The Littlest Timelord: Outtakes/Deleted Scenes

Fear is a Superpower

A/N - Requested on my Tumblr. This is obviously young Elise. Since she talks in this piece, it takes place during series 6, but before "The Doctor's Wife" since she has no idea what happened to the Timelords yet.

Summary: Elise has a nightmare and the Doctor tells her a story from his childhood.

Elise ran through the streets. Buildings burned and crumbled around her.

She had no idea where she was. Where were her parents?

Children around her screamed for their mothers and fathers, so where were hers?

Elise ran down a dark alley to escape the chaos.

Something was already there.

"H...Hello?" she called. Elise watched in horror as a Dalek rolled towards her.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Elise sat up in bed, tears streaming down her face. She looked around her and found that she was safe. She was in the TARDIS and not on Gallifrey.

Elise got out of bed and walked down the silent corridor towards the control room.

The Doctor sat on the jump seat, reading a book. He heard Elise sniffle and looked up. He quickly put his book down and rushed over to her. "Elise? What's wrong?" he asked.

The question made her start crying again.

He picked her up and held her close to his chest. He walked over to the console and pressed a button.

Soft music filled the control room.

"There, there, my little Ellie." The Doctor gently swayed back and forth and rubbed her back to try and calm her. "It's okay." He pressed his temple against hers and saw the nightmare. "You know I'd never let anything like that happen to you."

After a while, Elise calmed down and the Doctor carried her back to her bedroom. He laid her down in her bed and kissed her head. As he turned to leave, he heard, "Daddy?"

"Yes, Elise?"

"Have you ever been scared?"

A feeling of dread filled the Doctor. He walked back over to her bed and sat down.

Elise curled up in his lap.

"Yes."

"Really? I thought you weren't scared of anything."

"Once, when I was little, I escaped to a little barn outside near where I lived."

"Why?"

"I was almost at the age where I would enter the Academy. Most Timelords go to the Academy or join the Army. This was before the Time War. But most joined the Army after leaving the Academy. Of course, I didn't want to go into the Army. I wanted to help people."

"That's why you call yourself the Doctor!"

The Doctor smiled. "Yes. Anyway, I went out there to cry so no one would hear me. I heard a man's voice calling out for someone. So of course I sat up in bed and asked who was there. I started to get out of bed and when I did, a hand grabbed my ankle."

Elise gasped at this.

"I was terrified. But then a voice told me it was just a dream. It told me to lay back down and go to sleep. But before I fell back asleep, the voice told me to listen. It said, I know you're afraid, but being afraid is alright. Because didn't anyone ever tell you, fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster and cleverer and stronger and one day, you're gonna come back to this barn and on that day, you're going to be afraid indeed. But that's okay, because if you're very wise and very strong, fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind."

Elise was quiet as the Doctor stroked her hair. "Did you go back to that barn?"

"Yes. I did."

"And what happened?"

The Doctor kissed her head. "I made the hardest decision I ever had to make." He didn't explain any further. He didn't know when he'd tell her, but now was not the time.

The Doctor laid her back down in her bed and covered her up, before sonicing her ceiling to look like the night sky. "Time to go to sleep, little one. And remember, it's okay to be scared." He kissed her forehead, thanking whatever gods existed that Elise had fallen into his life. That he wasn't alone anymore. Something good had come out of the Time War.

But voice had been right about one thing.

In his old age, fear made him kind.