SEP 2 Chapter 8: Sticky People and the Taste of Time
She's so small. The Doctor thought as he watched Ellie sleep. He took hold of her hand, marveling at just how tiny it looked in his. So young. She shouldn't have to worry about any of this. He brushed her hair out of the way and kissed her on the forehead before settling into the armchair next to her bed. He had a lot to think about.
…
Ellie sat at the kitchen table nibbling on a piece of buttered toast. "Astrid could have been sticky." She said sadly, looking up at the Doctor as he set a cup of tea down next to her.
"What do you mean?" The Doctor softly asked. He could tell Ellie was feeling disappointed over Astrid's death but couldn't piece together what 'sticky' might refer to.
"If she'd lived."
The Doctor sat down across from her and added some sugar to his tea before passing the sugar to Ellie. "I don't understand."
"Mister Cooper was very not sticky but Astrid could have been sticky and, she's gone."
"Sticky. What do you mean sticky? Sticky, sticky… sticky" The Doctor asked, fingers tapping the table. He was feeling guilty over Astrid's death and would have preferred to just move on.
Ellie shrugged and sighed. "It's just sticky." She stared into her tea, chewing on her lip for a moment before continuing very quietly, "I'm sorry." She hadn't wanted to upset the Doctor.
"No. No. It's okay. I'm sorry. And it's okay to be sad." the Doctor said. He wanted to ask about the 'stickiness' of Bannakaffalatta, Morvin and Foon, but didn't want to remind Ellie of their deaths.
They ate and finished their tea in silence until the Doctor stood to place the dishes in the sink. As he grabbed Ellie's plate, she grabbed his arm. "Sticky." She said as she poured a massive multidimensional idea into the Doctor's mind. The thought was made even more complex by its shifting nature. Nothing had been fixed, but now it was, but not always. Multidimensional. "Astrid." She insisted, looking up into his eyes.
The Doctor stood there, blinking with his head cocked, before sitting back down. He was struggling to understand what she's just shown him. Really struggling. The closest thing he could compare it to was looking at a timeline, but this was so much more complex.
Ellie was, as best as can be described, seeing the potential interactions of an individual with the Universe, all the permutations meshed together, all of the potentials and repercussions 'seen' as points of connection. That it was all very out of focus made it even more confusing.
She watched the Doctor, concerned when he didn't say anything and just sat there staring at the wall. She climbed into his lap and snuggled herself in as best she could, "Sorry. Didn't mean to break you." she said as she leaned her head against his chest.
She soon found herself being tightly held and relaxed. Maybe she hadn't totally broken him. "No." the Doctor gently laughed. "You didn't break me. I'm just a little confused. Can you show me Mister Cooper?"
Ellie nodded and shared how she saw Mister Cooper. The Doctor struggled to find a difference between the two that would make one 'sticky' and not the other, until he noted that Astrid felt a little less constrained, a little more fluid.
After several minutes of deep thought, practically an eternity to a time lord, the Doctor's came to a realization. His eyes widened and he inhaled sharply. It's … it's… Eleven dimensional. She is visualizing this in eleven dimensions… like the Tardis! The Doctor thought to himself, flabbergasted. It's blurry, but she's had to have had some training to see even that much. When? Where? From who? How?
He shifted a little to the side so he could look Ellie in the eyes. "If Astrid had lived, would she have traveled with me?" he asked.
Ellie shrugged. "She fell and the stickiness went away is all." Ellie said before sharing her view of Astrid after her death. "Now she always has been like that to us."
Thinking about the idea of Mister Cooper and Astrid's lives as Ellie saw them now, he found them indistinguishable, but with Ellie's ability to 'see' in eleven dimensions, to her they were as unique as fingerprints.
He turned Ellie around on his lap so she was facing him and kissed her on the forehead. "You are amazing."
…
"So where do you want to go? We could go see the Pyramids of Mars, or the Big Huge and Educational Collection of Old Galactic Stuff, which is not very educational. But fun, it's fun.
"Can we just stay here?" Ellie asked.
"Of course." the Doctor answered, trying to hide his disappointment. He took a moment to check in with her emotions and realized she was still stressed and could use a day of just hanging out. He was struggling with how often and how deeply to check in. He didn't want to invade her privacy, but she was in most ways only four. And as he'd just witnessed, the tardis coral part of her genome made her significantly less Galifreyan in the way she thought and perceived the world. Not to mention that she wasn't loomed and had some human mixed in. He was going to need the extra insight into her mind that the bond provided if he was going to raise her.
So they spent the day swimming and playing hide and seek and baking a cake. Along the way the Doctor had her practicing using her respiratory bypass, flexing her psychic abilities to try to locate him and learning some chemistry.
That night, after tucking Ellie in, the Doctor reflected on how much she'd enjoyed the day while he tinkered in the Console Room. He realized he was going to need to set up some kind of schedule for her. She needed at least some semblance of a normal routine. And she was going to need to learn how to comfortably be alone in the Tardis.
On the other hand, he remembered how much he hated the rigid structure of his youth.
He was interrupted mid thought by the Tardis flashing the lights in the console room quickly followed by hearing Ellie's telepathic screams.
He raced to her room, skidding around the corners, and found her sitting up in bed, unnaturally still. She was silent, but her emotions were off the charts. Dread. Shame. Panic.
When she didn't respond to the Doctor's voice or touch, he entered her mind and let himself be swept away into her nightmare.
She was curled up in the corner of a white room with no windows or visible doors. Scattered on the floor were some Gallifreyan toys. The only other thing in the room was a small bed.
Ellie looked to be two years old. She was rocking and hyperventilating and somehow he knew she believed had failed some test and the scary man was coming to kill her.
And this moment in time, this memory, was just looping, over and over.
Not wanting to wake her directly from this state, he created a door that led to a dream replica of her bedroom in the Tardis. He made himself visible and grabbed her hand. Run. He told her. She looked at the stranger who'd just materialized with his hand extended, That's new. She thought. And anything new was bound to be better than what was coming so she scrambled to her feet and grabbed the Doctor's hand.
Where are we? Ellie asked, looking around in awe.
Home. The Doctor replied, helping her into bed and telling her to sleep.
Ellie woke up in the Doctor's arms. She felt so scared but didn't understand why, so she clung to the Doctor as he blanketed her mind in feelings of safety. "You're safe now. You're safe. It wasn't real."
A wave of relief swept over Ellie but she didn't understand why. "I… I was… something… I can't remember. Why can't I remember?"
"You had a nightmare. It's probably for the best you can't remember. I'll tell you about it later if you want, so you can know what it is about without having to remember it."
"It was scary." she said as she curled herself into his chest as tightly as she could.
"I know."
…
"There's something strange about this Adipose company." The Doctor told Ellie.
"Were you even listening to me?" Ellie asked with a glare. They were hanging out in Ellie's room where Ellie had been reading a Gallifreyan children's book to the Doctor.
"Of course I was." he answered, waving the tablet in his hand. "Time Lord brain. I can easily do two things at once. Well, way more than two really."
"But did you have to interrupt!? The Grafenter is about to eat Jutuxotrundromiviath!" Ellie exclaimed throwing her arms in the air and letting the book fall to the floor.
The Doctor put the tablet down, "Sorry." He scootched closer and put the book back in Ellie's hands. "Continue."
Ellie glared at him for a moment before settling into her reading pose to finish the story.
…
"I wont be gone long Ellie." the Doctor told a pouting Ellie as he put on his coat.
"Hhrm. Well, the Tarids and I are going to have WAY more fun than you. Don't want to go to some stupid office anyways." Ellie said as she stomped out of the Console Room.
The Doctor stroked the side of the Tardis as he left. "Take care of her for me."
…
Ellie's first activity for the day was to run through the corridors screaming as loud as she could. But within seconds she realized she wasn't quite doing it right and took off her shoes.
"Ahhhhhh haha hahahahaha Ahhhh." She yelled, tossing each shoe down a different corridor, then her socks, then her shirt. The Tardis joined in and made monkey calls for Ellie to try to find as she ran. By the time she'd exhausted herself she was naked and the more highly frequented corridors were littered with her four outfits. She'd put on more clothes so she could take them off again.
Since the Tardis had led her back towards her room, she entered to look for a book to read about monkeys. Not finding one, she flopped onto the floor to stare at the ceiling for a while.
But that was boring. Off to the kitchen to make some cheesy mac and cheese with extra cheese. She was sure she could manage. It can't be that hard. Even the Doctor can do it. But after a long and one sided argument, Ellie ended up with a jar of jam. The Doctor had told the Tardis to keep the cabinets and appliances locked until he returned, except for one with filled with child friendly don't need to be cooked or cut up foods.
"Ellie! What have you… I…" The Doctor said after entering the kitchen. In front of him was a naked four year old, sitting on the counter, face and fingers smeared with jam. "Right. Going to need some more rules." he said to himself.
"Yur bck!" She mumbled, not quite finished chewing her last bite.
The Doctor ran his hands through his hair then took off his coat and layed it over the back of a kitchen chair. He walked over to Ellie and carefully lifted down from the counter, trying to avoid getting covered in jam. "Bath." he said, shaking his head. Not only were her hands and face covered in jam, she was just all over dirty. The Tardis corridors didn't get cleaned often.
Resigning himself to a sticky hand, he took hold of hers and led her to her room.
…
"Well?" Ellie asked, hands on her hips, clean and wearing a fresh outfit.
"Well what?" the Doctor replied.
"What is it? Why'd you go see them?"
"Ah. Right. Well, they're selling this weight loss drug that works too well. Can't be of human origin. So I went and got this-" he said pulling a stack of papers out of his pocket. "Client list." he continued when Ellie gave him a look.
"You going to go talk to some?"
"Yep."
"Can I come?"
"Nope. We are going to have tea then you are going to bed."
Ellie sighed, but quickly brightened up again. "Can we have cheesy mac and cheese with extra cheese? Please!"
"What is it with you and cheese?" The Doctor asked. "Yes. Fine. You can have cheesy mac and cheese with extra cheese."
"Yay!" Ellie said, spinning around with her arms out.
The Doctor grabbed her just before she would have smacked the nightstand. "Come on then."
…
After tea, the Doctor and Ellie watched Snow White.
The Doctor couldn't help but smile as he got her ready for bed. She was too tired to be of any help, and would only answer questions with sleepy little grunts. Once she was finally tucked in he kissed her on the forehead and turned out the light.
…
When Ellie woke up the next morning, the Doctor was sitting next to her bed with a mad grin. "Big day today." he said as he pulled the covers down.
"Nooooo." Ellie said, trying to stay in her warm little cocoon. "Not morning."
"Yes Morning."
"Is not."
"Is too." The Doctor said, ending the argument by picking her up and putting her in her bathroom.
He then wandered over to a board he had set up. He needed some way to start Ellie's education but didn't want it to be boring and dictatorial, so he'd spent some time researching various schools of thought on human teaching and decided to allow Ellie to decide what she learned and to try to keep it game and experience based.
Ellie saw the Doctor looking at the new board in her room and quickly dressed herself in her typical tights, loose short skirt and t-shirt, before heading over.
"What is it?" She asked.
"This is your new day planner. Well, sort of day planner, at least education planner? Organizer of fun?" the Doctor turned away from Ellie to look back at the board. "Right. Let's just start over. You -" he began poking her in the head. "Have a lot to learn. New body. Practically an infant. Pretty sure you were mostly Gallifreyan before you were human but now you're back and have all those extra abilities again, but you're still so young you should be learning this by playing with other kids but -"
He paused when Ellie poked him in the stomach. "So you're going to teach me this stuff."
"Well yes, but I thought you might like more of an explanation."
Ellie cocked her head and shrugged, "No."
"Right. For now we're going to be focusing on your physical senses: Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell and proprioception, with a little work on telepathic communication."
"What's propiocpection?"
"Ah, that's knowing where your body is in space, balancing, that sort of thing."
The Doctor walked over to a board that had 5 empty spaces. Next to the board were the topics he'd just listed along with languages, tinkering, and independent study. "So every day you get to pick five things you want to learn about, and you put them on the board."
He demonstrated by pulling off the taste label, which made a very satisfying trsschht sound as the velcro released, and sticking it to the board while saying, "Love the velcro."
"Any five?"
"Yep, well, you can't ignore any of them for too long so… let's say you can only do things two days in a row, no more."
Ellie crossed her arms. She looked at the board, then back at the Doctor, considering. "Okay." she said with a smile. She then added trsschht, proprioception, trsschht, languages, trsschht, smell, and trsschht, tinkering.
"I want to go taste some pancakes!" she said, grabbing the Doctor's hand to lead him to the kitchen.
Well that went over well. The Doctor thought, proud of himself as he followed Ellie to the kitchen.
…
Later, in one of the many labs in the Tardis the Doctor and Ellie were seated at a table with five identical bottles and five droppers. "These-" the Doctor said, indicating the bottles "-are the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Let's see if you can recognize them." He finished. He then used a dropper to extract a drop from one of the bottles. "Try a drop."
Ellie carefully and a little suspiciously took the dropper and placed a drop on her tongue. After rolling the flavor around a bit she smiled, "Yum. That's sweet."
"Good. Now take a sip of this." He said, handing her a drink that would cleanse her palate.
"Next!" Ellie said, reaching for the next bottle and dropper. "Mwaa yuck!" Ellie said as she tried to rub it off of her tongue with her hands. "What was that!"
The Doctor took a moment to stop laughing before replying, "Bitter."
"Ew."
Next was salty, then sour, then umami.
"That tastes like… I know it, but I don't."
"It's called umami. It's savory, like soy sauce, or bacon."
"Too easy, I got these now. What's next?"
"Next we mix them together and start diluting the concentration." He said before turning to a counter to mix up some new concoctions.
Despite a few wrong turns, Ellie quickly learned to identify the components in what would be a remarkably low concentration for a human. The Doctor though was an expert. Even at ridiculously low concentrations he always got it right.
After her final attempt to trick him Ellie crossed her arms and glared at the Doctor. "You're impossible!"
"You're four." He replied. "You'll get there. And those are the simplest ones. Once you know more chemistry we can work on identifying individual molecules."
"Whoa."
"I know." The Doctor said, leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head with a satisfied grin. But this was short lived, he lost the grin and nearly fell over backwards when Ellie snuck up and licked his cheek.
"Mostly salty with a little sweet and something else?" Ellie said after jumping back out of his reach. Or what she thought would be out of his reach.
"Yuck! Go away!" she cried as the Doctor licked her face again and again.
He stood up and hands in pockets laughed, "I win."
"What was it I tasted on you?"
The Doctor looked at Ellie trying to decide how much to tell her. She'd yet to show any interest in Gallifrey, and he wasn't eager to explain that it was gone. Little did he know she was subconsciously avoiding asking about it because some part of her knew she never wanted to return. Decision made, he took a deep breath and risked a simplified answer. "It was time, which you shouldn't be able to taste yet."
"Why not?"
"When Gallifreyans are eight, they enter the Academy and part of the initiation ceremony is to look into the Untempered Schism."
"And after that you can taste time?"
"Yep and there are some other changes."
"What is it?'
"The Untempered Schism is a space time rift. When you look into it you can see the vortex and it changes you." he explained.
"But I can taste it now. Why?"
The Doctor crouched and patted her on the head, "Because you're special."
Ellie looked at her arm then licked it. "I taste different."
"It's complicated." he said hoping she'd leave it at that. But she continued starting at him, expecting a better answer.
"Just because you can identify sweet doesn't mean you can taste the difference between fructose and sucrose."
"Oh. Different kinds of time?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that but, sort of. Want to go play in the gym for a while?"
"Yes!" she answered, successfully distracted.
The more he learned about Ellie, the more confused he became. She'd obviously been on Gallifrey. The room in her nightmare had to have been there and he couldn't imagine any other race with the ability to combine Gallifreyan, Tardis and human biology.
So she was engineered and it must have been done at the highest level because even he had no idea how it could be done. But why, and when. If it was during the Time War, how did she escape? Even if it wasn't, why was she on Earth? Who had hidden her Gallifreyan biology so cleverly?
…
"What do you think they're doing?" Ellie asked the Doctor. She was sitting on the jump seat while the Doctor piloted the Tardis.
"Not sure yet. That's why I've got to go investigate. It's definitely alien; people are losing fat and it's literally walking away."
"That's kinda cool. But ummm how exactly can fat walk?"
"I'm going to find out and I'll tell you all about it when I get back." he said as he landed the Tardis near the Adipose Industries building. He was planning on sneaking in, then waiting for everyone to leave before searching for answers.
"And what are you going to be doing?" He asked, looking at Ellie with eyebrows raised.
Ellie sighed. "Nothing fun."
The Doctor gave her a look and Ellie grinned. "I'm going to play with the clockwork gears and make something cool."
"Brilliant. Don't wait up." He said before grabbing his coat and walking out the door.
Ellie watched him walk away on the monitor. She didn't really want to join him, it was bound to be boring, but she wished he didn't have to leave. She understood he needed to though, so took a deep breath, hopped off the seat and took off to her lab to make something for the Doctor.
…
Ellie was determined to stay awake until the Doctor came back and was running around the Console Room with a package of Jammie Dodgers in one hand in an attempt to stay awake. But as it got later and later with no Doctor in sight, she set up an alarm to let her know when the Doctor showed up on the monitor and laid down for a quick nap on the jump seat.
The alarm eventually went off and Ellie watched as a ginger and the Doctor walked over to a car and started pulling out suitcases. The woman looked excited but the Doctor just seemed uncomfortable.
"Who is she?" Ellie asked the Tardis. She wasn't expecting an answer, she just didn't feel like talking to herself.
Ellie laughed as the Doctor's arms filled with bags and then a hat box.
Is she going to come with us? That's a lot of stuff. What if she's not nice? Ellie's mind swam with possibilities. She couldn't help but remember Rose, how much the Doctor liked her, and how much he somehow never saw.
Lost in thought Ellie was startled when the ginger opened the Tardis. Luckily she quickly turned to face the Doctor outside and Ellie was able to duck behind the console.
"I don't need injections, do I? You know, like when you go to Cambodia. Is there any of that? Because my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and she- You're not saying much." the ginger told the Doctor.
"No, it's just. It's a funny old life, in the Tardis." the Doctor replied, thinking of Martha.
The ginger looked crestfallen, "You don't want me."
"I'm not saying that." he said, looking over at the Tardis and remembering Donna didn't know about Ellie.
"But you asked me. Would you rather be on your own?"
"No. Actually, no." the Doctor replied honestly. "But the last time, with Martha, like I said, it, it got complicated. And that was all my fault. I just want a mate."
"You just want to mate?" The ginger asked, incredulous.
"I just want a mate!"
"You're not mating with me, sunshine!"
Hiding behind the console, Ellie could barely contain her laughter. Her hands were over her mouth and she felt like she was choking from holding it back.
"A mate. I want a mate." the Doctor said with a sigh. He could hear Ellie in the background and was trying to figure out how to explain the situation to the ginger and to Ellie.
"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing." the Ginger said, looking the Doctor up and down. And Ellie completely lost it.
She was laying on the floor holding her stomach, and laughing so hard it was almost silent.
"Who's there?" the ginger shouted, turning to look into the Tardis.
Ellie sort of waved from the floor as she struggled to stop laughing.
"You've got a kid?"
"Well, ummm…." the Doctor said, scratching the back of his head.
"Out with it spaceman."
The Doctor entered the Tardis and smiled at Ellie. "Ellie, I'd like you to meet Donna. Donna, Ellie." He said, but as Ellie looked at Donna a fresh wave of hilarity hit her.
"She's a kid. You have a kid? It's only been a year. Were you hiding her before?"
"No. No. Donna. She's not mine mine, I'm her um guardian now. She hasn't been here long and we're still working things out, but if you're still interested, if this is okay with you, well, I'd love it if you'd come."
"I can come?" Donna said. Sure it was weird that the Doctor had a child on board, given his life, but Donna liked kids. And they might end up doing more child friendly things than they'd have otherwise, but that was okay. She wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and turn him down again.
"Yep." the Doctor said, hands in his pockets and a mad grin on his face.
"Car keys!"
"What?"
"I've still got my mum's car keys. I won't be a minute." Donna said as she rushed out of the Tardis.
Ellie had managed to stop gulping in air by the time the Doctor had carried all of Donna's bags into the Tardis, but she remained on the floor partially hidden by the console. The Doctor walked over and reached down to help her stand but Ellie took the opportunity to clamber up and latch on to his chest like a baby monkey.
The Doctor could feel her uncertainty.
He projected feelings of confidence that Donna would love her and that having her on board would just make everything even better before setting Ellie back on the ground. His own misgivings he kept to himself.
It wasn't long before Donna came running back into the Tardis. Ellie slowly approached her before proclaiming, "You're all sticky." with a grin. She'd been laughing too hard to really look before.
Donna turned to the Doctor, "Why's she calling me sticky? Have I got something on my face?" she asked, rubbing a hand across her face.
"It's just her way of saying she thinks you belong here." He said, bending the truth.
Donna looked at Ellie, confused. Ellie smiled. Then the Doctor grabbed her by the collar. "No licking." he whispered.
Ellie looked up at the Doctor, "But-"
"No."
"Doctor?" Donna interrupted, stepping away from Ellie. But instead of explaining, the Doctor walked to the console and started the dematerialization process while maintaining his hold on Ellie's collar.
So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?" He asked.
"Oh, I know exactly the place." Donna replied.
"Which is?"
"Two and a half miles that way." Donna said, pointing in the direction of her house. The Doctor stopped dematerializing and simply flew the Tardis in the direction Donna Indicated with the door open so she could direct him.
"Stop. There he is! That's my grandfather. Always looking up at the stars." she said, looking down at an older gentleman sitting in an allotment with a telescope and thermos. The Doctor and Donna waved as the Doctor had the Tardis hover midair before slowly flying away.
…
"I think I like her." Ellie told the Doctor as he tucked her into bed.
"Me too." He replied.
"You have to be careful though. She has a funny spot."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like, ummm, there's a thing and everything changes or it doesn't. It's like an explosion, like she could become unsticky and everything flickers."
"Everything?"
Ellie nods, "The. Whole. Universe." she said slowly.
"Well, nothing you need to worry about now. Go to sleep" He said, kissing her on the forehead and helping her mind move on from thoughts of flickering universes.
AN:
Next up is Pompeii!
Don't worry, Ellie starts to affect things in Pompeii. I am going to avoid her being in everything though. It doesn't seem realistic for the Doctor to take her with him when things get dangerous unless he has no choice. But he will rather frequently have no choice.