Before you read this chapter and get all confused, go back and read the previous chapter. I posted it last week but because the alerts were borked you wouldn't have gotten an email informing you of the update. It didn't appear on the first page either so it wouldn't have shown up in the alerted stories section of the control panel.
Also, thanks to the guest who reviewed a chapter on 'Brilliant and Brave' querying about how the Parallel Doctor and Jack, Delta and Ed weren't 'arrested' on Fiction for being Mind Controllers like Jaime was. Maybe it's because they weren't mind controllers and their Universe's version of planet Fiction have yet to ban Mind Control.
Thanks for reading.
It was 'night-time', or some form of it, once again on the TARDIS. And once again Alexia lay on her bed wide awake. Not even a mug of hot chocolate provided by the Time Machine could do anything to make her nod off. So with a frustrated groan Alexia sat up, ignoring the Mumbles window feature, and got out of bed. She used the clothes in the wardrobe to get dressed and once she was ready, exited her room.
Considering what happened last time she went exploring the TARDIS corridors, Alexia wasn't worried. Getting lost was merely just a one-off, set up by the TARDIS. After setting off up the corridor on another late night exploration she was soon GPS guided along. Thankfully she didn't end up getting lost this time, but she didn't come across any interesting rooms. The 'Mind Guide', as Alexia thought of it, led her into the console room.
At first she thought she was the only one in the console room until she heard the musical muttering of foreign language she'd never heard before. Curiosity piqued, the woman moved further into the console room until she got to the main control panel. There she found part of the grating lifted up and the sounds of mechanics coming from it. Alexia frowned, wondering which one was fiddling with the inner workings of the TARDIS. And was this normal? Was there something wrong with the Time Machine?
She was about to query this when there was an annoyed grunt from below, followed by a long string of musical notes. Cocking her head, Alexia listened to it carefully, her eyes beginning to water once she realised what the language must be. It had to be the most beautiful language she'd ever heard.
After wiping her eyes with her sleeve, Alexia spoke up. "Is that what Gallifreyan actually sounds like?" She asked, smiling when she heard a cry of surprise come from the hole. "It's very beautiful."
The Doctor popped up out of the hole like one of those cute little Meerkats, his brown eyes were wide with surprise. She kept smiling when she noticed a dirty smudge of whatever it was across his nose. "What are you doing up and about?" He asked almost defensively.
"Couldn't sleep," Alexia replied. "Was that actually Gallifreyan?" She then questioned. "I didn't realise it would sound so musical."
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably before diving back into the hole. The woman sighed and shook her head as she scooted past the hole to sit down against the coral strut. Of course he wasn't going to answer her question. When it came to discussion about the rest of the Time Lords and Gallifrey he could be very cagey about it.
"It's not just Gallifreyan," The Doctor finally answered her question, much to Alexia's surprise. "It's 'Old High Gallifreyan'. Language of the Time Lords." He popped back up with a frown. "Was it never spoken in that TV show about me?" He asked.
Alexia shook her head. "No, in all its fifty year history the language of the Time Lords has never been spoken. There's been other languages spoken and Gallifreyan written down in various forms, but never spoken"
"Hmm, interesting." The Doctor muttered before disappearing back into the hole. "Maybe they couldn't find a way to replicate it."
Alexia shrugged her shoulders as she leaned her head back against the coral strut.
"Why can't you sleep?" Was the Doctor's next question.
"Insomnia mostly!" Alexia sighed. "But I also can't stop thinking about Jaime." She added. "About the Fire-Bird."
The Time Lord stayed silent as he worked away so Alexia continued.
"How she was on her own for such a long time with nobody to stop her." She shook her head. "It makes me wonder how she even managed to survive on her own. She's never been very good on her own." She was silent after that and the only noise in the console room was the Time Rotor and the work sounds coming from the hole in the floor.
Alexia thought The Doctor was never going to say anything until he actually did speak up.
"I looked all over," he said. "That is me and Rose did. John was too upset about her disappearance so we left him at Torchwood."
Alexia grimaced at this.
"We'd either land at a destination to find that we were already too late or we'd look for her on the monitor only to find confusing signatures scattered all over the universe. It wasn't easy. And then The Dynacracker found us on a planet called Siren and told us to return to Torchwood, wait for her to call us once she found Jaime."
Alexia narrowed her eyes, not liking what she was hearing. "But wouldn't that have taken longer to find her? It would have meant she was out there longer than expected, completely on her own!"
But the Doctor was heard to grunt in disagreement. "Apparently not. The Dynacracker found her pretty quickly, despite spending two years wandering the universe…"
Alexia put her hands over her face and shook her head.
"…and a hundred years stuck in The Pandorica. And not to mention she wasn't entirely on her own."
Putting her hands down, Alexia stared at the hole. "What?" She uttered.
"Uh-huh," the Doctor popped up with even more smudges on his face. "I remember several previous incarnations came across her various times. Then she'd be off again even before I've figured out who she was. She stayed with me and Peri after I regenerated from Spectox poisoning. After that she just randomly disappeared."
He noticed Alexia's eyes were wide with fascination. "She told me once that she ended up on Gallifrey during my trial." He said and Alexia furrowed her brows.
"Which one?" She asked. "You had two."
The Doctor smiled wryly. "The first time. When I was forced to live on Earth." The woman gasped, looking horrified. "Don't worry, she kept herself hidden the whole time. But she told me she'd been shocked and disgusted over what the Time Lords did."
Alexia silently nodded in agreement. "Oh, I would be too. They never even gave you a chance and then they forced you to regenerate…" The Doctor popped back into the hole, but not before Alexia noticed the look of guilt on his face. She sighed and shook her head. It looked like he still wasn't comfortable with talking about his people.
"She was also on the Titanic the same time my Seventh incarnation, Ace and Bernice were onboard." The Doctor went on to say and Alexia couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"The Titanic? What the hell was she doing there?" She asked, stunned.
"Judging from the amount of ice on the deck she may have been waiting for the iceberg."
The woman blew out a breath. "Do you think she might have attempted to stop the collision between the ship and iceberg?" She questioned, thinking about all the other changes that have happened in this universe.
"Possibly," the Doctor replied. "Maybe it was just too big for her to stop. Especially in her condition at the time."
Alexia nodded thoughtfully, wondering whether the sinking of the Titanic was a fixed point or not.
Almost as if he'd sensed her worry, the Doctor continued on. "And she didn't always cause trouble and destruction. There's camera footage of her saving a young boy from a drowning by Tsunami. And she spent a few months in London sometime in the future, fighting crime."
Alexia frowned at his words. "That wouldn't happen to be the 2004 a Boxing Day Tsunami would it?" She asked, remembering seeing similar footage like that on the news in their old universe. She heard the grunt of confirmation from the Time Lord to say 'yes, it was the 2004 Tsunami'. "In our Universe there was nobody there to save him," she said. "He just stood there and was taken by a huge wave."
With a small grin, Alexia laid her head back against the coral strut, thinking. There was a boy growing up somewhere on this world, thankfully alive because she thought to rescue him. Yet he was just one out of the hundreds who died that day. Maybe one was enough, or perhaps she rescued others aswell? Never-the-less her daughter was a hero.
Movement from somewhere near the doorway caught her attention and Alexia moved her head to see what it was. Only to freeze and her eyes widened at what she was seeing. Impossible! It should be completely impossible, yet there it was, just as real as The Doctor.
"How long have you had insomnia?" The Doctor questioned. "Did it just come on or have you had it longer?" When he didn't receive an answer he thought that Alexia had left the console room without saying goodbye. Though he hadn't heard her feet clattering on the grating. So when he popped up out of the hole he found Alexia still sat against the coral strut, only now she was rigid and looked scared. "Alexia? Is something wrong?" He asked. What was on the TARDIS that could have scared her? And why hadn't his Old Girl warned him?
"Behind you!" Alexia muttered. "Look behind you!"
The Doctor raised a brow, yet his hearts began to thud in anticipation, a tingle of fear striking him as he slowly turned around. "Oh!" He finally exclaimed in surprise when he saw the creature sat a foot away from the hole.
It was a very odd, yet vaguely familiar looking thing. It was about the size of a small Pug puppy with light yellow fur. It's ears were long, ending with darker fur at the tips. It also had brown fur stripes across its back and base of its tail that was curiously shaped like a lightening bolt. It had red patches on its cheeks that were basically pouches. The little creature blinked its beady black eyes at The Doctor.
"Hello! How did you get onto the TARDIS?" The Doctor said to the small creature before slowly reaching into his jacket for his Sonic Screwdriver. "It appears to be some sort of mouse!" He then said and pointed the Sonic at the mouse-like creature.
"Pika!" It squeaked and moved forward on its stubby legs before reaching out and putting a paw on the tip of the Screwdriver. The Doctor, although surprised, smiled at this as the mouse sniffed at the Sonic.
"It's not just a Mouse!" He heard Alexia say. "It's a Pikachu!"
To the Doctor that also sounded vaguely familiar. "That still doesn't explain what it's doing on my TARDIS." He replied. Leaving the Sonic on the grating the Doctor watched as it sniffed the instrument, distracted. Then he went to pick it up, ignoring Alexia's warning not to. As soon as he did that he felt the little thing tense up as if suddenly panicked. It closed its eyes and did its best to scrunch up, the sound of faint electrical crackling was heard. "Uh-oh!" The Doctor exclaimed, his eyes widening.
"PI-KA-CHU!" It cried out and blasted the Doctor with volts of electricity.
Swearing loudly, Alexia watched wide-eyed as The Doctor was electrocuted by the small electrical mouse. All her hair was sticking up on end even though she was not sat so close to him.
Finally the Time a Lord let go of the Pikachu and fell into a dead faint.
Even though she didn't want to touch the little creature, the Zoolinguist in her made her scramble forward and catch the little electric mouse before it could hit the ground. She doubted it was stealthy in real life as it was in the cartoon. A tingle of fear suddenly ran through her, yet Alexia didn't feel scared and it confused her. The electrical crackling returned. "Please don't!" She croaked, eyes wide. The tingle of fear turned into curiousness and now she definitely knew it wasn't what she was feeling. She gasped and quickly put the Pikachu down, that tingly feeling disappearing.
"Pi?" The Pikachu squeaked, almost in a questioning manner, blinking at her.
Deciding to ignore it for the moment, Alexia turned her attention to the Doctor. He had fallen back into the hole and was sort of sitting or leaning against the inner workings. His hair was spikier than ever, just standing on end in an electrocuted state. "Oh god!" She muttered, extremely worried, though she could see he was still breathing. So that was a good thing. After all, he had been electrocuted several times before. But never by a small electric mouse.
"Doctor, wake up!" Alexia called out, slapping his cheeks in order to bring him round. Yet he remained out of it. "Come on, wake up, you bastard!" Alexia ground out and slapped his cheeks harder. That got him moving.
The Time Lord's brown eyes flashed open and he yelled out in alarm, scaring the Pikachu so much that it ran and hid behind Alexia. "Ow! Always the mothers!" He muttered darkly as he rubbed his cheek. "What did you hit me for?" He whined.
"I'm sorry, but it was the only thing I could think of," Alexia replied. "I mean, I did warn you not to pick it up, considering it's an electric based Pokemon!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, well I'm quite aware of that now!" He replied, using his arms to lift himself out of the hole and sat on the edge. "Where is it now?" He asked, giving his head a good shake, followed by ruffling his hair to get rid of the excess static. That was never a nice feeling.
"Not sure, it ran away when you yelled out," the woman replied as the Doctor picked up his Sonic and started scanning. "Doctor…I didn't know Pokemon were real in this universe." Alexia said.
"They're not," the Doctor replied. "They only exist in game, card, toy and TV show form. The only thing that is close to a Pokemon is a Firemander."
Alexia stared at The Doctor. "A what?" She asked.
"A Firemander," the Doctor repeated. "They're what the Charmander are based off. They're darker colour of red with black spots and they breathe fire."
"Like Charmander!"
"Like Charmander," the Doctor nodded. "They live underneath Japan and prefer living near or in Volcano's. They're probably the only creature to survive whilst swimming through lava." He could see that Alexia was truly fascinated about the Firemanders, but they were getting off track. "Which makes me wonder how this Pikachu actually exists."
Whilst The Doctor was thinking this over the Pikachu made its re-appearance by jumping up onto Alexia's right shoulder, making her cry out in surprise.
"Ahh, there it is," the Doctor noticed it was looking at him suspiciously when he pointed the Sonic at it. So he put it away as he wanted to get close to it even though it had electrocuted him once already. "Looks like you've made a friend!" He chuckled.
"I rather it wasn't on me!" Alexia cringed out.
"Well I'm not touching it," the Doctor replied with a snort. "I'd really don't want to get electrocuted again." He watched as the little electric mouse climbed down from her shoulder and laid down comfortably on her upper legs. He noticed Alexia was doing her best not to touch it.
"Did something happen?" He asked because this didn't look like a woman determined not to interact with an animal.
"Maybe…it was a bit weird," Alexia answered, staring down at the Pikachu.
"Go on then, what was it?" The Time Lord prompted.
"I caught it before it could fall to the floor, but I felt this unusual tingling feeling," Alexia explained. "Like mild pins and needles." Now she shook her head. "Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because little mousy here is full of electric."
The Doctor furrowed his brow, knowing that wasn't the case. He would have felt the same thing.
"But that's not the only thing," Alexia continued. "While holding it I could feel it's emotions…" She looked up at the Doctor, eyes wide. "Is that even normal for a Zoolinguist? To be able to feel an animal's emotions?" She questioned.
The Doctor appeared thoughtful. The woman was obviously scared of her own abilities. Just like Jaime was. "Sometimes, yes!" He answered. "That can happen. It's a rarity though."
Alexia sighed, shaking her head.
The Doctor decided to try and comfort her. "Have you ever petted a dog and felt happy doing so?" He explained. "And as you continued to pet it you felt even more happier?" Looking thoughtful, Alexia nodded. "Well that's most likely the dog's emotions bleeding through."
Alexia just grunted as she looked back down at the resting Pikachu. The only time she had ever petted a dog was when she was five. It did turn oddly boisterous until she was pulled away by her dad. He claimed she was barking at it and he worried that it would mistake her for another dog.
"Why don't you talk to it?" She heard the Doctor question and she looked up at him, frowning. "The Pikachu. Find out where it came from!"
Letting out a gasp, Alexia shook her head. "No, that's not a good idea." She replied, nervous.
"Why not?" The Doctor asked, brows raised.
"I just…don't want to hurt it, that's all!" She mumbled.
"Oh, nonsense. You won't hurt it," he said. "It's not a sheep and you didn't know what you were doing with your abilities to start off with." Alexia scowled angrily at him. "But all you've got to do is trust yourself and it'll be alright."
After taking a deep breath, Alexia blew it out again. "Okay, fine. But this'll be the only time I do it." Then she looked down at the Pikachu and gently tapped it. The little electric mouse squeaked in surprise and sat up on its hind legs, looking up at her. "Where did you come from?" She asked, keeping her hand on its back so it wouldn't tumble off her legs. She could also feel the tingle of curious emotion again.
"Pika?" It squeaked with a blink. "Pika pi, pi-ka, pi, pi, pika-chu!"
Alexia groaned at the answer, realising that the little mouse had misunderstood her. The Doctor watched in fascination as Alexia interacted with the Pikachu, making the same sounds as the little creature.
Suddenly Alexia pointed at her herself and said: "Pi-pi-chu," and then pointed at the Doctor and said: "Pi-ka-ka."
The Time Lord frowned. "What are you saying to it?" He asked.
"He wanted to know who we are, so I told him." Alexia replied.
"Him?" The Doctor realised.
"Aye. A male Pikachu called Sparky."
The Doctor snorted, surprised. "Sparky? Not a lot of thought went into that name, did it!" He said, laughing.
Alexia rolled her eyes. "Hush, you!" She admonished before turning her attention back to Sparky, speaking its language.
At one point he thought he was being insulted when Alexia looked at him, said something to the Pikachu and they both cracked up laughing. Despite all that, the Doctor noticed that Alexia was looking more and more comfortable with using her abilities. And that was a good thing because it meant she was becoming confident.
"Pi-pi-ka?" Alexia uttered, brows raised. "Pika pi-ka chu-chu?" She questioned.
"Pika, pika!" Sparky exclaimed excitedly, appearing to nod his head.
"Find out anything useful?" The Doctor queried.
"Aye!" Alexia replied, looking up at the Doctor. "He says he came from a garden from within the TARDIS but doesn't know which one. It was Jaime who brought him onboard."
The Doctor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Of course it was Jaime! It seemed his TARDIS was becoming more like a pet sanctuary everyday. "That still doesn't explain where he came from. Pokemon aren't supposed to exist in this universe." He said.
Alexia was thinking deeply while playfully petting Sparky's furry head. When it finally came to her she gasped and her eyes widened. "Oh, I should've known!" She uttered as The Doctor stared at her silently. "We were at Torchwood," she explained. "Jaime had been sleeping and when she woke up she started pulling everything out of her pockets looking for a phone number. She had a couple of Pokeballs on her and when I asked about them she was really coy about them."
The Doctor nodded faintly, a grim expression on his face. "She and John must have come across the Pokemon universe whilst trying to find you."
The woman grunted in reply as she continued to pet the electric mouse.
The Doctor grinned at this. "You never answered my question." He said.
"And what question was that?" Alexia replied.
"How long have you been an insomniac?" He questioned.
"Oh," Alexia stopped petting Sparky and looked up at the Doctor. "That."
He smiled grimly at her expression, almost as if she decided she didn't want to say anything after all. "When I asked you why you were awake, one of the things you mentioned was insomnia."
The woman chuckled nervously. "I did, didn't I!" She muttered.
There was silence for awhile between them until the Doctor spoke up. "Well?" He prompted, hoping she would say something.
Alexia remained nervously silent but Sparky must have sensed it because he patted her lower arm with a comforting squeak. She let out a surprised laugh at this. Despite them looking like regular animals…well, sometimes…she forgot how intelligent they actually were. "It started almost immediately after I went on the run with Jaime," Alexia explained, looking at The Doctor. "I was just so worried they would come for us during the night I'd force myself to stay awake. Once I felt a bit safer I tried to sleep but all I could manage was nodding off or little cat-naps. No proper sleeping."
The Doctor pulled a face while scratching at his cheek. "Sounds like your body adjusted to the lack of sleep," he replied. "Insomnia is quite a common thing to happen to a human and there's lots of reasons why it can happen such as…" He halted when he noticed Alexia scowling at him. "Anyway, I might have something in the Medbay that could help."
Alexia snorted as the Doctor stood up, picked up the grating panel and put it back in place. "I doubt it," she said. "If hot chocolate, Horlicks and Nytol barely work, then I doubt any of your stuff works."
The Doctor grinned at this. "Don't be so sure." He said, holding his hand out towards her. "And they'd be a lot stronger than a herbal relief for sleeping."
Alexia let him pull her up to her feet but after that she pulled her hand out of his grip. The Doctor understood why she did that. She was still obviously prickly towards the male member of her species.
He shifted awkwardly on his feet. "Well…allons-y then!" He uttered and heard Alexia chuckle as he turned around.
She followed the Time Lord out of the Console Room and into the corridor, noticing the Pikachu following along beside her. Thankfully it was only a short walk to the Medbay and when they got there, Alexia watched as the Doctor walked over to a cupboard, opened it up and took out an orange pill bottle. "What's that?" She asked.
"This?" The Doctor held up the bottle so that she could see it and read the label. "Is a very powerful sleeping tablet from the planet Vulpana. It works on all species…apart from Time Lords. I've had other companions who have had sleeping problems and it worked on them."
Alexia frowned when she tried to read the label. It was in a different language. "What does it say?" She asked.
"It's called 'SleepTight'." The Doctor replied, wondering why it didn't translate for her. The woman nodded, but he could tell by her expression that she remained sceptical about it. So he shook one out, filled a glass with water and dropped in the pill where it dissolved. Then he held out the glass towards Alexia.
She looked at it, then at The Doctor's face. "Hold on!" She said and walked over to the sink. There she found a pack of wet wipes on the side, took one out and returned to The Doctor. "Come here, you." She said and before he could do anything she was cleaning the smudges off his face. "You're such a mucky pup!" She said, admonishing him as if he was a child. "Hold still!" When she was finished Alexia had to chuckle at the expression on his face. "You look like somebody who's just been told he's not allowed to go out." She said.
"Hmm?" His face went red. "Oh, just remembering something." He uttered and Alexia would have asked him what it was until he held out the glass towards her.
"I still don't think it'll work!" She said, taking the glass, stared at the cloudy water and finally drank it all down in one go before handing the glass back to the Doctor. Alexia frowned at the aftertaste. "See, nothing's hap…"
Before she could finish her sentence her eyes closed and she would have fallen to the floor if The Doctor hadn't caught her.
"Whoops-a-daisy!" He uttered and placed her on the nearest bed. "There you go." He said and pulled a sheet over her. Seconds later Sparky jumped up on the bed and lay down next to Alexia. "Keeping her company are you?" The Doctor queried and the Pikachu squeaked his reply before closing his eyes.
For awhile The Doctor watched on as Alexia slept. He wasn't used to being mothered, either by Jackie, Alexia or anybody else. It reminded him too much of his own mother. Finally he left the Medbay and went back to working on his TARDIS.