Please R&R
….
"Mum."
"Is everything ok Neeka?"
"This world is weird."
"I thought that too during my first few visits. It helps to surround yourself with some wonderful people from here. Tegan is one of the best."
"Nyssa," Tegan doesn't think it's true.
"Nyssa is right Tegan, you are one of the best, and I can say that as your best friend."
"Don't forget, the Doc only picks the best to travel with and according to your stories you were with them for a few years," Graham adds.
"If I am one of the best, that makes Ace, Ace."
"Are you sure you never met my Doctor, he always made puns with my name."
"You are the one who runs a charity."
"There is a section of this charity if any of you three needs help, call me, and I will be there in a heartbeat."
"You never told me this?" Tegan turns to her friend.
"It was a need to know basis according to Kate, when I set it up."
"You couldn't tell me?"
"No, a few years ago there was a donation from a certain alien to both UNIT and A Charitable Earth. I decided to open a part of the foundation under the name Theta Sigma."
Tegan and Nyssa look at Ace with a questioning eyebrow, "the Doctor's nickname while in school. That is why while in the volcano I told him he could never fail me. He taught me more and cared for me more than my own mother did."
Graham wraps his arm around Ace and kisses the side of her head. "How long have you two been together?" Neeka, who wasn't in the room with them earlier asks.
"4 months," Ace answers Neeka. No one knows the reasons the family had to rush away from where they were living, was that Neeka just got out of a bad relationship with someone who had become powerful there. "Speaking of time, the three of you must be getting tired. I know Tegan has a normal size two bedroom house. If you guys don't want to leave each other's side, you can sleep in the ensuite in my building. I have a couch, but we can pick up a few air mattresses."
"Don't worry about that, Neeka and Mum can be at Tegan's I can find somewhere else."
"My spare room."
"What?" Adric asks.
"Listen to her, the bed is amazing, super soft." Graham informs the younger man.
"Ok."
"Or if you really want to be near your family."
"I'm ok Ms. Tegan."
"Ok."
"I will follow you guys to Tegan's place, then I will meet Ace at hers."
"We'll see you there Graham."
"Come on Adric, let's go to my car."
"Graham," Ace calls out.
"Yes," He turns to face her, she comes up to him and gives him a small kiss.
"Drive safe."
"I will, I love you."
"I love you too."
"You two are insufferable," Tegan tells Ace as Graham and Adric walk away.
"Just wait for more time between you two." Ace says as she gestures between the two.
"How many of them did you see when Mum showed up with Ms. Letbridge Stewart?"
"Oh Ace didn't see that much, she was busy making out with Graham.
"I only left after Nyssa started to kiss you."
"It was a short kiss, and when we found you; your shirt was rising."
"I thought there were too many of us around for mine to show up, but let's go, Graham is probably waiting for us to pull out to follow." They head to the car and have some small talk.
In Graham's car, "is there anyone my age that is around often?"
"There is Yaz, sadly Ryan won't be coming back too often."
"Whose Ryan?"
"My grandson, he recently told me he wasn't coming home. Ace who you met has been keeping me distracted. I stayed in the spare bedroom for a bit after Ryan told me and I decided to give up my lease. I didn't want to be reminded of my grandson and my dead wife."
"Does Ace know about her?"
"Ace is wonderful, she makes sure I have time to visit Grace's grave and even has come with a few times."
"Is Tegan a good person?"
"She is, she has fought for the rights of many people."
"Does she come from a powerful family?"
"Not including her son, she doesn't have a family. Do you mind me asking, why all these questions?"
"I don't know if I can answer that."
"Are the three of you ok?"
"We are now."
"If something happens, inform one of us, Tegan, Ace, Kate or I please."
"I will make sure they know."
"Good." They arrive at Tegan's house. Tegan invites everyone in for a few minutes. Nyssa looks around and sighs knowing she should tell these three people what is going on.
"Tegan, Ace, Graham, my kids and I need to tell you something," Nyssa is acting nervous as she says this.
"What is it," Tegan is getting very worried.
"There is a reason why all three of us are here and it's for safety."
"What do you mean," Ace, the one who always wants to protect everyone asks.
"After we left Treminus when Lazurius Disease was eradicated my family left the ship and settled on a little planet. About 5 years ago my husband died, while Neeka was dating the daughter of a powerful family there."
"Mum, let me tell some of this story, when I broke up with her she showed her true colors and became obsessive and stalkerish. When we left the planet in the middle of the night, I swear I saw her in the distance."
"Why didn't you tell me about seeing her?" The Momma Bear in Nyssa comes out.
"I didn't want to think about it and no one knew where we were heading. You didn't even tell Adric or I."
"I needed to make sure that the two of you were safe, and I remembered coordinates to London."
Graham thinking of something, "but how did you get the new HQ coordinates, we just opened it."
"I called a certain Blue Box."
"The Doc," Graham says, his nickname for the Time Lord.
"The Professor," Ace adds in hers.
"The Doctor," Tegan, the only one of the three not to have one, shakes her head at the couple.
"Do each of you call the Doctor something different?"
"Most call the Doctor, you know Doctor, but these two have nicknames. Graham just shortens it to Doc for some reason, and Ace, are you going to tell the class why you call the Time Lord Professor."
"Even though he was male, he reminded me of a substitute teacher I had in school that actually liked me. I also wanted to annoy them. Little did I know he would become one of my best friends and a sometimes father figure."
"Why sometimes," asks Nyssa.
"He bloody played mind games on her, a number of times and didn't tell her he knew why she ended up on Ice World."
"Graham," Ace faces her partner.
"I'm sorry, I just don't like the thought of you being hurt," he lifts up her hand and kisses it.
"I know, but you know a part of traveling with them is getting hurt."
"I do, you know what happened when I first met the Doc."
"I do," Ace holds his hand tighter. Neeka yawns.
"I think it's time for everyone to go to bed." Nyssa says wanting to privately talk to Tegan a little bit. Graham leaves first saying goodbye to everyone including a goodbye kiss to Ace and he heads to his new flat only 10 minute walk from Ace's. Adric says goodbye to his mum and sister and heads out with Ace. When Ace arrives with Adric at her house shows him to the room he is sleeping in.
"Is this ok?"
"It is bigger than my room and Neeka's put together."
"Ok, are you ok with being somewhere new?"
"I am as long as I am with my family."
"It is good you are close to them."
"Are you close to yours?"
"I am sorta close to my brother, but my dad died before I knew him, and mum, well it was complicated. But you should sleep, you had a long journey and if I know Kate, she will be asking you three more questions tomorrow. Remember A Charitable Earth is a safe haven for your family." With that Ace walks out and shuts his door as she hears a ringtone and smiles knowing who it is.
"Hello Graham."
"Hello Ace."
"Can't get enough of me can you. We just spent hours in each others company"
"Never."
"I am with you on that. It is great spending many hours with you."
"We need to figure out a way for us to be you know us."
"I am really getting tired of him interrupting us too. Did you know your thumbs were lifting up my shirt while we were making out?"
"I thought I felt something velvety."
"Graham," Ace laughs, "what a minute each time he shows up you are touching bare skin that isn't my face."
"You have smooth skin."
"Graham, I am being serious."
"Sorry, I was just trying to make you laugh."
"You do make me laugh, Graham, all the time."
"I am glad to hear that, now your theory of how when I touch you on your skin brings up your Doctor."
"So you know how you had just taken my shirt off when he first showed up."
"Ace, you really want me to think of that."
"Graham."
"Ok, ok, and each time he has shown up I may have been putting my hands on your back under your shirt."
"You are not the only guilty party in this, I have run my hands on your back under your shirt too."
"So he doesn't like when you are getting intimate."
"Unless it benefits his own plans, like it did when I tried to seduce that one officer, then I had a thing with Sorin."
"I remember you telling me about that."
"I just wish he wasn't a cousin. Yes, I didn't know until long afterwards."
"A few hours after the fact."
"The thing is I am 40 years older, well almost 40 years older than I was then. I am in a committed relationship with someone I have known longer than a few days."
"We had been dating for 2 months at the time."
"Known each other for 3 months at the time."
"Why doesn't he want you to be with me then?"
"I wish I knew, I love you, you love me and we both respect each other."
"That we do."
"He is frustrating me. I mean, it's not like I am a kid, yes, I was young when I met him, but I am an adult and run a successful charity."
"Don't forget you have a robot dog."
"You should be glad he can't hear you."
"I know."
"I need to see if there is a way I can get this thing out of me. I want you in every way."
"I also want you in every way."
"Graham?"
"Yes?"
"The moment we can have some alone time, want to try again."
"I will do anything to be able to have that time with you."
"Same here. Though it may seem odd for me to leave someone alone in my house."
"No don't, I think the family needs all of us."
"They do. How about you come by in the morning with some breakfast."
"I will do that, you know the two of us and food."
"Oh I do." Ace laughs quietly, "but I think I should go to bed, I love you."
"I love you too, sleep well."
"You too."
"As long as my dreams have you in them; I will."
"Graham, good night."
"Goodnight."