Chapter 12: Family meeting

The Doc is at the console and Yaz join her and holds her hand.


DOC: I don't travel in time, only in space, I will materialise in your flat at the same hour, is that okay for you?


YAZ: Yes, it's perfect love.


The Doc looks at Yaz and sees she's got tears in her eyes. She embraces her love and she kisses her in the neck, whispering slowly.


DOC: I'm so sorry for Ryan and Graham ... Are you alright sweetheart?


YAZ: Yeah I'm fine, it's just ... I hurt Ryan, I never even knew he loved me, and I would have never believed he could say something like this.


DOC: Me neither, but he did. We have to move on, together, if you still want of course ...


YAZ: Stop saying this! Of course I want, I meant what I said earlier, I love you, no matter what people say.


DOC: Alright, me too. So, we're going to materialise, but before we do, your family, do they know you're lesbian?


YAZ: Yes, I told them at the age of 17, but I never came out at school, I was already bullied because of my Muslim faith, I didn't want to offer them more things about me.


DOC: Yeah, I understand. Hold on, we're landing.


The TARDIS is flying, swaying in the vortex, and suddenly, in a little building of the Park Hill estate of Sheffield, in the flat 34, a blue box appears from nowhere, with a familiar thumping sound. The three people living in the flat were lunching, and they just stopped. Yaz's sister, Sonya, dropped her phone, stunned. Jenny gets out from the TARDIS first, followed by Jack, the Doctor, and Yaz. Yaz's mum, Najia, looks at Yaz with confusion and horror, while Hakim, Yaz's dad, is just stunned and angry.


NAJIA: Yasmin Khan!! Where have you been! We all were worried about you, we thought you ran away again, we called the police, all your friends, no one knew where you was! And who are all these people? I know the Doctor, but who are the others?


YAZ: Well, this is Jenny, the Doc's daughter, and this is Jack, a friend. And what do you mean calling the police? You saw me three hours ago.


HAKIM: What do you mean, three hours?? You've been missing since three months!


Yaz looks at the Doc, and the latter seems to be really confused and ashamed.


DOC: Sorry, it might be my fault, I was angry and upset because of Ryan, so I may have made a mistake ... We've been delayed in the Time Vortex, apparently, we landed three months after the prison, not three hours, sorry.


NAJIA: What is she talking about?! Yaz, you should have a very good explanation for this!


DOC: I'm so sorry everyone, it's my fault. We wanted to come to you and share the big news, but personally, I wasn't expecting it to happen like this ... For short, I'm Yaz's girlfriend, I love her and respect her, and I really didn't expect to meet you like this, all my fault, I drove.


NAJIA: You're not making any sense! Why haven't you came here earlier.


YAZ: Sorry, the Doc is talking too much, and like always, she gets lost. Just tell them about you before talking about us.


DOC: Yeah, right, you're probably not going to believe it, but I'm not from Earth. I'm from a planet called Gallifrey, well not exactly, I've been raised on Gallifrey and it became my home planet, but it has been destroyed a lot of times, first by a war, second by a lunatic. I'm a Time Lady, I'm immortal, I'm over a billion years, and this blue box behind me is my space ship. It's bigger on the inside and it travels through time as well as space. That explains why we're late, time doesn't pass on this ship like it does on Earth, I wanted to land three months ago, but obviously, the TARDIS drifted a little bit in the Time Vortex.


The Time Lady just turned around towards her TARDIS and touches the doors.


DOC (whispering): Bad girl! Why have you drifted? Is that something you ate?


NAJIA: Who is she talking to?


YAZ: She's talking to the TARDIS.


NAJIA: But it's only a big blue wooden box, are you all mad?


YAZ: This blue box is called a TARDIS, she's a time ship, and she's telepathic. I talked to her once.


DOC: You want proofs? Get inside.


The Doctor opens the doors with a snap of her fingers and invite the Khan's family to get inside her TARDIS. They enter very slowly, unsure and frightened. Everyone enter after them. Jenny and Jack stay behind, on the doorstep. The Doc runs to the console and fiddles a few levers. Yaz approaches her family.


YAZ: Is it alright? Do you cope with it?


NAJIA: This place is impossible!


SONYA: Amazing!


HAKIM: Beautiful and terrifying at the same time.


YAZ: It's going to be okay, don't worry, the first time I saw the TARDIS, it took a little while for me to accept it.


NAJIA: Doctor, where were you these last two years? What happened?


DOC: In prison for a crime I haven't committed. Jack came to pick up Yaz, Ryan and Graham and they all came to release me. After that, we were travelling in the TARDIS and the lunatic that destroyed my people, another Time Lord called the Master, took Jenny as a hostage. I hadn't seen Jenny for years, I thought she was dead. We came back to save her, but he tried to drain my life force, he wanted to have my immortality. Yaz tried to stop him, to save me, so he shot her. I gave him all the energy I could and I overloaded him, his body has been destroyed by all this energy.


NAJIA: Oh my god, he shot Yaz?! What happened? How is she still alive?


DOC: Actually, she died. She died and I was in a coma. After giving all that energy, I fell into a three weeks coma.


HAKIM: But she's not dead! She right there in front of us!


DOC: After getting out of my coma, I spent over than two weeks dissecting myself, studying myself, to understand my immortality power, and finally, I succeeded. I injected her what I've found in order to save her, I gave her my immortality, I transformed her into a Time Lady, she's got two hearts now and she can live forever. I'm sorry, but that was the only way to save her, I feel so guilty about what happened.


Yaz comes to her, she cuddles her, and then she kisses her. She turns back to her family, still holding her girlfriend's hand.


YAZ: That wasn't your fault darling, it is the fault of this mad man, but you killed him, he's no longer here, and I want to live forever by your side.


HAKIM: But it's way too dangerous! I'm sorry Doctor, I understand you love each others, but you can't travel with her Yaz!


YAZ: I'm immortal now, nothing can happen to me! It's my choice, if I want to become human and mortal again, and to return to Earth, it is possible. The Doc proposed it to me, but I refused! Just come with us for one journey, you'll see you'll change your mind. Sometimes it can be scary and dangerous, bust most of time, it's beautiful. The Doc showed me all the wonders of the universe, how can I let go of this?


SONYA: Are you kidding? Can we really come with you?


DOC: Of course, I would be glad to show you all the best things in this universe.


HAKIM: We shouldn't ... It could be dangerous ... And we've got things to do on Earth ...


DOC: Oh come on! This is a time machine! You can go whenever and wherever you like and come back home for tea! And I swear I will protect you, I will take you to the safest places in the galaxy, you're not getting hurt, that is a promise.


HAKIM: I don't know, what if–


NAJIA: Agreed. Impress us, Doctor.


The Doc runs around the console and presses some buttons, the tower of the console starts to move and we hear the TARDIS' whooping. Yaz goes to the screen, next to her love, and she smiles to her. All of a sudden, there is a turbulence and everyone fall on the floor except Yaz and the Doc.


DOC: Sorry about it, there is turbulences in the time vortex, this is a type 40 TARDIS, it is designed for 6 pilots, but I'm alone, so I have to deal with it. So, where do you want to start? I thought about Apalapucia, it's a good place. The last time I went on it, I landed during a deadly pandemic, so maybe not after all ... We could go on Darillium to see the singing towers. They are two monoliths, and when the wind blows between them, a song can be heard. A night is the equivalent of twenty-four earthly years, so maybe not, considering the fact Najia, Hakim and Sonya aren't immortals ... Oh, I know! San Helios! It's a beautiful planet, three suns in the sky, futurist architecture, it's in the Scorpion Nebula, on the other side of the universe from Earth, very far from your home, with this old type 40 TARDIS, it will take approximately 15 minutes ...


YAZ (laughing): Doc, calm down, you don't have to impress my family. Furthermore, I'm not even sure you will succeed to take us where you want.


DOC (laughing): Yasmin Khan, let me tell you one thing, I control this ship perfectly. Anyway, I know where we could go. We stay in the Mutter's Spiral, that the humans know better as the Milky Way, but we're going on Florana, the most beautiful planet in all the universe, every time I come back from Florana, I feel hundred years younger, you'll see it's truly amazing. There are floating seas like warm milk, sand plains soft as swan's down, beaches of weaved gold, a golden sunset, and its land is always carpeted with sweet perfumed flowers, what do you think Jack, is it a good choice?


JACK: Excellent choice, you couldn't find a better planet.


They both look at each others with a knowing eye and a complicit smile, but no one else understand what they are planning. The Doc's running around the console and fiddles the buttons and the levers. The TARDIS move with its characteristic noise and materialise on Florana.

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