Peyton walks into the console room, looking down from the top of the stairs in her matching flannel pyjamas. With one hand on the railing, she walks down to the main deck, the only noise being the quiet thrum of the engines and her slippered feet hitting the metal stairs.
"Having trouble sleeping?" She jumps, not expecting to hear the Doctor's voice from beneath the deck.
"A little, I guess," Peyton shrugs, peering down through the glass floor.
"Come down here."
She heads down another flight of stairs to where the Doctor sits on a small hammock, tinkering with something.
"So, what's the problem?"
"There isn't one, my brain just didn't want to stop so I thought I'd go for a stroll," she explains as he slides his goggles off his face and gets off the hammock.
"Then can you give me a hand?" He thrusts the goggles out toward her, before pointing at her hand. "Yours are smaller than mine."
Peyton gives him and unsure look before taking the goggles from his hands and sliding them onto her head.
"Alright, get in nice and close," he instructs. "Look right in here now, do you see the orange switch?" He points toward a small opening in the casing under the console.
"Yeah," she replies. It's tiny.
"Do you think you could reach in there and flick it the other way?"
Peyton tentatively slides her hand through the opening. "I think, almost. There!" With a satisfying click, the switch moves beneath her fingers.
"Look at you!" He gives her a high five with her free hand. She tries to pull her hand out but it's stuck.
"Doctor, I-"
"Just relax," he says. "The muscles in your hand are tensing, making your hand just that tiny bit bigger. Just relax and let me."
Peyton relaxes and feels the Doctor's cold hands slide over her wrist and helps her pull it out. It hurts a little, but it comes out with just a little grease stain on it.
"Here," the Doctor tosses her a rag to wipe it.
"You could've just used one of your tools to do it," Peyton's says as she wipes the dark oil off her hand, pulling the steampunk goggles off too, she didn't really need them anyway.
"What?"
"You didn't really need me, you could've used a spanner or not-so-sonic screwdriver to do the job."
"Well, you were there, you didn't have anything better to do," he smiles.
"I've been thinking, about what the Dream Lord said." He looks at her cautiously. "Do you really think of me as like, a daughter?"
He chuckles, crouching down to meet her eyes. "Like I said. The Dream Lord was me."
"So..."
"Your father and I go way back. We grew up together. We were going to see the stars together. We cared for each other like brothers. But stuff happened, I guess, and times change. But, you are truly your father's daughter and well, you're the last even remotely like me. I just think it's only right for you to see the stars like he wanted to."
"Did something happen? Why wasn't he able to see the stars?"
"No, he saw them alright. Just before he burned them," he says darkly. "I don't want you to make the same mistake. Mistaking chaos for beauty."
Peyton nods and he holds out his hands in a sign to help her up. He takes her hands, and she stands to her feet.
"Back to bed, I think, Miss Barrett."
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
