Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 71st cycle. Now cycle 72!
"Number Twelve in the TARDIS"
12th Doctor (alternate one, as explained previously)
(though no Glee characters appear in this story, as it does relate to
my series of Glee/Doctor Who crossovers, it will be marked as such.
If you need a list of the stories, message or review.)
Companion piece to "Number Eleven in the TARDIS"
Lima, Ohio – in the year 1986
It had taken the Doctor much less time than anticipated to fill the pages of the notebook. She'd gone into the small store, bought that notebook, two pens, and an envelope, and then carried on to the café across the street. There, after telling the curious young waiter that she was working on a novel, she had been left alone, and for the next two hours, she wrote without stop. When she was done, the notebook was slipped into the envelope she'd bought and slipped into the handbag she'd chosen when she was changing, before she'd left the TARDIS.
Next, she had walked into a bank. It wasn't the first time she'd come into this bank. 'Two weeks ago,' she'd opened an account, where regular deposits would continue to be made under the name G. Harrison. She wasn't making a deposit today: she was coming to request a safe deposit box.
In filling the forms, she had left instructions that her 'daughter,' Ginny Harrison, was authorized to use the box and the account. Her little girl, she told the woman at the counter, was only a small child now, but as all children grew up so fast, would soon come to benefit.
Mrs. G. Harrison had been led into the vault, where an empty box had been placed before her. She pulled the envelope from her handbag, and she placed it inside the box. She watched it be returned to the hole in the wall before receiving her key.
After leaving the bank, she'd returned to the TARDIS. Closing the door behind herself, she looked around her ship… There was no one. There had been someone. That someone was still in the city of Lima, yes, but certainly not in 1986. At some point, twenty-six years from where the Doctor had been, her someone would walk into that same bank and ask to access the same box she'd just opened. She would retrieve the long-waiting notebook, and she would hopefully know what to do with the information within.
It hadn't been all that long since she'd sent Gemma Lucas on her way, with much less to go on than her companion would have liked. She would know what she needed to know once she got to the Lima of that time, and that was what mattered.
No, what mattered was that she'd make it back alright, and the Doctor wished very much she knew the answer to that question.
On her side of things, it had not been that long at all since Gemma had left. It would be months, as far as Gemma herself knew, but it wouldn't be, not for the Doctor.
At the very least she could count on being kept busy as she waited for events to play themselves out, one way or the other. Time had to be spent on outings such as today. Send the notebook, send books, send money, and on what might have come above all else as far as Gemma was concerned.
X
New York City – in the year 2073
The Doctor didn't land the TARDIS in what Gemma had come to refer to as her 'official parking space.' Had she done this, and her parents had been within earshot, they might have come under the impression that their daughter had returned. Being sure to always mind that fact had been something important for the Doctor from the start of her interactions with this whole family.
She came up to the house, attempting to see as she went if there might have been any indicators, one way or the other, as to whether Mr. & Mrs. Lucas were home. As far as she could tell, they weren't.
She had been 'sensed' before she ever made it to the back of the house, as she started to hear the calls and she smiled, coming up on the dog, attempting to get at the fence door.
"Hello there, Paulie," the Doctor opened the door and closed it again so Gemma's dog wouldn't get out. She didn't have to worry about that, not with Paulie, but no chances would be taken. "I told you I'd come back, didn't I?" she crouched to scratch at the dog's back. "No, it hasn't been that long," she insisted at her barks. "I've got a treat, have you been good?" she inquired, reaching for her pocket. The dog gave her hand a nudge. "Of course you have, you're a good dog," the Doctor relented and gave Paulie her treat.
She hadn't asked for it in so many words, but the Doctor knew Gemma would have wanted her to look in on her dog. In the beginning she had tried to convince the Doctor to let her bring the pet along with them, but pointing out how problematic that could be, the Doctor had convinced her that it would be better if she left Paulie with her parents, who would happily look after her. She'd stopped in to look in on the dog a few times now, and all the while, a single question would run through her head over and over again.
Would she be looking in on the dog for the rest of its life if Gemma never came back?
The fact was that, at this point in time, she still had no idea. All she had to go on were the two last times she'd seen Gemma Lucas.
The last last time she'd seen her had been at the moment where they'd said their goodbyes and her companion had tapped the newly acquired vortex manipulator before disappearing off to Lima in late 2011 so she could commence her made up life as Ginny Harrison, substitute teacher making the rounds around William McKinley High School.
The first last time she'd seen her, the Doctor had still been a bow ties and suspenders wearing 'he.' It had been not too long after he had finally gotten to know her name, after the fruits of her months of subbing had all come to a head. The first last time the Doctor had seen her, Gemma Lucas had been wounded. And then she'd disappeared.
THE END