33. Rescuing Nolland.
1. I'm Home!
"Simeon," Choe says as calmly as she can, "Will you come home with me and meet my family?"
There is urgency in her voice as she silently re-lives the previous few minutes in her mind.
She has already asked Simeon to come and visit her family, but the urgency is there now. It has to be now.
Chloe knows what Simeon's answer will be. Without waiting for his answer, she takes Simeon's hands gently in hers, thinks of home on her planet, Tinsel, and activates her Wristwatch Tardis (ref. 32).
Simeon is coming home with her and coming away from Gallifrey right now...
Chloe's family home.
Simeon and Chloe arrive immediately in Chloe's lounge at her home on Tinsel.
Chloe is used to this immediate travel, after all, she is in control of it when it happens, but Simeon is struggling with it. One moment he's standing in his place at work, the next moment he's in the living room of Chloe's family. He stands there, dazed, as Chloe gently lets go of his hands.
It will take him a short while to adjust his thoughts.
"Mum? I'm home!" Chloe calls out. It's so wonderful to be home sometimes!
"Oh, lovely," Crystelle's voice calls through from the kitchen, nearby. She had been expecting Chloe back. But just when Chloe would arrive back was always likely to be unknown.
Crystelle had been resigned to that but knows that Chloe has been starting her first job, and she wants to hear all about it.
"Did it go alright?" Crystelle asks from the kitchen as she dries some glasses with a tea towel.
Chloe looks at Simeon and smiles a lingering pleasurable smile. "Yes. I've brought my boyfriend," she calls out from the lounge.
A clatter from the kitchen is followed by a rapid entrance of Crystelle. .
It is the first time that Simeon has seen Crystelle, but he recognises her from the pictures he had seen on the News on Gallifrey. He gasps as he recognises that Chloe has told him truthfully about her family. It isn't every day that you meet someone who you've seen on the News!
Chloe introduces them.
"It's wonderful to meet you," Simeon says. "You're famous on Gallifrey."
Crystelle wasn't expecting to be known about anywhere much. She tries to keep out of the limelight wherever possible so that she can continue to lead her normal life, that she enjoys so much, at home. "Famous?"
"Yes, I saw you on the News on Gallifrey," Simeon says. "When you put the Master in the Master Palace prison."
Crystelle had had the opportunity to put the Master in the Judoon Master Palace, as they had called it, but hadn't even thought about being famous (ref. 26). Fame will have its down sides if the Master ever gets out! But she will face that if it ever happens. The Doctor has assured her that it will happen sooner or later, the Master will get out, and it's only a matter of time, but that he will be at her side in an instant to protect her. Crystelle can't see how the Master can possibly get out. She also knows that the Doctor's "instant" might not be as instant as she would like! She also knows that she has clones of herself to help protect her (ref. 13).
Crystelle touches her hair as if to steady it. "Oh, it was nothing," she says, trying to brush off any accolade and then move onto some other topic quickly. "But tell me about yourself," she says. Crystelle wants to know as much as she can about Simeon.
"Well, there's not a lot to tell," Simeon says bashfully. "Born and brought up on Gallifrey, all since the restoration of Gallifrey. I had always wanted to work in the Gallifreyan Tardis factory, from an early age, the moment I heard about it. I've devoted my whole life to preparing to work there."
"How long have you worked there?" Crystelle asks inquisitively. She wants the full low-down on Simeon.
"I've worked there for five years," Simeon says. "I'm loving the job."
Chloe looks across at Simeon. Will he be able to go back there while he's with me? she worries to herself.
Crystelle notices Chloe's melancholic glance and wonders if she's probing too much.
"I'll put the kettle on for a drink for us all," Crystelle says, disappearing into the kitchen to give the new arrivals space to be together to get used to being in her home.
After a quick glance at the clock on the wall Chloe adds, "My dad's out at work - he'll be back in a few hours. Shall I show you around?"
Months earlier.
Chloe had met Simeon on Gallifrey as she learnt more about Tardis construction in the Gallifrey Tardis Manufacturing company (ref. 32).
She had envisaged registering her own home-built Wristwatch Tardis (ref. 29), built using information from the Gallifreyan Library, but found the registration procedure elusive, and very difficult. The documentation she would need to produce for registration of a new design of Tardis was, she'd decided, beyond her.
Chloe had dated Simeon and they had become close during her time there.
Then Chloe had easily persuaded Simeon to leave Gallifrey to meet her parents.
Yet their departure had been sudden, leaving Simeon with no time to gather his thoughts together after Chloe had been interviewed by Gallifreyan security for not having any past history on Gallifrey.
Working in the commercially secret environment of the Gallifreyan Tardis factory should have required that she was Gallifreyan, for them to know that she could be trusted with their commercial and state Tardis secrets.
Star struck recovery.
In Chloe's living room, Simeon recovers gradually from being star-struck at meeting Crystelle who he had heard so much about. In comparison to Crystelle, he feels like he's achieved so little in his life. He takes Chloe aside and confides in her.
"But that's because you're young. You haven't had time to achieve much yet. I haven't either, for that matter."
"Yes, but you've built your Wristwatch Tardis!"
"Before that I hadn't achieved much, though."
"You'd been on plenty of Tardis trips out," Simeon says incautiously.
"How did you know that?" Chloe asks, trying to keep her indignation out of her voice.
"I used an Artron energy detector after you said you'd been travelling with the Doctor," Simeon says apprehensively, suddenly realising that he ought not to have revealed this. "And you had." He laughs in embarrassment, hoping it's all okay. "I'm sorry," he says.
Chloe puts her arms around him, recognising his embarrassment. "It's fine. Now we have no need for secrets between us, and you know I'm aiming to keep none from you, not intentionally, anyway."
Chloe is sure there are still many things that Simeon doesn't know about but hopes these will become fewer.
A day later, Chloe is chatting with Simeon.
"Simeon, can I take you to see the Doctor?"
"What doctor do you want me to see? What's supposed to be wrong with me?" .
"THE Doctor, the Doctor who I've been travelling with," Chloe says. .
"Yes, is the answer, then." Simeon says enthusiastically. He is pleased that Chloe is taking good care of him. Then the penny drops. The Doctor. The Doctor he has heard so much about in the News on Gallifrey, and who is credited with the re-planting of Gallifrey. He takes a deep breath, anticipating being star struck.
"I just want to introduce you when he next visits," Chloe says casually.
"Yes, certainly," Simeon says. What an honour, Simeon thinks.
I wonder when that will be? .