| The period that followed was extremely chaotic and confused, as Nyssa
attempted to explain to the Doctor just what she was doing stowing away
on his TARDIS, and Betty attempted to explain to her sister (who was terribly
thrilled to meet Nyssa, but was even more confused by seeing her with the
third Doctor) and brother-in-law (who seemed more interested in the elves)
just exactly what was going on. Oddly enough, the sister, Kathy, though
wildly excited, seemed less astonished by all this than one might have
expected. In fact, she kept exclaiming "I knew this was gonna happen
one day!" (among many other excitable interjections). She was distressed
at the news that Betty would not be coming back, but generally seemed very
happy for her sister (and perhaps more than a little jealous!). Her main
concern, in fact, seemed to be in how she was going to break the news to
their mother...
Eventually, once the introductions, explanations, and exclamations had
all been made, the Doctor, Nyssa and Inquirer (who had sort of invited
herself to participate) moved aside for a private talk, and Betty quickly
comandeered the others to help her pack books. "I can't take them, all,
obviously," she said with evident sadness, "but I at least want to bring
the ones I haven't read." Of which there turned out to be about four hundred!
Needless to say, this kept everyone busy as Betty threw some clothes and
personal effects into suitcases, herded two very consternated cats into
their carrier, and began a somewhat heated conversation with Ragan and
Kathy over what to bring and what to leave behind:
BETTY: "OK, Kath, I'm not going to be coming back to this universe,
so you can just keep whatever's left behind that you want. Like, um...
You can have the Blake's 7 videos..."
KATHY: "Oh, sure, you get to go off and be a Doctor Who companion,
and I get your Blake's 7 collection."
BETTY: "Well, if you don't want 'em..."
KATHY: "Oh, no, no, no! I want 'em! I want 'em!"
RAGAN: "Well she can't have them! Dammit, I haven't even seen them all!
I was only up to like the second season when I got sucked into Addventure!
We're taking them!"
KATHY: "But you never even copied them all for me!"
BETTY: "Sorry, kid. I just can't deny someone who's basically me..."
KATHY: "Well, she's already got the Blake sleeves to go with it."
RAGAN: "Hey, my sleeves are not that puffy!"
KATHY: "Besides, what are you going to play 'em on?"
RAGAN: "I'm sure the Doctor can rig up something."
BETTY: "Well, look you can have the Doctor Who videos..."
RAGAN: "Don't you think we might want those for reference or something?"
BETTY: "Erm, OK, you can have the Star Treks..."
Well, it went on like that for some time, but eventually they got things
settled, packed up, and into the TARDIS. By this time, the Doctor (and
everybody else, for that matter!) seemed to be getting impatient to leave,
and Betty hurriedly began running around putting the last of her affairs
in order: leaving her sister with her ATM card and PIN number and instructions
to pay the rent until the rest of her stuff could be moved out; sending
a few goodbye e-mails, including ones to her employers and the gamemaster
of her regular weekly RPG session to let them know she wouldn't be back
("although I hate to leave them in the middle of an adventure," she muttered
with regard to the latter); and finally leaving a message on her mother's
answering machine saying "Hi, Mom. I know you made me promise not to leave
the planet without permission, but I'm a grown woman now, and, um, I'm
afraid I've got some news for you..."
-
 But, eventually,
it was time for a teary farewell...
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