Author's Note: Well, this "little" project is actually over 70 pages long. But this is the second to last upload! I hope you're still hanging in there with me!
More Notes on Classic Who: This interpretation of Gallifreyan social mores is entirely my own. Vistra is an OC and may not be consistent with TV Gallifreyans, but I think she is, based on dialogue and unspoken assumptions of characters on screen. Anyway...
Enjoy!
7.
The Doctor had come to her with many peculiar accoutrements, Lady Vistra thought, but these current accessories were definitely some of the strangest. She was the Temporal Corrections Officer of Central Gallifrey, for the time being, so it made perfect sense why he would seek her out to deal with a matter of stolen Time Lord DNA. What she couldn't understand was why he had arrived in his funny blue TARDIS with his arm in a sling and with a baby strapped to his chest. She didn't understand, but she aimed to find out.
"You do realize that once we've ironed the details of this matter out, you'll have to fill out the proper forms?" asked Vistra. She thought she'd start the conversation slowly, in the hopes that this most evasive of Time Lords wouldn't startle at her prying questions.
The Doctor looked as thrilled as ever about having to do the real work of time and space regulation. "Yes, Officer, I understand that."
"Given your history, Doctor, we must always wonder."
"I've always done the paperwork," the blonde Time Lord said, annoyed. When Vistra gave him an arch look, he relented. "Most of the time."
"When it doesn't inconvenience you terribly, you deign to comply," Vistra said. "Of course, I don't know what else I should expect from you, Doctor."
"Are you just going to prod at me all day, or are you going to release an agent to resolve this fiasco?"
Vistra turned her eye skyward, looking for patience. Nothing more helpful than a section of the Citadel's clear protective dome greeted her. "You said this pirate was working around Thion space?"
"He was a Churan pirate, Officer. They don't stray much farther than the Tia Doma Nebula. There's too much profit to be had from Thion and its sister planets."
"Yes, thank you," Vistra said, testily. She was quite familiar with the habits of Churan pirates. She had been around the universe a time or two, something which The Doctor often forgot. "And I assume that your injury is the reason you have not taken the appropriate measures of arrest?"
The Doctor looked distinctly uncomfortable, which made Vistra a tad more happy. The baby at his chest gurgled. "Well, that is part of the reason, yes."
"Can you even fly a TARDIS with a broken arm, Doctor?"
"It's difficult, but, yes, I seem to have managed." The Doctor coughed.
"You managed it all by yourself, did you?" asked Vistra, tongue-in-cheek. There were many rumors about what and who The Doctor allowed inside his time-and-space-machine. Vistra could only imagine what lifeforms were hidden away inside the small blue box. Whatever they were, The Doctor had undoubtedly broken multiple planetary laws by bringing them to Gallifrey.
"Not really any of your business, is it, Officer Vistra?" The Doctor responded, equally arch. "Rest assured, I arrived without any complications. And there will be no complications having to do with my TARDIS. You have my word."
The tiny creature at The Doctor's chest wobbled its head back and forth and babbled. Vistra was privately amused to think that there was a sizable swatch of drool on The Doctor's fine cream jumper. "One more question, Doctor: where in heaven's name did you acquire an infant?" The Doctor nervously laid a hand on the small person's back, and Vistra caught the trace of a bright, tickling consciousness at the edges of her perception. "And a telepathic infant, at that," Vistra added, intrigued.
"The Pars System," The Doctor said, without further elaboration.
Since he was putting her to immense trouble with his egregious breach of Time Lord protocol regarding the Churan pirate, Vistra couldn't resist a few more digs. "This isn't another indiscretion of yours, is it, Doctor?"
"Excuse me," The Doctor said, coldly, "that is going too far."
Vistra casually sorted through the paperwork on her portable organizer. "It would explain the telepathy, wouldn't it?" She was being horribly rude, but she knew that The Doctor would never mention this conversation to anyone. He was not nearly as free-spirited as he pretended to be. His sensibilities were decidedly Time Lord. "Plus," Vistra smiled, "I've heard you do have such a fondness for less evolved beings."
The baby's head bobbed. Its arms and legs shifted where they hung freely from the strange suspension device strapped to The Doctor's chest. The Doctor himself seemed frozen to the spot with indignation. Vistra congratulated herself on riling him up so effectively. Given his usual manic need for motion, a Time Lord like The Doctor was at his most emotional when he didn't move at all. "How dare you," The Doctor said.
Vistra caught the ice in his tone, and wondered if she had gone a little too far, but she shrugged it off. It was too late to back down. "Well, you're not denying it, are you?"
"There's nothing to deny." The Doctor's blue eyes snapped. Vistra had heard many stories about The Doctor's fiery gaze. She could now safely say that she could contribute to the stories and verify their truth. Oh, how the young Academy students would swoon over this bit of data collection. For some reason, the younger crowd practically worshipped the errant Time Lord.
"It does look so much like you," Vistra said, nodding to the baby.
"Do you think?" The Doctor smiled blandly. "How perfectly ignorant of you to say so."
"Well, it's fortunate to resemble you, otherwise you would never sneak it into a House. I doubt even your own would take it." It had suddenly occurred to Vistra that the only reason a Time Lord would carry an infant through Gallifrey would be to use the infant to further the population of one House or another. Otherwise, The Doctor could have simply left the baby on the TARDIS with whatever lower being was undoubtedly the creature's mother.
The blonde Time Lord didn't lash out with his legendary burning anger. Instead, his face closed off entirely, as though someone had flicked a switch in his mind. He turned away from Vistra and walked to the Observatory door. "Her name is Peace," The Doctor said. "And, now that I've delivered my report, we're leaving. Thank you, Officer Vistra, for the inestimable pleasure of your company. You were as polite and accommodating as always." The clear glass panels of the door parted.
"You're quite welcome, Doctor," Vistra said. "I will make sure the pirate is apprehended. We can't have yet more of your DNA floating about the universe, after all."
The innuendo was not lost on her departing guest. He paused, turned, and said, "What you've implied is completely untrue, as I have stated numerous times to any half-witted fool on this planet who will listen. But, if it was true, Officer Vistra, whichever less evolved being that consented to assist in procreation with me-in whatever method possible-would be infinitely preferable to doing any sort of genetic tango with you." The Doctor tipped his hat and stalked off.
Vistra had the impression that she had just been gravely insulted.
Peace had seemed to recover completely from the trauma of the pirate incident. She remained on the TARDIS for another week while The Doctor and his companions put their combined efforts into the search for the perfect adoptive planet for her. During that time, she made leaps in her development: when The Doctor placed her on a blanket in the middle of the console room, she would roll over onto her back and squeal until he righted her again; she started eating a very pasty form of cereal Adric had devised in the lab; and she became even more vocal with her babble and screams. Her guardians were dumbstruck and absurdly proud.
"I mean, it is a bit ridiculous how we're so thrilled about this," Adric commented, as they all watched Peace clumsily roll over. "We're not even her biological parents."
"You'd be her brother, not her dad, anyway," Tegan said, laughing.
Adric blushed. "I'll have you know, on this one planet The Doctor and I visited—"
"Oh, let's not talk about that planet, Adric," The Doctor said, hastily.
"It is a bit strange," Nyssa mused. "I feel so invested in Peace's accomplishments."
"There's nothing strange about it," Tegan said, in the high-pitched, sprightly voice she often used for Peace. "We've been her surrogate family for weeks now—come on, Peace! Roll over! Oh, what a clever doll!—so we're bound to be glad when she starts growing up."
Peace waved her limbs in the air and crowed. The Doctor sat back and raised an eyebrow. "You're going to have to learn to roll yourself back over, too, Peace."
The baby fixed her wide blue eyes on her Time Lord surrogate. After a moment of motionless staring, she broke into an infantile smile and squealed loudly. She strained toward where the The Doctor sat on the floor next to her blanket, but her supine position stopped her from wiggling to him. A crease appeared between the baby's eyebrows. Her tongue poked between her lips.
"Oh, dear," Nyssa said, "she doesn't look pleased with us."
"She'll be fine," The Doctor said, calmly.
Peace pulled her arms out in front of her and moved them up and down. When that maneuver didn't work, she rocked from side to side, but she didn't use enough force. She protested her immobility loudly for a second, and then she went back to rocking. Finally, she tipped over onto one side and nearly smothered herself in the blanket before she lifted her head. Blinking in bewilderment, the baby turned her eyes back to her original target: the Time Lord at the other side of the blanket. With a shriek, Peace inch-wormed along the floor until she flopped down right in front of The Doctor.
"Hooray, Peace!" cried Tegan, in her loud, Earth manner.
"That was amazing!" Adric said. "She has great problem-solving skills!"
"Babies are so determined, aren't they?" Nyssa said, beaming. "Or, at least, Peace is!"
Peace was still babbling away, so The Doctor picked her up and briefly rested her forehead against his own, congratulating her on her accomplishment telepathically rather than verbally. He went to put her down on the blanket, but she curled up her legs and swatted wildly at his face. Her uncoordinated movement still sent him the clear telepathic message: Peace did not want to be put down. She wanted The Doctor to hold her for a little bit longer.
"Oh, all right," The Doctor sighed. His arm had only needed two days in the sling before it had healed. He could now cradle Peace with both arms. "But after this, you're going back on the blanket," the Time Lord told his tiny charge. "I have to adjust the settings on the temporal stabilizer, and that's simply not a one-handed job."
Peace buried her face in his neck and snuffled heartily. Through the skin-to-skin contact, The Doctor could feel the image of himself in Peace's mind for the first time. The baby couldn't yet form complete sentences, but the impressions of words and ideas were enough to paint a picture: warm, safe, never far away. There was a sensation rather like being wrapped in a soft, warm blanket, and The Doctor could hear his own voice distorted through Peace's ears. The sound of his voice brought more impressions that were very similar to the first three. But the gentle wash of affection and dependence woven throughout all the ideas and feelings is what touched The Doctor's mind most profoundly. Peace rolled her head and the contact was broken. The Doctor stared down at her in shock.
"Is there something the matter, Doctor?" asked Nyssa, curiously.
"Her muscle coordination isn't the only thing that's developing," The Doctor responded, faintly. Peace hiccupped at him.
For once, Tegan seemed oblivious to the emotional undercurrents of the situation. "Here, I'll take her," the human woman said, and plucked Peace from his arms. "You need to work on the TARDIS."
"Right," The Doctor said, nodding shallowly, "right, right, right…"
He stood and went to the console, and his three older companions gave one another puzzled looks. "We totally missed something," Adric muttered, under his breath, "didn't we?"