Title: Grandmamma's Tale
Author: Caz251
Summary: Grandmamma tells the children of her first proper adventure with the man known only as The Doctor.
Characters: Grandmamma, 4th Doctor, Pubert, What, Micah and David.
Spoilers: General spoilers for Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Addams Family.
Warnings: General weirdness
Disclaimer: I don't own either the Addams Family, Doctor Who or Torchwood, no matter how hard I wish it were so.
Micah Davies was sharing a room with her brother and her two cousins at the manor, it had been decided that there was no point in them going home for the evening only to return the next day. It wasn't as if she and David had school, and they had both done their homework and their chores so there was nothing stopping them from staying at the manor for the weekend. They had been ushered off to their room however as it got later in the evening and the adults got progressively more drunk. The party had seemed to have livened up a lot more after Aluka's wife had left, hobbling off towards her car and away from the manor, and Micah had been looked at like a hero by some of the people at the party who had already spoken to the woman.
Micah really hadn't meant to stab her, she was getting so much better at juggling, but the woman had distracted her and made her loose her focus, it was something she would need to practise with more. She shook the thoughts out of her head as Grandmamma sailed into the room, handing each of them a cookie and some milk and telling them to settle into their beds. Micah wasn't ready to sleep though, so she put on her sweetest face and began to speak, "Will you tell us a story, Grandmamma?"
"What type of story would you like, Micah dear? Goldilocks and the Three Spears? Snow White and the Seven Ogres?" Grandmamma asked, as she sat down in the rocking chair in the corner of the room, the shadows shrouding her.
"A real story Grandmamma, one of yours. Tell us about your first real adventure." Micah pleaded.
David, What and Pubert all seemed to understand what she was up to and joined in. "Please Grandmamma, tell us one of your adventures, we want to hear one of your tales."
The old woman let a horrific smile cross her face, "My first adventure my dears. Which one would you like? My first adventure as a child, or my first real adventure in the real universe?"
The children seemed to look between each other for a few moments before making a decision, "Your first adventure in the real universe Grandmamma, tell us that one please."
Micah watched as her grandmamma got an almost glazed look in her eyes as she seemed to lose herself in her memories. "Well, I suppose it all began one day when I went for a walk and met a very strange man."
Eudora Addams was not your average girl, not at all, unless you only took her husband's family as the sample population. At nineteen like the average girl she wanted to get out of her parents house for a whole new world, unlike the average girl though the world she was looking for was adventure, not marriage. She was already married and therefore sought something else. She had been blood bound to her childhood tormentor at age sixteen and she had never looked back. There was no one she would rather be bound to, they were just right for each other, although her parents fervently disagreed. They refused to allow her marriage and insisted that she stay home with them, Igor's family being too unnatural for them to consider their daughter marrying into. She supposed that what they didn't know couldn't really hurt them.
She continued her walk through the large gardens that made up part of the local park. She knew her father would give in eventually and she would be allowed to marry her husband, until then she needed to find something to do. Her husband was out in the world learning and gaining valuable experience, while she was stuck at home where all she had learnt was how to tend a house, knit and cook, her mother's recipes were vastly boring though and she had not been permitted to experiment. Lost in thought about the types of adventures that she could have and the things she could learn, she didn't notice the man until it was too late.
Looking up from where she was on the ground it was to see the most strangely dressed man she had seen in a while. He wore grey trousers, a tartan waistcoat, a red tie, white shirt, a black hat, a long brown coat and an even longer scarf of many different colours. She didn't know exactly what to make of him, something that she was sure that he was aware of. His wild curly hair seemed to be trying to escape from under his hat and the smile he was sporting was threatening to split his face in half.
"I am sorry my dear, let me help you." He spoke, holding out his hand to help her from her place on the ground.
Accepting the hand up, she thanked him, apologising herself, after all she hadn't been paying attention and had walked into him.
"It's no problem Miss." He replied, his wide smile still permanently affixed to his face.
"It's Mrs, actually. Mrs Addams." She corrected him, after all he was a complete stranger, there was no reason not to use her real name, the name that was rightfully hers. He didn't know her parents after all.
"I'm the Doctor. It's a pleasure to meet you." He grinned at her. He seemed to be staring into her soul for almost a minute before he blinked, smiled that toothy smile again before speaking again, "Must run, sorry no time to chat." before dashing off through the park once more.
Bewildered, but mostly curious she followed him, after all he seemed to be the most exciting thing she had come across in a while, mainly because he was new and different. It wasn't difficult to tell that he was different, he just seemed like more to her, he was more than just a man. More than that goofy grin on his face suggested, who and what he was, was hidden under a carefully constructed mask; that grin at the forefront. His eyes however told a completely different story, the window to the soul they held all the answers that there was to know about the man, and she was determined to unravel them.
She watched from behind a tree as he rushed into a wooden police box and came rushing back out carrying the oddest assortment of things. Curious as to what he was keeping in there and to how the box got there when it hadn't been there yesterday, she made her way towards it when the man rushed off. At the moment the box was more of a curiosity than the man, police boxes like that were a British thing, not American. She walked all the way around the box, feeling the wood, getting a feel for it. It was strange, it was a warm day, but she had not expected the level of heat that was coming off the box. Shaking it off she walked back to the front of the box where the doors were, feeling that she had learnt all that she could from the other sides.
She tried the door, but they wouldn't open, she supposed that they locked themselves when closed and that the strange man had the key. Instead she began to inspect the small panel, opening it and pulling out a phone, one far too modern than what she knew had been invented. The whole situation seemed to be getting more interesting with everything that she learnt. She picked the phone up and listened to some sort of static, which sounded more like singing than anything else, before placing it back and closing the panel. She tried the door once more, just knowing somewhere within her that it would open for her. She was right.
Eudora pushed the door opening, wondering whether or not moving forward into this box was going to be the start of some new adventure or if it would be as dull as the majority of the things that she had come across in the past. Entering the box took her breath away, whatever it was that she had been expecting it certainly wasn't this, the box was huge, she just had to explore. She walked once around the room that she had been brought into, the singing that she had heard down the phone line seemed to be coming from that room, and then she made her way of into the other rooms, taking the time to explore everything that she could. Upon finding the library she seemed to come to a stop, she walked round the room many times before settling on a bookshelf that looked to be full of books on the culinary arts. Picking one from random she sat down in a comfy armchair, deciding to sit and read until the mysterious Doctor returned, at which point she could question him about all that she had seen. She wasn't stupid by any means, she had worked out that this was obviously a spaceship or something as she knew that human achievement was nowhere near as close as being able to make a magnificent masterpiece that the ship was, so the man must be an alien.
Eudora looked around the room, deciding not to stray too far away in case she got lost. Who knew after all how big the ship actually was or how often the alien actually checked his ship for stowaways. She was content to stay where she was anyway, the singing of the ship was calming and made her feel at ease. She must have fallen asleep at some point as she awoke to the sounds of the doors slamming shut as the alien rushed inside and straight to the console. He had fiddled about with a few things on the console before he noticed her. When he did notice her he turned back to the console muttering, "How did she get in, old girl?" stroking a lever in front of him, "You let her in did you."
Eudora watched as the strange alien conversed with his ship. The alien certainly hadn't expected to see her there, but he didn't seem angry at her presence, if anything he was just as curious about her as she seemed to be about him. Deciding to step up she spoke. "I'm Eudora. We met earlier." She began only to be cut off.
"Yes, yes, Mrs Addams, I remember." The alien said as he rushed around the console. "I can't take you back to where you where, hostiles you know, so where can I drop you. Shall I drop you at home?" He queried, never once stopping his circular dance around the console. "Or you could come with me, just a quick trip, the old girl wouldn't have let you in if you were untrustworthy. So, how about it?" He asked, finally coming to a stop in front of her.
A bit frazzled by the frantic ramblings of the alien in front of her it took a minute or two to realise what she was being asked. " A trip? Where?" She asked, knowing that she was going to say yes anyway, this was the adventure that she had been looking for.
"Anywhere. Any when. Any place in time or space." The alien chuckled, "I'm the Doctor by the way, did I mention. Anyway, the whole of time and space, where would you like to go Mrs Addams."
"So let me get this straight, you can't take me back to the park, but anywhere else in time or space is okay?" Eudora questioned of the alien bouncing around his ship.
"Well, there are a few other places that we probably shouldn't go to, I've been before you see, but the universe is your oyster as they say." The Doctor replied, a huge grin on his face, "So where do you want to go. Forwards or backwards, Earth or not, or shall we just see where we end up."
Knowing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity she wasn't going to give up the chance to choose. Thinking for a couple of minutes before she replied, she stated calmly, "The far future, not Earth, but somewhere I won't stand out."
"I know just the place." The Doctor said as he set his ship in motion, "51st Century, the Boeshane Peninsular, it's a human colony so you should have no problems fitting in."
"Shall we, Mrs Addams." He spoke as he gestured towards the door. He then opened them, allowing her to see her first glimpse of an alien planet.
Stepping out onto the planet's surface Eudora was reminded of what she would imagine the Sahara desert to be like. It was arid and dry and the heat, she had never felt anything like it. "So where shall we go first?" Eudora asked of the Doctor, hoping that he was willing to play tour guide otherwise she was no doubt going to end up completely lost.
"The market first I think." The Doctor said as he led the way through the sand towards a row of stalls that seemed to stretch for miles.
Eudora was enthralled with all the sights and colours, the stalls all seemed to be bursting with wares and the smell from some of the food stalls was tantalising.
"Try this." The Doctor said, handing her something on a skewer that he had taken from a nearby stall.
Taking the skewer she studied it carefully for a minute before deciding just to eat it, she had wanted adventure after all. She doubted that the alien would give her something that was harmful to her, but then again she didn't really know him that well. It was a human colony though, so the food should be okay for her to eat. Taking a bite she was greeted with a fullness of flavour that went straight to her taste buds. It was nice, definitely not the usual meat she ate, but these humans lived in the desert, she wasn't sure how cows would survive in those conditions.
"What is this?" It's delicious." She asked the Doctor who had just finished his own skewer.
He looked at her measuringly, obviously wondering whether or not to tell her. "Grilled newt," he answered finally, "it is one of the most popular street foods here." He watched her reaction carefully, obviously expecting her to be horrified at what she had eaten.
To his surprise she just gave a small smile and linked arms with him, "What else do they sell?" she asked, leading him further into the market, "Do you think they would give me the recipes?"
The Doctor looked at her in bewilderment for a moment before a huge grin split across his face, "Come along then."
They wandered through the market for hours, sampling various foods and trying to get recipes for the ones that they enjoyed the most. By the time they returned to the TARDIS they were completely full and rather exhausted, or Eudora was at least. The Doctor seemed to be bouncing about hyper. They had brought back with them some food for later, and a few holovid recipes that Eudora intended to write down to take home with her. The Doctor showed her to a lovely room on board the TARDIS telling her to rest and that they would go back out and explore some more the next day. Doing so Eudora went to sleep, wondering if her husband's learning experience would be as valuable as hers.
"We spent a week on Boeshane," Grandmamma told the children, "It was a lovely place, somewhere that I would enjoy visiting again with you children, the things you would see."
"Was that the end of the adventure, Grandmamma?" David asked.
"Of course not young one, it was merely the end of the first adventure and the beginning of the next one. I travelled with the Doctor for nearly two Earthen years before I came home." Grandmamma replied.
"Will you tell us of another adventure Grandmamma?" Micah pleaded.
"Not tonight children, another time. I can't tell you all of my adventures at once. Now sleep for you four and maybe next time I'll tell you of my trip to Venus or maybe my last trip with the Doctor." Grandmamma responded, giving a kiss on the forehead to each of the four children and turning out the small light pitching the room into darkness.
"Night Grandmamma." She heard from each child as she shut the door behind her.
