Lost in Time

Wyrd Sisters

The Doctor:

Somehow, Lilly-Beth was still upright. I was trying my hardest to knock her over, as I had Martha twice already. It was funny, mostly because they assumed it was turbulence, when in actual fact I just didn't have enough hands to fly her properly.

But Lillian-Bethany Reacher? She was just holding onto the rail with one hand and apparently texting with the other. Nice.

"But how do you travel in time?" Martha asked, the more chatty of the two. "What makes it go?"

Really? "Oh, let's take the fun and mystery out of everything. Martha, you don't want to know. It just does. Hold on tight."

And pulled us to the shakiest stop ever, knocking Martha to the floor once again, but Lilly? Nope, all she did was stand her feet a little better on the floor. "Did you even take the test to be able to fly, mate?"

Oh, I was going to get her later, definitely. "Yes, and I failed it. Now, make the most of it, you two. I promised you one trip, and one trip only. Outside this door, brave new world."

"The Tempest." Lilly-Beth commented, putting on sort of a weird gothic jacket thing over her white top. "Elizabethan England?" Oh, she was far too good. Why was she so good?

"Take a look." I gestured to the doors, putting on my own coat. "After you two."

So out they went, Lilly putting her phone away to have a look at the dark cityscape, washing lines hanging below the overhanging eaves, scruffy urchins running around. "Oh, you are kidding me. You are so kidding me. Oh, my God, we did it. We travelled in time. Where are we? No, sorry. I got to get used to this whole new language. When are we?"

Lilly-Beth pulled her hair back with a crocodile clip and was looking around. "Southwark. I'd say 1590-1600, going by the fact you're about to be hit by shit." And pulled her out of the way as a bloke emptied his chamber pot out the window. "It predates the toilet at any rate."

Right... How had she known that was going to happen? "Sorry about that. Well spotted, Bethy."

She brushed me off as she got out a notebook to start writing things down, all time stamped. But Martha was enjoying herself far more. "I've seen worse. I've worked the late night shift A+E. But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?"

Why wouldn't we be? "Of course we can. Why do you ask?"

"It's like in the films. You step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race."

Seriously? Easy fix there, Martha. "Tell you what then, don't step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?"

"Nearly blinded me when I went down a hill on my pushbike."

"Lilly!" The girl blinked at me. "You're not helping."

Martha hadn't finished yet. "What if, I don't know, what if I kill my grandfather?"

Again, another very easy fix to that. "Are you planning to?" She shook her head. "Well, then. Round about 1599, so spot on, thereabouts, Beth."

"Oh, but hold on. Am I all right? I'm not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?"

How come Martha was the only one who had ever asked questions like this?  Because 900 years, never happened before. "Why would they do that?"

"She's not exactly white, in case you haven't noticed." Lilly-Beth pointed out, looking around carefully. "I'm naturally ginger, so a good thing I dyed it darker as I'd be seen as a Witch." 

You probably already would be, Lil. "I'm not even human. Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me. Besides, you'd be surprised. Elizabethan England, not so different from your time. Look over there. They've got recycling."' A man shovelling horse manure into a bucket. "Water cooler moment." Two men talking at a water barrel, and a preacher yelling about the end of the world. Basically every town centre on a Friday Lunchtime. "Global warming. Oh, yes, and entertainment. Popular entertainment for the masses. If I'm right, we're just down the river by Southwark, right next to-"