Chapter Text
Sunday 25th February 2024
Yaz finished pouring herself another cup of tea. She was in Graham’s kitchen with the man himself. Ryan and the Doctor were out in the back garden struggling with their latest ‘project’. Yaz figured the right word must be ‘struggling’, primarily thanks to the number of times she had heard a small explosion, soon followed by one or the other of the troublesome pair yelling ‘we’re okay’ into the house.
Inside, safely away from whatever health hazard was being cooked up, Yaz and Graham had teamed up to cook the group’s dinner. Graham had started regaling Yaz with stories from the so-called ‘TARDIS Travellers’ Meetings’ he’d established soon after meeting Ace, Tegan, and Kate during the Masters’ combined Dalek-and-Cyberman scheme.
“I’ve not actually seen Ace or Tegan since everything with the Cyber Moon.” Yaz said with a slight frown. “Kept meaning to catch up with ’em. Just never made the time…”
Graham swallowed his mouthful of tea before answering.
“Just come along to one of the meetings! They’re proper regulars. They’ve asked after you once or twice – I’m sure they’d love to see you!”
Yaz pulled an uneasy expression. This wasn’t the first time he’d invited her along to the meetings. Back when she and the Doctor had decided to settle down on Earth, he’d made the same suggestion, hoping it might help to ease the adjustment back to a (almost) regular life.
Yaz had declined, claiming that she and the Doctor really needed to prioritise making time for each other after the rocky preceding months. That excuse had been true at the time, but had since run its course, and now it seemed she would be forced to explain the real source of her trepidation.
“I dunno. Isn’t that a bit awkward? All of you talking about how you’ve left it behind and moved on, just for me to chime in with ‘oh actually she’s my wife, we’ve got a flat just down the road’.”
“Oh come on, it’s not that dire! Sure, there’s a few people who ended things on a sour note, but the Doc’s put in a right proper effort into smoothing things over – mostly thanks to you getting her to sit still for more than five minutes! All the regulars know she’s living on Earth right now.
“It’s just a hang-out with friends with all of us trading stories – like going down the pub with your work mates on a Friday evening.” Graham plastered on a smirk. “Just with less office politics and more aliens.”
Yaz’s mouth rumpled as she considered the point.
“Hrmm. Still, feels a bit weird meeting up somewhere to chat about my wife with a bunch of people.”
“It’s not about the Doc. It’s about everything we’ve seen and done and can’t talk to anyone else about. She just happens to have been there for most of it! ‘Sides, isn’t that what you’re doing anytime you call me complaining about the birdhouse?”
In the early days of their life on Earth, when they’d still been living with Yaz’s family in Park Hill, Yaz had once found the other woman sitting smugly on the green outside the block of flats. As it turned out, the Doctor had spent that day building a birdhouse, and Yaz had initially been surprised to find her wife doing something relatively normal.
Until, of course, she had learned that the birdhouse was bigger on the inside, leading to an expansive wooden maze, some rooms filled with food and others with nesting sites. The local crows had quickly proven the most intelligent of their avian visitors, learning the ins and outs until they could navigate the maze with ease. Not all birds were so smart, however…
“I don’t complain about the birdho- I like the birdhouse! It’s just annoying when we have to rescue another lost pigeon from it.”
“I know. And Ryan knows. And our answering machine knows.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll shut up about the ruddy pigeons! I can take a hint…”
“But you know who might enjoy hearing about your birdhouse?”
Yaz made an attempt at an annoyed sigh, but a creeping smile betrayed her affection for her friend’s ribbing.
“Okay, fine! I’ll come along to this meeting. You ever heard the phrase ‘trying too hard’?”
Graham took another overly-pleased-with-himself sip of tea.
“Nah, you get to my age, you stop worrying about little things like that.”
Yaz knew that attitude very well thanks to her nan, and offered a mildly begrudging chuckle as answer.
“You’re the one who wanted to see Ace and Tegan again.” Graham continued. “This is perfect for it.”
“I know…” Yaz’s gaze drifted for a second, before she locked back into the conversation. “Could I ask a favour, though? Just… don’t mention my living situation? Whenever someone who knows her finds out, there always has to be a conversation about it. Just rather not deal with it.”
“Course, love.” Graham gave a comforting pat on Yaz’s arm. “I’ll warn Ace and Tegan for you, too.”
“Thanks.”
Yaz made a mental note to ask the same of Dan or Mel if they were planning to show up next time as well.
The timer on the boys’ oven started beeping, and Graham moved to turn it off. He forsook the lasagne for a few more moments as he rounded out the conversation.
“First Saturday of every month. Next one’s Sheffield, so what say you come over about midday and we’ll all walk down there together?”
“Sounds good. Now come on,” Yaz retrieved a spatula from a nearby drawer before moving to help with serving up. “You must be ‘Hank Marvin’.”
“Yaz… have you been learning Cockney?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t by choice. We had you talking nonsense every day for two years, I was bound to pick something up!”
“Well, somebody had to teach you kids a bit of culture.”
“Oi! Don’t go all ‘kids these days’ on me! Get enough of that from me dad.”
As it turned out, Dan and Mel both had to miss out on the next meet-up. Her two fellow Sheffielders, Ace, and Tegan were the only ones Yaz had met before. Graham had filled her in on a few of the other regulars who would be turning up, including an actual Earth doctor called Martha, an old UNIT alumnus called Jo, and Ian – one of the very first people who had travelled with the Doctor.
Apparently Yaz also wasn’t the only newcomer – there was a man from Nottingham who’d called ahead and was going to make the journey over. Kate allowed Graham to cross-reference newcomers with UNIT’s information about the Doctor’s ‘known associates’, and he’d passed that check at least, but Graham was going to let him introduce himself once they were all there.
As always, Graham had ensured there were plenty of sandwiches available for a lunchtime get-together, as well as myriad drink options. Once everyone was settled, Graham set things going.
“Right, so obviously most of you all know the deal, but we’ve got two newcomers.” He gestured vaguely at Yaz and the new guy. “So I’m gonna let them introduce themselves before we all let loose.”
He looked at Yaz again, and she took that as her cue.
“Uh, hi. I’m Yaz. Graham’s filled me in, and I’ve met a couple of you already.” She gave a small smile and wave to Ace and Tegan. “But for everyone else, I travelled with Ryan and Graham, and later Dan Lewis, who I think has been here a few times before…”
Some of the others gave nods or murmurs of acknowledgement.
“So you’ve probably heard a bunch of my stories already, but yeah. Just fancied coming along and meeting a few people.”
She got a few greetings in return, and it was clear the group was used to the occasional awkward introductory speech. She smiled around again, landing on the other newcomer. He was a white man with brown hair who looked to be about thirty, and he shuffled nervously before speaking up.
“Hi. I’m Adam. To be honest, it feels a bit awkward to be here. Y’see, I met the Doctor, like, ten years ago, it was him and another human – Rose, Rose Tyler.”
Martha’s eyes flashed with recognition of ‘Rose’, but she didn’t seem to know who the man himself was. Yaz had first heard of Rose thanks to Captain Jack, on the day the Doctor had come back from those decades in prison. Since then, the Doctor had occasionally opened up about her and Rose’s time together, and it was clear she was still a little torn up over it all. She’d never mentioned an ‘Adam’, though…
“I guess I was kind of hoping to see her here, but, well… what can you do?”
Maybe he was right – it probably would be awkward to explain what had happened to Rose if he didn’t already know. Should Yaz even tell him? She suddenly felt a lot less comfortable with the whole set-up. This was exactly the kind of thing she’d wanted to avoid.
“I only had one trip with them, and, well, I suppose we didn’t part ways on great terms. See, they got captured-”
Everyone in the room knew that was a common enough occurrence, and a few made noises of understanding.
“Uh, it was on this great big orbital news satellite, in the future. And y’know, I was on my own, trying to help them,” He let out a chuckle, but there was an element of pain hidden behind it. “And I mean, I didn’t exactly know my way around the place.”
Adam paused for a second, seemingly unsure of how to continue. Graham leant over and put a reassuring hand on his arm, and maintained his typical jovial tone.
“Trust me: where the Doc’s concerned, we’ve all been there, son. Squirrellin’ around trying to figure out where she’s gotten herself tied up this time.”
Adam frowned at him.
“She?”
“Oh, sorry! Him and her are the same person, but it’s a bit of a story. You carry on, and we’ll catch you up to speed after. It’s like putting together a jigsaw trying to understand the Doc!”
Adam was still a little perplexed, but seemed happy enough to carry on given Graham’s upbeat nature. Yaz realised he’d probably had to put in a lot of work as a mediator of sorts over the past year-and-a-bit of meeting everyone.
“Right… uh… anyway, yeah, so I’m trying to help them out, and… it turns out the only way to do that quick enough is to use this big computer to hack the system. Ah, well, I’m a software engineer, always been good with computers. I guess I technically could’ve gone in guns blazing, but that isn’t really my forte.”
That got a chuckle out of some of his audience. Despite the supposed awkwardness, he was doing an alright job of getting people engaged.
“But this was the future – there’s no keyboards or anything, you need this implant in your head to interface with any of it. So, time’s not on my side, I’ve gotta get this surgery so I can use the computer and save them. And it works out in the end, we’re getting ready to go off, but then me and him, we… we end up ‘butting heads’, I guess, over using future technology.
“It got a little heated, I suppose. Y’know, I won’t pretend I’m blameless or anything. But he doesn’t wanna hear it. Drops me back on Earth, kinda middle of nowhere, then runs off again. I mean, I’m glad it’s Earth, the right year and everything, but y’know, I’ve got this… implant, in my head, and I can’t say anything about it.
“Everything I saw, this thing in my head… I mean it literally opens up,” He gestured in a way that suggested the front of his skull would come apart to expose a piece of his brain. “And I can’t tell anyone or they’d think I’m insane!”
That at least prompted the group as a whole to go into their regular conversations of the ridiculous things that had happened to all of them. Yaz continued to feel uneasy, though. It was certainly true that not every day travelling with the Doctor was sunshine and rainbows, but the idea of leaving someone in the middle of nowhere after a fight then never coming back felt… disturbing, and cruel.
He'd mentioned Rose, so Yaz knew this must have been soon after the War, and the Doctor had admitted that version of her had been a little more ruthless – needed Rose and Jack to help him remove that weight from his shoulders. Still, the events from Adam’s story didn’t sit well with her. Taking it at face value, she could imagine herself trying something equally reckless if she’d known it was the only way to save the Doctor.
Maybe she should ask the Doctor about it when she got home – Adam could easily have embellished details a little to paint himself in a better light. Either way, Adam had apparently been left with a piece of future technology in his head which had gone ten years without anyone around to check on it. That at least deserved some sympathy.
She logged it all away to think about later, and decided to throw herself into the conversation. The whole point was just to make a few friends, so that’s what she would do. Martha was a stand-out favourite. They traded stories of giant crabs for giant spiders, Judoon for Judoon, hiding in 1913 for trapped in 1901.
Adam seemed to lighten up as well, thankfully. Despite the sour note he’d started with, he later regaled them all with tidbits from the ‘Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire’, and his first encounter with the Doctor in an old workplace. Based on his descriptions, it quickly became clear that the creature he called ‘Metaltron’ was a Dalek.
As the afternoon wound down, and a few of the others had started leaving, Yaz found herself talking to Ace and Tegan. She’d asked after their work with UNIT since their last meeting, and remembered to trade numbers this time. She hadn’t realised they were also both queer when they’d met, and it brightened her day to learn as much.
“While we’re on the topic: thanks for not saying anything about… ‘who I am’, y’know. Didn’t want it getting awkward – just in case.”
“No, of course not.” Tegan waved it away with a huff and a frown. “It’d be outing you to a room of strangers, for one thing. Not about to do that to you.”
Across the room, Yaz saw Adam shaking Graham’s hand and then leaving with a friendly wave. No matter the details of his story, she still felt bad for him if he really was walking around with some strange piece of technology in his head. She set down her mug of tea.
“Sorry, just gimme a sec, I’ll be right back.” She hurriedly muttered to the other women, then jogged across the room to follow Adam into the neighbouring hallway.
“Hey! Adam!” she called out as the door closed behind her, leaving just the two of them together.
He turned around, looking mildly startled that someone had come looking for him.
“Sorry! Hi!” Yaz continued as she caught up to him. “I don’t mean to be forward or anything, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said, with the head implant…”
“Right…” He clutched at his backpack nervously, which Yaz supposed was fair when a relative stranger comes up to you talking about your head.
“I don’t know if I can promise anything, but- I dunno, I might be able to help. If you want?”
Adam smiled curtly.
“I appreciate the offer, and no offence, but this,” He tapped his forehead with a finger. “Is technology from way in the future. I’ve thought about it, and researched it, and there is nothing on Earth that can fix it.”
“Yeah, about that…” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her half-Sheffield-half-Gallifreyan sonic screwdriver. “Don’t go around telling people, but I might have something a little better than Earth technology.”
Adam’s eyes lit up at the sight of the screwdriver – clearly recognising it despite the different shell.
“Is that a… oh, what did he call it? Screwdriver?”
“Sonic screwdriver, yeah. It was sort of a… parting gift from her, when I stopped travelling.” Yaz still didn’t want to let on about her relationship with the Doctor, especially if it might upset the guy in front of her.
His eyes widened in surprise.
“Wow… someone’s clearly the favourite. Nothing new there, though.”
Yaz resisted the temptation to say that he didn’t know the half of it. Instead, she offered a paltry smile.
“I just thought, if I give it a quick scan, I can see if there’s something I can do. At least stop your head opening up like that.”
Adam had looked thrown ever since Yaz produced the screwdriver, like he couldn’t believe she really had one. That was a fair reaction, she supposed – so far as she knew, she was the only living human with anything like it. He shook off a temporary stupor to answer.
“Sure. I mean – can’t make things worse, right?”
Yaz dug in her other pocket for her phone, so that she could actually read the results of the scan, then lifted the screwdriver to his forehead. Adam quickly put up his hand, nudging the implement aside for a second.
“Uh, it’s- not gonna sting or something?”
“No, no, you’re good. It’s completely passive.” Yaz moved her hand away to look him in the eyes properly. “You don’t have to let me do this if you’re not comfortable.”
Adam in turn lowered his hand, and relaxed his stance.
“Go for it.”
Yaz activated the screwdriver, and watched her phone as the data poured in. She was no neurologist, but the information was portrayed as simplistically as it could be. She saw the tiny chip nestled between his hippocampus and amygdala – the centres for memory and emotional processing.
As expected, there was a signal connecting the chip to the door in the front of his skull – a signal that could easily be tripped by the sonic if she wasn’t careful. She continued the scan, investigating the connections between the chip and the brain. It didn’t seem to be doing anything in the immediate term, but there was a healthy supply of nanomachines sitting idle around it.
Considering how deep in the brain the thing was buried, she didn’t want to risk doing anything by herself. As much as the coast looked clear, this was a man’s actual brain she was looking at – not something that could be easily fixed if anything went wrong. Definitely something to talk an expert about. Luckily, she lived with one.
She deactivated the screwdriver, and showed Adam her phone screen.
“Right. I can see the implant, and I’m pretty sure I can isolate the signal between it and the door, then sever the connection. But, it is buried right next to your long-term memory, so I really don’t want to go messing about with it unless I absolutely know what it’s gonna do.”
Adam stared at the phone, entranced by the information on display.
“That’s… incredible. All that from such a tiny device. And the Doctor just… let you have it?”
A hint of darkness flitted across his face – jealousy, perhaps? Or anger? Only for a split second, then it was gone. Understandable, Yaz supposed, if his falling out had been over the use of alien technology, and now here she was brandishing a sonic screwdriver. She swallowed sheepishly as she put her phone away too.
“Well, not right away. We knew each other for years before she gave it to me. She knows I’m not gonna rig the lottery or something, y’know?”
“Right. Of course.”
Another awkward second of silence passed between them before Yaz broke it.
“I know some people. Probably can’t remove it, but with this scan, they should be able to tell me what’s safe to do; find a way to stop it opening, hopefully.”
Adam looked at her with a frown, like he was struggling to believe what she was offering.
“Thank you, Yaz. It’s very kind of you to do this.”
Yaz shrugged dismissively.
“Saw something that needed fixing, gotta do what I can.”
They traded numbers, as well as a promise to meet up after Yaz had determined the way forward. Adam continued on his way out, and soon after, Yaz made her way home, still mulling over the implications of Adam’s story.