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‘Don’t get up on my account,’ Kate said, as her father started fumbling around for his cane from his easy chair. ‘Have you eaten already?’ she asked, putting a bag of groceries down and coming over to give her father a hug.
‘Yes, they do take care of me here, you know,’ he replied, ‘There’s no need to fuss.’
‘It’s my turn,’ she said. ‘What trouble did you get up to today?’
‘Just a spot of reading,’ he said, gesturing to the book on his side table. ‘Shouldn’t you be at work?’
‘It’s been quiet,’ she tried to evade the question, heading back to the counter to put away the milk.
‘You’re lying,’ he answered. She sighed. He knew her too well.
‘Brigadier Anderson is retiring at the end of the year,’ she said, tiredly. ‘You can imagine how the colonels are reacting to that. But never mind that,’ she said. ‘There’s a lunar eclipse tomorrow night, why don’t I bring over the telescope?’
‘That sounds lovely,’ he said with a smile.
The groceries away, she turned back to her father, and realized that, despite the redirection, she actually did want to talk about work, or at least vent with the person who would understand more than anyone in the universe.
‘They’re all just trying to upstage each other, show how macho and manly and army they are-‘ she ranted.
‘You need a drink.’
‘Yes, damn it-‘ she admitted, going into the cabinet to grab the brandy.
‘Three glasses,’ he reminded her.
‘Three glasses,’ she repeated, with a shake of her head. It was her turn, she reminded herself, to deal with his little eccentricities, his little fantasies, just like he’d played rocket ships and fairy princesses with her as a kid.
The three brandies poured, she returned to the sofa alongside her father and carefully put down the three glasses.
‘After all that ATMOS things, and the Sontarans, it’s just been weapons. They want to shoot things better, blow them up, not understand them. Science funding wasn’t cut this year, but it was a hell of a fight in that board meeting,’ she complained.
‘You were up to it,’ he said with a smile.
‘So now whoever gets in after Anderson is going to try to make their mark and it’s just going to be some fancier bullet instead of better detection systems, or a new translation interface. I just wish they’d consider a civilian head.’
His eyes twinkled a little.
‘I did talk to Pei and Mattocks about it and they’re willing to consider it,’ she said.
‘You’d only need two more votes,’ he said, encouragement in his voice.
‘Yeah, a tall order,’ she sighed. ‘But if we could get Likov and Grassley on their radar at least, I guess it would be an achievement if they even consider a scientist for the head.’
‘Likov and Grassley?’ he asked, with a frown.
‘They’re the best we’ve got on our side, especially because of the exodus last year when science had a fourth straight year of no pay rise.’
‘Why not you?’ he asked pointedly.
She blinked at him, her glass halfway to her mouth.
‘You’re the first one who’s managed to get the board to even consider a scientist,’ he said, pointing a finger at her with all the authority of a retired Brigadier General. ‘If that’s not leading UNIT in the right direction, I don’t know what is.’
‘Pei implied that there was only one scientific advisor he’d be willing to consider,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Didn’t seem to grasp the fact that he’d never do it, and would likely not actually be good at it, even if we wanted him to, or knew where the hell he was.’
Kate tried to mask the disdain in her voice, because she knew her father didn’t like it, but she didn’t succeed, and she caught his frown.
‘How are you not angry?’ Kate’s eyes fell on the third brandy glass. ‘He swanned off decades ago, just ran off and left UNIT to its own devices. He abandoned you. I thought you were friends.’
‘The planet is still turning without him’ he said. ‘The Doctor has a lot better things to do than respond to every little emergency on Earth, especially when there’s good people looking after the planet. Like you.’
Kate scoffed. ‘You pour him a brandy every time, and he never comes.’
‘I know,’ he said, calm and measured. ‘I don’t believe he ever will.’
‘And you’re okay with that?’
‘The Doctor is a time traveler, Kate-‘
‘Yeah, so he could come back any time!’ she retorted.
‘Precisely,’ he said, and she stared at him, confused by his acceptance of that choice. ‘You know what it’s like to care for someone, and love them, and lose them. Now imagine doing that over a dozen lifetimes, imagine how many people he has loved and lost. But he’s a time traveler, right? So he can go back any time, and see them? There’s still a finite number of moments to go back to, Kate. Even for a time traveler, especially for a time traveler. So the Doctor leaves the possibility open, so there’s never a final meeting, never a last time. I pour him a brandy, so the moment is always there. And every day that he doesn’t drink it, I take comfort in the fact that my death will never weigh on such a good man's hearts.’
Kate frowned at her brandy glass as she thought over her father’s words.
‘When the Doctor is needed, the Doctor will come,’ he said, putting a hand on hers. ‘I’ve never had a reason to doubt.’
‘I’ve never had a reason to believe,’ she said. ‘Just your word.’
‘Isn’t that worth something, a promise from your father?’ He said, with a cheerful twinkle in his eyes. ‘Kate, I know when the day comes when you need the Doctor, one of them will be there for you. I just hope it’s one of the more tolerable versions.’
‘Perhaps someday I’ll find that faith,’ she said. ‘Just not today.’
>>>>
It was hard not to think about her father as the truck trundled along, despite the messages coming in to her. She’d already tasked her scientists to do whatever they wanted to the cubes, and they certainly were, but the reports did not help at all-nothing was eliciting any reaction.
The phone calls had come within hours of each other just a month ago, the one regarding the board’s decision and the one from the rest home. She didn’t have a single day since where she didn’t feel both her and the board had made some kind of mistake, but never more so than today. He’d believed in her, and she was letting him down. But he did have a history of believing in people who just let him down, and she doubted that this side trip would actually be fruitful. She was forced to follow UNIT protocols to investigate any hint of the Doctor in times of an emergency, but she made a mental note to put that under review. Of course, she also heard her father’s voice in her head telling her the Doctor would be there when she needed them, and she couldn’t imagine needing a friend more than that moment, a little spark of hope she was having trouble ignoring.
She’d definitely review subject retrieval policies if there was an ‘after’ too, she thought as the soldiers burst from her van and barged their way into the home under investigation, despite a lack of hostile action on the part of the inhabitants. She followed at a steadier pace, trying to come up with an apology to whoever lived there for kicking down their front door.
But when she reached the main room and introduced herself, her heart fluttered as she took in the most eccentric looking of the three and knew. Of course, she double checked on the two hearts thing-she was a scientist after all- but as he tossed her a salute, she knew why her father had believed in him so thoroughly.