Our Story

Chapter 9: Libby

 "So you think these modifications will allow your TARDIS to give enough energy to my TARDIS for her to take flight?" The Archivist asked from where she was under the console on one side. Her legs stuck out from under the panel, and the Doctor stood at the console monitoring the changes.

"Should do. At least one very short trip."

"To where?"

"Cardiff."

"Cardiff? Why are we going to Wales?"

"Location of a significant space-time rift that I use to refuel the TARDIS. While we're there you'll meet Jack. He's the one I was telling you about—the flirt. He's head of Torchwood."

She slid out from under the console, eyebrow raised as she looked at him quizzically. "Torchwood?"

The Doctor sighed and leaned his weight on the console. "Blimey, there's a lot to catch you up on. This could take a while. Unless—no, nevermind." He said, waving off the idea and turning back to the console.

"What? What were you going to suggest?" she asked, already having an idea of what he was thinking.

"Well—we could—I could share the information telepathically, it'd be a lot quicker than having to verbally explain everything."

She slid back under the console to continue the modifications. "It might be wise anyway—that is if I'm going to do my job."

"Your job?" he asked as he flipped a few switches, monitoring the read outs.

"To record the history of the Time Lords. I'm missing a few hundred years."

He gulped. "You want to—you want to record my history?"

"You are what's left of the Time Lords, Doctor. Yes, I need to record your history. And mine. And what you can tell me of the Master's." She made a few more tweaks before finishing up. "How's that, Doc?" There was no response, and she frowned before sliding back out. She looked to the last spot the Doctor had been to find it empty. She sat up and looked around to find him sitting, slumped over, in the jump seat. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

"So much has happened, Arch. I just don't know—"

She knelt down in front of him, cupping his cheeks in her hands. "Doctor, you're not alone anymore. You're not alone." She pulled him into a hug and he held her tight.

After a few minutes of silent embrace, he finally pulled away from her. After a quick glance at her clothing, he grinned. "You've gotten a bit messy under the console, I'm afraid."

She looked down at herself, quirking her mouth as she examined the clothing. "Can't say I'm too disappointed. Are you terribly attached to Christine's fashion sense? I wouldn't mind a bit of a change. This is almost like regenerating, it's been so long."

His mouth suddenly felt very dry. Why was he so nervous around someone he'd known for hundreds of years before? "What does it matter what I thought of Christine's clothing?"

She stood up, but kept her gaze on him as she moved to lean against the console. "I don't know, Doctor. But I sort of got the feeling it might."

He gulped, unable to look away from her, despite his own nervousness in her presence at that moment. "My connection to Christine had nothing to do with her clothing." He paused. Both of them searched in each others eyes for something that neither was quite ready to reveal. "You do what you want. I'm afraid, however, that the Old Girl doesn't have much in the way of female clothing. So we should probably get started with the process so you can recover the wardrobe from your TARDIS. Ready to connect the cabling?"

She nodded and grinned, ready to let the awkward conversation move on. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she almost hopped towards the doors leading out to the garden of her New York home. She opened them to find the old garden shack that sat at the back corner of the garden right outside the doors of the blue police box. "Good parking job!" she said loudly as she stepped out and patted the wooden door of the shack. "Alright, Libby, are you ready for a little kick start? She opened the shack door to find not the garden utensils she had seen weeks before, but instead the wide-open expanse of her control room. It was the only room currently active and available to access until power was restored. Surrounding the walls of the control room were bookshelves filled to the brim and piles of books on the floors, in fact, if it weren't for the center console, one might think it was a rather over-full library. But of course, what better suited the Archivist of the Ages? She glanced around with a big smile, then leaned down to pick up the cabling they had already connected to the underside of the console and began to drag it back towards the door. When she arrived at the small patch of grass between the two TARDISes, the Doctor was there to meet her.

"I'll take it from here. You go get ready on your end." He took the large thick cables from her and started pulling them into his TARDIS. "Alright, Old Girl. You ready to help an old friend?" As he bent down under the console, he spoke quietly. "Are you as excited about this as I am, Old Girl? What do you think, eh? This is as important for you as it is for me. Neither of us is all alone any more, what do you think of that?"

His TARDIS hummed in a sign of excitement and he smiled. "Yes, I agree." After connecting the cables to the two ports they had opened up and modified, he yelled. "Alright, ready?"

"As I'll ever be!" she shouted back as she went around the console, checking the switches. It was all dead, so there were no signals or read outs to check, so she just ensured for now that everything was turned 'off' so that the ship wouldn't overload as soon as it received power. After she had checked everything twice, she stopped, leaned over the console, placing her hands in between the switches on the flat surface. "Okay, Libby, let's make this work, girl. You can do it. Start up for me, now."

"Counting down from three!" the Doctor shouted, then took a deep breath and put his hand on the switch in front of him. He whispered, "Okay, Old Girl, show us what you've got." Then he shouted again. "Three! Two! One!" He flipped the switch and the TARDIS began thrumming loudly, her lights blinking in and out as she started diverting energy temporarily. The cabling between the two ships lit up and a flashing bright light began to pulse between the two ships, leading from the Doctor's to the Archivist's. After a few moments, the Doctor yelled again, "Anything?"

"No, not yet!" The Archivist frowned and furrowed her brow. "C'mon, Baby, you can do this! Come back to me!"

Suddenly the light up the center of the time rotor column glowed bright and the Archivist gasped as she looked up to it. "That's it! She's coming back!"

A deep hum started in the depths of the ship, growing louder and louder till finally all the lights on the console and in the room came back to life. "Yes! That's it!" The Archivist closed her eyes and basked in the glow of feeling her ship's presence back in her mind. "Hello, Libby – welcome back," she said with a smile.

"Libby?" the Doctor asked as he looked at the woman and her ship from where he was, leaned against the door frame.

The Archivist opened her eyes and turned to smile at him. "Short for Library."

"Ah," the Doctor said as she pushed off from the doorway, making the short journey up the ramp and into the center of the room. "She's a beauty, Archie." The ship thrummed, responding for herself, and the Doctor smiled. "You're very welcome, Libby. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Libby, I'm know you've got lots to do, and you and the Old Girl have lots to talk about, but do you mind getting the Wardrobe up and running as soon as possible so I can get back into some comfortable clothes?"

The ship thrummed in affirmative and almost immediately the doorway leading to the hallway and the rest of the ship lit up.

The Archivist turned to the Doctor and he shrugged and motioned her on. "You go on. I'll wait here and keep an eye on the power transfer. You can give me the full tour later, when she's back at 100%. I know she wouldn't want you showing her off when she's not at her best."

The ship thrummed again and he grinned. Archie shook her head and gave a small eye roll. "She's already started to like you a lot."