FIC: Balance (Five/Romana, G)

[lizbee]

Title: Balance
Summary: They took the long way back to Gallifrey.
Rating: G
Notes: This is set immediately after the third and final Key2Time audio. If you've not heard it, here is some context in the form of spoilers: So the Doctor and his companion, a human-shaped Tracer named Amy, are searching for the segments of the Key to Time. The Sixth Segment turns out to be Romana, who absorbed Astra's, um, segmenty-ness, at the end of "The Armageddon Factor". All of the segments are decaying; Romana is dying. By the end, the segments have all been restored, Romana is well again, and she's agreed to take Amy back to Gallifrey with her.



Balance
by LizBee


"Of course," said the Doctor, leading Amy and Romana back to the TARDIS, "we could take the long way back to Gallifrey."

"The scenic route," Romana agreed. "It would be lovely to travel again."

So they did.

Finding Peri was easy enough, although the company she was keeping, a fifty-first century Time Agent, was decidedly persistent in his amorous attentions. When Captain Hart had at last been disposed of, the Doctor said, "I suppose we should turn for Gallifrey."

"So soon?" said Romana.

So they made a brief detour, and visited the second moon of Delta Vega.

"It's simply marvellous, being alive," said Romana. The picnic dinner had been eaten, the wine bottles were empty, and Amy and Peri were exploring the riverbanks, discussing cosmic balance and Ronald Reagan.

"I mean," Romana added, "you can't really appreciate your autonomous nervous system until you've experienced slow cellular decay."

"I have. I didn't care for it." The Doctor hesitated. "Was it very bad?"

"Dying? Dull and painful, really. And frustrating -- it seemed so useless." Romana raised herself up on one elbow. "You know," she said, "it was actually a relief when the Black Guardian told me I was the sixth segment. I thought -- if I must give in to oblivion, at least it will have some meaning. Some relevant to the cosmos." She forced a laugh. "Isn't that the most egotistical thing you've ever heard?"

"No," said the Doctor, "compared with the Supreme Chancellor of Eridani Six, or the Magnificence of Murgos Twelve, or Henry the Eighth, you're the very soul of modesty."

"Why, thank you, Doctor!"

"Of course, compared with the average being on the street, you're an insufferable egomaniac. But that's just another way of saying 'Time Lord'."

Romana threw a bread roll at him, but not very hard.

"Do you really think I should go into politics, Doctor?"

He sat up sharply. "You know, I think it's time I taught Amy and Peri how to play cricket."

"Doctor!"

"Well, Amy's a brand new entity -- and Peri's American!"

"Then you don't want me to go into politics."

"They made me Lord President, you know."

"Right, so anyone can do it."

"I would have been a very good president," the Doctor said, "if I'd wanted to."

"Perhaps if you'd wanted to," Romana said acidly, "Gallifrey wouldn't be in such a state of stagnation."

"Stagnant is Gallifrey's natural state."

"Yes," said Romana, "that's exactly the sort of thinking I need to change. I spent a lot of time with the Black Guardian, you know--"

"Not the most promising sentence I've ever heard--"

"And it made me see, well, order is all well and good, but without change, we'll die--"

"--Last time someone spent a lot of time with the Black Guardian, he tried to kill me. Bunged a rock at my head. I didn't care for it at all."

"--And if we don't change ourselves, something will inevitably come along to force us. Are there any more of those strawberries left?"

The Doctor handed her the basket. "Barring the Guardians, there's nothing in the universe strong enough to force the Time Lords to do anything," he said.

"Not yet. That's the problem with stagnation, everyone else keeps evolving. They'll start catching up, soon. Humans, Daleks, those funny spider things that live in dark matter. Another millenium and who knows?" Romana ate a strawberry and smiled. "I think that enrolling Amy at Prydon will shake things up very nicely. Braxiatel says a good teacher always learns from his students."

"So you've been talking to Braxiatel," said the Doctor, not sounding remotely petulant or jealous.

"More the other way around. He spent a great deal of time with me, in my illness."

"I wonder what he wanted from you?"

"Really, Doctor. He cares about me, that's all."

"I take back what I said earlier. Your ego could eclipse a sun."

Romana threw a strawberry at the Doctor. He caught it and ate it, and smiled.

Later, back in the TARDIS, the Doctor said, "How would you fancy a trip to the core of Saturn?"

"You know," said Romana, "I think perhaps it's time Amy and I went back to Gallifrey. We have rather a lot of work to do."

So they did.


end