"What are we doing?" El asked, as the Doctor led her through the corridors of the TARDIS. The ship was on autopilot, aimlessly drifting through the time vortex.
"Well, I'd figured since we got that mess with the Starship UK sorted out, and took care of Winston's little problem, now might be a good time to get you settled in properly." The Doctor explained, taking a right, "Careful of the grav-lift." He pointed to the hexagonal hole in the floor, sidestepping it.
El followed his example. "Settled in?"
"Yeah." The Doctor answered. "You have a room and all, yes, but since you decided to come with me, that means the TARDIS is your home now. Which means we're going to have to start thinking about your education." He glanced at the girl, as he came to a stop in front of the chosen door. "I wasn't kidding when I told Bracewell I had to help you fix some things."
"Fix?" El repeated self-consciously. "Fine."
"I know you think you are, but you're really not." The Doctor opened the door, entering the library. An Olympic-sized swimming pool was in the center of the room, multiple floors with bookshelves extending high above. "To start, your English is really broken. I've noticed a few times you seem to speak with more comprehension than you should have, the TARDIS picking up the slack most likely, but you can't rely on her as a crutch all the time, the translation circuits could break, and where would that leave you? Same goes for reading."
The two walked around the rim of the pool, up the stairs to the higher levels. The Doctor began looking through the bookshelves, as well as the books.
"I've tutored once." The Doctor remarked, trying to figure out what level he should start her at.
"Tu-tored?"
"Taught." The Doctor explained. "My granddaughter."
El frowned. "Grand-dotter?"
"The daughter of my daughter." The Time Lord explained, looking at the book… Hm, college-level English shouldn't be too difficult, back on Gallifrey they used to teach that in preschool.
El tilted her head, "But what is daughter?"
The Doctor looked at El. "I used to be a parent. A dad." He explained, despite the pain it caused him. Anybody else, he would've been evasive, but children had a way of weaseling info out of him like no one else.
"Parent… mums, dads…" El recalled from the Doctor's words on the Starship UK.
"Yeah. There was a little girl I took care of, so she was my daughter." He explained. "And then, my daughter grew up and had a baby of her own."
El slowly nodded. "Granddaughter."
The Doctor smiled. "Yeah, you've got it."
"Name?" El asked.
The Doctor glanced over for a moment. He checked his watch. Yeah, he had time. Despite the mess with the Daleks, it was still before lunchtime. After they had their baths, both of them had clocked out for the night. Maybe that was the real reason why the TARDIS had shown up a month late.
"Her name was Susan," The Doctor ushered El into one of the chairs dotted around the library. He sat down on the one across from her and sat the stack he'd been assembling down on the table. "And she was… precious." He reflected. "So, so precious…"
El tilted her head, as she listened to the Doctor, absorbing the information like a sponge did water.
The engines hummed, pulsing in tandem with the sound of the time rotor, as the Doctor tended to his faithful ship.
El had sat and listened to him intently, as the Doctor relayed some of the adventures he'd undertaken at the very beginning, in the company of his granddaughter. Before long, ten minutes became twenty, which became an hour…
Which turned into the entire afternoon.
By the end of it, El was struggling to hold her eyes open, and the Doctor had to lead her back to her room by the hand, the TARDIS automatically dimming the lights as they walked.
After seeing her securely off to dreamland, the Doctor returned to the console room, silent, solemn. In the moment, it had been good fun to regale the little girl with the stories of Susan, some of them even dating back from his days on Gallifrey… but now, after the event…
It hurt, like he was being stabbed over and over again.
The Doctor sighed, leaning against the TARDIS console. It wasn't El's fault, she couldn't have known the kind of pain. Then again, maybe she could've guessed. She's sensed the Star Whale, and then Bracewell…
That was another thing, her powers. Time Lord mental abilities weren't too different from what El was able to do so far (well, except for the spying), maybe he could help her develop them further.
The Doctor scoffed at that. Sure, he was able to read the occasional mind, once in a blue moon, if he made actual, physical contact, but he couldn't even lift a penny that was right in front of him with what telekinetic abilities they had…
But damn it, he was going to try.