"I've been meaning to ask," Rose started once they got back in the TARDIS from dealing with the plasma storm. That adventure had certainly been interesting. Her partially burnt clothes could attest to that. "Exactly how long have you been travelling with the Doctor?"
The question was obviously directed towards Lily who was currently sitting in the jump seat as they all took a small break after all the running they had done. The Doctor also glanced over in her direction from where he stood at the console. He was pretty curious, too. While it wasn't good to know your own personal future, surely just this much would be fine.
"Ah," the redhead looked to be in thought. This was a question that she'd probably never give an entirely clear answer after all. "A few years give or take."
Technically, it wasn't a lie.
"But this time line's Doctor hadn't met you until the other day," Rose clarified, trying to make sense of everything. After all, it hadn't even been a whole week for her since she started travelling with the Doctor. There was still a lot that she didn't know or understand.
"Um, no, not quite," Lily tried to look over to the Doctor for help, but for once in his life, he seemed content to let her do the explaining, the bastard. However, Rose looked confused, so she still had to explain. "He's met both past me and future me a couple of times but never for very long."
"The first time I met her was centuries ago," the Doctor confirmed with a casual tone. Though, given that she was currently travelling with current him, it actually worried him a bit that she somehow manages to find herself with younger him.
"You're kidding?" Rose asked, looking between the two curiously.
"Nope!" The Doctor grinned at the two sisters. "First time I met your sister, she hijacked the TARDIS one minute and disappeared the very next. Only met her once more after that, so you could say that the other day was our first proper meeting."
Rose snorted with a grin at the idea of Lily hijacking the TARDIS. "That definitely sounds like something she'd do."
Lily snickered, ignoring the few things that happened to be wrong with the Doctor's statement. He didn't need to know anything about those mistakes just yet. "Yeah… I can't deny that," She paused. "I am a bit curious about the circumstances, though."
"Even I don't know that," the Doctor shrugged. For now, that meeting was apparently going to be a mystery for both of them. He wasn't lying when he said that she was there one minute and gone the next. Though, he did, in fact, leave out one particular detail that he had no plans of sharing anytime soon. "But enough of that! Where to next?!"
"I don't know about you guys," Rose started. "But I'm going to sleep." Lily smiled a bit at the expression that had formed on the Doctor's face. He was clearly exasperated at the human need for at least eight hours of sleep a night. "Properly. In a bed and everything. I'm exhausted."
That nap she'd taken at 10 Downing Street had definitely not been enough for her standards. She was pretty sure she still had some cricks in her back and bags under her eyes from that.
"Humans and your need for sleep," the Doctor grumbled without any real bite to it and a bit of humor in his tone.
"Just because you can go for over a week without sleep, doesn't mean that everyone can, Spaceman," Lily teased, causing him to look taken aback.
"Spaceman?" He questioned incredulously, giving her a look that questioned her sanity as Rose laughed and Lily smiled innocently.
"Better than Martian," she told him, just making him more confused.
"Why would you-" the Doctor just put his face into the palm of his hand and sighed. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know. "Never mind."
"Alright, you two," Rose stopped laughing, but a slight grin remained. "I'll see you in the morning," she paused. "Or whenever it is that I wake up. Maybe you guys should think about getting some sleep yourselves!"
Both the Doctor's and Lily's faces scrunched up at the suggestion, neither in the mood to rest their eyes. In any case, Rose ignored their faces and just waved as she walked out of the console room towards her room leaving the other two in a comfortable silence.
"I suppose you don't have any plans on sleeping anytime soon," the Doctor noted, breaking the silence, glancing over at the redhead that was still sitting peacefully on the jumpseat with a book now in hand. He wasn't really sure where the book came from.
"Not particularly," Lily agreed.
"That's not healthy, you know," he frowned, knowing that the girl was probably exhausted. No amount of makeup could hide the dark bags that had formed underneath her eyes. Her glasses may have helped hide them a little bit, but they weren't miracle workers. "How long has it been since you last slept anyways?"
Lily paused in thought, putting down her book. When was the last time she'd slept? Her face scrunched up trying to remember. Do cat naps count? Normally she had a pretty good memory, but mundane things such as her sleep schedule were a little bit on the fuzzy side at the moment.
Meh, she was sure she'd remember eventually. She always did.
"You're only proving my point," the Doctor said dryly at the silence that had formed between the two as the girl's face scrunched up. "I'm sure the TARDIS has already made you a room, so why don't you go ahead and at least take a nap or something."
Lily sighed, not that she was particularly surprised. This Doctor barely knew her and was already getting onto her about her less than healthy habits.
At least she knew that some things would never change.
"He's right, you know," and now the TARDIS was ganging up on her. "And while I don't say that often," Seriously, though, she rarely ever admitted the Doctor was right about something. Apparently, she didn’t want to feed into his ego even if he couldn’t hear her himself. "You haven't slept properly since before… before your last trip. I may not be too familiar with how much a long time is for the average human, but even I know that you've been going nonstop for far too long."
While Lily appreciated that they seemed to care for her well being, she couldn't help but feel a bit smothered. She knew all too well that she needed to sleep. Hell, she needed some good ol' self care in general, but right now… she wasn't sure she could manage that. There was just way too much shit going on in her mind.
Lily Tyler had never been the type of person to confront her own emotions. Instead, she'd find ways to distract herself. Normally, that distraction came in the form of the Doctor and the adventures that came with him. Over the years, though, the adventures themselves had begun to take their own toll on her. That wasn't to say that she didn't enjoy adventuring with the Doctor. There were just times when she wished that she could do so much more. And that's why she could never sleep. Being left alone with her thoughts only proves to remind her of all of shortcomings and failures.
"You and my thief," Lily could practically hear the TARDIS shaking her nonexistent head as she sighed. She already knew exactly what Lily was thinking and trying to avoid. "When will you two learn?" The two were sometimes far too alike for their own good. "Just because this timeline's Doctor has yet to truly know you, doesn't mean that you have to hide everything and treat him like a stranger, too. He won't ever get to know you if you keep on bottling everything up like you always do."
Ultimately, Lily knew the TARDIS was right. Gosh, she had the overwhelming urge to laugh. Somehow, one way or another, the TARDIS had ended up acting like she was her therapist or something and had been for a long time. The TARDIS seemed to be the only place where she could truly express herself for multiple reasons.
"Have you got any ice cream?" Lily had made her decision.
The Doctor looked at her, extremely confused. He was having quite the difficult time trying to figure out how to react every time this woman said something, and he wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. He just didn't quite know how ice cream related to her taking a nap in anyway. The only thing that he could think of was that maybe it was just her go-to before bedtime snack
"There should be some in the kitchen," he answered, not entirely sure where she was going with this.
"Excellent," the Doctor raised a brow as she took hold of his hand and started dragging him out of the console room. Now he was really confused.
"Lily?" The girl ignored him and continued walking down the winding and neverending halls of the TARDIS. Lily only let go of him after reaching the kitchen, and she didn't waste any time as she quickly grabbed a couple tubs of ice cream and spoons before gesturing to the Doctor, who she had left outside the door, to follow her.
Unfortunately or fortunately for the Doctor, he was too curious for his own good and followed without question. For some reason, when they reached their destination, they wound up at the theatre room of all places.
"What are we doing here exactly?" He still didn't get any answer as they entered the large but cozy room. He honestly didn't spend all that much time in this room, but he couldn't deny that it did have quite the comfortable atmosphere.
Lily just handed the Doctor a tub of ice cream and a spoon and plopped down on one of the many reclining chairs within the room before finally speaking. "Both of us fall asleep easier when watching a movie."
"What?" The man's brows furrowed, still standing in the doorway even with the woman before him looking at him as though she expected him to sit down without question.
The redhead sighed a bit, and the Doctor took notice of just how truly tired she looked. It wasn't just a lack of sleep that made her appear so exhausted. Her exhaustion appeared to be almost innate. It was a bit worrying if he was being honest.
"I've got trauma. You've got trauma." She didn't look at him as she said these things rather casually, he noticed, instead choosing to flip through the different movies on Netflix with the remote she had found. "We both need sleep." She spared a glance at him as he tried to interrupt. "And don't try to argue otherwise. I think we both know better." She got back on topic, shrugging a bit as she went along. "I figured movies might help."
"How so?" He was honestly questioning her sanity a bit at this point. Not that he was the prime example of sanity himself, but still…
Normally, he probably would have been a bit more frustrated at somebody trying to get him to sleep and pointing out how he had trauma. He could only take a guess on how she had found out about said trauma. He was a bit tempted to have a talk with his future self. However, Lily's overall nonchalance about the entire topic threw him for a bit of a loop.
He truly did not understand her.
Lily shrugged in response to his question. "It always seems to work in the future."
It was true. She wouldn't tell him this, but he had been or will be the one to actually introduce this method to her. It was a bit ironic, she supposed. She apparently just introduced to him what he had introduced to her in the first place.
Wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey indeed.
The Doctor only stared at her in silence, blank faced. She barely bat an eye at his staring, however, as she continued to scroll through Netflix. It wasn't as though she expected him to just be chill with her barging in on his life and his need for some good ol' self-care. Then again, he had done almost the exact same thing with her, and she liked to think that she had handled it pretty well. Granted, future Doctor had probably been a lot less awkward than she was currently being.
Oh well. At least he wasn't just blatantly disregarding her.
Lily was pretty sure that was a plus in her favor.
"You okay with Enola Holmes?" There was still no answer. She finally turned her head, staring directly into the Doctor's eyes which already bore into hers. He was still standing in the doorway, just staring. It was easy to tell that he was trying to figure her out. It was perfectly understandable. He had every right to be suspicious or curious or whatever he was right now.
As she stared back at him, she couldn't help but remember the emotions that had crossed his older face the last time she had seen him, which, truly, was not that long ago for herself. She remembered the sorrow, the anger, the regret; and finally, she remembered the ending resignation. All of those emotions had been directed towards her, and she still wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Lily was honestly surprised at how well his current self was taking her appearance and her future knowledge. She had been expecting more questions and more suspicion. She would have been less surprised if he had tried to avoid her, considering her a problem that he had to run away from, much like his future self had tried to do with River. Never would she have imagined that he would actually invite her to travel with him so easily. Then again, she had no doubts that his invitation was highly influenced by his curiosity and underlying suspicion.
But still, here he was, having been dragged around by her just to get ice cream and watch a movie with no complaint. Granted, the confusion probably sidetracked most, if not all, of his complaints. Lily wasn’t going to look that far into it, though. At this point in her life, even the smallest of miracles were most welcome.
"You know," Lily started, breaking the staring contest as she turned back to face the large screen. "These chairs are pretty comfortable." She sent a quick glance towards the now frowning man. "Much more comfortable than standing anyways."
"..." He stayed still for another few seconds before sighing. "You don't take no for an answer, do you?"
"Oh, Doctor," Lily smirked, a spark of amusement glittering in her eyes for the first time since they had entered the room. "I think you'll find that that sums me up in a nutshell.
Now, are you going to come and watch this with me or not?"