SYNOPSIS: The memoir of Kathryn Grace Stotsky and how a man in a blue box changed her life.
Of Blue Boxes and Time lords (Part One)
You know, Kung Fu Panda made being the chosen one look so easy. A prophecy foretold that you are going to make or break a situation and the fate of the universe is in your hands. It may sound cool, but it's not. You're not gonna be loved by everyone. You're not gonna beat the bad guy and get the Medal of Honor, or any of that fairytale bullshit. It's hard. You're gonna make some friends and maybe make some good decisions, but you're also faced with manipulation, hard decisions, and loads of enemies (and sometimes allies) trying to screw you over.
All right, I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Kathryn Stotsky. Just like Po or Harry or any other chosen one you see, I didn't start out as a very popular figure, even if I was a white, blue-eyed blonde. After a traumatic event from my childhood, my parents forced me to move to London, so I could live with my uncle. Not only was I from a different country (which often translates to another planet), but I was a little... off. I could barely remember names or faces or even lessons. Almost all the other kids avoided me. My mother and father barely kept in touch with me. Even when they did, they acted like people working at a mental ward than actual parents.
Wait. Don't click that x button just yet. This story isn't really all about me being a poor little white girl. This is about me and how a blue box showed me my fate.
When I was 12, I met my first friend. He was called the Doctor. He's from a planet called Gallifrey and can travel through space and time. He told me he'd come back when I was older to show me the rest of it. Years past until the Christmas before I turned 17. My first friend came back and needed my help, again. After we were done, he told me I was one of the best and that he might have to bring me along, one day.
I waited and waited for him to come back, until it got tiring. After a few months, I knew it was time to move on. I graduate from high school, but my family couldn't afford to send me to college. I moved in with Fiona, one of my best friends from school, and I began to work multiple jobs. I worked at a café in the morning and a bar at night. Somehow, in between all that, I still managed to keep some of my friends. I was juggling my life, well. I even gained a boyfriend. His name is Cyrus Anderson and I met him at a bar I was working at. We'd been going out for about a year and I was still keeping everything balanced.
And then, my past came back. This time, it came with a bowtie.
I was working at the bar. It's called The Crying Lizard (don't ask me how they got the name I honestly don't know). Things were going normally. I was serving drinks, boys were whistling at me, and I had to restrain people from having anymore drinks. While mixing the drinks, I heard someone tapping the bar table. I looked up and saw my boss, Daniel Cooper. He was my first neighbor and he's the one who offered me the job, when I told him I needed work. He was in his late 30s, with pasty skin, hazel eyes, and round cheeks, always wore stripped polo shirts, and constantly tried to pick up women at the bar. I wonder if he only took this job so that he could get laid.
"What is it, sir?" I asked, while smirking.
"Kat, one of the groups got too drunk, so I'm going to be taking them home, tonight. Do you mind closing shop?" he asked.
I stopped mixing and gave him a weird look. "All right. But you better only take them home." Mr. Cooper always calls me his conscience because I always remind him to leave the drunken people alone. I think that's why I didn't get fired for so long. I was kind of a terrible employee.
The night drew to an end, and some of the other bartenders helped the people really drunk get home, safely. I was busy wiping down the bars and barstools a little bit. The people who work here in the earlier shifts have to wipe them down, so I thought to give them a head start.
Mr. Cooper walked by and put the keys on the bar. "I'll be by you place tomorrow morning to pick up the keys," he said. I nodded, without looking at him. "Have a good night, Kathryn!" He walked out of the bar and I was alone. I put the keys in my pocket and went down to the cellar to do a stock check of all the alcohol. However, someone was nice enough to do it for me. Still, I went in and did a quick double check. As I was near the margarita mixers, I heard a squeak noise coming from behind me. I turned around, but no one was there. The floors were old, and I continued the quick check and didn't find any errors. So, I left cellar and started to head for the exit.
However, before I exited, I saw something standing in front of the door. The silhouette looked like an adult man. I didn't panic. I thought it was someone trying to order a drink. We get some of them wandering in, after hours. "I'm sorry, sir, but we're closed. I'm just about to close up shop. You can come back again, tomorrow!"
He didn't respond.
I tried to talk to him, again. "I'm sorry, but we're closed! I can't do anything about it."
He walked slowly towards me.
I began to feel worried. "Sir, if you don't leave, I'll have to call the police."
He didn't stop. Thinking he might attack, I started running around looking for a blunt object. By some sheer bit of luck, there was a crowbar by my feet. I picked it up and held it like a baseball bat. "Don't come closer! I've got a crowbar! I'm not afraid to use it!" Yes, that line sounded a lot more bad-ass in my head.
The creature came into the light. He didn't have eyes. He didn't have a nose. He didn't have any facial features. He was just a white head. He also had this unearthly glow around him. This wasn't someone who stumbled into to get a drink. I backed up and backed up swinging the crowbar in front of me. On the third or fourth swing, that thing grabbed it and threw it behind itself. And there wasn't anything I could use as a weapon near me. I continued to back up and back up. And then I hit the wall. The creature lifted its arms right in front of me, glazed with scales and wearing a fine set of claws on its hands.
I closed my eyes, waiting for it to end. And then, I felt someone grab my right hand. I looked to the right. He only said one word.
"Run."
He pulled my arm and I ran behind him, with the claws barely grazing my face. I could hear its slow footsteps behind me. And then, I heard a few whooshing sounds. I managed to look behind me and whatever tried to kill me was multiplying. That moment was all I needed to pick up the speed until I was running right along with my rescuer. Then I realized I didn't even know who it was.
I was running out of breath, but I managed to ask him one question "I'm sorry for asking at an inconvenient time, but where are we going?"
He shot me a confused look. "What, does it really matter where we're going? You were being attacked by an alien who wanted you dead! You're going to safety!"
As we made it down the stairs into the cellar, he pushed something in front of the doorway. At the far end of the room, there was an exit. It was those doors you push open and then you're outside. My rescuer pushed on the inside of the doors until it managed to open. We looked behind us and the creature and its copies broke down the door. Not wanting to waste time, he picked me up and ran out of the cellar. He kicked the doors closed and pushed a garbage can over the doors with his legs.
He set me down on my feet, stood back, and looked at his work. I finally got a good look at him. He had long legs, wore a bowtie, and had hair that flopped over his forehead. He straightened his bowtie. "Well, what a way to meet someone, again!" he said, as he laughed.
I had only known this guy for a few minutes and I was all ready confused. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
He looked back up at me. "You don't remember me?" He then hit himself. "Stupid! Of course you don't remember me! I've changed a lot since you last saw me. New body, new sonic, new time machine, new everything! But you! You're still the same brave little Kathryn! Well, you're not really little anymore. You're all grown up!"
"Stop it!" I yelled. I calmed myself down. I didn't mean to sound so irate. "I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know who you are. How do you know my name?"
He pulled something out of his inside pocket. It was some sort of device I've never seen before. It was gold and silver, with a little green ball on the end of it. "Maybe this will jog your memory." He pointed the thing at the trashcan, pressed a button, and the door flew open. "It's very good at opening doors." The sound it made was very familiar. I knew I had seen this somewhere before but in a different form. Wait, what did he say before? He said something about a soni-
"Doctor?!" I said, in shock.
He laughed. "I knew you'd catch on! By the way, why were you in there by yourself?"
"My boss asked me to close up, tonight," I answered.
"Perfect!" He grabbed my hand and we ran to the front of the building. "You lock the doors from the outside, right?" I nodded. "Great. I'll go inside and deal with the monster. All you have to do is lock the doors. Don't worry. I have an escape plan, ready. You can just run along home and drink your tea." He ran inside the doors. I was about to lock up, but he came back and opened the door slightly. "Oh, by the way. Don't tell anyone about this. Say that some teenagers did it." He ran back inside. I locked the door and walked down the street. As I got halfway down, a bright, red light appeared behind me. I started to smell smoke. I turned around and the bar was on fire. That gave me enough reason to run back home.
As I unlocked the door to my apartment, I knew Fiona would be there, waiting for me. Fiona Quincy, like I said, has been my friend since high school. She has curly, red hair, olive skin, and pale green eyes. She almost always has a smile on her face and is generally nice and positive to anyone she meets. When I told her I needed a roommate, she happily let me stay with her. While I do love her, she can be a bit… clingy and overly-excited. When she hears something bad happened at a place I was going to, she'd warn me about it and try to convince me not to go. I could only imagine what she'd be like if she found out the bar I worked at was on fire.
My suspicions were correct.
As soon as I closed the door, she ran up to me and gave me a hug. "Kathryn! I was so worried about you!" she exclaimed. I'm not too crazy about being tightly hugged, so I simply patted her back. "Why were you there, alone? The bar closed an hour ago!"
I managed to push her off me. I am grateful to have a friend like her, but I need my space. Especially after the surprise I got down at the bar. "My boss told me to lock up. I heard some giggling when I locked the door and I think some teenagers got in and decided to blow the place up."
She gasped and put her hands on my shoulder. "Are you sure you're all right? I mean, you might have some burns or something like that."
"Fiona, I'm fine. I was halfway down the street when it caught on fire. I don't have to go to a hospital. I just… got a bit of a scare." She let out a sigh of relief and walked into the kitchen.
"Do you want any tea or hot chocolate? You surely need something to calm you down," she said, while she pulled out the tea kettle.
"No, I'm probably just going to go to bed. I think I just need some rest."
"Oh. Okay! See you in the morning!"
I didn't really do much sleeping, that night. Once the lights in the kitchen went out, I started digging through my closet until I finally found the red toy box my uncle gave me, for my birthday. It was rough around the edges, but was still in good shape. I opened it up and there were all the drawings and sculptures I did of the TARDIS. After I first met the Doctor, the TARDIS utterly dominated my 8th grade drawings. I managed to work it into everything I did. My uncle was called in for a meeting just because the art teacher wanted to know what it meant. I didn't tell her the truth. I knew she'd think I was insane. I told her that it was in a story I read, when I was little. It was about a man who traveled through space and time in that blue box. She called me clever. All those drawings is what got people to start talking to me. Great. I have another thing to thank the Doctor for.
HEY! Thanks for reading this! It's the introduction chapter and this is the first, big fanfic I've ever written, so I apologize if you didn't think it was incredibly strong. I know I'm not a fantastic writer. If you have any tips, I would so greatly appreciate them. This is only the first part because the entirety of the chapter was probably too much to take in at once. Hopefully, when you put the parts together, it'll feel like a complete episode of the show. Even though, again, I am not as competent of a writer as the great Steven Moffat is.
The whole vibe of the story is supposed to feel like a memoir of sorts. You know, something Kathryn wrote after all this shit happened to her. That's why there's some of the exposition and commentary and there isn't much of anything outside of her pov. When the adventures actually start, I might write a few extra scenes, so you can get the complete experience. It wouldn't make much sense for Kathryn to know the exact events of what happened at a place she wasn't there to see. Again, I hope to make this feel like an episode.
Thank you again for reading this! Constructive criticism and tips are always welcome! Take care!
- Anne (obiwanskenobi)