Disclaimer: Hmm…let's see. Unless the ownership of one DVD, a poster, the Shooting Scripts, six 9th Doctor books and two 10th Doctor books constitute legal ownership of the whole concept of Doctor Who, I don't own them.
"Dadtor…" Romana pads into the console room barefoot.
"Romana," the Doctor sighs. He has given up trying to dissuade Romana from using that name after she spent a week calling him Theta Sigma. So cheeky. Just like her mother.
"I can't find my socks. The Tardis is hiding the laundry room."
He reprovingly slaps the console. "Stop it." Honestly. The Tardis hadn't played tricks when Susan was onboard. The last time was when Adam had joined them. But that was because the Tardis had hated Adam. The Tardis adores Romana, but seems to find playing a few games irresistible.
A few creaks sound.
"And no sulking!" Take the most advanced technology in this universe, and possibly a few others, add a Time Tot, what do you get? A mischievous Tardis and a grubby-footed Romana, his own unique version of domestic.
"Try it now." Turning away from the console, he groans. "And, for the last time, put that thing away."
"But I like it." She picks one end of the ridiculously long scarf off the floor.
"I don't care. You are not going out dressed like that. And I don't want to have to say that to you again for at least another ten years."
She pauses in the doorway to stick her tongue out then runs, the Doctor after her.
xxx
He places a bookmark on the page and lays it aside before fixing her with the sternest look he can. Evidently, that isn't much for she appears totally unashamed.
"I put you to bed."
"I'm not tired." The phrase every child uses to delay bedtime, but in her case it is true. That was the aspect of alienness that Jackie had most objection to. Especially at 3 am.
"What's that you've got?"
"A book. I thought it was pretty." She holds out the object. An ordinary notebook with a single pressed bloom stuck to the front. She doesn't notice the strange expression that comes over his face, like a shutter sliding down. "I found this room, with a flower on the door. And there were boxes of stuff in it."
"Put it back, Romana."
"What is it?"
"Your mother's diary. Put it back and go to bed."
"Have you ever read it?"
"No. And I'm not going to."
"Can I start a diary?"
"If you want. I'll buy you a book to write in if you go to bed."
"You don't go to bed. You read or mess with the Tardis." He stares at her, then grins widely.
"You are exactly like your mother. She was always accusing me of unnecessary tampering." He leaps to his feet and takes her hand. "Come on, then. The Lion King?"
"Again?" She looks up at her father. "First one to find the cinema gets to choose."
"Okay, ready, set, GO!"
xxx
"Perhaps this wasn't the best place," the Doctor mutters under his breath as he pushes through the crowds thronging the market place, Romana clinging tightly to his hand.
He's dressed in his usual suit, but, after much argument, Romana is wearing the full-length white drape that signified she is a young girl, completely uninterested in marriage proposals.
"Couldn't we have gone somewhere where five-year-olds don't have to declare their views on marriage?" she shouts over the noise of the crowd.
He looks back at her. "You have to respect other cultures, Romana."
"I can't hear…ow!" A small humanoid alien with grey skin dodges through the crowds and barges between them. The crowd moves to let him through, carrying the Doctor and Romana away from each other.
"Dadtor!"
"Get back to the Tardis!" he yells. He's already lost sight of her. "I'll meet you there."
She manages to push her way through to the edge of the market. Sometimes being small has advantages. Yes, down there. I recognise that palm tree.
xxx
She hasn't gone too far when the way is blocked. By a large blue alien that looks a little like a Stegosaurus standing on its hind legs. She turns back the other way, but there's a twin.
"Yesss. Oh well done, boysss." A small lizard-like creature struts round from behind the twin blocking the way she came. "What a pretty little thing. Oh, ssshe'll get usss a tidy amount."
No amount of terror can stop this laugh. This is a helpless laugh, laughing-till-you-can't-breath-laugh. Doubled over with laughter, not exactly the greatest position to be in when you really want to escape a life of slavery.
The lizard-thing hisses in annoyance. "What exactly isss ssso funny, pretty thing?"
It's all she can do to look up, point a shaking finger at him and gasp "You…you look exactly like…like Randall from…from Monsters Inc." before the laughter claims her again.
The lizard-thing clicks his fingers and gestures to the dinosaur-things, who advance menacingly. She knows she's going to be hurt, and possibly killed, and part of her brain is trying to think of a way out, but she's not making much progress because the majority of her brain is gaping in disbelief at the way she's standing there laughing when she's just about to be beaten and sold into slavery. Laughing because a very small part of her brain has noticed that this alien slaver looks so much like the bad guy in an animated children's film.
The laughter abruptly stops as she's yanked down a side alley. Partly through surprise and partly because she suddenly has a headache. There's shouting behind her; they're running too fast for her to look up. All she can see is a hand- a long, slim hand with the nails cut short- and quite a lot of loose dark robe. She wonders who they've recently lost. Then she wonders who it is, and why they're doing this. Then she nearly goes flying as they suddenly stop and double back. "What is it? Who are you?"
The figure says nothing, just points down the entrance to yet another side alley and she is forcibly reminded of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. This entire planet seems to be rife with resemblances to fictional characters. She'd like to think that this is just a particularly strange dream, but knows it's not. The resemblance vanishes as the figure runs off; the hood flying back like it must have done before, revealing long orange hair streaming behind. If this was a dream, she could wake up now, but as it is, she's lost in a maze of alleyways, her key is cold and there might possibly still be slavers after her. At least her headache's disappeared. She considers her options. Am I going to blindly run down an alley that I was directed to by a strange woman who saved me from slavers or am I going to choose another alley to run blindly down? She starts running down the alley before she can change her mind.
xxx
She's still running, following the twisting alley. The part of her mind that found the appearance of the lizard-thing so funny is now trying to panic. Her key is still cold, she's even more lost than before and she's getting tired. But the majority of her brain is determinedly not listening. So she carries on running, because if she stops, she might actually have to think about the situation and listen to that part of her brain, and she's not going to do that more than she has to. She can tell that that part of her brain is going to get her in big trouble in the future. So she runs and runs- until she runs smack into a pair of legs.
"Hey!"
Two arms hoist her up into the air. She squirms and writhes and kicks, keeping her head turned away from her assailant. Some species have the ability to hypnotise through eye contact. If she's hypnotised, the rest of her life won't be her own. She won't even be aware of living.
"Let go of me! I won't be a slave, I won't! I'll run away and find my dad. If you take me, he'll come looking for me and…."
"Whoa, back up! I'm not a slaver." She risks a peek at the hands on her arms. Definitely human. Safe from hypnotism then.
"You would say that though, wouldn't you?"
"I've been a lot of things, sweetheart, but never a slaver of children. If it bothers you so much, I'll put you down and you can go find your dad." She looks up. And receives one of the biggest shocks of her young life.
"I-I know you!"
Captain Jack Harkness grins down at her. "In that case, you have the advantage."
A/N: Okay, so it's still short. I promise the next chapter will be longer. What do you think though? Should Jack stay or should he disappear again?