Chapter One:
Bored. He was bored.
Boredom was not friend of the Doctor's, mainly because he did rather stupid things when he was. For example, the creation of his sonic screwdriver. Boredom always liked to claw its way into his day, daring his mind to do strange things. Really strange things.
So, the Doctor fixed his bow tie and waltzed into the console room. He could go visit Gre'Kil, meet a few more people, snog a few others, get kicked out again. Or, there was the Chotalikans, they were such a funny bunch! Oh, or the Hulies! Amy and Rory would love to see the—...
The Doctor froze in his steps, taking a deep breath. They were gone, he reminded himself. Dead. They were not coming back. Why did he have such a hard time believing that?! Why couldn't he understand his own words!?
The Doctor leaned against the console, running his hands down his face. He began to wonder why River always insisted on him having a companion with him. Everyone around him died because of him. And if they weren't dead, then he would have ruined their lives. Was this his punishment for destroying Gallifrey? Was this his 'karma' for all the children dead?
The Doctor sucked in a breath, he didn't want to think about that. Not right now. He was going to have a good day. Like he said, visit a few people, snog a few others. Aid a revolution, stop a rebellion. He was going to please himself for once and no one was going to stop him.
The TARDIS lurched, tossing him back before he could navigate it. The whirring sound filled the air as the ship traveled through the Time Vortex.
"Are you bloody serious!?" The Doctor hissed through clenched teeth. A second more, and he would have been somewhere else. "Couldn't even give me a warning!" He made his way to the side to see where they were at TARDIS landed. Baltimore, Maryland, 2008, and not the particularly kind side of it, judging by where they were.
The Doctor let out a sigh and straightened his bow tie. He wasn't doing anything else, an he hadn't been to Baltimore since... The 1700s. Might as well see what they've been up to now.
The Doctor stepped out the door and found himself at night in the back alley. The air was stale, smelling of gas and other polluted substances. The ground was littered and the walls vandalized with various spray paints. Few rodents skittered around the shadows, accompanied by other insects as they scrambled away from the TARDIS' light. The was a overflowing dumpster directly across from him and he almost turned up his nose at the putrid scent emitting from it. That is, before he saw the small bundle, shivering beside it.
There was a small, dark-skinned African-American girl curled up beside the large rubbish bin. With the light the TARDIS provided, he was able to see her pajamas that were covered in what looked like blood, and a lot of it. Her brown eyes were half-lidded, and red-rimmed. Her brown skin bruised, from what he could see. Tear tracks stained her cheeks, that was swelling in a few areas. The young child looked beaten to near death, but that didn't stop her from cowering away from the Doctor as he stepped up to her.
"I..." The Doctor said, but his words were gone. In all his years, he had never seen a child in this condition. He had seen children of war, dead for unnecessary reasons. He had experienced children weeping over their lost loved ones. However, he had never seen a child abused by someone probably bigger and much older than her to this state. He had never seen a young child, probably the age of a toddler, in this condition and then casted to the streets like unwanted trash. In all his years, the Doctor had experienced many things, but this... This was brand new, and it filled him with fury.
His eyes were narrowed dangerously, and the girl let out a cry, trying to hide away from him. The Doctor noticed and exhaled, his features softening. He didn't want to scare the girl away. She needed serious help, by the looks of it.
"Hello there," he said softly, bending down to her level. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm going to get you help, okay?" The child shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"M... Mommy sa–said do–don't talk to–to str–strangers..." She whimpered, her voice hoarse and small.
"I'm–I'm not a stranger," he assured the girl. "I'm a doctor. You know what doctors do?"
The girl gave a small nod. "They... They gi–give you med... Medican..."
"That's right," The Doctor smiled, "I'm going to get you medicine that's going to make you feel a lot better, okay? But, you have to trust me."
The girl shook her head, her dark curls flying back and forth. "Yo–You need to he–help mommy!" She cried, "Mo–Mommy is hurt too! She's–She's sleeping an'–an' won't wake up," the girl curled into herself again. "I'm sorry, mommy! I'm sorry!"
"I..." The Doctor winced as he listened to the girl's cried. "Hey, look." She turned back up to him, and rubbed at her running nose. "I'll help your mummy, but you have to let me help you first. Then, we'll help mummy, alright?" The young girl looked at him, but slowly nodded. The Doctor held out his hand for her to take, and she took it, and stood. She stayed close to him as he walked her inside his TARDIS.
The Doctor noticed her limping slightly, and clenching his hand whenever she took a step. Frowning, he picked her up from under her arms. The didn't argue as he rushed her to the infirmary as the TARDIS doors closed behind him.
The Doctor scanned her for injuries, and his eyes widened when he found several. Her leg was bleeding and there was glass in her feet. Several bruises on her body, and a possibly broken rib. Her eyes was swollen — which explained why they were half lidded. However, all the blood covering her clothes were not her own, except for the one on her pants legs.
He turned to the cabinets, finally finding a bottle of numbing pills and handed her one. "I need you to take this," he told her.
She looked at his hand and curled away, "Mommy says don't take candy from strangers."
"I'm not a stranger, remember? I'm a doctor."
"Doctors don't give you candy!" She argued heatedly. "I know 'cause mommy tooked me to one, and he gave me toy an' shot. But, I didn't cry 'cause mommy said she'd buy me new Amelia Bedelia book if I didn't!" He couldn't help but stare at the girl as she clutched the pillow to her chest, her dirty bare arms beginning to stain the satin cloth.
"Well, I'm a special kind of doctor," he replied.
"There isn't a special kind of doctor!"
"Is too!"
"Nu-huh! How can you be a special doctor if you don't have he doctor coat?"
"It's hanging somewhere," he lied. "Besides, I'm the kind of doctor that helps little kids."
The girl pouted, "Do you help the big kids too? 'Cause I'm not a little kid!"
"Yes, I help everyone," he told her.
"Then, you can help my mommy too?" The Doctor winced at the question. "'Cause my mommy needs help. She–She doesn't like the floor, it's always really cold. She wouldn't wake up too, an'..." Tears grew in her eyes. "Are you gonna get my mommy? I don't wanna leave my mommy!"
The Doctor sighed, "I... Need you to take this, then I'll try to do the best I can about your mum. Everything's gonna be okay."
"I want my mommy," she cried. "Please, I–I just want mommy!"
The Doctor held the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry," he whispered before tapping a finger on her forehead, mentally shutting her down. The girl's brown eyes rolled back in her head as she fell into the bed with a small thud. The Doctor took this time to ease the pill into her mouth, sending small mental signals of calmness as he coaxed her into swallowing the pill and a glass of water.
Once he finished, he waited for the pill to circulate in her system, which should take a solid few minutes. He set out a few medical supplies while he waited, thanking the TARDIS when she provided him the medicines and things he didn't know he needed.
As he came back to the girl, she was sleeping soundly, not aware as he slowly took the dirty pajamas off her small body. He started where there seemed to be a lot of bleeding — her leg. Awkwardly, he took the pajamas off and began to clean in and around the wound. He was able to see a large piece of glass in it immediately, and sucked his teeth. He didn't liked dealing with blood, but if he didn't get the glass out, it could cause serious issues.
So, he slowly began to pull out the piece of glass. The girl began to whimper and cry in pain, "I know, I'm sorry..." He murmured, even though he knew the little girl couldn't hear him.
Finally, he got the glass out, and he set it down on the tray beside him. He cleaned the wound to make sure it didn't get infected, and wrapped up the leg to keep it from bleeding.
Now, he went to her feet. There were tiny pieces of glass stuck in them as well, but not as big as the one that was in her leg. The Doctor slowly began removing those with tweezers. It was a long, painful process on both sides, but after nearly twenty minutes, he was finally done.
Now, he turned to her shirt. He quickly peeled it off to find large bruises littering her skin. The Doctor stared at them, someone had done this to her. They had abused her to this point, and probably killed her mother while doing so. He gritted his teeth, but tried not to get too angry. He didn't want the girl to sense his anger and get scared.
He began to feel her chest, checking for any broken ribs or internal bleeding. He remembered the technique from Rory, when he had gotten hit by a very unkind Persian soldier.
The Doctor chuckled, remembering the memory. The soldier was pestering him to a battle, and he called him 'the lowest scum in the universe', and that 'earthworms look at him and jeer'. Needless to say, he didn't take that insult very kindly.
The Doctor laughed quietly, but stopped when he found something wrong. There was a bit of a bump on her chest. It took him a second to the scan did say that she might've had a possibly broken rib.
The Doctor took out his sonic and checked her chest. No signs of internal bleeding. Good. He went to the pile of supplies the TARDIS provided him with, and pulled out the heal patches. He peeled one off and placed it on her chest, directly above the place he thought that something was wrong. Then, after bit of internal arguing, he place half of one on her leg. He didn't want too much of the nanogene stay were packed in it to be absorbed into her skin. It caused too many problems, and he didn't want another repeat of the 'Are You My Mummy' incident.
He decided to use cream on the bruises. It should stop the swelling and numb the pain. He checked her face, finding the same bruises and put some cream on those as well.
Once she was finished, the Doctor went to the closet finding a small hospital gown. He took it and began to slip it over the girl in absence for her pajamas. The Doctor decided to allow her to rest as he put away all the medical supplies.
He gave her a blanket, dimmed the lights, and then closed the door. The Doctor stumbled down the hall, stopping in his console room and leaning against the TARDIS' console.
A child. Really!? This blatantly violated one of his major rules: no children on the TARDIS! What was he going to do with her anyway? Did he even know how to take care of kids?! He had children once, a long time ago, was she the same as them? How old was she!? By her actions and words, he was thinking a 3-5 year old, and he couldn't help a groan.
The Doctor knew he couldn't raise a three year old, maybe a five year old, but never a three-year old. Toddlers were different. They weren't children, so they weren't able to grasp stuff as well as five to nine year olds could. Neither were they babies, not having a clue what was going on around them. They were... Toddlers. They cried and screamed and threw tantrums, at least from what he knew.
The Doctor ran his hands down his face. He was going to have to make a few calls. However, before that, he needed to know her name.