so she was able to see the wall in her peripheral view. "Hello?"
The wall felt…. in lack of a better description empty.
This was not a Type 40 being stubborn.

She stumbled to her feet, pressed her hands and her left ear against the metal. And carefully reached out to the consciousness that was the TARDIS.
Something was terribly wrong.
And her own prejudices had restricted her from noticing before, naturally assuming the Timemachine was somehow mocking her again.
It was still there, yes but closed in, withdrawn in itself, tightly concentrated on the tree beings being connected to it, one of them shining bright as a sun, being the center of this bizarre construct. But it wasn't a normal flow of energy or data as expected, more like…
Lady Storyteller flinched back and threw up all her mental defenses.

It consumed them.
The TARDIS somehow consumed the minds of her inhabitants.
She was trapping her. Shifting the corridors, forcing her to run in circles until the Timelady was too exhausted, to turn her into an easy target and get her mind, too.
No. That was not right.
There were some cases, but there was no reason why it should. Especially not one cared for and loved like this one. But then why?

She stared walking again, turned left and stood at the balcony of an old storage room, sighted, turned and took another direction… and froze. Making up her mind she took two other corridors before turning left and smiled. Besom chamber.
The TARDIS didn't trapped her.
The Doctor, as every Pilot adjusted the inner of the Ship to his needs and likings, letting her shift rooms and corridors as she liked. Now, with her distracted, the rooms had returned to their original Storyteller closed her eyes and concentrated, dug up the old memories of the basic construction plans she had to learn for her exams all that time ago and then stared to march to the next stairs.
Timelords rarely cooked, they normally took their necessary diet in on different ways, so it was no wonder the Kitchen was placed somewhere in the depths of the ship on the higher floors far away from the control room.

She hated that rush of adrenalin, how easy she fell into that mood of observing both her environment and the timelines hovering around her and adjusting, how her movements became silent, swift and precise, how none of the lessons the war had taught her were lost. Even if she sometimes took the wrong direction because her memory of these early days weren't as good as she had hoped it to be. But the TARDIS stayed silent while a predator glided through her corridors to the place her pilot rested on his knees, chin against his shoulder and one arm still on the console.

The Storyteller had circled the room completely, checked all corners and hideouts, before she finally went down on one knee next to the sleeping Doctor facing all three: the main entrance, the stairs leading deeper into the ship and most importantly the main console. This was currently the most dangerous place to be, but she had to know what was going on to save herself. And maybe them too.
Oh, who was she kidding.
She was probably the only one able to help them. Even if it meant to go against everything she valued. Well, this was an emergency so she placed two fingers between his eyes. Still gloved. There were some boundaries she never overstepped.

His mind was open. Heavy fortified, yes, but nobody manned the battlements and the doors were deserted. She carefully brushed with her mind against his not daring to go deeper because of his darkness and the fact that a door was open for both ways. But he too was to occupied in the net the TARDIS had entangled him to notice her. And there was something else.
That bacon of light, the center of all wasn't him as she had expected. Although he was the Pilot and his deep connection to his ship, somebody else was the subject of the TT's full concentration and therefore the one of everybody linked with her. Which mad this way more easy, a human mind was less dark and more open to access than the one of any Timelord after all.

Still, she pondered while rushing back to the kitchen, a human being able to capture the attention of a TARDIS like that was certainly a surprising turn of events. This proofed to get interesting. True curiosity, a curiosity she never had felt since her first regeneration filled her stomach and she felt unsure. She had forced herself to forget the feeling of the tingling of her Nerves , the questions of howwhywhy bubbling in her mind. How that feeling stimulated her mind and how good it felt. Completely improper for a Timelady but so… alive.
And for the first time she thought she may actually be able to enjoy one of these adventures. If they made it out alive, that's it.

She reached the kitchen, grabbed a towel and cleaned up the puddle of tea, gently taking the kettle out of Rory's fingers and placing it beside him. Then she carefully pulled Amy out of the chair, laying her down on the floor and placing her head in her lap.
She took a deep breath and forced down the excitement. She had no idea how a human mind looked like nor what was awaiting her. She most certainly would not be able to access the TARDIS directly, but at least she was able to watch, listen and learn a way to get them out of there.
Or so she thought.

-o0O0o-

The Doctor grinned up to them as they busted into the control room "Any questions?"
Oh, Amy had plenty of them. "What was that?"
He waved them to come closer and opened his hand to show them some small and glowing… things. "A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava. Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us through the psychic connection."
He took them to the doors, opened them and blew them into space.

"The what?" Rory blurted out.
The Doctor whirled around, flashed a grin to Tella who just stepped out into the control room and run up to the console.

"Psychic connection." She answered promptly. "Every TARDIS creates a telepathic field. It connects the occupants with each other but also with the Database of the TARDIS itself. It enables you for example to understand every language you are spoke to, because the TARDIS directly translates it for you. Also other occupants are able to directly locate and home onto you. Why that question?"
"The TARDIS is in my head." Rory clarified.
"Basically, yes."

"Oh. Ok." He processed that information for a second, then carried on to explain. " Uhm. Some flower send us to sleep because of it."
"Physic pollen from Karass don Salva," corrected the Doctor absentmindly.
"Interesting. I have guessed something messed up with the telepathic field, but I actually thought it had something to do with some- how do you say it?- frazzled circuits."
The TARDIS around them made a clearly protesting noise.
"I apologize. It is good to have you back, through."
Alarmed the Doctor peeked around the Timerotor. "Back?"
"She was also completely apathic during your … nap time."

Amy evaded the other woman's gaze and concentrated instead on Rory's next question. She still tried to process waking up with her head in Tella's lap, her surprisingly cool fingers placed on Amy's temples and an uncharacteristically concerned facial expression which disappeared immediately under that impassive mask again.

" Yeah. But….So that was the Dream Lord then? Those little specks."
The Doctor turned around. "No, no. No! Sorry, wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was me. Psychic pollen! It's a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. I'm nine hundred and seven. It had a lot to go on. Otherwise Tella would have no reason to hate me, huh."
He smiled, but it wasn't calming but quite the opposite. Downright frightening. And left all three of them speechless for a few instants.

Amy gulped to find her voice again. " But then why didn't it feed on us, too?"
"The darkness in you pair, it would've starved to death in an instant. I choose my friends with great care. Otherwise, I'm stuck with my own company, and you now know how that works out."
He still was a s cheerful as ever, and it left Amy to wonder if all this was really just an act, like Tella always accused him. Those things the Dreamlord … he said about himself. The same things Tella had said to him in their many nightly arguments.
Could possibly any of that be true? Or was that Thing just using those accusations because it knew they work, knew the physic effect of discovering that not only one but many more people had the same opinion and therefore starting to doubt yourself?
Tella hadn't been there after all. Well not really.

"What about you!"
"Me?"
"Yes! You were nothing but a faint reflection in some shining surfaces there… an echo. Why wasn't anybody else able to see you than me. If this… Dream was caused by the TARDIS, why hadn't you been there, too?"

"She's not connected with the TARDIS."
Three pairs of eyes turned to Rory and he shrugged uncomfortable. "Well, it's logical, isn't it? The TARDIS sent everybody to sleep who had it in their brain, even itself. Except Tella, because Tella doesn't have it in her head."

There was this strange glint in Tella's eyes again and somehow Amy became convinced that this actually might be approval. The kind of surprised, unexpected approval of a clearly impressed person whose expectations had been completely overthrown.
"Why?" asked Amy.
"That's a really good question." The Doctor spurted up to the Timelady and stopped mere inches before her face, clearly curious.
"Why are you not connected to the TARDIS. I know she didn't allowed it at the beginning but that matter is clearly resolved now."
They silently stared into each other's eyes a few seconds, before Tella looked away and instead let her gaze wander all over the room again. "The type 40 is constructed to be piloted by six persons. You are flying it on your own. Why are you able to do so?"
"No, no, no, I asked you a question!"
"So did I."
"Yes, but I asked first. You're evading me."
"I do not."

He stared at her a few seconds longer, started to scratching his head and fiddling around under her calm but clearly expecting gaze, turned away just to look back before turning away again. Then he took a deep breath. "Look, you have been a teacher at the Academy probably your whole lives, I get it. Still , this is no time for those logically conclusion question-counter question riddles we always had to solve."
"I disagree. There is no better time for training patience than now. You asked I answered."
He scoffed in clear annoyance and raced down the stairs again.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever. I need to go to Cana Kell. You'll love Cana Kell. Biggest Shopping Mall in the universe, a whole plane t full of things to buy. You even get TARDIS-parts there sometimes. Which is why we are going. It's not necessary but after something like this? I don't need an old stuffy Timelady to grumble upon the security of my ship all day."
"That is very insightful of you, Milord," said Tella with a guarded voice.
"Oh, yes. Very insightful indeed."
The landing drum dropped and he marched out.

"What just happened?" Amy carefully piped up.
"I have no Idea why this had caused such a reaction."
"Maybe he's angry that you saved the day, instead of him, and that was the last drop?" Rory carefully piped up.
"Me? Saving the Day? How so?"

He blinked. "You showed us that those were dreams. You convinced the Doctor to blew up the TARDIS because Amy saw your reflection in the Timerotor. Also that dream in Leadwoth… wait. How did that one ended?"
Amy gulped. "We crashed the camper van."
"Tella convinced you to crash the camper van?"
"No, I did not," Tella interjected. "Amy did that choice completely on her own. At that time she still was convinced I am just an hallucination."
"Oh, right. I don't remember that bit."
Amy smiled. "No, you weren't there. You were already …" she stopped too late.
"Already what?"

Amy glanced to the Timelady. "Dead. You died in that dream. Mrs. Poggit got you."
Rory needed a few seconds to take this in. " Okay. But how did you know it was a dream? Before you crashed the van, how did you know you wouldn't just die?"
"I didn't."
"Oh. "
"Yeah."
It was silent so despite her nearly soundless voice and her discreetly wandering off to the other side of the room Tella's mumbling clearly was audible. "Males."

Rory furrowed his eyebrows, blinked and then the coin dropped. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh. "
He blinked, glanced to Tella who had her back turned to them and fidgeted with the doors locking mechanism, then leaned forward to kiss his fiancée. Amy gladly kissed back.
After they finally pulled back he grinned like an idiot. He honestly thought she preferred an timetravelling alien whose only love was a blue box to him. Ok putting it like that….

Wait….
Tella was sometimes downright brutally honest because she believed it to be respectful, but it didn't mean she was blunt.
"Te… Lady Storyteller?"
She turned. "Amy?"
"The TARDIS…It.. She is helping him. To pilot her, I mean."

There was this spark again and it definitely was everything Amy thought it to be. "The Doctor is one of the best Pilots I have ever seen. There were not many who ever were able to create such a bond, to simply pilot a TARDIS with their wishes and thoughts. Although I might add that it is apparently more reasoning than actually piloting. I have no Idea how this will turn out if this model had been used like every normal TTC instead of wandering the Universe."

"He's controlling the TARDIS with his thoughts? Then why is the always jumping around like that?"
"Control is definitely the wrong word. Instruct her. Guide her. Because of the fun, I think. With him its always about the fun after all. But apparently also because he has no idea if is reaction was any indication. Or he knows but chooses to ignore it. He does that a lot, too after all. But one thing is obvious and that is that he has no idea how to fly a TARDIS properly. I have given up to determine our destination by observing what he's doing long ago. He always pushes the Button which evacuates the waste tank on deck seven, I have not yet discovered why. The only reason why this is working is because he's telling her what he wants this button to do and she does it despite it being the wrong one. That's where this noise comes from, the interfering commands. That and other things."
"So he just has to stand there and tell her were to go."
"Ask. Politely, if I may add but yes."

"Are you able to do that?"
"I do not ever fly a TARDIS of any kind again, Rory."
They blinked, surprised by the sudden coldness in her voice. "Why. I'm sure the Doctor allows it, if you ask him. He was ready to give her to you, back in Venice."
"You misunderstood. I have sworn to never fly any kind of TARDIS again. But that is a story for another time. There is a whole Planet of new things waiting out there behind this door. Are you not curious to explore it?"
"I have seen a mall, thank you."

But Tella noticed that sentence for what it was and apparently didn't want to talk about that topic anymore. It was strange, normally she rather reluctantly left the TARDIS but today she used the planet out there as an escape route. "Not like this one. If the rumors are to be trusted. There is a rather nice - how do you call it- spa, a couple of them actually. You just witnessed each other's death, you have earned it. Little time together until I've found the Doctor and cleaned up the mess I have made?"
Rory took Amy's hand and gave her a look that definitely meant to let it go, then smiled.
"I don't know. Anywhere's good for me. I'm happy anywhere. It's up to Amy this time. Amy's choice."

Tella held the door open for them after stepping carefully outside like she always did. "Indeed."
This was not only about going outside, this went far deeper. If she coose to stay Tella was going to tell them, she somehow felt this. The Timelady was changing, as she had promised. Tella always keept her promises.
Amy made up her mind. "Well, then lets go shoping. Hey, the Doctor said you get everything outside there. Betting I find one thing you don't?"
"No. I can list at least three goods you certainly are not able to purcase here."
Despite the emotionless remark there was a respect in her voice, that hadn't been there before and Amy knew instantly, this choice had been the right one, too.

AN: Well hello. To clear any confusion, Tella was not able to influence anything at all. Everything happened exactly like we knew it, with the exeption of the reflection of a certain Timelady randomly poping up in shiny surfaces, watching and shaking her had.

And here comes my explanation for the TARDIS sound. A rather strange one, I know, but that head canon came with The Doctors Wife and I wasn't able to let it go. So this shot is a little bit foreshadowing for that episode, too.
As it is for so may other things, I love to place easter eggs.

That telepathic field of the TARDIS caused me a real headache. Why doesn't it translate gallifeyan in New Who when there are multiple episodes of the Classic series are playing on Gallifrey with companions who clearly do not speak gallifeyan? Other than it being "different" shows, that's it.
Answer: there is only one person able to understand it anyway and you can't talk to yourself properly unless you cross your own timeline.
Also Tella not being linked to that field is the reason for her strange accent.
Yes. I realize I do make many mistakes on my own in my texts, but Tella's are actually intended. There is a funny scene where she doesn't speak the language of the people they meet so the Doctor has to translate all the time. Timelords are telepaths - touch-telepaths, but still, they know how to protect their minds. If Tella doesn't want the TARDIS or anybody else in her head they don't get in there without force. Humans logically don't have that choice.

As you may noticed, Tella grows fond of Amy and Rory first, before she starts to like the Doctor. She is simply curious about thise strange humans who are nothing like she had expected them to be. Tella certainly was a cat in one life XD
And curiosity killed the cat.
As I told you, Tella's last regeneration was mad. Utterly and completely insane, and she is still fighting with the aftermath of it. We normaly just don't see it because she willl never break down like she did here in company.

Thanks to Yankeegirl01 for following and favoring and everybody else for still staying with me in the chaos that is the revamping of this fic.

As always, read and review.

Greetings
alkatie

Ps: So the twelfth Doctor, the first of a second circle will regenerate after an adventure with the exact same foes the first doctor encountered directly before his regeneration. They may be even regenerate form the same cause? Nice!
Oh dear, had it realy been 12 weeks already?
Still, the Doctor truly has to tell the tale how on earth he was able to pull that stunt of that fake regeneration in The Lie of the Land. I'm a bit dissapointed in the writers because they told us for years once a regeneration is triggered you can't stop this anymore. And I kinda like it that way.
I somehow get the felling they at this point only wrote fanfiction themselves to get out with a bang^^

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