"Much better," Eva said as she walked into the Console Room, her clothes fresh and fitting the time she was in and her hair still wet from the shower she took.
She was pleasantly surprised to see she had a room of her own in the TARDIS. Of course, she knew the Doctor and Susan had met her before – and that they got along, if Susan's behaviour was anything to judge by – but to know she was in the TARDIS before for long enough to decorate her room the way she liked it...
Let's just say she wasn't certain she would be so trusted so early along the way.
"How's the book?" she asked Susan.
"Terribly inaccurate," Susan replied. "One more proof that one shouldn't be allowed to write a history book unless they saw how things happened with their own eyes."
"That hardly seems fair," Eva smiled. "Not everyone can travel in time whenever they wish, you know."
"But there's a whole perspective just being ignored!" Susan protested. "They don't even try to cover it up!"
"There's a human saying," Eva started, "History is written by the winners. Of course a whole perspective's being ignored – the winners will only show you their side of the story."
"Well, that's just ridiculous!"
"Yup," Eva said, popping the word out. "Remind me to tell you about human history writing sometime," she added as an afterthought. "And archaeology. I think you'll find it interesting."
"How do you know so much about it?" Susan asked, putting her book down.
"I used to study History," Eva said. "Almost finished my first semester."
"Why did you stop?" Susan questioned.
"I think it's a lot more fun to live History than learn it from a textbook, don't you?" Eva replied with a small smirk. "Besides, it's pretty hard to go to classes or find the time to revise when you keep jumping around."
"Was it worth it?" Susan asked, and Eva paused.
It's been a while since she asked herself this question – was everything she was going through and everything she lost worth the good parts of travelling with the Doctor? Last time she thought about it was back when she just started, back when she first met the Master. Her answer then was immediate.
No, it wasn't worth it. She missed her friends, she missed her parents, she missed fighting with her sister and even the small conversations she had with her brother, however short they were. She wasn't going to see them again, and knowing she didn't get the chance to say goodbye hurt more than she thought anything could ever hurt.
But now... perhaps it was coming to terms with the situation, or maybe the ache just dulled as she learned to deal with it, but she didn't have any hesitation about her answer when she spoke.
"Yes," she told Susan, feeling warmth in her heart as she thought of the Doctor and everything they had done together. "It was worth it."
Susan smiled back, reaching out and grabbing Eva's hand before both of them simultaneously turned to look at the door.
"Did you...?" Eva started carefully.
"I did," Susan replied. "You, too?"
"Uh-huh," Eva said, taking a step towards the door. "There's someone out there."
"Could it be Grandfather?"
"Maybe," Eva muttered, knowing full well it wasn't. "Well, if it is him, we'll just have to wait for him to enter, don't you think?"
"We – I – yes, of course," Susan finally said. "I'll just... go back to reading, then."
She turned back to her book, though there was a troubled look in her eyes. Eva kept looking at the door, hiding a small smile as it opened slightly.
This is where the real fun begins, she thought to herself, absently wondering when did the arrival of an alien a couple of centuries old – one who was about to kidnap two unsuspecting humans, mind you – was what she started defining as fun.
"There you are, Grandfather!" Susan called out, looking up from her book once more and the door shut almost immediately. Susan's brows furrowed in confusion. "What was that about?" she asked.
"I suppose we'll find out very soon," Eva replied.
Susan frowned, looking her friend up and down. "Why do I get the feeling you know more than you let show?" she asked worriedly.
"You'll get used to it," Eva replied instead of answering, turning to look at the door once more.
Susan followed suit, looking at the door with anticipation. A minute passed, turning into two and three until Susan put her book on the console and headed to the part where the door controller was. She flipped the switch and took a hesitant step in the door's direction.
"What are you doing out there?" she called out.
"She is in there!" a familiar male voice called out.
"Close the door!" a second voice called but Susan was frozen in place, fear and confusion taking over.
"Barbara!" the first voice called out and before Susan or Eva could make a single move, a woman ran into the TARDIS.
Barbara looked around in shock, taking in the change in the TARDIS' apparent size. Susan stared back at her, unable to move an inch as Ian and the Doctor followed inside.
"Close the doors, Susan," the Doctor said, but Susan was still frozen in place. As Eva made a move to close the door herself, the Doctor stepped forwards. "Not you, Eva. Forgive me, but I still don't completely trust you after the last time you tried to pilot."
"I may not know how to pilot, but I know how to close the door, Doctor," Eva retorted, smirking at the amused twinkle in the Doctor's eyes as she flipped a switch and the door closed.
The Doctor nodded in approval before turning to Susan. "I believe these people are known to you," he said, nodding at Ian and Barbara.
"They're two of my schoolteachers!" Susan said, a frightened expression on her face. "What are you doing here?"
"Where are we?" Barbara asked, looking around and still not quite aware of what was going on around her.
"They must have followed you," the Doctor replied in her stead. "That ridiculous school – I knew something like this would happen if we stayed in one place too long."
"Doctor," Eva warned. "It's not her fault."
"Then whose fault is it?" the Doctor questioned. "Theirs?"
"Why should they follow me?" Susan muttered, half to herself.
"Is this really where you live, Susan?" Barbara asked, seeming to remember the presence of her student in the room.
"Yes," Susan said quietly, as the Doctor immediately lashed out.
"And what's wrong with it?" he asked, daring the teacher to note anything in response.
"Doctor," Eva sighed. "Stop it."
"Or what?"
"But it was just a telephone box..." Ian muttered.
"Perhaps," the Doctor replied mysteriously, though with less bite to his tone than he most likely would have had if not for Eva's glare.
"And this is your grandfather?" Barbara asked.
"Yes," Susan said.
"And Eva..."
"Just a family friend, I'm afraid," Eva replied.
"Well," Barbara started, turning to look at the Doctor angrily. "Why didn't you tell us that?"
"I don't discuss my private life with strangers," the Doctor bit out.
"But it was a police telephone box," Ian muttered, still staring at the TARDIS interior. "I walked all round it! Barbara, you saw me!"
"You don't deserve any explanations," the Doctor said, slowly heading away from Susan and towards Eva. "You pushed your way in here, uninvited and unwelcome. Not you, my dear," he added, looking at Eva. "Though when and how you arrived is still a mystery to me..."
"I think we ought to leave..." Barbara muttered.
"No, just a minute," Ian replied, heading towards the Doctor and Eva.
"How long have you been here?" the Doctor asked Eva.
"I arrived earlier this afternoon and picked Susan up from school," Eva replied, doing her best to ignore Ian's staring.
"I know this is absurd," the Science teacher said.
"And how did you know she would be at the school?" the Doctor questioned. "Or which school she will be in, for that matter?"
"But I feel... I walked all around it!"
"Oh, you wouldn't understand at all," the Doctor said, not bothering to look at Ian as he walked back to the console.
"But I want to understand!" Ian called out.
"Yes, yes, yes," the Doctor muttered, taking off his cloak and scarf. "Perhaps a future version? Or maybe she met a future version? Oh, by the way Susan, I've managed to find a replacement for that faulty filament. Bit of an amateur job, but I, I think it'll serve."
He took something out of his pocket and inserted it into the console, doing... something that Eva didn't quite understand.
"It's an illusion," Ian said. "It must be..."
"What is he talking about now?" the Doctor asked.
"What are you doing here?" Susan questioned once more.
"You don't understand, so you find excuses," the Doctor said before turning back to look at Ian. "Illusions, indeed? You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms?"
"No," Ian said as if it were the most obvious things – which, if Eva was completely honest with herself, it probably was considering how the Doctor explained it.
"But you've discovered television, haven't you?" the Doctor questioned.
"Yes..." Ian said quietly, starting to understand what the Doctor was saying.
"Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?"
"Well..." Ian started, "Yes, but I still don't know…"
"It's not quite clear, is it?" the Doctor asked. "I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand," he added, laughing. "And I knew you wouldn't! Never mind. Now then, which switch was it?" he asked, looking back at the console. "No, no, no... Ah, yes, that is it! The point is not whether you understand," he added, turning to the teachers once more. "What is going to happen to you? They'll tell everybody about the ship now," he told Susan.
"The ship?" Ian asked, confused.
"Yes, yes, ship!" the Doctor said impatiently. "This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know."
"You mean... it moves?" Barbara asked, shocked.
"The TARDIS can go anywhere," Susan said.
"TARDIS?" Barbara questioned. "I don't understand you, Susan."
"Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials," Susan started.
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space," Eva added, reminding the two humans and two aliens in the room of her presence. "I'd thought you both would understand when you saw the different dimensions inside from those outside."
"Let me get this straight," Ian said, looking right at Eva. "A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard... it can move anywhere in time and space?"
"Yes!" Susan called out.
"Quite so," the Doctor added.
"Was it not obvious when the three of us said it the first time?" Eva asked.
"But that's ridiculous!"
Susan sighed, turning to the Doctor once more. "Why won't they believe us?"
"Well, how can we?" Barbara asked.
"Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan," the Doctor said. "Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion too."
"You're treating us like children!" Ian accused.
"Am I?" the Doctor asked. "The children of my civilisation would be insulted."
"You are not helping here!" Eva said, taking two steps closer to the Doctor. "Insulting them wouldn't get us anywhere in this discussion!"
"Your civilisation?" Ian repeated.
"Yes, my civilisation," the Doctor replied, not tearing his eyes away from Eva. "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought about what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day..." he added with a longing sigh. "We shall get back. Yes, one day…one day..."
"It's true," Susan said. "Every word of it is true. You don't know what you've done coming here…" she added, her voice shaking as she turned back to the Doctor. "Grandfather, let them go now, please! Look, if they don't understand, they can't... they can't hurt us at all! I understand these people better than you... their minds reject things they don't understand..."
The Doctor finally looked away from Eva and at Susan. It was almost visible how he considered the options, assessing how much threat the teachers could be. But it was clear, even without Eva's foreknowledge, what his answer would be.
"No."
"He can't keep us here..." Ian muttered.
"Susan, listen to me, can't you see that all this is an illusion?" Barbara asked, noting the younger girl as their biggest helper at the moment. "It's a game that you and your grandfather are playing, if you like. But you can't expect us to believe it."
"It's not a game!" Susan called angrily.
"But, Susan…"
"It's not!" the Time Lady insisted. "Look, I love your school. I love England in the 20th century. The last five months have been the happiest of my life..."
"But you are one of us," Barbara insisted. "You look like us, you sound like us..."
"I was born in another time," Susan informed her tightly. "Another world."
"Now look here Susan, you..." Ian shook his head before taking Barbara's arm in his. "Oh come on, Barbara, let's get out of here."
"No," Susan said, shaking her head with tears in her eyes. "You two can't get out. He won't let you go..." A thought popped into her head and she turned around, hope making itself apparent in her features. "Eva... you could talk to him."
Eva swallowed hard, suddenly well aware that both Ian and Barbara were looking at her, and that even though the Doctor was tinkering with the console, he was also listening.
"Susan..." she started slowly.
"Please, Eva," Susan said. "You – You can talk to him. You'll be able to convince him, I know you will!"
Eva sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. Even if she would be able to convince the Doctor to change his mind – something that she doubted very much – she wouldn't even try it. The kidnapping of Ian and Barbara was an important event in the Doctor's timeline. They were the first companions, the ones who started it all, and without them, who knows if the Doctor will ever take more?
The Doctor's companions were what build up his love for Earth, made him a better person and, more than once, saved his life and countless others. Without the companions, who's to know if the Doctor will still be able to win all of the battles he fought? And then what would happen? If the Doctor didn't win against the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Autons...
And that's without even considering the fact that if the Doctor didn't take companions – more specifically, didn't take Rose and Jack as companions – Eva will never have been born in the first place, which would mean she could never be here to stop the Doctor from kidnapping Ian and Barbara, which would lead to the Doctor taking Rose and Jack as companions after all and Eva will be born...
If she tries to change the Doctor's mind right now, she'll either destroy the universe, create a paradox or do both at the same time.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, opening her eyes and trying to ignore the heartbroken and betrayed look on Susan's face. "But I can't. It's for the best, I promise. You... You'll understand later on."
"Do you see?" the Doctor asked his granddaughter. "Even Eva understands."
Ian looked at Eva for a moment, a disbelieving look on his face, before he turned to the console.
"He closed the doors from over there," he said, pointing at the general area and looking over it. "I saw it... Now which is it? Which is it? Which control operates the door?" he asked the Doctor.
"You still think it's all an illusion..." the Doctor noted amusedly.
"I know free movement in time and space is a scientific dream I don't expect to find solved in a junkyard!" Ian bit out.
"Oh, your arrogance is nearly as great as your ignorance!" the Doctor laughed.
"Will you open the door?" Ian asked. "Open the door!" When the Doctor didn't reply, he turned to Susan. "Susan, will you help us?"
"I mustn't!" Susan muttered, half to herself. "I mustn't!"
"Very well then," Ian sighed. "I'll have to risk it myself."
"I can't stop you..." the Doctor said slyly, his hand moving to the console as Ian tried to press a button and Eva remembered what he was trying to do.
"No!" she called out, pushing Ian aside and taking the electrical shock herself. She let out a gasp of pain, falling to the floor and hitting her head on the console as she went down.
"Eva!" four distressed voices called out at the same time, and she could feel someone help her up.
"Eva?" Barbara's voice asked from somewhere very close to her. "Miss Miller?"
"Ow..." Eva muttered, coming back to her senses as her eyes opened once more now that the pain was gone.
"Eva, are you alright?" Susan asked.
"Now, look what you've done!" Ian told the Doctor angrily. "You could have killed her!"
"The shock was never meant to kill," the Doctor replied. "Only stop you from touching things you know nothing of. Eva," he added, stepping closer to the young woman, "Are you alright?"
"You… are an idiot," Eva breathed out. "Fine, I get it, you're kidnapping them. But kidnapping them means you're going to be stuck with them for god knows how long now. Is that really the way you want to go at it?"
"I never meant for –"
"For me to get hurt," Eva finished the sentence for him. "But I come and go while they stay. They are, at the moment, guests here against their will. I'm not saying they should have followed Susan and I here, but don't expect me to stand besides every stupid thing you do, Doctor."
"Sit down," Barbara told Eva, pulling her back from the Doctor. "You're bleeding."
"I'm fine," Eva said, rubbing the spot on her head where she hit the console and feeling the wound close as she touched it.
"No, you're not, I saw..." Barbara trailed off as she saw nothing but a small amount of dried blood where there was a cut just moments before. "But I saw..."
"It's just a little scratch," Eva said sharply. "I'm fine."
"Grandfather, let them go now!" Susan all but begged. "Please!"
"And by tomorrow we shall be a public spectacle," the Doctor retorted. "A subject for news and idle gossip."
"But they won't say anything…"
"My dear child, of course they will," the Doctor said, putting his hands on Susan's shoulders. "Put yourself in their place. They're bound to make some sort of a complaint to the authorities – or at the very least talk to their friends. If I do let them go, Susan, you realise of course we must go too."
"No," Susan whispered. "Grandfather, we've had all this out b –"
"There's no alternative, child," he insisted. "Even Eva understands it."
"I want to stay!" Susan called out. "Look, they're both kind people. Why won't you trust them? All you've got to do is ask them to promise to keep our secret and…"
"It's out of the question," the Doctor sternly informed her.
"I won't go, Grandfather," Susan said. "I won't leave the 20th century… I'd rather leave the TARDIS and you!"
At that, the Doctor paused. Eva took a step closer to him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder as he took a deep breath before talking once more.
"Now you're being sentimental and childish," he said, but Eva could hear the hurt and fear in his voice.
At the end of the day, Susan was all that he had, and he wouldn't let anything take her away from him… not even herself.
"Susan, maybe you need to think it more thoroughly," Eva stated carefully.
"No," the girl replied. "I mean it."
"Very well," the Doctor said curtly, coming to a decision. "Then you must go with them. I'll open the door."
"Doctor?" Eva asked quietly.
"Hold on to something," he replied, starting to... starting to fly the TARDIS away.
"Are you coming, Susan?" Barbara asked, unaware of what was happening behind her.
"Oh, no," Susan muttered in lieu of a reply, understanding what the Doctor was doing. "Grandfather, no!"
"Eva," was all that the Doctor said and Eva pulled the young woman away, forcing her to hold on to a railing that was connected to the wall.
"I'm sorry," she told Susan. "Don't let go."
"No!" Susan called out.
"Don't let go!" Eva repeated sternly before heading to Ian and Barbara and, fighting against the shaking TARDIS, led them to other railings they could hold on to. "Keep a tight grip," she said before stumbling back towards the Doctor, who was holding on to the console. "Where are we going?"
"I... I don't know," the Doctor said. "It's as if the TARDIS has a destination of her own. She won't let me pilot."
Eva glanced at the screen, watching as what she assumed were Gallifrayan numbers changed constantly as the machine travelled through time. The TARDIS shook once more and she almost slipped before the Doctor reached out and grabbed her.
When the shaking died down and the TARDIS landed, Eva knew exactly what year they arrived in, even though she knew the yearometer broke.
100,000 BC.