Doctor Who_ Return Of The Living Dad Part 47

'Job first,' sighed Chris' 'people second.'

'They still quote that at the Academy?'

Chris nodded dolefully. 'If anything ever happens to you...'

Roz lifted her gla.s.s of champagne. 'Here's to the future,'

she said.

Chris smiled' and they clinked their gla.s.ses together.

Static. Then: 'So for the record' Doctor,' says Joel, 'how did we get away with it?'

The Time Lord puts down his coffee cup. 'Well,' he says, counting off the points on his fingers. 'Firstly, we had the problem of an escaped and homicidal alien. Right now Albinex is languis.h.i.+ng in a spare room in the TARDIS, being made to watch Threads Threads and and The Day After The Day After until he stops ranting about Navarro's glorious future. We'll be taking him home tomorrow. He needs help.' until he stops ranting about Navarro's glorious future. We'll be taking him home tomorrow. He needs help.'

'What about the missile?' says Joel.

'Well' that was a bit more difficult,' says the Doctor.

'When tens of thousands of people witness something, it's hard to cover it up.'

'Nonetheless,' says the Admiral, 'Department C19 have done a marvellous job.' He smiled, satisfied. 'They cut a deal with us.'

'Immediately after the missile was launched,' says the Doctor, 'we "informed" the police that it had been a test launch, without a live warhead. They then told the protesters.

I don't like to think what kind of riot might have happened if they hadn't.'

'But it wasn't a dud,' prompts Joel.

'It was live and dangerous,' says the Doctor. 'It didn't detonate when it struck the Dalek satellite, but if it had fallen back into Earth's atmosphere... I programmed Albinex's yacht to intercept it, extend a forcefield around it, and carry it on autopilot to the sun. The Ogron Albinex had left to guard engineering was very surprised to see me. He's also in the TARDIS, in a room full of bananas. That'll keep him happy for a while.'

Isaac holds up the newspaper he's been reading, but the print is too fine to be made out. 'C19 official story was that it was a launch of an experimental plane, not a missile, and that the panic was typical of the peace movement's hysteria, et cetera, et cetera.'

'One less cruise missile,' says Joel.

'Just one less,' says the Doctor sternly. 'By your time, the base at Greenham Common is gone, but they're building Trident missiles down the road at Aldermaston.'

'The struggle continues,' says Joel.

'Indeed. At any rate' I've had a sharp word with several people, and I don't think you'll have trouble with anyone taking too close a look at Little Caldwell - for a while, at least. The Department's foremost mission is to keep secrets.'

'Friends in high places,' says Isaac.

Joel drops to a knee, giving us a sudden worm's-eye view of the two short men.

Later: The Doctor is in full flow. 'I popped back to Youkali for a day or so, in search of the time device Caroline Grey found. It was hidden away in an underground chamber, along with dozens of pieces of Youkalian technology. She must have abseiled down the cliff wall. Brave young woman.'

He turns his coffee mug around in his hands. 'That particular device must have been borrowed from Osiran technology. It was far too advanced for the Youkalians. I wonder how much that sort of thing contributed to their destruction...'

'You mean you don't know?' jokes Joel.

'There are a lot of things I don't know,' says the Doctor.

'Contrary to popular opinion. Places and dates. And names.'

Later:

The Doctor is folding Napoleon hats out of the newspaper. 'For me,' he says, 'the best part of Christmas was decommissioning Isaac's army.' He glances up at the camera. 'Only a dozen or so wanted to go home, but I took them all.'

'Once we got the TARDIS out from the bottom of the lake where Albinex had dropped it,' points out the Admiral. 'We had to rent a tow-truck. You haven't experienced scuba-diving until you've done it in below-zero weather, believe me.'

'There were wounds that had to be healed,' the Doctor continues, 'in bodies and minds. There were diets that needed to be corrected. There were stories that needed to be listened to and accusations that needed to be answered.'

Isaac points at the Doctor. 'He had the Kapteynian eating out of his hand.'

'It was my hat, actually.'

'It was good to have your help,' says the Admiral. 'I think we work well together.'

They shake hands, over the table.

These sections of the tape were erased by Department C19.

It was just before midnight. Time to go.

The TARDIS stood outside the Pyramid, humming warmly to itself. Benny and Jason were there, holding hands, wearing long, matching warm coats. Roz and Chris were leaning on the TARDIS, chatting in low voices.

The Doctor and Isaac emerged from the coffee shop.

The Doctor had a large bag of mocha, five credits and a smile. He glanced up at Joel's window, where the radio was playing away the last minutes before the new year.

The Kapteynian had refused to leave him alone, and was floating around his head and shoulders, showering his face with elfin light.

Benny let go of Jason's hand and wrapped her arms around her father. 'Do you forgive me?' he whispered.

'Yes,' she murmured back. 'Get on with your life.'

He held her tightly. 'Keep on grounding the lightning.'

When they let each other go, Isaac said, 'You'll visit soon?'

Jason raised his left hand. 'Via time ring,' he said. The band of exotic metal glittered on his ring finger.

Benny showed Isaac her matching wedding ring. 'We'll try to s.p.a.ce it out,' she said, 'so you don't see me getting old suddenly' or vice versa.'

'Very wise,' commented the Doctor.

Isaac shrugged off his jacket. 'I want you to have this,' he said.

Benny smiled, surprised and pleased, and put on the old s.p.a.cefleet jacket. It fit her reasonably well.

Her father reached into the pocket and extracted a handful of brightly coloured glittering patches. He pinned them to the jacket, over her heart.

While Benny was staring at the medals for conspicuous bravery, Jason seized Isaac's hand and shook it mightily. 'By the time we see you again,' he said, 'I might be a father as well. Get to use that crib, eh, Doctor?'

'Best of luck,' said Isaac. 'The very best of luck.'

'Five!' shouted Joel's radio. 'Four! Three! Two! One!

Happy New Year!'

Chris whispered something to Roz, who laughed and slapped him on the arm. Chris gave the Admiral a thumbs-up and they went into the TARDIS together.

'What was that about?' the Doctor asked Benny softly, as Jason and Isaac swapped quips about fatherhood.

'Oh' an old Earth tradition regarding New Year's Eve,'

she smiled. 'I think they're past the snog phase now, though.

I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friends.h.i.+p.'

She touched his arm. 'Thanks again. For everything.'

Jason took Benny's hand, smiling. As their time rings met, a soft field of sparkles erupted around them.

The Doctor looked at his feet, looked up at Benny, hesitated, folded his arms, unfolded them and put his hands in his pockets, looked up at the sky, took his hands back out of his pockets, stepped through the speckles of light and leant up and kissed Benny on the cheek.

She looked at him in astonishment, breaking into a beautiful smile. And vanished.

The Doctor, shy and puzzled and pleased, shook Isaac's hand one more time and bustled into his TARDIS. The Kapteynian buzzed about, squealing with jealousy, and shot inside. The door closed.

The Admiral watched the blue box disappear, its engines groaning as though they were held together with bits of string and chewing gum. From his window, Joel was watching too.

Isaac smiled to himself. Good lad.

He was about to go back into the warmth when he heard a shout from across the road. Old Tom, a bottle tucked under his arm' meandered over. 'Happy New Year!' he said. He smelt of soap powder and humanity. 'You ought to go inside before you catch your death. Sorry I'm late, I had to finish my stocktake. Haven't missed anything, have I?'

'Not at all,' said Isaac. 'Please, come inside.'

'I wanted to ask you if you'd seen anyone mucking around near the church,' said Tom, as they went into the coffee shop. 'One of the gravestones seems to have moved right across the graveyard. I can't fathom it.'

Isaac nodded. 'Stranger things have happened,' he said.

Epilogue.

I never did finish telling that story about the hermit, did I? The tale leaves an obvious question unanswered. What happens to the man when he's given away every last piece of his name?

The thing is, the only way he could give away a bit of his name was to take it out of that little inside pocket. So as he shared himself with more and more people, he got to see more and more of his own name.

Bit by bit, over the years, he learnt all the things about himself he'd kept locked away, realized what the name he'd been given so long ago really meant.

The more he gave away, the more he had.

Now tell me: what would you do if your name wasn't real? Say, if the man you got it from turned out to be a con artist (or at least, you thought thought he was)? And the fancy t.i.tles you'd fixed on the front were fakes? he was)? And the fancy t.i.tles you'd fixed on the front were fakes?

It's a long road from pretend to real. But if you walk the same path as that hermit took, you can put yourself back together, you can make those names ring true. Putting your husband's name in front of your father's. And finally earning the right to put 'Doctor' in front of your own.

Doctor. Bernice. Kane. Summerfield.

Their names fit really well together, don't you think?

Acknowledgements