Before you carry on with this chapter, I must inform you that I am too lazy to rewrite the episode "Eleventh Hour", which is basically what I would have been doing if I followed on from the last two. As such, just imagine they managed to solve the problem as they did in the episode and fast-forward to the end where the Doctor takes off for another two years. (This time joined by Amelia) On with the story...
Amelia Pond is incredibly confused.
"It's all changed!" she exclaims as she looks around the new interior of the police box that is still much bigger inside.
The Doctor just grins wildly and stares about himself as if he's madly in love with this new version of the TARDIS. In a way, he is.
He finds it very fitting that the TARDIS seems to have gone through her own regeneration process a day after him. They're both new versions of themselves with a new companion and new adventures waiting ahead of them.
"Let's go explore!" He grabs her hand and once more leads her off. This time, after they finish looking around, he goes back to showing Amelia how to pilot the TARDIS and this time it goes well. There's a healthy warping noise and the Doctor can feel them crossing over the dimensions of Time and Space.
Amelia looks on edge for a few seconds, remembering the last time when they crashed, but then relaxes and lets out a happy laugh. The Doctor laughs, too.
"Where'd you want to go to, Amelia?"
"Where can it go?"
"Anywhere and anytime!"
"Really?!"
"Yup! Pick a place... and a time. Pick a time, too."
"In school, we were learning about Ancient Egypt a few weeks ago."
"You want to go to Ancient Egypt?"
The little girl by his side nods and and smiles broadly up at him before remembering her manners and deciding to add, "Pllleeeeaasssee???"
"Ancient Egypt, here we come!"
"Won't we stand out a bit? And what if someone tries to talk to us but we don't understand the language?"
"I'll show you where you can find appropriate clothes to change into," the Doctor tells her. "And don't worry about languages: the TARDIS translates everything in our heads so we can understand them and they can understand us."
Eventually they land and once Amelia is changed (and the Doctor because Amelia wouldn't stop insisting he dress up as well), they step outside into the bright sunlight, heat instantly bearing down on them.
It's surprising because, although Amelia knew the Doctor could get them here, she's only ever seen the TARDIS land in her garden. Seeing they can actually move to different places - and through Time also - is just something else entirely. Something amazing and bewildering. It's a feeling that can't be named because there's just no combination of words that can accurately sum it up.
The Doctor catches sight of the look on his young friend's face and can't help the grin that works its way across his face. There's nothing like travelling by TARDIS for the first time and it's always so priceless to him seeing how his companions react the first time they get to experience this.
He sees this as a good educational experience for the young girl beside him. What better way to learn than to live through it?! They spend a few days in Egypt, Amelia taking in as much as she can, the Doctor realising that the brains of human children react in many ways like sponges and absorb everything.
The TARDIS stays well-hidden and they have a fun time finding it again, but Amelia just laughs the entire time, especially when he gets frustrated at coming across dead ends or places they've already checked. Her staying so positive is what helps him to manage to keep his cool (mostly) and laugh along with her.
They do eventually find the TARDIS, the blue corners and straight, defined edges of what, to all appearances, seems to be a phone box for police poking out cheekily from behind the whitewashed walls of a family's house. They are instantly met with the lovely coolness and shade inside and Amelia sighs in contentment.
"It's a bit hot outside," she comments and the Doctor agrees.
"Even that's beyond what I'm used to and I've been to some really hot planets!"
"There's other planets!? Can we go see them? Oh, please, Doctor!!! We need to go see the other planets! Are there aliens there? We need to go see! I want to see them all and explore everything there is!"
Well, this is definitely not what the Doctor is used to. Having such a young child tag along on adventures with him is clearly going to liven the place up a great deal. Amelia has a lot of energy and excitement and enthusiasm that will bring more fun to the travels and certainly brighten up his TARDIS.
Maybe having a child with him will drive him to be more careful and responsible? Who knows?
As the thought crosses his mind, Amelia lets out a loud yawn, trying to hide it behind her hand, clearly embarrassed.
The Doctor gets the TARDIS warping out of Egypt before turning to face his small friend, telling her gently, "I think it's time for you to go to bed. You've had a long few days and the heat will have drained you."
He takes her small hand in his and leads her to her new room. She's so tired she can't be bothered to change her clothes. She just climbs under the covers and is instantly out like a light.
"Night, Doctor," little Amelia mumbles sleepily.
"Good night," he returns (even though the TARDIS stands apart from Time and Space in her own dimension and therefore doesn't pass through the realms of day and night).
The moment he steps out of the room and makes his way back to the main console that he uses to pilot, his TARDIS is on him, going on about how young Amelia is.
Technically, all his companions are younger than him, but Amelia's seven years to his nine-hundred-something makes her seem like just a baby in comparison!
He argues quietly with the TARDIS for a short while about Amelia's age, trying to push away the nagging doubt and guilt because a part of him deep, deep down knows he's in the wrong. It's not fair to the child to bring her along on such dangerous adventures! Wherever he goes, there's always danger, always some sort of problem to solve. Does he really want to put Amelia through that? He'd felt so awful and guilty when he'd brought nineteen-year-old Rose with him and almost got her killed in 1869 - what about the seven-year-old with him now?! Does he not still feel that same guilt?
He does... But at the same time, he doesn't want Amelia to go! They'd had such fun over the last few days in Egypt and he'd promised her she could come with him! Anyway, she wanted to come; with no proper family, she was lonely and looking for a way out. He pushes away the little voice in the back of his mind that whispers: But all of them always want to come! The idea is so fun and thrilling and they never realise how dangerous it is! You never tell them what to expect!
He sighs and stands, done with arguing. He feels like he's made the right choice and he's going to try and do well by his newfound friend - he'll look after her and won't let her down and he won't take her anyplace too risky.