"I thought I told you not to wander off," the Doctor reminds her but she ignores him.
"I changed my mind," Cherry muses, a small smile playing on her lips.
"You want to go home?" The Doctor assumes and she shakes her head.
"No, of course I don't,"...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Despite having unlimited access to a Time Machine, the four time-travellers decide to delay their trip to Rio for a few hours. Amy and Rory have locked themselves away in their bedroom, and Cherry took a while getting ready, soaking in everything that just happened, or rather didn't happen to them. She died. The Doctor saw her die. Now, every time he looks at her, his eyes hold a mixture of conflict and pain, and she cannot bear it. He looks at her as though she may break any second. Like he's responsible for her, and he's going to ruin her. She hides away in her room after she's showered and dressed, and she lies on her bed with her legs raised up above her head and leaning against the headboard. Her eyes trace over the scar on her leg, and she sighs. Maybe the Doctor is right to look at her like that. She must seem very fragile compared to himself. If she dies, she's gone forever, and her life is over, but if he dies, he'll go on and live his life with a different face. Then, her mouth pulls down into a frown as she considers the Doctor regenerating.
Would he still want her to travel with him if he changed? He didn't want her to stay with him the first time they met. What if something happens to him, and the new Doctor doesn't want her anymore? What if she doesn't like him anymore? She can't imagine not liking him, even if his face does change, but even this version of the Doctor, the face she travels with, seems drastically different from the one she met when she was seven.
She sighs, pushing those thoughts out of her mind and wiggling her feet in the Tardis blue Converse she borrowed from the wardrobe above her head before she swings her legs down and stands up. She leaves the safety of her bedroom and ventures into the Tardis corridors. She avoids Amy and Rory's room and finds herself in the kitchen instead, where she steals a can of Coca-Cola the Doctor has stocked up for her and grabs a packet of ready-salted crisps, which she carries into the control room to eat on one of the leather chairs. The Doctor is flying the Tardis, rushing around the console, and fiddling with all sorts of gadgets, and Cherry sits with her legs crossed on the chair. The leather is cold on the bare skin of her legs, thanks to the short length of her shorts, but she doesn't care enough to move.
"Are you ever going to teach me how to fly the Tardis?" Cherry raises her eyebrows at the Doctor, watching him struggling to control the box.
"Do you want me to?" the Doctor pauses, and Cherry shrugs her shoulders.
"I just think it would be nicer for you, and her," Cherry refers to the Tardis as a she as the Doctor always does. "If there were two of us flying it. Especially considering the fact that you leave the brakes on when you fly. I doubt that's good for her engine. Can humans even fly it?"
"Of course, they can," the Doctor tells her, smiling over at her as she rips open the packet of crisps and starts to snack on them. "I'll teach you one day."
"Really?" Cherry breaks out into a grin, not expecting him to agree to teach her so easily.
"Yeah, but not right now... we'll be in Rio soon," the Doctor says and then arches an eyebrow at her. "You wanted to talk to me?"
