She'd gone back into the vortex, with the Doctor, like usual. The console room was sombre though, despite the default interior, dim lighting drastically changed the general mood of the place. When it was stark white, while seeming a bit sterile, it was a lot easier to be cheerful in. This, though- wasn't it. There was a certain sadness to it, an almost morbid atmosphere. As opposed to the jolly mechanical whirs and gentle purrs, there were faint wails and groans. Fitting, because it was likely the last TARDIS from the universe it came from, along with one of the last people originating there in general.

Benny knew that while they were friends in a sense, the Doctor liked to keep her around because she was his ticket to keep existing. Her timey-wimey nature- his words, not hers- made Bernice the perfect anchor point to remain in this universe. It didn't work the first time, but did the second. Perhaps eventually he'd figure out a way without having to be in close proximity to her every couple of months, at least. Save them both some trouble.

Benny idly fiddled with the console, while he was looking through data readouts. It'd been a long day. His control was imprecise even compared to her own Doctor, so Bernice had to take a shuttle three light-years away from the Collection, and it was being generous to say she was only jetlagged. The bags under her eyes could carry more than the Doctor's dimensionally transcendental pockets at this point.

She scratched her palm. It'd itched since this morning- she'd probably gotten a small bug bite or something on Betelguese IV.

"Summerfield- bad news, I'm afraid. I found the issues we've been having lately- the old girl's fluid links are almost fried. I'll have to get new ones from storage. In the meantime, I don't believe we'll be able to materialize much of anywhere."

Benny groaned and paced around. "Goddess... I was hoping we'd actually get to go somewhere. I travelled in a crowded passenger shuttle for three lightyears to come back to this and it's so late- Doctor... I'm going to bed. Way too tired to deal with your shit right now."

"Very well, Professor Summerfield."

Packing up her satchel and slinging it over her shoulder, Bernice stepped through the door to the hallway. The corridors were brighter and less moody than the console room, but still had the honeycomb pattern of circular roundels the Time Lords insisted had a purpose, something she never really believed. Her bedroom was two left turns, a right one, then three doors down.

But when she reached the place it should've been- it wasn't there. There were no doors in this hallway at all. Had she taken a wrong turn? She couldn't have- it wasn't that deep. But if she did, Benny may have just gotten herself lost. Great. Retracing her steps, definitely the correct way this time- she still ended up back in the console room.

"Oh cruk-"

"Summerfield- I thought you said you'd gone off to bed and sleep for a ridiculous period of time like humans are supposed to do. Terribly inefficient, you know," he commented rudely, fingers falling over more buttons and switches to keep himself occupied. "It must be incredibly boring, sleeping for eight hours in a row."

"Not really. It's an easy way to ignore pain. Including hangovers. But that's besides the point."

"What is the point then?"

The Doctor didn't even look up from the console, fiddling with different switches, buttons, and knobs. There was an open panel with wires exposed. Turning around it once in a while, he finally met her gaze. Bernice was glaring daggers.

"My bedroom isn't there," she grumbled.

He was completely and utterly disinterested, glancing back up and down at the console, never retaining eye contact for more than a few seconds at a time. "Is it really?"

"Doctor!"

"Oh no-" he knew he was in for a scolding.

After a fair bit of aggressive pacing, the flames of her temper erupted into an inferno and Benny stomped up to the Doctor, pointing in his face.

"Oi! First, you drop me off for a crappy expedition too damn far away from it, then it gets cancelled and funding pulled with no crukking way of getting back to where you'd landed, then you won't pick up so I can't call you to get me, then you can't land anywhere remotely close to the Braxiatel Collection when I gave you detailed instructions and coordinates! Now- this! What the bloody hell is wrong with you?!"

He opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it, circling away from her pointed finger and looking back down at the controls. She looked in the mood to slap him. He'd rather not, at this very moment.

"I'm sure your bedroom still exists somewhere- don't worry about it, Professor Summerfield. I'll locate it, meanwhile you can use a guest room."

Her expression turned from fury to somewhat sceptical confusion. "...We have those? I thought you had to eject most of them to get through the dimensional barrier, and she hasn't agreed with you enough to rebuild them."

He raised a finger, before simply going, "Ah."

Bernice tapped a foot and crossed her arms. "Do you have anywhere I could comfortably sleep?"

He looked over the viewscreen to get a map layout before giving an answer to that, unfortunately, he didn't have one she'd be particularly happy with. "Uh, well- umm... no."

Benny shot him one last unamused glare before turning around for the door back to where she came. "There better at least be coffee. I'll need something to live off of until I have my own room back."

Before the Doctor had any time to respond, she slammed the door behind her with a great amount of force and went to the kitchen, which was quite luckily not only the closest place other than a closet to the control room, but still exactly where it'd been left.

She'd gotten to the coffee maker and actually smiled at what she found. There was a little less than a pot, wonderfully warm. Good for him, this might put off her next exhausted tirade for a while yet. Or make her have more energy to be angry, potentially. He'd need luck. A whole bloody lot of it.

She poured herself the hot liquid and gulped it up. It was chilly in here, one other reason Bernice would much rather be safely tucked under the covers. If he at least adjusted the climate controls to account for her higher body temperature, it might have gotten a few points back. But he didn't, and it wasn't.

There was a closet nearby, perhaps there would at least be some blankets and pillows she could wait it out in. This empty desert of a TARDIS didn't have any sofas, so Benny would have to make a nest to get anything remotely resembling comfort. She was accustomed to roughing it, but cold, hard floors in her humble opinion were infinitely worse than dirt.

She poured the last of the pot into her paper cup and it was gone before she blinked. Checking around, the first thing Bernice wanted to do was brew more. But all she found was an empty bag of beans in the rubbish bin, not another in sight. The woman groaned. What was she feeling? Annoyance, frustration, fury-? At this point, it was more likely either desperation or anguish.

Before giving up entirely, Benny stepped over to the nearest storage closet and wrapped herself in a couple of blankets, which were actually there, surprisingly. The bright TARDIS corridors were not exactly conducive to sleep and were bound to give her a headache eventually. So, very reluctantly, Bernice made her way back to the console room.

The Doctor was scrambling around the console, still. Somewhat more frantically than before- he knew her wrath. And being trapped alone with her being that angry at him wasn't his idea of a good time.

"Found it yet?"

He shook his head.

She leaned against a wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Huddling up with a blanket and a pillow, she looked down at her holowatch and sighed. She could ask for help. At least garner some sympathy maybe?

It was even very tempting to give Brax a private call. Likely to be awkward though. He'd not only picked her up just last night and paid the fare for her trip, but the last thing he said to her before she left on that shuttle was, 'Bernice, I have one final thing to ask of you before you go. Please don't sleep with him. I'm getting far too old to be an uncle again... Beyond that... Farewell.'

He had the wrong idea though. Well, for one, this Doctor was the last person she'd want to sleep with. And for another, she couldn't sleep with anyone here at all with the state of things. Benny thought long and hard about it, itching her hand absentmindedly. "Oh, to hell with it-" she finally gave in to her impulses.

Pulling up his contact number, Bernice held her breath as she hovered over the button on the screen. Letting it all out, she reluctantly pressed it. No turning back now.

"Brax, it's the middle of the night but I'm on five cups of coffee. The Doctor lost my bedroom and I've already told him I'm not sleeping on the floor," she ranted.

"Hello to you too, Benny-" he greeted in return, somewhat sarcastically. Though he couldn't hide an obvious grin.

"Humans just need so much effort to sleep. Why can't you simply just... rest standing up, or leaning on something? I do. Often enough, anyway."

"That explains a lot. But I'm not a horse or something. I can't exactly lock my knees- Doctor, just get something right for once!" she shouted over.

"There's always the sofa, or a spare room?" Braxiatel suggested.

"He uses the bloody default interior with the lowest room count possible because she doesn't like him much. We don't have any. I usually go to my own flat over at the Delvian Academy, but we're drifting and can't even materialize," she grouched.

The Doctor looked over at readouts again, making calculations to potentially get an answer she wanted. Hesitantly but insistently, he shouted, "It'll be done in 4.7 hours Summerfield, promise!"

Glaring again, she commented. "Like I believe that. And even if you do manage, it'll be five in the morning by then!"

"I could tell you that your clock doesn't work here, but I know you're just over-adjusted, so I'll hold that comment."

"Just get it fixed," she snapped.

He put his hands up in the air, frustrated too now. "Fine!"

Watching the exchange taking place, slightly concerned and rather exasperated himself, Brax chimed in. "Benny, exactly why do you travel with this man?"

She groaned, "I dunno. I just sorta do? There are high points. But ugh..." This was just a particularly bad week, really.

Blinking in astonishment at the type of impressive row between them that he wasn't typically privy to, Braxiatel spoke over the call, "He seems to be an even worse pilot than my real brother. And our Doctor is unlicensed."

Bernice nodded in agreement. "At least he got the planet right when he put his mind to it." Well, he could. When he and the TARDIS decided to agree. But often he blatantly ignored perfectly reasonable requests and had a go with whatever he thought seemed like a good idea. And commonly enough, it wasn't.

She shivered, pulling the blankets tighter and leaning on a pillow that'd been propped against the wall. Braxiatel once again shared an expression of concern. "Are you alright, Benny?"

"Just bloody freezing."

The Doctor shot up and made a little sound of triumph. "Ah ha! Summerfield, I believe I may just have located your room. You're free to thank me."

Benny raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, sceptical at best of his claims of success. Wrapping the blankets yet tighter and standing up, she asked him in her most cynical and condescending tone, "Well, where is it then?" There was a miniscule spark of hope in her eyes, but she didn't let him see it.

He pointed at the map displayed on the viewscreen and tapped the glass. The directions followed an impressive winding path that the TARDIS measured to be... "But that's practically half a mile away- what the hell?! I'm never getting any sleep." Just to add insult to injury, she bitterly mentioned, "-By the way, we're out of coffee!" before proceeding to throw the empty paper cup she'd taken with her at him, what she kept just to savour the taste of those last drops. And to do exactly this, if need be.

"What kind of shabby operation are you even running over there? Honestly, those living conditions should be criminal," Braxiatel commented.

"It's not my fault your universe operates under different principles than mine," he grumbled in return.

He tutted. "Excuses, excuses. Benny, I'd pick you up and take you back to the Collection again, but if you can't materialize, you know it's a lot harder on this end of things."

"Thanks for the thought at least, Brax," she sighed in exhaustion.

"It's the least I can do, Bernice," he fidgeted, straightening his tie and fiddling with his cufflinks, like he was getting ready to do something anyway.

She tried to let herself nod off, maybe for once being able to make it. She'd slept in worse places before, right? But the melancholy wailing of the ship kept her wide awake. Well, that and the five cups of rich black coffee in her system. Irving didn't turn off the call, himself waiting and hoping that she'd get some rest. And occasionally shoot the Doctor looks that could kill.

"Summerfield, would it be too difficult to turn off your holowatch? I don't need someone watching over my shoulder and 'backseat driving' as it were. His glare is quite distracting and a little..." He trailed off and held his tongue before he called Brax's expression disturbing. He wasn't wrong about that, but he never did like the results of a particularly annoyed Braxiatel- regardless of which one it may be.

If either of them were somehow not completely and utterly unimpressed, they were now. There was always a new low to sink to, at least with their point of view. Benny stood up and finally, to nobody's surprise, completely snapped. "That's it, get us out of the vortex. I'll jump out into deep space if Brax is willing to pick me up!" she got in his face, startling the Doctor.

"I will if you can materialize," Braxiatel affirmed.

Looking over readings one last time before she did anything rash, he surrendered. "The fluid links might have enough juice in them to manage a temporary partial materialization-"

"Goddess- you're telling us this now?!" Benny shouted.

Before they even finished, Braxiatel stood up and his office in the hologram began to shift dramatically, desks and shelves pulling away before a hexagonal console arose in the centre. He brushed himself off. "And?" he simply asked.

"I was going to finish- you'll have less than a minute and I can't guarantee where you'll end up," he did some more calculations in his head. "52 seconds to be exact, if I'm correct. And you won't be able to come back until the repair is complete."

Braxiatel nodded, but didn't let go of his harsh demeanour. "While you're not correct most of the time, Doctor, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for once. For Benny's sake, I'll make it work."

"Do it then," Benny ordered.

From the hologram, they could see Brax circling his own console, much more elegantly and fluidly than the Doctor ever did. The Doctor hit levers and buttons on theirs in kind, trying not to look too shabby in comparison as they materialized. He started counting down, nodding to his not-brother.

"Okay, materialization in 3, 2..." a final switch and "1!"

Benny hit the door switch and ran to it. Deep space. Partial materialization meant a smaller airshell- Brax would have to land extremely close. Dangerously close.

"Brax, sending coordinates. Exact coordinates. Please don't screw this up, guys-"

But before she knew it, she heard whirring outside, something obviously impossible in a vacuum.

"Materializing now," Brax smiled.

A blank grey capsule appeared about five feet away from the doors, fading into existence and solidifying.

"I'm jumping out... now."

Flicking off the watch to avoid distractions, Bernice took a running start and leapt from the doors, bridging the air shells, taking a breath with eyes screwed shut, and silently praying. 'Goddess, please catch me, Brax...'

She didn't even get to open up her eyes again before she heard the other capsule's doors open just barely in front of her, letting her fall into the firm and steady embrace of a tall man.

"Very good, I've got you," Braxiatel reassured, making sure she got her balance.

"Thank the goddess..." Benny muttered into his shoulder.

Looking back, the Doctor's signature blue police box was already fading away, the 52 seconds expiring and that window closing behind them. Brax broke what could easily be called a hug and held her upper arms, looking Bernice directly in the eye.

"Are you alright?"

Rubbing her eye, she nodded. "...Yeah-"

Shutting the doors behind them to worry about the Doctor later, Braxiatel made an utterly tantalizing offer, with just one single, tiny word.

"Tea?"

"God, yes."

Nodding in approval, he hit a switch and part of the TARDIS shifted back to his office. Waiting there was an armchair, small table, and a miraculously hot teapot. He invited her to sit down.

"Drink this. Something to help you sleep, counteract the coffee."

Sitting on the armchair as he gestured, Bernice poured herself some of the steamy liquid. Getting a whiff, Benny could already tell it was her favourite of his signature blends, perfectly steeped as always. Taking a long, slow sip, she thought hard and remarked, "All that caffeine in my system. That was so stupid. I really shouldn't have tried that."

He barely looked up from the console, making sure everything was settled from such a sudden transformation and flight. "Oh, it's alright. I've seen you in far worse states, you know."

She took another sip, savouring the warmth. "But you were here when it mattered, and that's what counts."

"Of course, Benny, you're my best friend. I will do my best to always be here when you need me," a statement that seemed purely genuine. A rare sight for Irving Braxiatel.

Her answer was nothing but a warm, kind smile.

Relaxing over the tea, Bernice didn't even feel as if she had to correct him this time. He'd been gone a number of times, when she really needed him, even sent her off on quite a few of them himself. She wished he'd been there. But he was now. And rather suddenly, too. She'd seen him earlier that day, but before then hadn't in ages. It was strange.

And the feeling rising in her chest as she watched him play at the controls like a delicate musical instrument while they came down to such a smooth landing one could hardly feel it- was certainly from the tea, and not at all the emotions she'd hid from herself for three decades finally starting to bubble up towards the surface again. That'd be absurd.

Placing the tea back in its saucer, Benny just barely managed to hold her tongue and avoid muttering, 'I love you, Brax-' out loud before she drifted off.