Second to last chapter, guys! Oh god, I'm getting emotional. *happyish crying*

Chapter 28- Taking Care

The hospital kept Naomi for two days, during which she and the Doctor took to each other like a magnet to a refrigerator. He constantly entertained us both with games and gadgets he found in the TARDIS, which he actually brought into the hospital room with her. Naomi kept struggling for a glimpse of the inside after I'd told her its incredible magic; she was so determined, the Doctor and I almost had to call a nurse for restraints several times. We were adamant about her staying in bed and resting—and I also wanted her to actually walk inside and get hit by the discovery all at once. Dive straight into it, that's what I say.

The Doctor and I also told Naomi the stories of our travels together as a way to fight the boredom. I'd been right about her loving Delta Delta Noda Four—she made us swear to take her someday. When we told her about all the technology, though, something else came to mind.

"Algo," I muttered. The Doctor, playing War with Naomi using a deck of cards he'd stolen from a Vegas casino in 1980, heard me and looked at me like he'd been expecting me to ask, but put on a surprised front anyway.

"What was that, Erica?" he asked as Naomi won another round, gathering up all her new cards.

"Doctor, we never found out what happened to Algo," I said. Oh, God, how could we be so terrible? We'd completely neglected looking for him, even though Naomi had been safely in the hospital for a day. We'd found the Aligrena masquerading as Algo in his own shop, and who knew what the robot psycho had done to him?

"Algo? Oh, he's fine," the Doctor said casually, as if talking about a friend who'd taken a long time at the grocery store. "I went back and checked on him. Turns out the Aligrena had made the call to us in the first place. Algo was safe in bed at home the whole time."

I sighed heavily with relief. "Thank God," I said, deflating into my chair. I'd been so preoccupied with Naomi, I'd completely forgotten about Algo. Thankfully, the Doctor always seemed to know what to do.

"Who's Algo?" Naomi asked.

"An alien we met on Delta Delta," I explained. "We thought something bad had happened to him, but he's fine." I glanced at the Doctor, who smiled reassuringly.

"Now then," he said, reshuffling his cards. "I want a rematch."

The hospital released Naomi after two days, which she could barely wait for: as soon as the nurse brought her release papers, Naomi jumped straight out of bed and into the TARDIS, still wearing her hospital gown.

"You stay here," I ordered the Doctor. "Get her all signed out. I need to get her some clothes."

"Righty-o," the Doctor said, taking the nurses clipboard and frowning. "Remind me never to say that again," he said, scrunching his nose up in disgust.

I smiled. "You got it," I replied, grabbing a blanket off the hospital bed and ducking into the TARDIS.

"Oh, my God!" Naomi exclaimed, staring at the impossible box. She'd stopped halfway to the stairs, turning around and around to try and process the TARDIS. "It's so big!"

I hurried towards her and draped the blanket over her shoulders. "I know, isn't it?" I said excitedly. "Oh, you should see the wardrobe room."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Of course you go for all the clothes," she said.

"When you see it, you won't blame me," I said. "But come on, let's get you cleaned up. You can use my shower."

"But I wanna see the rest of the…the…" Naomi looked up at me, frowning. "What did you call the ship?"

"She's called the TARDIS," I supplied, steering Naomi up the stairs, past the console, and towards the corridor that led to the rest of the ship, "which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. And trust me when I say that you don't want to tick her off."

"Tick who off?"

"The TARDIS, of course! She's alive, and has quite a large personality."

A loud, dramatic clang echoed through the corridor when we reached it, the lights brightening for a moment. "Which I mean in all the best ways," I laughed.

I brought Naomi to the wardrobe, using the shortcut that ran through my bathroom. When we reached it, she promptly forgave me and bolted down the line of doors, her blanket billowing out behind her like a cloak. She stopped at every door and read every plaque, shouting out the locations she deemed interesting.

"This is absolutely insane!" she exclaimed as I jogged to catch up to her. "I don't even know where most of these places are!"

I laughed. Oh, God, I'd missed her. "Come on," I said, gently pulling her away from the door and back the way we came. "All the clothes from our time are right next to the door. Let's get something picked out for you, and then you can take a shower."

After fifteen minutes of Naomi's running around in amazement at the wardrobe's size, we found her a nice pair of sweatpants and large, warm hoodie and then I ushered her into the shower, where I showed her how to operate the jets and temperature I'd only just learned how to control. I left her in the bathroom, promising that the TARDIS would look after her. Smiling, I shut the door and made my way back to the hospital: I probably still had some forms to fill out for her.

"Sorry about that," I said, stepping out of the TARDIS. The Doctor sat alone in the hospital room, dutifully reading every line of the release order on the clipboard. "Had to get her all set up with the shower."

"Don't worry about it," the Doctor waved off, patting the seat next to him on the bench. I loped over and sat by him and he handed me the release order and a pen. "Everything looks okay, you just have to sign on the dotted line."

I clicked the pen and began signing the order. "I'd make a joke about signing my life away, but you've probably heard them all," I said.

The Doctor peered at my messy signature. "You know, you really ought to improve your penmanship," he said, taking the clipboard back and frowning at my handwriting. He shrugged and set the clipboard on his other side, leaning forward and folding his hands between his knees.

"Well, then, Erica," he began, peering up at me with an almost…nostalgic smile. "Where to next?"

I sighed. "Well, I think Naomi and I are going to go home," I said. "And you better stay with us for a few days. We all need a little time to relax, and you can't relax if you're already hopping across the universe and trying to stop a planet from exploding."

He nodded, chuckling. "I'm a terrible houseguest," he warned. "I can hardly sit still."

"Well, I'm a terrible host," I replied, threading my arm through his. "I think we can balance each other out. Naomi will be absolutely fed up with us, but she'll be sleeping most of the time."

"Then let's not wake her up," he joked.

Once we'd gotten the paperwork out of the way, the Doctor brought us back to our Chicago apartment; and boy, I never thought I'd be so happy to see it again. It might be cramped and in need of constant cleaning and repair, but what can I say? It's Chicago. It's our home.

Through some miracle, the Doctor managed to get us back home just an hour after we left: it was still that sunny Tuesday in June when the Aligrena had taken Naomi. I suspect that the Doctor actually had nothing to do with it—I think the accuracy was all TARDIS. She saw Naomi and knew what we needed, and so gave it to us without trouble.

I got Naomi and the Doctor situated at the dinner table with some Chinese leftovers from last night's dinner (or was it really last night's dinner?) and quickly ran down the stairs to Just Desserts—I had employees to explain to.

I sprinted through the kitchen and burst into the dining area, where only three people stood: James, Maya, and a burly, bald man in a police uniform. All the chairs sat upside-down on the tables, standard procedure for closing time. James and Maya spoke to the police officer, both worried sick. All three looked up when I entered the dining room, James nearly collapsing with relief.

"Erica!" Maya exclaimed, shocked. James rushed to me and Maya closely followed, the former running a hand down his face with relief from panic. The cop followed at a slower, suspicious pace.

"Erica, where've you been?" James fretted. "You disappeared after the alarm went off, and we got worried, and then the firemen showed up—"

"And we panicked," Maya interrupted. "People started asking questions, and then the cops showed up, and we were just filing a missing persons report!"

I flung my arms around James's and Maya's necks, hugging them close. "Oh, it's good to be back," I said while their arms wrapped uncertainly around me.

"But you've only been gone for an hour," James said, laughing nervously at the end. I pulled back, gazing happily at my employees. They stared back, relieved and confused. "Where could you have gone in the space of an hour?"

I laughed. "You would not believe me if I told you."

As soon as I got the whole false-fire-alarm business sorted out with the cop (I fed him a story about thinking I smelled smoke and pulling the alarm prematurely) I closed the bakery and told James and Maya to take the next few days off, promising to explain everything later. Satisfied, I returned to my apartment, bounding eagerly up the stairs.

"Sorry that took so long," I said, loping inside. "James and Maya—" I froze in the doorway, taking in the sight before me. Noodles covered the dinner table and hung off the Doctor's face. Soy sauce stained Naomi's shirt. When I entered, both turned to me like deer in headlights, eyes wide.

I folded my arms imperially. "Did you two have a food fight?"

They glanced at each other, but neither answered, which proved to be answer enough. I slowly walked forward and scooped a handful of noodles off the table, weighing them in my palm. I glanced between the two, just barely holding my charade together.

I cracked a smile. "Well, don't start without me," I said, flinging the noodles into Naomi's face.

Naomi gasped as the food hit her, frantically pawing at her face. The Doctor's jaw dropped, allowing the noodles in his mouth to tumble to the table. But I wasn't finished with him.

"And you," I said, picking up the half-full container of soy sauce and throwing the contents in his face. He started gagging, wiping the sauce out of his eyes.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed, dragging his sleeve across his tongue. "Give a man some warning!"

"And give away my plan?" I retorted. "I don't think so!"

Once we got the dining room cleaned up, Naomi and the Doctor went to shower (Naomi in the apartment, the Doctor in the TARDIS) and I stayed behind to put Naomi's room back together after the thrashing it had taken from the Aligrena. The messy sight of it didn't terrify me so much anymore, now that I had its occupant back. It reminded just how far I would go for my sister: all the way across the universe.

Now clean, we reconvened in the living room, where we got into an argument over what to do next. I had calls to make to Naomi's school, excusing her absence for today and the rest of the week. The Doctor wanted to have some of the banana bread he'd so adored the day I met him (the very same day, technically). But Naomi wanted to hear about space and time and what it held, so that's what we did: while I went to make the calls, the Doctor told Naomi the most amazing things he'd seen in the universe, things I wanted to see badly for myself. When I finished arranging Naomi's days off, I rejoined them and listened to the Doctor describe the wonders of the world I haven't yet seen. Eventually, Naomi went to bed early, exhausted by her ordeal, so the Doctor and I hunkered down to watch a movie. We picked an old classic: Jaws.

"Our dad once said he and our mom went on the Jaws ride at Universal Studios," I said, munching on popcorn. I'd swiveled sideways on my couch and flung my legs over the Doctor's lap, my back against the armrest. He didn't seem to mind. He held out his hand for popcorn and I passed him the bowl, continuing, "He said our mom got so scared she almost wet her pants, but I'm not certain that's true."

"I'm not sure I've ever been to Universal Studios," the Doctor said through a mouthful of popcorn. "Sounds like fun."

"Sounds boring after learning everything else the universe holds," I replied. "God, Naomi was absolutely thrilled."

The Doctor nodded. "I'd hoped she was entertained," he said. "I even went so far as to embellish a bit."

I rolled my eyes. "Only you would think the universe needed embellishment."

"You know, it's not all glitz and glamour," he retorted defensively. "There are some planets that are completely barren! Absolutely no life whatsoever! And medieval Earth times—the movies really exaggerate in that area."

We joked back and forth about Hollywood distortion and other things, hardly paying attention to the movie. This was right where I was supposed to be right now: relaxing with my best friend, my sister taken care of. I felt completely worry-free for the first time in ages, and it felt amazing.

When the Doctor starting ranting on the utopian expectations of the 60's, I dropped off to sleep, perfectly content.