Paradox (DW Fan-Fic)

Chapter 7

"I've been meaning to ask," Rose started once they got back in the TARDIS from dealing with the plasma storm. That adventure had certainly been interesting. Her partially burnt clothes could attest to that. "Exactly how long have you been travelling with the Doctor?"

The question was obviously directed towards Lily who was currently sitting in the jump seat as they all took a small break after all the running they had done. The Doctor also glanced over in her direction from where he stood at the console. He was pretty curious, too. While it wasn't good to know your own personal future, surely just this much would be fine. 

"Ah," the redhead looked to be in thought. This was a question that she'd probably never give an entirely clear answer after all.  "A few years give or take."

Technically, it wasn't a lie. 

"But this time line's Doctor hadn't met you until the other day," Rose clarified, trying to make sense of everything. After all, it hadn't even been a whole week for her since she started travelling with the Doctor. There was still a lot that she didn't know or understand. 

"Um, no, not quite," Lily tried to look over to the Doctor for help, but for once in his life, he seemed content to let her do the explaining, the bastard. However, Rose looked confused, so she still had to explain. "He's met both past me and future me a couple of times but never for very long."

"The first time I met her was centuries ago," the Doctor confirmed with a casual tone. Though, given that she was currently travelling with current him, it actually worried him a bit that she somehow manages to find herself with younger him. 

"You're kidding?" Rose asked, looking between the two curiously. 

"Nope!" The Doctor grinned at the two sisters. "First time I met your sister, she hijacked the TARDIS one minute and disappeared the very next. Only met her once more after that, so you could say that the other day was our first proper meeting."

Rose snorted with a grin at the idea of Lily hijacking the TARDIS. "That definitely sounds like something she'd do." 

Lily snickered, ignoring the few things that happened to be wrong with the Doctor's statement. He didn't need to know anything about those mistakes just yet.  "Yeah… I can't deny that," She paused. "I am a bit curious about the circumstances, though."

"Even I don't know that," the Doctor shrugged. For now, that meeting was apparently going to be a mystery for both of them. He wasn't lying when he said that she was there one minute and gone the next. Though, he did, in fact, leave out one particular detail that he had no plans of sharing anytime soon. "But enough of that! Where to next?!"

"I don't know about you guys," Rose started. "But I'm going to sleep." Lily smiled a bit at the expression that had formed on the Doctor's face. He was clearly exasperated at the human need for at least eight hours of sleep a night. "Properly. In a bed and everything. I'm exhausted." 

That nap she'd taken at 10 Downing Street had definitely not been enough for her standards. She was pretty sure she still had some cricks in her back and bags under her eyes from that. 

"Humans and your need for sleep," the Doctor grumbled without any real bite to it and a bit of humor in his tone. 

"Just because you can go for over a week without sleep, doesn't mean that everyone can, Spaceman," Lily teased, causing him to look taken aback. 

"Spaceman?" He questioned incredulously, giving her a look that questioned her sanity as Rose laughed and Lily smiled innocently.

"Better than Martian," she told him, just making him more confused.