London.
Oh London!
What an interesting place, what a crowd, what sights! Oh London!
The Doctor grinned as he looked up at the hightops of buildings, the Time Lord was walking pretty fast for having nothing important or pressing to do. Maybe it had a lot to do with the kid pestering him? Probably.
"And so there I was, sittin' on my butt and then BAM. Little fat, cute, white things walking around! It was awesome! Epic. Truely epic. I thought, 'holy cheese balls, I might have finally found it-"
"Found what exactly?"
"Oi! Man, have you been listening? I was talking about space invaders. Extra-terrestrials. What is wrong with people?"
"...Extra...Extra-terrestrials?"
"Alien is a bit rude, don't you think?"
"Yeah, yeah actually I do. It is rude." The Doctor said, stopping in his tracks and turning to face the mild annoyance tagging along, babbling about. He eyed her with interest. Starting at the feet.
She wore boys skater shoes, tounges hanging out and puffy. Skinny dark washed jeans, a slate gray...or black? Blackgray. A vivid white belt adorned with rainbow studs, a blue t-shirt with a cat, or a poptart? A poptart cat...pooing...a rainbow? Was that- nevermind. Her skin was pale, but not a sickly pale. Dark brown hair pulled in a pony tail, bangs framing the sides of her face and slightly covering her right eye. Bright excited icy blue eyes all offset by the formal black tail coat and white dress gloves she wore. On her back, he noticed, was a backpack resembling a robot. She appeared to be around 12 years old. Ahhhhh London.
"What on Earth are you wearing?"
Her face fell, "I thought I looked pretty dapper myself."
"Nonononono- you do, you definately do. Trust me. Ah sorry, uhm, what did you say your name was?"
"You really haven't been listening to a word I've said! Sheesh, now I'll have to start all over again and I never even wrote it all down. It's Arwen, Arwen Falon. And you are sir?"
"The Doctor. Pleasure meeting you...ah, formally...Arwen Falon." He smirked at her tail coat again.
"Hmhmm. Anyways. As I was trying to say earlier before I had to jog all around London after a weird man in a weird coat- this is serious stuff. Do you know how many people don't believe in space invaders? UFOs? Extra-terrestrial annomalies?"
The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, "Welllllll, what do you believe Arwen?" He fumbled over her calling him weird, his coat weird, had she looked in a mirrior lately?
"I haven't a clue! I'm no expert, I'm just a fan." She wavved her gloved hands in the air for emphasis, blue eyes wide.
"A fan? Really? Like, cheering meuh theuh...Alienssss on?"
"I told you. Alien is rude. And quite right yes, I want to go up there one day. I want to see things! I know there has to be so much more than this, way more. I think I'd just at least want to have a casual sit down with an ET, at least one question!" She trailed off, seemingly forgetting the Time Lord was even there, addressing herself.
"Hello then. Arwen, Arwen Falon. Do you like..." He dropped his words, kids didn't drink coffee, didn't like tea, "...Smoothies?" he uttered out.
Her lips cracked into a huge smile and she regained her awareness, "Hell yes! On you?"
"Ahhhh why not? Sure, on me. Lead the way." He stepped aside and gestured in front of him, Arwen wasting no time in bouncing ahead.
...
They sat outside on a park bench, The Doctor's long brown coat underneath him as he tasted a spoonful of bananna smoothie, the kid already finished hers.
"So, Miss Falon, if you only had one question to ask a, uh, 'ET' what would it be then?"
"Don't laugh at me, but I'm no scientist or anything special. My question probably isn't important at all."
"Noooo, everyone's special. Questions are always important."
She looked at him, almost in quiet thanks before she grew fidgety and hyper again, "I'd want to know what they did for fun. Like, what do they do all day? Or in their free time? Are they like humans? Do they play games or?" she spun her spoon around in her empty smoothie cup.
The Doctor whistled and let out a light laugh, "I think, that you, have asked the best question. Personal opinion, but ahhh does it really matter either way? It's a good question. I like that question."
"...you do?"
"Course I do! It's honestly a great question Arwen, simply fantastic! Speaking from...from...it doesn't matter. Generally speaking, I'd say they'd never stop exploring. Keep on going, visit other planets y'know? There's an awful lot of space out there. Traveling. That's what I'd do."
She kicked back on the bench, resting her head on the iron opposite of him, putting her feet up while The Doctor scooted over to make room- lest she rest her shoes on his coat. "That's...the best answer. I think."
"Welp, Miss Falon, I must be going. Pleasure talking with you. Where's your parents? I'll take you back home." He stood from the bench, tossing his smoothie cup into the trash can.
Arwen swung her legs off the resting place and stood up stretching, "My mom left when I was ten, and I've never met my dad. I live in my Grandma's place. It's overrrrrrrrr there." she said brightly pointing behind them, but it was obvious she meant a few blocks down. Not a trace of sadness, bitterness, anger, or anything other than blissful ignorance when she mentioned her disadvantages.
The Doctor went stiff for a moment as he reguarded the girl, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." he said gently.
But she didn't hear. "C'mon! Allons-y~"
"Allons-y?"
"It's French, it means 'let's go.'" she blinked, he stared, "I know."
...
The flat was small, but cozy. When they entered the tv was on cartoons, and something was violently burning on the stove.
"Noooooo!" Arwen exclaimed panicked as she hurled herself over the back of the sofa, dashing into the small kitchen, turning the burner off and wavving a hand over all the smoke.
The Doctor held his arm up to his mouth to block the smoke as he joined her, "I'm surprised the fire alarm hasn't gone off." he coughed.
"This happens a lot, so I disabled them." She wrinkled her nose, lifting the lid off the pot and sighing dejectedly, "There goes my dinner."
"Right. Uh, where's your Gran?" he spun in a small circle until he found the kitchen window, he pulled it open.
"She doesn't live here anymore, she's in the nursing home, they were going to take her flat but she wouldn't let them touch a thing! Said she would pay until she was dead! She's awesome!" Arwen elaborated with glee.
"Oh. Mind if I ask why a strong woman like herself is doing in a nursing home?"
"She has breast cancer, but it's alright, my Gran is a fighter and there are tons of people out there working on a cure. So it won't be long until she's back home." Arwen gave him a thumbs up sign, and his two hearts thudded dully in his chest.
"W-when was this? How long...?"
"Two years, but I visited her last week, I can only visit once a week or it looks suspicious. I'm not really supposed to be living here alone, being a minor and all. I was going to visit her again, this evening, wanna come? Gran would love to meet you sir." The girl's eyes looked hopeful and she was facing him now, bracing herself for an answer.
He let out a breath and smiled a bit, "Sure thing."
...
Hospitals were so depressing. This wasn't a nursing home The Doctor thought glumly, it was a hospital. Were people came when they were sick, or dying or maybe just having a baby. Everything was sterile, bright, white and eye burning. The air smelt funny and the silence was unnerving. He quickly realized that he didn't really want to be here.
"This is it!" Arwen chirped, pushing open a door into a patient room.
Inside was much more comfortable. There was a small tv mounted on the wall, the antique road show playing on it, a daybed by the window covered with small stuffed animals holding hearts that read things like 'get well soon'. Flowers covered alomst every surface, making the small room smell sweet. A hospital bed was in the middle of the room, it had knitted quits on top of a white cotton blanket, underneath a frail elderly woman was sleeping peacefully. She looked sick, ghostly pale and delicate. Like glass. Pictures and drawings and letters covered the wall behind her, The Doctor couldn't help but notice all of them were from Arwen or the hospital staff.
"Gran, I've got someone here to meet you! He's really weird, but don't mind it, he's okay." Arwen whispered in the woman's ear quietly, she sat on the floor next to the bed. The Time Lord smiled, "What's her name?"
"Patricia."
"It's an honor to meet you Patricia, I'm The Doctor." He said gently, standing next to Arwen by the bedside. He looked down at the girl, he knew now, she was pretending.
It must have been hard when her mom left her behind, soon after her Grandmother having to come here. But she was trying to be strong, to not feel anything at all. Arwen Falon knew her Grandmother wasn't ever coming home, anyone with eyes could look and see. He wondered what would happen to the girl after her Gran died, they would take her flat for sure after that, Arwen would be discovered with no where to go. All alone. Just like him.
...
"Thank you for that Arwen." The Doctor said, his glasses sitting on his nose as they walked down the sidewalk.
"No, thank you, no one really comes to visit her besides me." Her large round blue orbs were on him, flicking back and forth. The tails on her formal wear flapped behind her.
"Maybe I'll come back to visit you both next week too." He spoke without thinking, it just felt like the right thing to say. He thought he should.
"Really? You mean that?" Arwen gasped excitedly, "That would be amazing if you could, I mean, it does get lonely without someone to talk to."
"...I know."
...
I don't own Doctor Who.