A/N: Just wrapping this story up. Two more chapters after this one. Shoopdawoop!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. And, despite all those wishes I make to my genie, it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. CHAPTER ELEVEN: FALLINGS OUT AND MAKINGS UP
The Doctor slowly rose to his feet, leaning heavily on a nearby computer terminal for support. "Not yet," he muttered. "There's still time to save them!"
"Doctor!" Brittany cried, stepping out of the time ship, Ben at her side. "We have to go."
"No," the Time Lord objected, stumbling further away, "no, I won't! You can't make me!"
Brittany and Ben looked at each other and, with unspoken agreement, ran towards the Doctor, his companion going to the left and the young soldier to the right. With nowhere to run, the Doctor struggled like a cornered animal against their grip. There was nothing he could do however, as they led him, with great difficulty, back to his waiting timeship.
"Doctor, you're delirious!" Brittany insisted, forcing the Doctor into the console room chair, while simultaneously knocking the handbrake with her foot. "We had to get you out of there."
With a scowl, the Doctor darted past both her and Ben, laying his hands on the console. "The Thoraln were innocent," he growled, his back turned. "They couldn't help the things they did. You didn't have to kill them." His voice was controlled, emotionless, but the shaking of his shoulders showed the true extent of his anger.
Brittany stepped forward defiantly, hands clenched into fists by her side. "There was no choice!" she shot back. "The EMP was the only thing that could knock out the mind control-"
"I had it under control!" the Doctor roared as he span around, anger flashing in his deep brown eyes. "Everything was going fine until you interfered! You stupid little human!" He jabbed a finger into her chest with enough force to send her reeling backwards. "A stunted little ape who thinks that she knows best. Just asking for trouble, aren't you?" His stance was aggressive, daring her to fight back.
And fight she did. "Well, this stunted little ape might not know everything, but don't pretend you do either, you spaceman!" she retorted, drawing herself up to her full height. "Your big mouth causes more trouble than in solves. And if it hadn't been for me, you would have suffocated!"
"If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have needed rescuing," the Doctor spat, glaring at her with hooded eyes. "And don't ever call me spaceman, you hear? Never."
The room fell into an awkward silence, Brittany realising that she had overstepped her mark, broaching a sore subject. The normally bright Time Lord turned his back on her in favour of working on the console, pushing buttons with more attention than was required.
"I'm sorry," Brittany said quietly, backing away both from the fight and the controls, "for calling you spaceman."
Without turning around, the Doctor replied sincerely, "And I'm sorry for calling you a stunted little ape."
"I'm glad you're okay," Brittany continued, fingering the circular pendent that always hung around her neck.
The Doctor nodded, and shot her a wink. "Me too."
His companion grinned. "Thanks," she said happily, before the meaning of his words actually started to sink in. "Hold on, are you happy that I'm okay, or that you're okay?"
He just gave her an enigmatic smile, and pulled down on a lever, bringing the TARDIS to a grinding halt. "Go take a look," he said, jerking his head towards the door.
With a shrug, Brittany bounded down to the doors, drawing them inwards with one smooth movement. Outside, the planet Messaline hung suspended in space, clouds slowly swirling across the surface as the wind whipped up coiling patterns. The sun peeked up over the horizon, a shimmering golden brilliance, a flare of light and colour after a dark night of bloodshed.
Brittany's breath caught in her chest. "It's beautiful," she intoned, captivated by the sight. Ben moved to stand beside her, staring outwards in silent wonder.
Then, something moved across their view, a dark grey shape with stubby wings and a pointed nose. The Sky Rider spaceship moved on listlessly through space, suspended in orbit, even though there was no one left to pilot her.
It was the Doctor that broke the silence. "We may not be able to save the Thoraln," he said, a stolid figure rooted up near the console, "but the least we can do is send them home." He scratched his repair mallet through his unruly hair. "All they need is a good bop." And, with that, he brought the mallet down onto a panel of switches with an audible thump. The TARDIS jumped back by about three metres, almost sending Ben and Brittany tumbling out into space.
The Doctor righted his time ship, and all three watched as the Thoraln's spacecraft began to move, slowly at first, but gaining speed. "Just gave them a little push," the Doctor explained as Brittany closed the blue doors. "Should send them all the way back to Thorah." He let the two humans have some time to absorb what they had just seen, before he grabbed Ben by the hand and dragged him up into the centre of the room.
"I don't believe we've met," the alien said cheerfully, throwing the young soldier's arm around in a loose imitation of a handshake. "I'm the Doctor, planet-saver extraordinaire!"
"Ben sir –"
"Doctor. Never sir. And most certainly never Sir Doctor. Man, that was a day and a half. I mean, werewolf and everything!" The Doctor grinned like a loon, and used his foot to yank a lever into a horizontal position. "So, Ben… Ben what?"
The young man shifted nervously, but he couldn't help but smile. The Doctor's babbling was one of the most amusing things he'd heard. "It's Mitchells. Ben Mitchells."
The Doctor frowned for a moment, then leapt almost a foot in the air. "Ben Mitchells!" he cried, energetically punching in some coordinates. "I think I know your mother. Not in the way you're thinking though. Actually, what are you thinking? Not anything dirty, I hope?"
"Andrea?" Ben managed to say before he was thrown to the floor by the Doctor's often over-enthusiastic piloting skills.