So, the one thing the Doctor could say about human children: they were much, much different than Gallifreyan children.
Gallifreyan children were content to sit down, to listen, to do what you asked. Human children, on the other hand, were a handful in themselves. He'd thought it was a quirk of the adults, being stubborn and unwilling to listen or somesuch, but no, that extended to the young as well.
Here's the full story; El's first trip in the TARDIS had seen them wind up in deep space. The Doctor and El stood at the door of the TARDIS, watching the vast, infinite majesty of the universe, billions of stars twinkling in space, against the bright blue backdrop of a nearby nebula.
And then, that's when the ship had come. A vast, metal construct, shaped almost like a metal turtle carrying a city on its back.
But something about the ship was wrong. The Doctor could feel it. There was a very strong, very oppressive feeling of… sadness? Torment? Emanating from the ship.
El's breath caught, as she looked at the ship as well, catching the Doctor's attention.
"You feel it too?" The Time Lord asked.
El nodded.
The Doctor stared at the ship, frowning. "The Starship UK!" He suddenly began, closing the doors as he walked back over to the console. "Late 29th century, solar flares overwhelm the Earth's magnetosphere, and the planet gets cooked! So, what to the people do?"
"Doctor?" El meekly called, still over by the door.
"All humanity packs its bags and moves out until the weather improves!" The Doctor answered, excitedly hitting an air pump on the console. "Whole nations-migrating to the stars!"
"Doctor."
"Isn't that amazing?" He asked, hitting a few keys on the typewriter.
"Doctor!" El called.
The Doctor frowned, as he looked over to the closed doors. He quickly sprinted over, and pulled them open, El hanging on to the outside of the TARDIS by the police box signage.
"Well, come on." The Doctor guided, gently pulling her back inside. "Found us a spaceship."
"That, is the United Kingdom of Britain-and Northern Ireland, all of it." The Doctor explained, as a better image of the enormous spaceship floated by on the scanner. "Bolted together, flying across the stars."
El tilted her head. "City." She hadn't seen any in person, but she'd seen enough pictures back in the lab to know what they were.
"It's a whole country." The Doctor corrected, "W-Well, not just a country," He corrected himself, "It's an idea. The idea of survival against impossible odds. I mean, look at that… Your species has just only crawled out of the primordial soup, in the grand scheme of things. You've survived cosmic wars, and holocausts… and now, you're carving out a new existence for yourselves amongst the stars." The Doctor smiled proudly, like a parent watching their child graduate. "Indomitable."
The Doctor's excitement was contagious, and El found herself beaming as well. "Can we see?" The girl asked.
"Course we can-" The Doctor lightly tapped El on the nose, turning to walk back over to the console. "But first, there's a thing."
El cocked her head. "A thing?" She repeated.
"Yes, a very important thing." The Doctor told her, "In fact, thing one:" He suddenly produced a magnifying glass from somewhere, El not being able to see exactly where from, and held it up to his eye. "We are observers only. That's the one rule I've stuck to, no matter what, in all my travels," He turned to her seriously, dropping the magnifying glass, "I never get involved in the affairs of other people or planets- ooh," He turned to the monitor on the console. "That's interesting…" He muttered, zooming in as the feed showed a little girl, around El's age, sitting on a park bench, crying her eyes out.
El looked at the screen, frowning. Nobody was helping her. That girl was sitting there, very obviously very sad, and nobody was trying to do anything about it…
Just like the lab.
The Doctor suddenly appeared on the screen, asking the little girl what was wrong, and El gasped. The girl got up from the bench and ran from the Doctor.
The Time Lord looked up, to where he knew the feed was observing from, and beckoned El to follow.
The girl giggled, running over to the doors, throwing them open, as she stepped out.
El yelped, as a bicycle cart narrowly brushed past the front of the blue box, and the door clicked shut, the girl slowly moving forward.
"Welcome to London Market." A lady's voice announced over a loudspeaker. "You are being monitored."
El looked around in wonder. The whole place was very densely populated, with people going about their days without a care in the world. Everything looked grimy, dirty… lived in.
El breathed, looking up at the curved glass skylight, offering a view out into space, as she rejoined the Doctor's side.
"Look at this place," The Doctor prompted, moving along, ushering El alongside. "Isn't it just wrong?"
"Wrong?" El repeated.
"Come on, look at it." The Doctor instructed, gesturing around. "Use your eyes, notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"
El frowned, looking around, as another bicycle cart passed by. Cars made smoke, and smoke was hard to breathe, bad in a closed space, so it couldn't be the bicycles.
"Life on a giant spaceship, back to basics." The Doctor regaled, moving on. "Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up streetlamps… But look closer. Secrets, shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse…" He whispered, pulling El along. "A police state. Excuse me." He suddenly ran over to a table, a couple dining on it, taking one of the glasses of water from them.
"What are you doing?" The man demanded, looking the Doctor up and down, as the Time Lord set the glass on the floor.
The Doctor didn't reply, watching as the water went still, frowning. He suddenly smiled, looking back to the two men. "Sorry, just checking the water in this area." He explained, sitting the glass back where he got it. "There's an escaped fish." He tapped his forehead, pointing at the two of them, before moving back along, pulling El behind. "Where was I?" He mumbled, looking around.
"What was that?" El curiously asked.
"Don't know." The Doctor answered, coming to a stop. "I think a lot, it's hard to keep track. Now… police state," He snapped his fingers, pointing at her, "Do you see it?"
"Where?" El asked, looking around.
"There." The Doctor snapped again, pointing at the far end of the market.
The little girl from before was sat down on a red metal bench, crying, sniffling. The Doctor shot one last glance at El, and began walking in that direction, El following along.
The Doctor suddenly sat down on a bench, a little closer, but still far enough away for them not to be spotted.
"Sad." El recognized, sitting next to the Doctor, as the Time Lord watched.
"Crying silently…" The Doctor muttered. He turned to El. "I mean, children cry, they cry because they want attention." He told her quietly. "But when they cry silently… it's because they just can't stop." He sniffed. "Any parent knows that."
El tilted her head. "Parent?"
"Yeah, mums, dads, mamas, papas. No, not papas, forget papas." The Doctor rambled.
"You… a parent?" El asked.
The Doctor looked at El for a moment, remaining silent, before quickly glancing away. "Hundreds of parents walking past this spot, and not one of them stopping to ask what's wrong, which means…" He turned back to El. "You were in that lab. What did it mean when you were crying but nobody stopped to ask what the problem was?"
"They knew." She answered.
The Doctor nodded. "They already know what the problem is…" The Doctor turned back. "But they're too afraid to do anything about it. Shadows, whatever it is they're afraid of, it can't be seen. Or…" His eyes focused on the marionette-like statue in a booth on one wall of the marketplace. "It's everywhere. Police state."
The girl suddenly got up, and vanished into a moving crowd, as the Doctor twiddled his thumbs, staring at the smiling statue.
It was looking back, that much he knew.
"Where'd she go?" El asked looking into the crowd.
"Deck 207." The Doctor answered. "Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner."
El's head shot over to the Doctor.
"Oh," He reached into his jacket, pulling out a tiny wallet. "This fell when I bumped into her. Took me four goes." He handed the wallet over to El. "Ask her about those things, the smiling fellas in the booths, they're everywhere."
"But…"
"They're clean." The Doctor elaborated. "Everything else on this ship is used, almost abused. So, why is there a two-feet zone around them that's absolutely spic and span? Ask Mandy; 'Why are people scared of the things in the booths?'" He prompted.
"No." El replied. "Stay with you." She determinedly poked the Doctor's arm.
"I know you want to," The Doctor empathetically said, "But she might not talk if she sees me with you. There's something going on here. Right underneath our feet." He turned to her seriously. "I asked you if you really wanted to come with me, you said yes. This is what my life is. I find the problem, and I fix it. Because no one else will."
El looked at the Doctor a moment, before nodding.
The Doctor smiled. "Right, I'll meet you back here in half an hour," He looked down at his watch, "Don't worry about reading the signs, the TARDIS's translation circuits can make sure you'll understand them regardless."
El looked at the Doctor. "And you?"
"I'll do what I always do." He crossed his arms. "Stay out of trouble." He got to his feet, spinning around. "Badly." He amended, before jumping over the bench, running off to wherever his brain was leading him to.
El stood up herself, watching as the Doctor left. So, he didn't interfere with the affairs of other peoples or planets… unless he saw a child crying.
El walked through the depths of the Starship UK, metal creaking slightly as steam emanated from one of the vents. The little girl fiddled with the wallet in her hands, as she turned the corner.
"You're following me." A voice accused, causing El to jump in surprise, whipping around. "Saw you watching me at the marketplace." Mandy stated, glaring at El.
El shyly held out the wallet. "…dropped this."
"Yeah," Mandy snatched it up, "When your dad kept bumping into me."
El watched, as Mandy started marching down the street, and followed, observing the ruined look of everything in the corridor.
El cocked her head, as Mandy stopped in front of a yellow barrier, grunting in frustration.
"What's that?" El asked, observing a workman's tent just past the barrier.
"There's a hole." Mandy replied. "Have to find another way around."
"Hole?" El repeated. Like the holes in Hawkins? She walked forward a little.
"Are you stupid?" Mandy asked. "There's a hole in the road, we can't go that way." She said, as El pushed through the barriers, intent on entering the tent. "There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps. What are you doing?" She inquired, as El pushed through.
"Looking." El answered, turning around. She turned back, to the lock holding the tent closed.
"…You sound American." Mandy remarked, as El tried to focus her mind on the lock.
"American." El repeated by way of an answer, as the lock suddenly broke open. She wiped her nose, and pulled the tent flap open. "Coming?"
"No!" Mandy responded like it was obvious.
El shrugged and pushed her way into the tent.
"Stop!" Mandy called. "You mustn't do that!"
El crawled in, looking around at the inside, and breathed. What looked like a giant, bioluminescent tentacle had ripped through the floor. The lights flickered, bathing the tendril in an otherworldly glow, as El tried to get a closer look.
The tentacle screeched, striking the ground with a spike. El recoiled slightly, but frowned, as it hit way off the mark.
El came scrambling out of the tent again, heaving. The thing… El didn't feel like whatever it was wanted to hurt her. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was scared… terrified of something.
El froze, looking up as four people stood over her, in black, hooded cloaks. She tried to throw a hand out to push them away, but they were faster on the uptick, and one's hand shot out, a ring on his hand pelting El with a blast of gas.
The world went fuzzy, and she fell unconscious.