Peyton makes her appearance in the console room with her hair still slightly damp to the sound of arguing. She pauses at the bottom of the stairs with a packet of crisps in hand, staring up at the Doctor chasing Clara around the console.
"You said-"
"I know what I said! I was the one who said it!" Clara cuts him off.
"You said it was looking at you funny," the Doctor says, his long coat thrown over the railing and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
"I was tired! Overwrought. I didn't mean it," she shrugs, not slowing her pace. "It's an appliance. It does a job."
"Yes, a pretty cool appliance! We're not talking cheese grater over here."
"You're not getting me to talk to your ship. That's properly bonkers!"
"It's okay, it's okay," the Doctor coos to the console, running his hands along it.
Clara shivers. "Ugh, you're like one of those guys who can't go out with a girl unless his mother approves."
"It's important to me you get along," the Doctor says, coming to a stop. "I could leave you alone together?"
"Now you're creeping me out," Clara folds her arms, stopping across the console from him.
"Ah-hem," Peyton coughs.
Both Clara and the Doctor look down at her as if caught in the act of something shameful.
"Peyton, you said you were hopping in the shower," the Doctor says guiltily.
"Yes, and then I got out," Peyton slowly walks up the steps to the flight deck. "I didn't know we were picking her up."
"It was a surprise, out of the blue, spur of the moment," Clara says quickly. Peyton looks over to her as she pops a crisp in her mouth.
"Yes, and I'm glad you're here!" The Doctor walks over to the other Time Lord and grabs her by the shoulders. "Maybe you can help Clara and the Tardis get along. Teach her the basics. Clara, how do you feel about taking the wheel?"
"The what?" Clara raises an eyebrow.
"Not the wheel," the Doctor smacks his forehead before walking over to her.
"Wait, no, why do I have to?" Peyton glares at the back of his head, several crisps in the bag snap under the pressure of her fist.
"Hush," the Doctor snaps back at her before looking to Clara. "We'll make it easy, shut it down to basic mode for you."
"Basic!" Clara objects as the Doctor gets to work on the controls. "Cause I'm a girl?"
"Nope," Peyton sighs, folding her bag of crisps and leaning over to tuck them in the pocket of the Doctor's coat for storage. "Because you're human."
The Doctor turns a key in the control panel and the Tardis makes a strange sound. "All yours," he smiles at Peyton.
She walks over to the controls where Clara is standing, who is clearly trying to pull a cool facade over her excited demeanour.
"Right," Peyton begins, placing her hands over Clara's lightly to guide them. "You're gonna wanna pull this row down, then this blue lever here, flick that up."
Peyton stands back as Clara carefully follows her instructions. With a glance up to the Doctor, who is beaming proudly, Clara pushes up the final blue lever.
With a jolt, the main lights in the console room switch off, leaving only the time router and the dim blue ring lights on the walls of the balcony to cut through the darkness.
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...
