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A large grin makes its way onto my face as I gaze around at my pebbles, beyond excited to tell them what the activity for today’s class is going to be. The Doctor stands at my side, hands in his pockets, an amused expression on his face. My pebbles are dancing around, chittering to each other with excitement.

“Good morning class!” I call, and everyone settles down, waiting for me to tell them what we’re doing. Rocky and Adrian are with the pebbles, standing ready to get them organised.

“Okay! So, as you all know, this is the Doctor. He’s my friend and he’s been staying with me for a little while.”

A chorus of ‘hello Doctor’ arises from the pebbles, who all wave at him. He grins at them and waves back.

“Hello pebbles!”

They chitter happily at him, and it makes me so happy that my pebbles like the Doctor. He’s sat in on a couple of my classes before, but this is the first one where he’s got a much more active role.

“Today, as a special treat for you all, because you’ve all worked so hard lately, the Doctor has very kindly offered for all of you to come on a field trip to explore his ship!”

The pebbles burst out into eager song and I have to physically restrain myself from joining in. The Doctor has been on Erid for about a month now, and I still haven’t seen the inside of his ship properly. I know it’s bigger on the inside from the glimpse I had when he was here with Donna, but I’m delighted to be allowed to see all of it now!

“Alright everyone,” I say, and the pebbles’ songs die down to a quiet chitter, though they’re all fidgeting in their seats, ready to get on with the trip. Rocky and Adrian hum out a laugh at their antics. “If you could make two lines please! One in front of Rocky, one in front of Adrian. They will both help you put your xeonoite suits on before you can come into our side of the dome, okay?”

‘Why need xenonite suits, question?’ asks Marylin, and I raise an eyebrow at her.

“You should know this, Marylin. Can anyone tell her why you need the suits?” I ask the rest of the class, and Marylin’s sister, Monroe, sings beside her.

‘Need because Doctor Grace atmosphere toxic. Could kill us. Bad bad bad. Xenonite protect! Is good good good.’

“Thank you, Monroe. Now into lines please!”

Marylin grumbles to herself, and I do feel a little sorry for her. Eridians have perfect memories, but that gene somehow skipped her, leaving her with a memory similar to mine, much to her dismay.

The Doctor turns to me as the pebbles form their lines beside Adrian and Rocky, who start helping them into their xenonite suits. His eyebrow is raised. “You called two of your students Marylin and Monroe?”

I grin sheepishly at him. “They’re sisters. And I thought it was funny. Lots of them have pop culture names, apart from a few who have names that mean a lot to me.”

The Doctor’s face softens and he nudges his shoulder against mine. “Well, as you said to Donna, you’re the one who translated the language first, so you’re the one who gets to call dibs on the names.”

“Oh yeah. It’s so much fun! I love making puns around them that they don’t understand as well. I think I’m pretty hilarious. Rocky does too, but only after he looks up the joke on the laptop I gave him.”

‘Rocky confirm. Grace pretty hilarious, statement’ Rocky pipes up as he helps one pebble with their suit. ‘Class being too loud. Grace say ‘what are you guys, the Rolling Stones? Grace couldn’t teach for ages. Laughing too hard.’

The Doctor laughs at that, shaking his head at me. “Oh, you’re brilliant. That is pretty funny.”

I beam at him. “Thanks! None of them understand, but they laugh at me laughing, so I pretend they’re laughing at my joke.”

Before the Doctor can reply, Adrian turns to me and trills at me to get my attention. I tilt my head in their direction, nodding at them to say what they want to say.

‘Pebbles all suited up!’ They inform me, and I smile.

“Awesome! Okay, stay in your lines and follow Rocky and Adrian through the airlock.” I point to the classroom airlock in the corner. “Be sensible and calm. Anyone who misbehaves will not be allowed to come on the field trip, okay?”

The pebbles hum in acknowledgement, and much to my relief, they calmly follow Rocky and Adrian out into my side of the dome, gathering around me and the Doctor. There’s an eagerness to their movements, as none of them are able to stand still in the sand. Rocky moves beside me, pushing his suit into my hand, which makes me smile.

‘Pebbles, Rocky and Adrian ready. Grace and Doctor ready, question?’

“Grace and Doctor ready, statement,” I reply, and the Doctor shoots me an amused smile. He’s told me before how funny he finds it that I’ve adapted to use Eridian grammar in my English sentences sometimes. He thinks it’s sweet.

“Right then, to the TARDIS!” The Doctor exclaims, and he leads me and the Eridians across the sand towards his ship. He walks slowly for my benefit, even though the pebbles are dancing around us in excitement, running ahead and back again, eager to get on with the trip. I’m just glad I don’t have to carry anything with me for this. I think I’d break something if I had to lug my translator across the beach. I’m beyond thankful for the Doctor’s TARDIS translator so he doesn’t need mine.

I asked him a while ago how come his translator doesn’t work for me, as I still hear the Eridians speaking Eridian, rather than English. He told me it was because the TARDIS sensed a deep connection between me, the Eridians and their language, and she didn’t want to disrupt that connection with a translator. Apparently she’s very particular about cultures and language connections, so when she came across two overlapping cultures still able to communicate even though they have different languages, she saw that she needed to protect it and do nothing to interfere with what we have.

I think that’s rather beautiful.

When we get to the TARDIS, the Doctor spins around to face the rest of us and he grins, clapping his hands together to get everyone’s attention. I stand a little to the side so the pebbles’ full attention is on him and not me. After all, this is his field trip to lead!

“Okay, welcome to my TARDIS, everyone. That stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Basically, it’s a time machine and a space ship in one,” he says with a flourish of his hands, which has the pebbles chittering at him, making jazz hands with their front claws, mirroring his actions.

“You have to be careful in here. It may only look like a small box on the outside, but it’s much bigger inside. Please don’t touch anything, and please stay together, okay? No wandering off on your own. Stay with the group, or you’ll have to go back to your side of the dome. Remember what Doctor Grace said?”

‘Be sensible and calm. Anyone who misbehaves will not be allowed to come on the field trip,’ chorus the pebbles, which makes me laugh. The Eridians and their perfect memory. It always gets me! The Doctor has a perplexed look on his face as they recite my exact words to him, but he shakes it off quickly, reaching behind him to open the doors to his ship.

The pebbles flood into the control room, singing in wonder at the vastness of the place. I hear several discussing between themselves how this is possible, but that conversation is quickly overshadowed by Rocky sliding up to me, resting against my leg.

“Hey pal,” I say, nudging him with my knee slightly. “What do you think of it? Pretty cool, huh?”

‘Rocky agree. TARDIS is pretty cool.’

I smile at him before my eyes sweep the pebbles, double checking that everyone is here and that no-one has disappeared off through one of the tunnels around the control room. So far, everyone is present and correct. I just hope that it stays that way, though my pebbles are well behaved, so I don’t have too many worries that someone will sneak off.

“This is the control room,” the Doctor starts, and all the pebbles eagerly crowd around him while Rocky, Adrian and I hang back, observing. “This is where I fly the ship. I get lots of messages in this screen here, and I can see outside through this screen here, and then-” the Doctor cuts himself off with a frown, looking around at the pebbles before him. “You lot can’t actually see the screens, can you?” He says slowly, and his realisation makes me snicker. I hope his tour doesn’t rely too heavily on screens.

‘Can see screen, but not what’s on screen,’ Eva pipes up. ‘See screen shape. Box. Not picture on screen.’

“Ah. Right. No, that’s fine. Not a problem at all!” The Doctor grins again, turning his attention to the control panel. “There aren’t many screens here anyway. So, all these buttons and levers and the like, these help me fly the ship and respond to calls and that. Feel free to have a look but I must reiterate, please absolutely do not touch anything. It’s all very sensitive and the last thing I want is to accidentally go flying off into outer space, as tempting as that might sound to you lot.”

The pebbles laugh before spreading out around the console and the control room, having a look at all the things the Doctor has in his ship. I lean back against the metal fence behind me, watching them investigate. Rocky and Adrian have moved over to the console to have a look as well, which makes me smile. Those two are still curious little pebbles at heart.

Something catches my eye as I scan the room, and I focus in on a hamper sitting on a chair just off to the side. Anyone else would miss it, and the pebbles clearly aren’t interested in whatever is inside. I half want to go over and have a look but I’m also aware that this isn’t my ship and those aren’t my things. So, I’ll leave it for the Doctor, half hoping that he’ll show it to me, and I turn my attention back to the man, who’s gathering up all the pebbles again, ready to move into a different part of his ship.

I smile, following them through the corridors to the next room, my mind boggling at how massive this place is. I’ve a feeling that this ‘quick’ field trip won’t be so quick after all.

***

We must spend about four hours just exploring the TARDIS, the Doctor leading us from room to room, pointing out all the interesting things in each one. He admits to us that even this isn’t the whole ship, but he says that it would take far too long to explore the whole thing, so he’s just shown us his favourite bits and the important rooms for today. I don’t mind though. I’m fascinated by his whole ship. Everything I’ve seen today has completely blown my mind. If only we’d had this technology for the Hail Mary…

I shake that thought out of my mind as we end up back in the control room, the pebbles gathered around the Doctor, listening as he concludes the trip. There’s no use in me dwelling on the Hail Mary. It just upsets me, and there’s nothing I can do about it. So I may as well push away all those thoughts and focus on my life ahead of me here and now on Erid.

The Doctor wraps up his trip and we start ushering the pebbles back outside onto the sand. The Doctor leans in the door of his TARDIS while I stand in front of it, grinning at my pebbles. 

“Wow, that was… incredible,” I say. “Everyone, say thanks to the Doctor for letting us see his ship!”

‘Thank you very much Doctor!’ The pebbles chorus.

“Did you all learn loads about the Time Lords and their ships?”

‘Yes yes yes! Very interesting!’ Billy chimes, several others wiggling in the sand in agreement.

“Alright! Well, I think that just about wraps it up for today. Come on, let’s head back to the airlock and you guys can take your suits off.”

The pebbles chirp happily and Adrian and Rocky gently start herding them back towards the classroom. I turn to check on the Doctor.

“I’ll meet you back at the house,” he says, and I nod.

“Okay! Thanks again for today.”

“It’s my pleasure.” He smiles at me softly before I turn and follow the Eridians back to the classroom. I supervise while Rocky and Adrian help each pebble take off their xenonite suits and before they can run off, I call them to attention.

“I hope you all enjoyed the trip today. I’d like it very much if you could all make something small for the Doctor as a thank you. It can be anything. Something you saw in his ship that you thought was cool, something from Erid that you think he would like. Just something for him to say thanks for today. You think you can do that?”

The pebbles chirrup at me, letting me know that they absolutely can do that, and I grin.

“You guys are awesome. Alright then! You can bring your thing for the Doctor in any time, but latest by next week, okay? Class is dismissed!”

The pebbles chatter excitedly together as they leave the classroom, talking about what gift they’re going to make for the Doctor. It softens my heart to see them so excited over a small project. This is why I became a teacher in the first place, for the joy I get when my students are excited over something.

A hum from my right draws my attention to Rocky, who’s back in his xenonite suit on my side of the dome.

‘Hi Grace!’ He says, patting my leg with his claw. ‘Grace Rocky spend time together now, question? Or Grace with Doctor?’

“You can come with, pal, I’m sure the Doctor won’t mind. He loves you.”

‘Rocky loves Doctor also. But Rocky loves Grace more. And Rocky loves Adrian most.’

That makes me laugh, and I let my hand rest on the top of his carapace through his suit. Adrian chitters happily on the other side of the dome.

‘Adrian loves Rocky most too,’ they say, lifting their front legs to make jazz hands at me and Rocky. ‘Must work now. See mate Rocky later. Bye Grace, bye Rocky!’

“Bye Adrian! Thanks again for your help today.”

Adrian waves at us before disappearing back into Erid, leaving me and Rocky walking up the beach towards my house. Rocky insists on talking about the TARDIS, as he found it absolutely fascinating. When we were looking around, I constantly heard ‘amaze amaze amaze’ coming from him as he studied each little part of each room we were taken into.

‘Grace think Doctor will let Rocky and Eridian science team study his ship, question?’ He asks me. ‘Doctor ship amaze amaze amaze. So many science things! Could use to make better Erid ships.’

“Maybe if you ask nicely,” I reply. “He was willing enough to let the pebbles storm his ship, so maybe he’ll let you guys study it for a bit. But I have no idea how much longer he’ll be here.”

‘Why Grace not know, question?’

“The Doctor came here to deal with his grief from losing Donna. He’s doing so much better now, compared to what he was like a month ago, so I don’t know if he’ll stick around much longer or if he’ll disappear tomorrow.”

Rocky clicks his little claws in thought before scampering to catch up with me. ‘Rocky will ask Doctor anyway. Ship is amaze. Want study for big science!’

I chuckle. “Sure thing, bud.”

Opening the door to my house, I let Rocky in first before following him in and taking off my cardigan. I turn towards the kitchen, intending on draping my cardi over one of the chairs before making tea for everyone, but I pause when my eyes land on a hamper in the middle of the kitchen table. It’s the same one I spotted in the Doctor’s TARDIS, and my heart skips a beat. I really had wanted to peek inside, and now I’m going to be able to! I wonder what he’s got in there. Is it more things to make his stay a little more comfortable here? Things from his planet? From Earth? From other planets in the infinite abyss that is space?

Before I can wonder aloud, the Doctor ducks into the room and smiles at me, going over to the kettle and flicking it on.

“Hey Grace,” he starts, but Rocky interrupts before I have a chance to respond.

‘Doctor! Rocky have important question!’

The Doctor sends an amused glance at Rocky, folding his arms and leaning against the counter as the kettle boils. “Yeah? What’s up, Rocky?”

‘Rocky saw Doctor ship today with pebbles. Doctor ship is amaze amaze amaze! Want study for big science. Can Erid science team study, question?’ He lifts his front legs to make jazz hands at the Doctor, wiggling on the spot. ‘Could study to make Erid ships bigger and better. Want understand science!’

The Doctor raises an amused eyebrow and shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah, I don’t see why not. Though can I be there when you study it? She can be a bit temperamental sometimes, and some things are very fiddly in there.”

‘Amaze!’ Rocky jitters happily. ‘Will tell Adrian and science team. Can study whenever Doctor ready.’

“I’ll come out with you tomorrow after your morning walk with Grace,” the Doctor tells him, which makes him crow with eagerness. “Is that okay?”

‘Yes yes yes. Is perfect. Thank you Doctor!’

“It’s no problem really,” he says, turning to make two cups of tea. Rocky moves to his usual chair, which has now been pulled closer to the table, and the Doctor hands me a mug that I take gratefully as I sit down in my chair next to Rocky. The Eridian chitters at me, resting his front claw on my knee for a moment, before he curls back in on himself, content to listen to the Doctor and I converse.

“What’s the occasion?” I ask, gesturing to the hamper on the table. “Things to make you more comfortable here?”

The Doctor huffs out a quiet laugh. “On the contrary. Things to make you more comfortable here.”

My breath hitches.

“I promised you last time I was here that I’d bring you Earth things when I next came to visit,” he tells me, sitting down opposite me. “I completely forgot I had this in the TARDIS given that I was so upset over Donna. I found it when I was getting her ready for the field trip this morning.”

He pushes it closer to me with a gentle smile on his face, a spark in his old eyes. “Earth things, as promised.”

Hesitantly, I reach out and pull the hamper towards me. It’s not light at all, which makes hope jump in my chest. I’ve been longing for new things from Earth for years. All I have is the stuff on the Hail Mary, most of which is pretty worn through. I have to keep getting Adrian’s friend, Coco Chanel (I’m hilarious), to fix my things so I can keep wearing them. Coco has made me new things, but they’re all synthetic, so it’s just not the same as real Earth things.

The Doctor and Rocky watch on as I start pulling things out of the hamper, and it’s a real struggle to contain my emotions. Part of me thinks I’m stupid for getting worked up over some little things, but most of me is so overwhelmed at actually feeling real human made items again. I take each item out and handle it with care, laying them all out on the table in front of me so I can look at everything in one go.

In no particular order, the Doctor has brought me:

• A cotton blanket
• A woolen blanket
• New glasses
• A new knitted fox cardigan
• A small rose bush and plant food
• Seed packets for different types of wildflowers
• Worn copies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
• Three scented candles (orange, cedar, lavender)
• So many pairs of socks (all different colours and patterns too!)
• Real strawberries and raspberries
• An abundance of skittles packets
• A mini crocheted Rocky

I cover my face with my hands, pushing my glasses up onto the top of my head, and my shoulders shake with suppressed sobs. This is all a bit too much. He’s brought me so many things, real human things. I vaguely sense him move next to me and he wraps an arm around my shoulders, gently pulling me into his embrace. Rocky hums next to us and puts his claw back on my knee.

Here I am, in my little house on alien soil, surrounded by more love than I ever really experienced on Earth. Two aliens are giving me more love than any human ever provided me with. Part of me hates it, but the other part of me is just grateful to be loved. Dear God, I feel so loved.

I can’t believe the Doctor got me all these things! Real things from Earth to make me feel better while I live on Erid. Things to give me comfort on my own out here. He didn’t need to do all of this. When he told me he would bring me Earth things, I imagined a book or two, not an entire hamper of things to bring me comfort.

“You’re too kind to me, Doctor,” I manage to choke out eventually, lifting my head from my hands to look up at him. He’s smiling softly at me, his thumb smoothing calming circles on my shoulder.

“No such thing as too kind,” he replies. “You deserve all this and more. Every time I come and visit you, I will bring you more Earth things. I will bring you so many Earth things. You’re all alone out here, Grace. You deserve things that bring you comfort.”

‘Grace not alone. Grace have Rocky and Adrian and all Eridians. Grace have Doctor. Grace not alone,’ Rocky says stubbornly, tapping his claws against my knee. I let one hand go down to cover his, which makes him trill softly.

“He means I’m the only human,” I explain. “I don’t mind being the only human. I love living here so much. But it’s nice to have things to remind me of Earth. And look, Rock. It’s you.” I hand him the mini crocheted version of himself and he hums in confusion.

‘What this, question? Someone make model of Rocky?’

“You’re famous on Earth,” says the Doctor, “and people have been making statues and models and teddies of you.”

‘Rocky famous! Rocky like model.’

I laugh and pat his claw, removing my hand to run it over everything in front of me. “God, you even brought me skittles. You really know how to spoil a man.”

“Only the best for you, dear Grace,” the Doctor says, squeezing my shoulder before he sits back in his chair, his arm falling from around me. I miss the contact immediately, so I push my knee into his, needing to be touching some part of him while I experience this many emotions at once. Thankfully, he doesn’t push me away.

“Sorry it took me so long to give it to you. It slipped my mind.”

“Shush. None of that. You were grieving. The fact that you even did this for me? God, Doctor.” I let out a wet laugh, drying my eyes and smiling up at him. “No-one has ever put this much effort into a gift for me. Thank you so much.”

“Well. You’re a man worth spoiling. You deserve the world, Grace.” He reaches over and briefly puts a hand on my knee. Rocky hums in agreement, tapping his claws against my other knee.

‘Grace deserve world, statement. Grace best in every world.’

I laugh, beyond grateful for what the Doctor has done for me. I’ve never felt more loved, and I am so thankful for his presence in my life here on Erid.

***

The Doctor stays with me on Erid for three months before an alert goes off in his TARDIS. It’s like I can physically feel my heart breaking as he runs to his ship to see what the noise is about. I’m being selfish, but I really don’t want him to leave. I’ve grown used to his presence here. Our easy chatter fell into routine, and I’m not sure how well I’m going to cope when he leaves me.

I lean in the door of the TARDIS as he studies his screens, his expression a frown that has my hopes of him staying vanishing. He’s fiddling with the control panel, his concentration never lapsing as he figures out what the alert is for. I wish Rocky was here with me while I watch the Doctor like this. I really don’t want to be left on my own again. Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly happy on Erid as the only human, but having the Doctor here for so long has healed something inside of me that I had no idea was broken.

“Do you have to go?” I ask quietly, hoping that my voice doesn’t betray how upset I am in this moment. He looks up at me and his expression softens as he sighs. His shoulders droop and he nods slowly. He seems about as reluctant to leave as I am to let him go.

“I don’t want to,” he says, voice as quiet as mine. “I don’t want to leave you here.”

I shrug my shoulders, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing, but my voice wobbles when I speak. “But you have to go. It’s okay, Doctor. I knew you wouldn’t be here forever.”

He walks towards me and pulls me into his arms. I go willingly, burying my face in the crook of his neck, realising that this will be the last ‘human’ contact I have until he comes back to me again. And I have no idea when he will come back.

“I don’t want you to go either,” I whisper into his neck, and his arms tighten around me. He leans his head against mine and takes a deep breath.

“Grace, if I could, I’d never leave here,” he admits. “I love it here with you and Rocky and everyone else. This is the first place I’ve felt at home since my own planet was lost to war.”

“But?”

He sighs deeply. “But there are worlds out there that need my help. Species in danger that I could save. I can’t sit around missing Donna for the rest of my life, and I can’t hide away here on Erid just because I’m happy here.”

“You can though,” I mumble selfishly. I know he has a saviour complex, and I know he has to leave, but dear God I wish he would stay. 

He huffs out a laugh and I drink in the sound, savouring every last moment with him. “It has been an honour to live here with you while I’ve been healing. You welcomed me into your home with open arms and for that I am eternally grateful. I promise I’ll come back, okay? I promise I will visit you again.”

“You promise?” I ask petulantly. I really don’t want to see him go, but I know he has to.

“I promise.” He pulls back from me and while part of me wants to cling onto him forever and never let him go, I let my arms drop and I take a step back, forcing space between us so I don’t fall into his arms again.

“Thank you for staying,” I say, my voice cracking. “Thank you for being with me. And thank you for all you’ve done for the pebbles and the Eridian science team. It’s been a pleasure to have you here, and I look forward to having you again.”

“Thank you for being such a wonderful host.” He lifts his arms and rubs his left forearm over his right. I sniff, smiling wetly, and I return the gesture, before slowly walking away from the TARDIS. I tell myself not to watch him leave but I can’t bring myself to turn my back on him.

With a snap of his fingers, the door slams shut, and the wheezing noise starts up again. I look on as his TARDIS flickers out of existence, disappearing off into outer space to save whoever had sent a distress signal to him.

A lone tear falls down my face, that all too familiar ache settles in my chest. I sigh, wrapping my arms around myself before finally turning around and slowly wandering back to my house.

Goodbye Doctor. I hope to see you soon.