Cleaning's not a strange task for Lila, always cleans around her flat, always keeps things on the up and up, and her workstation remains tidy for the most part. What she didn't know's just how infinite the TARDIS' rooms really are, she's been lugging out trash bags full of forgotten things since 6 AM!
Theodore asked for her help, since his brother's buried with work, and the fact she's the only one who knows about it, so there's that. When Theodore asked for her help, she thought it's something simple as repainting the TARDIS and changing the interior to something that didn't look like it jumped out of H.G. Wells' catalog. Not going through time without having to go through time!
She must've dragged out hundreds of coats throughout the years, from Edward Victorian to probably the start of disco. Those are just the coats, that's not including every article of clothing she dug out of some room.
It's at least around twelve when she stopped with Theodore and took a break to catch their breath while Theodore reminisces his father's old stories about the TARDIS.
Holding their drinks as they're sitting around the console filled with bags of clothes, they talked about the stories.
No matter how many hands it changes, it still went strong, and always has a story, no matter how short or long, so numerous there's no chance Theodore's able to get through them all in his time.
By the time he finished telling Lila stories about his father before he met his mum, it's time once again for the umpteenth cleaning they've undertaken.
At one point, Lila asked if it's possible the TARDIS could've jettisoned the abandoned items, but Theodore informed her that, unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.
Throwing out another set of bags filled with clothing that neither able to wear or even remotely use without looks from everyone around, Theodore switched their tasks to helping him redecorate the TARDIS, as he couldn't stand how someone changed it.
"I don't like it," Theodore muttered as he worked on the console, operating it with the knowledge he learnt from his late father. Lila watched as the walls altered on their own, changing from the previous incarnation to different variants until Theodore settled on the wall that looked like the one his father's accustomed. He went on to change everything else out with the push of a button, and when he finished, he looked over the changed interior.
It brought a wave of memories as Theodore stared at the interior. Due to the numerous alterations on previous Doctors' part, he couldn't get it exactly like what his father described, but he managed to replicate it enough that he couldn't believe he's standing in the centre of the TARDIS.
All the stories his father talked about it, Theodore never thought he'd have a chance to encounter the TARDIS again, but here he is, and he's used it plenty of times. Couldn't convince him it'd happen if you told him a couple of months ago.
His mind filled with nostalgia, Theodore helped Lila clean the TARDIS, and in his bid to clean, Theodore found a giant book filled with stories and guides from previous Doctors' who piloted the TARDIS prior. He sees the age of the book and deduced it's made after his father hung up the scarf.
Sitting around the console room with Lila, Theodore opened the book, seeing the stories and little things written in footnotes. Men and women who took the title after his father wrote in this book in hopes of leading the next Doctor on the right path, describing their encounters with various aliens and allies, and what became of them after they decided to hang up their respectful attire.
Flipping through the book, Theodore concludes that it's a longstanding tradition that the Doctors after concocted and in a way, Theodore thinks his father would've approved of the book as it covered everything that happened to each Doctor.
There's parts highlighted with yellow that showed the important details the next Doctor after needed to read and follow, such as marriages, children, whatever the case might've been, and the gist of why that is' so the enemies of the Doctor don't start suspecting something.
The Doctor, as it stands, must survive, and the way one Doctor knew how's making the figure eternal. No matter how many times he or she disappears, the Doctor's sure to appear, yet again. Maybe not in the same form as one expected, but the Doctor all the same, and that in turn gave the title a mythical status.
Someone with a blue disjointed police box, mad as a hatter, willing to do the right thing, even if it's crazier than them. The description alone's bound to make an enemy sweat at the thought their long-time foe's reappeared.
Inaccuracies' a problem with the Doctor's backstory, since each person who takes it adds their own flare to it and adds personal touches, always sure to confuse the enemies further, and add more mystery to the already mythical Doctor.
They've tried to keep it concise, however, trying to do what they can to keep them from tripping over the backstory they're following along, but there's the occasional slip-ups.
Happens when you have a handful of Doctors at various points with different life experiences that throw together a backstory to use when talking with allies and enemies.
Theodore sees a theme within the book, how all Doctors after mentioned focusing on the title and nothing else, they can't use their names or other. No matter what, the Doctor has no name, and it remains as such. Nothing personable.
When his father traveled, he had a name, but he couldn't use it as he mistakingly thought the Council exiled him after the theft of the TARDIS and smudged his name from the records. He'd simply use a moniker that all outcasts of the Council pick from a long list and use in lieu of a name. It didn't translate well into English, but eventually it morphed into what became the Doctor.
Though his Uncle informed him that he never went through the process of expelling his own nephew, Theodore's father kept the moniker he'd used for so long, but he did use his real name privately with his then-wife.
When he finally retired, Theodore's father used a human name since his real name wasn't something that's easy to roll off the tongue, assimilating life as one, and that's about it.
"So, what's it like there, where he and your uncle's from?" Lila asked about their home world.
Like their actual names, it doesn't translate back to English, few ever managed to pronounce it properly, fewer understood the name at all, but someone managed to concise it to something that's able to readily roll off the tongue.
Gallifrey.
Doesn't mean anything in English, nothing substantial, did sound something out of a science fiction novel, but it's known for the red dunes that turn a shade of purple in the sunsets, and the intense heat of the day and frigid cold of the night.
The Time Lords lived in domed cities around the planet, few ever ventured outside them, never bothered too, especially the political types, and especially those haughty.
"We couldn't go to certain domes, too young, and they're filled with highly elite, worse than the overtly posh types here, and Uncle couldn't stand them much. He always complained that they'd suffocate on their stuffiness before they realize their mistakes," Theodore recalled his time on Gallifrey with his siblings when their Uncle took them there more than once on trips. There's places they're able to venture, such as the massive library filled with quadrillion books and counting, but they'd never venture anywhere near certain domes.
The types to live in those domes look down on them because they're part human. One Time Lady said that they're part savages when she caught sight of them walking with their Uncle. Took him short of blowing a volcano not to sock her in the eye for calling them savages.
They weren't nicer to their mother, either, since she was full-blooded human, the only reason they listened's because she pulled them out of their proverbial arses and made them work to help save Gallifrey from an invasion.
It's not surprising someone like Theodore's father left as soon as he was able to turn over his position as president to Uncle. Unable to fully go anywhere on Gallifrey just because of the family sigil isn't "impressive" to the likes of the elite.
Couldn't change that even if he tried and he had better things to attend to than sorting paperwork and then some.
"If they called you savage, they'd call me worse," Lila noted that if she ever went to Gallifrey, they wouldn't take kindly to her, either. Not only that, she wouldn't take their insults lying down, and probably risked going to jail for a hundred years.
Shrugging his wide shoulder, Theodore sighed as he said that he isn't bothered by their words anymore, all he knew that he's fortunate to experience life on Earth as he did. Else, he might've risked falling into the same pits as them.
"Eh, don't worry, if they try to pull you down with them, we'll just fill them up with sand," Lila tried to cheer Theodore up as they're sitting around the console room with their legs crossed.
Smiling, Theodore thanked her for it before he noticed the time, and got up from his spot as he stretched out his arms, popping his joints.
Hours passed in the TARDIS, but they managed to clear out things left behind and at the end of the day, Theodore read the large book in his flat.
Some Doctors went years before retiring, others retired no more than two years after they took the title initially, and by the time he finally went to sleep, Theodore left off on a passage where a Doctor recalls meeting a strange man. The description of the strange man unusually vague, but it sounded as though the Doctor who wrote the passage was frightened of him, so much he couldn't write more than a blurb before moving writing something incomprehensible on the last part of the page.
Yawning loudly, Theodore threw off his clothes, showered, got into his lounge clothes, and landed in the middle of the bed, his heavy eyes closing automatically.
Cleaning out the TARDIS, Theodore planned to do more with it tomorrow.
Chameleon circuit's not what it's supposed to be, it's expected since they're not exactly in production anymore, and he couldn't very well order the part online, but Theodore hoped to fix it enough that it'll last until he finds a permanent solution.
That'll take some time, on the account the origins, but his father worked with less, and that's what he planned to do, too.
Snoring away loudly, Theodore slept on his bed with his face buried in his pillows, and his father's pocket watch softly ticking on his nightstand.
... There's subtle movement in his room as a shadow slowly materialized in front of the bed. Tall, slender, appearing to wear a fitted suit, and a mannerism of tugging on the tie.
It silently watched Theodore until it faded away as he turned to sleep on his back, as if it wasn't there at all.
"Waiting... waiting... waiting for you," a strange voice echoed.
THE END