Starlight ★ TENTH DOCTOR

The Horse, the Mistress and the Fireplace

In the first couple of days onboard the Tardis, Elizabeth had accidentally opened the front door while they were floating in space. She immediately realized what she had done and sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes and prepared to be sucked off into space. The Doctor and Rose were laughing their asses off by the console at the girl's dramatic reaction. Calming down from his laughter, the man explained how the Tardis was protecting them with an oxygen bubble, and it was safe to open the doors as long as she didn't plan to go for a spacewalk. After that whole incident, sitting in the open Tardis doors with a view of deep space was one of her favourite spots on the whole ship. The Doctor noticed this and often let the ship drift, while they were asleep or resting.

She had tried sleeping, as the Doctor ordered, but the pain in her arm was keeping her up, and recently her nightmares have gotten worse. Usually, it was the same one about that dreadful night when she lost her parents. The distant screams and the unfamiliar lights from the planets in the sky still haunt her. She hoped to never experience anything like that ever again. But sometimes she dreamt of being left stranded on some alien planet with no Doctor or Tardis insight. She knew he would never leave her behind like that, but the exhausted mind liked to play games.

Space was understandably cold and the machine didn't shield her from the breeze. As a solution, Elizabeth made mint tea and snuggled up with a yellow blanket that the Tardis had fabricated for her. Dangling her legs outside and absentmindedly twiddling with the red crystal around her neck, she observed a distant shooting star. It was custom to wish upon a shooting star, but Elizbeth was already living the dream and couldn't come up with anything wish-worthy that might come true.

"I thought I told you to get some rest." The raspy voice of the Doctor startled her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to face him. He had taken off his jacket and was left with only a white button-up shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbow. He also looked tired, but apparently not tired enough to sleep. She wasn't even sure he had a room for himself. In his hands were a couple of dusty old books that then he set down on the jumpseat to come to join her at the edge of the ship.

"I can only fall asleep on my left side." She lied and lifted her bandaged left arm. She didn't want to make him worry about her having nightmares. The man didn't entirely believe her but hummed in understatement. Elizabeth shifted her blanket to cover him as well and put her head on his shoulder. She felt the man tense up for a second but then relaxed his shoulders once again. As they sat in silence, Elizabeth pondered whether or not to bring up why he had run off and left her in the med bay earlier. But she didn't want to ruin the moment. Looking down at her necklace, she thought of something else. She thought of her grandfather. Of where he might have gotten something so enchanting and out of this world. Elizabeth's seen enough movies to know that it probably wasn't a good idea, but she had to know.

"Doctor?" The blond's head vibrated from the soft hum the man emitted, shoving he was listening. 

"Could I... Is it possible for me to go back and... see my grandfather?" She felt stupid asking him that. Not meeting his questioning gaze, she looked down, twirling the gold chain.

"Going back into your own timeline is incredibly dangerous." He took her cold hand in his warm one looking down at her. "I'm sorry." She sighed and shook her head, understanding.

He knew exactly why she had asked that and felt genuinely sorry. Sometimes it was too easy to read the girl, but mostly she kept her deepest thoughts to herself, afraid to let loose. It was only a matter of time before she asked it. Rose did, and so does everyone, eventually. He would give anything to go back home for just one more day...Sighing heavily, he rubbed the girl's hand with his thumb, comforting her.

★★★★

When Rose and Mickey woke up they were off again on another adventure. The Doctor didn't tell them the destination to "make it more fun" but Elizabeth had made the conclusion a while ago that the ship did more of the flying on its own than he did. The Doctor was the first to emerge from the Tardis, closely followed by Rose then Mickey and Elizabeth.