The Doctor felt as if the ground was about to fall out from under her. There was chaos everywhere, or maybe that was just inside her head? No. No, she could hear Rose and Jack shouting, the TARDIS whirring frantically, her own double heartbeats thundering away inside her mind. Definitely real, then. As real as the lifeless body on the floor, Batyah's body.

In a flash, she was on the ground, cradling Bee's head in her lap. She was checking everywhere, her throat, her wrist, her chest and mouth, even going full doctor and prodding one eye open to check her reflexes, but there was nothing. No life in that beautiful body she'd come to know so well. The Doctor could feel time rippling around her as Batyah's future and her past began to rearrange themselves. If she didn't act fast, time would be rewritten for good.

"Help me!" she shouted at the TARDIS. Jack and Rose surged forward, thinking that she had been asking them, but the Doctor motioned for them to stand back. "No! You can't do anything. I need the TARDIS's help."

The ship whirred anxiously in response. The Doctor moved Batyah's body over her shoulder, her arms dangling down to her hips as she roared and lifted the both of them into a standing position. As she turned towards the console, eager to move deeper into the ship, flashes of memories from the Time War played across her mind's eye. Bodies in the streets, civilians wailing over the bodies of their loved ones. No more. The Doctor growled at the memories and pushed onward.

Since taking on Rose and Jack as companions, she hadn't thought she would have much use for the med-bay anymore, especially with the War over. And with both her and Bee's usual abilities to heal themselves from even the worst of injuries, it seemed logical to relocate it further inside the ship. Now the Doctor was kicking herself for being so stupid as to think that her loved ones were safe. When were they ever safe? Because of her, no one she had ever loved was truly safe. And now Bee might end up paying the ultimate price.

The sound of the TARDIS clanging a warning bell finally drew the Doctor from her thoughts. At the end of the corridor she couldn't even remember starting down was a flashing light and the med-bay door. The TARDIS had rearranged the rooms and put the med-bay where the kitchen was. It occurred to the Doctor then that if Bee survived this, she'd probably smack her for losing the kitchen and all her snacks. It was something worth hoping for.

Holding Bee just a little tighter, the Doctor half laughed and half sobbed. "Hold on, Bee. Hold on for me."

The med-bay was just as she remembered - sterile and cold. She tried not to think about all the awful memories that room held for her as she raced inside and placed Batyah's body down on the nearest bed. As awful as those memories were, she and Bee had survived through all kinds of scrapes and always come out the other side thanks to the med-bay. It was just going to be another bad scrape, another shitty memory that ended with Batyah's smiling face when she would eventually wake up. It had to be just another bad scrape. Neither the Doctor nor the universe could afford anything else.

"IVs, needles, sanitation wipes. What else am I missing?" The Doctor raced back and forth from one side of the room to the other as she gathered the necessary items. She hardly noticed Rose and Jack's presence as they settled by Batyah's bed. "Suppose a little regeneration energy couldn't hurt."

Dumping the supplies onto the metal tray at Bee's bedside, the Doctor got to work rolling up the girl's sleeves. She had to stop and compose herself when she caught sight of the bruises and needle marks that the Master had left on her arm. If she ever saw that monster again, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to stop herself from doing something very, very bad.

"Quick," she snapped, "one of you help me get her jacket off."

She and Rose made quick work of the jacket, which gave the Doctor the freedom to work on Batyah's untouched arm. She shrugged her own jacket off onto the floor, leaving her in just her blue jumper whose sleeves she quickly rolled up past her elbows. It had been a good few years since she'd last done this, but the process remained the same as it always had - get some Time Lord blood pumping in Bee's veins, expose her to the heart of the TARDIS, and give her some time to recuperate. Except this time Bee's heart wasn't pumping.

A moment of deep focus was enough to get the regeneration energy going, the light hovering around the Doctor's hands. She leaned over and pressed her hands onto Bee's chest just over her breastbone. Each chest compression sent a little more energy into Bee's lungs and heart, each one hopefully bringing her back from the brink of death a little at a time. She stopped exactly a minuter later to pinch the girl's nostrils shut and breathe life back into her. There was a tingling in the Doctor's lips as the regeneration energy sparked between them.

"Is she okay?" said Rose. "Is it working?"

"It will." The Doctor gazed down at Batyah's face. "It has to."

'Where am I?' The words echoed around me as I stood in utter darkness. 'Hello? Hello?!'

I closed my eyes, opened them, blinked, but my surroundings stayed the same. Everything was dark. My voice was still echoing, almost as if I were standing in an amphitheater or in the empty hallway of an old museum. I was cautious and anxious, but I wasn't afraid. I sensed that the darkness wasn't malevolent and that there wasn't anything hiding in it that could hurt me. As I turned in place, I suddenly realized that my movements were causing ripples. The more movement I made, no matter what kind of movement it was, the more ripples I caused. And the ripples weren't really ripples at all, but waves.

A small point of light began to shine timidly on a slowly appearing horizon. Once the light had grown enough, I was able to see that I wasn't standing in darkness at all but floating in dark, black water. The waves coming from my movements were sending me upward. I shocked myself by making a startled sound, halfway between a scream and a gasp, and actually being able to hear it despite the water.

The horizon was approaching quickly, now. The light was brilliant and dazzling and a little bit frightening. In the mere blink of an eye, I broke through the surface of the water and was catapulted into the light. But it didn't feel like I'd leapt from a great height to my death, instead it felt like I was hopping in zero gravity from one place to another. The place I had 'hopped' to was white and soft and smelled like honey and fresh milk. There was the faint outline of a mountain in the distance with the origin of the light shining from somewhere behind it.

'Wow,' I breathed.

'It's beautiful, isn't it?'

I would've known that voice anywhere. I spun around towards it, my heart feeling like it would beat right out of my chest. Standing there beside me was a person I hadn't seen in over a year, a person who I missed very, very much. They were about an inch taller than I was with thick curly hair styled into an undercut and what I had always lovingly referred to as a 'cockatoo do'. Their eyes were bright and alive, their figure lithe and healthy.

'LB?'

LB smiled and nodded. 'Hey, Bee.'

The next few moments were a rush of limbs and tears as I threw myself at my best friend and held them tighter than I ever had before. 'I missed you so damn much,' I sobbed. I couldn't get enough of them, I had to feel every inch of their face and hair to know that I wasn't just seeing things. 'Oh, my G-d, you're here. Look at you! How? How are you here?'

LB reached out to wipe away a few of the tears that had streaked down my cheeks. The fond smile they often saved for me was tugging at their lips. 'Don't cry, bestie Bee. Don't cry. It's okay.'

'I love you.' I shook my head frantically as more and more tears began to pour out of me. 'We didn't have enough time,' I said. 'I didn't get to say it a last time. I love you!'

'I love you.' It was so comforting to feel LB's hand on my face again, to hug them again. It had been too long. 'Talk to me, though. What's going on? Why are you here?'

I pulled back so I could take a second look around. Other than the mountain, there wasn't anything there. 'I don't even know what this is. Why are you here?'

LB gestured to themself with a shrug. 'I'm dead, remember?'

Although the initial pain of their loss had faded with time, it still hurt to hear those words spoken. 'Don't remind me,' I said, frowning.

'Sorry. But I'm serious,' they insisted. 'You shouldn't be here. It's not your time.'

'Not my-?' That's when it hit me. My hand flew to my mouth as I swayed in place, shocked. 'Oh, G-d. I-I'm... I mean, you're gone. You're... dead. So-'

'So are you.'

'Is this supposed to be Heaven?'

LB shook their head. 'I don't know what it is. It was different for me, though. I saw my dad. And it wasn't here, it was back home.'

I gazed curiously at the mountain. 'So what is this place, then? For me?'

I smiled when I saw LB smile. I hadn't realized how much I missed their smile until it was shining right in front of me. They pointed to the mountain and a shiver ran up my spine as they said, 'It's Sinai.'

I was crying again, this time because I was in the presence of one of the most important moments in the history of my people. My very soul had hovered beneath this mountain centuries ago when Moshe came down and we entered a covenant with Hashem, or so some of our elders had said. I had always wondered what it might have been like to stand in the presence of our greatest prophet and hear the Lord speak to us. I figured this would be as close as I would ever get, and the thought filled me with great joy and great humility.

'You have to choose, Bee.'

I hummed thoughtfully. 'Choose what?'

'Are you gonna stay? Are you coming home early?' LB's face had turned very serious. 'Or are you gonna go back?'

The question gave me serious pause. If I were to stay, what would happen? I'd get to see LB again, most likely, but apart from that I couldn't be sure. The Jewish mystics had a lot of different thoughts and opinions on the afterlife, all I could be sure of was the presence of G-d. Surely that would be enough for me? Dayenu, I reminded myself.

Or I could go back. Go back to what, exactly? The last thing I could remember was being in the TARDIS. I had just destroyed the Master's ship, I had sent him hurtling through time and space back to Gallifrey. I was with the Doctor. Except she wasn't the Doctor, not the Doctor I had been expecting. How could I go back to that? I would leave LB and Hashem behind for a Time Lord/Lady who literally shouldn't exist.

'No one's ever really gone,' came LB's voice, cutting through my thoughts. 'Their memories live on inside us. I'll always be alive in you, your family will always be alive in you. But you have to make the choice to live for yourself.'

'How do I choose?' I asked. 'I don't want to die. I'm not ready to. I still want to live, but I'd have to go back to... whatever it was I was living. With Time Lords and magic spaceships. That's not my world, LB.'

'Maybe it is. Maybe you have to make it yours. Maybe it'll help you become more of who you truly are and were always meant to be. But you'll never know if you don't try.'

I chewed worriedly on my bottom lip. I could sense that the time I had to choose was running out. I was always striving to live, always searching for life in everything I found. I didn't want to give that up when it felt like I had only just started living. But I knew that if I left this place, I would return to the Doctor. A woman with a box who traveled the stars. Her name was the Oncoming Storm, the Healer, the Destroyer of Worlds, the (Wo)Man Who Stops the Monsters. She was life and death, joy and sorrow, she was the universe and she was almost human. I had fallen head over heels when she was just a person on a screen, she had given me hope. If she could do all that and not be real, what would happen if suddenly she was?

I caught LB's eyes and smiled, somewhere between sad and happy and hopeful. 'I love you. I always loved you and I always will.'

LB smiled back. 'I know. I always know. And I'll always love you, bestie Bee.'

'Promise me I'll see you again.'

LB pressed a kiss to my cheek. 'One day, a long, long time from now.'

A final tear slipped down my cheek as I whispered, 'Goodbye.'

The ground gave way beneath me and I fell, silent, into unfathomable darkness.

My eyes fluttered open slowly. I felt like I'd just been hit in the temple with a cinder block. There were spots of fuzzy darkness and pixelated colors dancing across my vision, and it made me want to vomit. I groaned, lifting my hands to rub at my eyes, but was stopped with a sudden pressure on my arms. I tried to sit up, but only got about halfway there because of the person holding me down. It was her, the Doctor, literally tall, dark, and handsome as she leaned over me with my hands pinned to my sides. I felt woozy.

"Ohh, my head," I moaned as I fell onto my back.

I could faintly sense someone on my left side, rustling and moving about, but didn't have the energy to even open my eyes. Mentally and emotionally, I was still reeling from what I could only explain as the trip of a lifetime. The trip of an after-lifetime?

There was a sharp pinch in my elbow, more rustling of clothes and the clattering of metal on metal, but I kept my eyes shut. I felt my arm lifted into someone's hands, a bandage placed on the crease of my elbow, and then my arm was lowered to my side again.

"'s good to see you awake, finally."

I had to face reality. I had to face the infamous, real but not quite Time Lady, the reality I had chosen. So I opened my eyes and kept them open. I took in every inch of her like it was the first time I had ever seen her. I suppose, in a way, it was my first time looking at her and being able to truly see her without the threat of torture and death looming over me. She reminded me a lot of the version of her I had seen on TV - tall, thin but definitely muscular somewhere underneath all those layers of clothing, a strong nose and big ears, a nearly-shaved haircut, and the most incredible eyes. There were galaxies inside those eyes, I was sure of it. Her hands were large and they looked strong. She had discarded her battered leather jacket and now seemed almost naked in just her trousers and blue jumper. But it was a very lovely view, I decided upon noticing the faint curve of her waist and the way her jumper ghosted along it.

I shook my head, trying to distract myself enough to stop blushing and look her in the eye again like a normal person. "So, you're real," I finally said.

"I am."

I pushed myself onto my elbows, wincing at the jolt of pain in my arm, and then sat up fully. My zip-up hoodie had disappeared while I was unconscious - dead - so I suddenly felt a little cold. But it didn't bother me. I patted the bed right by my legs with a gentle smile, encouraging the Doctor to sit. She sat cautiously, eyeballing me like she wasn't sure what I was going to do next. To be fair, I didn't know either.

"Hi. It's good to meet you, Doctor. I'm a big fan."

The most fantastic smile stretched across the Doctor's face in response. Oh, it was beautiful. She took the hand I extended her way and shook it a few times before raising it to her lips and kissing it. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'm a big fan of yours."

I felt giddy, nervous, awed, and a little bit gay (the sapphic kind) all at once. The Doctor had always been a charmer, whether as a she or as a he. "I haven't done anything yet," I said.

"Oh, but you will do."

"With you?" She nodded. "I look forward to it, then."

There was an awkward moment of silence before either of us spoke. But the Doctor seemed anxious to say something, so I let her take the lead. "I almost lost you today. Twice. I won't let that happen again. I swear."

It felt like I should say something, so I tentatively added, "I believe you."

"I really thought you were gone, Bee."

"I almost was. I... saw my best friend. They died a little over a year ago. There was water everywhere and I was swimming in it, and then there was this light. And then the light turned into a mountain and LB was there. And they said I had to choose to stay or go, to die or come back. Here." I shyly met the Doctor's gaze then. "To you. Somehow I knew that if I came back, you'd be there."

The Doctor chuckled and scratched at the back of her neck. "Trust me when I say that I'm like a bad penny, Bee. I always turn up." She quickly cleared her throat and turned serious again. "I'm always going to be here for you."

What an overwhelming thought, to know that the Time Lord Victorious had vowed to protect you! "I'm scared."

"I'm sorry." The Doctor took my hand in hers again and said, "I can't promise it'll always be easy or always fun, but I can promise that I'll keep you safe, or as safe as I can. Because you matter, Bee, and I want you around." The slightest whisper of a breath of air could have knocked me over at that point. "Whaddya say? D'you wanna come with me? Travel with me in the TARDIS?" Her eyes were so soft, so full of hope. I didn't know what to say or what to feel in the face of such a question, so I let her continue. "'Cause if you do, I should warn you - you're gonna see all kinds of things. Ghosts from the past, aliens from the future, the day the Earth was born out of flames and ice and dust. It won't be quiet and it won't be calm, but I'll tell you what it will be." The Doctor smiled, her eyes flickering for the briefest of moments to settle just below my eyes. My heart damn near beat out of my chest. "The trip of a lifetime."

All the air in the room seemed to be gone. "You're inviting me? To travel? You really want me to?"

"You're my- my favorite person in the whole universe, Bee. Yes."

'You'll never know if you don't try.' How many times had I said that to LB while they were still alive? It had to be pretty damn important for me to hear it if they had to say it to me in the afterlife. Why couldn't I try, why couldn't I take a risk this one time? To travel with the Doctor in the TARDIS through time and space was a rare privilege and it was being offered fully and freely to me.

"Yes."

The Doctor's eyes widened and she beamed happily at me. "Yes?"

"Yes!"

I was quickly swallowed up in the Doctor's arms. It was the best bear hug I'd ever been on the receiving end of. "Fantastic! Oh, Bee, you're gonna love it!" She jumped to her feet in a flash and took my hand, gently yet eagerly guiding me to stand. "C'mon, there's a whole universe out there just waiting for you."

Something sparked in the back of my mind and I tugged on the Doctor's hand. "Wait. Um, there's something I need to do before we go anywhere." The Doctor looked quizzically at me. "Do you anything I can write with? My friend told me something while I was gone that I need to remember."

"I have just the thing."

The Doctor didn't say much as she guided me out of the little hospital room and into the TARDIS's warmly lit hallway, which extended directly in front of and to the side of us. She explained that the console room was just at the end of the hallway on our right, then took me by the hand down the hallway before us. We took a right turn and then a left, which opened up into a grand room decorated with familiar orange roundels and half a dozen stairwells, the stairwells particularly reminding me of a mix between something out of Indiana Jones and the Titanic. The walls went straight up for a good three stories before arching to a point, a bit like an old cathedral. A stack of plastic bins had been stuffed under one of the staircases, a battered and well loved picnic basket and a few blankets had been crammed under another staircase, and a makeshift library had been worked into the empty space under all of the other staircases except for one. The one that remained had a small door built into the wall in the empty space below.

"What's in here?" I asked once the Doctor had led us to stand in front of it.

Instead of answering, the Doctor took hold of the doorknob and pushed the door open. I took a step in and looked around curiously. It was a beautiful two-story room with a spiral staircase in one corner that connected to an upper balcony where the walls had been lined with books. The staircase was a lovely polished metal, but the bookcases and balcony were a deep, rich wood that contrasted well with the cozy pastel yellow of the walls. Well, three of the walls, at least. The fourth wall had been painted pure white. One of the yellow walls had two large windows set into it with white trim and decorated with transparent floral curtains, and a lovely forest green lounging couch had been placed directly under the windows. The white wall was decorated nicely with a fabric mural of multi-colored Hebrew lettering and a king sized brass bed frame and mattress was positioned along the wall there. A few other pieces of furniture dotted the room, like a couple of chairs, a nightstand, and a dresser, and I also noticed lots of framed photos and artwork placed on the walls and furniture, most of them showing me amongst a group of smiling faces. It was so lovely, so homey and comforting, but I wasn't completely positive why I was there. Although, I had a feeling.

"This is yours," said the Doctor. She squeezed my hand lightly and brought me further inside, letting the door shut behind us with a soft click. "All of your things are here. You can stay as long as you want, no one'll bother you."

My jaw fell open. "All of this is mine?"

"All of it."

"It's beautiful!" I looked up at the Doctor, who towered a good six inches over me, and beamed. I wanted to hug her, but didn't feel like I knew her well enough to do so yet. So instead I cupped her hand between both of mine and wriggled it excitedly. "Thank you! So much! I love it."

"Of course, Bee." Oh, the tender smile and shine of her eyes could have undone me right there. But before I could melt anymore under her gaze, she bounded across the room to my bedside table. "Before I go, I ought to show you." She directed my attention to the table; built into the side were two small buttons that had been detailed to look like wood, one light and one dark, which stood out against the chipped white paint. "These are so you can communicate with me. This one connects to the console room and this one connects to my, er, my room." She seemed a little shy at mentioning her room to me and I got the feeling that, although I couldn't see it, she was blushing.

After a quick clearing of her throat, the Doctor regained her composure and gestured to the top drawer. "You have some things in here, too. Last I remember, you left a journal in here."

"Last you remember?" I echoed.

The Doctor's shyness seemed to come back, this time in full force. She couldn't quite meet my eyes upon explaining, "Ah. Right. Well, you'd invited me in a few nights- days ago. For tea. And a book. And dancing."

It was obvious she wasn't lying to me, but it was also obvious that whatever else had happened between the Doctor and I those few days ago had her feeling a million different types of flustered. It was starting to get me a little flustered, too! It wasn't odd to think that I would want to share my space with the Doctor. There was an air about her that seemed to draw me in. But dancing? That sounded... personal, private, intimate. I was suddenly breathing a little heavier and I didn't want to admit to myself why.

"Oh," I managed to say. "Well, that's nice."

Really, Bee? I thought to myself. 'That's nice'? Are you ancient?

"Um, thank you. For the room- well, for showing me-"

"Of course," she interjected. "I should go."

"Oh! Right. Okay."

She nodded. "I hafta go... resonate concrete." She finished by throwing her thumb over her shoulder, as if the aforementioned concrete was just waiting for her on the other side of the room.

She was gone a moment later, leaving me to take in the bedroom - my bedroom! - in silence. It had slipped my mind why the Time Lady had even taken me there in the first place, so captivated I was by the grandiosity of it all. A small library that took up an entire level of the room, a staircase, a suspiciously Victorian looking lounging sofa? How could I afford to have such beautiful things in my room, of all places? Or had the Doctor acquired everything for me at some point? Did it matter when it was the loveliest room I had ever seen?

There was indeed a journal in my nightstand, although it was more of a tiny notepad you might see a reporter use than a traditional journal. It would do for now. I sat down on the edge of the massive bed and took a second to replay the words LB and I had exchanged. It seemed like an eternity had passed since then, since I had stood in the world between life and death. Images of Sinai flashed through my mind in shades of white. It all seemed so impossible! I was nobody, just a regular person trying to find her way in the infinite universe, so why had I of all people been brought to the edge of death and allowed a second chance?

As fast as I could, I scribbled out what words I could remember LB saying. I noted how I'd felt when I finally held them again, when I realized the significance of the mountain, when I realized that I had to return to the Doctor. The sketch I made of the mountain at the bottom of the page was a cheap imitation of the real thing, but I didn't want to leave forgetting any of the details to chance. I'd been given a new lease on life - I needed to remember it all.

A good while after writing out my notes and memories, I had decided to explore the room in more detail. I started with the nightstsand. The top drawer had a couple of pens and pencils and room enough for my notepad and maybe even a book. The second drawer, however, held an... interesting surprise. I had stared agape at the adult toy pushed into the back corner for a minute before finally slamming it shut with a shake of my head. Looks like I'd had my priorities in order when decorating my room in the past. Or was it the future? Best to move on either way.

Next was the dresser, also painted in chipped white paint in that shabby chic style I'd always been fond of. The drawer contents were all standard and unsurprising - underwear, shirts, skirts, and trousers - but what drew my attention the most were the knick knacks on top. In the center was a pretty wooden jewelry box carved with intricate circular designs. On either side were a few framed photos. The first of the two photos on the left showed me in the center of a group of four different women: one was an older woman of East Asian descent with short white hair and a nice suit, the second was a tanned middle-aged woman with long, dark hair, brown plaid bottoms, and a bolo tie, the third a distinguished woman with brown skin, a velvet emerald dress jacket with frilled sleeves, and a midnight blue hijab where a curl of white hair peeked out at her temples, and the fourth woman was tall and lithe with pale yellow hair, a beige coat, striped pants, and a white jumper. The red question marks on the fourth woman's collar made me pause as I realized that they must all be different incarnations of the Doctor. The second photo was a similar picture, this time showing me with three other women with three different TARDISes behind us. The first woman seemed to be the youngest since she seemed only a few years older than me with her bowtie and playful smile, but I knew better than that. It was undoubtedly the Doctor's eleventh incarnation, even if she was so startlingly different from the one I knew; she was still tall and lanky, but her skin was a rich brown and she had long black hair that swept past her shoulders and had been shaved on one side. Next to her was another woman of East Asian descent, this time with her brown hair cut short into a cockatoo-do. She wore a brown pinstripe suit, a light blue button up, and a tie and I could spot her arm curled around my waist. Standing on the end with me squished in between her and the Doctor's tenth incarnation was a woman with sad eyes and a half smile. She had short cut salt and pepper hair styled similar to the pinstriped Doctor. Her clothes were old and battered and dusty, all in varying shades of rusted browns. I had an arm around her shoulders and my mouth pressed to her cheek in a sweet kiss.

Curiouser and curiouser.

The photos to the right of the jewelry box were a group of four small shots set into one frame. Me with my hands wrapped in a ridiculous multi-colored scarf that was wound around another woman's neck, the two of us entirely caught up in one another as we laughed soundlessly. Her dark curls were frozen mid-bounce. Next, me with a stupidly beautiful woman in a stupidly colorful coat, her hair a mess of blonde curls that made a stunning contrast with the rich black smoothness of her skin. She was looking at me, smirking, while I faced the camera with a beaming smile. Then, me with another middle-aged woman, this time one a bit more serious (and shorter) than the others. She wore a question marked yellow jumper and a plain beige jacket, a soft pink floral scarf tucked neatly under her coat collar. The final picture showed me and a woman with a similar skin tone to the Ninth incarnation I was currently with, but there was something a little softer in her eyes here. Beautiful black curls fell just above her shoulders and she wore a dark green Victorian coat and a faded yellow waistcoat and cravat. She had the loveliest smile I had ever seen and the way she looked at me in that tiny photo was almost enough to make my knees week.

I had to look away from the photos, then. It was a little much. To live in the Doctor's world was wild enough, but to know and actually see that I would one day meet most of her incarnations felt like a slap in the face. It was a wonderful and terrifying dream come true. To travel with the Doctor meant to travel the universe, to see and do the impossible. Because she was impossible. But it wasn't just that that scared me, it was the way the Doctor looked at me in those photos. The fondness and depth of her gaze scared me because I could see love there.

I was over the moon at the fact that I was going to travel with the Time Lady of legend, but what the hell had I gotten myself into?

"What's she doing in there?"

The Doctor shrugged half heartedly. "Dunno. She needs time, Jack."

"So you're gonna leave her alone for once?" The Doctor didn't need to look her companion in the eye to know that Rose was flashing her a shit-eating grin, the one with her tongue caught between her teeth. "Doesn't sound like you, Doctor."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Rose snickered; she was clearly enjoying teasing her. "Trying to separate the two of you is like trying to separate the sun from the Earth. It's just not right."

The Doctor rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the console, where she was browsing recent travel coordinates. She absolutely agreed with Rose, it wasn't right, but she didn't need to tell her that. What she needed to do was focus on important things like the ship, on Bee's health and comfort, on making sure the Master wasn't coming back, not gossiping. "You've been watching too many telenovelas, Rose."

"Nah, I've just been watching you two."

The Doctor's cheeks flushed with heat. Stars above, what was she supposed to say to that? Before she could think on it, though, she felt a nudge in her ribs and heard the shuffling of feet and clothes. Confused, she looked back at Rose and Jack to see them doing the absolute worst job of appearing casual. She followed their line of sight across the console room to the doorway that led further into the ship. Oh. It was Bee.

She was so drawn into herself that it was almost jarring. The Doctor didn't often see her Bee so shy and reserved like that. Something had to be wrong, right? But with Bee being brand new to the TARDIS and to her, Rose, and Jack, there wasn't much that she felt she could do. All the usual methods of comforting Bee that she had compiled over the centuries were reserved for a different Bee, one who was more herself, more outgoing and full of energy. What could she do with the Bee in the here and now? Well, she supposed she would have to do what the Doctor did best - take her on an adventure!

"Bee! Just in time!" she said happily. She started pacing 'round the console, entering coordinates and flipping switches with an air of impressiveness. "You're gonna love this."

The TARDIS wheezed and jolted, hurtling them through the time vortex. Fantastic.

Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I really liked writing it and got to do a little research on different accounts of Jewish people who survived near-death encounters, which I didn't really use much of here but served as great inspiration. Please leave a review if you like it!

The section with LB was based on the real-life friendship between me and my best friend Lee, who just passed almost 2 months ago. I like to think they would like what I wrote. :)