Chapter 62

"What?" Nora asked.

Pride stifled a sigh. Fine then. "I'd like to stay here. If that's alright with you."

"You're sure?" the Doctor asked.

"In the extremely unlikely event I'm wrong, I still have your number," Pride pointed out, still mostly going through this for everyone else's sake.

"What about your mother?" the Doctor asked. She was using her kind of judgmental tone again.

"She'd have to be told. Maybe we could bring her here."

"We need to move this planet." Everyone turned to Nora, who seemed to genuinely regret she'd spoken. "I'm sorry. But too many people have been in and out of this planet, and we can't afford to wait. Lee's moving the planet as soon as you all leave."

There was a pause. So that was it? Someplace he'd actually asked to stay, and he couldn't?

"I'll take him," Nate offered.

Attention turned to him and he shrugged. "We can move the planet after the Doctor leaves, then I'll fly Pride home. I'll know the way back. Does that work?"

"Yes," Pride said.

"Oh," the Doctor said. Strangely, she didn't seem very happy. "Okay, I guess that does work. Would you like to go back to the TARDIS? To get your stuff?"

Pride nodded. Yes actually, that would be good.


"You should thank her."

Pride turned. He'd just gotten everything he wanted into a bag. Lilly was standing in his doorway, arms crossed, sour expression on her face. Well, that was her normal face when it came to Pride, but surely she should be happier now that he was leaving.

"Come again?"

"The Doctor. I'm not even sure she likes you, but she still took you along because you asked. You should thank her."

He hadn't considered that. But she did, annoyingly, have a point.

"You didn't have to tell me," he lied. "I'm on my way now."

Then he was out the door, joining the Doctor by the controls.

"Ah, Pride. This is for you."

The Doctor handed Pride a stack of papers, practically shoved them into his hands. Pride looked at the first one, and nearly dropped them. It was a picture of him and Lust, in one of their earliest cover stories. With the high quality of picture taken in the 1600s, the Doctor must have taken it herself. He did a quick flip through the rest of the stack. It was small, and there were no pictures of Wrath, but then again it was easy to find pictures of him. He'd been Fuhrer. The rest of his siblings were included. Sometimes it was even very obvious they were homunculi. He was pretty sure his shadows were in one, but they were hard to capture on camera, so it was hard to tell.

"I wanted to give you something before you left," the Doctor said, though she didn't sound completely sure of herself. "I wasn't sure what you'd want. But I know you couldn't have had much from your family, so. . ."

"Thank you," Pride cut her off. He got the feeling she'd been about to start rambling or leave them in awkward silence. He thought about what Lilly had said and looked up, making eye contact as best he could. "Not just for the pictures. Thank you for taking me with you."

That had not been fun to say, and he got the feeling it was obvious. He knew the words sounded a little fragmented, like he knew each word separately but not what they were supposed to mean together.

Luckily, the Doctor didn't comment on it. She seemed to be enjoying this as much as he was, honestly. "I've told you before, if I didn't want you to come with me, I wouldn't take you."

"I always got the feeling you didn't like me."

"I wouldn't go that far. That was never it." They were quiet for a moment. Then the Doctor cleared her throat. "Well, good luck."

Pride smiled. "Good bye Doctor." Then he headed for the door.

"Call me if you ever need to."

"I will." Well, if he wanted the Doctor's help. He hoped he'd never need the Doctor's help.

"And don't die. You know, immediately."

She really was concerned. It was odd, but he appreciated it at the same time. "I'll try not to."

Then he waved, and was outside the TARDIS as it vanished.


Lilly walked into the main room. The Doctor was standing there. Just the Doctor. Without Pride. And Porter was unconscious and going to a prison. If he was alive. Lilly wasn't even sure he was. It was quiet.

"I have to take Porter someplace first," the Doctor said, moving around the controls. "But I can take you home after that if you like."

"Are you serious? I want to stay with you." The Doctor looked at her in surprise. "I love traveling with you, and Pride and Porter are gone." She felt her smile widening as the realization sunk in, and she did a little victory jump. "I'm free!"


Nate and Pride rode in Nate's ship towards his home planet. The ship was round, and looked like it might once have been a dalek ship, but Nate had scrubbed out any traces he could. The walls were white, or pale blue. There were none of the dalek orbs, and he had seats for guests.

Pride sat on one, looking out into space. He wasn't with the Doctor. She wouldn't be coming back unless he contacted her. He'd have to go back to living without her. It was weird to consider. The people on the rescue planet were sort of in charge of him now, he supposed, but it was not the same. Once again, he had no purpose in life, and would have to carve one out himself if he wanted one. That didn't seem as terrible as it once did.

He decided to break the silence. "Will you really let us stay? I doubt it's that simple."

"Well no, not really," Nate admitted. "If you want to stay, there are some steps to the process. You'll have to talk to Nora, our therapist, and our doctor. I know you're not human, but we really need some biological knowledge in case something goes wrong."

Pride frowned. It wasn't the medical doctor he was concerned with. "You have a therapist?"

"Yeah. She's a telepathic space jelly, but what can you do? She's usually pretty busy with people coming in and out, hard to make regular appointments, but everyone has to go once."

Pride only had passing knowledge on what a therapist was but he did not, under any circumstances, want to talk to one. Still, if he only had to go once, he could probably wiggle out of saying anything important.

Nate continued. "You'll also have to do work. But it's not like you'll have to start immediately, and as our only alchemist, I'm sure you'll be in high demand."

Pride smiled. He'd never liked jobs. He considered most of them beneath him, and he'd probably still have to do some of that. But if he was the only alchemist, he could, in fact, enjoy working.