Shadows in London
By CacheSummary: A young Elton's first encounter with The Doctor.
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Love and Monsters.
Please, be kind. :) This is the first Doctor Who fanfic I've ever written. While I love the quirky humor of the series, it's not easy for me to write. Plus I'm very out of practice. I haven't written in a long, long time. And, because of that, I've also lost my absolutely fabulous Beta reader. So, as much as I hate to, I'm going to break one of the commandments and post something that hasn't been through a Beta. I apologize in advance!
"What was that?" Rose asked as the TARDIS lurched violently under their feet.
"Not sure. She's stopped," The Doctor said simply, not looking up from the controls in front of him.
"Where are we?"
"London." He pulled his glasses out of his suit pocket, put them on and leaned towards the computer screen. "Ouch!" He jerked back suddenly, rubbing the end of his nose. "Maybe a little too close…. That's odd."
"More of a let down, I'd say." Rose turned towards him. "From the colored ice fields of Bashra to…London. You said you were going to show me something special. I was hoping for something a little more exciting. Unless…." She grinned mischievously at him. "When are we?"
"That's the odd part. Late 20th century—give or take a couple decades."
"What's so special about that?"
The Doctor put his glasses away and skipped down to the door. He opened it a crack and pressed one eye to the opening. After a few seconds, he closed it. "Absolutely nothing. A perfectly ordinary day, as far as I can tell. A tad dreary. But the TARDIS did stop here for some reason. Hummmm…. Why would perfectly ordinary people doing perfectly ordinary things on a perfectly ordinary day need a doctor?"
Rose laughed. "Nothing is ever ordinary when you're around. Now what?"
He grinned, skipping back to the control panel and glancing at one of the screens. "I investigate."
"You mean we. We investigate."
"Nope. I mean me. I. Singular." He skipped over to where she was standing. "You exist." The Doctor swept his arm towards the door. "Somewhere out there you exist. And I seem to remember that you have issues with the whole space-time thing. Nearly destroyed the earth. Sound familiar?"
"I'll be good this time. I promise."
"No good. You promised last time," he said, shaking his head. "We have somewhere to be. I'll just take a quick look around and then we'll be off." He skipped off towards the door.
"Doctor?" Rose called. He hesitated. "What's with the skipping, anyway?"
"Don't know. Just seemed appropriate." The Doctor stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind him. Half a second later, it reopened and he stuck his head in. "Stay here." With a stern look at her, he shut the door again. And immediately reopened it. "Don't touch anything. I mean it." The door clicked shut.
Turning away from the TARDIS, The Doctor surveyed the area around him. He'd better get moving…Rose wouldn't stay put for very long. What was it with her and wandering off? The TARDIS had materialized in a small community park. There wasn't anyone in sight. That was odd, there were always people in a park—people walking dogs, children running and playing, nannies trying to keep up with them…. He glanced up. Grey clouds hung low in the sky, dark and dreary. Must be the weather. Shrugging, The Doctor headed towards the street.
The road was lined with little markets and shops. A few people here and there hurried on about their business. The Doctor walked on until he found a small coffee shop and ducked inside. "Can I help you, Sir?" a young woman behind the counter asked.
"I certainly hope so," The Doctor said, smiling at her. "Quite the weather out there. Almost depressing it's so dreary. Is it supposed to rain?"
"Hasn't yet," the girl replied. "Been like this for over a week now and no rain—just clouds. Wish it would. Weather like this just sucks the life out of you; I think I've forgotten what the sun looked like."
"Probably good for the coffee sales though," he joked.
She didn't laugh. "Hardly anyone comes in. It was alright when the weather first started, but now hardly anyone comes in."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Can't you feel it?" The girl looked at him strangely. "No one talks about it, but no one stays out on the street either. It's like the clouds are pressing in around you. Like they're watching you."
"Huh." The Doctor walked to the front window and looked up to the clouds. Now that she mentioned it…there was a creepy crawling sensation at the base of his neck. Like some big hairy spider had decided to take a walk up and down his spine. He shivered involuntarily. That was an unpleasant thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move down the street. Something big and black fluttered in and out between parked cars. Before he could get a good look at it, it was gone. "Odd," he whispered under his breath and turned back to the girl behind the counter. A used newspaper on one of the tables caught his attention. "Thank you for your help," he told the girl, picking up the newspaper and heading for the door. "I hope business picks up."
As he walked down the sidewalk back towards the park, The Doctor tucked the newspaper into his suit jacket. Something was definitely up. Granted London wasn't exactly known for it's sunny beaches, but…this weather was wrong. It's was just dreary, it was oppressing. Suffocating, really. It was no wonder people didn't want to linger about in it. Reaching the TARDIS, he unlocked the door. "Rose?"
"Right here."
He stared at her, speechless.
"What? Have I gone and grown two heads or something?"
"I…I didn't really expect you to be here and not out wandering off. Two heads might have been less surprising."
"I can, on occasion, stay out of trouble. What did you find?"
"Horrid weather. And a newspaper." He pulled the newspaper out of his jacket and started spreading the pages across the floor.
"Well on our way to saving the world now," Rose said sarcastically. She moved so she could read the pages over his shoulder. "Let's see here. Crappy weather makes the front page—must be a slow news week. Homicide. Double homicide. Mass suicide. Obituary. Obituary. Obituary. Obit…." She glanced up at The Doctor. "This is why I don't read the newspaper. It's depressing."
"More than depressing. Wrong," he walked all the way around the papers on the floor. "Look. Bleak oppressing weather. Horrific murders. A mass suicide. More obituaries than you usually see in a month of papers—and most of them suicides. There is something very, very wrong here." He looked up quickly, smiling, and ran for the central control panels.
Rose rushed after him. "You know what it is?"
"A shadow. A shade. A living shadow." He paused. "Well…probably more than one for things to be this bad. A pack of shadows? Flock? Hoarde? I'm not sure what you'd call a group of them."
"And they're bad?"
"Very." The Doctor typed quickly on the keyboard in front of him. "They suck the happiness out of everything around them. Suck and suck until there's nothing left but darkness and dispair. They take away people's brightness…people's hope…the very thing that sustains them."
"Can they be stopped?"
"What banishes a shadow?" The Doctor asked.
Rose was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Light."
"Then that's what we need. A lot of light. A lot of very bright light. And I know just where to find it." He turned from the control panels and opened one of the grates on the floor. Reaching in, The Doctor pulled out a small white crystal.
"What is it?"
"Sunlight. In a solid matrix, of course. I keep them around as backup batteries. Lots of energy stored in here…the TARDIS can run off it for a little while if she has to."
"Solid sunlight?" Rose smiled at him. "This is why I travel with you."
The Doctor dropped the crystal into his pocket. "Now…to see where best to use it." He went back to the display screen and studied it. "Here," he pointed after quite some time. "The majority of them are centered around this area. Must be something big about to go down there. Just drop in and shed a little light on matters…." The Doctor started to set the coordinates.
"What about this one?" Rose pointed to a single black dot on the monitor—located on the other side of town.
"Anti-social one. We'll have to deal with him on his own." The TARDIS settled and The Doctor headed towards the door. "But these first. Be back in a sec."
Stepping out of the TARDIS, The Doctor glanced around him. A large apartment complex spanned out over several city blocks. Even in the evening light, dark shadows flickered around the edges of the building, not behaving as shadows should. Whatever it was they had planned…it wasn't good. Thankfully, he was here to save the day. Taking out his sonic screwdriver and the crystal, he proceeded to disrupt the physical matrix that contained the sunlight. As the crystal started to crack, he threw it up into the air and quickly stepped back inside the TARDIS.
"They're gone," Rose said, glancing at the screen.
The Doctor smiled, pulling out another crystal. "One to go."
This time, after the TARDIS settled, The Doctor stepped out onto a quiet residential street. The street was dark, the few streetlights barely holding back the night. A row of townhouses with perfectly manicured lawns lined one side of the street. Very carefully, The Doctor crept up to each house, peering in the front window. The fifth house he approached, he saw a shadow move behind the glass. Trying the door, he found it locked. Quickly opening it with the sonic screwdriver, he slipped quietly inside. Someone was moving around in the kitchen…something else was moving around in the living room. Heading for the living room, he saw a shadow slide against the wall. Reaching into his pocket for the crystal, he started to break the matrix. The shadow slid past him into the kitchen. He heard something heavy hit the floor in the kitchen, followed by the sound of something metal hitting the ground. The crystal started to crack and he threw it into the kitchen behind the shadow, turning his head as bright white light burst through the house.
As soon as he could see again, The Doctor stepped into the kitchen. He knelt carefully at a woman's body on the floor. The girl from the coffee shop. She lay dead on the floor in a pool of her own blood…a kitchen knife only inches from her hand. "I am so sorry," The Doctor whispered. Rising, he went to the living room and stared vacantly out the front window.
Something moved off to his left and The Doctor turned. A young blonde haired boy stood at the base of the stairs—in fuzzy pajamas and clutching a teddy bear in his arms. "Mama?"
The Doctor went to kneel before him. "You should be in bed," he told the boy gently. "What's your name?"
"Elton," the boy replied, uncertain.
"That is a wonderful name." The Doctor reached out, cupping the boy's cheek in his hand. "Now, go to sleep." The boy relaxed immediately and The Doctor reached out to catch him. He carried the boy upstairs and tenderly laid him into bed. Leaning down, he kissed the boy on the forehead. "I am so sorry, Elton. I am so sorry." He tucked a blanket around the boy and quietly left the room.
Standing on the street, The Doctor turned to look at the darkened house. He couldn't help but wonder how the morning would unfold. When Elton woke up, his life would never be the same. So young and now so alone. But tonight at least he had his dreams.
"Come on, Doctor!" Rose yelled from the TARDIS. "The shadow's gone! We can go!" He turned and went back into the TARDIS. "You said we had somewhere to be. Something special." She hesitated. "Is everything alright?"
The Doctor smiled at her. "Yes, right. I forgot. Something special. London, in the year 2012—coming right up…." He hit a button on the control panel and the TARDIS started off. "I think you'll be surprised."
—FIN—
02 Jun 2007