Lost In Translation

Hair Brained Schemes

The Doctor:

She was angry at me, and honestly, I did not know what I did this time. Normally I knew, I'd touched her console, I'd broken something in the kitchen or I'd accidentally trodden on something in the garden. Occasionally, it was when I almost broke history and we held it together by the skin of our teeth, usually due to one of my hair brained schemes. This time? This time Elizabeth was just angry and it was scary. "Where have you put Amy?"

"She's in the pantry. There's food so she can eat, and there's only one door. It means I can keep her there safely until I work out what exactly I'm supposed to do." She replied, walking to her garden, the sky a sort of summer storm, like she was happy, but also very, very unsure about something. There were things that she wasn't telling me, and I didn't like that. Last time that happened she got abused for over a hundred years. "You need to stop just acting without thinking. I know that has never been you, but she is a human, she has a life and a destiny on Earth, and she is getting married in the morning. You kissed her!"

"No, she kissed me."

"Which you reciprocated."

Well... "She's a rather amazing kisser, that's not my fault. Look, I'm sorry, but what are we going to do about all of this? We can't just drop her back on Earth, that's not fair. She still needs our help."

Lizzy folded her arms, still in pj's but had her fluffy hair in a weird topknot again, like a Teletubby antenna. "No. You need her help, and I want to work out what happened to everyone else who lived in that house." What did that mean? Could she please start keeping me up to date with her own hair brained schemes? Because I had no idea what she was talking about half the time. "Doctor, the TARDIS is linked into both of us by this point, she knows who to look for in the universe. It's very rarely a coincidence that you land somewhere and instantly find a human or other that is a suitable companion to you. She actively looks for the people in the universe who will make you happy and keep you entertained. She looks for the ones that will last the longest, usually. Martha was a fluke, she was there when she found me, which is why she struggled to keep up sometimes, but you didn't exactly help, pining after Blondie."

This, this was a little bit rude, Sissy. They were all my friends, and Martha... Okay, I screwed up with Martha and I was definitely not the nicest person, but Donna and Rose? Wait. Rose was the Bad Wolf, she literally called through time to make sure that we met, and Donna was constantly pulled towards me by both the TARDIS and Dalek Caan. "Elizabeth, I don't know what you mean. Are you saying that it's the TARDIS who picks the companions and my friends? That she is literally arranging me play dates?"

"I'm surprised it's taken you this long to work it out, Brother." She replied, turning away and picking up her gardening gloves, changing from the leather ones she was wearing. "You're too dangerous to leave unattended, often the companions look after you more than you ever do them. Look at Peren." And got to work walking to her vegetable patch, starting to weed and gently pull off any dead leaves in an attempt to encourage new ones to grow. "I'll work out what is best to do with her soon, you are right, we can't just take her home, but at the same time if she's spiralling we need to find a way to ground her and remind her of what her life on Earth is. No one can travel with us forever, everyone has to grow up."

"No they don't." She looked up at me, those burns and scars on her face still red and raw. I honestly didn't even know how much pain my little sister must have been in due to those and the ones that I knew spread up into her hair as well, then down the back of her neck let alone the one on her hand from Dreamland. If it had been me I'd be screaming in agony, but there she was, just... There. It was like she downloaded a programme that turned off all her nerves. "They have to get older, sure, but that child is still in everyone, Elizabeth. Even in you, I know that you have fun and mess around, and that you just want to be free and travel and learn and never have responsibilities. You just feel like you have to look after me, which you don't. You are my little sister, Bethy. It has never been your job to look out for me, it's the other way around."