The Doctor wasn't saying much, but that didn't she mean she hadn't been up to much, and Yaz was determined to find out just what had kept her busy.
"She saw something back there in the temple" Yaz said to Dan as they waited for The Doctor to return to the ship, fresh off their ordeal on the planet of time.
"Yeah, well, we've all seen things that we'd rather keep to ourselves back there, pressing on about it will just get in the way of what we're supposed to be doing" Dan replied.
"And what are we meant to be doing Dan Lewis? Trying to stop the Flux ought to be the priority, people are in dire need of our help, but The Doctor only seems fixated on helping herself. And she's taking that entitlement out on me the most"
"You reckon she does it because you're closest to her?" Dan asked.
"Oh that's real logical. Because we're so close, she finds it easier to pull away knowing I'd just grin and bear it? Doesn't work like that, she knows it, I know it. This is a partnership, and we really ought to be making time for one another, I don't want to end up like that woman from hospital the other week"
"What woman was that?" Dan asked.
"A mate of mine had a minor cardiac event, increased heart palpitation, chest pains, I was beginning to stabilize by the time I reached the hospital waiting rooms, but what I took away from my visit there was something far more major. I saw lines of people, some in street clothes, others wearing only the shirts off their backs, their nightgowns, etc, some limping in under their own power with twisted ankles and feet. But there was one patient that caught my eye above all others, a young obese woman with a pain in her pelvis. She was in sheer agony. Four hours would pass, names would be called, and she was not counted among them. Even as my appointment came and went, I found she was still there when I left"
Dan was in shock.
"I looked at this woman, thinking to myself, 'this is inhumane, no human should be treated so trivially, it's duty of care, not a duty to catalogue, noone should be a number that gets called out, if you're someone's in dire need the most, you drop everything to help that individual"
"The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many in some cases, definitely" Dan added. Yaz looked at him with stern curiosity.
"Flattering Dan, but I know you lifted that quote from Star Trek III" she replied.
"Do you know if anyone helped her out in the end?" Dan asked.
"Somebody finally stood up and said they would not make their appointed check-up unless someone tended to the woman immediately. I wish that'd been my friend, I wish someone I knew could make time for somebody else" Yaz confirmed.
"Like The Doctor with you?" Dan asked.
Yaz watched as The Doctor clambered into the TARDIS and set about the console.
"Dan, if she made time for me, she'd have made my whole world"