Yaz never said this out loud, but she always thought the lighting inside the Tardis glowed a little differently when it landed somewhere new. It was barely noticeable, but for a second everything seemed to twinkle; as if the Tardis was sending them on their way with a friendly wink. She felt a bit guilty going on an adventure without Graham and Ryan, but…
"Where are we?" she asked the Doctor, who was still fiddling around with the controls.
"Why don't you take a look? I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, well mostly sure. What percentage of sure would you say qualifies as mostly?"
Yaz laughed, and went for the door. It was then that Patch chose to make his presence known, racing across the control room, barking his head off.
"Patch!" the Doctor cried, only marginally more annoyed with herself than she was with the admittedly adorable dog who had chosen to stow away on the Tardis again. "How did you get here?" she lent down to pick up the dog, who was too busy wagging his tale and looking pleased with himself to realise that he was being scolded.
Yaz had stopped moving towards the door when she had heard Patch barking, and was looking at him with her amusement clearly visible on her face "I thought you returned him to Maggie after the last time he gatecrashed one of our adventures?"
"I did!" replied the Doctor, who had given up on attempting to scold the quite frankly oblivious dog, and was giving him a poorly deserved scratch behind the ears "how did you sneak away this time, Patch?" she asked (she claimed to speak Dog, but the jury was still out on that one) "did Mummy let you out when she heard the Tardis land again? Honestly" she turned to face Yaz "that woman is too soft on him. She has to learn to say, no Patch, you can't go on an adventure in space and time with the Doctor and the fam, I don't care how cute you are". The Doctor felt Patch's front paws on her legs "No, you are not coming with us, and that is final!".
Patch's ears perked up. Yaz had pulled a small, stuffed rabbit out from one of her pockets "I had a feeling he might try this" she explained to the doctor "so I had this on me just in case". She threw the toy to the excited animal. It flew towards him in a graceful arc before he snatched it out of the air, and ran off with it triumphantly.
"Quickly Yaz, we need to go now". The two travellers of space and time attempted to leave the room without Patch noticing what they were up to, but the moment he heard the door open he was right back in front of them, sans toy, and once again barking his head off.
Yaz had burst into laughter. The Doctor gave her a reproachful look
"don't encourage him"
"I'm sorry Doctor, but you've got to admit. It's dead funny".
"It is not funny Yaz! What am I supposed to say if we run into trouble? Oh I'm sorry mister invader, I can't stop you wreaking havoc today. I'm looking after my stupid friend's daft dog!"
"In fairness he did come in handy that last time"
"There won't always be an alien Queen to impress with small, fury creatures, Yaz!"
"And the time before that"
"I will admit, it was very fortunate that the detonator looked like his favourite toy, but I'm still having nightmares about that day!"
Patch hadn't stopped barking while this conversation was going on, and his pleas for attention had increased in pitch with every passing second".
"Okay, fine!" the Doctor sighed "but you" she pointed to Patch "better be on your best behaviour"
Yaz bent down to the dog, and attached a lead she had been keeping in her pocket to his collar.
"Did you have that the whole time?"
"Maybe" Yaz rubbed Patch's head and put on that voice people inevitably do when speaking to a cute animal "don't listen to Auntie Doctor. She's happy to have you along really".
"Stop encouraging him!"
Patch wagged his tail happily. He was going to go on another adventure!
