Hello. Just so you know, I don't own Doctor Who. I do, however own anything you don't recognise as being from the show, such as certain places and characters. Don't take them. That's called plagiarism. That's bad.
Chapter One
You're Not Santa
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring… well, that's a lie. Two creatures, in fact, were wide awake.
"Katherine!" A hushed voice called. "Katherine, come back to bed, we're gonna get caught."
"Where's your sense of adventure?" 'Katherine' asked in a whimsical tone.
"Back in bed with the rest of the girls!"
"You're such a sour puss. Now, come on! Santa's due in any minute. We don't want to miss him, do we?"
Small footsteps led into the parlour as the red headed Katherine brought her doubtful, blonde friend behind the sofa.
"Santa's not real, Kid. Grow up and come back to bed with me."
"Of course he's real, Sarah! Why would you think that?"
Just as Sarah was about to answer, she was interrupted. And from outside there arose such a clatter, the girls sprung from their spots to see what was the matter. And there, reflected in the new fallen snow, was a man, all dressed up with a bow. His bright blue box was flat on the ground, and it was obvious what had caused such a sound.
"Who is that?" Sarah asked, but when she looked to her companion, she was missing. The door was left open as Katherine rushed outside.
"Katherine…" Sarah grumbled as she rushed to put on her boots and run outside.
When she got to Katherine, her ginger friend was already by the strange man.
"You're not Santa. Who are you?"
"Katherine, come inside. It's late, and Santa's not coming."
The man looked between the two girls.
"Now, who are you two? And where am I?"
The man, to both girls' shock, was quite British. Katherine took it as another sign that this man was not, in fact, Santa. Sarah, however, began to wonder what a Brit like him was doing in this side of New York.
"My name's Katherine Garcer, and this is Sarah James. We're waiting up for Santa. Right now, we're at Golden Tree Home for Little Girls. It's a stupid orphanage. What are you doing here?"
Sarah wanted to tell Katherine that it was a bad idea to tell this strange man everything about them, but she was still in shock.
"Well, I'm the Doctor-"
"Doctor? You're a doctor? I don't really like doctors, because they usually stick needles in me. It's not a lot of fun. They say it's good for me, but I don't understand why poking holes in me is good."
The Doctor gave a hearty chuckle. "No, I'm not that kind of doctor. I'm the kind of Doctor that helps little girls catch Santa Claus."
"Really? They have doctors for that?"
"No, Katherine, they-"
"Of course they do. We're like crisps, we come in all flavours."
Katherine grabbed the Doctor's hand and dragged him into the building.
"Katherine, wait…"
Sarah was unheard by her excited friend. Sarah jogged in after them, watching the new guy listen and laugh at her friend's ramblings. Usually, that was her job.
Katherine was finding this strange man very interesting. He was funny, exciting, and - while not Santa - quite welcome.
"Quite the tree you girls have here." He commented as she slowed her running to a stop.
"Isn't it? We all chipped in with our allowances to help buy it. It's the biggest one we've had."
He smiled. "The tree's one of the best parts of Christmas."
"And one of the brightest." She laughed.
The tree glittered and glowed with the lights and ornaments adorning its branches. The star on the top shimmered with the light of a real star. The Doctor took time to bask in it, having not seen a Christmas tree in a while. Katherine smiled as she looked at both the tree and the Doctor. He seemed much happier than he had before, so she was glad that she had brought him in.
"Katherine! Where are- There you are!" Sarah cried, albeit quietly, as she ran into the parlour. Sarah paused in her running as she looked at Katherine and the new, strange man.
"'Rine, I think it's time to head to bed. Sana's not coming. Maybe next year, kid." She put an arm around Katherine's shoulders and led her off to the staircase.
Katherine smiled as she looked over her shoulder and waved. "Bye!"
The Doctor smiled and waved back, before turning back to look at the tree. The girls retreated to their room and Sarah took time to make sure that Katherine was in her bed and was staying that way. Sarah then went to her own bed and found herself asleep within minutes.
The Doctor waited until he heard no movements upstairs, then he started towards his TARDIS. The girls were quite interesting, but he knew that he had to leave. Perhaps he would see them again. He walked out to the snowy front lawn and his beautiful TARDIS laying on the snow. He turned to look at the building one last time, and smiled when he saw Katherine waving from a window. He waved back and stepped inside, disappearing before her eyes.
18 Years Later
Katherine didn't look up from her pad as she heard the door open. Instead, she just called out: "There's pasta on the stove if you want any!"
There was the sound of things dropping and footsteps, then the scraping of metal, corelle, and plastic before a chair was pulled out and someone sat down.
"So how was work today?"
"Ih wah gooh." Came the muffled reply.
Katherine laughed. "Care to try again in English?"
"It was fine."
"Glad to hear. That ass give you any trouble today?"
"Nah, he was cool. He stayed away from me, and I ignored his harassing emails."
Katherine sighed. "You should really talk to HR about this."
Sarah popped her head through the doorway. "It's totally cool. I'm fine with it, so we don't need to bring other people in."
"You're not just the big sister anymore, Bro. You can accept people's help."
Sarah sighed. "I know, I just… it's hard, yeah? No one There ever offered to help. It was just you and me."
"Yeah."
Sarah walked over and peered at the sketch pad. "You still drawing that crazy dream of yours?"
"First of all, it wasn't a dream. Just because you were out of it and don't remember doesn't make it fake. Secondly, I'm not crazy." She hugged the pad to her chest and looked out their apartment window. "He's out there somewhere. I know it."
She left the sketch pad to go eat. The blue box and stranger in a bow tie stared blankly at the ceiling.
Howdy! How's it going? I hope you liked this story, cause I sure liked writing it. I already know where I'm going with this... sorta. Hey, at least I'm planning. That's a first. So, yeah. Leave a review, cause that would make me feel better. I'm gonna try to post once a week, but no promises. Yay!
So long,
Other*