Chapter Text
“Uncle Doctor?”
The time lord in question looked up from the timeywimey thing he had been fiddling with and at little Katie Lethbridge-Stewart. He had remembered a night where the Brigadier had been upset he would be hours late home to see Katie due to an unfortunate incident involving Cybermen that his Third self was no doubt currently not enjoying. The Doctor had jumped that the opportunity to babysit before any of his other selves put a horse in. He had been lonely ever since he wiped Donna’s memory and terrified over his Ood predicted death, some time with the Brigadier’s daughter was a welcome distraction.
“Yes Katie?” The Doctor answered.
“You can change how you look right?” The little girl said as she bounced on the balls of her feet. The Doctor nodded, pretty sure that they had had that conversation already at some point.
“Sure can, in certain circumstances, can’t show you right now if that’s what you’re asking.”
Katie pouted and shook her head, “not you. Can you change me?” She looked up at him eagerly
The Doctor laughed, bending over from the force of his chuckles. “Sorry,” he said wiping a year from his eye, “just me I’m afraid. Why would you want to change your face anyway? You have a good one, I think?”
She huffed, “not my face, my hair.”
“Oh your hair?” The Doctor humored the girl.
“Yeah,” she nodded tugging on her blonde plaits, “it’s boring, it’s too long and it’s just one colour.”
“As far as I know humans don’t normally have more than one colour hair.” He challenged.
“I saw a lady in the shop with rainbow hair, she was so cool!” The girl waved her hands in excitement.
The Doctor raised his eyebrow, “Kate Lethbridge-Stewart,” he began at length, “are you asking me to dye your hair?”
She just looked up pleadingly.
The Doctor sighed, “did you ask your dad?”
Katie whistled slightly, a guilty habit that she might have picked up from him, and looked away. The Doctor groaned, he shouldn’t go against the Brigadier’s wishes but Katie had just turned up the puppy dog eyes. Now that was just cheating. “Fine,” he gave in, “I’ve got some short lasting hair chalks somewhere in the Tardis, you can go mad.”
Katie cheered.
The Doctor smiled as he watched Kate paint her hair a multitude of clashing colours with the vivid Gallifreyan hair chalks. He hadn’t had a reason to get them out for a long time. They had belonged to Susan when she was a child, long before they had fled Gallifrey, they had been a gift from him actually, a present for his granddaughter’s 30th birthday. They were very colourful, they had shown up well enough on Susan’s dark hair but on Kate’s blonde they practically glowed. Still, he had nothing to worry about, sure the Brigadier wouldn’t be happy when he came home to see his daughter looking like a rainbow threw up on her but he’d calm when the Doctor explained it was temporary. After all it hadn’t lasted long for Susan, only about a year, that was nothing to a timelord. Only, the Doctor remembered with a start, Katie was human, just like her Dad, and humans considered a year a pretty long time. The Doctor looked again at the monstrosity that was Katie’s hair and closed his eyes, whispering a gallifreyan prayer. “Oh Rassilon,” fear crept into his voice, “The Brigadier’s going to kill me.”
Katie just giggled through her neon pink, green and yellow hair.