When the Doctor woke up he could tell
immediately that he felt better. He
wasn’t one to need much sleep. In fact
he got by very well on nothing more than a few hours a week, but he had slept
most of the last day and a half away. It
was an odd feeling. He noticed Merry was
still sitting in the chair next to his bed.
She was learning forward and her head was resting on the bed next to his
chest. She was sleeping. The Doctor tried to move without disturbing
her, but as soon as he began to move, she woke up.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Better.
Much better,” he answered.
Merry rubbed the sleep from her
eyes. She was holding the Doctor’s
handkerchief in her hand. She stuffed it
back into her pocket. The Doctor sat up
and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“Can you get me my waistcoat?” he asked.
Merry went to the coat rack where his
things were neatly hung. She got the
silver waistcoat and cravat and handed it to him. He slipped the waistcoat on and buttoned it
up. Then he tied the cravat around his
neck and tucked it into the waistcoat.
Merry handed him his shoes. He
put them on and stood up. No dizziness
this time. He could tell the illness was
gone. Merry had saved him.
She was smiling and holding his
coat. She helped him put it on. He gently pushed her back down into her chair
and he brought up another one and sat it down in front of her. He took her hands in his.
“Are you alright?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” said Merry brightly, “and
no.” Her voice dropped. “Doctor, I’m so happy you are well and I’m so
happy that everyone who was sick is getting better. It is amazing and I’m glad to have had a hand
in it.” She took a deep breath, “But
Doctor, I spent most of last night in a jail cell.”
The Doctor interrupted her, “I’m so
sorry about that. You should never have
been put in there.” It was obvious to
Merry that he was quite mad about that.
She smiled. “No Doctor, I’m not upset by that. I understood that I broke one of their laws
and I was willing to die for it if it meant saving everyone else and I knew it
would. But all that time in the cell
gave me a lot of time to think. I
thought about Peter, Liam and Ailish. I had the cure in my house while they
were sick! I have lots of ginger in my
home. It is my favorite spice, my
favorite tea, my favorite fragrance. I
could have saved them. I had the cure in
my home all the time. I could have saved
them!”
“You didn’t know,” the Doctor said.
“I drink ginger tea every day. That is why I never got sick. My daily dose of ginger prevented me from
getting sick. Peter hated ginger tea and
never drank it and the twins were so young, I hadn’t given them any yet. If I had known that I had the cure in my
hands every day, I would have forced Peter to take it and given it to my
babies.”
Merry pulled the handkerchief out
again. It was getting very wet from the
regular use it had been getting since the Doctor first handed it to her less
than two days ago.
“Merry, you didn’t know. You can’t beat yourself up like that. You had ginger every day and it was available
to Peter. He only had to drink it once
in a while. It would have pleased you
and it would have protected him, but he chose not to. As a matter of fact, I chose not to as well.”
Merry looked at the Doctor. She was puzzled.
“Do you remember our delightful tea
party in your yard?” he asked. Merry
nodded. “You offered me ginger tea,
remember? And I turned it down. You could have saved me right then and there,
but it was my choice not to accept it,” he paused thoughtfully for a
moment. “Now, you mustn’t be upset any
longer. You saved a city. You saved an entire civilization! Think of the thousands of people who owe you
their lives. Myself included.”
Merry smiled shyly.
“Do you remember the message that the
Weyk visitors in the spaceship left Peter and that you memorized?” the Doctor
asked. Merry nodded. “Remember how they said they were searching
for the Healer and we took it to mean me, the Doctor? I was wrong about that translation. They meant you. You are the Healer that they were seeking. You are a nurse and healer from Earth. They needed you.” The Doctor smiled at Merry. She hugged him.
“Have you seen Stjarna today?” the
Doctor asked brightly.
“No.
I dropped her back off at the school last night. Then I went to the gardens, found the sacred
plant, dug it up, got thrown in jail, released from jail and then sat by your
side until 10 minutes ago. I’m afraid
I’ve been rather busy,” Merry answered with a little smile.
“Well then, should we go find her?” The
Doctor stood up and offered Merry his elbow.
She took it and they walked out together. The sun was starting to set on the
horizon. The Doctor and Merry walked to
the school. It wasn’t far and they both
felt like a little exercise after having spent so much of the last day cooped up.
When they entered the school, Merry
noticed there was more laughter and chatting among the children. Merry walked to the door of Stjarna’s room
and she opened it up. Stjarna squealed
in delight and ran to Merry.
Merry scooped the child into her arms and
hugged her tight. The Doctor noticed
another child in the corner of the room crying.
He walked up to the child, sat down on the floor in front of him and
spoke to him in a quiet whisper. The
child climbed into the Doctor’s lap and stopped crying. The Doctor cuddled the child and whispered to
him.
Merry went over to them and sat down on
the floor next to the Doctor. Stjarna
settled herself in Merry’s lap.
The Doctor patted the child’s head as he
spoke to Merry. “His name is Beltreb. He told me his father died. He misses his father.”
“He has not allowed me or any of the
other caretakers to comfort him,” the caretaker came over to where the Doctor
and Merry sat. “I’m surprised he has
allowed you to hold him.”
Merry smiled, “Sometimes only a
daddy will do. Beltreb may not know you,
but he can tell that you are a kind father-type person and that is what he
needs right now.” She started playing
with Stjarna’s hair. “These poor children.
So many of them are so young.
They don’t understand why they can’t go home or see their parents.”
“They are so lonely and looking for
someone to love them that they will take it from anyone, even a stranger, like
me.” The Doctor said quietly. He laid
his head on the child’s. He looked
sad. Memories from long ago stirred in
his mind and he recalled his own children, holding them, playing with them and
singing them songs.
As if Merry could read the Doctor’s
thoughts, she began singing. She had dug
deep into her own memories and recalled a lullaby that she had learned in
college. She sang it quietly to the
Stjarna and Beltreb. The Doctor was
surprised to see other children come and sit with them while Merry sang. He was even more surprised when he realized
the words she was singing wasn’t being translated by the TARDIS. She was actually singing to them in a
language similar to their own.
By the time Merry had finished her
song, she had two children sitting in her lap and the Doctor had two more
children leaning up against his arms.
“Sing it again, Merry,” he said. Merry did and the children sat quietly to
listen. Even the room’s caretaker came
over and sat with the children. When
Merry was done, the caretaker stood up and quietly announced to the children it
was time to go eat. All the children
jumped up and ran to the door and waited for the caretaker to lead them
out. When they had left, Merry and the
Doctor stood up.
“Doctor,” said Merry, “I want to stay
here.”
“Stay here? You don’t want to go home?” he asked.
Merry shook her head. “No, there is nothing for me there. But here, this building is filled with
children who don’t have parents. And I’m
a parent with no children.”
“Merry, you can’t adopt all of these
children,” the Doctor said.
Merry smiled. “I know that, but I can help them. Maybe they would let me have Stjarna and I
can help to care for the others until adoptive parents can be found. I’ve got no one back on Earth, but here is
different. I’ve got Stjarna.”
The Doctor studied Merry’s
face. Her smile was real. He could tell how attached to the small child
she had become. The Doctor was fond of
the child as well. He realized how much Stjarna
and Merry needed each other.
“Merry,” he mused, “how did you know
that song? You sang to the children in a
language that was almost their own.”
“Was it not their language?” Merry
asked.
“Not quite, but it was very close
and they probably understood it. How did
you know that song?” the Doctor asked.
Merry smiled shyly. “This is going to sound silly, Doctor, I
know, but years ago, when I first started school at the university, I had
wanted to study Indo-European language and history. I took classes in Indo-European history,
grammar and language structure, and etymology.
I loved my classes and everything I learned, but after two years, I realized
I could never make a living doing that, so I switched to nursing.
“I started to realize after arriving
here that I was recognizing words, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then last night when I had those long hours
in the cell, I started to comprehend why the language seemed so familiar. It is similar to Proto-Indo-European! Now Doctor, tell me why these people speak a
dialect of sorts of my own language’s Mother tongue.”
“The universe is full of mysteries,”
the Doctor chuckled. “Sometimes I go out
into the universe to solve mysteries, but there are many that remain a
mystery. This is probably one of those
mysteries of the universe that we must simply accept. Two civilizations, two species, two planets,
tens of thousands of years apart, one base language.” The Doctor smiled. “So you want to stay?”
“Yes,” Merry answered. There was no hesitation in her reply.
“The TARDIS translation will remain
with you for a short time after I leave, but it will fade away and you will
have to learn the language, although that doesn’t seem like it will be a
problem for you,” the Doctor said.
“No, I don’t think it will be,”
Merry smiled. “I do have one favor to
ask of you, though.”
“Yes?”
“Will you take me back to my home on
Earth? I want to get a few things and I
have one loose end I want to tie up.
Then, if you would, bring me back here.
I mean, can you do all that?”
Merry felt a little uneasy asking for so much from the Doctor.
“Of course I can,” the Doctor
said. “Come one, I can have you back here
before the children are done with dinner.”
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 8
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