Mary, who?

Chapter 1

The Doctor was piloting his newly designed TARDIS. It was new on the inside, and he found the change pleasant. He liked the darkness and the solemnity of the inside, especially after past events. Manoeuvring the TARDIS in position, he began to create the cloud it would rest on, hiding it away from the humans below. He stood, with both hands on the console, emotionless and finding himself just being too old. He sighed. Perhaps 1842 on Earth would prove no alien activity. He was done helping people. Besides, Commander Strax, Vastra, and Jenny could deal with whatever was going on.

A slight tapping on the door of the TARDIS startled the Doctor. He quickly and nearly tripped getting to the door. Who could have possibly been on the other side? There was no ladder, no staircase, nothing of any sort to reach up to the TARDIS. Fumbling over the doorknob, he finally opened the door. The Doctor found a young woman standing before him with a smile on her face. He looked her up and down, she didn't move a muscle. She wore a long black coat, a blue skirt, a knitted red and pink scarf, and a hat decorated with flowers. Oh how the Doctor missed his fez.

"Hello, sorry, do you mind if I just borrow your cloud? Only need a sit to freshen up a bit," she said in a British accent.

She nodded, with an amused expression on her face, and quickly turned around to find a spot on the cloud, taking his silence as an approval.

"Wait, what?!" the Doctor snapped out of his momentary shock to say something.

The Doctor stepped out on the cloud, not wondering about the density of the cloud, and walked after her.

"What? Who are you?" the Doctor looked for an answer.

Instead of answering, she held out her hand, the one holding the umbrella, so that he would help her sit on the edge. The Doctor helped her, slightly worried about the place she chose.

"Thank you," the lady placed her bag down to the left of her and placed the umbrella right into the cloud.

The Doctor looked around a bit, caught his eye upon the parrot adorning her umbrella, and wondering if he should sit down, decided to.

"Do you mind?" the Doctor asked.

"Not at all!" she cheerily quipped.

They both looked down below their dangling feet. It was still day time, with the sun just partially blocked, but they were both able to make out the figure of the humans. The Doctor was thinking about how small they were from where he sat in the sky.

"They will always look gigantic in my eyes. Especially when they realize their own potential," she continued looking down.

The Doctor thought about how he use to think like that at one point or another. Maybe he even did think about that, but that was somewhere hiding in the shadows of the once were. He cleared his mind and went back to usual business.

"So who are you?" the Doctor asked again as he turned around to face her.

The lady was no longer looking below but instead inside her bag.

"It must be in here somewhere," she first placed her hand, then her arm, then her whole upper body to look for an item in her bag.

"Is that ...," the Doctor looked straight ahead at the sky. "Bigger on the inside."

"Ah! There you are!" her voice echoed when she found the item she was looking for.

The lady opened her compact and powdered her nose, put her compact away, and faced the Doctor, "My name is Mary Poppins."

"That's a lovely name," the Doctor was still reeling about the bag. "Like a name in a fairy tale."

"Thank you, I've always liked it."

The Doctor snapped out of his second shock and took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned her.

"Are you an alien?" the Doctor asked as he was scanning.

Mary smiled, "just a nanny."

"Not the cousins of Time Lords?" the Doctor asked rather absentmindedly.

"Heavens, no. Whoever they may be," Mary placed her compact back into her bag.

The Doctor put his sonic screwdriver back into his coat and faced her, "then who are you? And where did you come from? And what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same three questions!" she looked back at him and smiled.

He wasn't in the mood to be playing around, he wasn't in the mood to play at all really, but this woman was intriguing to him, so he answered his own questions, "I am the Doctor. I come from many places, but I'm here to ..."

Mary waited for the last answer, but he decided against giving one. His past was painful and there was no point in reliving it. Even to an interesting woman who appeared out of nowhere.

"Well, Doctor. I hope what you find in," Mary checked her watch. "Ooh! 1842 helps you to let go of the pain you are feeling. The people in your life who've gone would want that."

A slight breeze signaled Mary and so she turned around and opened her umbrella, "must be off! The winds have changed!"

The Doctor realized what was happening, and stopped her, "wait! How do you know about the pain?"

Mary closed her umbrella and stuck it into the cloud. She walked up close to the Time Lord and looked at him.

"I can see it in your eyes, Doctor. Sad, pained, and alone. You're better around people, aren't you? Either that, or they make you better. When you go down there, which you will, find someone. Someone to make you happy. Your heart needs that. Don't push them away."

She opened up her umbrella, but a slip of paper floating in the breeze caught the Doctor and Mary by surprise. She caught it in her gloved hand and read it. It was slightly burned, but still readable.

"You are kind, but firm. Just as a nanny should be," the Doctor commented and tried to read the note.

"So I've been told, Doctor," she lowered the note in her hand and smiled at him. "Hmm, seems the governess will be returning to help the children of Captain Latimer. I suppose that means he won't be needing me after all."

The Doctor began to walk back to the TARDIS.

"The governess is a lovely woman. I've bet you heard of her?" Mary said out loud with the Doctor only half listening.

He shook his head.

"No?" she placed her umbrella on her shoulder before saying, in a barely audible voice, "Remember her."

The Doctor turned back as quickly as he could, the words she spoke ringing some familiarity in his brain. Mary Poppins was already off the cloud with her parrot umbrella opened in her one hand and the bag in the other. She floated away until she disappeared from the Doctor's sights completely.