The doctor yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Rare as it was, even he needed sleep sometimes. After having saved New Earth from the Daleks, he had been exhausted. He'd dropped Amy and Rory off in the 51st century for a weekend with River and then let the TARDIS coast along the time vortex.
He made his way to the kitchen, which was, strangely enough, in the same place as yesterday. There was a steaming pot of thee waiting for him as he walked in. He sniffed. Early Grey thee, judging from the smell. "Thanks, Old Girl," he said and prepared for breakfast. As he ate his sandwiches, he wondered what he was going to do today.
There was, of course, the Meroni Festival Of Light, but he'd promised River that they would go together, so that was out.
The temporal stabilizers had felt a little … off … and he thought about taking a look at them, but that meant crawling through the insides of the TARDIS. Besides, he wasn't even sure if there was really something wrong with them. Maybe later.
After cleaning up, he walked to the control room and checked the various control panels, adjusting some sliders and pushing a couple of buttons. Everything was working. Nothing to do here.
If he'd thought about it earlier, he could have had breakfast in that nice little bistro in 17th century Paris, but he'd allready eaten.
There was, of course, Stephen Hawkins' book, but he didn't really feel like putting up with the man's silly assumptions. Brilliant though he was for a human, he was ever so wrong in so many fields.
He sat down on the sofa and sighed. What the hell was he going to do today?
Spy on Rose as she walked home from school?
Visit the Big Bang again, for the umpteenth time?
Put the TARDIS on random setting and just see where that would take him? it was tempting, but he remembered the trouble he'd had returning her settings to default last time he'd done that.
He got up with a start, barely stiffling a curse, and paced up and down the room, mentally recalculating Schrödinger's Cat to account for the presence of the TARDIS, while also etrapolating the evolutionary consequences of the massive solar flares he'd seen yesterday to the primitive people who lived on the fifth planet in the Ibari system.
He stopped in front of the control panel and idly flipped through old pictures, remembering the old days with Neela, with Sara Jane, Jo and the other people he'd traveled with. For a while, it was fun. Then, he came across a single photo of Adric, and it stopped being fun. Poor Adric.
Maybe it hadn't been the drumbeats in his head that had driven the Master insane. Maybe it had been this. Boredom. Pure, simple boredom. The Doctor sure felt ready to do something stupid right about now, like challenging D'Artagnan to a duel just to see the look on the musketeer's face when his challenger regenerated.
He was just about ready to slink back to his bed, when the phone suddenly interrupted. His hearts jumped. A chance to do something unexpected!
"Hello?"
"Doctor, it's Amy. River's disappeared. You got to come!"
"I'm on my way!"
He should be worried. The panic in that familiar Scottish voice should have him sick with regret for leaving them behind on their own. Instead, he danced around the controls, excited to find out what new challenges this adventure would hold.
As he pulled the lever to get the TARDIS traveling to the 51st century, he laughed: "Geronimo!"