6. Which of them?
As there had been twins born, Alyssa begins to doubt that she has the right one. She returns to the village with John to get Clive, but her crime stealing back the fob watch has been discovered and verified to be her. She is confined and guarded! .
Fortunately, the fob watch is still in the Tardis!
Alyssa recognises the difficulty of her situation. She's afraid and she doesn't know what the tribe will do to her.
She approaches the guard.
"You're not going anywhere," the guard says, arising from his recumbent position to block her exit. .
"What is to become of me?" Alyssa asks, keen to hear anything.
The guard wants to have some humour and meanly says, "Death at dawn! ... Likely!" . He watches her reaction!
Alyssa is alarmed. "What?" Her stomach tightens as she contemplates her few hours left to live.
"Entering the Chief's treasury, they said." He's quite aware what she's done but hasn't heard their deliberations.
Alyssa clasps her hands to activate her Ring of Confidence, and the guard relaxes.
"Okay, I haven't heard yet!" he says, grinning fiendishly, wondering why his humour is changing.
Alyssa steps up to him and hugs him, renewing her hand clasp behind his back. She smiles at him.
"Could you see your way to letting me out to do some daily tasks? It's not like I can go anywhere." She kisses him (ref. TV episode The Doctor's Daughter).
He's stiff as a board as he wrangles with the consequences. It is true, he thinks, that she can't go anywhere other than the village, and the orders to keep her detained seem over cautious.
Then he relaxes. "Alright, but only for an hour!"
Alyssa kisses him briefly and runs for the tent door before he can change his mind. .
In the Tardis.
Alyssa heads straight for a Tardis pillar and hugs it.
She has seldom done this before, after having watched her sister do it...
She finds herself in a forest of tall trees. It seems like a forest, but some of it is missing. There appears to be no forest floor, just a pure black support for her feet. She marvels at the detail in the tree trunks as she touches the bark of one. But then it meets the floor in a purely cylindrical manner with no broadening for any roots.
As she looks around, she hears a gentle sound of yawning.
Who can be making that sound here? she asks herself.
She steps towards the gentle sound and finds the Tardis consciousness sitting back against one of the trees.
"Oh, hello," Alyssa says. She's uncertain just how to greet the Tardis consciousness who appears as a woman in a long flowing green dress, sadly creased up from her sitting in it, presumably for all that time - years!
Alyssa faces her. "How have you been since the Doctor was last in here?" She sees it as polite to ask after her first.
"Oh, it's so boring just sitting here for years on end. You've no idea!" A bitter edge to her voice appears to underline the negative sentiment. "I raised the floor level to alleviate the flood – my tears of boredom!" .
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just couldn't get in to do anything."
"So, you've been frustrated, too?"
"Yes," Alyssa owns, trying not to vent her own frustration. "Tell me, why was the Tardis door locked?"
"Oh, just some ancient fail-safe mechanism. Sorry, I had to follow procedure. In the presence of a significant perceived threat, I must prevent entry ... to protect the Tardis ... and the Universe!" (Ref. TV episode Blue Yonder.)
"The Doctor regenerated to be a baby," Alyssa says, "and I've been looking after him ever since, but he's somehow just not the Doctor. He has no spark. Tardis, how can I bring the Doctor back?" This is Alyssa's leading question. She eagerly awaits the response.
"What did the Doctor tell you to do?"
"I can't really remember," Alyssa owns. .
"Then ..." The Tardis Consciousness omits completion of her reply to avoid sounding trite. The instructions had been given to Alyssa, away from the Tardis vicinity, and Alyssa hasn't asked for a detailed data mining to recover the events from that day. .
However, the Tardis Consciousness has another possibility.
"If there is any doubt in the Doctor's mind that the child is his regenerated body, then maybe he won't return just like that from wherever he's gone. Maybe you must prove to him, or even to yourself, that the child you present to him is beyond doubt his body." .
Alyssa is horrified. Even an hour after the baby Doctor had been united with the twins' mother she had been uncertain!
How can she possibly now be certain, years later? . She's just gone with what the midwife had said! .
Neither child has shown any interest in stories of the Doctor's travels. No sign at all! .
How frustrating! .