The Lost Doctor
Episode 2 – Out of Place
The time lord known as the Doctor strolled down the morning city street as if he were a man with no particular place to go. The street was full of brick and wrought iron with vines and whatnot covering buildings that had not been tended well. Indeed it looked like London so much here the Doctor half wondered why in the year 5524 it wasn’t called New London.
“Hmm. But that is somewhere else, now isn’t it?” The Doctor said to no one in particular. In fact he had been saying most things lately to no one in particular, as he had no one in particular to say things to.
Such a situation was not common for the Doctor. More commonly there was someone who was asking the Doctor what he was talking about. The Doctor stood a second, hand in his pockets thinking about some of the people he had traveled with.
“Hey!”
The call startled the Doctor, bringing him out of his trance. On the stairs of the house in front of him two men were attempting to bring a long couch up. However it appeared one of them was now stuck.
“Can you give a hand?”
“Sure, sure!” the Doctor answered, hustling up the stairs and grabbing one corner of the couch, allowing the one man to move free from where the couch, the railing and the house were conspiring to keep him trapped.
“Thanks mate,” he said. The three of them jostled the couch inside the mansion. A woman in a white dress stood inside and was directing the buzz of people moving about.
“Second room on the right,” she simply said to the trio, who responded in acknowledgement by heading in the correct direction. “Up against the wall for now,” the woman added as the three reached the room.
“Damnit Jim, hold your end lower,” one man said, struggling to fit through the door. The Doctor moved a bit, holding as much as he could.
“I’m trying, you are the one holding it strange, Lenny,” Jim retorted.
The Doctor found himself stuck between the couch and the door, and with no where else to go ducked under the couch, letting the furniture lay across his back.
“Well, that is much better,” Jim said.
“Agreed, sir, agreed. Thank you,” Lenny said, mostly to Jim.
“No… problems..,” the Doctor commented as more weight was lowered on him. The three entered the room slowly.
“Gentlemen?”
“Oh!”
The two men lifted and helped the Doctor out from underneath.
“Thank you for your help, uh…” Jim started to say, extending his hand.
But before the Doctor could give his normal introduction of name, question and name again, there was a scream from the main room. The three men ran back out into the open space to see what was amiss.
A younger girl was shaking and sobbing, being held by an older woman. The woman in white was no longer directing, but listening to the frantic story the girl was saying in between sobs.
Next to them, the Doctor noticed the floor was opened up, revealing a hidden stairwell into the basement below.
“What happened?” the Doctor asked to the woman in white. The girl buried her face in the older woman’s shoulder. The three women looked at the Doctor when he spoke.
“The girl claims there is a monster in the basement,” the woman in white said. “That it attacked her and ran off.”
“A monster, you say?” The Doctor said, eyeing the girl and then the stairs.
“Sami is still down there,” the older woman commented.
“Well, Samantha or Marla, or anyone for that matter should not have gone down there at all. Now take her upstairs until she settles down. I’ll speak with Sami when she comes back.”
“Yes Mistress Katherine,” The older woman nodded, begrudgedly, and set off up the stairs to the second floor. The Doctor only briefly lifted his gaze from the long stairwell into the floor to watch the girl leave. Marla’s face was indeed frightened, honestly.
“What’s down there?” The Doctor asked. Mistress Katherine looked over at him.
“And you are?”
“The Doctor,” the Doctor replied. “Oh sorry, I was outside and some of your men asked me to help with a couch that was a bit heavy.”
“I see.” Katherine eyed the Doctor up and down twice. The first time was a normal eye up and down that the Doctor had become accustomed to. The second however, was a bit different, and the Doctor couldn’t put his finger on why.
“Well, Doctor, this old house was set up to have both master and servant areas. The basement and the attic are for the servants, with a series of back stairs and hallways for them to move through.”
“Ah, only seen when needed sorta thing,” the Doctor commented, now looking about the room. He spotted a well hidden door on the end of the hallway.
“We will no doubt use it for different purposes for our business, but right now they are closed off until they can be cleaned and refinished.”
The Doctor made a face, thought for a moment and then looked at Katherine.
“Mind if I go take a look?”
Katherine gained a quizzical smile and stepped closer, running a single finger along the Doctor’s chest.
“Knight in shining armor your thing, Doctor? Or are you looking for treasures in my basement?”
The Doctor gulped.
“Uh, no, no, uh, no, I am more of a curiosity killed the cat guy, and this is getting the better of, uh… me… right.”
As if preplanned there was a sound from below of things being knocked over. The two turned and looked to the stairs. A moment of silence was followed by an almost human, definitely not female, but indistinguishable vocal sound.
“Now, who could that be?” Katherine asked aloud. She looked about the room, doing an inventory of the people she saw.
“Fascinating,” the Doctor said, starting down the stairs.
“And where are you going?”
“Just to go have a look ma’am,” the Doctor said over his shoulder, his eyes searching the darkness ahead of him.
“Mistress,” Katherine corrected. The Doctor turned and looked up at her. “You are the Doctor, I am the Mistress,” she said.
“Forgive me,” the Doctor said with a smile, “Mistress.”
He turned and headed down into the darkness below.
As the attic he had recently been in, this first room in the basement looked much like a room in a basement should. Boxes stood stacked on a few pieces of furniture. Some of the piles had dust cloth draped over them, some did not. There was a door further in with a dim light coming from underneath. Naturally the Doctor was curious.
The door slid open easily, giving a mild creek. The Doctor peered around the corner before entering the hallway that lay beyond it. These walls were painted, but without the trim of the main house. The Doctor estimated he was walking along the outside wall at the moment, with most of the house to his right. The hall turned near the end. There were doors on this part of the hallway and the Doctor set out to investigate them.
The first room was mostly empty, the second was equally without information, the third contained a bed and a chair, but neither was occupied.
As the Doctor closed the door to the third room he heard something from the direction in the hallway he had just come from. He slowly turned and peered into the darkness, at first seeing nothing. Then it came into view, slowly, which was still a bit too fast for the time lord.
First it was its eyes, dark, but catching enough reflection of the lights about the room to be seen. Then it’s growling teeth and white fur came into view. Polar bear, the Doctor thought, a bit out of place, if he remembered correctly.
The bear stood on its hind legs, eyes fixed on the Doctor. It had dark splotches on its paws. The bear roared and then before the Doctor’s eyes turned completely invisible.
“Run!”
The voice was a child, boy child, and in the Doctor’s head, which suggested telepathy. Also that the child would be close enough to see the events before the Doctor and know that a warning was needed. All details the Doctor had no time to realize at this moment.
He turned and there was a door with stairs behind him. Running as fast as he could he bounded up to the third floor of the building, all the while hearing his invisible pursuer close behind.
The Doctor ran down the upstairs hallway, throwing open a door and slamming hard behind him. The door had a lock, so the Doctor latched it and backed up slowly from the door, awaiting the expected thud of a large invisible bear slamming into it.
Such a thud did not come. Not immediately, nor a few moments later when it was past due. The Doctor took a sigh of relief and started to look around the room.
It was a bathroom. The trim was curved metal in need of polishing. A cast iron tub sat in one corner, a collection of shelves with items and towels in another.
The Doctor went to the shelves and started digging through the items until he found something of use in this situation: a bottle of baby powder.
He took a deep breath, and started for the door. Walking past the mirror, he stopped and backed up, looking at his reflection.
“Ok, chap,” the Doctor said, “let’s get through this, ok? We just got to know each other.”
The reflection nodded, and the two set for the door.
The Doctor glanced into the hallway and tossed a spray of powder in front of him, watching. As the particles fell unhindered to the floor, relief set in and the Doctor stepped out from the room.
The hallway presented two choices: back the way he came, or further around. Assuming that the servant areas would have other exits to the main house that didn’t take him back to the invisible polar bears, the Doctor continued down the way he was going, noting, as well, that there was still a girl to be found. Sami, if he recalled correctly, which these days he was not always doing.
Every few steps the Doctor threw power both in front of him and over his shoulder, taking a glance in both directions to see if it landed on anything. Quietly he made his way around the first corner make this hallway against the front of the house if he was not mistaken. There he nearly ran into a girl who was coming the other way.
“Oh! Sorry,” she said, rather loudly considering how quiet the Doctor had been.
“Quite alright,” the Doctor said, tossing powder over his shoulder. She had short reddish brown hair and wore a light, practical blue dress.
“You didn’t happen to see a man wearing a red shirt come this way, did you?” She asked, eyeing the power with a confused look.
“Can’t say that I have,” the Doctor answered, tossing powder over the girl in the direction she had just come from. “Are you Sami, by any chance?”
“I am,” she answered.
“Oh good. I am the Doctor,” powder over his shoulder, “and I was looking for you.”
“Were you now?” Sami said, getting a sly smile. “Well, Doctor, you will need to wait your turn if I am to be your patient.”
The Doctor was glancing behind him watching the powder, when he turned with a confused look.
“Patient? No no, not that kind of Doctor,” he said, tossing more powder down the hallway.
“Doctor, what are you doing?”
“What, this?” the Doctor tossed the powder over Sami’s shoulder.
“Yes, that.”
“Oh, I am trying to detect an invisible polar bear.”
“Invisible? Polar Bear? Doctor?” The girl asked, her face lightening into a smirk. “Really now? You are an odd one.”
“Yes really. A rather large one at that who seemed a bit irate at, well, everything. He gave your friend Marla a big scare.”
“You saw Marla?”
“Yes, she was upstairs with the Mistress and some other people. Quite shaken, actually.” He tossed powder over his shoulder. “The Mistress didn’t seem pleased that you three had come down here. Err. Up here? In here. In this part of the house.”
“Well, Skip talked us into coming in here. He wanted a pre-opening sample of the goods. I just figured he and Marla had run off without me.”
“Goods, like wine or something?”
Sami giggled. “Yes Doctor, like wine.”
The Doctor threw powder over his shoulder. Sami’s face fell, turning pale.
“It’s behind me, isn’t it?” The Doctor asked. Sami just nodded, her face fixated on a spot behind the Doctor.
“Ok, Sami. Sami,” the Doctor said firmly. The girl looked at him, her face betraying the growing fear inside.
“This is what you are going to do. You are going to turn and run, understand? Run as fast as you can, find a way out into the main part of the house.”
“And what are you going to do, Doctor?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Oh I am going to be right behind you. There simply isn’t enough room to run around you. So you have to go first.”
“Ok,” she replied.
“Shall we?” the Doctor asked. The bear roared and Sami screamed as she ran. The Doctor turned and squeezed his powder bottle, sending a stream of powder into the bear’s face before turning and running after the girl.
Sami was at the end of the next hallway fumbling with a door.
“It is stuck!” she cried, pushing again and again against it.
“In here,” the Doctor answered, pulling open another door. He pushed Sami inside and followed as the sight of a powder covered invisible polar bear came around the corner.
Inside the room both of them were immediately grabbed, and held off to one side of the door behind some boxes. Hands were held over their mouths to keep them quiet.
“Shhh,” the telepathic boy’s voice said in the Doctor’s mind. The Doctor calmed down, only now noticing that he could not see any aspect of who was holding him.
Sami still struggled a bit in the invisible arms of her captor. The Doctor made a ‘it is ok, calm down’ motion with his hand and then added the finger to the mouth ‘shh’ as well.
When he did that, however, he found the hand that held his mouth was in the way. But it wasn’t a hand, he realized, but a paw, a furry paw at that.
The door opened and the powder outline came inside. The room was so quiet you could hear the click, click of the bear’s paws on the floor. The Doctor got his first good look around the room.
They were being held in one of the dark corners. There was a wardrobe in front of them, with the doors open, blocking the corner of the room and therefore the non-invisible Doctor and Sami. Only the small crack between the door and the wardrobe allowed the Doctor to peer out.
The rest of the room was open with a few older beds against one of the walls. There was a window at one side and two more doors on the other.
The powder outline growled and looked around before returning to the hallway. A few moments later the arms that held the Doctor relaxed as no sounds could be heard.
“Safe now,” the boy’s voice said. Now some of the details the Doctor had missed earlier were coming into his mind. Slowing the two figures became un-invisible. Sami gasped, but the Doctor took her hand and put his finger to his lip.
Both of the figures were polar bears as well, though both were smaller than the one that had chased them down the hallway. While the other was nearly three meters in height, these two stood only around two.
“I know you,” the Doctor said, leaning in a bit. “Well, not you specifically, but I’ve seen your kind before…” He trailed off as his mind started working.
“We are the people of the stars,” the boy’s voice said, again in the Doctor’s mind.
“Ursa!” he whispered a bit louder than he intended. “Of course, of course.”
“Doctor,” Sami whispered. “Are they speaking in our heads?”
“Ah yes, actually. Ursa’s are descendants of old Earth bears, actually. But they gain intelligence on their new home planet and communicate through telepathy.”
“And invisibility,” Sami added.
“Right. Well, you can’t expect the snow to always be there.” The Doctor looked back at the two ursas. “Now, the important question is: how are you here?”
“I’ll show you,” the girl bear said.
Images started filling both the Doctor and Sami’s mind. It was a village, ursa village, and mid day, from what the Doctor could tell. Lots of bears were playing while the adults were talking and working around them.
Then an ursa came running in at full speed, calling out to everyone. All the bears looked up at the roar as images and half jumbled sentences filled their minds.
The hunting party was dead. It was coming. Run. Run.
There was no real time to ask what, the answer presented itself. A wall of energy resembling an electrified tsunami ripped through the tree line straight for the village. There were cries and screams as ursas scrambled and ran.
A big bear grabbed the boy and his sister nearby holding them tightly in his arms as the energy wave overtook them and the entire village.
“Hold on Ey, hold on Yu,” the bear thought to the two smaller cubs. Then they were encased in energy, electricity.
“And then you woke up here,” the Doctor said aloud. The bear nodded.
“That was a paradox wave,” the Doctor continued. “A large one too. Why in the world was there a paradox wave?”
“Doctor?” Sami asked.
“Sorry. Ursa’s aren’t from here. They aren’t even from now. That wave of energy you saw go through their village was a paradox wave. They are created when someone changes time. Time doesn’t like that, and will reset itself. But it isn’t always pleasant.”
“Ey,” the Doctor said to the boy. “And Yu,” he said to the girl. “I’m the Doctor, and this is Sami. Thank you for saving us.”
“Daddy isn’t the same,” Ey said.
“Scary and mean,” Yu added.
“I know,” the Doctor said, sounding morose. “Paradox madness. Your father protected you two through the wave, which why you are ok, but… He’s… There really isn’t anything we can do. I’m sorry.”
The Doctor reached up and ran his hand along each of the bear’s faces. Both did a good job of trying not to cry.
“Listen,” the Doctor said. “We need to get out of here now. If we can help him, we will. But right now he is dangerous.”
The two cubs nodded.
“Ok, there are doors on the second floor, we should go…”
“Locked,” Yu interrupted.
“Locked? How do you know?”
The cubs giggled. The Doctor’s mind filled with images of the other side of the house. It is night time and the images are taking a tour of the servant doors throughout the building. Locks were locked. Furniture was moved. Door jams were used to jam doors.
“To keep him here,” Ey added.
“Brilliant,” the Doctor said, patting both on the shoulder. “Brilliant. That keeps him down here…”
“What is it Doctor?” Sami asked as the Doctor trailed off.
“The stairway is open. It points right to the open front door.”
The cubs grew worried, as did Sami. The Doctor thought, and thought.
“Ok, there are several rooms in the basement without windows. We will simply trap him in one of those until we can establish what, if anything, we can do. Ok?”
All three of the Doctor’s companions nodded. The Doctor stepped out from behind the wardrobe and picked up his bottle of baby powder from where he had dropped it. His eyes searched the room for things they could use. He walked over to one of the beds and pulled off the white sheet that lay on top.
“Ok, I have an idea. We’ll lead him downstairs. Sami, you’ll throw this sheet over his head so he can’t see. Ey and Yu will push him into the room and then lock the door.”
“And you, Doctor?” Sami asked.
The Doctor smiled.
“Bait,” he replied.
“Ok,” Sami said; a half confident response as she took the sheet from the Doctor.
The two cubs went invisible, and the four set out, Doctor in front, into the hallway.
“Ey, run ahead and see if you spot him, Yu go to the room under the stairs and stay there and make sure he doesn’t get out.”
“Yes Doctor,” both said, scampering off.
The Doctor and Sami continued down the hallway, the Doctor resuming his occasional toss of powder down the hallway.
“You seem to know a bit about these bears,” Sami commented.
“Well, I travel a lot, time, space, just my thing I suppose.”
“Sounds exciting…”
The Doctor half shrugged, still mostly focused on the hallway in front of him.
“Doctor?” Sami whispered.
“Yes?” “How do you plan on getting around him in these small hallways?”
The Doctor stopped, and thought, then looked over his shoulder.
“I hadn’t. Let’s hope things work out in one of the larger areas…”
The two started down the stairs to the basement.
“The stairs are clear, Mr. Doctor,” Yu said in the Doctor’s head.
“Thanks Yu,” the Doctor said aloud, half wondering as he did if the ursa could hear him from here.
“Help!” Ey called out. Both the doctor and Sami looked at each other before running down the stairs and into the basement hallway.
An indistinct collection of powder growled at a dark corner of the house, slowly creeping forward.
“Ey!” Yu called out. The mass of powder was struck by something invisible from the side and hobbled over. It roared out. There was a toss as something heavy was thrown into the nearby wall.
The Doctor grabbed the sheet from Sami and ran forward, dropping it around where he imagined the head of the large ursa was. The large bear stood up, nearly sending the Doctor into the roof as he held on to the sheet for dear life at this point.
“Run Sami!” The Doctor called. And she did, moving around the Ursa towards the stairwell.
But the bear had other ideas. It grabbed the Doctor off of its shoulders and tossed him in the direction of the sound of running feet, sending both the Doctor and Sami tumbling into a dark corner. Then fell on something soft, warm and invisible.
Ey came into view underneath them.
“Ow,” all three moaned. Yu appeared at their side and started to help the Doctor and Sami up off of Ey.
The bear ripped off the sheet, becoming visible as well. Its eyes were nothing like the cubs’. They were black, dark, and lost. It snarled at the quartet, revealing dark patches of dried blood around its face.
The Doctor spread his arms in front of the other three.
“Get ready to run,” he said.
“Doctor, no!” Sami said.
**
Sometime earlier the sounds from below had increased the worry in Mistress Katherine to a higher than normal level. There were three people still missing, Skip, Sami and that Doctor character. None of which looked the type to make animal grunts and roars.
Though, with some people, one can never really tell.
“Leonard, James, get your flashlights, we are going into the basement.”
“Yes ma’am,” the two said concurrently only taking a moment to wander into one of the rooms and return with flashlights.
“After you, gentlemen,” the Mistress said. The two men gave each other a look before starting to descend.
The first room was just as the Doctor had seen, only his addition to the footprints in the dust. The hallway was a different matter. When Leonard went to open the door there was something blocking the other side. The two men gave a push and the object slid, allowing the door to open more.
Leonard stepped through, followed shortly by James. The object was not a thing but a who.
“Oh Jesus Holy,” James said, covering his face. Leonard knelt down, shining the light. The corpse had been ripped into both with claws and fangs. Parts of it were missing.
“It is Skip,” Leonard said.
“What did that?” James asked.
“Beast of some sort…”
“How long has he been dead?”
“Damnit Jim, I’m hired help, not a doctor.”
“Keep moving,” the Mistress said from behind them. The two men turned from the fallen and started down the hallway. The Mistress lifted her dress to keep the white fabric from staining with the blood that had pooled on the floor. There was a path that led down the hallway, stopping at the door.
“He was dragged here,” Leonard said, pointing.
There were sounds of a scuffle in front of them. The two men shined their flashlights down the hallway. Sami came running around the corner and then was hit with a thrown man.
Two smaller bears appeared in the corner as a huge monster ripped off a sheet. It roared at the ones on the ground before standing up. The Mistress saw the Doctor stand up in front of the others, arms spread.
“Get ready to run,” he said.
The Mistress stepped around the two other men in the hallway, pulling small derringer from the folds of her dress. She raised it and calmly pulled the trigger.
**
The Doctor spread his arms in front of the other three.
“Get ready to run,” he said.
“Doctor, no!” Sami said.
The bear growled, raising its paw high in the air. At that moment a burst of blue energy shot down the hallway striking the bear in the side. The smell of burnt fur filled the small area.
The bear stumbled over into the wall, turning to face the new attacker.
Mistress Katherine walked calmly down the hallway, derringer still raised. The bear growled and she pulled the trigger again. This time the bear slumped to the ground and fell over.
“Daddy!”
The two cubs ran to the fall bear’s side. The Doctor could hear them start to cry. Telepathy was not needed for this emotion.
Mistress Katherine readjusted her aim lower to where the two cubs now where.
“NO!” the Doctor called out, now standing in front of the two bears. Sami looked up at the Mistress and quickly joined the Doctor’s side.
“They are just cubs,” the Doctor said.
The Mistress met the Doctor’s stair but did not lower her gun. The Doctor had no doubt that she would shoot him too if she chose to.
“The larger one had gone mad from the paradox wave that brought him here. These are ursas, kind and intelligent peoples.”
Behind him the two cubs lay over the body of their father as the last breaths left his body. They cried, sometimes aloud, sometimes moans of telepathic sounds escaped as well.
Sami turned and knelt with them, taking their heads in her arms.
“Ey, Yu, it’s ok, it’s going to be ok.”
The Doctor stood his ground. And the Mistress lowered her weapon.
“Very well, Doctor. I have some experience with fathers who become monsters.”
“Thank you, Mistress,” the Doctor said.
“Now, I want everyone out of my basement.”
A collection of “yes ma’am’s” went around. Leonard and James headed back out. The Doctor and Sami helped Ey and Yu along.
“I am to understand, Doctor, that there are no other bears, or even lions and tigers in my basement?” The Mistress asked.
“No, just these three. Lost in time. Lost in space.”
Upstairs the Mistress directed for the authorities to be called about Skip.
“James, Leonard. I want you to dispose of the bear’s body,” the Mistress said. She gave the two cubs a side glance.
“Be respectful,” she added.
“Yes Mistress,” the two said before walking off.
“So is this what your day is always like?” Sami asked the Doctor. The two sat on the grand staircase that lead to the second floor in the main foyer. The two cubs sat near their feet.
“Well, not every day. But it does seem to happen a bit.”
“Must be exciting!”
The Doctor sort of just shrugged, but did get an admittedly boyish look on his face.
“Well, yes, it can be,” he conceded.
“Do you ever, uh, you know, bring anyone along?”
“It has been known to happen. Are you asking to come join me?” The Doctor asked, betraying a bit of hope in his voice.
“Are you trying to sample the goods, Doctor?” the Mistress asked. The two looked over at the woman in white standing at the bottom of the stairs.
“Huh? Is this about the wine again?” The Doctor asked in return. “Not really a wine sorta guy, more tea for me. Which if you have any, I’d love some after all of this adventure.”
The Mistress looked at the Doctor. After a moment her hard look softened into a genuine smile.
“You truly are something, Doctor.”
“Why thank you, Mistress,” the Doctor replied, looking proud about himself, but not entirely sure why.
“So, Mistress, can I go with him?” Sami asked. “It would just be for a short while.”
“I’m not so sure the Doctor could afford you for so long,” the Mistress said, her smile maintained on her face. The Doctor returned a confused look.
“But I don’t see why not,” the Mistress added. “For a short while.”
“Thank you!” Sami said. “Let me grab some things,” she said to the Doctor before running off.
“She is a bit to handle, Doctor, are you sure you are up for it?”
“I’ve had my fair share of those. I think I’ll be ok.”
The Mistress looked down at the two ursa cubs.
“Now, what to do with you two?” She said aloud in that tone one has when they already have the answer.
“Well, I was going to just take them home,” the Doctor said.
“Home, Doctor? You told me their home was destroyed. No, I have another idea for these two.” She placed her hands on both of the cubs’ faces, both looking up at her.
“We are a rag-tag group here: orphans, runaways, fallen. But we are also each other’s family. You could stay with us. Naturally you’d have to work for your keep, but as you can see, we all do here.”
The two cubs looked up at the Doctor.
“It is your choice, Ey and Yu. You are in control of your lives now.”
The two cubs looked at each other and had a silent exchange before both the Doctor and Mistress Katherine heard their voices in their minds again.
“We will stay with you,” Ey said first.
“We can be help, we are from a village like this,” Yu added.
“Very good,” Mistress Katherine said. “You go rest for the day. We will get you working tomorrow.”
“Yes ma’am,” both said.
“Mistress,” she corrected. “I am now Mistress.”
The cubs giggled.
“Yes Mistress.” They replied in unison.
The two cubs hugged the Doctor, nearly crushing him before heading upstairs. Half way up Yu went invisible, and Ey chased after her.
“You will have your hands full yourself,” the Doctor commented.
“I always do, Doctor.”
Sami came running from the back room with a bag. She had changed and was now wearing a nicer travel dress, with a cloak and her bag in both hands.
“Ready!” she said with energy.
The two headed for the door. As they exited, Mistress Katherine spoke.
“Doctor,” she simply said.
He turned and looked at her for a moment.
“I’ll bring her back,” he said. “I promise.”
The Tardis was only a few blocks away and Sami spent every step of those blocks asking about the whens and wheres they could go and which ones they could do first.
The simple blue box sat at the end of one street and left Sami none to impressed.
“That’s it?”
The Doctor answered by opening the door. The larger inside space brought a huge smile to her face.
“So, Doctor, where to?” Sami asked, putting down her bag.
The Doctor walked to the controls, thinking for a moment, then got a devious smile on his face.
“I have an idea…”