| “ | “Like I said, Doctor, it’s okay to be sad. Things change...”
— Yaz
|
” |
I'm not done with this page yet, so come back in a few days maybe. 😁
Plot
“Well, what do you think?” The Doctor’s voice broke the silence that had followed after they had stepped out of the Tardis.
“It’s…absolutely amazing,” Yaz answered.
The Tardis had landed on a cliff. The cliff was overlooking the most beautiful landscape underneath. The whole place felt like it shined and sparkled. There were trees, rivers, mountains, and so many other wonderful things you can only imagine.
“What’s this planet called again?” Ryan asked.
“Well,” the Doctor replied, “it has an official number designation and such, but some explorers call it Paradise.” “Kind of a cheesy name. But I guess I see that,” Graham remarked.
“It really is paradise,” Yaz wistfully said.
The Doctor was in her element. The wind blew her coat and her hair back, and her eyes looked out on the horizon. She grinned and looked at the others. “My fam. This place is more enjoyable with you lot at my side. Been here before, stood on this same cliff, but it’s different now. More special.” Graham smiled. “Yeah, it’s really great that we’re all together, looking at the beauty of this place. Thanks for taking us here, Doc.”
“Yeah, we really appreciate it,” Ryan agreed. Yaz patted the Doctor’s arm. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be here.”
The Doctor shrugged her off. “Oh, no. Not just me. Us. We are a team. A fam.” The Doctor wrapped her arm around Ryan on her left, then Yaz on her right, who in turn wrapped her arm around Graham. They looked out on the beauty, together, as one family.
…
I sat in the Tardis, watching the Doctor mess with the controls on the console. My chin was in my hands, and honestly, I had better days than this. “Whatcha doing?” I asked the Doctor.
She quickly glanced at me. “Oh, nothing much, Yaz. Just...fiddling. I really don’t know where we should go next.”
I frowned. “But you always have a place in mind. Some crazy planet, or something.”
“I know, I just...” She abruptly stopped and looked down. She wiped her eyes with her hand. I knew why. “Doctor, it’s only been a few days since they left...”
She jerked up. “I know!”
“Like I said, Doctor, it’s okay to be sad. Things change...”
The Doctor snapped, “I know! I just...wasn’t ready.” “We can talk about it?” She was angry. She didn’t know how to deal with this. “There is nothing to say. Ryan and Graham are gone. That’s the end of it.”
The Doctor walked out of the room.
“Doctor!” I called.
She was gone.
I sighed. A lonely tear fell down my face. How long was this going to last? How long would it hurt? I hoped it wouldn’t last much longer. I was tired of it.
…
“Graham, you know you’re going to lose.”
Graham inquisitively looked down at the chess board, and then up at the Doctor. “C’mon, Doc, we’ve barely started. I have a chance.”
“No, you don’t,” the Doctor said confidently.
Yaz frowned from across the room. “That’s a bit rude.”
Ryan looked up from his phone. “Yeah, it is. Give him a chance, Doctor.” The Doctor slightly smiled. “All right. Well, I’ll have you know that I’ve never lost a game of chess. Ever. Well, once. To a metal dog. But that’s not important. Anyways...let’s get on with it.” Graham moved his piece.
“That was a bad move.”
“Doc, c’mon! Be nice to me, hey?”
“But it really was a bad move!”
Yaz frowned again. “Okay, why don’t you two just stop. We’re all grumpy.”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been trapped in the Tardis for like a whole day. No adventure. Why?”
The Doctor gestured wildly. “I thought we could stay in today! Have a nice, calm rest. But you guys want to constantly be in peril.”
Graham laughed. “I feel like I’m in peril, with you attacking me in this chess game.”
“Yeah, and we’re bored, so...” Yaz started. The Doctor interrupted. “Why don’t we go to the library? Have I ever showed you the library?”
“Which library?” Ryan asked.
The Doctor stood up. “The Tardis library! I’ve got, like, every book in the universe...almost! C’mon, I’ll show you!” She started to walk away. The fam slowly started to follow her. The Doctor lead them to a big door. She looked back, smiled at them, then opened the door. Everyone walked in. “Oh...my...gosh...” Graham exhaled. The Doctor grinned. “Like it?”
The walls were lined with books...thousands of them. There was a huge ladder to get to the highest spots. It was beautiful, with designs all over. Gallifreyan designs. But the fam didn’t know that.
Ryan was still in awe. “Well...I guess we could read?”
Graham pointed at Ryan and Yaz. “Your generation could use a bit more reading.” Yaz chuckled. “Okay, then. Where do we start?” The Doctor pointed high up. “That one, up there. Tells the history of rat invasions.”
Ryan frowned. “The big blue and brown one?”
“Yeah!” the Doctor said excitedly.
“It’s...up really high, Doctor,” Yaz remarked.
The Doctor shrugged. “I’ll use the ladder?” “Looks dangerous,” Graham observed.
The Doctor waved her arms about. “Guys! It is a ladder. Is it really the scariest thing we have ever faced? Ever? C’mon! We’ve stopped killer aliens, killer robots, killer spiders, killer...” Yaz laughed. “Okay, okay, we get it, Doctor.”
Graham furrowed his eyebrows. “Why is everything killer?”
Ryan shrugged. “No idea.” The Doctor made a face. “None of it is really killer. Because none of us are dead! My fam. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
Graham pointed upward. “Now let’s get that book down, shall we?”
Yaz smiled. “I always wanted to learn about rat invasions.” Ryan nodded. “Me too.” The Doctor grinned. “It’s extremely interesting.” Her eyes twinkled. She loved her fam.
… “Did I mess up, Yaz?”
I looked up at the Doctor confusedly. “What do you mean?” The Doctor glanced at me. “Did I mess up? With Ryan and Graham? Did I offend them somehow? What did I do wrong? Why would they leave us?!” With each word the anger in the Doctor’s voice grew and grew.
I couldn’t stand seeing her like this. She was messing with something at the Tardis console again, trying to look busy. But she couldn’t handle it. The pain.
I walked over to the console. I gently touched her hand. She jerked her head up. “Doctor,” I said softly, “Ryan needed to be with his friends. He felt like they needed him. And Graham could never leave Ryan. They’re family. Ryan’s his grandson. They love each other. Their decision to leave the Tardis really had nothing to do with you. You didn’t mess up.” The Doctor nodded. “Okay. You’re right. I know, they are family. I just...thought we were their family too.” I hurriedly wrapped my arms around the Doctor. She accepted the hug. Tears streamed down my face. “It’s okay to grieve, Doctor, it’s okay.”
“I know, Yaz. I know.”
…
“That’s a nice sunset, isn’t it, son?”
Ryan smiled at his granddad. “Yeah, it is.”
They were sitting on top of a hill, overlooking the city. Ryan’s bike lay beside him. Graham had been trying to help Ryan ride it. Again.
Graham put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “Hey, you did good today. You stayed up on that bike longer than you ever had. Your nan would be proud of you.” Ryan nodded. “Yeah. I think she would.”
There was a moment of silence. The wind blew softly, making Ryan shiver softly.
“Do you think they miss us?” he suddenly asked.
Graham sighed. “Yaz and the Doc?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, yeah! We just left them. It’s still fresh. And I miss them too. But we got a lot of stuff to do on this planet here, don’t we?”
“Yeah, I know. I kind of feel bad we just...left them,” Ryan remarked.
Graham shook his head at Ryan. “No, don’t feel bad. It was a good choice. It was time for us to leave.” Another moment of silence passed. Graham suddenly stood up. “We better head home, son. Grab that bike.” Ryan scrambled to his feet and picked up the bike. He stared at it. “We did do the right thing. We’ll always be friends with Yaz and the Doctor. But we do have work to do here, Granddad.”
Graham pointed at the bike. “Son, I bet you could ride that bike down the hill.” “No.”
“Yes!”
“Granddad!”
“Have a little faith in yourself, Ryan! You can do this!” Ryan took a deep breath. He sat on the bike and put his feet on the pedals. “Dyspraxia won’t stop me any longer,” he whispered confidently. Ryan aggressively started to pedal. “You’ve got it, son! Keep going!” Graham cheered.
Ryan did keep going. He pedaled and pedaled. He stayed up on that bike. He never fell off.
Graham had tears in his eyes as he watched Ryan zoom away. “Oh, that boy. I knew he could do it.”
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