Unable to decline, Taylor accepted the Doctor's offer of bringing her home, though she remained close to the door when she stepped through the 'TARDIS' once again, but the Doctor convinced her to come further into the console room, else she risked harm, sometimes things get bumpy in the TARDIS.
Having proved he was telling the truth before, Taylor agreed to come towards him at the centre of the 'TARDIS' where he then showed her the handrails.
"Oh, forgive me, but where do you live?" The Doctor inquisitively asked Taylor and she gave her address to him.
Gently gripping them, Taylor watched as the Doctor proceeded to do the same thing as he done before, pulling on levers, typing things, when he finished, she felt the jolt of the 'TARDIS' as she held onto the handrails.
Around her, the air chilled, there's a hollow noise coming from somewhere, and the jolt again, as the 'TARDIS' activated on the Doctor's command.
Felt like only a minute passed when the Doctor tells her that she can release her grip on the handrails.
"Well, thank you, again," Taylor thanked the Doctor once more, but he modestly said that it's only his duties.
And, it would be rude to leave someone stranded, if he can help it.
A smile on Taylor's burgundy lips, she nodded in an understanding matter, before heading to the door of the 'TARDIS' whereupon opening it, already she noticed something wrong.
On her nose, she smelt something smoldering, it hurt when she inhaled the smoldering smell, and when she stepped out of the 'TARDIS' her emerald eyes widened when she saw her childhood up in flames, firefighters and policemen working trying to control the blaze and handle the amassed crowd.
"Mother!" Taylor shouted as she ran towards her childhood home, only stopped by a fireman who prevented her from going further, despite Taylor fighting in his arms. "Mother!"
Tears flowed from Taylor's eyes as she sees the fire ravaging her childhood home, firefighters struggling to put out the flames, she begged the fireman restraining her to tell him that her mother gotten out of their home in time, but he couldn't tell her, as he didn't know.
"Mother!" Taylor shouted at the top of her lungs for her mother, but she never answered.
Tearfully, Taylor turned her attention to the crowd watching the blaze, praying her mother's among them, having survived it, but no one among them was her mother.
"No!" Taylor pitifully let out as she's forced to acknowledge the horrid truth, her mother didn't escape from the blaze.
She felt a soft hand on her back, smelled fine cologne, when she turned her head, it was the Doctor, having come along to see what transpired.
Instinctively, she released the fireman, burying her face into the Doctor's sleeves vest, weeping as it hit her like a bag of bricks.
"No… no… mother!" Taylor pitifully cried in the Doctor's chest while he comforted her, looking on as the blaze finally quelled after the efforts of the firemen pouring water onto it finally succeeded.
Once the blaze finally subsided, leaving behind the smoldering remains of her childhood home, Taylor received the official word from the fire marshal, her mother had died in the blaze, medical personnel retrieved the remains, but the sight was too much for Taylor to bear, unable to look at her mother's remains.
"What… what happened?!" Taylor begged the fire marshal to tell her what happened and he explained that neighbours reported seeing the blaze break out approximately thirty minutes ago.
From his cursory glances around the remains of Taylor's childhood home, he concluded the fire started in the basement, asking about the boiler.
"Mother had it repaired last week," Taylor tells the fire marshal how the boiler had been acting up all month long, her mother finally able to get someone out to fix it just last week.
The fire marshal wrote it down, down to the number of the company the repairman worked for, though he says it's part of the due process.
"Ma'am, do you have anywhere else you can stay?" The fire marshal inquired if Taylor had anyone she could stay with while they investigated the cause of the blaze.
Frowning, Taylor tells him, "No. I don't, sir. We don't have family here."
Writing it down, the fire marshal proceeded to ask her, "Well, where are you going to go?"
They overheard, "With me, sir."
Turning their heads, they see the Doctor standing near them.
"And you are…?" The fire marshal raised his brow at the sight, the Doctor giving him another lie, which he bought instantly.
Taylor had to sell it for it to further work.
"We'll let you know what we find, ma'am. Good thing you weren't here," the fire marshal commented how it was a good thing she wasn't present during the fire, as he said it was fierce, that she would've become another causality.
Sucking air through her teeth, Taylor thanked him, before she's led away by the Doctor.
Wiping her eyes with a tissue, Taylor was guided by the Doctor with his gentle hand on her back, leading her towards the 'TARDIS' where he tells her, "I believe we were destined to meet, Miss Taylor."
He elaborated how it'd seem the 'TARDIS' knew to come here, in its own way ensuring that he and her would meet, causing Taylor to utter, "That's… impossible, machines can't… can't… think!"
A look in his… blue eyes?
The Doctor affirmed that the 'TARDIS' can think.
Oh, about the eyes, he has both his mother and father's eyes, angel eyes they called it, sometimes it's one or the other.
Usually dependent on the lighting in an area, but sometimes it changes on its own.
"I don't… know how to thank you," Taylor tried thanking the Doctor for giving her somewhere to stay, as she and her mother didn't have family in the area, leading the Doctor asking about her family elsewhere.
Shaking her head, Taylor says, "Mother doesn't talk about them very often. There was a disagreement and she left, that's all I know."
Her mother seldom talked about her family.
"Your father?" the Doctor asks about him, leading Taylor to tell him, "He died before I was born."
Her mother didn't talk about him or his side of the family much.
"Worry not, Miss Taylor, I believe in the machine and it tells me that you're in the right hands," the Doctor assures her that she's in good company, pointing to the monitors above, millions of words on them, the Doctor effortlessly reading them.
Taylor tried telling him she'll repay him for his kindness, but he waved at this, saying once again, he's the Doctor, it's his duties to help people.
"Now, Miss Taylor, I should warn you, I'm a peculiar man with a peculiar life," the Doctor warns Taylor how he normally operated, adventuring day in and day out, never staying in a place for no more than a day or so.
Nodding, her ruby red hair bobbing, Taylor agreed to his terms.
"And should you want to leave at any point, Miss Taylor, I will bring you wherever you desire — barring my machine allows you to, forgive it, it's quite ornery," the Doctor warns how his 'TARDIS' can seemingly be friendly one day, but when in a mood, it's not to be reckoned with.
THE END
