A Christmas Carol (Part One)

"I didn't believe it," the Ambassador called as she and the Doctor frantically tried to get the TARDIS as close to the ship Amy and Rory were on, which was proving difficult given the cloud coverage they were trying to fly through, "I really didn't!"

"Believe what?" he shouted back as he jerked back, the console sparking.

"That you had THIS much bad luck!" she struggled to pull a lever, the box seeming to fight her even as it started to shake and buck around them as a result. She was trying very hard to not let the jostling get to her, but right now it was reminding her far too much of the sneak attacks of the Daleks, the mad scrambling, things flying everywhere and chaos around her. If this didn't end soon...she honestly wasn't sure what state she'd be in, so she was trying to focus on anything else, even his abysmal luck.

She really had thought that it was just a joke around Gallifrey, the stories she heard about the errant Doctor. He was a topic of much talk on their planet, the odd one out, the one flying off and getting into all sorts of situations. She thought they were exaggerated, the ones she heard, the ones she bothered to pay attention to. No one could get into so many difficulties so often. No one could have such bad luck.

She was beginning to realize she was wrong, not a single place they set down on had ever been a nice and quiet trip. Something always came up. This was supposed to be a break from the humans, sending the Ponds onto a honeymoon of sorts after the Doctor decided against the Orient Express in Space. He had stopped them down by the Seventh Obelisk and checked that Isis was still there before he called off that one since he'd been lied to. It had put off Amy so he'd made it up to the newlywed with a luxury ship fit for a good honeymoon, dropped them off, and it was supposed to be just the two Time Lords, ready to just talk and actually get to know each other as friends do. They had actually sat down in the TARDIS kitchen, two nice cups of tea before them…

When alarms began to blare, a distress call from Amy, the ship was crashing.

As soon as they got the TARDIS going after them, they realized why. The atmosphere of the planet they were crashing towards was an odd blue-white gas, thick, almost electrified, with some irregular field within it unnatural to a normal planet.

The Doctor had sent a message to reassure Amy they were on the way, but it looked like they were going to need to come up with another plan. There would be no way to land any sort of ship safely in such coverage and the ship the Ponds were on was jostling about too much to get a proper lock on it.

"It is not bad luck!" the Doctor huffed, wincing as he was then thrown against the console as the box bucked again, alarms ringing now.

"We need to get out of the clouds," the Ambassador hurried to try and input the commands, "We won't be able to help anyone being thrown about."

"This isn't normal," the Doctor agreed with her assessment, moving to the monitor as she worked on getting them out of the clouds, "Something's is affecting the clouds…what, what, what?"

Just as the Ambassador managed to drop them out of the cloud coverage, the TARDIS seeming to agree with her in this once case that they had to get somewhere calmer, the Doctor let out a whooping cheer, causing her to look over, "Found it?"

"There!" he pointed at the monitor, turning it to show her a red beam of energy that was shooting into the sky from a tall building, the only energy on the planet the TARDIS was picking up that was directly going into the clouds. The architecture of it was a mix of Victorian themes with quite high technology.

"Ok, so we just have to turn the beam off."

"Exactly!" he cheered, reaching out to grab a lever, "Geronimo!"

~8~

And, of course, because this was the Doctor, it was never so easy as to just turn off the beam.

He had at least taken her advice at first, when she suggested they contact the local president before the Time Lord inevitably got involved with the situation. It was just the proper thing to do, to make the highest chain of command aware and to let them try to handle the situation first. It wouldn't do to step on anyone's toes. It was why she had refused to help Amy negotiate with Restac and had requested a meeting with the Silurian Elder. Coming in to a foreign planet and just assuming things was asking for issues and barriers to be put up.

This wasn't like what happened with Craig, this wasn't something they needed to investigate first, this wasn't anything alien. The tech, they made out, was all of this world, it was something those of this world were aware of, they just needed the right person to tell the one controlling the beam to turn it off for a minute or two.

Unfortunately, according to the president, said control person was refusing, had even gone so far as to say that there was a surplus population and that the 4,000 people on Amy and Rory's ship shouldn't be allowed on the planet to begin with. The president had given them his permission to do what they needed to break through the cloud layer and save the ship.

The Doctor had immediately set the TARDIS to the base of the machine controlling the clouds, fixed to the roof of the building they'd seen. But even then, even the sonic couldn't help, the device had all sorts of security features and codes to it, so much so that it would take them too long to work through the protocols to turn it off. They didn't have the time, despite having a time machine, they had to find whoever controlled it and convince them to shut it down.

And, because time was of the essence, the Doctor chose the quickest means to find said person…by diving into the nearby chimney in the hopes it would get him into the house faster.

"Oh my stars," the Ambassador huffed, watching him disappear down the chute, shaking her head.

She merely turned and pushed her way into the TARDIS, moving to the console and pressing the button that would set the box to home in on its pilot, though it appeared the box wasn't happy with her at the controls, and instead of taking her to the Doctor, it set down in the hall just outside what appeared to be a main sitting room. She did at least manage to preset the box to move outside the building once she stepped out. She had no doubt the Doctor would probably say something or do something that would cause him to be thrown out within the first five minutes and they would need the box to get back in. Though she got the distinct impression the TARDIS would have done so anyway just to get away from her.

She could hear what sounded like an older man speaking as soon as she stepped out of the box, going on about something to do with 'poor begging people.' She turned and shut the doors behind her, locking it with the key the Doctor had given her to be safe, slipping it back into her pocket before she began to walk down the hall, following the man's voice, glancing back to make sure the TARDIS had set itself to dematerialize.

She turned to continue on her way once the box disappeared, hearing a noise that sounded like something tumbling or pouring into the room, and shook her head when she heard the Doctor's voice.

"Ah! Yes, blimey. Sorry! Christmas Eve on a rooftop, saw a chimney, my whole brain just went…"

"What the hell?" the Ambassador offered as she pushed through the door and into the room, pausing when she saw the Doctor completely covered in ash and soot, which had fallen out of the fireplace into the room along with the Doctor apparently. There were a handful of other people in the room as well, an older man in a robe, and a small family of an old woman, middle-aged man, and two children, standing off to the side looking quite poor.

The Doctor, either ignoring or unaware of the exasperation and irritation in her voice, merely pointed at her with a grin. He began to walk over to the family, speaking more to the children, "Don't worry, fat fella will be doing the rounds later. I'm just scoping out the general...chimney-ness. Yes," he moved back towards the chimney, leaning against it, before pulling away at how hot it was, "Nice size, good traction, big tick."

"Fat fella?" the father of the family spoke, confused.

"Is that supposed to be Santa Claus?" the Ambassador asked, moving further into the room, looking around it. She wasn't overly familiar with the legends and beliefs of humans, but she did try to be somewhat familiar with the cultures of a number of species, never knowing where she might be sent as an Ambassador or who she might encounter, not wanting to offend. From what she recalled of this Santa fellow, he was meant to be portly.

"The Doctor snapped his fingers at her, "Father Christmas!" he cheered, "Or, as I've always known him, Jeff."

'Jeff?' she mouthed at the Doctor, her back to the others in the room.

He just winked at her.

"There's no such person as Father Christmas," one of the children in the family, the little boy, spoke up.

"Oh, yeah?" the Doctor huffed, striding over to the child and pulling out a photo from his pocket, showing it to him, "Me and Father Christmas, Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge, 1952. See him at the back with the blonde...Albert Einstein."

"Really?" the Ambassador crossed her arms, "The three of you together?" she wasn't sure if she was meant to be impressed or exasperated…it seemed to be the two emotions the Doctor excelled at bringing up in her.

"Hrrroom!" he laughed, "Watch out! Ok?" he spun to the young boy, "Keep the faith, stay off the naughty list…ooh!" he perked up, catching sight of a control panel across the room, one covered with knobs and buttons, lights flashing everywhere, "What's this? And I love this, a big flashy lighty thing," he plopped down onto a chair before the panel, "That's what brought us here!" he cheered, spinning the chair to point at the Ambassador, and then spinning onward to the panel, "Big flashy lighty things have got me written all over them. Not actually," he turned to them again, "But give me time and a crayon…"

"It's the control panel for the spire on the dome of the house," the Ambassador cut in, honestly wondering if the man had poured sugar into his tea earlier…or maybe just added a tiny bit of tea-water to a cup full of sugar, he was being quite hyper right now, and they really did not have the time, "Which controls the cloud coverage."

"Well," the Doctor hopped up, "Clouds of tiny particles of ice. Ice clouds, love that," he moved over towards the older man, before pointing at a metal pod standing in the middle of the room, "Who's she?"

The Ambassador frowned and moved closer, stepping around the pod to see there was a small window in it, through which she could see a woman with blonde hair appearing to be sleeping within, still standing up, "It's a stasis pod," she remarked quietly to the Doctor, who nodded.

"Nobody important," the old man answered.

"Nobody important?" the Ambassador spun to face him. She may not understand the Doctor's fascination with humans, but she could understand why he tried to save them so often. Every life was important, it was why Ambassadors, when requested to, would mediate to help both sides of a dispute reach an agreement. Because their role was to be clever enough to ensure both sides came out successful, both sides were important, the lives on both sides were important. Every human life was important, just as every Time Lord life was, or every Adipose life.

The only life she could not abide being important were the Daleks, and those who allied with them.

"Blimey, that's amazing," the Doctor shook his head at the old man, "Do you know," he glanced at the Ambassador, "In 900 years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before."

"Nor me, and I've been around 837 years, speaking of," the Ambassador turned to the old man, "There's a ship in your cloud coverage, 4,000 people are on board, and they are all in severe danger."

"This console," the Doctor moved over to it and began flicking some of the controls, "Is the key to saving that ship, or I'll eat my hat...if I had a hat. I'll eat someone's hat. Not someone who's using their hat, I don't want to shock a nun or something," he glanced over when the Ambassador cleared her throat to try and get him back on track, "Sorry, rambling, cos...cos this isn't working!" he huffed.

"The controls are isomorphic," the old man stated, "One to one, they respond only to me."

"Well that's convenient," the Ambassador rubbed her head.

"Oh, you fibber..." the Doctor muttered, less inclined to believe the man, "Isomorphic! There's no such thing."

The old man merely walked over and flipped a switch on the console, turning it off for but a moment, before flicking it back on, watching as the Doctor tried to do the same only for nothing to happen.

The Time Lord even went so far as to scan the machine with the sonic, frowning at the readings, "These controls are isomorphic!"

"The skies of this entire world are mine. My family tamed them, and now I own them."

"Own the sky?" the Ambassador frowned, "And, what?" she shook her head, "You own her, too, then?" she nodded towards the woman in the pod.

"Yes."

"You can't own the skies and I'm sure there are quite a few laws about NOT owning people."

"I'm Kazran Sardick," the old man stated, as though it was all that needed to be said.

"Oh," the Ambassador nodded, recalling the name the President had given them, "Then you're the one we need to speak to."

"Make an appointment."

"There are 4,003 people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt," the Doctor stood up, "Without your help, they're going to die."

"Yes."

"You can't possibly WANT that to happen," the Ambassador frowned at him.

"I don't particularly care," Kazran sneered, "So bye bye. Bored now. Chuck!"

One of the man's servants quickly stepped up and grabbed the Time Lords by the arm, dragging them back, but the Doctor was able to twist out of the grip and stride over to Kazran as he sat down in a plush chair.

"Ooh, look at you, looking all tough now," the man muttered.

"There are 4,003 people I won't allow to die tonight," the Doctor warned, "Do you know where that puts you?"

"Where?"

"4,004."

"Was that a sort of threaty thing?"

"Whatever happens tonight, remember...you brought it on yourself."

The Ambassador could only shake her head at that, there went all her plans to try and 'make an appointment' with the man and rationally talk this out. They had a time machine, a little cheat to go back in the past just to schedule an appointment for a minute from now, that would be fine. But now with the man thinking he'd been threatened, it wouldn't happen. Kazran, for all his callousness and stubbornness, was not the most difficult person she had ever encountered in her line of work. Give her time and she could probably talk him round, work out a way to appeal to him, make sure he got something out of it if the salvation of life wasn't enough.

Now that was all gone.

"Yeah, yeah, right," Kazran brushed it off, "Get him out of here," he called to another servant, who rushed over to grab the Doctor and pull him back, "And next time, try and find me some funny poor people."

The Doctor struggled a little more as they were led off, the Ambassador moving along with the servants pushing them towards the door. The family behind them seemed resigned, moving without resistance, save for the young boy, who instead turned and grabbed a lump of coal that had rolled into the room earlier, hurling it at Kazran and hitting him square in the head.

Kazran leapt to his feet and stormed towards the child, his arm raised, about to strike him, when the Ambassador yanked herself free and pushed herself in front of the boy, blocking him from Kazran's rage. Though a frown grew on her face as she looked at his expression moments before the man stepped back in shock at her sudden surge forward.

"You do not lay a hand on a child," the Ambassador stated, "Or you will make an enemy of ME."

Her chances to get through to the man before her in the time they needed to save Amy and Rory and the others on that ship were slim to begin with, nonexistent after the Doctor's threat. She would never stand by as someone was physically hit or injured in front of her eyes, especially a child. There had been times, in her official capacity as an Ambassador, when she was requested on another planet where she would witness things she found disgusting, but she had to stand aside so as not to physically interfere. There were other times, when she would be assigned a planet or people to monitor, to assess and record, where their customs were just horrendous to her, and still she had to put it aside to do her job.

This was not one of those times. This was not an assignment nor a request for help, she didn't have to hold back or put her feelings aside. She often tried to, she tried to be unbiased even when she wasn't somewhere in an official capacity, like with the Silurians or the Signora. But right now, with such little preparation, with a child about to be hit before her, she couldn't help it.

…perhaps the Doctor was rubbing off on her.

Kazran frowned deeply at her, lowering his hand, his face morphing into a glare, "Get them out of here! Get that foul-smelling family out of here! Out!"

The servants rushed forward to grab the family, ushering them out of the room, seeming to forget the Time Lords. Even Kazran seemed to take a moment to notice they were still there, stopping in his move to sit back down on his chair when he saw he wasn't alone.

"What?" the man demanded, "What do you want?"

"A simple life," the Doctor answered readily, "But you didn't hit the boy."

Kazran sneered at him, "Your wife got in the way."

"Not his wife," the Ambassador spoke instantly. She didn't know the Doctor well enough to know if he would say it or if he'd go along with it to avoid more questions, but she couldn't. Her hand moved to clutch the end of the necklace she wore, the pendant dangling from it, that was going a bit too far too soon, "And you were already hesitating when I moved," she pointed out, "I could see it on your face, you weren't going to hit him."

"Well, I will next time!"

"I don't think you will."

"Why?" the Doctor asked, not as if he wanted the boy to be hit, but more curious as to why such a hard hearted man who didn't care if 4,000 people died wouldn't go that far on a child, "What am I missing?" he murmured, walking through the room, eyeing everything in it.

"Get out!" Kazran snapped, "Get out of this house!"

The Ambassador crossed her arms as she observed the Doctor, taking notice of where his attention went, knowing he was working something out that she had missed as well. She would never want someone to strike a child, but he did bring up a good point that a man like Kazran wouldn't have hesitated unless…

"You were hit, weren't you?" she turned to the man, "When you were a child. It's why you won't strike one now."

Before Kazran could even answer, the Doctor had snapped his fingers, pointing at the Ambassador as though she'd answered his question, "The chairs prove it," he agreed.

"The chairs?" Kazran shook his head.

"There's a portrait on the wall behind me," he spun around to face Kazran, the portrait now looming over his shoulder, "Looks like you, but it's too old, so it's your father. All the chairs are angled away from it. Daddy's been dead for 20 years. But you still can't get comfortable where he can see you. There's a Christmas tree in the painting, but none in this house, on Christmas Eve. You're scared of him and you're scared of being like him. And good for you, you're not like him, not really. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you didn't hit that child," the Ambassador answered, sorrow and pity in her eyes as she looked at Kazran now. He HAD been struck as a child, she was certain of it now, and by his own father. How anyone could harm their own child was beyond her.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Sardick," the Doctor offered the man a small smile, feeling hopeful that they just might be able to change this around and get the man to change the cloud coverage.

"I despise Christmas!" Kazran snapped.

"You shouldn't," the Doctor remarked, finally heading for the door, a small nod at the Ambassador getting her to follow him, "It's very you."

"It's what? What do you mean?"

"Halfway out of the dark."

"What?" the Ambassador asked him quietly as they left the room, passing the servants who had escorted the family from before as they returned.

"I was stuck in the chimney," he gave her a sheepish shrug, "He was talking about Christmas before I could get free."

She nodded slowly at that, the two of them stepping past the front doors and out into the chilly night. She sighed as they reached the gate of the manor, pulling a mobile device out of her pocket to call up Amy and Rory for an update. They had agreed she would hold onto the communication device, given the Doctor had copious amounts of things in all his pockets and it was an overall miracle he could find the sonic half the time.

She hadn't even gotten the device fully connected before Amy's voice was ringing out into the night, "Have you got a plan yet?"

"Hello, Amy, we're fine, thank you for asking."

"Sadie!"

"It's the Ambassador," she huffed under her breath, even as the Doctor shouted out, "Yes, we do!"

"Is he lying?"

"I would just assume yes," the Ambassador told her.

"Oi!" the Doctor huffed, reaching out to take the device from her, "Look, the good news. We've tracked the machine that unlocks the cloud belt. We could use it to clear you a flight corridor and you could land easily."

"Oh, hey, hey, that's great news," Amy called out.

"He's leaving out the part where we can't control the machine," the Ambassador warned.

"Less great."

"But!" the Doctor cheered, "We've met a man who can."

"Ah, well, there you go!"

"Amy," the Ambassador sighed, "He's MET the man who can, which means the man has met the Doctor as well."

"…was he being extra charming and clever?"

"Yes."

"So he hates him."

"Quite likely, yes."

"Oi!" the Doctor groused, "YOU didn't make that great an impression either," he pointed out.

"Better than you," she muttered.

"Sir!" another voice called out, causing them to turn to see the older man from the small family hurrying over to them, "Ma'am…"

"Hang on," the Doctor told Amy, tossing the device back to the Ambassador.

"Sorry to disturb you," the man spoke, noticing their comm., "It's just…I've never seen anybody stand up to Mr. Sardick like that," he reached out to shake their hands, though only the Ambassador allowed it, wearing her typical gloves, "Bless you both, and merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas. Lovely."

"Sorry," the Ambassador cut in gently, her hand over one end of the comm., "We're a bit busy…"

The man nodded, offering one last word of advice, "You'd better get inside. The fog's thick tonight, and there's a fish warning."

"Fish?"

"Yeah. You know what they're like when they get a bit hungry."

"They bite," the Ambassador stated with a confused frown, "But what's that got to do with anything?"

"It's all Mr. Sardick's fault, I reckon. He always lets a few fish through the cloud layer when he's in a bad mood. Thank you. Bless you once again."

The Ambassador shook her head, turning to the Doctor, "He did say FISH right?"

The Doctor nodded, looking as lost as she felt.

"Hello!" Amy's voice shouted through the muffled device, pulling their attention back as the Ambassador uncovered the device, "Look, the Captain says we've got less than an hour! What should we be doing?"

The Ambassador looked up at the Doctor for that, but his attention had drifted once more to something over her shoulder, "Doctor?"

He pointed, "Fish!" and hurried past her.

She spun on her heel to see that he'd rushed off to a streetlight where a bunch of tiny fish were swimming around it like moths, swimming in the air instead of water.

"Sorry, what?" Amy asked what the Ambassador was thinking.

"Fish that can swim in fog!" he cheered, throwing his arms up in the air as he turned to face the Ambassador as she approached cautiously, "I love new planets."

The Ambassador couldn't help but let out a little breath of amusement at that, at his exuberance. There were times she found his childlike quality to be irritating, the over excitement, the energy he sometimes displayed. It could be a bit much. But there were other times, like now, where his wonder at seeing something new was endearing.

It…reminded her, that life wasn't all about your job or duties, but taking time to appreciate the small things. Not many Time Lords left Gallifrey, the Ambassadors for one were some of the few that did. But even then, the moment she left the planet she became a representative of it. There was too much at risk to take any time to truly appreciate anything going on around her, new sights, smells, foods, people, beauty…she had to be a Time Lady. She had never had a 'vacation' as the humans called it, been able to go somewhere just for the wonderment of it.

The Doctor reminded her, little by little, to take just a moment to look around at things that were new and different, that she'd never seen before.

It was a bittersweet thing to do at times. She didn't have her own planet, so each new thing she saw was a reminder that it wasn't something she had ever seen on Gallifrey, that she would never see Gallifrey again. It was a reminder of how she didn't have her duties any longer, her job, her role, her purpose, her position with her people because she had time to notice things now. But it was also a reminder that other planets existed and they had their own wonders.

She hadn't been able to protect Gallifrey, but she could…she could help other planets so no one lost their home like she had.

Her gaze drifted to the Doctor, feeling a swell of empathy for him, of understanding. And…perhaps…a little bit more appreciation, for the person he was, because he had not started to want to help others because of the war, he had been helping before the war ever began. While she had subscribed to non-interference, he had seen things that were wrong and been moved to help. A true doctor.

"Doctor!" Amy snapped, pulling the Ambassador's attention back to the comm., "Please don't get distracted!"

The Doctor either hadn't heard her or was ignoring her plea, reaching out a hand to the fish in curiosity, "Now, why would people be frightened of you tiny little fellas?" he smiled as one of them nibbled at his finger, "Look at you, sweet little fishy-wishys."

"There are all sorts of fish, though," the Ambassador reminded him, coming beside him, smiling a bit as one of the fish tried to chew on the end of her hair, "Small fish and…very large ones in the oceans of Earth. If these fish exist in the fog…"

"So in the cloud cover..." the Doctor realized, the similarity to the vastness of the oceans, "Ooh. Careful up there," he warned to Amy.

"Oh, great, thanks, Doctor, because there was a real danger we were all going to nod off!" Amy huffed, "We've got less than an hour!"

They looked up as a clock tower chimed, showing the time ticking away on them.

"I know," the Doctor sighed.

The Ambassador winced as loudspeakers around the area began to blare out 'Ding Dong Merrily on High.'

"Hello?" Amy called, the music so loud even she could hear it over the device, "How are you getting us off here?"

"Oh, just give us a minute!" the Doctor huffed, starting to pace, "Can't use the TARDIS, cos it can't lock on. So that ship needs to land, but it can't land unless a very bad man suddenly decides to turn nice, just in time for Christmas Day!"

"I could have talked him round," the Ambassador rubbed her head.

"In time to land the ship?" the Doctor turned to her.

She was quiet, even she knew, even before the Doctor made his threat, Kazran would take far longer than an hour to talk through.

"We need to think…" he muttered.

"What?" Amy shouted, the noise of the music nearly making them miss her words, "I can't hear you. What is that? Is that singing?"

"It's a Christmas carol," the Ambassador told her absently, trying to think of a quick way around this, a way to get into the clouds without needing to disturb Kazran.

"A what?"

"A Christmas carol," the Doctor tried.

"A what?"

"A CHRISTMAS CAROL!" they both shouted, though it was only the Doctor who spun to the Ambassador with a beaming grin.

"What?" she shook her head, not sure what he was thinking.

"Kazran Sardick!" he cheered, waving his hands about as though the answer should be obvious.

"Lost," she told him, before thinking about how he had phrased things once before, "Cheat sheet?"

He grinned at her, laughing, "A Christmas Carol, Dickens!" he added when she still looked lost, "Eh? Scrooge? Bah hum bug?"

"I've no idea what you're talking about."

He rolled his eyes, but reached out to grab her wrist, making sure to grab her jacket, and tug her towards where the TARDIS had set down, "Merry Christmas, Kazran Sardick!"

"Doctor!" the Ambassador called, going along with him, but still completely lost.

~8~

"I'm still not sure I understand this," the Ambassador remarked as she and the Doctor stood in the TARDIS, watching footage of a much younger Kazran talking into a camera, the little boy smiling and beaming. The Doctor had rigged the camera to project the feed into the room where the older Kazran was sleeping in his armchair.

"Hello!" the boy on the footage cheered, "My name is Kazran Sardick. I'm twelve and a half, and this is my bedroom!"

She wasn't sure she understood how such a sweet little boy could grow into the man they'd seen before either.

"We go into his past, to try and change his future?" she looked at the Doctor.

"A Christmas Carol," he began to explain, again, though this time in a much more simplified manner than the rapid fire and exceptionally long way he had before while he'd been searching into Kazran's past, "By Charles Dickens. Scrooge, a grouchy old man makes people miserable at Christmas, till three ghosts, of Past, Present, and Future, appear to show him the error of his ways, how he went from a joyful young man to someone only a few cared for, to someone who would be alone and unloved."

"I don't think Kazran cares if he would be alone or unloved," she pointed out, he didn't even care about those 4,000 other people.

"He doesn't now, but he might soon!" the Doctor cheered, "If we give him someone in his life he cared about and who care about him. Friends!" he gestured to the two of them.

"You want to try and change his life in an hour?"

"We have a time machine!"

"You're talking about changing the entire course of his life," she pointed out with a frown, "You don't know if it will make him worse. Given the rumors about you, Doctor…you might end up making him more of an enemy."

"Sadie…we don't have any other way to get through to him," he turned to her, "We have to take a chance, we have to try."

"This is my top secret special project!" the boy on the screen continued, "For my eyes only. Merry Christmas!"

The Time Lords looked down at the monitor as another voice, older and angrier, shouted out, "Kazran! Kazran!" the man the Doctor had seen in the portrait, Kazran's father, stormed into the room, "Kazran, what are you doing? What are you doing?!" he peered at the camera before rounding on his son who began to back away in fear, "I've warned you before about this, you stupid, ignorant, ridiculous child!"

"I was just going to make a film of the fish…"

"The fish are dangerous!"

"I just want to see them."

"Don't be stupid, you're far too young!"

"Everyone at school's seen the fish."

"That's enough! You'll be singing to them next, like gypsies."

"The singing works! I've seen it. The fish like the singing."

"What does it matter what fish like?"

"People say we don't have to be afraid of the fish. They're not really interested in us."

"You don't listen to people! You listen to me!"

Both Time Lords flinched and looked away as Kazran's father backhanded him, the child quickly began to cry, apologizing to his father over and over as the man just continued to shout. They glanced at each other and shared a nod, moving away from the console and to the doors, stepping out of them and into the sitting room of Kazran's manor.

The man, the older-him, was standing in the middle of the darkened room, staring at a wall that had a projection of the feed they had been watching flashing across it. The man had a hand to his cheek, as though absently lost in a phantom memory of the pain that backhand had given him as a child.

It was heartsbreaking to watch the boy on the feed breaking down and sobbing into his arms as he sat at his desk.

In a way, it was just as heartsbreaking to see the older Kazran reliving that memory.

"It's ok," the Doctor murmured as he approached Kazran and put a hand on his shoulder, wanting to comfort the man despite how callous he'd been earlier, "It's ok."

Kazran jerked away, startled, spinning around to see the Doctor and Ambassador behind him, his expression quickly morphing into one of fierce anger, "What have you done? What is this?"

"It was stored on an old drive," the Ambassador offered, she hadn't known it was being broadcast to the older Kazran until a few minutes ago. She thought they were just watching it to understand the boy's past.

"Sorry about the picture quality," the Doctor added, "Had to recover the data using quantum enfolding and a paperclip."

"I still can't believe that worked," the Ambassador murmured to herself. The Doctor was quite resourceful, she could admit that.

The Doctor shot a wink at her, grinning widely and very pleased he'd impressed her, as he moved to sit down on Kazran's chair with a newspaper, "Oh, I wouldn't bother calling your servants," he added when the old man rushed to a rope to pull to call them there, "They quit. Apparently they won the lottery at exactly the same time, which is a bit lucky when you think about it."

'Lucky' was one word for it, unbelievable was another especially given that there was no lottery on this planet.

Kazran appeared to be of the same mind, "There isn't a lottery."

"Yeah, as I say, lucky."

"There's a fog warning tonight," the voice of Kazran's father cut through the moment, drawing their attention back to the projection, "You keep these windows closed, understand? Closed!"

Kazran's hands clenched into fists, "Who are you?"

"Tonight, we're the Ghosts Of Christmas Past," the Doctor told him.

"Mrs. Mantovani will be looking after you tonight," the projection continued to say, "You stay here till she comes. Do you understand? Do you understand?"

The Ambassador watched as the man's father finally seemed to walk away and leave his son alone, though the poor boy was still sobbing, "Did you ever get to see a fish?" she asked, turning back to Kazran, "When you were him?" she jerked her head to the projection, to his younger self.

"What does that matter to you?" Kazran sneered.

"It mattered to you," she said simply.

Kazran looked away from her, focusing instead on the image projected, of himself as a child sobbing over the fish, "I cried all night, and I learned life's most invaluable lesson."

"Which is?" the Doctor asked.

"Nobody comes," the man nearly snarled, turning to glare at them, "Get out! Get out of my house!"

The Doctor reached out, lightly grabbing the Ambassador's elbow to tug her away from the man before he began to brandish his cane at them, "Ok. Ok. But we'll be back. Way back. Way, way back."

He glanced at the Ambassador, moving his hand from her elbow to the edge of her coat sleeve, keeping a hold of it as he led her out of the room and into the TARDIS once more.

"We're heading to his past now, right?" the Ambassador asked, lightly tugging her sleeve from his grip to move to the console after him.

The Doctor grinned and snapped his finger, pointing at her, "Exactly the point in that recording."

"Why do I get the feeling you've picked that point just to show off?" the Ambassador muttered, hurrying to pull a few levers, huffing when one refused to move for her yet again.

The Doctor didn't answer outright, merely gave her a wink, as he pulled the final lever she couldn't budge to send them off, whizzing to the past, though he was sure to set the TARDIS down just outside of Kazran's old bedroom and not in the room. He clapped his hands excitedly, positively beaming as he all but ran out of the box, towards the round window they'd seen in the projection of Kazran's childhood, and threw it open.

"See?" he called out to the boy sitting at his desk, staring back at the window with wide, wet eyes, "Back!"

The Ambassador shook her head as she followed him, climbing up onto the windowsill as he hopped into the room, feeling badly for the poor boy within. He must be so confused. SHE knew that Doctor was speaking to the future Kazran, using the recording that was still going to get the message out, but the younger Kazran had no idea.

"Who are you?" little Kazran frowned, tensing at the appearance of strangers in his window.

"Hi!" the Doctor half-shouted, too happy it worked to contain himself, "I'm the Doctor. And this…" he seemed to realize then that he'd gotten ahead of himself and turned, hurrying back to the window and holding out a hand to the Ambassador to help her down.

He didn't reach for her hand, he didn't take it, he merely held his in offering. She always wore her gloves, wore so much clothing and in such a style that only her face was exposed, but he knew how she felt about any touch, even through cloth. He might be oblivious at the best of times, but even he could see she wasn't comfortable with any touch, not just his…though he was sure the connection they had had something to do with the touch of others affecting her as well. He would give her the opportunity and let her make a decision. Nearly being erased from time, having her turned to stone for near 2,000 years, had put a lot in perspective. He hadn't done the best job showing her he respected her boundaries and what she wanted or didn't want. He wouldn't make the same mistake with the second chance he'd been given.

The Ambassador looked down at his hand, glancing at his smiling face, seeing an understanding in his eyes she hadn't often seen before. He was willing to let her step down on her own, to not take his hand if she didn't want to, he wouldn't hold it against her or make her feel guilty for refusing him. And there was no trickery here, no ulterior motive to try and pull her glove off to feel her skin on his, it was just a kind gesture.

She took a breath and reached out, laying her hand on his and squeezing gently as he helped her down from the window's edge.

He beamed at her, such a soft look, even as she quickly pulled her hand away, he was just happy for that small move.

He nearly gave her whiplash when he spun on his heel to continue speaking to little Kazran, "This is the Ambassador," he finished the introductions, "I'm your new babysitter."

Little Kazran frowned, "YOU are?"

"Yes."

"What about her?" he glanced at the Ambassador, noting how the man had only claimed HE was the babysitter but not the other woman.

"She's MY babysitter."

The Ambassador snorted at that, it was a somewhat fitting description for this situation.

"Why do you need a babysitter?" the boy asked.

"Never too old to need someone to look after you," the Doctor shrugged, starting to wander around the room, examining various things while the Ambassador merely remained stationary, her arms crossed as she watched.

"Where's Mrs. Mantovani?"

"Oh, you'll never guess!" the Doctor cheered, "Clever old Mrs. Manters, she only went and won the lottery!"

The Ambassador shook her head as she watched the Doctor move to jump on the bed, bouncing up and down. She didn't understand why he felt he had to lie to little Kazran, the old woman who was meant to watch Kazran wasn't coming that night. They had fast forwarded through the footage when they first found it. At some point, little Kazran had cried himself to sleep at his desk, the recording going undisturbed for hours and hours, till morning when his father stormed in, angry about how he'd wasted power with the recording and so on. There had been mention about his babysitter being fired, for the boy was 'too old' to need a babysitter as he wasn't a baby any longer but a man.

She could understand not wanting to tell the boy the woman had been fired, but could have left it as she wasn't scheduled that night or something. Anything closer to the truth than a lie. Especially because…

"There isn't any lottery!" little Kazran stated.

There wasn't a lottery on this planet, as the bigger Kazran had stated earlier. So all that would do would be to make little Kazran less likely to trust them outright if they opened with something he knew was a lie.

"I know," the Doctor didn't seem bothered, "What a woman!"

"If you're my babysitter…" little Kazran began as the Doctor hopped off the bed, gesturing towards it while he looked at the Ambassador as though offering her a turn, which she turned down, "Why are you climbing in the window?"

"Cos if we were climbing out, we'd be going in the wrong direction. Pay attention."

"Mrs. Mantovani's always my babysitter…"

"Times change," the Ambassador cut in, not sure she wanted to know what excuse the Doctor would give next, probably something complicated and rambling.

The Doctor, however, clapped his hands with a wide smile, as though she'd said some sort of joke only he understood. He turned to the recorder, speaking right to it, "See? Times change," he gestured at himself and the Ambassador then to the boy beside him, "Christmas Past."

The Ambassador was quite sure, if Kazran was still watching this in the future, that he could clearly see her shaking her head into her hand in the background.

"Who are you talking to?" little Kazran asked.

"You!" the Doctor answered the boy, before returning his attention to the camera, "Now, your past is going to change. That means your memories will too. Scary, but you'll get the hang of it."

"I don't understand."

"I don't think anyone does when he talks," the Ambassador remarked, walking over to the two of them, "Just ignore him unless he's talking directly to you," she offered the little advice she could.

"Exactly!" the Doctor smiled, before her words caught up to him and he pouted, "Right, then," he huffed, brushing the words off and looking around, getting excited once more, back on track now that he had been reminded the boy's older self would be watching this, reminded of why they'd come back in the first place, "So! Your bedroom. Great! Let's see, you're 12 years old, so we'll stay away from under the bed. Cupboard! Big cupboard, I love a cupboard," he rushed over to it, yanking the door open to peer inside, "Do you know, there's a thing called a face spider. It's just like a tiny baby's head with spider legs, and it's specifically evolved to scuttle up the backs of bedroom cupboards..." he paused a moment, realizing what he'd just said to a 12 year old boy that likely still believed in monsters under the bed and quickly turned, reassurances on the tip of his tongue dying when he saw the Ambassador had moved to sit on the desk beside Kazran, not blocking the camera but on the other side of it, her hands already pressing on the boy's ears to make sure he couldn't hear anything.

"You're lucky I thought you were going somewhere else when you said you love cupboards," she told him, unamused, as she removed her hands, grateful she never took her gloves off. At first she'd thought he was going to talk about snogging or some other salacious activity to be done in cupboards, and rushed to cover the poor boy's ears. Honestly, when she first caught sight of the TARDIS from the outside it had looked about the size of a cupboard, like some sort of snog box just sitting there, waiting for two Alphegas to corrupt with the tiny space within. Thankfully it had all turned out differently, the cupboard sized TARDIS was huge on the inside as it should be, and the Doctor was NOT talking about snogging now. Though she wasn't sure just how thankful she should be for this particular change, it was probably worse, face spiders compared to snogging. Kazran was too young to be thinking of stealing girls away into cupboards but he was old enough to know about spiders and that depiction of the face spider would probably give the boy nightmares for years to come.

"What?" little Kazran spoke, looking between the two Time Lords in confusion.

"Nothing!" they both said as one.

"Right," the Doctor clapped his hands, "So what are we going to do? Eat crisps and talk about girls? I've never actually done that, but I bet it's easy. Girls! Yeah? Sadie here, she's one incredible woman, don't you think?"

The Ambassador couldn't help the small blush that crept onto her face at his words, looking away from him, clearing her throat.

The Doctor opened his mouth to continue, emboldened by how she didn't outright chastise him, when he hesitated. He…he didn't really KNOW much about her, now that he thought about it. He knew small things…he didn't even know her name! It wasn't much a secret on Gallifrey, just that most people preferred using their titles on their planet. Being such a secretive race when off-world, they were forbidden to tell their names to others with only the smallest number of exceptions. On-world though, back on Gallifrey, that mentality was usually the same. Close friends and family tended to know your name, but it was something built on trust. You didn't just tell everyone and anyone it.

It was probably too soon to try and find that bit of information. He knew he hadn't made the best impression, fixating on the connection they shared, but he wanted to try harder, be a true friend to her. He would know when he had succeeded in that, when he knew her name. Until then though…he really wanted to know her better. What was her favorite food? Favorite color? What was her family like…ok, that might be a bit painful to discuss given how near the war was to her. But there were other things to know about her.

Thankfully little Kazran saved him by asking, "Are you really babysitters?"

"I think you'll find I'm universally recognized as a mature and responsible adult," the Doctor quipped, whipping out the psychic paper to show the boy.

"It's just a lot of wavy lines," the child said.

The Ambassador laughed at the absurdity of the situation, because for a psychic paper to do such a thing meant, "Seems you've shorted it out," she told him, reaching into her pocket for her own paper, "A lie too big, eh?" she held her paper out for the boy to see.

"President of the Babysitting Association?" he read, his eyes widening as he looked at her, "You're a president?! But…"

"But what?" the Ambassador asked, moving the paper into her pocket. This was certainly a first for her, she never would have thought she'd ever use the psychic paper for this.

"You're a lady," he spoke, "A woman."

"And a woman can't be president of something?"

"My dad says…"

"I was asking you, dear, not your father," the Ambassador cut in lightly, "What do YOU think?"

Little Kazran shrugged, "I think women can do lots of things," he looked at her again, "I don't think a guy could ever be the president of the Babysitting Association!"

"Psshh," the Doctor waved it off, "It's Christmas Eve! You don't want a babysitter or a president," he winked at the Ambassador, urging her to go with it, "You want me."

"Why? What's so special about you?"

"Ouch," the Ambassador coughed, trying to cover up her laughter at how put off the Doctor looked at the question.

"Have you ever seen Mary Poppins?" the Doctor tried to salvage.

"No," little Kazran said.

"Good. Cos that comparison would've been rubbish."

"Who's she?" the Ambassador asked him, assuming it was some sort of human woman or reference but not familiar with it.

"A rubbish babysitter."

"Any relation to you?"

"Ouch!" the Doctor huffed, though he was fighting a grin, just pleased she was even teasing him, whether it was over his babysitting skills or not he'd take it, "Fish in the fog!" he changed the conversation, "Fish in the clouds. How do people ever get bored? How did boredom even get invented?"

"Have you ever had to sit there and listen to you talk?" the Ambassador asked, seeing he hadn't gotten angry at her first little dig, "I'd imagine it got invented that way."

The Doctor put a hand to his left heart in mock hurt, though he was nearly beaming.

"My dad's invented a machine to control the cloud belt," little Kazran told them, "Tame the sky, he says. The fish'll be able to come down, but only when we let them. We can charge whatever we like."

"Yeah," the Doctor muttered, moving to the window when he caught a glimpse of a shadow through the glass, "We've seen your dad's machine."

"What? You can't have."

"Tame the sky..." he sighed, "Human beings, you always manage to find the boring alternative, don't you? You want to see one?" he spun to face the boy, "A fish. We can do that. We can see a fish."

"…we can?" the Ambassador frowned, not sure how they were going to. She doubted they came inside and she also doubted that the child would be allowed outside, nor should he want to leave his house with two verifiable strangers.

"Aren't you going to tell me it's dangerous?" little Kazran asked.

"Dangerous?!" the Doctor scoffed, "Come on, we're boys! And you know what boys say in the face of danger."

The Ambassador quickly reached out to cover Kazran's ears at whatever the answer would be.

"Mummy," the Doctor huffed at the action, "I was going to say 'mummy.'"

She gave him a look, "We've only seen and heard of his father," she reminded him, "Is it really a good idea to bring up the possible lack of a mother?"

The Doctor blinked, not having thought about that, before he pointed at her for her good point, signaling to her that it was relatively safe to lower her hands, "Now, how do we catch a fish?"

The Ambassador was quite sure that this was not going to go half as well as he seemed to think it would.

A/N: Only half as well? Oh, Sadie, you're giving him too much credit lol :)

I wanted to sort of show here how the Doctor and Sadie are both making efforts towards being more respectful of the other. Sadie has gone along with his plan with less resistance than she might have before, and she's trying to accept his offers for touching when he lets her choose whether to accept it or not :) The Doctor's also been working on trying things Sadie's way and letting her have more of a say in how they handle things, like going to the president first and not taking things too much to hearts when she maybe teases him or ribs him a bit ;)

I can say that we're going to get a bit of a gift exchange at the end of this episode between the Doctor and Sadie, I wonder what it'll be? :)

This episode is going to be 3 chapters so we've got 2 more to go instead of just one ;)

Some notes on reviews...

In the Rory/OC, Rory and Amy will be together for some of it. But it will end at some point, Rory won't just jump from about to marry Amy to a relationship with the OC though, it'll take him time to get to that point, to really be ok with 'moving on' from Amy, and perhaps he may even be a bit wary because he really thought Amy was it for him and it backfired on him (in that story) so he's a little more cautious about opening his heart to anyone. It'll be an interesting progression to see him go from Amy's fiance, to broken up with lingering feelings, to her genuine friend, and to see how Amy progresses through her own emotions too. Lol, I'm glad you liked that little Dalek joke from River ;) Who knows what we'll see from her next time? ;)

It definitely took time, but the Doctor and Sadie are getting to a better place. Not quite putting the past behind them, but both deciding to focus on the present and getting to know each other, not as rumors from the planet or as someone the Doctor shares a connection with, but real people :) The Ambassador had a bit of back and forth with it, one step forward and two back in many ways. Each time she almost came to terms with something, something else happened that sort of pushed her away :( But she's finally gotten to that point of seeing the Doctor as he is :) There's still a lot for her to process, and sometimes there may be tiny slips of things she can't help, depending on the situation, but nothing is ever smooth sailing when it comes to healing :)