Traveling with Eliza

Foreward

"I just don't get why you want to hear my story, Desi." Eliza Beth told her companions as she stuffed her latest purchases into a trunk under the TARDIS console. She had taken her faithful companions to a carnival that encompassed an entire planet and they had all returned with armfuls of ridiculous items.

"Did you honestly buy another copy of Anne of Green Gables?" Ricky asked from off to the side, watching her struggle.

"You can never have too many copies of your favorite book."Eliza huffed and slammed the trunk shut.

"You're changing the subject." Desi cut back in.

The Time Lady sighed heavily which caused her curly bangs to sway. "It's not a pleasant story." she said finally.

Her companions looked to each other excitedly and hurried to take a seat on the worn couch Eliza kept in the corner. A couch that had become the crashing place for anyone who was to tired to look for their bedroom in the vast inner workings of the TARDIS. Ricky and Desi sat side by side (of course) and Gus the Ood propped himself on the arm. His eyes gleaming with excitement just as much as the other two.

"Et tu, Gus?" Eliza gave the alien a disapproving look before conceding. "Fine!"

"Told you I'd break her." Desi said proudly.

Eliza unclipped the fob watch from her blouse. "It's not that I don't want people to know." she said slowly. "I understand that traveling with someone, getting close to someone without knowing their past can be...difficult. However, sometimes what we don't know allows us to see things without judgment. Ignorance is, in itself, kind of like wearing rose colored glasses. You get to make your own decisions about people without basing what they do in the present on things they did in the past." She made sure to choose her next words carefully. "A child of Gallifrey is blessed with twelve lives. Each different, each with meaning, and each different from the rest. When a-" she cleared her throat in oder to keep going, "When a Time Lord regenerates, a piece of them dies. A new...alternate version of themselves continue on...I just hope enough of what I was has died off since the first."

Eliza held up the fob watch to admire it. "Once upon a time, there was a watchmaker..."