I woke up in a dark room. I wondered vaguely where I was and why I was here. Then I remembered the grass of fire and all its beauty. I wondered if that's why I'd passed out, but then I remembered being hit. Unconsciousness is a curious thing. You think you have the whole story then you realize that, no, a whole other thing happened to you and you didn't remember it because your stupid head is being an idiot. I was pondering the further qualities of unconsciousness when a person walked in. At first, I thought it was the Doctor but then I realized he was way too short. The Doctor was like six feet tall or something and this guy was almost laughably short. I tried to stand up but then I realized I was tied to the chair. He must be my captor, I thought.
"What is your name?" he asked in a high- pitch squeaky voice that made me laugh.
"Who are you to care?" I replied.
"I am Sir Arthur Conrad Ewald Herbert Anderson the Fourth of the High Court of Barcelona, and you will obey me!" he squeaked, just making me laugh some more.
"Is that so? Well, Arthur, and I don't think I'm going to!" I said. That I learned a very, very important lesson from that mistake. Short people are scary. Terrifying, even. Because right then and there, Sir Arthur Conrad Ewald Herbert Anderson the Fourth (a name I will never forget, even to this day) pulled out a (mini) sword and held it to my throat.
"How about that name?" he said through gritted teeth. His knife dug into my throat ever so slightly and I could feel a trickle of blood fall down onto my shorts. I was about ready to pee myself I was so scared and I wasn't sure I could even talk. But I had to try or die.
"M-my n-name is Bea- bea- beatris M- marlow. Sir," I replied. Dangit. I thought I'd gotten rid of that stutter in third grade speech class. The terrible dwarf still didn't take his knife from his throat.
"Good. Now, where is the Doctor?" he asked.
"I d-don't k-kn-kn-know. I r- remember the g- g-rass and then b-b-b-b- being h-here," I replied, as honestly as I could. He took his knife off of my neck and I sighed with relief.
"If you don't give me the truth the first thing to go will be your left leg. Then, if you still fail to answer truthfully, it will be your right. Then come the arms, and, if you're still alive at that point, your head," he said with a smallish smile as if he would enjoy butchering me. Then I saw it. Right behind Sir Arthur, the TARDIS started… materializing and I wondered where the beautiful wheezing sound of everything everywhere everywhen was. Then the Doctor opened the door and put one finger over his lips as if to say, "shush." I did as he gestured and then stopped squirming nervously.
I nearly died of laughter as the Doctor tapped Sir Arthur on the shoulder and he turned around. The look of shock was priceless.
"Looking for me?" the Doctor asked. The dwarf was flustered.
"U- um, yes, actually," he said, then stood up as tall as his four feet maybe nine inches could. He barely came up to the Doctor's chest, "You are to come with me. Now, or the little lady gets it."
"But why would I go with you when I came here for Miss Beatris? And how are you going to get her when she's untied and six inches taller than you?" the Doctor said, sonicing in my direction. The ropes fell away and I instantly got up, walked around the dwarf, and stood next to the Doctor. Arthur brandished his mini sword at me and the Doctor. Before the dwarf could do any real damage, the Doctor put his hand on the dwarf's forehead so that he couldn't get any closer than the Doctor's arm length. I laughed, and it opened the cut on my neck up.
"Um, Doctor? I think I need to get this fixed up," I said nervously. I was a bit scared, seeing as neck and throat wounds can kill. The Doctor looked up, saw my wound, and instantly freaked. He dropped the dwarf, who then promptly fell, ran into the TARDIS, which then promptly closed it doors when the Doctor snapped his fingers, and started digging through a chest, which I promptly realized I had never noticed before, until he found a very futuristic first aid kit with what looked to be a green crescent on it. He opened it.
"Now, this may sting a little," he said and pulled out what looked to be a little pillow of cotton. God, a pillow sounded really great right now. I was tired. I just wanted to fall asleep.
"No, no, you can't fall asleep. You've lost too much blood and you might not wake up," the Doctor said worriedly. I saw what looked like orangish tinted bubbles in my vision. I stuck my hand out to touch them but hit the Doctor's face instead. He dropped the cotton.
"Sorry, bubbles" I mumbled. The Doctor muttered something about it didn't matter in reply.
"I have to get the dwarf's sword… dagger… thing. I think it's poisoned," the Doctor said and dashed out of the TARDIS.
"Bye, bye," I said then waved weakly. I got up out of the van seat, oblivious to my terrible condition and wandered down the hall, tracking blood the whole way, to the wardrobe. I tried on all manners of hats, old and new, past, present, and future, pretty and ugly and in between. Then I followed more orange bubbles to a room that looked like a library. There were lots of books there. I grabbed one with an ornate spine and gold filigree and it was huge. I wasn't sure what it was until I saw the title page: A Complete History Of The Time War. I opened it to find the Doctor mentioned. I started reading. The things it said were terrible, and not just about him. It told about these things called Daleks. They were horrible creations of themselves, filled with hatred but nothing else. I felt sorry for them, even, because it wasn't their fault. In my poisoned stupor, I saw myself in them. They were tormented so they made themselves hard. Untouchable. I saw my own violence in them. Hated so will hate. Hurt so will hurt. And then the Doctor walked in and sat on the armchair next to mine with a syringe.
"Beatris, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. You've been poisoned. It might be fatal. I think I've found the cure, but I can never be sure. If the cure doesn't work within the hour, you will die. But I will at least be able to give you back sanity. No more orange bubbles, Dex. So allons-y," he said, and took my arm. I nodded and he inserted the needle. I felt the cool violet liquid flow into my bloodstream. I closed my eyes fore a moment.
"I might die?" I asked.
"You might die. I'm sorry, Beatris, I'm so-" I cut him off.
"No. No. Don't. Be. Sorry. I. Will Be. Fine. Do. You. Understand?" I asked, enunciating each word sharply and clearly. I was scared, so so very scared I felt like I did until sixth grade, scared to look around the corner for fear of who might be there to hurt. Me. I wondered if this was how the Daleks felt before being converted. Terrified of what is to come.
"Okay, I won't be. There's my Dex," he said.
"Tell me about who you are. You're the last, aren't you?" I asked.
"Yeah. Yes, I am. The last. The only Time Lord left," he replied.
"Because of the Daleks," I said, "And yourself. But you had to. And I understand them."
"How do you mean, 'understand them?' They have no feelings," he said.
"They did. They used to be like I used to be. Normal, but fighting a battle. Then they got like I am now. They were hate so they hated back. They were hurt so they will hurt. They didn't want to be like that, but it was the only way. The only way to survive, day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment without breaking down, and now they can't help it. It's become a way of life," I explained.
"You think I don't know that? You think I don't know that to survive you need to become empty? Well I can't. I can't stop caring. And you haven't either. I know you didn't. You do care," he said, head in his hands,"I know you do. I've seen it, in your eyes. When you saw that little boy who thought I was a magician. When I came to save you. When you talk about Shoelace." He had a point.
"Okay. So… why do you travel alone?" I asked.
"I don't, usually. I've traveled with a lot of people, but in they end they all leave me. Sometimes it's necessary, sometimes it just happens. I don't know. I had just started thinking that maybe it was better to travel alone when you came along. And if you are as sad and hopeless as you say you are, then why did you trust me so easily?" he asked.
"I trusted you because you seemed… good. Like, how there's good and evil, but mot just that, most people are the gray in between. But you seemed… seem genuinely good. That's why I trusted you. Every time, though, something happens. Like I have no clue what happened before Da Vinci. I know something happened but I don't know what, and I know that you're keeping it from me. But why? And I know you were looking for your timey wimey detector but then you just up and left. Why?" I said angrily. I didn't want my last hour to be like this.
"I'm keeping it from you because if I don't, your mind will burn and you will die. I up and left for the same reason I always do- no reason whatsoever. Now, just relax. You'll be fine, okay? Nothing will happen to you, alright. I won't let anything happen, nothing, you hear?" he said.
"Fine. But if this is my last hour to live, can we make it count?" I said hopefully.
"Anything you want, Dex. All of time and space, yours to command for as long as you live," the Doctor said, saluting. I tried to stand up and fell back into the armchair. The Doctor grabbed my hands and helped me up. I walked to the control room half- supporting, half- supported. When I sat back down in the van seat, the Doctor dashed off.
"Be right back, Dex!" he said as he ran down the hall. I sat there and closed my eyes for abut ten minutes. Then the Doctor came back in. He was wearing a tuxedo and bowtie. He had brought along a cane, which he handed to me. I used it to push myself up. I could walk okay now, with the cane to support me.
"Can I go back to the grass? The grass of fire? That was the most beautiful thing. Ever," I asked.
"Yes, but in an abandoned field this time. We wouldn't want you to get any more fatal wounds," the Doctor said. I don't know what you can say when you're dying. Like, hey, I'm dying. Let's go have fun! But I might not die… will not, I had to remind myself. I thought about all the things I hadn't done yet. I'll never get married, or have kids, I thought. Never write a novel, like I planned. Never kiss a boy. Never graduate high school. I listened to the beautiful sound, the sound I had come to recognize as the TARDIS. My favorite sound, like people have favorite colors. Then it stopped. The Doctor linked his arm through mine and held the door, like a gentleman. I saw the grass again. It was just as fiery and beautiful as before. Its color was like a darker, more intense version of my hair color. The Doctor carried out a picnic blanket and basket.
"You prepared a picnic in that short of time? Jeez," I said.
"Of course not! I keep a fully prepared picnic in the kitchen at all times. Just in case," he said. He started setting up the picnic basket and I stood up shakily with the help of the cane. My feet did not want to cooperate, but I stubbornly (as per usual) forced them to. The Doctor set down the picnic basket and I thankfully sat down again.
"So what did you pack?" I asked.
"Absolutely no idea," he replied, "Let's find out." He opened the picnic basket to reveal that it, like the TARDIS, was bigger on the inside, and it was filled with weird and awesome looking food. I could get used to being fatally wounded, except for the whole "fatally wounded" thing. If I wasn't slated to kick the bucket in 45 minutes, I would be pretty happy right now. The Doctor pulled out a thermos.
"This is Grlc. It's like a sort of carbonated fruit juice… kind of," he said, and then handed it to me and took out a strange foodstuff that looked rather like a pig bladder, "And this is kind of like a dumpling. They're really good." He handed those to me and took out some even stranger looking food. The Grlc was good, if by fruit, he meant meat, and the pig bladder dumpling thing was awesome. Whatever kind of meat it was made of was delicious.
"So what is this made of?" I asked.
"A hybrid of beef, pork, and chicken. In the future, they've figured out how to do that. Here, have some cake," he said, and got out a huge cake. It was beautifully done, the icing a beautiful galaxy design. The letters simply said Thanks.
"That's beautiful! Who did it?" I asked.
"Queen Elizabeth the Seventieth. She was an… interesting woman. Still mad at me for breaking off the engagement with Elizabeth the First. Tried to convince me that since I had never married the first one, I had to marry her instead. Anyways, it's got fifteen kinds of chocolate," he said, cutting me a huge slice. I laughed.
"You were engaged to Queen Elizabeth?" I asked.
"Yup! She was a bad girl," he replied and ruffled his fingers through his hair nervously.
"Um, I thought she was the Virgin Queen."
"Yeah, no. Definitely no. Um, yeah. Anyways, I was just passing through, and the psychic paper decided to tell several guards that I was her betrothed. And so they sent me to her and that redheaded fiend liked me a bit more than she should have."
"I'm a redhead, too, you know, so don't insult one of the coolest redheads. We put the laughter in manslaughter, you know."
"Yeah, I do. So you're a redhead? I was wondering what color your hair was under that lime green dye." I took a bite out of my cake.
"Yup, red. So, if you're an alien… why do you look human?"
"Well, humans initially came from my planet. Then some of you went to Earth. And we Time Lords evolved into what we are now. The time energy that teemed on Gallifrey gave us two hearts and the ability to regenerate, but at a price. We can feel the universe."
"How can you feel the universe?"
"I can see what is and what isn't, what should and shouldn't and must and must never be, what cannot be and what is allowed. I can feel the turn of every planet I stand on beneath my feet; I can feel how old it is and how much longer it's got left to live. I can tell what is fixed and what is in flux. I can see what you are. And you are very powerful. Very, very powerful. I don't know how, or why, but you are important to the universe, more than just another of billions of shining stars. You're going to do something big, Beatris Marlow. Something big indeed."
"In 30 minutes? What can I do in thirty minutes?"
"Everything." And with that, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the TARDIS, grabbing the picnic basket but leaving the blanket, and I caught one last glimpse of the fire that engulfed the TARDIS as the door shut. I practically collapsed onto the van seat and coughed weakly a few times. The Doctor flicked some buttons and we were off, off again, off for anything and everything and all of time and space.