TITLE: Hop-Along Leftie
AUTHOR: MikeJaffa
SYNOPSIS: The Doctor…ends up with a new companion after Clara goes away
DISCLAIMER: Doctor Who is owned by the BBC. I am making no money off writing and posting this fic.
A/N: I haven't actually seen the final episodes of S9, but I read about them and saw clips on Youtube. I'm waiting on Netflix to start streaming it. But I know what happens. Anyone who wants to avoid spoilers should not read this. This was inspired by the "mini episodes" on Youtube and a small weeping angle statue I saw on a grave in my local cemetery. And it's a product of my silly muse. Don't eat or drink while you read this.
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The Doctor shoved over the main control lever. 'All right, Clara,' he thought. She knew he would figure out who she was, so she'd left a message on his blackboard: 'Run, you clever boy, and be a doctor.'
'I can do that,' he thought. It would be hard, but he knew he could…
… he could…
He wrinkled his nose. Something stank to high heaven.
He followed the scent down the steps from the control platform, and squatted by a hatch in the deck. He pulled it open and made a face as the odor got more pungent. "Ugh," he said. "Smells like the water treatment filters haven' been cleaned in…I dunno… an eternity. Someone should take care of that." He looked around. "Guess it's me." He started up the stairs. "Well, no companion for the moment, so this wouldn't be a bad time to do some housekeeping. Then again, there is that place in the-"
The Tardis lurched, pushing the Doctor against a railing. He heard the materialization noise. Then it stopped.
A voice said, "Where the devil am I?"
"Winston!?" The Doctor surged up to see the portly, bald man with glasses and a cigar standing in the middle of the console room. "Winston Chruchill? What are you doing here?"
Winston glared at him. "Who're you?"
"Sorry. It's me – the Doctor. I've regenerated again."
"And became Scottish?" Churchill looked around. "Of course – the Tardis. You've redecorated it, haven't you?"
"Yeah."
"I don't like it."
"Winston, how did you get here?"
"Precisely what I want to know. And what the devil is this?" He held up a stone hand. It looked human, but with pointy nails.
"Let me see that." The Doctor took the stone hand. It was a right hand. He passed a sonic screwdriver over it, although that just confirmed it was what it appeared to be. "It's the hand of a weeping angel."
"A weeping angel. That's what you call those statue things?"
"They only look like statues when you see them. Turn your head, blink, and they're on you."
"And send you to the nearest available Tardis?"
"And send you back in time to live out the rest of your life while they consume the energy of the days you would have had. And that's what makes this weird. Your entire life is a fixed point. There's no changing it. A weeping angel would sense this and stay away." He consulted a monitor and whistled.
"Is that a good whistle or a bad whistle?" Winston asked.
"That's a 'I can't believe the way this thing screwed up' whistle," the Doctor explained. "As I've suspected, angles send people back by 'throwing' them across the time vortex. They aim for a place and time and establish a new timeline. I don't know where this one was aiming. But you didn't enter the vortex with enough speed to come out the other side. If the Tardis hadn't rescued you, you would have been ripped apart."
"The Tardis rescued me."
"As I said, your life is a fixed point."
"So basically I am here because a monster goofed."
"Essentially." The Doctor worked the controls. "But it also means I can trace you back to your point of origin." The Tardis groaned. "And here we are."
"What if it's still there?"
"Don't blink."
Winston stayed at the Doctor's elbow as the Doctor opened the door. They were in a corridor in Winston's underground bunker during World War 2. An angel stood three meters from the Tardis, staring at the cleanly severed stump of its right arm with a befuddled look on its face. The Doctor felt relieve that the cut looked like severed stone, with no sign of muscles or bone. That would have been too weird.
Not sure what to do, the Doctor put the hand on the floor and kicked it across to the angel. He said, "Here ye go, Leftie. Now we should settled down and have a little-"
The lights went down. When the angel came up, Leftie – the Doctor found he was already thinking of the angel with that name— had reattached her hand and was a foot closer to the Tardis in full bestial snarl.
The Doctor shut the door and locked it. Someone hit it. There was a pause. Then the pounding resumed, varying with intensity – Leftie must have been punching and kicking the door.
Winston Lamented, "Not even a thank you. Can't there be any polite aliens? Don't answer that."
There was a pause, then something hit the door hard.
Winston said, "If I had to guess she's started running at it and body slamming it. Can the door take that kind of pounding?...That I would appreciate answer to."
"It's not wood, Winston. It can take it."
"It looks like wood. It sounds like wood. It feels like wood."
Something hit the door really hard. They heard footsteps away from it. Running and another slam.
"And it is reacting the way wood would," Winston finished.
"She must be daft," the Doctor said. He raised his voice: "All right, Leftie, I'm coming out-"
He opened the doors in time to see Leftie frozen in a moment of running at the doors to body slam them again. He also saw both her feet were off the ground and she was still flying forward. The Doctor jumped back and scrambled up the steps with Winston as Leftie flew through the doors. Her feet caught on the grating and she tumbled forward, to land feet up on the steps.
Winston winced just looking at it. "That has to hurt-"
The lights blinked. In the interval, Leftie had surged to her feet and was still coming at them.
Winston said, "Doctor, look at her."
"I am, Winston-"
"No, I mean, look at her lead foot."
The Doctor looked. Leftie's lead foot was turned sideways, her weight coming down on the edge of her foot.
The lights started to flicker.
Winston and the Doctor shook their heads. The Doctor said, "No, you don't want to-"
It went dark and they heard a crash. The lights came up, and Leftie was in a heap on the floor, her foot at an odd angle, her mouth open in either a scream of pain or a curse or both.
Winston cringed. "That hurts just looking at it."
The lights went out again. When they came back up, Leftie had got to her feet and seemed to be balancing on the other foot.
The Doctor's eyes went wide. "You're going hop after us? Are you daft? You've already muffed the timing on the quantum lock once already. Quit while you're ahead, lass. We'll work something out."
The lights went out, there was a crash, and when the lights came up, Leftie had hopped closer. The lights blinked, another crash, and she was closer, her smiling saying, 'Oh, yeah, you were saying?'
The Doctor said, "All right, well done. Now, listen. Winston here is-"
The lights went off. When they came on, Leftie was caught in midair as she came at them. The Doctor and Winston dodged, then watched as Leftie hit the top of the stairs, pitched forward, and started to fall down them.
The Doctor started to shout, "Mind the-"
The thudding and scraping came to a halt. Seconds later there was a splash.
"…inspection hatch," the Doctor finished. He and Winston looked over the railing at the open hatch. They heard splashing in the distance.
Winston wrinkled his nose as the Doctor turned back to the console. "Doctor, how far down does that go?"
"Distance varies, Winston, but it leads to the water treatment plant." He worked the controls and a small vial appeared in the Sonic charging socket.
"I was wondering. You going to clean that up?"
"I was about to before this started." He descended the steps and crouched by the edge. "All right," he called. "You listen to me." The splashing stopped. "I'm going out of my way to be patient with you. Believe me, I have no love for weeping angels, but I can't stand to see another being make herself suffer." He dropped the vial through the hatch. "Here you go - 15 nanograms of Tardis time plasma. That's the equivalent of two years of a human's life. Should be enough to deal with your injuries. Then I will want you to read something." He went back up the steps and pointed to the far side of the console. "Winston, go stand there and face the door."
"Can't I-"
"No."
"All right." Winston went around the console and stared at the door. The doctor worked the keyboard to call up a specific file. He could hear Leftie climbing the ladder. The Doctor went to stand by Winston, facing the open doors.
They heard footsteps up the steps. The screen rattled on its runner. Then he heard a gasp.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder. Leftie was standing there with an alarmed look on her face.
The Doctor said, "That's right. Winston Churchill's entire life is one big fixed point. You made a very big mistake. I don't know what you were thinking. But-"
The lights went out. When they came up, two more angels had entered through the open doors. One had her hands over her eyes. The other was pointing at Leftie and had an angry look on her face. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder. Leftie had her hands over her eyes and a slight slouch in her stance.
Winston's jaw hardened. "I know a dressing down when I see it."
"Excuse me," the Doctor said to the two new angels. "A couple of things. If you're being as harsh as I think you are, Leftie here made an honest mistake. Yeah, she could have ripped reality apart, but that risk comes with mucking about in time. I oughtta know. Second. You two are not welcome in my Tardis. Get out. And for that matter, stay out of World War 2 away from Winston Churhill."
The lights went down. When they came up, the angel who had been pointing at Leftie was facing the Doctor and making a dismissive gesture. Another blink and the angels were gone.
Winston said, "Is that it?"
"World War 2 is so pivotal in human history there's no safe way to mess with it," the Doctor said. "They know better than to take that chance."
"And what about Leftie? I had the distinct impression you were being told that if you liked her you could keep her."
They turned and saw Leftie standing by the blackboard. Leftie had erased Clara's message and written, 'What happens to me now?'
The Doctor said, "Yeah, seems like it, doesn't it?"
Winston patted the Doctor on the shoulder. "I'll leave you to it. Do try and stop by after we've sent Adolph packing, will you? I've a bottle of brandy I'm saving."
"Yeah, sure."
Winston left. The Doctor closed the doors, then set the Tardis in flight. Then he turned to Leftie, still waiting by the blackboard.
"I messed up in school, too," he said. "My grades were all right but not spectacular. And Jupiter's great red spot is the result of my first training flight in a Tardis. Also the reason I hate the newer models." He climbed the steps. "Now then. What am I to do with you?" He stood the opposite side of the blackboard from her. "You are a monster and a threat to the rest of the Universe...and I suppose, yourself…but I'm not going to kill you. So you have choice. I can drop you on a remote planet. Or you can come with me. I can set up a regulator to safely feed you time plasma. The quantum lock will be a headache, but I'm sure we can deal with it. The choice is yours. Oh, and by the way, what's your name?"
Leftie stared back at him with featureless eyes. Then the lights went out and he heard writing on the blackboard. The lights came up and Leftie had written: 'I accept your offer. I will travel with you. I'll try anything once. You cannot pronounce my name and I'm grown rather fond of 'Leftie.' But let me be clear – I will not do menial tasks. Which means I will NOT clean your water treatment plant. Sorry."
"No problem." He went to the console. "We'll find a plumber, then, and I know a 33rd century spaceport where I can get that done for free. I hope. Quick trip to have some boring maintenance done. What could possibly happen?"
THE END