The Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS and doffed his hat to a one legged butcher bird hunkered down on the wooden beam fence. When it didn't respond he looked around to see where he was this time. He was in a yard. A back yard with dead grass, dust patches, a swimming pool and two large eyed children crouched two metres away staring at him. The boy, Thomas, had put down his ukulele to hold back the black kelpie whose tail was wagging so ferociously it might propel him forward all on its own if released. The girl, younger, Hannah, was clutching an orange crayon and surrounded by an entire upturned Crayola box and scribbled on bits of paper.
"Hello," said the Doctor, doffing his hat again. Thomas handed the dog's collar to Hannah and got up with all the authority an older brother can muster, that is to say, a lot. Hannah held on with all her strength and got a big slurping lick on the face for her efforts.
"Who are you?" demanded Thomas.
"Well… I'm the Doctor," he smiled and after and awkward pause added, "and who are you?"
"You're not our doctor, and doctors don't come here, you go there, and we aren't sick."
Hannah nodded vigorously to support her brother's statement.
"Ah very astute," he skipped forward and raised a finger, while his other hand held an umbrella behind his back, "but I didn't say your doctor, I said the Doctor. An entirely different beast," he leaned forward conspiratorially, "Capitol D," he whispered.
"Oh," said Thomas, not at all sure how to proceed. This was when Hannah let Rufus go. Rufus being the dog, whose name the Doctor learnt as the girl jumped to her feet and yelled it. The kelpie's narrow snout made a beeline for the Doctor's crotch then investigated the rest of his body, sniffing intently with wide panicked eyes. Then to the Doctor's utter horror Rufus ran into the TARDIS.
"Rufus!" Hannah yelled again and sprinted in after him, throwing her crayon into the bushes. Thomas followed. The Doctor, in a fluster, doffed his hat again to the butcherbird, "Children in the TARDIS," he muttered and chased after them yelling, "Don't touch anything."
Thomas came up beside his sister and took her empty hand. Both raised their chins to take in the full height and breadth of the white cavern the found themselves in. The Doctor stumbled to a stop behind them and couldn't suppress the smile at their awe. Hannah looked over her shoulder at him with a grin that revealed one missing tooth. She didn't need to say it because her brother said it for her, "It's bigger on the inside."
"Ha!" the Doctor clapped his hands, he loved that bit. He led Thomas to the console, explaining this toggle and that lever without realising Hannah had finished her appraisal of the room and was now descending to the wardrobe in search of Rufus.
Hannah had never seen so many wonderful clothes. There was a scarf so long it would hardly suit a fully grown adult let alone her gangly seven year old self. There was a top hat she fancied, of yellow silk, but it was too big and was only stopped from hitting her shoulders by her ears. She found a fabulous 18th century French ball gown, though to her it was simply a princess dress, and she longed to be tall and beautiful and at the ripe old age of sixteen so she could wear it. She did find a brown suede vest with fringe that reached her knees and put it on. She admired herself in the mirror ad saw in the reflection that Rufus was sitting behind her with a pink feather boa in his mouth. "Rufus!" she turned and held out her arms to hug him. He came running but stopped half way his ears pricked and head tilted. "Rufus," Hannah said again. He turned and ran down the corridor, Hannah chased after him collecting the boa on the way, it would make a good lead when she caught him.
"What's that?" Thomas said pointing to a metal ring about eight centimetres across sticking out of the console next to the keyboard.
The doctor mumbled an answer.
"What?" said Thomas.
"It's a cup holder," said the doctor, perturbed.
"Oh," Thomas shrugged, "Well the rest is pretty cool."
"Thank you for your approval," The Doctor said already growing tired of the narrow eyed cynicism of youth. He walked back to the TARDIS door which he had left ajar and gestured out of it, "It's time you got going I should think."
"We're not going without Rufus," Thomas protested.
"We?"
"Yes, me and my…" Thomas trailed off as he realised he and the Doctor were alone in the control room, "Where is she?"
"She's your sister," the Doctor said, "I don't see why I should know where she is."
"You're the grownup."
"Whatever gave you that idea?"
Thomas glowered, "Well use this machine to find her, don't you have any surveillance?"
"I… yes actually." The Doctor flung his hands wide and passed Thomas the question mark handle of his umbrella before attacking the console keyboard. A small white framed screen swivelled round with two red blinking lights which then dissolved into portrait style pictures of each Hannah and Rufus beside which was a list of basic stats: age, height, astrological sign, favourite ice cream flavour and, most importantly, their whereabouts. Rufus was in the swimming pool and Hannah was in the Library.
The Doctor jumped to face Thomas, "Right let's go." He took back his umbrella and marched through a sliding door with Thomas tripping after him.
The library was unlike any library Hannah had ever seen. Her school library was set out in a circular fashion with the cream enamelled metal shelves arranged out form the central desks like spokes on a wheel, it had a high ceiling with a small glass dome letting in natural light. Her local library was all rectangles and parallel rows, low ceilings and suspicious looking strangers. The shelves and desks were the same sort in both as was the cataloguing system. This library was not like either of those. The books filled ceiling high (three times higher than that of the school library) bookshelves which made up three of the four walls each with a ladder on rollers for accessing the top. The fourth wall was a window with heavy curtains that were currently drawn to reveal an endless botanical garden and bright, white sunshine. In the centre of the room was an ornate padded armchair like the one in Hannah's grandmother's old house, before she moved to the home. It was the most comfortable chair Hannah ever remembered sitting in and had been carried to bed from that spot on numerous occasions. Hannah wanted to peruse the books, pick out the most promising and curl up on the chair but she also wanted to find Rufus, It would be a much more enjoyable experience with him laying at her feet. She did approach the chair however and sat, just to see if it was as comfortable as her grandmother's. It was. She looked down and saw an end table had appeared with a reading lamp (necessary as the light from the window had grown dim) and a book titled 'Gallifreyan Nursery Rhymes'. Hannah didn't recognise the first word so assumed it was a person or a place and moved on. She did this a lot over the next few hours she spent reading. The coffee table provided her with milk and biscuits as she wanted and then she fell asleep. When she woke the lamp had turned off and the library was completely black.
Thomas sighed loudly as he and the Doctor traipsed through an exceptionally long corridor.
"Something to say, Thomas?" said the Doctor. Thomas had given up his name after a while and was irritated to find the gesture wasn't returned.
"I thought we'd be there by now."
"So did I," the Doctor removed a bleeping device from a pocket too small to hold it, "She's still in the library. It's almost as if the TARDIS doesn't want us to… but that can't be it."
"What about Rufus?"
"Still at the pool. He doesn't swim does he?"
"He hates the water. Someone knocked him in when he was a puppy."
"Someone?" the doctor raised his eyebrows.
Thomas frowned, "It was an accident.
A left and a right and two more lefts and they were at the library door, "At last!" the doctor exclaimed, "She must have just redecorated when I wasn't looking."
"She?" Thomas said mimicking the Doctor.
"The TARDIS of course."
They busted through the door into a pitch black room. The Doctor flicked a switch with his umbrella and the window switched back to day mode.
"This place is massive," Thomas said.
"Yes, but no little girl."
"But your contraption said she was here!"
"So it did," the Doctor said, though he was barely paying attention. Something had caught his attention at the centre of the room. There was a book lying open as if dropped suddenly. The Doctor picked it up, "And so she was."
"But I don't understand Doctor." Thomas was breathing rapidly.
"Of course you don't you're just a child, you'd have to be a parent to understand, or at least, want to be…"
"Doctor," Thomas wheezed. The Doctor spun round to face the boy, Thomas's face was red and tears were forcing their way out of his eyes.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor said.
Thomas shook his head.
"It's been too long, I've forgotten how you work."
"Asthma." Thomas managed to get out.
"Asthma!" The Doctor ran towards one shelf turned on his heel the ran to another, he scanned the shelf with a pointed finger then removed a thin pamphlet. He raced back to Thomas and handed it to him, "Quick read this."
Thomas frown questioning.
"Just do it, I'm the grown up remember… trust me."
Thomas cracked the pamphlet and began reading. At first nothing happened but soon, with each passing word his breathing quietened, his heart slowed and his face regained its usual colour.
"What was that?" Thomas asked.
"Oh, um," the Doctor snatched the pamphlet back and looked at the cover, "A very short Introduction to Yorkshire Pudding."
"You didn't know?"
"Ah… no, but it worked didn't it."
"How did you choose it?"
"I thought you'd be less intimidated by a short book, don't look like much of a reader."
Thomas stood up, angry but the doctor whipped out his bleeping device, "We better get a move on, she's at the pool now," and he ran off with Thomas forced to catch up.
Rufus was barking at the pool while Hannah stamped her foot and pleaded with him to stop. Every time she tried to get near him he would run a few metres away and start barking again. She was used to him barking whenever anyone was in their pool at home but he usually ignored it if it was completely empty, and this pool was completely empty. She knelt down beside the pool and looked in. It had a blue tiled base which gave it a resort feel, not at all like their pebbled black one at home, which Hannah realised was just outside. She flipped her head over to check under the lip for red backs, letting her hair trail in the water. Rufus's barking increased in desperation and he ran up behind her grabbing the vest with his teeth and trying to tug her away from the edge.
"Let go Rufus," she said, trying to pull herself free. In all the awkwardness she fell in. Rufus panicked barking so sharply and without taking breath it sounded like a jagged shriek. Hannah knew how to tread water but was weighed down by her clothes and shoes. "It's ok Rufus," she said, pushing herself above the water, though she really didn't know if that was true because, though she still couldn't see anything, now she was in the water, she could feel it.
The Doctor pushed open the double glass doors to the pool and Thomas ducked under his arm and ran to the edge nearest his little sister.
"I think there's something in here!" she squealed, whipping Rufus into a further frenzy. Thomas lay on his stomach and held out his arm but couldn't reach. Hannah's attempts to keep above water had caused her to drift further away.
"Hold onto the dog," the Doctor said flinging himself onto his belly and holding out the handle of his umbrella to Hannah, "Reach!" he told her.
She stretched out her hand, almost made it, dipped a little and then scrambled back up.
"Swim," Thomas said, "remember how? We had lessons. Remember, breast stroke was your favourite. Like this." He mimed breast stroke with the arm that wasn't holding Rufus back from the Doctor. Hannah copied the movements and grabbed hold of the umbrella. The Doctor pulled her to shore just as a giant splash sent a wave out of the pool drenching all four of them and the rest of the room. Thomas let go of the now silent Rufus who shook, drenching them a second time. After a few moments of heavy breathing Thomas knelt down beside his sister and they hugged with Rufus's pointy nose trying to push its way in.
"Time to go," said the Doctor. He was firm but he wasn't looking at the children or even the dog. He was looking up as if talking to the air.
It was a much quicker journey back to the console room and though Thomas wondered why he decided not to ask. It was a relief when they stepped out of the TARDIS into their own backyard. It looked unchanged, even the sun seemed to be in the same place in the sky.
"Goodbye, Doctor," said Thomas, holding out his hand. The Doctor shock it firmly and then produced from behind the boys back the book 'A Short Introduction to Yorkshire Pudding'.
"I thought you might like to keep this."
Thomas smiled despite himself, "It was pretty good," he conceded.
Hannah stepped forward trying not to look to obvious. He retrieved from behind his back a considerably heavier tome, 'Gallifreyan nursery Rhymes', "And for you," he said.
"Thank you."
"And with that I bid you Adieu." He doffed his cap nodding to each child and at last to Rufus who barked his goodbye. With the doors shut the TARDIS faded in and out of view until it vanished all together.
"What on earth have you three been up to," Thomas and Hannah's mother stood, hands on hips, taking in the sight of her children and dog dripping wet.
The Doctor settled back in his chair, feet resting on the dash.
"Well, that's the last time I have children in here, and a dog, I don't know what you were thinking."
The TARDIS made a mechanical moan.
"Having a sentimental moment were you, suddenly a motherly impulse. Maybe it's a glitch."
The TARDIS creaked and groaned.
"Alright, alright. You're fine the way you are, but no more picking up strays."
A shrill whirring noise.
"I'm allowed. Besides, animals have no business being loose in a time machine."
A sharp tap, tap, tap. The Doctor frown and moved to the other side on the console from which the noise was coming. A one legged butcherbird was fluffed up and pecking at the side of the dash. It made eye contact with the doctor for a brief moment then flew away done a corridor.