DISCLAIMER: Don't own it, wish I did, but no dice. Fun to write with though, thanks!
He was sure that the TARDIS had brought him here for some reason, but he had no idea what that was. He looked around before stepping out fully, not seeing anything but the still night before him. And Powell Estates. How odd. He thought, pushing hands into his pockets and walking away from the blue box.
It was only just last week in his memory that Donna had left him. Called after a man she had seen and then just disappeared into the night, not so much as a thank you or anything. Just the one shouted name – Lee – and then, the back of Donna Noble.
He had hated to see her go, but knew that she would at some point. He just never thought it would be that way at all. He figured there would be shouting at him and angry tears and many other things that occurred between the two of them in the past. Not just slipping out the door. She had even left her bags in her room. The TARDIS had been sure to tell him that much.
The air was a bit crisp, and the Doctor looked around for any clue as to the date. He spotted a newspaper rolled in a doorway and bent to look. "December Twenty-third, 2010."
He thought for a moment. That would put it three and a half years after the Battle of Canary Wharf. That would also mean that there was no Jackie, no Mickey, no Rose Tyler here to run out to greet him. Hanging his head a bit, he remembered that there was a good little chip shop around the corner and decided to pop in for a bite.
His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he rounded the corner and walked to the little stand he had frequented with Rose on the rare occasions when they would visit her mother – at his insistance, of course. Jackie really had no idea how hard it was for the Doctor to tear Rose away from adventure to go and visit her mother. He laughed a bit remembering the last time he'd had to talk her into it.
Without warning, he was at the stand and he stood behind a couple who were holding hands and nuzzling one another. The male of the couple looked oddly familiar and he cleared his throat, hoping that he would be noticed. The man turned around and for the brief second that he saw the face, the Doctor knew exactly who was standing in front of him.
"Why, Mickey Smith! Fancy meeting you here!" He clapped the other man in the back.
Mickey turned instantly at the sound of his voice, as did the woman he was with. The Doctor made a quick note that she was not Rose, and grinned widely at him.
"No way!" Mickey exclaimed, grabbing the Doctor into a hug. "It's been a long time, mate!"
"Sure has! Who is this, then?" He broke the embrace and inclined his head toward Mickey's friend as he set his hands in his pockets and rocked back on the balls of his feet.
"Oh, you remember Trisha Delaney?"
"Not really, but I'll bet this is her…"
"Yep."
There was an awkward silence as the two men could think of nothing better to do than shuffle their feet and gaze at the ground.
It was Mickey who broke the silence first. "Well, yeah, uh, we're engaged. You should come see us some time. That is, if you are going to be here for a while." He scribbled his number on a napkin and pressed it into the Doctor's hand before taking his order and wrapping his free arm around Trisha's waist.
"Yeah." The Doctor watched them go away before stepping up to the counter himself and getting a large order of the chips to go. It was ready for him in a short while and he took them, still steaming and wandered around to look in the shops he and Rose had looked in only a few years ago. There was the dress shop where she had held his arm and pointed and talked about the dress she had worn to a dance with a bloke named Jimmy Stone – a man she didn't like to talk about much.
He walked a while more, popping chips into his mouth as he did so, the snow starting to fall on him. He was looking ahead, and almost didn't notice that he was standing directly in front of Henrik's Department Store. The place where he and Rose had first met, had their first run together, first held hands. He hadn't even realized that he had begun to cry until he felt the wet on his cheeks that was, most certainly, not melting flakes of snow.
He reached in his pocket for something to wipe them with and came up with the napkin Mickey had written his number on. Opening it so that he could tear it in half and use it, he saw that, in fact, it was not a phone number, but, rather, it was a note for the Doctor:
Henrik's Department Store.
Three little words that meant the universe to the man in the brown trenchcoat. He peered in the window at the shopgirls who were folding endless stacks of jumpers and jeans – the ones who were dutifully hanging socks on pegs. The one who was behind the counter, leaned on it in boredom, chewing gum and winding her hair around her first finger and peering at it as she did so. That is, until one of the other women began to talk to her and she smiled, poking her tongue between her teeth.
He felt his hearts leap in his chest and it was all he could do not to leap through the glass right then and there. He walked, rather quickly, to the front of the store and opened the door. Once he was inside, he realized that he had no plan on what to do next. He looked about for a moment before heading to the socks – a place where he could watch the counter and not be seen.
She was presently ringing up a woman who was clearly talking with her hands – about nothing at all. The prattle was starting to get on his nerves and he retreated to another part of the store where he wouldn't have to listen to it.
He wandered near a display of shoes and feigned interest when a salesperson started watching him. Finally, after wandering for about an hour, he mustered up the courage he needed to walk to the counter and talk to her, only to find her gone.
"Excuse me," he spoke to the girl that was now standing there. "But where did the woman who was working here go?"
"Oh, you must mean Miss Tyler." He nodded. "She went for lunch."
"Would you know where?"
"Miss Tyler usually goes to that little chip shop just down the street. The lot of us do." She leaned on the counter and popped her gum at him, smiling.
He eyed her suspiciously and thanked her before going back out and to where he had started.
