The Doctor and Kat [5]

-12-

    "What's a Terratikan?" Kat asked as she sat on the railing of the control room.
    "It's a species," he said matter-of-factly.
    "But do they look like us or do they look different?"
"Different."
"What do they look like then?" she leaned backward, staring upward, not aware of the drop behind her.
"You'll find out soon enough."
"Drive!" Kat yelled. Lila beamed.
The Doctor ran to the console and flipped a few switches. "Here we go!" He pulled the lever and the T.A.R.D.I.S. shook, almost throwing Kat and Lila over the railing.
Kat screeched, scrambling to her feet and holding onto the railing for dear life. "A warning next time, please!"
"Sorry! I don't know what's up with her," the Doctor stated trying again. There was only the same result.
"What did you do?" Kat whined, trying to let go and walk to the console.
"I didn't do anything! She's upset for some reason..."
"As long as it's not my fault, we're good."
"It's not your fault, but it might be Lila's."
"Stop blaming everything on my girlfriend!" Kat blurted.   
"I'm not, it genuinely might be because she isn't a Time Lord."
"But you've had humans and other things on board!"
"Yes, but we're traveling after something quite important."
"What?"
"We traveled to your past."
"And?"
"She might be a bit... fazed."
"Still not understanding..." Kat stared at the buttons now.
"I don't get it either... What did you do in your past? Anything that could have involved Lila?"
Kat didn't reply.
"This is important. You might be threatening her existence today as well."
"Just the two times she went with you. And then I forgot about her until I met her last month."
"Are you sure?"
"No."
"That's reassuring."
"Did Lila talk when you took her with you?" she asked suddenly, glancing up.
"She spoke to me, and did say hello to you once..."
"Why would you let that happen? Okay, so she spoke to me?"
"You didn't know either of us at the time, did you? Yeah, she spoke to you. It shouldn't have made a difference because you forgot."
"Of course I knew you." Kat replied incredulously.
"How could you have possibly recognized me? You were what, five?"
"Still had my memories. You told your name immediately."
"I need to start using John Smith again..."
"Would be helpful, yes. What does this have to do with the T.A.R.D.I.S.?"
"We may have sort of maybe caused a paradox kinda thing..."
"But I stayed inside! I made sure I stayed inside and out of sight!"
"If you knew who I was, then you knew I wasn't in the right time."
"Do you honestly believe a five year old would understand that?"
"Yes, because you just said you weren't five."
"I was. But I still had memories of my past. I was still intent on finding you."
"I know how regeneration work. You were more like 306."
"Oh, shush." Kat scowled, moving to the other side of the controls.
"What do you suppose we do now?"
Kat responded by hitting a few buttons.
"And?"
"Wait for it."
"I'm going to slap you if you say that one more time."
"Sheesh, violent much?" she muttered, just as the T.A.R.D.I.S. shook to life.
"I am not..."
"Wait for it..." Kat grinned as the T.A.R.D.I.S. began to move.
The Doctor responded by slapping Kat in the face.
"Ow! That bloody hurt! What the hell?"
"I learned that from River," he stated simply.
Kat glared, huffing and going to the door. "Are you coming or not old man?"
"I thought hang around for a bit, actually."
Lila grabbed his wrist and dragged him out with her.
"Oi!"
"Oi! Oi!" Kat mocked, "Is that all you can say?"
"Arse! Arse!" he retorted.
Kat began to sprint to her left, Lila following.
"Where are you going?"
"Left!" Lila replied.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and followed.
Kat scampered back to The Doctor soon after. "People..."
"No: Terratikans."
"Yes, but ehhhhhh..."
Lila appeared before them. "Scaredy-Kat, aye?" She laughed.
The Doctor laughed. "I like you more now. High five!" He stuck his hand out.
"I'll pass." Lila smiled softly at Kat, ruffling her hair.
"How dare you!" He looked personally offended as he scoffed in her direction.
She shrugged in return. "No need to encourage negativity toward Kat, huh?"
The Doctor only glared at her.
Kat and Lila grabbed either of his hands and began to pull him towards wherever they had wandered minutes before.
"What is this!" he screeched in dramatized agony.
"This is love," Kat replied.
"What is love!" The Doctor sang.
"This. I'm being a loving child."
"Sure."
"You love me." She said smugly. They let go of his hands as they came to  a bridge.
"Yeah, okay," he said in fake disgust.
"I can see behind your facade!" Kat yelled at him. She began to climb the bridge above a huge gorge.
The Doctor laughed, and followed her.
Kat had made her way onto the top most bar, swinging her legs back and forth, staring down at the nearly 500 foot gorge below. Lila had made her way to join her. The Doctor was attempting the climb, but had only made it a few feet off the ground and was screaming in defeat.
Kat moved to her feet, putting her arms out for balance. "You're terrible at this."
"Shut up!"
"Don't yell! I'd rather not fall to my death!"TARDIS
"Then don't shout at me!"
Lila patted his head. "One day, Doctor."
The Doctor tried to step up, but lost his footing and grabbed onto Lila's arm. She stared down at him, a smile creeping onto her face.
"Do not!" he shouted, putting bother his arms around her neck.
"Life's not fair, is it? You see I, well I, will never be  king... and you... shall never see the light of another day!" Lila quoted, letting him fall and bursting into a fit of laughter.
"Curse you!"
"Long live the king!" Kat exclaimed, jumping down beside the Doctor and falling onto her face. Kat climbed to her feet, mud streaking her face. She grinned.
"And you said I didn't know what I was doing..." The Doctor stated.
"I'm doing the only thing I know how to do! Be odd. And smart." Kat helped Lila off the railing.
"You're not that smart."
"Butt."
"Deranged otter."
"I'm the most intelligent being ever!"
"Just like the Raxicoricofalapatorians I suppose?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're extremely intelligent." he said through laughter.
"Do you know why I don't trust anything you say anymore?" Kat muttered, starting to walk away with Lila. "By the way, you might want to get yourself together before you like like a fool to the Terrakin-whatever-they-are-however-you-say-it."
"It's actually the Terratakins."
"Did I not do amazing things yesterday? You even told me I was amazing! And Lila told me you said I was adorable!"
"Lila lied, obviously. Get your facts straight!"
"Oh."
"Bye bye, butterfly! I learned that from Nardole." With that, he left the planet.
**************
"Jerk," Kat muttered, climbing into a nearby imaginary tree. "He does this a lot. He'll come back once we get into a near death situation."
"That's sad," Lila mumbled as she watched her climb up higher and higher in the branches.
"Meh. I'm used to it." She looks down for a moment. "If I die while he's not here and it's my last regeneration, he'll understand."
The T.A.R.D.I.S. appeared, almost crushing Kat.
"Or he'll cause a near death situation when he comes back." Kat growled.
"Hello!" the Doctor exclaimed, cracking the door and poking his head out. "I brought Jammie Dodgers!"
Kat grabbed the cookies from him and dropped them on the ground.
The Doctor glared at her and said nothing. He went back in his T.A.R.D.I.S. and left.
"Um..." Lila stared awkwardly. "That's not good... eh?"
"No. It isn't." Kat stated frustratedly. "If I go jump off a bridge he'll come." She began to march off toward the bridge.
"Kat, that is not how we solve our life problems."
"It is if you're a TimeLord with an attitude."
"No. Just no." Lila trudged after her and dragged Kat back to their original position.
"Release meeeeeee!" Kat whined, pulling Lila with her toward the bridge. This instigated a tug-of-war game of 'Who can pull the body faster'.
Kat ended up being stronger, Lila being pulled after her as she reached the bridge. "He'll come."
"You have a phone you know. Send him a Snapchat filter," Lila reasoned. "The Doctor has your old phone."
"Here, you have a go-" Kat offered the phone to Lila and began to climb the fencing.
"I will break up with you, you... you.... FISH!" Lila yelled, trying to be menacing.
Kat looked back at her for a moment. "You're adorable when you're angry."
Lila stopped in her tracks and threw a spare button at Kat with all of her force. It didn't make it very far.
"Awww, cupcake... try harder, love." She got to the top, tentatively standing up.
"This calls for drastic measures..." Lila whispered to herself, going into stealth mode. She crouched on the ground and rolled up her sleeves, looking for the sharpest pebble she could find.
Kat grabbed her phone since Lila hadn't taken it, and video called The Doctor. She tossed it to Lila. "He can have a movie while he eats his damn cookies."
The Doctor answered with a frown, shoving his face with cheetos. "What do you- Oh, hi Lila!" he said cheerfully.
"Doctor! Please come back, she's being irrational and I tried everything I could! She called me cupcake, for whatever-is-in-the-sky's sake!"
"Fine. Only for you. Kat stole my cookies." He hung up and the T.A.R.D.I.S. appeared next to Lila. "Hi Lila! Where is the ever so evil reigning otter that stole my cookies?"
"Right here." Kat yelled from the top of the bridge.
"Up there." Lila frowned. "And she only dropped the cookies..."
"Do I have them? No! Thief I say, thief!"
Kat jumped off the bridge, waltzing into the T.A.R.D.I.S. and slamming the door in The Doctor's face. Lila looked up at him exasperatedly.
"She's a problem child."
"Yes, she is."
Lila pushed open the doors and stared in awe at the sparkles coating every inch of the console room. 
"What did you do?!"
"Nothing! It was like this when I walked in!"
"Kat Anne Wilson! Do not bloody lie to me!" He stared in horror at the walls. "What did the witch do to you?"
Kat stormed down the hall.
Lila cleared her throat. "So, uh, yeah..."
"What is it, Lila?"
"I dunno. I didn't know she had a full name. Or that she was capable of coating a T.A.R.D.I.S. in glitter in nearly ten seconds."
"She's capable of a lot of things. The name was the name she used with her human family... I used to call her Jenny."
"Jenny?" Lila looked very perplexed.
"Yes," the Doctor smiled. "Donna gave her that name."
"Then why'd she change it?"
"I don't know, she didn't like it."
"That is not why." Kat huffed, walking back in.
"Then why?" they questioned in unison.
"Because I had to."
"Why did you have to?" the Doctor prompted.
"If you were on the hunt for a madman for how many years and you had to hide with a human family for a good part of them, you get a new name."
"What do you mean 'on the hunt'?"
"What do you expect from me? You left and you can go through time and space! I had to hunt for you."
"I thought you were dead!"
"I had two hearts! I was your daughter!"
"You're pulse stopped. We tried everything. You were dead for twenty-two minutes before I had to leave."
"Well, either way, you left. I had to hunt for you, and once I was giving up and going to go undercover as a human, I had to come up with some sort of identity! People suck."
"I concur." He glanced at Lila, trying not to laugh.
"Bleh, Anne, Wilson, yuck." Kat mumbled.
"Would you rather me call you Kat Shmoopser?"
"I'd rather not. Jenny or Kat is just peachy. Anywho... glitter."
"So, Jenny, did you do that?"
Kat stared at him. "No."
"Come on, Jenny."
Kat pursed her lips. She threw a handful of glitter in his face and smirked.
"That's not nice, Jenny," he stated firmly.
"That's not nice, father."
"Jenny, you are grounded. Go to the corner and think about what you've just done!" He pointed to the left corner and frowned. Lila stifled a laugh.
"No."
"Jenny," he challenged.
"Lila... Want to go sit by the pond down the hall?"
The Doctor didn't say anything, just looked at the ground.
"What I thought..." Kat muttered, starting down the hall.
Lila looked at the Doctor. "Are you alright?"
"Lovely. You know, I bought more Jammie Dodgers after Kat destroyed my other pack. They're down the hall." The doctor mustered a smile.
"And?" She asked, taking a step closer.
"And you can have some..." he said, taking a step back and dusting himself off, as if to dispose of the people germs.
Lila looked at his eyes. "She didn't mean it."
The Doctor nervously laughed and brushed her off, suddenly becoming really interested in the T.A.R.D.I.S. console.
"I want to learn things." Lila jumped up to sit on the railing, staring around at the ceiling and controls.
"Like what?"
"Like things. You're intelligent. I want to learn stuff." She smiled softly.
"Ummm..."
A loud crash sounded from outside, something crashing into the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"Bloody hell...:" the Doctor mumbled, looking to see what was going on.
"Aye! Where've you come from, mate?" A man inquired as he opened the door to find the T.A.R.D.I.S. had moved onto a pirate ship.
"Oh boy."
"PIRATES!" Lila exclaimed excitedly, running up behind The Doctor.
"Kat! You may need to see this!"
"She's busy..." Lila mumbled in awe.
"Lila, go get Jerk."
"Um... but there's an issue-"
"Go get Jerk."
One of the pirates, sword in hand, followed by his friend (also with pointy stabby things), approached them.
"Hi!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling out his psychic paper and showing it to them.
The lead pirate nodded back to his friends. Two stepped forward, grabbing The Doctor, another two grabbing Lila.
"Wha-"
"Shut up, lad. It'll do you some good." The guy on his left said.
"Search the box!" Someone behind them yelled.
"Oi! That is private property! I know the queen! I married the queen! I will take off your heads! She does not like you already! Don't let them hurt you, Sexy!"
"Doctor! We have things to worry about!" Lila yelled, just as they were thrown inside some room.
"I hope she'll be okay!" the Doctor yelled in trauma and agony.
Lila frowned deeply.
"I love you!"
💕