Saving the Doctor

Chapter 7

A while later I'm sitting in the chair, waiting for something, anything to happen.

After his surprising revelation, he took off to some other room and hasn't come back. I don't dare try to find him for fear of getting lost.

I get up from the chair and leisurely run my hand along the edge of the console, not really going anywhere, but needing to move. All this sitting around is boring and I'm getting antsy. I'm still sore and walking around only makes it worse, but I can't stand sitting around for too long.

My eyes are drawn to the controls and I see the brightly colored sphere set into the console again; the one I had almost turned before the Doc had told me not to. It's so pretty and mesmerizing and I feel like I need to see what it does.

I reach for the sphere hesitantly, subconsciously holding my breath. It's warm as my skin comes into contact with it and the Tardis starts to make a mechanical humming sound.

Suddenly the Doctor is behind me, his fingers around my wrist, and he pulls my hand away from the controls. "I told you not to touch that." He says irritatedly.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. It was just...pulling me."

"Well, next time remember that you could kill us if you disobey me." His voice is cold and void of any emotion, his eyes hard and uncaring. I'm suddenly afraid to be near him, and his fingers on my skin start to feel unwelcome.

I turn my eyes away and mumble, "Understood."

"Good." He releases my wrist and I step away from him quickly, sitting sideways in the chair.

Who - no, what - have I found? Who is he? How does he get from this to the Doctor I know and have come to care so much about? With him like this, I just want to get away from and forget about him. I sit in silence while he continues to try and operate the controls, failing.

"Bethany, come here."

I stay as I am, "What for? I thought you didn't want me touching anything," I pout.

"Come here please."

I sigh and stand up, walking over, "How may I serve you, Master?" I try not to smirk at my oh, so, clever reference.

He glares slightly, "For some reason you are able to activate the Tardis' controls while I cannot. I need to find something out, but to do that I need you to do as I say. Her controls are very sensitive and certain ones are dangerous if pushed or activated in the wrong order. I do not, and have not ever owned servants. And I resent your alluding to my having any."

I try to calmly keep my mouth shut. Darn my stupid mouth. Always making trouble worse than it already is when I'm only trying to be clever.

"Sorry," I mutter.

"Now. Please press this series of buttons."

So I do. Once he finds what he was looking for, he takes off again.

I sit back down and cross my arms, fuming.

I basically save his life, I take care of him, I'm nice to him, and this is the thanks I get: being treated like a child, like I don't know anything. Like a pet to be told what to do. What a jerk. Nine was not as bad as this.

But...I suppose he's been through a lot recently...besides the fact that he is a lot older than me. In his eyes, I basically am a child. In all reality, I don't know anything compared to him.

He's also most likely dealing with depression. He's angry with himself, with the world, with the universe for what he thought he had to do. What he thinks he's done.

I wish I could tell him what really happened. That he actually saved them all...but I can't. It could ruin the time stream, create a paradox. I'll just have to go easy on him, try to be understanding and patient.

With my temper, though, that's not going to be easy.