Serene Thomason was having a bad day before she almost got run over.
Her boss was busy filming a new movie, and due to a new American actor, they were late which meant that she had to pull late-nights and make extra trips to the Starbucks. When you tell people that you're an assistant to a big-shot director, they usually think that's all glamour and red carpet. Not so, it's usually more late night coffee trips and making continuous notes while your boss criticizes play-boy movie stars making out with hot women, on camera and off camera.
So, Serene was on the crosswalk carrying a tray of coffee, when some crazy driver ignored the red light and almost ran her over. In fact, if it wasn't for a man wearing a bow tie, of all things, she would have been smashed under the tires instead of the coffee cups.
"Road hog!" She yelled, shaking her fist at the rapidly speeding away driver.
"Oi," said the man, "are you all right?" Serene turned to him and nodded.
"Yes, thanks to you Mr..."
"Doctor." Said the man, holding out his hand "Just the Doctor." He added, sensing the question about to come out of her mouth.
"Well, Doctor," she said, "thank you very much for saving my life. I don't understand these drivers nowadays, honestly! They say us young adults and teenagers are bad drivers! That man was in his 40s at the very least!" The Doctor took Serene by the hand.
"If you'd like, I could walk you to where you're going, which is?"
"Ealing Studios." She said. He clapped his hands together.
"Oh! A film studio! Fantastic, I've always wanted to see a film studio! Well, a modern one at least. Well, depends on what you mean by modern." Serene shook her head.
"Nice to meet you too, my name's Serene by the way." The man stopped and seemed to be taken over by a great wave of sadness.
"I used to have a friend named Serene. Looked a lot like you..." Then he clapped his hands together, the sorrow forgotten.
"Well, we don't want you to be late. So, are you an actress?"
They talked until they reached the gates of the lot. Serene presented her ID, and was surprised when the Doctor pulled out a piece of blank paper and showed it to the man at the gates. The man hurriedly let him in, and Serene gave the Doctor side glances all the way to the studio.
"Serene!" Said Mr. Dixon, "where's my coffee?"
"It got ran over, some crazy driver. If you want coffee, you're going to have to get it from the community pot." Serene said, shrugging off her heavy jacket.
"And who are you?" Mr. Dixon asked the Doctor. The Doctor whipped out the blank piece of paper and showed it to Mr. Dixon, who immediately brightened up.
"Well, at least some things are going right! Welcome Agent Doctor!" Mr. Dixon continued rambling about how the agent from the MI-5 had finally gotten here. The Doctor grinned at Serene, and she gave him a look that signified that she knew that something was going on and that he was most definitely not an agent from MI-5. He raised an eyebrow as Mr. Dixon finished his speech.
"Since you came in with Serene, I gather that you know her, so she can direct you to your seat since she," he glared at Serene, "forgot the coffee." The Doctor raised an eyebrow again.
"With all due respect Mr. Dixon, she did almost get run over by a car!" Mr. Dixon waved him off as the actors took their places.
"Action!" He said as Serene and the Doctor took their seats.
The scene went as planned as the star rappelled into the evil assasin's fortress to save the kidnapped scientists. Then, Mr. Dixon stopped the shoot.
"Cut, cut! Who's making that clanking sound?" Everyone stopped and listened to the sound of metal footsteps approaching. Then came the metal men and the Doctor froze, eyes widening.
"Oh no." Serene turned to him.
"What is it? What are they?" She asked, pointing to the metal men.
"Cybermen." The Doctor said, in a tone of voice that made Serene feel not-so serene.
She looked up into the cold metal faces of the Cybermen, as the Doctor called them. She felt as though she'd met these creatures before, and it hadn't been a pleasant experience.
"Who are you? Get off my set!" Shouted Mr. Dixon. One of the Cybermen turned towards him.
"You will be deleted." It said.
"Run!" Shouted the Doctor as they closed in on the actors and workers. Serene screamed as a Cyberman touched, and electrocuted, one of the actors. The Doctor grabbed her hand and dragged her through the madhouse. As one of the Cyberman tried to block their way, The Doctor pulled out a small device with a green light at the end and pointed it at the Cyberman. The Cyberman sparked and dropped to its knees and they barreled past, out of the studio. Serene looked back.
"They're still chasing us!" The Doctor pulled out a mobile phone. Pressing the speed dial, he put it up to his ear.
"Hello. River? Great! Quick, pilot the TARDIS over to Ealing Studios!" He paused as the other person replied. "River! I am being chased by half a Cyberlegion, and I don't have time for flirting!" He flipped the phone off as a grinding noise filled the air.
A blue police box, like the kind you'd see in the 1960s, materialized in front of them. The door swung open and a woman with long, dark hair pushed the door open.
"Hop in!" She said, and the Doctor and Serene were more than happy to obey, shutting the doors behind them. Serene panted.
"That. Was. The. Scariest. Moment. In. My. Entire. Life!" Then she registered the inside of the TARDIS. "Why is it bigger on the inside?" The Doctor clapped his hands together.
"I love it when they say that!" A woman with curly blond hair stepped down from a console in the middle of the room.
"Sweetie, Cyberlegion, remember?"
"Oh! Right!" The doctor ran over to the console and began flipping levers. There was a grinding noise, and then the entire ship (phone box, whatever) started shaking.
"Oh no you don't!" The Doctor said, "You are not raising such a big fuss when we have a Cyberlegion after us! You are going to the place I tell you to, for once. Got that?" The ship whirred.
"I don't care. We are being chased by an army of ticked off cyborgs, and this is no time for you to be gallivanting off like you usually do! So shut up Idris!" There was a wounded beep.
"Oh fine, I'm sorry. Now, would you please get us out of here?" There was a happy boop, and then the ship continued whirring.
"Excuse me, were-were you just having a conversation with the ship?" The Doctor looked up.
"Oh! Sorry, almost forgot. Serene, this is Clara-" He pointed to the brunette, "and River, my wife." He pointed to the blonde. "River and Clara, this is Serene." A hologram of a woman with dark hair piled up on her head and a faded gray dress popped up in the middle of the console room.
"And I'm Idris, the TARDIS. Nice to meet you Serene." The Doctor was beaming at their surprised faces.
"Yes, I was asleep, and then I woke up because I had a dream and then I thought of the TARDIS and how if she can create all of these rooms, then why not a holographic body for herself? So she did, and I've been teaching her tenses in my spare time, and adjusting it so that you lot wouldn't notice that I was gone, except for a few minutes, and for Idris and I, it was more like 30 minutes to an hour!" He was positively beaming at this point. "Explanation over, feel free to be awed."
"You have a quite a big head, don't you?" Asked Serene.
"Yes." Said River, Clara, and Idris. The Doctor looked abashed.
"Everyone's ganging up on me! How do you like that?"
"Well you do!" River exclaimed. "And credibility to match." She admitted. The Doctor grinned.
"Thank you."
"Now, let's get you to a room. We don't know how long you'll be staying here." He said to Serene. She nodded glumly, holding tight to her purse.
"Alright." She said.
Clara took her to her room, which the TARDIS had created just for her. Clara made sure she was settled in, at least, as settled in as you can be aboard a sentient, time traveling spaceship shaped like a blue box from the 1960s. When Clara left, Serene pulled out her most prized possession, an old pocket watch. It didn't work, but she'd had the thing for as long as she could remember and couldn't bear to toss it out. She rubbed her finger around the edge, and considered opening it, but something inside her said;
"Not yet."
BloodLily: Hello! It's me! Please review! :D