The Defender of Time

Thirty-Three

"Say 'aaah'." The Doctor flattened Alessia's tongue to the bottom of her mouth with a tongue depressor and screwed up his face in concentration.

When he took it out and dropped it in a trashcan, Alessia swallowed and cleared her throat. "Do you think you're going to find regeneration energy in the back of my throat?" She giggled. She was expecting a laugh, but didn't receive any.

Instead, her father turned back to her, and leaned his elbows on the counter. Alessia, who was on the edge of the kitchen table, wrinkled her eyebrows as he waited for him to talk. "Can Mayzie regenerate?" He finally asked. "Or Janus?"

"I don't know," said Alessia innocently. "I never asked. Why?"

"Because you've got regeneration energy, and I want to know if she does too." The Doctor lifted Alessia off the table and set her on the floor (which, she could have easily done by herself, but she let him), and propped his hands on his hips. "Do you have her telephone number?"

Alessia shook her head. "I have her address. Does that help?"

The Doctor sighed. "Not unless you know when she lives." He turned on his heels and began to walk briskly down the hallway toward the console room. Alessia followed him, picking up her skirts on the way. She hadn't yet had a moment to change.

"Can't you track her or something? You've got me in your system. I saw it when I came to save you with Sally."

"I'd need her DNA."

"Well, you have my DNA. Isn't that close enough?"

"No, Alessia." Her father turned on the spot and stopped in his tracks. Alessia stopped a few paces behind him and dropped her skirts. "I don't think you understand the urgency of this situation. I need to speak with Mayzie or her father."

"Why is it urgent? Am I going to get hurt?"

When looking back on this moment, Alessia would label it as the first time she had been truly scared of the Doctor. He looked down at her like she had done something so insanely wrong that he couldn't even imagine her intentions, and the look on his face made her take a step back. "Go change your clothes, Alessia. And then bring me one of Mayzie's letters."

Alessia lingered for a moment, contemplating the look in her father's eyes. "What about Mayzie's dad?" She knew she was pushing her luck, but she kept on. "Don't you have the same DNA?"

There wasn't time to measure his reaction before she whirled on her heels and hurried back to her bedroom. It would probably be nice to change, anyway. She could lie in her own bed for a bit. Maybe even read a book.

She was greeted, once she entered her room, with August hanging from a rafter. He smiled slightly to acknowledge that she had entered. "He's pissed," he said flatly. "What'd you do?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Alessia opened her closet and pulled out a pair of loosely hanging blue overalls and a white turtleneck. "Turn around."

August did so by shifting himself around to hang the other way while Alessia changed. "If you don't want to talk about it, that means he's upset. Did you do something or not?"

"No, August, I didn't!" Alessia sighed and dropped to the floor to put on a pair of socks. "You can turn back around." When he did, she continued. "He's worried about me, because I brought Mum back. And he wants to ask Mayzie's dad if she can regenerate."

"Well that makes no sense." August switched from hanging from his knees to his hands, and then fell down gracelessly onto Alessia's bed. "Weren't you made in test tubes?"

Alessia exhaled sharply and stood up to slip her feet into her boots. "They weren't test tubes, August." She threaded her arms through her backpack and picked Oliver up off of her bed to slip him in.