Ruby Sunday becomes a legend (the end?)

The Doctor averted his eyes as he pulled open the TARDIS console. He had first-hand experience of what could go wrong if you messed around with the time vortex, but he had no other choice. He didn't know how he would explain to Carla why her daughter was now 10 years older than when she had left; he doubted that she'd be impressed if she knew he'd effectively abandoned her for a decade.

Picking up the sleeping girl, the Doctor carried Ruby to the opening and exposed her to the time winds. If he didn't time this correctly, he could very easily make this worse; the last thing he needed was a 4-year-old Ruby Sunday running around the TARDIS!

He watched before his eyes as his companion became younger. Her limbs shrunk as she became shorter, her shoe size changed, and the dimensions of her buttocks and breasts changed. When he had calculated that Ruby was 18-years-old again, the Doctor withdrew her. He ran his hands over her body to double-check, breaking into a smile after confirming that he'd at least done this right; Ruby Sunday was the exact same age as when she had first arrived at the resort.

xxx

Ruby drifted awake, but kept her eyes squeezed shut. Her head felt so bad that she didn't think she'd be able to cope with any light brighter than pitch blackness. But it wasn't just her head that felt terrible. Her whole body was tingling, as though she had recently been squashed and compressed. What had happened last night?

Shivering, she reached across to tug her bedsheet back across her bare shoulders, only to discover that it wasn't there. Frowning, Ruby sat up and opened her eyes, confirming her suspicions. She was back in the TARDIS. That would explain why she was so cold, and that her memories of him from the previous evening hadn't been a hallucination.

The shivering girl rubbed her shoulders and glanced down at herself.

xxx

The Doctor ran back into the console room as a high-pitched scream reverberated around the cavernous architecture.

He looked around and didn't see any immediate danger. In fact, the only thing out of place was Ruby Sunday cowering behind the central column, arms wrapped around herself.

"What's up, Rubes?" he asked.

"What's up?! I'm freaking naked, that's what's up!"

"Babes, you've been naked for more than 700 years," he chuckled. "You were fine with it when you were 28, what's so different now?"

"T-that's not the point!" Ruby protested. She didn't know what the Doctor meant, but by this point, she'd given up on trying to understand his science jargon. She skirted around the console as the Doctor approached; just because she'd forgotten what it felt like to wear clothes, didn't mean she wanted to be nude for a second longer than necessary.

Unable to bear it any longer, Ruby made a break for it. Clutching herself tightly, the blonde girl ran for her bedroom. She slammed the door closed and collapsed onto the bed, panting.

"Oh, God!" she wailed.

Ruby hated, hated, HATED being naked, but for the last 10 years, she hadn't worn a scrap of fabric on her body. Hundreds of people had seen her bare body, not to mention the millions who visited the museum before that...or was it after?

Ruby took the longest shower of her life as she tried and failed to banish her humiliating memories. She padded back into her bedroom, wrapped in a towel, and nervously approached the wardrobe.

Could she remember what to do with it all? Ruby struggled alone, refusing to ask the Doctor for help, and finally succeeded in dressing herself. It was a bizarre sensation to be wearing clothes, but one Ruby very much enjoyed. As she exited her room to face the Doctor again, she made a mental note to never, ever, take clothing for granted.

xxx

The Doctor had rescued Ruby Sunday, twice, de-aged her, and reunited her with her clothes. But there was one thing that was beyond even his abilities.

He preferred to keep a low profile during his adventures, but when half the universe has seen your companion, that wasn't possible. Ruby tried her best to forget, but it was difficult to do so when strangers would regularly identify her as the human specimen from the museum. Her cheeks were perpetually vermilion, and her skin crawled underneath her clothes. Ruby tried to be as polite as possible, but she didn't have a clue how one was supposed to react, living with the knowledge that everywhere they went in future, everyone they met had seen her naked!