Here we go, another Doctor Who story. 'Bout a transgender boy, Gus, and how he meets the Doctor. Oneshot, probably, unless it is requested otherwise. It's Eleven and Amy, no Rory. Obviously pre-Angels Take Manhattan. Dedicated to the Ponds. Here we go:
The child walked slowly out of the now-empty school building, his backpack sagging off of his right shoulder and his trumpet clutched tightly in his other hand, safely secured in its oversized case, having spent the last forty-five minutes hiding in a bathroom stall waiting for all the other kids to leave. He'd been relieved when he exited the bathroom to find the school barren, except for a few custodians, who all knew his routine, but did nothing to help him. Sometimes he misjudged and exited too soon, only to be harassed or even beaten by a gang of students, sometimes male, often female, but neither pleasant and both hardly endurable. He was alone as he stepped out into the bright afternoon and treaded along the beautifully green lawn, as he always was, as he was best off. By the looks of it, he decided, he hadn't given the others a great enough lead. He'd have to wait another good thirty minutes or so before he could head off, walking tentatively and cautiously home, treading lightly. So, he slid to the ground and leaned back against the brick building, taking in the fresh air. He knew he should do his homework, but he didn't care. No one cared about him, so he saw no sense in caring about anyone or anything. And that included grades and homework. But no matter how disgracefully low his grades sank, no one bothered to figure out why. No matter how many times they tried to help and failed, no one ever questioned what was going on. No matter how obvious it was that he was alone, no one noticed, no one cared, and neither did he.
He felt his face warm as the tears came; they always did. He raised a futile hand to try and wipe away the few tears that would inevitably leave him silently crying, the tears flowing like Niagara Falls. He shook, the sobs racking his body. He brought both hands to his face and held his head in them, sad, ashamed, hurt.
"Boys don't cry," he chided himself silently, the agonizing fact of his own femininity tearing him apart from the inside, the appalling fact that estrogen ran through his blood mocking him, taunting him, reminding him he was just a girl. He let the tears take their course, seated against the wall for what felt like an eternity, until he heard what he decided was the strangest and harshest ringtone he'd ever heard. A vwormp, vwormp noise filled the silent gap between shaky breaths and shallow sighs, overtaking the stillness. Startled and frightened, he lifted his head just in time to watch in awe as a giant blue box materialized. The box's door swung open, and out strutted a tall man in perhaps the most ridiculous outfit he'd ever seen – tweed, a bowtie!? And that hair! A fiery ginger woman stepped out behind him, trying to take in the surroundings quickly. Both sets of eyes fell upon the child instantaneously, who peered up at them with red, wet eyes.
"Hey, little boy," the man said, and a smile immediately crossed the child's face – he'd been called a boy, and he swelled with pride at the realization that Ace bandages and short hair really did make quite a difference. "Where are we? Is this the Unites States?"
"Yeah, Parkview, New Jersey," the child supplied.
"When?" the man then asked, bewildering the child. "And who are you?"
"2013, sir. It's the third of March." He paused before remembering the second question. "I'm… I'm Gina." He cringed at his name, knowing full well he'd just outed himself. But he had no male name to go by, so he sighed and accepted fate.
"Gina? Why not... Gus… or something?" the ginger asked.
"Y'know what, call me Gus," the child, Gus now, retorted.
"But you said your name was Gina," the man said.
"I know."
"Isn't that a girls' name?"
"Yes."
"But you're a boy."
"Yes and no." Gus received no response, only a baffled look of perplexity from the man, who kneeled down in front of Gus and peered at him carefully. "Look, do you know what transgender means?" The woman's expression changed. She joined them, sitting down next to Gus and smiling at him.
"What?" the man asked.
"I was born the wrong gender. I'm a boy in a girl's body," Gus said quickly. "So just call me Gus, alright. And who are you?"
"Me? Oh, nothing much interesting about me. I'm the Doctor," he said, and it was Gus's turn to look puzzled.
"That's it? Just 'the Doctor'?"
"Yep."
"And I'm Amy," the ginger piped in. Gus glanced between the two of them, Amy and the Doctor, confused, so many questions flitting about in his head.
"Are you, like, aliens or something? Like on The X-Files?" he asked. The ginger – Amy – laughed.
"He is," she stated, shocking Gus even more. "I'm just human."
"How?"
"How?" the Doctor repeated. "Well, how are you human?"
"I… I just am. Fine. So, like, are you a Martian?"
"I'm a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey."
"Are there, like, a lot of 'Time Lords'? Can I meet them? The planet – what's it like? Where is it? Is it in this galaxy? Can I go?" Gus was going to continue, but Amy cut him off.
"You're starting to sound like him!" she remarked.
"Oi, Pond! I do not do that!" he insisted, though grinning.
"Well?" Gus asked eagerly.
"No, no, beautiful, oblivion, no, no," he answered the questions as quickly as Gus had asked them.
"So, there aren't a lot of Time Lords, I can't meet them, the planet was beautiful, it's in oblivion, it's not in this galaxy, and I can't go?" he asked, repeating the Doctor's answers, searching for clarification. "Is oblivion a real place?"
"No," Amy said, before the alien had time to. "He means it's gone."
"What do you mean?" Amy gestured erratically with her arms and made a pathetic explosion noise. "Oh. So the Time Lords, what happened to them?"
"You're a nosy kid," the Doctor said. "They're gone, too. I'm… I'm the last of 'em."
"That… box, what does it do?" Gus asked quickly, sensing a sensitive topic for the man.
"It's my TARDIS. Time and relative dimension in space. In other words, it's a time machine."
"Cool!" Gus exclaimed, and for the first time in a long time, a smile appeared on his face. "Can you go to, like, Rome? Ancient Rome?"
"You certainly could. Would you want to?"
"It would be so cool! I could meet Julius Caesar! We learned about him in history class."
"Doctor," Amy said quietly, "You're offering him a trip, yeah?" The Doctor only smiled.
"Well, then, come along, Pond! You too, come along, Gus!" he cried, already headed back to the big blue box he'd called a TARDIS. Amy followed suit, and Gus leapt up and entered the box in toe.
"Whoa!" he marveled at the interior of the TARDIS.
"Go on, say it," the Doctor coaxed. Gus ducked back outside the TARDIS, ran a circle around it, then dashed back in, still with the same awestruck grin spread across his face.
"It's so big and so small at the same time!" he cried.
"It's bigger on the inside?" the Doctor prompted.
"Yeah!" Gus admitted, swinging the door closed, marveling on all that'd happened. He'd gone from the sad little kid sitting there sobbing to… well, he wasn't sure. "But, one thing: The bowtie, why?"
"It's cool!" the Doctor shouted, adjusting it, twirling about.
"And so is the fez," Amy remarked.
"They are cool!" he insisted.
"So," Amy said, "To Rome?"
"That's where all roads lead," Gus said, laughing, recalling a phrase he'd heard on TV.
"They certainly do," the Doctor agreed, pulling levers and twisting knobs on the huge console in the center of the TARDIS. "They certainly do."
And there we have it. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review, let me know what you did or didn't like. 'Til next time, you can check out my other Doctor Who fics, or continue randomly browsing pieces. Whatever. See you later.