"There." Sarah Jane satisfactorily stocked the last box in the cupboard. "Now, you have actual food to eat."
"Eggos… bad?" El worriedly questioned.
"Of course not." Sarah Jane answered. "But you have to take everything in moderation. You can't eat the same thing for every meal every day."
"Don't listen to her, El." The Doctor told her, eating fish fingers with custard, nonetheless. "She just doesn't understand good taste."
"You want to speak to me about good taste?" Sarah Jane turned to him. "The man who wore… That Coat?"
The Doctor paled. "Th-That's not fair! How did you know about that!? You didn't meet me in that face!"
"UNIT has pictures of all your faces." Sarah Jane replied.
"Don't get it." El looked between the two of them.
"And hopefully, you never will." Sarah Jane stated. "It really was a horrendous piece of fashion… Though, whether or not it's more horrendous than the bow tie, I still haven't figured out."
"Ha ha." The Doctor humorlessly laughed.
"So," Sarah Jane changed the subject, making herself something to eat, "What is on the itinerary now that we've gotten the shopping done?"
The Doctor perked up. "I thought you'd never ask! I hoped you packed your swimming gear…"
"Welcome," The Doctor began, placing an umbrella down into the sand, "To Lithone." A clear, purple sky loomed overhead, the distant alien sun shining brightly.
El looked around in wonder, at all the water extending out into the distance, and all the people on the beach. "What is this place?"
"It's a resort planet." The Doctor answered. "The whole planet's ninety-eight percent water, with a few small islands. Number one on the Discerning Galactic Traveler's Destination Guide."
Sarah Jane looked around, a sun hat placed securely on her head, and frowned. "What are all these tents about?" She asked, referring to the stalls and cloth constructs dotted about the large beach they'd found themselves on, extending far into the distance.
"Oh, that?" The Doctor smiled. "Well, Lithone's not really famous for it's beaches. You can go to any old Class M planet to get a beach. No, Lithone's the number one destination in Andromeda for the Festival of Lights."
El tilted her head curiously. "What's that?"
"The oceans of this world have tiny little organisms called plankton living in them." The Doctor explained to her. "More than a thousand per drop of water."
"Tiny… bugs?" El repeated, looking at the water warily.
"Sort of." Sarah Jane picked up. "But plankton are completely harmless."
"Right," The Doctor pointed, "There are plankton on Earth, too, but the plankton here are special. Every hundred years, they reproduce, and when they do, they start to glow."
"They're bioluminescent?" Sarah Jane asked.
"Take some of the magic out of it, but yes…" The Doctor muttered. "Anyway, every hundred years, people from all across the galaxy come here to take part in the festival. It's such a big event, the natives spend whole decades preparing for the next go round, and it's so ingrained into their culture that even ones born on worlds lightyears away take pilgrimages here to witness it."
El blinked, looking at the, as of the moment, entirely normal water. "Can we see it?"
"Of course we can." The Doctor smiled back in response. "I wouldn't tell you all about it and then give you a big fat no. And it's fortunate this place is a beach world." The Doctor continued. "I know just the activity to fill the time until it starts properly."
El tilted her head.
"You want to learn how to swim?"
"Okay, so." The Doctor began, as El floated, inflatables secured tightly around her biceps. "Only thing you need to worry about right now is the basic motions." He said, holding onto her carefully. The two floated a little way from dry land, the Doctor able to touch the seafloor with his feet, while El floated, and Sarah Jane was off to the side reading.
"Okay…" El slowly nodded.
"Now, I'm going to let you go, and swim just over there." He pointed. "Just watch me, then try to mimic me."
"…alright." El shook, watching as the Doctor crossed the water, and turned around.
"See?" The Time Lord threw his hands out. "Easy peasy, just paddle."
"Paddle…" El repeated, as she began to cross the water to him.
El's movements were jittery, unsteadied by the fact that, aside from her baths on the TARDIS, that was really the first time she spent in water without it being in a sensory deprivation tank.
But, her eyes locked on the Doctor, and she saw his face. In that moment, she felt determined to do it. Not out of obligation, or because she was being threatened with punishment for it, but because of a need to make him proud.
El crossed the water, fire in her eyes, and she made contact with the Doctor.
"Hey, hey!" The Doctor beamed proudly, grabbing onto her. "You did it! First time in the water, and you took to it like a pro!"
El grinned widely in response.
"How about it?" The Doctor asked. "Want to go at it another time?"
El nodded quickly, determined to see the Doctor proud again.
"Sarah Jane?" El asked on her twelfth lap.
The woman looked up from her book, smiling kindly. "Yes, El?"
"Why don't you come in the water?" El asked.
Sarah Jane's smile didn't drop, but her eyes did become tinged with regret and fear. "I don't quite like the ocean, I'm afraid."
"Oh." El blinked. "What happened?"
"Another story for another time." Sarah Jane replied kindly.
"Oh!" The Doctor suddenly shouted in surprise, looking at his watch, and the other groups of people getting out of the water. "Out, out!"
"What?" El looked to the Doctor, concerned.
"It's about to start." The Doctor answered, helping the girl find her land legs. "Come on." He gently guided her over to the beach towels they had set up and sat down.
El looked around curiously, as the sky began to quickly dim.
"Watch the water." The Doctor instructed, as Sarah Jane put her book away to witness the event as well.
El gasped, as the water suddenly began to glow. Blue, yellow, orange, red, green, and purple light began to replace the sun, lighting up the entire space like it was in the middle of the day.
"Pretty…" El breathed, as the alien gathers came out of their tents. Some hung back, but others approached the water, entering it just slightly as though it were a religious experience for them.
There, the crew of the TARDIS sat, watching in rapt awe as the lights swirled in the water, colors cascading off each other like a nebula had been shrunk down and put in the seawater.
"…I missed this." Sarah Jane spoke up, as the natives linked arms, and began to chant in reverence.
The Doctor turned to her, smiling. "Sounds like you think you made the right choice, coming along."
"I did." Sarah Jane turned back to look at the water.
The three of them sat there for the rest of the night, watching serenely.
The wooden door of the TARDIS creaked shut gently, the Doctor carrying El's sleeping form.
He gently carried her through the corridors of the immense craft, towards her room, the doors sliding open of their own accord. He laid her down on the bed, and turned to exit, but before he did, he placed something down on the nightstand.
A little photo, one that Sarah Jane had captured while the other two remained unaware of it. It wasn't anything too much, but it did show a smiling El, and a beaming Doctor, as he held her after she crossed the distance to him for that first time. It was the first photo taken of the girl that wasn't a mugshot. Hopefully, not the last either.
The Time Lord smiled, gently kissing the girl goodnight on the forehead, before exiting the room.
The next morning, El yawned as the lights of the TARDIS hit her eyes, and she looked around. She spotted the photo on her nightstand and tilted her head curiously.
Seeing her own face looking so… happy, the girl smiled. She couldn't remember a time like that from before the lab.
But… She supposed that meant she was well on her way to becoming the person she met in the store. Speaking of whom…
Now certain that the Doctor wouldn't come barging in wildly, El went over to her dresser, pulling open the bottom drawer. Pushing some clothes aside, she found the box the older her had given herself, and walked back over to her bed, sitting down.
Gold, complex circular writings were inscribed on the top. The language of the Doctor's people. El tilted her head, unable to understand it if it had been a warning or a label of the box's contents.
El placed her thumb at the small seam near the top, and pushed it, the top sliding off effortlessly.
El gasped at the object waiting patiently for her, cushioned on red velvet, gleaming as the light struck it.
The girl pulled it out, and looked it over almost reverently.
A sonic screwdriver, just like the one that the Doctor had possessed when he first crash landed, only it was different. A sort of gold color, with a magenta emitter.
El's eyebrows furrowed together as she pressed down the button.
Nothing happened.
Still, this was important…
Why would her future self need to leave her a sonic screwdriver?
