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Bert is apparently used to Mary dropping in and out of his life. So used to it that when she visits his latest flat after putting her charges to bed he’s neglected to leave tea brewing. That simply will not do; she makes them both a cup and by the time he stumbles in dirty from a day working in town, she’s sipping from her cup, both hands cupped around its sweet warmth.
“Why, if it isn’t Mary Poppins!” he said, beaming.
She smiled against the rim of the delicate china –flower-speckled and golden at the rim, she knows he only keeps it for her to drink out of. “You are precisely four minutes and nineteen seconds late,” she said.
“Well I couldn’t rightly help it,” he said, shedding his coat and spending time trying to make himself look more presentable. “It ain’t like Ancient Caledonia, where I could tell where I was by the sun!”
She smiled. “Ahh Ancient Caledonia. I remember it well.”
He finished rubbing his face clean with a worn dish towel. “Only time where they treated you like the queen you are!”
“Oh, it was one of my favorite times,” she said. “But I preferred London in the middle ages. You do look handsome in tights.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Mary.” That was a warning shot, and a fair one.
“My apologies,” she said. “I didn’t intend to be forward.”
“That’s all right,” he said. “I was just rememberin’ what you looked like done up like a hippie girl with all those beads of yours.”
“I wouldn’t call that one of my finest moments,” she said. “I looked like a hussy!”
“You?! Never!”
She passed him a mug of tea. “Bert,” she said. “I’ve been considering leaving. I do need a new companion to show the world to, and we’ve been here for ages. The Banks children brought me awfully close to attachment. I can’t have attachments, except…”
“…’Cept for your old pal the immortal,” he smiled.
“Well, yes,” she said. “I know you like life here, which happens to be why I took the job with the Banks. Therefore, I understand if you don’t want to come with me…”
But his whole expression warmed her. “Mary. I can’t imagine my life without ya now, girl. I’ll go where the wind blows ya.”
The love that arced between them was intense, and real. Mary leaned over the table and gave him a tea-flavored kiss. He held her gently in return, as if she were some sweet, tiny slip of a girl.
She looked him right in the eyes and sighed. “I could never say no to you, Bert. Now to find the TARDIS!”