Leela: Ever After

...realizing that she'd made a mistake, Leela started to look at her options. The damp squirmy bundle on her shoulder whined again and hiccuped, grabbing at her auburn hair with a small hard fist. Unable to release his hold, he flailed his tiny arm in a futile attempt to untangle himself from her soft curls.
This was not an option for a warrior.
First: a wet nurse. The Doctor had sent a generous credit authorisation when the baby was born; enough to cover the cost of wet nurses if she chose. AnDred's objections would not stand on finances, although she knew that he'd find reasons a plenty to keep her chained with a baby on the tit! This was no life at all for a warrior and she chafed against it.
It seemed so simple when gentle AnDred asked her to stay. She expected him to join NesBin's tribe with her and live the life of open air and honest effort, but AnDred had other ideas. The changes that followed the Doctor's departure brought Official Attention to them both and there was a great deal of excitement about papers to be filed for permits and exceptions, since she was technically an Alien Savage in the eyes of Gallifrey and therefore forbidden.
Her husband reveled in the political process and managed to clear the legal hurdles, getting himself an advancement from the Chancellery Guard to the Lord President's Staff as well. No longer a warrior, AnDred was a Tesh, a desk man, maker of Laws and proud of it, quick to point out that promotions include larger Domestic Spaces, more privilege.
Baby on her shoulder, Leela paced the sterile living quarters that her mate found so pleasant. In the corners were sad stunted trees, their roots bound in pots many times too small for them and their leaves fed on diffuse roomlight that never moved. The curved putty coloured walls could be programmed to display landscapes and designs of moving lights or theatrical events, live and recorded, but there were no windows. Not in this space, nor in any other she visited. No windows, no parks, no fresh unprocessed air blowing as wind in the sky, no free sunlight.
Just walls.
This was no fit life for a warrior.
First: Arrange for the wet nurse.
Second: Clean the kitchen goo from her knife, and damn AnDred for forbidding her to carry it in the Citadel!
"I am body guard to the Lord President, the Doctor. It is my right and honor to wear my knife!" She argued more than once.
"The Doctor is not present on Gallifrey at the moment, and your weapons are superfluous." AnDred responded calmly. "Not to say illegal."
"I'm naked without my knife!" She wailed.
"That's another point I've been meaning to raise..."
In the end, he cajoled her out of a comfortable brief leather tunic and into what he considered "conventional clothing"; work smocks and heavy formal robes that hampered her leg motion, overalls that pulled at the seams when she went into a fighter's crouch.
Third: Replace the old leathers and find some new boots.

The baby yanked and whined again so she untangled her hair from his fist. He was an alien to her, looking like his father and with no fight in him, just whimpers. He never kicked his feet and shouted his objections, but muttered in baby whiffles and seemed to count on his fingers. Leela could see little of a warrior in him, and being a warrior was all she really had to offer her child. It was all she understood.
"You can educate your mind." AnDred insisted. "You are intelligent and we have the stored knowledge of generations of Time Lords and galaxies of civilisations for you to draw from. What interests you?"
Eventually, out of boredom, Leela sat under the instruction hoods every other day and absorbed what AnDred thought she should learn. He would ask after her studies, she could answer and they had that, at least, to talk about when he came home from his desk and his work. Without mentioning it to him, she also pursued information about the weapons, strategists and warriors within these records, but even her time spent learning was limited, now the baby was born.
She needed a wet nurse.
She wanted her knife. And comfortable clothes.
The baby nuzzled her neck wetly. Leela sighed, sat on the firmest chair in the room and offered the boy her breast - there were moments when mothering was a pleasure and this might be one of them. She noticed again how her once tight muscles were growing lax, her tough palms become soft.
Fourth: Get back in shape.
A mechanical whirring distracted her from these ruminations as K-9 rolled into the room.
"Mistress?" The antenna at its rear moved inquiringly. "Is the baby unit asleep yet?"
"No K-9. He's not." She winced from the pain of developing teeth being tested on her nipple. "I don't think he will be until tomorrow. What time is it?"
"It is halfway between midnight and dawn, Mistress."
Leela smiled gratefully at the robot's use of her own view of time. "Thank you K-9. How can you tell, without seeing the sky?"
"Orbital motion is programmed into my databanks. Visual connection with the atmosphere is unnecessary. Do you wish the baby unit to sleep?" K-9 rolled closer to Leela and extended a flat tipped sensor probe from its nose end toward the baby.
"K-9! You know AnDred doesn't want you inducing the baby to sleep. He says it's unhealthy, interferes with developmental progress."
"It is unhealthy for you, Mistress, to be awake all night as often as you are. Readings indicate you are fatigued and that your endorphin levels are dangerously low. If you become ill, you will not be able to care for the baby unit or yourself." The probe extended further.
Leela's eyes blurred. She shifted her arm under the baby and yawned.
"K-9. Are you putting me to sleep, too?"
"Unnecessary, Mistress. Do you wish me to put the baby unit to sleep?"
Leela looked at her son. He was sucking vigorously, eyes wide open and giving no indication that he might be sleepy in the near future. It was an effort for her to focus, Leela knew she was pushing the limits of her endurance.
"Don't let AnDred know, please."
"Of course, Mistress." Gently, K-9 touched the baby with the probe and the boy's eyes closed slowly, his sucking became sporadic and soon he was completely relaxed, breathing slowly. First, Leela promised herself as she put the sleeping baby in the sling cradle beside her bed, first I find a wet nurse. Then I'll think about my options. She fell asleep without another thought.

The ache in her calves was an old friend, welcome again after too long an absence. The bite of air in her lungs was a pleasure to Leela as she ran along the service corridor. Motherhood was wasted on her, Leela knew to her bones that she was a warrior. She wasn't certain if it was shame she felt that her greatest battle had been one of paradox and wit, surrendering to get her freedom...

AnaThraxis had been cold as the void when she found Leela at her door the morning Leela chose for her assault.
"You know you are not welcome here." There was no trace of a smile or sympathy as the older woman looked at her exhausted daughter-in-law.
"If I am not welcome, he is." Leela shrugged aside the long fashionable traveling cloak to reveal her son, asleep on her shoulder. "I thought you might listen to me, for his sake." AnaThraxis softened at the sight of the baby.
"Come in." Her voice was gruff as she grudgingly stood away, allowing Leela to enter with her precious burden. When the door was closed, she reached for her grandson. "I'll take him."
Leela hesitated. The sleeping warmth was sweet and her breasts ached with the thought of the baby she held, but the hunger in AnaThraxis's eyes was deep and Leela gave up her child into loving and expert arms. He didn't wake, but snuffled into the new shoulder with a comfortable sigh.
"So, what did you come to say?" Civil, if not friendly, she led the way into her atrium, where a small fountain trickled along one wall and the floor was densely carpeted with a short round leafed plant that released a delicious fragrance when walked on. AnaThraxis sat on a low padded bench, rocking slightly to soothe the baby in her arms. Leela slipped off the awkward clogs worn by properly dressed Gallifreyans and sank her toes into the carpet growth while stiffening her resolve.
"You were right that I do not belong in your society, although I am making the best I can of it." Leela said at last in a voice she hoped was meek. "I'm sure you think me unsuited to motherhood, and you are right about that, too. It's not that I am a bad mother, or uncaring; I am a warrior. Give me a child who no longer requires feeding and wiping and I'll give you back a capable warrior - but I don't know what to do for a baby and I can't go on, night after night alone with him!" Leela melted a bit with an embarrassment of tears welling in her eyes. "I need sleep..." She bit her lip and turned away.
"Where is your nursing cradle?"
Leela could hear prejudice rising in the older woman's voice. Old arguments were not settled with this visit of submission, merely postponed.
"I know you're a primitive, but surely you are not such a savage as to refuse one?"
"Nursing cradle? What is that, a mechanical wet nurse?" Surprised, Leela looked back at AnaThraxis. "It feeds the baby? Would it let me sleep?"
"That is its function. Don't tell me you have some barbarian belief that compels you to lactate." There was no doubting her distaste at the thought.
"Only because AnDred said I must. If it's a mechanical, he would never allow his son..."
"We'll see about that." Leela wiped at her tears and swallowed a smile. AnDred never refused his mother anything - except when he married Leela and AnaThraxis was still exacting her retribution for that disobedience.

Her heart pumping, straining against her ribs, the pulse of it felt in her toes and fingers, throbbing in her thighs. Her breasts, no longer tender and swollen from lactation, were laced securely into a new leather bodice, her legs free below the short tunic, her feet shod in soft leather boots. Knife on her hip, she ran without compromise from one end of service corridor 657 to the other, turning right into corridor 773. A small drop in floor level at the intersection was an excuse to do a forward roll in midair, landing on her feet without losing stride.
AnDred had not approved of the nursing cradle or a daynurse to watch the baby while Leela pursued her studies and training. He was given no choice in the matter, AnaThraxis saw to that. The resulting tension did not improve their relationship, but neither had the baby or the changes that pregnancy had left on her body.
"Look at you!" AnDred shouted when she proposed these modifications in the household. "Shirking your maternal responsibilities, running away from your natural duty. You're not the woman I married, you're..." His eyes said what his voice did not finish: lazy, fat and dull.
"Of course I'm not the woman you married! I was a warrior and now I'm a mother." Leela kept her voice as quiet as her anger allowed, "Unless you like what I've become, why do you object to my desire to be a warrior again?"
"Because you can't go about Gallifrey knifing peaceable citizens!" AnDred was exasperated.
"I don't kill peaceful people." Leela's voice went cold. "There is no reason. I am a trained warrior, not a rage driven berserker."
Running, now, muscles taut and her grace returned, Leela seethed at the thought that AnDred still saw her as a savage, driven by blood lust. She lengthened her stride to absorb the anger, pushing hard to use it up or leave it behind; it served no purpose.
There was so much more to being a warrior than fighting and killing. It was being always in the Balance, prepared and responsible for whatever may come. In her time with the Doctor, she learned to temper her early training with judgment and some education in purely defensive techniques. She didn't kill peaceful people, never had. Being a mother made her reconsider killing people at all, although her knife was a good backup when the defensive dances failed.
Another forward roll where the level dropped at the intersection with corridor 583 and Leela, turning in midair, saw a man sized shape detach itself from the shadows at the tunnel mouth. Or perhaps two. She pushed herself for more speed to put the shadows behind her without looking to see if they followed.
AnDred had spoken of troublesome Shobogan gangs and free enders prowling the service corridors, even used it as an excuse for why she shouldn't be running there.
"As if I need to worry about some frustrated children." She'd retorted. "Where else can I run, unobstructed?"
"They are undisciplined rabble with a political agenda, and they are armed." AnDred was pleading and the whine in his voice grated on her. "Dressed like that, you are not safe without an escort. Take K-9, at least."
To keep him happy, Leela agreed, never mentioning to AnDred that K-9 couldn't keep up when she ran and was left to guard her street robes at the start of the circuit.
The next intersection was a corner, the halfway point on her course. She could hear the shadow figures from the last intersection running behind and Leela, sensing a trap, slowed her pace, pulling close to the inside wall as she approached the junction. She had few options in the empty service corridors and found herself wishing for some shrubs or trees as cover.
Resisting the urge to pull her knife, she checked that it was loose in the sheath and glanced over her shoulder to count the number of potential attackers bringing up the rear. Three.
Halting just short of the corner, Leela drew a deep breath and held it a second, listening with hunter's ears over the sound of her heart and blood. Around the corner came a rustle, a sigh. There was a moment's pause before the prey reversed the Balance and attacked.
A howling leap into the unknown placed her in the middle of a group of surprised Shobogan assailants. Spinning a high kick, she connected with the chest of one young man holding a hand weapon like a staser. He went down, dropping the weapon before Leela could identify it. Her left elbow and fist discouraged someone from getting too close while she grabbed a punch from a third person and used his own momentum to throw him across the intersection into the path of the three runners tailing her. They fell over each other as she twisted, shifting her balance once more, and a fourth attacker was immobilized, Leela's knife at his throat.
"Hold!" One of the three pursuers was on his feet again. The other Shobogans stopped at his command. Leela waited without releasing her hostage, but repositioned herself slightly so her back was to the wall and caught her breath, assessing the situation.
"This is Patrox territory. You are trespassing." The speaker was tall and wiry and breathing heavily from his run behind her. To Leela's eyes, he was reasonably dressed in spiral striped leggings and short, close fitting tunic, a belt at his waist with pouches to carry incidentals. His dark hair was cut close to the sides of his head with the top left long enough to be braided over the crown and down his back. He spoke with the voice of authority.
"Patrox band does not tolerate trespassers and strangers."
"You are late to be claiming this as your territory." Leela guessed his assertion was a bluff. "I have run this route enough times that you might have come to me and mentioned politely that I was trespassing. Instead you waited in ambush." Her knife blade creased the neck of her hostage, slightly. "Whatever you call yourselves, I say you are bandits, and poor ones at that - there isn't a fighter among you!"
"It's The Savage!" The first one down was still on the floor, gazing at Leela with awe, his staser forgotten a length behind him. "She brought NesBin inside the Citadel during the Invasion. I've seen her fight, MelArin. We are alive only because she doesn't know why she needs to kill us." He was talking, not to the Voice of Authority, but to her prisoner. She took a deeper look at the man she held. Dressed like the others in leggings and tunic, his top braid was shot with silver. He gave no sign of weakness or old age and did not resist her hold, waiting instead in the Balance. Leela sensed that this one was different than the others, he might have some training.
"If she's the Savage, then she's allied with the President's office or the Council and could be sent as a spy." A leggy young woman who had been one of the felled runners probed her own shoulder with cautious fingers as she spoke. "You know the government plugs have been out to recondition us since we refused to throw in with NesBin's lot, Outside." A tender spot made her wince and she glared at Leela, who shrugged minutely without losing her hold on knife or captive.
"She's not one of the plugs, TaRo, she is her Own, unbound by their conventions. She may not be a free ender, but I tell you, I've seen her fight against the Sontarins."
"It's a wonder you survived then or now, since you've neglected to recover your staser and free me from her embrace. Although," MelArin's voice was mild with a bite of sarcasm. "I've no doubt you could bore us all to death with the politics of the situation. It happens that this position is not comfortable and I'd appreciate it if someone would endeavor to release me." His six young companions looked ashamed while Leela, withdrawing her knife in disgust, pushed MelArin away from her.
"NesBin is a Warrior - likely wouldn't have had much use for your lot. You talk too much." Sheathing her blade, Leela tossed her head in contempt, turned on her heel and resumed her training. The interlude had been interesting, but not much of a challenge.

"Mistress," K-9 focused sonar "ears" down the length of service corridor 657, "We are being observed, again."
Leela pivoted backward on her left leg, right leg leading the turn with a chest high kick, followed by a leap that brought her left foot into an imaginary attacker's chin with enough force to break an actual neck.
"How many K-9?" She asked as she grabbed a theoretical punch to throw its initiator across the corridor and turned again to gouge out the invisible eyes of another figment in the Warriors dance the Doctor taught her.
"One, Mistress. As usual."
Leela continued her dance without pause. Fingers stiff and straight into an opponent's solar plexis followed smoothly by a knee into his nonexistent face. Before he fell, she dropped into another turn to kick the feet out from the next illusory opponent, dodging a hypothetical blow from a third position. Her movements were precise and controlled as she sprang up, nearly man high, twisting another kick and landing again on her feet, knees flexing to absorb momentum. Two turns in defensive stance and then she stopped, satisfied and breathing deeply, hands on her hips.
"Where, K-9?" Leela walked over to a small pile of clothes and pulled a towel free to wipe a sheen of perspiration from her face and neck. With a whirr, K-9 rolled away from the vantage point at the corner and towards Leela a few lengths, then turned back to observe service corridor 657.
"Stationary at the intersection of corridor 283."
"That's about half way down. Closer than last time." Leela frowned. "What is this person doing?"
"Sitting, Mistress." K-9 returned to Leela and then turned back to the corner position, servos whining. "Sensors indicate it is the same male, Mistress, and unarmed."
"Are you pacing K-9?" Leela asked as she walked over to her mechanical companion.
"Not possible, Mistress. Pacing requires feet." K-9 took a defensive position between Leela and the distant figure. "I am in a patrolling mode."
"Patrolling? Why?" Leela looked down the dimly lit corridor and tried to bring the seated figure into focus. It was difficult to make out even gross details like clothing and height in the muted light. He was not wearing a Yoke of Rank, that was clear, and the dark hair might be shorn on the sides. MelArin? He was a strange one, waiting in Balance with her knife at his throat. Odd, somehow, not like the others.
"...decided you need protection, Mistress. I have been commissioned as a Sergeant in the Chancellery Guards and placed on active duty while you are exercising or away from your quarters." Leela thought she heard a note of pride in the mechanical voice and looked sharply at her companion.
"AnDred did this?" Leela scowled. "When?" Had AnDred found a way to give direct orders to K-9? The Doctor's last orders to K-9 had left exclusive control with Leela.
"By order of the Presidential Staff, after you started running down here, Mistress." Leela wondered if K-9 could feel shame in this betrayal.
"What other orders has he given you?" Technically, AnDred could make requests and K-9 was at liberty to accept or refuse, as far as programming permitted.
"I am ordered not to allow any mechanical, besides the authorised nursing cradle, to touch his son."
"No surprises there." Leela regarded AnDred's distaste for mechanical intelligence as a mind sickness. "What else?"
"I am ordered to keep you from having contact with free enders and Shobogans in the service corridors." K-9 turned in a circle, rolled a length forward and back again, then repeated the circle in the opposite direction, clearly ill at ease.
"Not to have contact with them? Why?"
"Commander AnDred instructed me that they are a danger to you, Mistress."
"And if I wish to speak with one?"
"I am to prevent it, Mistress." K-9's tail-like antenna drooped.
"K-9!" Leela knelt beside her companion, placed her hand on its head, sympathetically. "Poor K-9, this must be difficult for you; AnDred giving orders that conflict with mine. Shall I order you to quit AnDred's guards?"
"Negative, Mistress. The Doctor Master's orders were to look after you. That means look behind you or to take care of you. Commander AnDred's orders do not conflict with that." The mechanical voice sounded smug. "Like the Doctor, he has ordered me to keep you from hurting anyone, Mistress." She thought briefly about enrolling in a course of Applied Mechanicals at the Academy before returning her attention to the watcher in the corridor.
"K-9, what if I am attacked?" The seated man was starting to stand. "I was ambushed a while back, it could happen again. Do your orders to keep me from hurting anyone include self defense?"
"I am here to protect you, Mistress." K-9 rolled forward to be between Leela and the stranger standing in the distance. "It will be unnecessary for you to defend yourself."
"What if I choose to defend myself?"
"Then I am ordered to stop you, Mistress." Leela stood and resisted an urge to kick the small robot. It wasn't K-9's fault, it was AnDred. Or maybe she had gotten careless, let her guard down, somewhere. Certainly, she had lost control of K-9, and that could be trouble if she needed to defend herself before she found a way to neutralise AnDred's orders to Sergeant K-9 of the Chancellery Guards.
K-9 was becoming a liability in Leela's eyes. Taking the towel from around her neck, she shook it slightly and dropped it over K-9's "head", careful to cover all sensors and probes, then grabbing the small machine, she shoved it away from the watcher with a spin.
"Sorry, K-9." Leela ran to meet whatever waited for her at the intersection of service tunnel 657. Behind her came muffled sounds of K-9's distress. Eventually, Leela knew, K-9 would get free of the obstruction, but by then she would be out of range.

Formal robes of an autumn russet colour to bring out the red highlights in her hair would be best, Leela thought. When AnDred came home, she intended to greet him with his image of domestic bliss and order, despite her sense of being betrayed. The baby grabbing onto Leela's hands, pulling himself up to wobble on his own feet, was clean and recently fed. The sound of a small happy river filled the room and the walls were programmed to show sunlight filtering through leaves.
She had considered long over this last detail. AnDred often told her the forest was her natural environment, it enhanced her beauty, although when left alone with the forest walls, he quickly reprogrammed for shifting pastel shadow shapes or bubbles floating, rising slowly to the ceiling. Generally she programmed for his taste, not her own, but Leela was looking at her life again through a warrior's eyes. What AnDred saw as a peaceful domestic scene - contented devoted wife, charmingly spoiled child, luxurious comfort and material excess - Leela saw as a battle ground over which she needed to gain an advantage. The weapons were not muscle and metal and speed of reflex, but wit and cunning combined with careful planning. The outcome would determine whether she stayed with AnDred or took her assets where she could use them.
There was an interesting offer...

...K-9's muffled complaints behind her, she ran. The stranger might be dangerous, but no single unarmed man had ever bested her - except the Doctor, and she floored him two times out of three the last time they'd worked out together. Closer, she could see her guess was right. MelArin.
Slowing as she approached him, she did not stop.
"Run a bit with me, then we'll talk."
The older man nodded, matching her pace to run with ease beside her. Side tunnels alternated right and left and right again, until they reached the first corner of her circuit. Once around it, she stopped, pleased that neither of them was breathing heavily from the exercise.
"Here, we can talk."
MelArin shook his head. "Next tunnel down on the right is shielded." His bright blue eyes saw her hesitation. "This time I am alone. It is not an ambush."
There was something about this man. Leela's nose told her that he was not an ephemeral like AnDred and his friends in the Citadel. There was a sharp, familiar scent... The Doctor? Leela considered for a moment before nodding and running with him again. MelArin was not the Doctor, but she was certain he was a Time Lord and meant her no harm.
A panel in the gray wall of the small service tunnel exposed a ladder going up. Leela looked up the ladder and back at MelArin. "No. We talk here." She saw no sign of guile or dishonesty, but there were some questions she needed answers to before she'd walk into anything that looked that much like a trap.
"You are a Time Lord?" Her voice was sharp.
His eyes twinkled and he smiled broadly.
"You are perceptive and direct. What gave me away?"
"The smell. Who are you?"
"Pheromones? Hmmph. You're sensitive, too. I'm called MelArin." He slouched against the gray metallic wall beside the door.
"That is a name, not an identity. Do you know the Doctor?"
"Not yet, but I will. I learned - or will learn - about this revolution from him, decided to come back and see it while it happened." He winked. "He said you might be here."
Leela wondered if she had gnats in her brain. The Doctor set her buzzing like that, too, when he started talking Tesh or history. Like MelArin, he only half answered questions, changed the subject and slipped in details that seemed unconnected with the matter at hand, going in circles to answer a straight question.
"Do the rest of your band know you're a Time Lord?"
"Some figured it out, but most of them took me at face value until I had to hide the lot of them from the plugs." He shrugged and gestured up the ladder. "That's the advantage to living in a TARDIS. May I offer you some tea, and perhaps a nice bag of janis thorns?" His grin was conspiratorial.
Leela's eyes went wide with surprise. Janis thorns! She couldn't remember the last time anyone mentioned those toxic darts to her. After a moment she matched his smile, then turned and started up the short ladder. Behind her, MelArin kept up the conversation.
"I notice you're using the Arrilian style of aikido, not the Venusian."
"I never got the feel for Venusian aikido." Leela replied over her shoulder as she reached the top of the ladder. "The Doctor told me I was just too physical to make the principles work. Besides..."
MelArin was coming up and with his arrival, Leela turned her attention to the space around her as she moved to clear the top of the ladder for him.
"Besides?" MelArin waited, amused, while she looked around her in astonishment.
She was standing in a large walled garden, trees and shrubs and lawn, fountains and a flower scented breeze that tousled her hair. The hole at her feet was unchanged, gray metal ladder and walls. Yellow light warm on her skin, there were birds that sang and insects that buzzed.
"Well? Do you like it?" MelArin said at last. "There is more. It's not exactly a traditional arrangement, but this isn't an official TARDIS and I don't think I need to be bound by convention." He was grinning broadly. "You might close your mouth, at least."

There had been an offer...

Leela sat on the floor in her stiff formal robes and played with her son, smiling with his success at standing, finding his balance on two soft and rounded feet. AnDred arrived as the baby decided to change his center of gravity and sit down, laughing. Leela noticed a sixth tooth had poked through during the day, a mere white gleam at the end of an inflamed gum.
"Look, AnDred, that other tooth came in! Two in four days, no wonder he's been so grumpy." Leela swung the baby to her hip and took him to greet his father. "You just missed him standing."
It was an effort, in the face of AnDred's scowl, to be cheerful, but Leela kept the smile on her face and stifled her thoughts when he took the boy but said nothing to her.
"There was a message from your mother. She would like to spend more time with the baby. Do you have a day free to go visit, or should I send EriSeanis over with him?"
"The Shobogan Issue has us at Internal Alert status." AnDred snapped at her as he turned away. "I don't have the kind of time it takes to cater to my mother's whims! Or yours!"
"Do you want my help with the Shobogans, or in training the Guards?" Leela asked pleasantly to his back. She was careful to ask it as though offering a glass of water, with or without ice.
"Just stop making demands of me!"
AnDred spun back at her with such force that the baby lost his balance and began to whimper, clutching at his father's work smock. When Leela reached for him, AnDred shoved the boy into her arms and stormed out of the Central room, into his own chamber.
The baby clung to her and she soothed him with gentle sounds and words, small rockings and a smile. Her thoughts were her own and focused elsewhere.

...a scented breeze on her skin, moving her hair, teasing at trees seeming happy to be where they were - this garden did not exist in Gallifrey!
"Didn't the Doctor explain about the interstices between space and time?" MelArin was obviously pleased with himself and her reaction, "The door may be in a service tunnel on Gallifrey, but we're - no where. If I move the door, we can leave and go into another place in time."
"Move the door?" Leela was stuck on the terminology. "Just the Door? The Doctor moved the whole TARDIS - I thought. We arrived at places."
"Archaic. Obsolete and a needless waste of energy, hauling all that mass around." MelArin waved his hand, dismissing the concept. "All you really need to do is establish a presence in the interstices, define the space, so to speak, and open doors to when and where you want to be. It's all a matter of projection..."
Tesh talk. Leela's attention shifted to the multitude of small lifeforms busy there in the garden; butterflies and song birds, velvet honey bees and bright lady bugs, all oddly familiar.
"Where did this garden come from?" She demanded, interrupting his discourse on the simplicity and efficiency of his system.
"Picked it up during one of the wars on Sol - 3. A favorite place of the Doctor's, I believe. I snatched this spot out from under a bomb that was about to obliterate the neighborhood. Do you like it?" His hand was in the small of her back, moving her along. Leela recognised the trick from the Doctor's lessons in Venusian aikido. Knew it, couldn't do it OR block it effectively unless she knew it was coming. She damned herself for inattentiveness. Distracted by details, once again!
"There are other - rooms - I prefer to think of them as Habitats. We don't have time to view them all, but let me show you a few that are nearest this door - temporally." MelArin was the ideal (if insistent) host. There were refreshments, including tea, available in a lounge with TransMat cubicles, however the bag of janis thorns was nowhere to be seen. The tour included a strange red and yellow jungle big enough to get lost in - with a full compliment of predators and prey; an expanse of prairie that rolled from wall to distant wall with rivers and copses; and a small sea, embedded in a large mountain top.
"This planet circled a star about to go nova." MelArin and Leela were in a glass walled lodge near one of the peaks of that mountain. Below them, the little silver sea sparkled like a jewel set in a green velvet box. Tiny islands looked like reflections of the steep mountain sides surrounding it. "This is all I could save of it, since I haven't gotten around the area:energy limitations, yet."
"I thought you said the space available to you here is infinite."
"It is, but the energy produced in maintaining a space decreases with the size of the space being maintained. Even with a tesserect built into the definition, an energy debt eventually occurs. The problem is acquiring the energy to run the place, lights and such, and still work the Doors. I can bleed energy from smaller defined spaces, but there is a certain loss in the transfer and by interlinking them the system is ultimately weakened. I'm currently working on experiments with the shape of defined space, to see if any significant energy can be generated that way." MelArin was thinking out loud and soon began mumbling to himself. "By turning a shape back on itself through time, I might be able to boost enough energy... Like a mobius in the fourth, twisted into..." His eyes were narrowed, looking acutely at the air just past Leela's left shoulder. She turned and saw nothing, looked back at MelArin, his expression unchanged. After a moment's study, Leela remembered where she had seen the expression before; the Doctor, deep in thought.
Leela cut another slice from the roast on the buffet and ate it with relish, licking her fingers. Refilling her mug with a nameless warm brown beverage from the pot on the table, she returned to admire the view with patient anticipation. MelArin would be lost inside his head for a while. When he returned, there would be a flurry of activity, very Tesh in nature, likely an explosion or two - a bang at the very least. Things might get exciting for a change.

"...the Eye of Harmony, of course! I bet that's how Rassilon and Omega did it." MelArin refocused his eyes, and looked around him, puzzled for a moment until he recognised Leela. "Do you have access to MATRIX files?"
"MATRIX? The memory banks?" Leela was surprised. "The Doctor communicated with the MATRIX through his TARDIS, taught the trick to K-9. Why not ask your TARDIS?"
"This is not an Official TARDIS, I've borrowed hardwear, bootlegged their programme and written in some improvements. If I break into their system and ask for what I need, the High Council's plugs will know I'm here, sucking at their power and violating conventions. They'd come looking for me - it wouldn't be a pretty sight." MelArin had a wide tight rictus smile, he was not laughing. "What trick did he teach to K-9?"
"I don't remember, exactly, but it had to do with the Presidential Regalia. No one stopped to explain it to me. You could ask K-9." Then Leela recalled recent problems with K-9's programming and conflicting orders. While she explained them, he gracefully guided her back to the original garden and led her to the ladder down. He stopped her before she could descend, his cool hand on her arm was friendly, hesitant.
"I have a revolution that could use your training and abilities. There are new free enders every day, people unwilling or unable to maintain the conventions set for them by the stale entropic minds of the High Council and their Presidential Staff."
MelArin's eyes were bright with his conviction, his voice was intimate. "They are willing to fight and overthrow the paradigm. Join us. Live with me here. Bring your son - we'll help you care for him while you teach our forces the Way of Balance and other defensive techniques. You can help us return Gallifrey to Balance and equality."
"Join your revolution and become a free ender?" This idea had some appeal in contrast to the life she had waiting for her in the Citadel. "What about AnDred?"
"What about him? You have little enough in common, and like any Council plug, he forces his conventions on you. You just told me he uses your own mechanical to watch you and limit your choices. Can you live with a person who does that to you?"  While there was no change in the touch of MelArin's hand on her arm, Leela could feel that a larger Balance rested on her response to this moment.
"How can love bind a Warrior to that?" This last was not a new question in Leela's mind, she had no answer to it, yet. She held MelArin's gaze with her own and waited for three breaths. It was not enough time to calm her, but it gave an opportunity to choose her words. She could make no promise, but in her heart, it was not a matter of If, just How.
"My life is not the only one effected by my decisions, I need to think about this."  She pulled her arm away gently. "Thank you for your hospitality and the tour. I like your TARDIS."  And turned to go.
"This Door will take you back to shortly after we came up." MelArin was making entries on a hand sized computer remote, his voice flat, distant, as though the previous moments had not happened. "Continue your run as usual, you have lost no appreciable time."
"MelArin." Leela looked back up at him before her shoulders were in the shaft and took a chance, a teasing grin on her face.
"Leave this door open for me - I'm interested in those janis thorns you mentioned." And with that she ducked into the hole and back to the service corridors beneath the Citadel.

Still in formal robes, Leela waited until the baby was asleep and tucked safely into the nursing cradle beside her bed. After turning off the wall programmes in the central room, she went to the food service area and removed a small elegant dinner for two from the stasis box, noting critically that the colour of the vegetables had faded slightly. She knew AnDred would never notice. Two green food tablets and a glass of the purple flavour nutrient solution would satisfy him. Leela liked real food and AnDred had no objections as long as she did the work. Tonight she served a savory combination of vegetables, mushrooms and grains that AnDred favoured - without meat, because he couldn't bear the thought of eating flesh. She garnished the dish with flowers, arranged the meal on a serving tray and carried it to AnDred's personal chamber.
"AnDred?" She used her foot to activate the security pad installed for K-9's use. The door was not locked to her and Leela felt this was a good sign. "AnDred? I've brought us some dinner." Leela couldn't remember anything as difficult as entering his room. She pushed against anger, heavy in the air and AnDred's face, turned to watch her enter, was full of distrust.
"I don't need any. I took care of it at the office." He sat at the desk, his hand covering the small screen inset there, shielding it from Leela's view.
"Well, I'm hungry and I need to talk with you." Leela put the tray on a low table and sat on the stool beside it. She did not give AnDred an opportunity to refuse her company, kept her voice light and friendly, adjusted her face to show serenity, not the turmoil she felt. It was a matter of presenting a strong position without seeming to take one at all.
"I can send EriSeanis with the baby tomorrow, but AnaThraxis may want them to spend the night, rather than return through the restricted zones, late in the day." Leela paused a moment to chew and swallow. "If you don't think this is a good idea, I could go with K-9 to escort them back before curfew." The food had no flavour to her, eating was another feint, another move in this subtle Dance of the Invisible Warrior.
The next move was to pour wine for two and offer him some, since it was important not to admit there was a battle.
"Let them spend the night. My mother will love it, no doubt, and give him bad habits." AnDred shut down the reader screen with a scowl and took the offered wine but did not drink it. Leela sipped her own, waiting.
"Where is K-9?" AnDred was more suspicious than curious.
"Hasn't he come home, yet?" Leela's innocence sincere. "He wasn't waiting for me when I completed my course and I thought he might be on some business of yours." She hoped she successfully masked the anger she felt at the possibility, lest he use that weakness against her.
"His business is to guard you. Why did you leave him?" AnDred was accusing her of something; Leela wondered what and wished for an easy, direct confrontation.
"K-9 can't keep up with me when I run and the floor level drops in places, too far for him to navigate." Surprising that AnDred didn't know this, Leela thought, perhaps loyal Sergeant K-9 was not telling his Commander AnDred everything. She took another bite of her dinner and forced herself to chew as though unconcerned.
"There have been reports that you are consorting with the Patrox band." AnDred leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed, watching for something over the rim of his glass as he sipped the wine.
"Seven of them laid in ambush for me a while ago." Leela met AnDred's disbelieving gaze. "I left them with a few lumps and they haven't bothered me since." Her smile was wry, her chin lifted proudly. "I didn't kill anyone, but I didn't 'consort' with them, either."
"One of them tried to talk to you today." Leela wished again that he'd just come out and say what he wanted of her.
"Tried and succeeded." She took another sip of wine. "He was curious about my politics, wanted to find out if I'm a free ender." This was a dangerous topic. She noticed her hand was trembling and put her glass down.
"And are you?" AnDred had already decided for her, she heard it in his voice and a cold knot formed in her stomach.
"I don't think so." Leela worked at keeping her voice casual in the face of his judgment. "It has been hard for me to appear conventional, but I've tried, for your sake." He expected honesty and curiosity from her, anything else would raise more questions. "As an outsider, I've wondered why a society as rich in resources and knowledge as this one cannot find a way to provide the free enders with meaningful lives - which is the point of their rebellion." AnDred's scowl deepened and Leela realised that the truth left her vulnerable, it was safer to dissemble.
"But of course, I know little of economics..." She took another bite of her dinner and chewed mechanically, it did not improve the taste in her mouth, sticking in her throat when she swallowed it. "Perhaps I should look into a course of Instruction when my current studies are completed." She hated this battle of insinuation and longed to shout and throw things, clear the air.
How could love endure this?
"What did you do to K-9?" AnDred consulted a note comp in his hand. "Mid morning, you were being observed by a Shobogan or free ender, then there is a distress signal with no coherent sensor readings followed by a report stating temporary malfunction. There have been no further communications from K-9 since then, or response to the summons." His face was cold.
Leela could see little of the man she married in this reptilian inquisitor. The knot in her stomach tightened as he continued.
"There are laws regarding the destruction of property, abuse of mechanicals and interference with Chancellery Guards in performance of duty."
"It is a waste of power to threaten the innocent, husband. I have no idea where K-9 has got to." It was time to shift the Balance and take a more assertive stance. Leela stood. "Since K-9 answers to your commands, not mine, perhaps I should be making these charges against you. Is there an ordinance against theft by subversion in your laws, anywhere?" She could see her words hit the mark and she turned to leave, expecting no answer.
"Theft, yes. And also subversion." AnDred spoke to her back. "In addition to a variety of excellent solutions to insanity, unsocial behavior and outright rebellion. Some of them are quite permanent." His voice went bland, almost pleasant in a professional sort of way. "If you're cooperative, you might be allowed to choose the one you prefer, when your time comes."
There was no turning back. Through four endless steps to the door and two beyond until it closed, Leela controlled her outrage with the certainty that tearing AnDred's heart out would only prove him right. When the door closed behind her, she unclenched her fists and tried to stop shaking. She had an urgent need to break something but decided to take a bath instead; wash the filth of this encounter from her. Breakage would come in good time.
Leela knew how to fight this battle, AnDred had taught her well.
There were plans to be made.

For Danica, with dubious thanks for the question...