"It's like it fell from the sky," the Doctor told the monitor in front of him as Clara came around to look at the screen, arms crossed over her chest while she looked from him to the information and back to him.
"Storybrooke?" She questioned, brow coming together as she waited for a response, watching him continue to read the information and then tap at it, as if he could shake something loose. "Hello, Doctor? Small seaboard town in the United States – what's so interesting? Or have you ingested Psilocybin again?"
He turned, "Psilo… no," he shook his head, then smiled as understanding dawned on him. Then he straightened and crossed his own arms over his chest, explaining, "Small seaboard town in the United States – what's so interesting is that twenty eight years ago it wasn't there."
"So," Clara shrugged, "Towns pop up; happens all the time."
Tilting slightly towards her, he raised an eyebrow. "When you say pop up, the image it conjures is one of a town where someone drove through some undeveloped property, looked about, and said here, here would be a good place for a town. Buildings are constructed, businesses are begun, and tourists turn into homeowners… a town springs into existence from a seedling into a grand oak of possibility." Then he toggled his head back to continued, "When I say pop up, I mean, as if some ethereal being was walking along with a slumbering town in its oversized palm and said here, here would be a good place for a town, and dropped the contents of his hand onto the earth."
Clara nodded, repeating, "Literally popped up." Then she asked, "Doctor, how does a town simply come into existence on Earth – aren't there agencies to keep tabs on these things? UNIT's been around longer than twenty eight years, and I'm sure you've already looked into their databases," she ended with a sly smile up at him.
He grinned, shifting his jaw before turning fully towards her, about to ask if she'd like to explore, when there came a knock at the door. They both glanced towards it, the Doctor drifting back, Clara bending into him just as a second set of knocks echoed out from the door and they both peered at one another curiously.
"Do people generally knock to come in?" Clara asked.
"People don't generally notice the Tardis," the Doctor replied.
"Are you sure you parked it conspicuously?" She chided.
He turned and scowled, "Of course I…" the knocking interrupted him; this time louder.
"Should we answer it?"
Moving towards the door, the Doctor passed a glance back at Clara to see the somewhat fearful look on her face just as he reached for the handle and yanked it open, peering out to see a small boy standing with his hands in his pockets, a sly grin as he looked up at him, one eye squinted against the mid afternoon sun.
"You parked your box in my way," the boy told him.
"Parked my box?"
"Is that a boy?" Clara asked just behind him.
"Are you in there with a girl?" The boy asked in amusement. "Sort of a small space for you both; is it some sort of kissing box?" His smile brightened as the Doctor blushed.
Clara snorted a laugh and he looked between her and the boy, trying to decide which smiling face he should chastise before he waved a hand at the boy and then out at the town. "Storybrooke, you've been here your whole life?"
"Uh, yeah," the boy told him before grimacing slightly and telling him, "Look, my mom's the mayor – if I'm not home soon, she's gonna be upset and… your box is sort of in my way."
The Doctor stared before pointing out, "I'm parked in an alley."
"It's my shortcut."
"Shortcut, through an alley – you're ten; take a main road, much safer."
He shrugged and offered with a widening of his eyes, "Main roads are boring; shortcuts are adventures."
"Boy after your own heart," Clara murmured at him.
He tried to look past the Doctor, inside the Tardis to find the source of the other voice as he argued, "I've never seen you around here, are you visiting?" Then he straightened, "We don't get many visitors." Then he touched the Tardis and tried to get a look around it, "How did you get this here? Don't you need a permit for something like this? I know. Mom's mayor and she doesn't allow stuff like this just popping up in town."
Clara pushed her head past the Doctor's arm, edging him out of the way with her elbow to look at the brunette child who now stared up at her with a curious expression on his face as she smiled, "Sorry…" she began, gesturing at herself to tell him, "I'm Clara," before looking behind her and grinning, "This is the Doctor."
"Henry," the boy immediately admitted.
"Henry," Clara repeated softly, "I'm really sorry about us being in your way, we're a bit lost," she whispered.
He grinned, hands emerging from his pockets to land at his sides before glancing sideways and sighing, "Well, I suppose you might be able to get directions at Granny's."
"Granny's?"
"She serves the best hot cocoa." Beaming, Henry nodded to add, "If you need a place to stay for the night, I'm sure she has rooms available."
The Doctor peered out over her head, "Not staying the night; not staying at all."
Henry watched the Doctor and then looked to Clara. His lips twisted slightly before he nodded, "I'm sure she has a… uh… honeymoon suite."
"No," Clara and the Doctor laughed, shaking their heads as Henry looked to the box. Clara raised a hand to stop the Doctor from speaking and she allowed, "Henry, you were born here; whole life here you said, right?"
He tilted back on his heels and then fell forward with a quick dip of his head to her and a simple, "Yup."
"Appease my friend – he thinks this town simply sprang into being, sort of like…"
Henry interrupted, "Oh, it did."
Clara eyed him. "It did?"
"Howso?" the Doctor shouted from behind her.
Taking a long breath, Henry jutted his chin forward and asked, "Can I come inside the box?"
"Why would you want to come inside an old police box?" The Doctor asked nervously.
He shifted, body twisting slightly as his head fell slightly to the left and he eyed them, "Because it's magic, isn't it. I know magic when I see it and this – this is magic."
The Doctor and Clara exchanged a glance and then he shifted back and Clara pulled the door open, raising an arm to Henry, who stepped in past her and stopped. They expected him to step back out, to try and get a handle on how it was possible, but instead, he rushed up to the console with them at his heel, and he looked over the controls excitedly.
"It's a spaceship!" He exclaimed, wide eyed as his lips parted into a large smile for Clara as she approached.
"My… spaceship," the Doctor pointed out as Henry continued to look to Clara.
Clara ruffled his hair and eased him away, "It's a spaceship," she admitted as the Doctor moved around to the other side, keeping his distance from the duo now smiling at one another. "Turn her around?" Clara asked the Doctor with a nod towards Henry, "Send him on his way home?"
The boy was peering up at her anxiously and the Doctor smirked, shaking his head slightly and gesturing towards him to get his attention before blurting, "Henry, Henry, Henry, do you want to see a magic trick, Henry? Proper magic trick in a proper magic box?"
He was nodding, Clara's hand firmly at his shoulder and prompting him to hold onto the console in front of him as the Doctor asked for his address and then keyed in the coordinates, jamming a lever forward and listening to the boy shout out as the time rotor churned in front of them. It landed and the Doctor watched Henry as he breathed quickly, looking over the buttons and blinking lights and then looked to the door.
"Did we go somewhere?" He asked hurriedly, watching the Doctor and Clara nod. He rushed towards the doors and pulled them open before turning and grumpily telling them, "We're at my house."
"Safely home," the Doctor supplied, "No grumpy mayor mum's to worry about."
With a sigh and a frown, Henry nodded and gave them a small wave and a forced grin just before Clara called his name and asked him, "We brought you home, that doesn't mean you have to leave quite yet."
He shrugged, "Almost six, my mom'll be," he turned and blinked several times as Clara and the Doctor waited and when he turned back, they were nodding slowly, "I just left for school." He laughed, pointing and then slamming the door shut, "I just left for school. I just left… it's a time machine."
"Curious about the town, Henry," the Doctor told him, "Town pops up out of nowhere and you agree – why do you agree with strange people telling you strange things."
He smiled and dropped his backpack off his shoulders, undoing the zipper and holding it a moment before declaring, "Because my mom isn't my mom at all – she's the evil queen and this town? It's part of a curse that brought all of the people in the Enchanted Forest into this world, a curse my real mom's going to break just as soon as I find her." He watched them a moment before letting the bag drop away to leave him holding his book and he asked quickly, "You're not telling me I'm insane."
"Just took you across town and back in time and I'm supposed to think you're out of sorts because you think your mum's an evil queen and this town's part of some dimension hopping curse?" The Doctor released a quick laugh, "Henry, it's only Wednesday and we've already had a swim inside the belly of a mutated dinosaur on a planet whose name you can't even begin to pronounce." He reached out for the book and when he held it, he flipped through the pages slowly, eyes rising to finish, "Doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to believe in a fairy tale."
Looking to Clara, Henry asked brightly, "Do you like hot cocoa?"
"Partial to tea, but yeah; could make you some, if you'd like?" She glanced up as the Doctor continued to read quickly through the pages.
Henry ducked his head slightly and asked, "Got cinnamon on this space ship?"
"Only way to make hot cocoa," Clara bent to tell him. "Go on, straight through the corridor on the right, third door. Can't miss it, smells a bit like a burnt souffle," she admitted with a grimace.
She watched the boy rush off and then turned to the Doctor, who closed the book and handed it to her to have a look as she sighed, "We're staying, aren't we?"
He turned to grin down at her, telling her plainly, "Prince, princess, evil queen, werewolves, dark ones, wooden boys and fairies with wings? All turned into regular humans?"
Clara leaned back against the Tardis a moment, nodding and holding the book to her chest. "Stay away from the apples," she warned him before pushing off and making her way towards the corridor shouting, "Henry, which character is the werewolf?"
The Doctor swung around to poke at his screen, face brightening as he sighed, "Storybrooke… sounds harmless enough."
~~End