The covers were pulled tighter over the little girl's head. "Please⦠please go away! I'm scared!" She waited a few more seconds before peeking out from under the blanket. The big metal man still stood there. The child hid herself once again.
"You will come with me."
The bedroom door was closed. Mum was asleep in the bedroom down the hall. The girl was alone with this scary man who had somehow gotten into her room and wanted to take her away. But the child still called out into the darkness. "Someone help me, please!"
The man stepped closer, reaching his big hand out toward the girl. The child closed her eyes tight, tears running down her face. This was it. She was going to be taken by this big alien man.
Suddenly, the window beside her bed shattered, and another man jumped into the room and onto the frightening metal monster. The robot man fell to the floor.
"Don't worry, Ariana!" The second man who'd entered the room called to the little girl. "I have this under control!"
Ariana gasped as she watched the monster and the man fight. The robot tried to push the man off of itself, but the man stayed on the robot, pulling out a magic wand, glowing green at the end and making a whirring sound, and sticking it on the robot man's chest. The robot shouted, then became very quiet.
The real man stood up. Ariana laughed at the red bow tie around his neck and the strange cap upon his head. "Alright, Ariana. Don't worry about that big monster. He won't be finding you anymore."
The little girl shied away from her rescuer, returning to underneath her blanket.
"You don't have to be afraid! I'm not gonna hurt you."
Ariana's eyes peeked out once again. "Who are you?"
The man grinned. "My name is the Doctor."
"Doctor what?"
The Doctor shrugged and sat down on the child's bed. "Just the Doctor. Everyone always asks that. Why do they always ask that?"
Ariana came out from her covers. "Well, you have to be a doctor of something!"
"I don't know what I'm a doctor of, though."
"I think," the girl folded her hands in her lap as she sat up. "you should be called the 'Brave Doctor'."
The Doctor sighed. "Brave? You think I'm brave?"
"Yes you are!" Ariana exclaimed. "You stopped that scary metal man! That was really brave!"
A corner of the man's mouth upturned. "You really think so?"
"Yes! I do!" The girl wrapped her arms around her hero. "You're my Brave Doctor."
The "Brave Doctor" returned the embrace. "Thank you."
Suddenly, the metal robot on the floor disappeared in a flash of blue light. Ariana squeaked. The Doctor stroked his chin.
"Strange. I thought I deactivated him. He must have teleported to the main ship."
Ariana clung to her Doctor. "Is he going to come back?"
The man frowned. "...No. No, he's gone. He's not going to come back."
"Are you lying?"
The Doctor tilted his head. His eyes darted to the left briefly. "No. No, I'm not lying. He's gone forever."
"Will you stay with me, Brave Doctor? Will you stay with me forever?"
The man wrapped his arms once again around Ariana. "No, I can't. I have to go."
The girl bit her lip. "Do you have to go now?"
"No. I can stay for a little."
Ariana laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"You say 'no' a lot!"
"No, I- oh, bother."
The young girl giggled all the more, and yawned. The Doctor's hearts skipped a beat, and he stood from the bed, laying Ariana down and tucking her in. "Good night, Ariana."
"Are you going to forget me, my Brave Doctor?"
The man shook his head. "I'm never going to forget you, Ariana Bradley."
"How do you know my name?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Er, I suppose we've met before."
"When?"
"Not sure. Maybe in the future."
The girl laughed once again. "Then how could we have met before if you met me in the future?"
Now it was the Doctor's turn to chuckle. "Time has a funny way of working, sometimes. ...Okay, a lot of the time." The man turned to the window, preparing to leave, but he stopped. "Ariana?"
"Yes?"
The Brave Doctor, with one sweep of his hand, took the red hat off of his head and set it gently on top of Ariana's tousled blonde hair. "It's a fez. Fezzes are cool. Never forget that."
The girl smiled. "This is the best present ever. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Ariana."
"I'm never ever going to forget you, my Brave Doctor."
The Doctor sighed. "And I'm never ever going to forget you, Ariana Bradley."
Ariana turned over in her bed and closed her eyes. A whirring sound came from the window. The child looked back around to see if her rescuer was still beside her. She frowned.
All that was left behind was a newly-fixed glass pane.
A tear slipped down the girl's cheek for her lost friend, but then the window creaked, as if opening.
In popped the Brave Doctor once again. "Oh, by the way, happy birthday!"
