Happy Holidays everyone! Be sure to stay safe during the holidays.
This is just a little thing I wrote a while back. I considered writing a continuation to this, but I may not get to that. For those waiting for an update to Flicker, it shall be coming soon.
It starts when she's little. Her father and and big brothers love watching what they call Sci-Fi. It doesn't yet occur to her to ask what that means. She is barely three years old. She knows it has to do with space. Spaceships and stars and planets and time travel and aliens. Her dad takes her out back and shows her the stars through the long lens of a telescope. The first object he shows her up close is the moon. She's mesmerized by the little dark patches on the white disk in the sky. She asks him if she can touch the moon. He laughs and says maybe one day.
Her mother tells her stories. Stories about fantastical creatures living in magical worlds. Purple people and big, blobby looking pink ones, and giants and talking horses. She's been told such tales since before she turned two. These things aren't so fantastic to her mind. She doesn't know to question the stories and their validity. To her, all of these things exist, because there is nothing yet placed into her mind to make her think otherwise. She hasn't seen much of the world to verify them, but nor has she seen anything to disprove them. A mind as young as hers has no place to go but directly to the assumption that it's all real.
She's four the first time it happens. The night before, her mother told her all about a girl named Alice who fell into another world and had many great and scary adventures while chasing a rabbit. This morning she watches a show about the Doctor with her brothers while they munch their cereal before school. She doesn't yet go to school, but she wants to because it seems as if her brothers get to go almost every day. With their cool backpacks stuffed full of interesting things, she's sure they must be driving into another world on that big yellow bus with all the other kids and she envies them.
Her father is at work now, with promises of more stargazing tonight if she's good. Her mother is working in her home office. Her mother works at home so she can look after her. While her mother and father work, and her brothers disappear off to that mysterious place called school, Paige Traimer skips up the stairs to her parents' room to play.
It doesn't take long for the little girl to find herself standing in front of the full length mirror on the back of her parents' bedroom door. She gazes into it, mesmerized. It's another world. It has to be. The Doctor trapped a bad little girl in one once. Paige knows all about the Doctor. He's on one of her family's favorite shows. The stories her mother tells her. The stars her father shares with her. The people on the television they watch together. The little girl who has yet to grow up. They failed to tell her something and in that failure, was born something incredibly unexpected. They failed to let the little girl know that any of these wondrous things, could possibly be not real.
As a result, Paige believed.
She believed in other worlds. In flying police boxes with alien heroes and villains. She believed she could reach up and touch the moon with just the right amount of motivation. She believed that Alice did indeed, fall down a hole and end up in another world. She believed that there were people trapped in mirrors, living in reflection worlds that were just different enough. She believed that if she turned away, much like the weeping angels, that's when the mirror world showed its' true self.
That is how it first found her. There can be cracks in the universe. There can be other dimensions. Of these things, she was sure. There can be other worlds. There can be holes, and rips, and bubbles and all manner of ways to fall into and out of one world and another.
She places her hands on the mirror, gazing into her reflection in the hopes of seeing a way into the mirror world. Her own squinty blue-gray eyes look back at her. Her shoulder length, straight brown hair is brushed neatly with a dark blue bow off to the side in a hair clip her mother placed to match the little blue sun dress and flat sandals she wore.
She looks for a long time, but sees nothing that indicates a way into the mirror world, or out of her current world. She had a bad dream last night and she is sure the Doctor can help her with it. Just like he helped Amelia Pond fix the crack in her wall. The dream was scary. More scary than the thought of a monster under her bed, even. Far more scary than that. The dream talked to her. It told her something important enough to prompt her to look for the Doctor to tell him about it.
She leans forward and rests her forehead against the cool glass of the mirror, her reflection darkening as she does so. She closes her eyes because she's sure the mirror world will start to awaken if she isn't looking. But maybe, just maybe, if she's pressed up against it, it will let her fall in. She speaks quietly to the other world, positive it can hear her. "Please let me in. Please let me in. I need the Doctor. Please let me in." She repeats this many times. Didn't Dorothy do something similar to get back home once upon a time? Tapping her heels together might work, but Paige reasons that she doesn't have ruby red slippers so it probably won't work.
But children at four years of age have short attention spans, and Paige isn't going to stand here forever and wait for the mirror world to let her in. She opens her eyes and pushes herself back from it to glare at herself in it as if she were to blame. Soon, she figures she should ask to go outside to play.
But this is important. Maybe just one last try.
She tries to step into the mirror. She bumps into it, but isn't deterred. She tries again, not hoping, not guessing, not even wishing, but knowing that it will work. The same way a small child knows that Santa will come. As she does so she is suddenly surrounded in a bright blue glow. She doesn't know why it's blue, or why it's glowing, but she isn't surprised. She accepts what she sees, as all children too young to know fantasy from reality, always do. With wide eyed enthusiasm and complete acceptance of whatever the world has to offer her, Paige Traimer feels the cold blue light surround her as she steps into the mirror and disappears from her parents' bedroom.
The TARDIS' warm golden and orange tones belay the fact that the ship is very cold inside. Paige notices this straight off because her short sleeved dress isn't enough to keep her warm and goosebumps trickle out across her arms. She's standing near some stairs. She sees the console and gets excited. She knows where she is. Of course she does. She has seen this place countless times, and has no doubts that she can be here.
The man in tweed and a bow tie has his back to her. He's busy at the console, flipping switches and surely planning out his next adventure. He's alone and Paige wonders if she's in a time where he has friends with him or not. Sometimes he's alone, sometimes he looks different, but he's always the same man. He's always the Doctor. She trusts him.
"I'm cold." She speaks up, shivering and looking to him as she would her own mother or father. She has, after all, been growing up with him as a familiar part of her life whether he realizes this or not. She would be just as comfortable with several of the Star Trek captains and crew members had she walked right through to their world. But she doesn't need them. She needs him. She's seen the Doctor and she knows he likes children. He cares for them. He doesn't leave them crying alone. And he always helps people. She feels safe.
She watches the Doctor stiffen up at her proclamation. For just an instant, he is so still it could be him sleeping if he'd been laying down and not standing so rigid. After only that small moment, he spins around. His green eyes land on the small figure by the stairs and widen considerably at the sight of her. He looks completely shocked. It's not an unfamiliar look to her.
"I'm cold." She repeats.
"But you're…How? You-" He struggles to find words as his eyes scan over her. He pulls out the sonic screwdriver and Paige watches with great interest as the green light flashes. He moves it up and down in her direction and then flicks it upwards in front of his face. He stares at it, then lowers it slowly, his eyes back on her. "You're human..." He sounds baffled.
He steps closer and looms over her. She stares up at him with trusting eyes.
"How did you get here?" He asks in a shaky voice.
"I walked." She answers simply.
"But...But you can't have! We're in space! You can't just walk into the TARDIS in the middle of space!" He declares loudly. Most would be intimidated with how he's standing over her. But Paige knows to trust him with her life.
"Why not? I can do anything. So can you." Paige reminds him, looking confused now. "I walked through the mirror."
"You did what?" He stares at her strangely.
"I walked through the mirror to you." She watches his eyes narrow and only now does she feel a little worried. Sometimes the Doctor gets angry and then he can yell and throw things and shove people and be scary. She doesn't want him to be scary. "Are you mad? Did I do something bad? Please don't yell at me, it's scary when you yell!" She asks and pleads with a trembling bottom lip.
He quickly crouches down to her level, eye to eye. "No, no, I'm not angry and you haven't done anything bad as far as I know." He gives her a warm smile. She's just a little girl, he sees. She isn't some creature in a child's body. She's genuinely very, very young and possibly extremely lost. He gently pats her upper arm. "I won't yell and be scary, I promise. What's your name?"
"I'm Paige. And you're the Doctor."
The Doctor again looks surprised and on edge, but quickly morphs his face back into a kind smile. "Paige? Paige. What a cool name that is, Paige, I like it." She smiles which makes his smile widen. "Now, tell me Paige, why did you walk through the mirror?"
"To find you." She spoke as though the answer should be obvious.
He nodded. "Yes, of course." He murmured. "And why did you want to find me, Paige?"
This earns him a solemn look. "I had a bad dream."
He matches her look. "Oh, I see." He holds his hand out to her and she takes it. He straightens up and tugs her gently up the stairs to the top step. He sinks down and gestures for her to do the same. She sits down next to him. He pats her hand before releasing it, turning slightly to face her. "It must have been a very bad dream then, aye?" He prods gently.
Paige looks into his warm, curious eyes and nods. "It was. A bad man killed the alive plants. He hurt them. He wants to kill lots more. They need you to save them, please, Doctor." She begs, her eyes tearing up at the memories of the plants who had feelings and cried out to her.
The Doctor, she knows, would never refuse a request for help. And he doesn't.
He strokes her hair gently and looks almost as sad as she does, at the sight of her watery eyes. "Now, don't cry, Paige. I'll help them, I promise." He jumps up suddenly and runs down under the console. Paige watches, but stays where he left her, rubbing her eyes dry. He returns quickly, carrying a big notepad and a box of crayons. He sets them on the floor beside her and sinks back down next to her on the top step, his gangly feet dangling down a few steps. "Will you draw these plants for me? And maybe the man if you can?" He requests.
She looks up at him with uncertainty. "I don't draw good." She tells him quietly.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Give it a go." He encourages.
Hesitantly, she takes out a bright red crayon and starts to draw. She switches to another crayon after a while, and another. The Doctor waits patiently, his mind racing. A small human child, no more than four or five years of age appearing in the TARDIS and claiming to have walked through a mirror just to get to him, is most definitely new. Such a thing terrifies the Time Lord. Not because someone could do it, but because a human had done so, a very, very young one, and there is no way that can have happened without some help. Someone or thing had given her access to cross into another world from hers.
He isn't ever going to allow something bad to happen to a child in his care if he can help it, but the entire situation is extremely troubling.
"Here." Her sweet voice pulls him out of his thoughts. He focuses on her outstretched hand holding the notepad out to him. He takes it and pulls it into his lap, peering down at it. The plants she drew are familiar to him even in her childish interpretation. The blood red coloring with silver lines across them, the rectangular shape, even the oddly dark pink sky tells him just where the world is. "Ah. The Roj Bryophyta, or RB for short, of the planet Moraya. They're a very peaceful species seeing as they can't walk or create communities or weapons. They can empathically communicate their feelings which can also translate into a form of telepathy, which could explain how they might have given you a bad dream. If a man scared them enough it might translate over." He rambles in a very familiar way to Paige. "Still. That doesn't explain how you were the one they reached out to." He eyes her suspiciously, then turns his gaze back to her drawing. And to the man. It's a stick figure, hardly something he can make out as any specific person. A stick figure with black hair and eyes is all he can make out of that. But it doesn't matter because he knows the planet where this species thrives and can go there to find out for himself easily enough. He closes the notepad, ignoring the scattered crayons, and hops to his feet. "Well then, mysterious Paige, let's see about getting you home."
"But what about the plants?" She slowly climbs to her feet and tugs at the sleeve of his tweed jacket. He peers down at her. "Oh, I'll take care of that. I'll go visit them just as soon as I've got you sorted out, okay?"
She nods and holds her arms up and out to him expectantly. He blinks down at her. He hasn't spent a great deal of time around small children in the past few decades. Just here and there and he isn't terribly accustomed to it anymore. But he recognizes that the child wants to be held. After a brief moment of hesitation, and one that would have been considered awkward were it not for the fact that Paige is oblivious to the Doctor's awkwardness, he reaches down and scoops her up into his arms. He plants her against his side, weaving his arms securely around her.
She wraps her small arms around his neck and places her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Doctor. You're my best friend." She declares with the earnest honesty of her emotions that only young children tend to display. This causes a bright smile to erupt from the Doctor's lips and he presses a caring kiss to the child's forehead. "Good." He decides. "I could always do with more best friends." He carries her down the stairs and back over to the console. "I suppose I don't have to ask you if you trust me." He chuckles at the small bit of weight of the child against him. She very clearly trusts him so much that it would frighten him were they not inside the safety of the TARDIS. "Now, let's see about getting you home."
This prompts Paige to lift her head up a bit. "Can I touch the moon?"
He pauses. "Sorry?" He questions, wondering if he heard her correctly.
"My daddy says I can touch the moon one day. Can it be today before I go home?" She asks him hopefully. She doesn't think this could be her last chance. She believes she can walk through the mirror any time she likes to visit the Doctor. She just wants very badly to finally touch the moon.
"Your dad's right." He agrees quickly. "Your dad sounds good."
"He is. He likes you. So do my brothers. And my mommy likes other worlds too."
"Does she?" He asks worriedly. He decides not to wonder too hard about how her family knows him. Instinct tells him it is not a question to ask. "Has your family traveled to other worlds, Paige?" He questions, his voice carefully calm. Judging by the little girl's clothing and way of speaking, he would say she was from 21st Century Earth, an American, and certainly not capable of traveling to other worlds yet. He shifts her gently to one arm so he can use the other to pilot the TARDIS. She watches.
"No. But my mommy tells me about other worlds and my daddy shows me about them."
He nods and relaxes just slightly at this. "Your parents sound amazing. They've certainly taught you to be a very brave little girl, haven't they?"
Paige nods and smiles at this. "Yes! I'm very brave. Can I?"
"Can you what?" He looks at her blankly.
"Touch the moon." She reminds him.
"Oh, that! Yes, well...It's really just a large rock and you don't want to go disturbing any life forms that..." He sees her face drop and immediately knows he's doomed. He sighs. "Alright, alright. But just for a moment, and just to touch right outside the TARDIS, no wandering off, no explorations, no, none. Just a touch of the moon, understand?" Unlike the many times he's said similar things to his companions, this time, the Doctor means it. This isn't an adult. This isn't one of his companions he can throw into danger and hope to keep alive and well or heal from damages he causes if they should happen to go wandering off. This is an untouched, innocent child and he will not, under any circumstances, allow harm to come to her. Not on his ship.
She claps her hands and beams at him. "Yes!" She nods quickly. "I promise I'll be good!" She kisses his cheek, which makes his face brighten. "One trip, moon touching, then home." He tells her before gently setting her into a chair. "Stay." He points at her. She nods, bouncing her feet back and forth while she watches him dance around the console.
The ship jolts about a bit, but the Doctor is mindful of the tiny fragile human as the TARDIS lands. He grins at her and takes her hand. She hops off the seat and grins back at him as they run to the doors together. "Paige, welcome to the moon." He pushes a door open and lets her step out first.
She takes her first step on the moon. And realizes it really is very hard. For some reason she thought it would be soft. "Where are the black spots?" She asks as the Doctor steps out beside her, still clutching her hand. "Black spots?" He questions, looking down at her.
"In daddy's long thing." She lets go of his hand to make a gesture of holding a telescope up to her eye. "The moon has dark spots on it."
"Oh yes! Well. Craters and such. They look different up close."
"Oh! What's a crater?"
"It's...Like a hole, or a big indent in the ground, often where meteorites have struck the ground." He explains and eagerly answers Paige's questions. She's young and inquisitive and he likes to show how much he knows and fill small minds with wonder. Hers is already quite creative and he's happy to add to that.
He watches her bend down to touch the ground and smiles at the delight on her face as she feels it's not completely only solid rock. "This is a little like sand." She reaches out and picks up a small rubbled rock and holds it carefully in her hands. "May I keep this?" She asks, turning hopeful eyes to the Doctor.
He laughs and bends to kiss the top of her head. "You may." He agrees. "But we really should be going soon."
Nodding, Paige grabs his hand and gives the surface of the moon one last look. She knows the Doctor has extended the air pocket around the TARDIS. Well, she knows he's done something so that they could breathe and move around easily enough and that the moon really wouldn't let her breath and would have her floating if it weren't for the TARDIS. The Doctor has taught her these things and much more before she even met him.
She tugs him back inside and lets go, skipping over to the console. The Doctor closes the door.
"Now." He turns to her, clasping his hands together as she stands there holding her new moon rock. "As for you, Paige. We need to find a way to get you back home. When you walked through the mirror, what happened, exactly? Did it hurt? Was there a light? Was it hot? Cold? Liquid? Solid?" He asks as he walks over to the console and leans on it, looking at her.
Paige thinks about it. "It was blue. Glowy. Cold. Soft. It didn't hurt at all." These were the best ways the child knew to explain it. The Doctor nods, seeming to understand her explanations. "It's cold in here too, but not as cold as the mirror. How come the TARDIS is so cold?"
"Ah, well..." The Doctor is doing something with the console, not looking up. "I'm an alien, you see..."
"I know." She nods. He glances at her worriedly. "How do you know me, Paige?" He questions quietly as he goes back to whatever he is doing at the console. He knows the question may be a dangerous one, but he feels the need to ask in case the answer can help prevent her from coming back. As sweet as Paige is, the Doctor doesn't want the little girl to be wandering back and forth between Earth and Space or universes for that matter, where she might get hurt.
"My daddy and brothers and sometimes my mommy." Was the four year old's explanation. It wasn't really an explanation at all. She is distracted now by a whirring sound and a couple of lights on the console as she leans up on her tiptoes to peer up at them and try to touch one.
The Doctor blinks. He gathers that she must know him or of him, somehow through her family, but that tells him next to nothing about that. Although he has a very good idea of her method of traveling here, it doesn't tell him who she really is, how she was able to use that method of traveling, or how she knows him at all. But some things, he senses, are best left unknown. For now. So he nods and steers the TARDIS back into the vortex then turns to her.
"You have your rock there. Keep hold of it tightly." He places a hand on her shoulder and guides her upstairs to the wardrobe and full length mirror. He sonics the mirror and a warm, golden glow emanates from the mirror. Paige stares at it, and then at the Doctor. "It didn't do that last time. It stayed not glowy til I walked into it, then it was all blue, not yellow."
"That's gold, not yellow. And it doesn't work the same from this end. You walked, literally, into this world through a doorway. A doorway between dimensions. Shouldn't happen, really, but I see that it has. You just walk through there, and going by the energy signals around you, it should pull you right back to where you belong. Like a magnet to a fridge." By default, someone from another dimension's body and energy signatures calls them back to it if they are standing close enough to a doorway. It is one of the ways paradoxes often work themselves out. It is a natural setting and it can be difficult, often impossible, to escape one's own world. Much as others had come to learn the hard way.
Doorways were nothing like tears, gaps, holes, or wounds in the fabric of time and space. Doorways were already there. They were always there. It was just that nobody could walk through them because they were locked, sealed in a natural way that allowed them to be opened in only very special, set circumstances, or with a whole lot of manipulations. That a small child could get through so easily was extremely worrying to the Doctor. It meant someone had done something to allow it to happen to her and he couldn't suss out just how or why, much less who.
But he doesn't tell her that. Paige is only just beginning her life. She needs to return to her parents and their magical tales and promises of touching the stars and her big brothers who tease her and love her. She needs to go to school one day, to learn, make friends, have fun, grow up like a nice, normal human deserves. Untouched by him. He is pretty sure it could already be too late for that though. Somewhere, deep within him, he is aware that this situation is just wrong. That this isn't going to end with her simply returning home and living her happily ever after. But he made a promise to do his best to help, and to not cause harm. And this is the best way to not cause harm just now.
So he gives her a gentle nudge. "Go on. I'm sure your mum is waiting for you."
She looks up at him and smiles. "Okay, bye bye, Doctor." She skips into the mirror and disappears into the golden glow. He uses his sonic to test the doorway, to track her energy signature. He no longer finds it. She was surely safely back on the other side. He had to hope so anyway. The idea that he'd sent the child off to some unknown place was terrifying, but the doorway wouldn't have opened with her very energy trail or accepted her so easily if it wasn't the way back into her world, so he was fairly positive she was home and safe now.
He seals the energy patterns, essentially locking it back to its default position. He stares into the mirror, his own reflection looking back. "Have a good life, my mysterious little Paige." He spins around and heads back to the console. He really should go pick the Ponds up soon. It's been awhile since he's visited them.