Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I am sooooo sorry for the long wait, guys. I've been busy with work, and studying for my driving theory test, which I passed! Yay! Anyway, to make up for the long wait, here's a longish chapter for you. Enjoy!

Babysitting Blunders

"For the last time, we've got it covered" the Corsair rolled his eyes in exasperation. "We know what she's having for lunch, we know not to let her watch any scary movies"-

"That includes 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail" the Doctor interjected, straightening his bow tie, "That rabbit is far too frightening" he added with a shudder. Emily, who was sitting on the captain's chair swinging her legs, tilted her head curiously and asked "How come?"

The Corsair looked over and remarked, "It isn't that scary, Emz. Your dad's just being a wimp". The Doctor shot him an annoyed glare, but then he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Romana was standing there, her soft brown hair in long, wavy curls, dressed in an amethyst thigh length dress with glittering diamantes around the waist and lavender sandals that showed off her pearly white painted toes.

He felt the breath leave him, and smiled tenderly. "You're beautiful" he breathed reverently and she blushed, smiling. Emily jumped off the chair and skipped up to her mother, smiling cheerfully. "Wow mummy, you look really pretty" she beamed. The Corsair and Flavia gave nods and grins of approval.

"Oh, thank you sweetheart" Romana said gratefully, smiling at her daughter and then at her husband, "And thank you. You're very handsome" she complimented and he beamed, pleased. He offered her his arm and gently inquired, "Ready to go?"

Romana nodded, and Emily asked eagerly, "Can I come?"

The Doctor chuckled and knelt down in front of Emily to explain, "Your mummy and I are having a bit of one on one time, darling. It's a grown up thing, you'll understand when you're older. Besides, you'll have a lot more fun here with your godparents". He kissed her on the forehead and stood up, letting Romana kneel in front of Emily and gently cup her cheeks. "You be a good girl and do as you're told, okay?" she told Emily, who nodded.

Romana and the Doctor bid goodbye to their fellow pilots, and their daughter one last time, and finally left to go on their date. Flavia smiled down at Emily and inquired, "Well then, what would you like to do first?"

Emily screwed her little face up in thought; she opened her mouth to reply, but then the Corsair suddenly exclaimed, "Oh bug…spray" he trailed off at Flavia's raised eyebrow, "I just remembered, I was supposed to fix the washing machine".

"Surely you can leave it for a while…?"

"Three days ago" he deadpanned. Flavia grimaced slightly at the thought of all those unwashed clothes and replied, "Well, I suppose I can look after Emily for a while…"

"Sure you can!" the Corsair said cheerfully, "I won't be long. She's got that doll house the Doctor and I built to play with now, that'll keep her occupied".

"And what do you suggest I do?"

"Play with her, read a book…knit? I dunno".

Flavia sighed. "Alright, you fix the machine and I'll keep an eye on Emily. Come along, dear" she said gently, reaching down to take the little girl's hand. Emily pouted and protested, "But I don't wanna play, I wanna go exploring!"

"We'll go exploring later, dear. Your parents want us to keep an eye on you, and you did promise to do as you were told" Flavia reminded her. Emily sighed and reluctantly followed her godmother to her nursery, filled with various books and toys that she'd already played with a hundred times. She had been gifted with a doll house for her fifth birthday, just a few months ago. It was the size of a regular doll house on the outside, but if she opened the whole front up and crawled inside, she could stand up and move around, even go upstairs.

As fun as playing pretend in her own little house was, it only had so many rooms – but the TARDIS had hundreds and hundreds! Emily had wanted to explore her home properly for ages, on her own. It seemed like it would be more fun that way, and her daddy always said their home was the safest place in the universe. She wasn't allowed to wander off in case she got hurt, but if she couldn't get hurt inside the TARDIS then it didn't matter if she wandered off, did it?

Flavia sat with Emily for about half an hour outside the 'doll house', having a tea party. The invisible 'tea' in their little faux china cups made Flavia thirsty for some actual tea; and surely, she thought, Emily would be okay on her own for a little bit. "I don't know about you, but I think some real Earl Grey would be nice right now. Would you like a drink, dear?"

"Can I have some orange juice please?"

"Of course; you'll be alright whilst I go and fetch it all?"

Emily nodded. Flavia got to her feet and left the room, closing the door behind her– her goddaughter closed her eyes and concentrated, following Flavia's mind as she walked down the corridor and into the kitchen. Her eyes snapped open. "Can I go exploring now?" she asked aloud. There was a long pause, and then the TARDIS hummed, the door clicking open. Emily grinned excitedly and ran out of the room, her little legs propelling her down the corridor in the opposite direction to where her godparents were.

/

Flavia paused and moved the carton of orange juice away from the blue plastic cup. She had an unpleasant feeling that something wasn't right…Emily had moved, she could sense it. Where was she going? Flavia set the carton down, not willing to risk spilling it, and closed her eyes. Emily? Where are you?

The bathroom came a reply; there was an en-suite attached to her nursery, so Flavia didn't question it further.

Alright then, I'll be back in a few minutes with your drink.

There's no rush Emily answered hastily, and Flavia frowned in suspicion.

Emily, are you okay?

The only response was a mental image of a door – Emily was trying to block her. Now thoroughly suspicious, Flavia left the kitchen and walked down the corridor. When she reached the point where the nursery should have been, and found only a blank wall, her suspicions were confirmed. "She's wandered off, and you're helping her, aren't you?" she accused the TARDIS, which merely hummed. Flavia sighed and muttered, "I'm talking to a machine...at the very least tell me which way she went" she added aloud.

There was a pause, and then the lights in the corridor ahead of her flickered. Flavia nodded in thanks and walked with purpose down the corridor. Emily couldn't have gotten very far...then she considered that the child had a sentient, mischievous time machine capable of reorganising its inner structure on her side, amended her previous statement, and broke into a run.

/

Emily had no set plan in mind, but when she sensed Flavia following her, she ducked through the first open door she came across…and gasped in delight when she clapped eyes on what lay inside. Butterflies, whole flocks of them, were fluttering around a grove full of beautiful flowers. A distant memory floated to the forefront of her mind, of a garden filled with flowers, sitting in the middle of a giant daisy…

A monarch butterfly landed on her pink t-shirt; Emily smiled down at it briefly before it flitted away. There was a crazy paving path stretching between the flower beds, which Emily followed; the room was very large, so large she couldn't see the ceiling, and if she stuck to the path she couldn't get lost. To amuse herself, she pointed at and named all the flowers and butterflies that she recognised. "Rhododendron, delphinium, Red Admiral, chrysanthemums, orchids, a Glasswing…ooh, a Birdwing!"

She smiled at the large butterfly, and held out a hand in hopes that it would alight on her. Instead, the beautiful insect flapped its wings and leisurely made its way over to some flowers to drink nectar. Slightly disappointed, Emily dropped her arm...but the sight of the butterflies feeding gave her what she thought was a brilliant idea. Mummy likes flowers – I could pick some and give them to her...oh, and daddy might like some too, and Flavia…I'm not sure about the Corsair, but I don't want to leave him out, so I'll pick some for him too she decided.

There were, after all, no signs to say she couldn't pick the flowers – and in any case there were plenty of them, and the butterflies would help them grow more. "Le'see…mummy likes blue, green and purple, so…" Emily plucked a clump of blue asters, some foxgloves and green orchids. With this little bouquet in her left hand, she set about picking flowers for her godmother, remembering that Flavia liked orange and white colours. She found some pretty orange and yellow spotted flowers (according to the small label in the soil, they were called 'Million Bells') and picked a few, along with some hydrangea's.

With both hands full, Emily pondered what to do next. She decided to leave the room and find her way to Flavia's and her mummy's bedrooms…briefly, Emily wondered if she might stumble across her godfather's bedroom on this little adventure. The Corsair had sternly told her once that she was not to go into his room under any circumstances, because it was full of things that a little girl shouldn't see, but of course Emily couldn't help wondering just what these things were.

She returned the way she had come, and stepped out into the corridor. There was no sign of her godparents, and Emily giggled softly – who knew being sneaky could be so much fun? She made her way down the corridor, and the door slid closed behind her…but not before a birdwing butterfly, metallic green wings shining, flittered out of the room and alighted on the wall beyond.

/

Meanwhile, Flavia was getting frustrated. As she rounded the corner and found herself in the same stretch of corridor as before, she scowled up at the ceiling and said aloud, "I don't know what you're playing at, but you had better stop ri"-

"Flavia?" the Corsair asked as he stepped out of a doorway behind her, "What are you doing? Where's Emily?"

"She sneaked off" Flavia admitted, a twinge of guilt hitting her at letting her goddaughter wander away like this.

The Corsair's eyes widened. "She did what? Where? Why? How?"

"I just told you, she sneaked off, I don't know where she went, or why, I just know that she left the nursery when I went to get us both drinks" Flavia explained, before adding, "Now the TARDIS is helping her and making things difficult for me".

"But…we're telepathic, why didn't you just tell her to come back?"

"Do you think I haven't tried that? She keeps blocking me out…or trying to, at least".

"She's only five years old, her mental barriers can't be that strong".

"Well like I implied, they aren't, but how would you like it if someone poked a message into your head because your mental barriers weren't strong enough?"

"Touché" the Corsair thought hard for a moment and decided, "Okay, we know she's still inside the ship, and if it is helping her then it probably won't let her into anywhere dangerous. As for finding her…follow me, I have an idea". He turned and strode off down the corridor; Flavia hurried to catch up with him.

/

Having liberated the flowers from their fragrant prison, and placed them in plastic jugs of water she'd filled up in a bathroom, Emily paused at another open doorway. Her eyes grew wide with wonder…elaborate skyscrapers (or so they seemed to her) of Lego towered inside, bright and inviting colours of red, yellow and blue dominating the space. She had the presence of mind to set the jugs carefully on the floor, before setting off exploring this new room.

Why hadn't anybody told her about this place before? Ever since she'd seen 'The Lego Movie', she'd loved building things out of the little plastic bricks; and whilst she'd grown bored with the creations in her nursery, the way young children were wont to do, Emily believed she could never tire of this. There was a Lego everything in here, as far as she could tell – a Lego giraffe, a Lego mansion, a Lego car with a wheel that really moved, a Lego aeroplane and so much more.

Yet tire of it she did; after all, there were many more rooms to discover, and she wanted to find as many as possible on this outing…since she'd probably get grounded for a really, really long time when her godparents caught up with her. Besides, she still had to deliver the flowers! After sliding down a helter-skelter built around a Lego tower one more time, Emily retrieved the jugs, setting off in search of yet more interesting rooms.

/

The Corsair and Flavia walked into the console room; the first thing they noticed was a large, metallic turquoise butterfly resting on the control panel. "What the…?" Flavia blinked at it in bemusement. The Corsair chuckled and remarked, "Emz must have found her way into the butterfly room".

"There's a butterfly room?"

"Apparently" he shrugged, pressing some buttons on the console as the butterfly flitted off to land on the hand railing. The machine whirred and whined, the lights dimming briefly before brightening once more. "What did you do?" Flavia inquired curiously.

"I defaulted the corridors back to their original location; now we can scan for Emily properly, not trying to trail a faint mental trace; and the TARDIS won't be able to twist the corridors before we catch up with her".

"I didn't know you could do that".

"Eh, knocking about, you pick up a few things" the Corsair shrugged. The TARDIS creaked and hummed; he rolled his eyes and remarked by way of the ceiling, "Well you should have thought of that earlier, shouldn't you? Okay, let's see what we've got here". He and Flavia watched as a map appeared on the monitor screen, with two red dots in the middle – but only two.

"I don't see any sign of Emily" Flavia frowned at the screen. The Corsair twiddled a knob and the map layout altered. "It's searching by sectors" he explained, giving her an odd look, "You don't know much about the TARDIS, d'you?"

"I was trained to operate a more efficient – I mean, different model to a Type 40" Flavia explained, clearing her throat, "Besides, I would have studied the manual, but a certain someone has apparently tossed it in a supernova".

"Aw, you don't need a dusty old manual. The only way to learn about a TARDIS is to fly it; that, and press buttons to see what they do".

"You do realise that pressing the wrong combinations of buttons could cause a lot of damage to both the TARDIS and the fabric of space-time?"

"Well duh; that's why you only press one button at a time" the Corsair replied, as if it were obvious. Then he grinned and tapped the screen, where a little red dot had appeared, moving up a corridor. "There she is; port side, sector four, which means she should be…that-a-way" he decided, pointing down a corridor towards their left. He pulled out his sonic and scanned the screen, before running off in the direction he'd indicated with the sonic held out. Flavia glanced at the screen and followed him, hoping they'd find Emily soon.

/

Emily grew tired of holding the jugs of flowers, so she was happy to find her godmother's bedroom, marked with Gallifreyan writing on the door. She'd never been inside, but Flavia hadn't told her she couldn't enter, so she set one of the jugs on the floor and stretched up on tiptoes to turn the doorknob. The door clicked and swung open, revealing a room of light cream and fawn, very neat and tidy.

Realising that her godmother might not be happy if she spilt water on the carpet, Emily held the jug with both hands as she carried it over to the bedside table. There was only a lamp and book on the table; Emily set the jug of orange and white flowers down nice and carefully. She had a look around; there was a bed with light orange and brown striped covers, a wardrobe, a bookcase full of books and a door that probably led to a bathroom. It was clean and pretty and…rather boring, really.

Her parent's bedroom was somewhere nearby; she could put the rest of the flowers in there, and go back to her nursery as if nothing had happened. Maybe she could take a quick peek into the Corsair's room as well. Emily retrieved the second jug from the floor of the corridor and carried it down the corridor to her parent's room. A few moments later she emerged, sans jug, and skipped off in search of her godfather's quarters.

Half-way down the corridor Emily paused, realising that her godparents seemed closer than she thought…but that was okay, the TARDIS would help her sneak away. She continued on, looking for a door marked 'Corsair', unaware of the corridors being fixed in their current positions.

/

Her godparents found the door to Flavia's bedroom ajar; the latter hurried inside, looking around to check that nothing was out of place. She frowned in confusion, spotting the plastic jug full of white and orange flowers. "I didn't put these here...Emily must have" she realised, smiling fondly, "Oh, bless". The Corsair pulled out his sonic and scanned the corridor – it beeped, Emily was nearby...but so was his bedroom. He took off at a run, almost skidding around corners, and finally found Emily standing in front of a closed door.

She looked round, eyes wide, and squeaked in surprise as the Corsair marched over and scooped her up. "Gotcha!" he cried triumphantly; the little girl squirmed and took a deep breath, but before she could squeal or shriek her way out of this, Flavia came around the corner. "Emily, there you are! We've been looking everywhere for you, do you have any idea how worried we've been?" she scolded.

"Um…no?"

"Do you have any idea how worried your parents would be if they found out we'd lost you?"

"But I – I'm safe in here, daddy said so, and I just wanted to explore, and I was gonna come back, honest!" Emily insisted. She really hadn't thought they'd be worried…cross, maybe, but why worried? She was always safe in her home, wasn't she?

"Emz, if you wanted to explore so badly, why didn't you ask Flavia to go with you? Or wait for me to finish fixing machinery?"

"Cos I was bored, and I thought exploring on my own would be more fun…but it isn't, really. I'm sorry" she apologised, pouting. "Aww…I mean, ahem, you're still in big trouble young lady" he warned, trying to sound stern.

"Quite; as for how much trouble, I think we'll let your parents decide that, hmm?" Flavia suggested; Emily's eyes widened once more, and she shook her head frantically. "No! Don't tell mummy and daddy, please! They'll ground me for forever!"

"Well, maybe next time we tell you not to wander off, you'll listen to us" Flavia admonished. The Corsair then added, "Okay, we'll let you off the hook for now, but when your folks get back…"

Emily sniffled, looking up at her godfather with tears in her eyes, pouting more than ever. "Oh dear" he commented, "Crocodile tears…there's only one cure for them, isn't there?" He started to tickle her mercilessly and she wriggled, her squeals of laughter ringing through the hallway. Pretty soon both her godparents were chuckling too, and poor Emily ended up with a case of the hiccups.

This led to a search for the kitchen to get a glass of water, which in turn led to the Corsair teaching Emily how to bake. An hour and a lot of broken eggs and flour later, they had lots of little cupcakes to eat. Flavia managed to stop the pair from eating all of them, since Emily was tempted to see how many she could eat without feeling sick. They entertained the little girl with stories of adventure, both real and fictitious, just letting the hours roll by until the Doctor and Romana returned.

Emily practically threw herself into their arms, rambling happily. "Hi mummy! Hi daddy! Did you have fun? I had fun! I got you some flowers, I put them in your room, and the Corsair and I baked cupcakes, and I found a Lego room, and"-

"You found the Lego room? I've been looking for that for ages, did the Corsair show it to you?" the Doctor asked curiously. Emily realised what she'd said, and covered her mouth with a hand. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the Corsair and Flavia, who glanced awkwardly at one another.

"That's not exactly what happened…"

"Err, Corsair? Flavia?" Romana questioned, looking at something over their shoulders, "Why are there butterflies in the console room?"

All five of them looked over to see a few monarch butterflies resting on the handrails. The Corsair blinked in surprise, looked at Flavia and said, "I thought we'd forgotten something".