Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own the eighth Doctor or that funky blue police box that he flies about in but if I did, he'd never leave ;-) lol. All the enjoyment of owning them belongs to the people at the BBC.
Please read and review this story because it's my baby and I want to know what you think.
The Dimensional Doctor 2 of 3: Addicted To Each Other
Chapter 1: Where Has The Time Gone?
Everything was quiet within the many walls of the Doctor's TARDIS which was just the way that he liked it. True enough sometimes he could get very bored of polite silence and welcomed the loud thuddings and high screeches of loud jazz music coming from Fitz's speakers in his room or the sound of Fitz and Emma running up and down the corridors, screaming and giggling, playing tickle tag. A game that Emma invented one day when very bored and had many times tried to get the Doctor involved in. After a while she had stopped going after him as he always succeeded at catching her and tickling her until she fell over in a heap, her eyes streaming with tears.
She had complained saying that it wasn't fair because he was taller than her and heavier than her which gave him an advantage. This of course was pure codswallop as he was no taller than her and wasn't that much heavier which he had pointed out, earning him a hand full of jelly babies to be thrown at him from across the room.
No, at other times those would be welcome sounds but today the Doctor could think of nothing better than sitting in a comfy chair in the control room with his favourite book, a cup of tea and a bag of jelly babies. The Doctor sighed, smiling to himself and taking a sip of his tea, so glad that Fitz's had decided that he wanted to go to a few pubs on Earth in the year 2000, taking Emma with him.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Emma and Fitz's had only been gone about an hour and already the Doctor was bored. He had finished his book and his tea long ago and that was when the boredom had started to settle in. He had fidgeted about a bit, tidying up the mess of the different shoes and tops that Emma had gone through while trying to decide what to wear, leaving the discarded items lying around. The Doctor had sat about for a bit after that until he couldn't take it anymore. The silence was just too much and it was becoming almost deafening. The Doctor saw nothing to be done about it apart from grabbing his green, velvet frockcoat and making a run for it.
It didn't take him long to locate his two companions as they hadn't strayed very far. The Doctor had landed them in some obscure little town in the middle of Northern America. It was called Dodgeville or Diggsville or some sort of ville anyway. Fitz had said that he didn't care where they went as long as it had a pub or bar where he could go and get completely and utterly off his face. He liked to do that every once and while because it was something that he and his mates back from his own time used to do. Emma had just wanted to go because as much as she loved spending time inside the TARDIS having spent more years than she would care to remember inside it, she was now 25 and no longer 11 and she now wanted to go on nights out and drink with her friends to her hearts desire. Plus someone had to keep an eye on Fitz.
The Doctor found them in a bar at the other end of the town. It was defiantly a place that they would go as loud music and bright, flashing lights where coming from the door. Even though Emma had never really grown up on Earth she still acted like those of her age and of her time but just that bit more grow up. It was surprising she turned out like that after spending her late childhood and teenage years with a 900 year-old alien and his time machine.
The Time Lord stepped into the bar and was almost knocked off his feet by the smell of cigarette smoke and stale alcohol. He had thought that the music was loud when he was standing outside but it was so loud now that he was inside that he feared his ear drums might burst. It was after thinking this that the Doctor straightened up, if either Emma or Fitz saw him now they would think him to be an old fuddy-duddy and no fun which just wouldn't do.
Everywhere the Doctor looked he saw a sea of cramped bodies dancing to the music, trying to get closer to the bar from more drink and trying to get closer to someone for a snog. Not many people had noticed him enter apart from a few very drunk men at the door and a table surrounded by teenage girls wearing mini skirts and lots of make-up who where eyeing him up and giggling. The Doctor gave them a dashing smile and a small bow which made them giggle even more.
He continued to scan the sea of bodies until he found Fitz who seemed to be having this energetic conversation with some man who kept on putting shots in front of them. Emma was no where to be seen which worried the Doctor. Fitz was under instructions to keep an eye on her but he wasn't doing that at all and she was meant to be keeping an eye on Fitz.
"Fitz." The Doctor shouted as he made his way towards him so that he could be heard over the music.
"Ah and here he is!" said the jolly Fitz to the man beside him before turning towards the Doctor, drunkenly, "The Great and Wonderful Doctor. Who for all his wisdom can't see things passed the end of his ears." hiccupped Fitz as he giggled like those girls at the table near the door.
"Nose Fitz."
"Wha?" Fitz rubbed at his nose thinking that the Doctor had meant that there was something on his nose rather than correcting him.
"The expression is 'Past the end of his nose' Fitz, not ears."
"Oh." said Fitz absently as he swayed back and forward, inspecting the button on his sleeve. The Doctor put his hands on Fitz's shoulders gently and slowly guided him back down into his seat at the bar so that he wouldn't't fall over.
"Fitz where's Emma? Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on her?" asked the Doctor, still holding onto the younger man's shoulders.
"You know I'm not too sure but she's bound to be around here somewhere and I'm sure she'd be glad to see you, she always is. Her face just lights up whenever she sees you." Fitz smirked and went back to downing a few more shot glasses. Had this been a different situation the Doctor would have gladly stopped Fitz from drinking anymore so that his hangover would be less severe. But the old Earth saying cropped into his head 'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.' Fitz would be his own punishment in the morning for drinking so much.
The Doctor walked away from Fitz looked around him, looking for the familiar long, blonde hair of his young friend. What he thought would only take a minute or two took at least 10 as there were so many young girls of Emma's age that had the same style of hair as she. Emma had recently had her very long hair cut and razored to just below her shoulders. She styled it now so that it was smooth, straight and was jagged, each layer visible and framing her face beautifully.
Eventually he saw her, huddled into a corner booth, sipping at what looked like orange juice but what would probably have white rum or vodka in it. He smiled, watching her and she pretended to be listening to what some guy was say, obviously trying to chat her up. Emma was so different now to the scrawny, dirt covered and terrified little child that he had found on Earth in the year 2007, over 14 years before. Was it really that many years? Where had the time gone? In many ways the Doctor knew that she shouldn't be here…that she should have died that day…
XxX12th October 2007, Earth, The Final and Brutal Attack of the Phantom Armies of MerivasXxX
The brightness of the lightening crashed across the sky closely followed by the boom of the thunder, almost masking the sound of the falling bombs from overhead. The heavens had opened when the armies had begun to land and march upon all the cities of Earth, destroying everything and everyone in sight. Roads turned to thick mud within minutes of the rain starting making it almost hopeless for the elderly to make an escape with their families, many ordering their children and grandchildren to run for their lives while they locked themselves inside and hoped not to be found. There were bodies everywhere you looked and mothers hid their children's eyes from them as they tried to make an escape anyway that was possible. They all knew that it was hopeless as nothing that the human race possessed could ever stop the Phantoms from destroying everything that there was, is and ever will be. The last time that they had attacked the human population had been cut into half of what it was in 2005, whole families swept away in one single night of death , blood and horror. It was worse than any war that had been waged by humans against each other. The Doctor knew full well that he shouldn't be there but a distress signal coming from Earth had been too much for the TARDIS and he to resist. The signal had come from Katy Owens, a woman who the Doctor had known since birth and had protected her from her mother, taking her to her aunts when her mother had become so brutal in her treatment of the girl that it had become to much for him to bear. He thought of Katy a daughter and one of his own, even going as far as to give her away at her wedding during his last regeneration. The message had been distorted and very hazy but the Doctor had made out that what little government that there was left had fallen, the worlds armed forces had disbanded allowing the invading aliens free rein over the land. Katy needed him to come and meet her in Colorado Springs and that he was to hurry. The Doctor ran through the streets where Katy lived. The pelting rain stinging his face as he passed by wreaked and mere shells of buildings. He tried not to look at the hundreds of bodies the were strewn about in the mud, many face down with gaping wounds in their backs while others where face up, eyes wide, showing the last ever emotion they felt as the life was blasted away from their bodies. They were all staring lifeless at the stormy sky. He was fast approaching the point where Katy said that she would meet him and he hoped and prayed that she was there, alive and waiting for him. He knew that she would beg him to help them, to summon the Time Lords and stop all this. But he couldn't. Katy didn't know that they were all dead and he, his own race's destroyer, was all that was left. The Doctor reached the ruins of the Library that she had said and he waited…and waited…and waited. Absolute terror was rising in his gut now, like rancid bile forcing it's way up his throat. He would not and could not think of what might have happened to her. Never could he think her dead, she was too smart and strong for that. He just had to believe that she and her husband were alive. "Katy!" shouted the Doctor, his voice straining to be heard over the fierce wind that was now howling around him, pulling at his coat as if trying to tare it from him. He screamed her name over and over again as he hoped and prayed to hear a reply. But instead of hearing his name being called back to him he heard the fearful and desperate cries of a child being carried on the wind. The Doctor raced towards the sounds and quickly found a small human girl barely 10 or 11 years old, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screamed her lungs out and clung to the smouldering corpse beside her. The girl looked straight at the Doctor but she still continued to cry, screaming, "Mommy come back! Mommy don't leave me!" The Doctor's gaze fell upon the body. It was so badly burned that it was hardly recognisable as being human let alone being either of the sexes. The face had caved in and was charred due to energy blast. It was now obvious that this women had shielded her child and taken the full force of a death bow. Something was different now, he could feel it. The Doctor looked at the girl again and finally realised what it was. She wasn't screaming anymore but merely shaking in fear and her screams were replaced by the sound of marching feet drawing closer to them. He made a quick decision and scooped the girl up in his arms after prising her small fingers from the body of her dead mother. The little girl wrapped her arms and legs around him instinctively so that he wouldn't drop her and she buried her head into his shoulder, shielding her view with hair and velvet. She was very brave after that. She didn't cry or shake she just gripped onto the back of his coat and stayed quiet, allowing the Doctor to think without any distractions. As soon as he started running away they where under fire as the soldiers coming up fast behind them. They were quick but he was quicker. He dodged back and forwards as energy blasts missed him and the girl barely, throwing mud and water up into the air and covering them in it. A thousand an one thoughts flashed through the Doctors mind as he ran back towards where the TARDIS was. His hearts were pounding and his chest tightened and he gasped for more air, willing himself to go faster. Finally the familiar blue box that the Doctor called home came into view and he could honestly say that he had never been more glad to see the old girl. This gave him new life and energy, he ran on faster than ever, still holding onto the girl while he raked in his coat pocket for the TARDIS key. He reached the door, skidding in the mud trying to stop. The Doctor searched in both of his pockets for it but they were void of any key. He continued to search certain that it was in one of them. The Doctor was startled when the girl started looking in the pockets on the insides of his coat and within seconds she pulled out a small silver key hanging from a silver chain. The Doctor smiled broadly and kissed her on the cheek. The Earth phrase "Ask a child now, while they still know everything" came to mind as he began to unlock the door. He ducked down and the girl yelped out as if in pain when a blast hit the TARDIS just a few inches away from their heads. He gripped the girl closer to him as he finally managed to open the door and slammed it shut, locking it behind him. Every so often muffled bangs could be heard as energy blasts hit against the outer shell of the TARDIS but the Doctor knew that they were safe. It took him a second or two to get his breath back. He stared at the door as he stood in the darkness, clutching still to the little human child in his arms. One of her hands was gripping onto the velvet of the back of his coat and the other hand a fist full of his hair. He could feel her shaking all over but knew that it was probably caused by the fact that she was sodden wet and freezing rather than from fear. The Doctor placed her down in a near by chair then pulled back to make sure she was ok. She had no cuts or bruises and she appeared to be fine. "You alright?" he said, his voice soft and gentle as held onto her hands, rubbing them to try and bring warmth back to them. The only problem with that was that he was soaked to so it was just cold and wet rubbing against cold and wet. The girl nodded as she gave him a small fleeting smile, still shaking. The Doctor smiled at her and picked up the small bowl of jelly babies that were sitting on the table next to them, "Here. Have some of these…they'll make you feel better." The girl took the bowl in her hands and popped one of the brightly coloured sweets into her mouth as the Doctor went to the controls. He flicked switches here and there, pressed buttons and pulled levers. The lights in the room came up and the temperature increased within the room. "Are you the Doctor?" said a quiet, little, American voice from behind him. The girl had gotten out of her chair and walked up behind him, a battered and soggy letter in her hand. "Yes I am Sweetling. What's your name then?" he crouched down so that his face was level with hers, a charming grin on his face. "Emma-Lee Owens sir." The Doctors face dropped and he stared into Emma's eyes. Yes looking at her now he could tell that she was Katy and Jack's daughter. She had Jack's stark straight, blonde hair that was right now dirty as anything with mud and weeks of dirt clinging to it. She had Katy's beautiful eyes. Eyes that when Katy had been a baby the Doctor could look into for hours. Katy's had been blue but Emma's were the most beautiful and deepest hazel that he had ever seen. Her skin as so smooth and pale that she seemed like a china doll. She tall for her age group but not much taller, her skinny legs seemed almost like splinters going into those heavy army boots that she was wearing. Looking at her properly the Doctor could tell that she probably hadn't been eating much in the last few weeks as her legs and arms were bony and her face did not have the jolly plumpness that most of her age would. The Doctor now understood that it had been Katy that the young girl in front of him had been clinging onto. He felt like his hearts were bleeding as he stared at Emma. His hearts bled not only for Katy but for Emma, he knew what it was like to lose parents, family. He knew what it was like to be alone. She had no expression on her face, she just looked back at him. The Doctor almost jumped when she finally spoke, "My mom wants…wanted…me to give this to you should she…" Emma trailed off as she handed the soggy letter to him and then she sat back down and returned to eating the jelly babies, leaving muddy foot prints where she trod. The Doctor opened the letter and read the last wishes of one of his dearest friends. To my dearest Doctor, So much has gone on since you last said goodbye to us in much happier and safer times. I tried for so many years to get in touch with you but it seems that the TARDIS could not relay my messages to you. A malfunction perhaps? Since you left I had a child, a little girl who is probably standing in front of you. Probably eating from a bag of jelly babies if I know you. ;-) Also in the time that you have been gone we have been attacked by a hostile alien army. They've destroyed everything that we have worked so hard for. With days of the first attack most of the worlds governments had fallen leaving us without leadership. Jack, being an air force man to the last, continued to fight and died doing so, leaving myself and our daughter, Emma, alone in this world. I beg you Doctor to take her far away from Earth, away from harm and bad memories. Find her a planet, a home…parents. People who can raise her and take care of her and can give her a life that I never got the chance to. I've told her to be good so I don't think she will be any trouble. Please tell her that I love her so much and it is for her benefit that I do this. I have to end this letter here because funnily enough I'm going to meet you, but I highly doubt that I will. I love you my dear, dear friend. All my love Katy
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
He had not done what Katy had asked. The Doctor had not taken the orphaned child to some point far in Earth's future where all was right again and she would be safe. At the start he had every intention of doing so but this girl, this wonder, she grew on him. She offered so much more fulfilling company then anyone that he had met and for once it truly was about showing her and teaching her about the universe instead of the universe doing something for her. Emma had told him many years later that she had no intention of going back and saving her mother or even to stop the Phantom armies from invading. She saw the point to that rule of not going back to you own past when others had merely read it and pushed it to the side.
The Doctor stood there, amid the noise and the smoke, smiling to himself as he watched Emma. He knew that Katy would be so proud of her daughter, just as he was. Emma was extremely funny, witty, intelligent, devastatingly beautiful and she was a dear and loyal friend to him. She had seen companions come and go over the years and although she had shed a few tears when some left she never asked to leave and go with them.
The Doctor was so off in his own little dream world that he didn't notice that Emma was looking straight at him and waving him over. He shook himself inwardly as he wandered over to Emma, taking the seat which the young man had just vacated and was greeted with a warm smile.
"Hi." shouted Emma over the music, still smiling, "I thought you wanted to stay back at the TARDIS?"
Emma moved close to the Doctor so that he could talk in her ear and stop this shouting business, "I did but it got very boring." he said as he pulled a face and Emma just rolled her eyes. "And besides it seems that all the fun is here." The Doctor was looking over at the bar at where Fitz was. Both he and Emma burst in fits of giggles as they saw Fitz dancing on the bar and singing drunkenly to Lady Marmalade.
"It seems that you have not been attending to you chaperoning duties Emma." The Doctor said wagging a finger at her and raising his eyebrows.
"I know but believe me I tried." Emma put up her hands in defeat, "The second we got in here he went straight to the bar and ordered a pint of bitter and a vodka shot!" her voice became an almost high pitched squeak as she spoke. The Doctor was still looking at the spectacle that was Fritz and finding it hard to look away and not to laugh as the man pulled up one of the giggling girls and dancing with her. "I blame you."
The Doctor's head snapped round back at Emma, "What do you mean by that?" he said in that childish little way that he always did. It was never annoying or anything it just made him seem so…so…it was just something that Emma couldn't put her finger onto.
"Well you keep him cooped up in the TARDIS the whole time and you're always getting us into one dangerous situation after another!" Emma poked him in the ribs as she jested with him. The Doctor merely gave her a haunty look and stuck his tongue out.
"It is not by my doing that we end up in dangerous situations. It's your races almost wilful aim to get yourselves blown up, eaten, boiled or turned into a slave. It is not my fault but yet I seem to always be the one to get you out of such situations." Emma said nothing as she put her arm through his and rested her head on his velvet covered shoulder.
The noise was getting to her now and she was starting to get a head ache. When she was little she had always hated this music and it still drove her mad. There was just no point to it at all. All that it consisted of was an arrangement of loud and harsh thumps repeated over and over. Her Uncle James had loved it and played it all the time. Seemingly he had played it to her cousin, Adam, when he was still in the womb. That was probably why he had turned out to be such a freak. Emma had never liked Adam as he had this tendency to sneak in her room and take anything that she really loved or had sentimental value. He had gotten into so much trouble when his mother had found half of Emma's toys hidden in a box under his bed.
"You tired Sweet-Lee?" asked the Doctor, calling her by his pet name for her. He could get her to do anything when he called her that. It was sort of his warning for when he wanted her to be good and do as she told but he also used it in a affectionate way. All he would have to say would be 'Please don't touch that Sweet-Lee' and she would stay well clear of it. Emma shook her head gently so not to make her headache worse.
"Have a headache is all." There was silence between them both as the Doctor took his arm away from Emma's grasp and draped it over her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. Emma just loved moments like this with the Doctor. She missed sleeping in his bed every night, cuddled up to him from the age of 11 to 14 because she had nightmares. It was the cuddles she missed, not the nightmares. When she had first met him and for many years after she always thought of him as her handsome, funny and incredibly smart guardian angel who would nearly always drop everything just to play games with her or take her to the beach on some far off planet where she could swim and play in the sand. As she grew older and by the time she was 20 he was now this wonderful, gorgeous man who could make her laugh with just a smile and made her feel like whatever she said actually meant something to him, that he valued her opinion.
Anji had been the first to notice. She had said that it was so obvious how Emma felt about the Doctor. It was obvious to everyone except the Doctor himself of course. Fitz had offered countless times to talk to him but Emma had threatened him with smashing up all his jazz records which had shut him up. As much as Emma fancied the Doctor, as Fritz put it, she didn't want to tell him for fear of him changing towards her leading to her leaving.
"You want to leave?"
"What? Oh...yeah I wouldn't mind going back home now. As much as I like going out I just don't think this place is for me." Emma finished off her vodka and orange and picked up her bag. She felt the smallest of shivers go through her as the Doctor wrapped her shawl around her, enveloping her in a gentle hug.
"I agree. This place is a little behind for you. We really should have gone to the 40th Century. Musics a lot better then." said the Doctor smiling brightly at her as he offered her his arm. "Shall we?"
"Sure but there's just one problem." Emma pointed to Fitz who was still dancing about on the bar getting cheers and wolf whistles alike. The Doctor shook his head before telling Emma to wait just a minute while he had a little chat with the bar keep. He returned a few minutes later with a smile on his face as he held out his arm to Emma again.
"It's sorted." he said as he lead her towards the door, leaving the noisy crowd of people behind them.
"But what about Fitz? He's so drunk that he can barely stand let a lone make his way back to the TARDIS." They where now out of the bar and strolling down the street under the full moon and the stars.
"It's alright. I noticed that there was a hotel next door and asked him to send Fitz over there when he was either done drinking or they closed for the night." The Doctor gave her a cheeky little grin, seemingly being very pleased with himself. "It means that we can leave and go back to the TARDIS and not having to wait on Fitz for hours on end and also meaning that when we get back we can watch a film without him asking questions every 5 seconds." His grin turned into a bright smile as he opened the door of the TARDIS for Emma. Yes she truly was no longer the child that used to cuddle up to him when she had nightmares. In some ways he missed not having her creep into his room, whispering to him that she'd had a nightmare as he pulled her beside him, Emma laying her head in his chest and falling asleep almost instantly. He missed the cuddles.