Mythical Creatures Scene 5: Reunion
Letitia arrived at the restaurant a little after 12:30 PM. When Tansy had suggested they get together, she’d said she might be late, so there was no need to hurry.
“Nice to see you again, Ms. Green,” said the waiter as he led her to the table. “Your date is this way.”
“Date?” she laughed. “Not today; I’m just meeting my daughter.”
“Yes,” he grinned, “that’s what she wanted you to think.”
Letitia rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of her children sending her on blind dates; they must have known that, to keep this one a secret. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been dating for the last six years; she just hadn’t found anyone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and so they thought they had to help.
The Doctor had already seen her, from his table outside, as she approached. He watched her surreptitiously. The last time they’d met, she’d been about twenty-five years old, and now they looked roughly the same age. She was still braiding her hair and dressing in cotton gauze, but her top had a low V-neck, and in the opening he could see the pendant he’d given her.
He stood to greet her as the waiter led her to the other chair. When her eyes finally came down from the sky, they went wide, and she covered her mouth and gasped exactly as Tansy had. “It’s you!” she breathed. “I can’t believe it! It’s you!”
She threw her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder, breath ragged as if she were laughing or crying or both. When she pulled back, she spent some time touching his face as if to convince herself he wasn’t an apparition.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the waiter coughed, “but I suspect your order is nearly ready. Shall I bring it out?”
“Yes, please,” the Doctor answered. “I hope you don’t mind,” he added when the waiter had gone. “I told them to bring your favorite.”
“Right now I don’t think I’d mind if the world ended,” she laughed, letting her hands fall to her sides. “You finally found me.”
“I never knew where you were,” he admitted as they took their seats. “The Tardis found you on its own.”
“Smart ship,” she said. “But even if you had known where the commune was, you wouldn’t have found me there. Stella owns it herself now and runs an organic farm.”
Just then the waiter arrived with their meals, and they stopped talking to try a few bites.
“Where is the Tardis, anyway?” she asked as soon as she swallowed.
“Top block,” he answered.
Her fork clattered against the plate. “You mean, literally on Church Street?”
“Right in the middle, in a puddle, in front of Crow Bookshop.”
“Someone’s going to notice it there,” she giggled.
“I’m pretty sure the shopkeeper did, but I don’t think she knows it’s got anything to do with me. Seeing as her shop is a blue box too, she’ll probably just claim it’s advertising.”
They laughed for a moment, then got quiet again. But unlike their silence in the grove the last time they ate together, this was a little awkward. Letitia had things she wanted to say, but no idea where to begin, or even how much of it she should say. The Doctor was avoiding her eyes, as if thinking the same thing; for a while they both focused on their lunch.
“Twenty-two years,” she sighed at last. “How long was it for you?”
“Not so much, but still years,” he said.
“Are you nine hundred yet?”
“Just.”
“Happy Birthday,” she smiled.
“Thanks,” he shrugged. Then he set down his fork and gave her a serious look. “But do you know what? In all that time, wandering around the universe since we last met, do you know how many people I’ve really trusted?”
“How many?”
“One.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching across the table and taking his hand.
“Nothing for you to be sorry about,” he grinned. “You’re the one. Came close with another, but not close enough for her, I guess. I asked her to travel with me, and she said no.”
Letitia sighed again, unsure how she felt about that. On one hand, she was jealous that he’d liked anyone else enough to make the offer, and on the other, she was angry at the woman for refusing him.
“I’ve read your books,” he told her. She didn’t say anything to that, either, though her face turned worried. “They’re not bad,” he went on. “Not great literature, obviously, but not bad. The writing’s good, even if the plots aren’t much.”
She smiled, relieved. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath.
“But you have to stay careful about what you put in. I do still have enemies in the universe, and if they think you know me, they’ll try to use you to get to me. I need you to promise me two things: that you’ll never write a ship like the Tardis, and you’ll never use the term Time Lord.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it!” she gasped.
“No more than you would dream of – what was it? – ‘taking advantage’ of me? But these are romance novels, Letitia. Romance novels about us. I think you’ve made your feelings clear.”
She dropped her gaze and hid her smirk behind a fist. “All right, so I’d dream of it,” she admitted. “But I didn’t do it!”
“No, you didn’t,” he agreed. “And I thank you for that, because it would not have gone well; not then. Now, what’s this? Is Mrs. Free Love actually blushing?” He reached across the table and stroked her cheek, which only served to make her blush more.
“Of course, all that assumes you’ll be here continuing to write,” he went on as if the subject hadn’t changed. “You might be off on some other planet, or in some other time.”
“I might?” She brightened. “Are you asking me to travel with you?”
“That I am. We can go as soon as we finish lunch.”
Letitia looked for the waiter, raised her hand, and called, “Check, please!”
Scene Selection
1. The Earth Line 6. Three Days 2. Based on a True Story 7. Cassiopeia 3. Tempus Vivat 8. Connection 4. Green Light 9. No Happy Endings 5. Reunion Commentary