I started this series two years ago when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Wow...that feels so long ago! It's really come a long way and it has been a great help learning to write in first person! I know reader inserts are typically in second person, but I've received a good backing on these on DeviantART, so I hope they're acceptable. XD.
Disclaimer: You own you (which, story wise, is "I", "(f/n)", etc.) The BBC owns Doctor Who, and I own the underlying clever plot of this oneshot series.
Part One:
Life Just Got Interesting
I sighed for possibly the millionth time that day.
Life was just not going the way I'd planned.
When I had left university, I was on my way to a high profile job in Cambridge and a happy marriage to my longtime boyfriend and recent fiancé, (fiancé's name).
That had been before the shootout with in the theater at home in Cardiff.
Some crazy psychopath who didn't know how to use a gun properly had pulled it out and started firing, ballistic. (Fiancé's name) had thrown himself in front of me as the bullets flew like crazy and screams filled the air.
That was before a stray bullet had hit the projector equipment and the fire started.
There had been around three hundred people in the theater that Thursday afternoon.
Only fifty six had made it out alive, not without injuries.
Both the unnamed shooter and (fiancé's name) had been a part of the heavy casualties.
I had come away with severe burns, one particularly horrid one stretching from the base of my neck, over my jaw and left cheek and ending in a puckered line over the bridge of my nose. The doctors had said that it would scar almost as it appeared in the hospital. What made things worse, aside from my ruined appearance and the death of my heroic fiancé, was that while in the hospital, I'd missed the first day of my job. I didn't think it'd be that bad, but when I went a few days later, they told me I was unfit for the position.
Vain gits.
I'd moved back in with my mum and dad and they tried to help me get through the pain. I appreciated everything they did for me but it just wasn't enough.
I miss him so much.
That had been two years ago and I had a job as a bookstore clerk. It's not near what I wanted and didn't pay even a quarter of that first job would have but it was something to do.
Today was uncommonly slow, which explained why my thoughts drifted to the realms they only visited on sleepless nights. And those came far too often. I flipped idly through an adventure magazine, staring blankly at pictures of the pyramids, the Nile, the Sphinx, and other Egyptian monuments. I wondered vaguely what it was like traveling to far off places as the bell over the door chimed, signaling the arrival of one of today's rare shoppers.
"Welcome to O'Hara's Books, how may I help you?" I asked tiredly, glancing up to see the customer.
A pale, skinny young man who couldn't be but a few years older than me was staring gob smacked at the promotional poster we had for the new Heroes of Olympus book 'Blood of Olympus.' He had a tweed jacket, drain pipe pants, a pale blue Oxford, and leather boots. I quirked an eyebrow when I realized his pants were at least four inches too short.
None of these topped the blue bowtie he wore around his neck.
Kinda like a younger version of my Uni history professor.
"Can I help you?" I asked, frowning. He looks so adorable!
"Hmm? Oh!" He turned fully around and faced me before clumsily walking up to the counter. His dark brown hair flopped over his forehead, falling over the top of his right eye, colored green.
"Yes?" I asked, frown dissipating.
"Yes, hullo," he greeted, smiling.
He's ignoring my scar.
He may be a nice and adorable person!
"Can you give me the date?" He asked, still smiling.
And now he's not adorable, he's an idiot.
"It's May 29th, 2014," I supplied, glancing at the clock with everything from the seconds to the year that hung above the wall of biographies. "It's about three in the afternoon."
The man's expression feel. "May? I was five months off!"
"What?"
He's not serious, five months? Maybe I should call the hospital.
"Did you mean to come back in January?" I asked gently.
"No, I meant to come in October!" He exclaimed, smacking his forehead.
"I..."
He looked at me and smiled again. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor whose-it-now?"
"No, no, just the Doctor, thank you," he said, smiling wider.
This was very disconcerting.
I wonder what this guy is smoking? The hospital will need to know that.
"Just the Doctor?"
"Why, yes, well, sometimes people call me 'John Smith' or 'Get off this planet!' But I've never been sure about that last one though. Of course-"
"Can I help you with anything?" I asked, blank faced. The sooner this guy leaves the sooner I can go back to my magazine.
His smile fell and he just stared at me. "I was looking for 'Blood of Olympus.'"
"It's not out until October," I said blandly.
And before I could stop myself...
"Why are you looking for it in May?"
"Well, I'm a time traveler. I was just hopping through getting this and Rick Riordan's new book scheduled for next year but my time machine must've landed on the wrong date."
"No cheese, Columbus," I muttered.
He stared at me. "Don't you mean 'no-'"
"No, I really don't, shut up."
The Doctor frowned at me before speaking again. "What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't."
"But...?"
"It's (f/n)...(l/n)," I said with some reluctance.
His grin was threatening to split his face in half. "Oh, that's brilliant!" The Doctor exclaimed happily, grabbing my free hand and pulling me around the counter.
How could he be that excited about my name? It's just a name!
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
"We're going to October, (f/n) (l/n)!"
"What?"
"C'mon!"
"You - ahh!"
The Doctor only smiled as he pulled me out of the book store and down the street.
I'm so fired.
"Where are you taking me?" I demanded. He needs to go to a mental hospital.
"The TARDIS!"
"The whatchamacallit?"
"The TARDIS! Time And Relative Dimensions In Space!"
"You're crazy!"
"A little bit, yeah."
He pulled me along for several yards, all the way up to a giant blue Police Public Call Box, like the ones in my grandmother's pictures from the parades in the fifties and sixties.
"It's a box."
"Yeah, let's go in."
"It's a box."
"Yeah...let's go in."
"It's a box!" I turned on him and beat him over the head with the adventure magazine I still clutched in my left hand. "You...you...you are sick!"
"What...?"
"You...! I am not going to let you pull me into that-"
He pulled me into the police box.
"NO! NO! NO! NO...! Neh...uh, wha...?"
I blinked.
What in the...?
"Go on, say it, I've heard them all," the Doctor said, crossing his arms with a smug look on his face.
"It...it's, uh," I looked around at the futuristic room. "It's like...is Star Trek real? Did Scottie beam us up?"
The Doctor stared at me. "Okay...it looks like I haven't heard them all." He started laughing.
"It's not funny!" I cried, "What happened?"
"Oh, (f/n), my dear, dear (f/n)," he chuckled, moving up some steps to a middle console. "This has nothing to do with Star Trek. Why do people keep associating me with Star Trek?"
"Doctor!"
"Sorry, it's...it's my TARDIS, like I told you. I'm an alien."
He has now ascended to number one on my list of crazy people.
"An alien?" It was my turn to cross my arms.
"Yes, well, to me, you're the alien and-"
"Doctor."
"Sorry," he scratched the back of his head. "I come from a planet called Gallifrey."
I raised an eye brow. "Show me."
"What?"
"Show me this...this Gilly-may place."
The Doctor's face fell and deep down I felt remorse for suggesting it. Though I didn't know why.
"I can't...you see, there was a war and...and it was, it was destroyed." The Doctor hung his head and his hair flopped down worse than ever.
That's why I felt bad.
"I'm sorry...I-"
"How can you be?" The Doctor snapped and I started. "That was my home and my family - my entire race - and they're gone, gone forever. You're just a silly little human girl with nothing more than a scar and a boring job!"
"I-" I took a deep breath, pushing down the insult. "Look, I've never lost my whole family and the human race is obviously still wondering around like a bunch of thickheaded apes, but I - I've lost things. Important things. That is how I got this scar you know. I didn't just wake up one day and decide to cut my face up."
"Like what?" The Doctor asked, temperamentally.
"My fiancé...in a theater fire." I whispered so low I thought he wouldn't hear me.
He did.
"(f/n)...(f/n), I'm sorry...I didn't mean..." He began, but I cut him off.
"It's fine, really. I didn't know about your...your people and you didn't know about (fiancé's name) and the fire," I mumbled, slouching my shoulders and moving away from the stairs in the magnificent bigger - on - the - inside room toward the doors and my normal, boring life.
"(f/n)..." The next thing I knew the Doctor had bounded down the steps after me and grabbed my right hand in both of his large, slightly clumsy ones. I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"(f/n), why don't you come with me... In the TARDIS," he suggested with a hopeful smile.
I quirked an eyebrow at him. "Go with you...? You mean to see the universe?"
The Doctor smiled gently at me, his face was so different from the harsh expression he had worn a couple of minutes ago.
The change made a world of difference.
"Anywhere and any when you want to go...you know, except back in your or my pasts or futures or to Gallifrey or..."
"I..."
Should I go?
I paused, is it wise to go with this man I don't know?
But the TARDIS...his ship...it was either real or I was hallucinating...I rather hope it's the former, not the latter, because then I'd be the one in need of a mental hospital.
"Sure, what have I got to lose?" I smiled and the Doctor smiled back.
"Excellent, (f/n)!" He tugged at a loose strand of my (h/l) (h/c) hair, which had fallen from the (hair/style) I had put it in for work, playfully before pulling me up to the console, causing me to drop my magazine. "Where to?" He asked, dancing around like a five year old at Christmas time, causing me to let out a laugh like I hadn't in years.
"Um..let's go get that book you wanted!" I suggested.
The Doctor smiled gratefully before flipping a few switches and levers, pulling a couple of handles, and typing something into an old fashioned type writer and adjusted a quirky little television screen. I smiled, bemused, when the Doctor whacked the side of the screen with a small mallet before grinned at it and me. As he did this, the TARDIS engines made a wheezing VWOORP, VWOORP, VWOORP, signaling our take off, or so I guessed.
At last he stood back and smiled at me. "Go on outside, (f/n)," the Doctor told me, gesturing towards the doors.
My lips tweaked nervously before I stepped to the door. I threw them open and a cold breeze - an October breeze - blasted me full in the face.
My face exploded into a smile and I stepped out. All around, shoppers went about getting ready for Halloween and Christmas, oblivious to the Doctor and I and the TARDIS.
"This is amazing," I whispered as the Doctor came out and stood next to me. "We really are five months in the future."
"So you believe me?" The Doctor asked, turning to look down at me.
I turned to look up at him. "I'm smart enough to know there is no way you could be pulling the Halloween shoppers and the decorations and the autumn weather without some kind of magic or science alien thing on your side," I explained and the Doctor grinned at me, taking my hand and pulling me further along down the street.
"Smart girl, (f/n)," he said as we approached a large, commercial bookstore, one with way more business than the one I work at in Cardiff.
We walked in and the first thing we saw was a large table completely dedicated to 'the Blood of Olympus.'
"Those ones were never as good as the original Percy Jackson books were " I said as the Doctor grabbed the copy furthest from the floor and the least likely to be damaged by irresponsible customers.
"Really? I rather like this series myself," the Doctor said, coming back and grabbing my hand.
I glanced at our joined hands before looking up at his face, so obviously happy.
"Is there anything you want, (f/n)?" The Doctor asked, moving us deeper into the store.
I glanced around before spotting an interesting book. "Uh..." I dropped his hand and went to look at the book. A few minutes later, I was carrying (book/title) under one arm with the other intertwined with the Doctor's as we made our way to the checkout counter.
Once we'd finished, we headed back to the TARDIS and trudged up to the console. The Doctor sat the bag with our books on the jump seat before turning to the console and looking at me where I stood on the other side.
"Now where to, (f/n)? Pick somewhere...anywhere...just so long as it's amazing and spectacular!"
My eyes darted to my lonely adventure magazine, which had ended up on the floor, before returning to the Doctor.
"Ancient Egypt...I dunno, around the time of Rameses the Great?" I suggested, shrugging.
The Doctor gave me a dazzling smile before going about piloting the TARDIS. The time machine made its strange VWOORP noise as he went.
He paused over a lever and glanced at me.
"Would you like to pull it, (f/n)?" He asked.
"Me?"
"Yeah, of course! Do you see any other (f/n)s around here?"
"No..."
"Well, come along, (f/n)!" I stepped around the console and placed my hands on the lever. "Geronimo!" The Doctor cried joyously as I laughed and pulled the lever.
Life just got interesting.