The Girl of Colours (Book TWO)

Draw a Map, Find a Path

Calliope:

"Dad!" I screamed at the TARDIS as it dematerialised, and Sarah Jane ran out of the house once it was gone. "Dad..."

Luke put his hand on my arm, and I turned into him, letting him hold me as I cried for what felt like the millionth time. "It's OK, Callie... We're here for you."

"Come on, we should go inside." Sarah told us, leading us slowly up the drive of 13 Bannerman Road as Rani came running up from her drive. "Callie, come on."

We went up the stairs to the attic, where Mr Smith was already out of the wall, waiting for us. "Hello, Calliope. What an unexpected surprise, will you be staying with us long?"

I stared at him, feeling my eyes dry up as I ran out of tears, before Sarah Jane pressed a tissue into my hand. "She'll be staying for as long as she has to, Mr Smith." She told him firmly, grabbing a first aid kit from under a desk and carried it over. Oh, right. I was hurt, left over from the ship exploding glass all over me, my hands and face. "Try to stay still, your face is still bleeding a little, and there might be some glass in there."

Luke held my hand through all of it, every wince he kissed my hand softly. "It's Ok."

"I, um, I..." I tried to say, my thoughts unable to make sense. "The, The Master, and, and Wilfred... Dad's dying, he's going to regenerate!" I tried to get to my feet, but they just pulled me back down. "Please, he's alone, he shouldn't be alone for that!"

"He wants to be alone." Sarah Jane replied, dabbing my arm as another cut then split back open. "Callie, you're currently hurt, you're exhausted, and you don't have a clue where he is. When he's ready, he'll come back for you."

Staring at the swirling pattern on Mr Smiths screen, I nodded dumbly, before Sarah Jane and Luke left the room, leaving me with Rani who was digging through a bag of clothes she'd brought over for some reason. "OK, we're about the same size, Callie, so I've brought some stuff. You're coated in blood and you need to change."

I blinked, a little confused. "I have my own clothes, t, they're..."

"On the TARDIS, I know." She replied. "But Sarah Jane asked if you could borrow some of my stuff while we work on getting a load of yours. I got my most colourful stuff."

She wasn't kidding there, it was a spectrum in it's own right the amazing colours she had. I carefully picked up a pair of blood red leggings and a TARDIS blue dress and held them against myself, before seeing my hands, still burnt and raw. "I keep forgetting that they're supposed to hurt." I told her softly. "I'm so used to ignoring pain that it's just not there now."

Rani moved forward and put an arm around me, showing me to the mirror. The girl staring back at me was windswept, from driving a space ship at high speed without a windscreen, beaten, bruised and battered from multiple problems, and she was sad. "Callie, you're going to be fine. I think Sarah Jane's busy enrolling you in the 6th Form with Luke, Clyde and I too, so you're going to be with people who know you all the time, and basically, we're going to make sure that you're busy while you wait for your dad."

"My dads hurt, Rani." I told her softly, picking at the empty space where my old necklace used to be. "He's hurt really bad, and he thinks he's saving me, but at the cost of himself."

"It's what parents do, Callie." She replied stoutly, passing me a hairbrush. "Parent's sacrifice themselves for their kids. I'm guessing that you didn't really know your first family all that much."

That was true, I didn't. "No, they died when I was about 9. Such a long time ago now. I feel, I feel 17, but there are times when, when I just stop, and I think about the fact that I'm going to look 17 for years, because I don't age the same way as everyone else. I'm in my late 50's."