Make way for Doctor
Summary: As Mrs Mallard and her Ducklings brave the traffic of Boston they get assisted by a friendly man in a police box. Crossover Dr Who/Make way for Ducklings.
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey narrates the adventures of Mrs. and Mr. Mallard and their ducklings as they make their way to Public Garden in Boston. Every year, on Mother's day, the children of Boston gather in Public Garden in their best duck costume to recreate the events of the book. It is about as adorable as you can imagine. In the climax of the story, Mrs. Mallard and her young is saved from the threatening traffic by the police Michael who rushes to their aid from his police box. One can't help but draw parallels to another man with the same habit.
Characters belong to Robert McCloskey and BBC
"No ducks," the Doctor mused, idly munching a peanut as he swirled a buzzing instrument over the small island, for the moment only occupied by the man and his blue police box. "Why are there never any ducks in duck ponds?"
It was a beautiful day in Public Garden in Boston. The traffic was only a distant noise in the background, and despite the early hour there were already a few people out and about, preparing to celebrate Mother's day. On the water a large swan boat glided by. This was not a scene where you thought something bad would ever happen.
"Oh this is very bad..." The doctor stared at the screwdriver, and abruptly turned around and slammed open the door to the police box. "We have to find the ducks!"
And with a screeching noise the TARDIS faded out of view. Only the swan boat remained in the small lake.
Not very long from there, up by the banks of Charles River, Mrs. Mallard was having problems of her own. She had decided that today was the day when she and all her little ducklings were going to walk down to the garden and meet Mr. Mallard, who would wait for them there. She had taught all her little ducklings how to walk in a line, how to keep a safe distance from both bikes and scooters, and to be careful around everything with wheels. She had taught them to flap and taught them to quack, and they were all eager to go and see the little lake their parents had talked so much about. They lined up to cross the highway, but suddenly, as if from nowhere, a large truck came hurdling straight towards them, honking its horn.
"HONK," went the truck.
"QUACK!" went Mrs. Mallard.
"QUACK!" went all the little ducklings, both Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack, quacking away as loud as they ever could as Mrs. Mallard ushered them back to the sidewalk. She anxiously looked down the road again, but no sooner had she pointed her beak in the direction of the other side of the road than a bus came rolling down the street, casing them all to quack in distress again.
Just then a man came running towards them, alerted by the noise. He wore a policeman's uniform, only it didn't look like any policeman Mrs. Mallard had seen before. He had a round hat with a checkered band around it, a cravate in the same material and a rather tight vest. On his legs he wore tights and a really short skirt - way too short for decency, Mrs. Mallard thought disapprovingly. His grin, however, was boyish and genuine, and as he bent down next to her Mrs. Mallard felt it almost impossible not to like the man.
"Hello there," he smiled at them. "I'm the Doctor, only for the time being I'm a policeman. He produced a police ID which claimed his name was Michael of the Massachusetts Park and Pond Police. "You are all in terrible danger. Please do as I say, don't ask silly questions and... Don't wander off!" The last part was directed to Pack who had started over the road again. Mrs. Mallard quacked sharply at her and then looked up at "Michael", a quizzical expression on her face.
"There is nothing wrong with the uniform. It's cool.†He adjusted the cravat. “Anyway, I had to borrow it from a friend and was in a of hurry... It's British," he added when Mrs. Mallard's expression did not change. She nodded at this, and he stood up, staring at the traffic rushing by.
"Now, what do we have here then? Rerouted time. A loop of rush hour traffic directed to this time stream... Why? Who wants to keep a bunch of ducks from getting to the duck pond? No quacking! I'm trying to think."
"Quack," said Mrs. Mallard a bit more sharply that she strictly had to. He shook his head.
"No, it doesn't make sense. But no fear, we will just stop this node and the time should reset to its proper flow. Stay sharp!" And with that he leaped straight out into the oncoming traffic. Mrs. Mallard could not hold back a small quack of fear, but as if by a miracle the strange man had not been hit by the cars. He stood in the middle of the street, blowing a whistle and waiving to the drivers to stop. They did, and he beamed at the ducks.
"Come along, then!" and they did. First went Mrs. Mallard and then came Jack and Kack and Lack and Mack and Nack and Oack and Pack and Quack, and after them came the Doctor, keeping an eye on the cars on both sides of the procession the whole time until they were safe on the sidewalk of Mount Vernon Street.
"There then, all safe and..." he begun, but no sooner had he left the street than the cars started to run again, faster and louder than ever before.
"That's cheating," he complained. "The time should be restored now... unless... unless the reroute is nested in a larger complex, in this case restoration of a node would only snap back as it resonated with the larger structure, in which case..." He abruptly bent down and scooped up as many ducklings as he could carry.
"Ruuuuuun!" he cried, and not a moment too soon, because suddenly the sidewalk was filled by shoes and the busy people filling them, students and families and business people all rushing by the sidewalk in the lunch hour rush. Mrs. Mallard quacked wildly and only narrowly avoided being trampled as she ushered Kack and Mack down the sidewalk. The Doctor was several paces down the street, but they managed to catch up with him as he stopped by Beacon Street, looking in disbelief at the massive rush of cars, bikes, trucks and buses that rushed by.
"Quack." Mrs. Mallard looked in relief at the ducklings in the arms of the Doctor. They all seemed safe and sound, and Jack had even found the package of peanuts the Doctor had in his pocket.
"I would need to restore the time at every node at the same time. That's impossible." He paused and looked thoughtfully at the ducklings. "Impossible... unless I can anchor it properly." He suddenly started to laugh. "Hah, Mallard, you clever old bird. There is one duck in the pond yet. Come on!"
With that he skipped towards the nearby police box, still carrying the ducklings with him. Mrs. Mallard followed, but as they entered the box she stopped and looked around in bewilderment. "Quack..." she slowly begun.
"... larger on the inside!" The doctor finished. He pulled a lever and stood aside with a grin. "All of time and space, Mallard. Everywhere. Now, it is time to cross the road."
When the TARDIS door opened again Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings confidently waddled out. They were back by Charles River again, but this time she knew there would be no interruptions As they went down to the street, the Doctor already stood grinning at them in his police uniform, keeping the traffic at bay. The ducklings quacked excitedly at him, but Mrs. Mallard kept even pace over the road and down the sidewalk. She could see the pedestrians standing aside as they came, the grinning Doctor holding out a hand to make way for the ducklings.
Beacon Street was an inferno of honking cars. At all four roads of the big crossing a police had stopped the flow of traffic, leaving a clear path for the ducks. All four policemen wore the same identical, ridiculous outfits and as she looked Mrs. Mallard realized that they all were the Doctor. They entered Public Garden and turned around to thank him. Four identical smiles beamed at the ducks. Then they went on to the little island where Mr. Mallard was waiting for them.
Finally Mrs. Mallard dared to breathe out. They had reached their goal and now her little ducklings could spend all summer eating peanuts and insects and growing big and strong. She saw Mr. Mallard on the island and rushed to meet him with their little ducklings in tow, quacking their hearts away.
Only... not a sound could be heard. She saw Mr. Mallards beak open and close as he frantically tried to make himself heard, but the whole park was silent.
Silent… except for a deep voice coming from behind her.
"There will be no quacking at this point, if you please, Mrs. Mallard." She turned and saw the large swan boat looming above her, its eyes gleaming with metallic malice. It carried some strange, crystalline globes on its back.
"And why not, I wonder?" said the Doctor, suddenly standing up from the behind the small bush of the island. "Big bad alien like you, afraid of little ducks? It is the quacking, isn't it? Specific patterns of sound reacting badly with crystals of... of what?"
"Eggs," the swan boat filled in. "Temporally protected, growing on rift energy until such a day as they are ready to hatch. Very good, Doctor."
"But that would cut of this area from the entire timestream," the Doctor protested. “It would make Public Garden inaccessible for everyone. You can't do that!"
"I already have," the swan boat calmly stated. "You will find that getting out is not as simple as getting in, and the eggs can readily absorb all the quacking your little feathered companions are capable of producing. In this park there will be only silence. You don't seriously want us to believe that a couple of little ducks can stop us, do you?"
"Not a couple of ducks. All of them. The temporal barrier you raised connected with decades of different timepoints in Boston, and there is something that happens at this very place, year after year. And there is really nothing for it. Sometimes all you can do is to..." The Doctor rose his arms as a conductor and cried: "... make way for Ducklings."
And down the path they came, the children. Some ran, some skipped and danced and some could hardly walk at all. There were thousands of them. Most were dressed in yellow duck costumes, with beaks and feathers and webbed feet (although none of them were as pretty as her own little ducklings, Mrs. Mallard thought). And they all quacked. The sound was a bit muted at first, but there was no way the swan boat could silence such a storm of sounds. Mrs. Mallard saw it open its beak in protest, but whatever it had to say couldn't be heard over the happily quacking children. After a moment it lowered its head in defeat. With a shimmer and a shrug the swan boat and its eggs disappeared.
"Don't worry about her," the Doctor remarked. "I left an opening a few million years back where she won't trouble anyone." He watched the parading children fondly. "Happy mother's day, by the way." Mrs. Mallard quacked.
The parade went on for some time. The children laughed and played and quacked, and the little ducklings swam on the edge of the little lake to snag as many bread crumbs they could get their beaks on (despite Mrs. and Mr. Mallards best efforts to make them eat their insects instead). The Doctor had borrowed a plastic beak and quacked away with the rest of them, but as the day went by and the crowd thinned out he strolled back to the TARDIS.
He stopped for a moment to quack with the plastic beak a final time. To his surprise, he was immediately answered. He looked down and saw ten little ducks, all quacking expectantly at him.
"You are kidding me. After all the trouble we had getting you here? Wherever would you want to go?"
"Quack."
"Yes it goes everywhere."
"Quack."
"Yes, any time as well... Oh, all right. But no molting in the control room. Come along, Mallards!"
And into the TARDIS went Mrs. and Mr. Mallard, followed by Jack and Kack and Lack and Mack and Nack and Oack and Pack and Quack, and after them followed the Doctor.
"Quack," said Mrs. Mallard as the TARDIS faded away from Public Garden, still full of happily playing children.