The second Farah stepped into the TARDIS, the lights brightened a little and a happy hum sounded. "Sounds like she missed me", Farah commented.
She's not the only one the Doctor thought. "Before we go, I've got something for you", he said pulling out another key from his jacket pocket and held it out to her "It's a TARDIS key. Should've given it to you before I dropped you off".
"Why don't you hold onto it for now?" the empath suggested, surprising the Time Lord "a lots happened in this past 10 months and I kinda need to talk to someone first before I take that", she explained.
"Oh…ok", the Doctor said. To be honest, he shouldn't have been too surprised that she wasn't as eager to continue travelling with him. It HAD been 10 months for her, after all.
"So um…shall we look at this alien then?" Farah enquired.
"We shall", the Time Lord responded with a grin.
The 22 year old hung onto the console and the Doctor piloted it. The flight this time around was anything but smooth, the Doctor resorting to using a hammer when the console started to smoke. Surprisingly hitting it actually worked. Farah shook her head with a smile as the Doctor kissed the hammer and gazes up at the console with a childish like beam on his face.
"Nice storeroom", the empath commented when they left the box after it had materialized. She raised a brow when the Time Lord shushed his sonic after it made a loud buzzing noise once he'd turned it on. Eventually he got the door open and the pair stepped out into some sort of waiting room and came face to face with at least 20 soldiers.
The moment the soldiers saw them, they leapt to their feet and pointed their guns at them. The Doctor immediately stepped in front Farah. It was a rather tense moment which was broken by a scream. "Defence plan delta!" the Time Lord shouted at Soldiers grabbing ginger's hand "Come on. Move! Move!" they all ran down the corridor with the time travellers in the lead.
When they reached the mortuary, they found a Japanese woman cowering on the floor "it's alive!" she exclaimed.
"Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown", the Doctor ordered the men that was behind him. Farah went over to the woman and knelt by her.
"My god. It's still alive", the woman breathed.
"It's ok", the 22 year old soothed, grabbing a cloth for the cut on her forehead.
"I swear it was dead", she insisted.
"It's all right now. My friend here will sort this out", Farah said, gently dabbing the cloth on the woman's cut "I'm Farah Galen. What's your name?"
"Toshiko", the woman replied, calming down a little.
"Nice to meet you Toshiko", the ginger said politely.
"What did it look like?" the Doctor asked Toshiko. The woman didn't have a chance to answer him due to something clattering behind them. Farah stayed with Toshiko while the Time Lord dropped to his knees and crawled around a desk. The empath was startled when a pig wearing a spacesuit ran across the room. "Don't shoot!" the Doctor shouted at the solider who was in the room with them. The Time Lord quickly followed after the pig but he was too late to stop another solider from doing just that.
Farah, Toshiko and the Doctor stood around the table where the Time Lord had placed the pig's body. "I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth", Toshiko said.
"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb", the Doctor explained.
"It was terrified", Farah whispered. She'd caught a snippet of fear which she had initially assumed it was from Toshiko but now she thought back on it, she was pretty sure that she had sensed the animals terror instead. She'd never been able to pick up on any emotions from animals, this was certainly a first for her.
The ginger glanced down when she felt a hand wrap around hers. She turned her gaze up to its owner, the Doctor. He inclined his head, silently indicating that they should take their leave. Farah nods and the two of them slip away.
~TARDIS~
"You felt it, didn't you?" the Doctor asked the still upset empath "that animal's fear?"
Farah nodded "I-I never…this is a first for me", she whispered "it was so…scared", a tear rolled down her cheek causing the Time Lord to make his way around the console to her "how could anyone do something so cruel?!"
"I don't know", the Doctor admits, wiping a couple of tears away with his thumb "some people and even some aliens like to hurt innocent creatures just because they can".
"I suppose", the 22 year old sniffled "still I…" she burst into a fresh round of tears and the Time Lord hugged her.
"It's ok", he soothed, rubbing her back "I'm going to stop those responsible".
Farah glanced up at him tearfully "you promise?"
"You have my word", the Doctor vowed. The ginger let out a shaky breath, resting her head against his chest.
"You have two hearts", she murmured, closing her eyes "it feels nice…soothing". Suddenly a rather irate blonde stormed into the TARDIS, causing the pair to break apart. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded, eyeing the ginger with distaste.
"I'm Farah Galen", Farah replied, moving over to Rose, holding a hand out "you must be Rose. It's nice to –"
"You replace me?" Rose said to the Doctor, somewhat shrilly and the 22 year dropped her hand.
The Time Lord rolled his eyes "I didn't replace you", he told her "I told you about Farah, more than once. It's not my fault you weren't listening. Stupid human" the blonde's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish "anyway, we went to have a look at the alien".
"Which was just a pig dressed up", the empath added, trying to ignore the hitch in her voice upon talking about the poor animal "sorry, I'm just gonna…I need a minute", she mumbled, scarpering before she broke down again.
The Doctor started after her when Mickey spoke "you ruined my life, Doctor", the Time Lord barely suppressed a groan as he turned to face the annoyed black man "They thought Rose was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you", he said crossly.
"That wasn't my intention", the Doctor states. He tried to leave for the second time when Mickey grabbed his arm.
"I bet you don't even remember my name", he remarked.
"Course I do, its Ricky", the Time Lord told him, pulling his arm out of the black man's grasp "now if you'll excuse me".
"It's Mickey", the young man called after him as he started toward the doorway that led to the rest of the ship. The Doctor ignored him and continued on his way. He had more important things to focus on such finding a rather upset ginger.
It took a few minutes but the Time Lord discovered where the empath had been hiding, an indoor ice rink of all places. He didn't even know he had one! Unless…the TARDIS created the room just for Farah. The prospect that his ship had done like that for his friend, brought a smile to his face. Truth be told, he was pretty sure that out of the two women, Farah was the TARDIS' favourite for the blonde was always complaining about getting lost or stuck in one room or another.
The Doctor leant against the side of the rink, once again marvelling at the ginger's skill on the ice. If he didn't know better, he would say that she'd had a number of years' worth of lessons to be that good. Either that or she was a complete natural, dancing across the frozen surface. "Oh, hey Doctor!" she greeted, having finally noticed him.
"Hey", the Time Lord greeted back "You ok?"
"Yeah, fine", the empath replied, skating over "I'm sorry for earlier. It just…got to me", she admits "actually that's been happening quite a bit recently but that's nothing you need to worry about", she assured him "I uh…hope you don't mind if I stay in here a little bit longer" Farah looked around the ice rink "I feel more comfortable here than around Rose and Co in the console room".
"No, that's fine", the Doctor said, completely understanding. If she hadn't requested to stay put, he would've suggested so she wasn't subjected to Rose's pettiness or Ricky's anger.
"Thank you", Farah said, grateful that he wasn't making her go back to the console room "wanna join?" she asked and he shook his head.
"I'd love to but I can't leave our visitors alone for too long", the Time Lord said.
"Alright", the ginger pushed off from the side and swished her way down the ice. The Doctor started toward the doorway when he heard a thud.
"Farah?" he called, making his way back to the rink "you ok?" no answer "Farah?" the Time Lord's eyes widened when he spotted the 22 year old unconscious "Farah!" he cried, hopping onto the ice. The Doctor slipped and slid across the frozen surface, dropping down beside her. He scanned her with his sonic, freezing when he read the results. She was pregnant! Early stages, based on the devices readings but she was expecting all the same.
With this revelation, the Doctor carefully picked up the young woman and carried her out of the room. Across the corridor a door swung open to reveal the med-bay. "Thanks", he murmured, relieved that the TARDIS moved that particular room. He stepped inside, moved over to the bed and placed her on it. "I'll be back soon", the Doctor promised as he gently draped a blanket over her.
The Doctor looked up from his hands when he heard his companion/friend stir. It had been well over a day in which he'd stopped the Slitheen from destroy the Earth and she had yet to wake. Well, until now that is. "What happened?" Farah mumbled, pushing herself into a sitting position.
"You passed out on the ice…yesterday", the Time Lord replied, shifting the pillows around so they would support her.
"Yesterday?" the 22 year old repeated, staring at him as if he'd grown a second head "I've been unconscious for a whole day?" the Doctor nods "blimey…no wonder I'm so hungry".
"Well, we need to rectify that", the Time Lord proclaimed, standing up and holding his hand out to her. The empath slowly got out of bed, taking it and allowing him to lead her from the room.
"You seem nervous", the 22 year old commented, sensing it from the Doctor as they walked.
"Nervous?" the Time Lord repeated "no, I'm not nervous". Farah hummed at his response but didn't press. He was clearly nervous, which told her that he was hiding something.
~Kitchen~
The Doctor parked the young woman at the kitchen table and turned to the counter to make her some food. "Have as much as you can", the Time Lord said setting down a bowl of porridge and a mug of tea.
Farah slowly started to eat the porridge. After a few mouthfuls she set her spoon down. "No, I'm sorry. I can sense that you're nervous", she states, giving the Doctor a pointed look "I can only guess that you are hiding something…something you either don't want to tell me or don't know how to tell me".
The Time Lord sighed, sitting back in his chair. He should've figured that no matter how calm he seemed, he couldn't fully suppress his emotions. And her being an empath, she picked up them very easily. "There is something I need to tell you. After you collapsed I did a scan to make sure that you hadn't injured yourself and I discovered something. Farah…" he took a breath, readying himself for the response to the news that he was about to give "you're pregnant".