AN: This is my second fan fiction, and my first Doctor Who publication. I plan to make each chapter after this equivalent to one "episode" of Nova's adventures. Feel free to recommend things you'd like to see in upcoming chapters! Please read and review!
My name is November. I was born on the fifth of April 1994, and it was on my third birthday when I first saw the man with the box.
Mum and I had gone out shopping for some reason. I remember I was too little to see much of anything except the bottom of the brown bookshelves. I pretended my hand was a horse that ran along every shelf within reach, taking impossible leaps to reach the next and the next. The wooden maze became a playground for me, and soon the safety of my mother's side was left far behind. Quite suddenly I realized that Mum would be worried about me, and I began to panic. And, as small children tend to do, I cried. Loudly.
Stumbling around, blinded by the tears, it wasn't long before I smacked into something that was definitely not a bookshelf. Hiccupping, I wiped my eyes and stared at this new thing that was so impossibly blue. The surface felt rough beneath my fingers, but warm as well. As if the wood had some benevolent force breathing life into the grain. Then the door slammed open.
I leapt about a foot back and fell smack onto my backside, eliciting another wave of tears. Warm hands of a large figure scooped me up and held me out at arms length. Through the salty film on my eyes I could make out a man with floppy brown hair and something bright red sitting haphazardly on his head. "Hello," he said, quite calmly. "Where've you come from?"
Once more I brushed away the tears with tiny fists. "I've lost my mummy," I told him.
Instantly his hands pulled me in against his strong chest. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll find her. And I know just how to do it!" He lifted me up and sat me on his shoulders. My face just popped up from behind the red hat. "Hold on tight!" Arms stretched wide, the strange man started making airplane noises and "flying" all around the store. Every time we approached another adult, he'd pretend to use a radio to ask if they'd seen my mum, then wheel away again when they said they hadn't. I was giggling happily when we spotted her, searching franticly though the Children's Section. "Target acquired! Pilot going in for the landing!" he exclaimed. We skidded down onto the landing strip and parked just in front of my confused Mum.
"Thank you for flying TARDIS Airlines, your pilot this morning was The Doctor. Please exit the aircraft carefully and enjoy the rest of you day!" His warm hands handed me back to my desperate, laughing, mother. Before leaving he took hold of my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. "If you ever need me, just ask the TARDIS to bring you the Doctor. She'll keep you safe." With that he vanished back into the maze of the store and, I suppose, into his wonderful box.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Five years later the Doctor and his strange antics were becoming a distant memory when, in the middle of a vacation to Ireland, my sister and I were attacked by flying… things. We'd been taking a tour of an old castle and, being mischievous children with great imagination, had decided to play tag through the out-of-bounds area. We pretended we were princesses playing in the basement of our own home, until Avery turned on the lights.
The winged things were everywhere. They had lizard-like bodies and very sharp looking teeth. My sister screamed in terror, but I, being more levelheaded when it came to panicking, grabbed her hand and sprinted for the stairwell. The lizards followed, snapping and hissing at our heels. My fingers stretched to push open the door to the stairway, only to find that this was a different door. Beyond it was just another musty hall leading deeper into the old ruin. Heedless, I kept running. There had to be a way out somewhere.
As was bound to happen, the cobblestone floor eventually tripped us up. Avery went tumbling down, dragging me with her. Just before I hit my head, I remembered what the strange Doctor had said. "Ask the TARDIS to bring you the Doctor." His name, screamed from my lips, was cut off with a thunk as I hit the floor and passed out.
A weird wheezing noise assaulted my ears as I regained consciousness. Then came the feel of a warm body picking me up and taking me outside into the blinding daylight. The Doctor set me down with my back propped against a crumbling stone wall and went back inside, returning just a minute later with my sister, who was still out cold. I blinked up at him. He didn't have his hat on this time, but other than that he looked the same. Maybe a little more confused than last time. "Hello, Doctor. Are you going to leave us now?" I asked.
"You know me…." He seemed genuinely astonished by that realization.
"Of course, you helped me find my Mum when I was little. In a bookstore?"
"No, nope, never did that," he insisted. Then he paused. "Well, I haven't yet, but you say it and you know me so I must have done it, or rather I must do it, and probably soon I would suppose, but not necessarily. How old are you?"
"Eight and one week," I replied. My head was still spinning a little, so I couldn't quite make sense of whatever he'd just said. Or maybe he just wasn't making sense.
"And how old will you be when I rescue you in a bookstore?"
"Three. Exactly three, it was my birthday."
"Good, good. I'll keep that in mind. Must help little girl find mother in a bookstore. Never done that before." He smiled at me. "But I guess I should, shouldn't I? Well then, I'll be off."
With that he disappeared into his box again. The whirring noise picked up and with a rush of wind the man and his box were gone.
But the story isn't over yet. It's barely even started. Ten years later I asked the TARDIS to bring him back again. I didn't have anywhere else to turn. So I called the Doctor, and he took me away.
