It was a quite day, Mary still pregnant with our child when the Doctor visited. Well, of course none of us knew who he was at first, until he introduced himself as the so-called Doctor and how he wanted to meet the famous Sherlock Holmes, but after realizing he's not home—for Sherlock won't be back till two days later—, Mrs. Hudson led him to John Watson's house, which made him end up in the living room of my flat.
"Oh, and you're married!" He grinned when Mary walked in to see what all the commotion was about.
"Uh, sorry what? Have you heard of us before?" I inquired.
"You're in a book," he said, walking towards the kitchen.
I stopped in my tracks. "Oh, well, that's helpful," I stated.
"You're welcome," the Doctor said, not getting my point.
And after a few misleading guides we finally understood that he was a two-hearted alien from the ancient planet Gallifrey. Of course, we didn't really believe that until he offered to show us his time machine.
"Sure. Where is it?" Was Mary's first response. I gaped at her. She glared back. How could she possibly believe-
"Ahhh, right behind the streets," the Doctor said, pointing to somewhere behind him. "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"
We trailed behind him as he lead us through the winding paths of London until finally, we reached a blue police telephone box.
"What in the-"
"Come on, stop staring let's go!" The Doctor disappeared into the glowing box.
"I-, but it's a…" I looked at Mary in exasperation. This feels awfully childish.
Mary shrugged. She looked as lost as I am. "We have no other choice right?"
She was right. Either follow the mad man or… resume to our normal lives. Not to say, also slightly boring, lives. Anyway, what would hurt to go in?
I pushed open the wooden door.
"I… what the…" I gawked at the ceiling and open space, the spiraling neon blue tube in the middle still buzzing with energy. This is definitely bigger than a police call box. "It's…"
The Doctor urged me on to say it.
"It's… bigger on inside."
The Doctor pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! I love it when people say that!" He cheered.
"But, how is this happening?"
At the same time, Mary stared wide-eyed at the specular before her. "This is not possible," she whispered.
The Doctor made a face. "Awww, come on! It's a time machine!"
But Mary was not convinced. Instead, she stepped out the machine and walked fully around the wooden box once, making sure there was nothing behind. By the time she came back in, her face was already looking pretty flustered.
"It's true," she said, "its bigger on the inside,"
"No tricks, no invisible room, no anything?" I asked.
Mary nodded.
"Well! I guess since we're clear on that, are you ready to travel?" The Doctor said, clapping his hands together.
"I, uh… sure," I said, still quite confused on how this works.
The Doctor ran to the middle with the weird tube thingy and started working. He said he was a very good friend of Dr. Molly Hooper, traveled with her a few times, he quipped as he ran around the console flipping a few switched here and there.
"How about Sherlock?" I asked him as he continued to pressed buttons ubiquitously.
"Oh, Molly talked about him sometimes, I think she likes him," he laughed, leaning playfully against the railing. "Though, love, dating, not really my thing,"
"Sounds like Sherlock," I noted. The Doctor only smiled. "I sure would like to meet that Sherlock Holmes you always talk about," he said, "I dressed up as him once, you know, but the Ponds weren't happy,"
I was about to ask who were the 'Ponds' when the expression on the man's face stopped me. He looked like he aged ten years, the youth and ecstasy all faded away into deep scars across his face. The 'Ponds' must be close friends of his, but he lost them in a tragedy, I tried deducing. If only Sherlock were here…
"But… that was the past," he murmured softly, staring down at nothing in particular. Suddenly, the gray cloud pasted as quick as it came. "Well, ready to go to somewhere… awesome?" He asked, face brightening up again as if nothing happened.
"Oh God yes," Mary breathed, repeating the same words I had once said.
I could've sworn the grin on the Timelord's face can eclipse an entire planet. "Geronimo," he whispered. And then he pulled on a random blue lever, and the room went dark.
—
Time travel, it's an interesting topic. Around 99.9 percent of the entire population on earth hasn't experienced time travel yet. And Mary and I were that zero point one percent. I wasn't sure what was going to happen if Sherlock knew about this. About time travel, aliens with two-hearts, and live-breathing machines.
He'll have to remodel his entire mind palace to fit all those information. Sherlock's definitely going to be needing to be delete some stuff if he wants to learn about all this time-travel bozo, John thought secretly as he smiled at the memory of Sherlock not knowing that the earth revolves around the sun.
"We're here!" The Doctor cried, flinging open the door. The scenery was nothing like how I excepted. I knew space was beautiful, I've seen pictures of it before. But this, this is amazing. It's nothing like the pictures I've seen in my senior years.
The light was cast on the floating asteroids, stars sparkling like diamonds, below, above and all around. Scattered like fine dust across the vast space, each glowing orb different from the other, unique in every way. Red, blue, green, and velvet colors splashed against the dark background, mixed together creating a halo of colors.
"That… is amazing," I whispered, eyes not leaving the spectacle before me. Mary reached to take my hand and squeezed it slightly. "How is this possible?" She asked.
I could sense the glee in the Doctor's voice. "Extraterrestrial," he said proudly, like a child showing off his vocabulary. "Actually just invisible shields around the Tardis. That's why we can breathe in space. Want to go somewhere else?"
The corners of my lips tugged into a small smile. "Oh God yes," I said.
—
The next time the doors opened, a sense of different smells and spices reached my nose, the dampness of wood, the favors of someone cooking fish.
It looked like a place that rained everyday, however according to the Doctor, that wasn't the case.
"Paperclip Raintown," he said happily, swishing his arms wide to present the new place that we just arrived.
I used the tip of my shoe to test the ground. It was moist, not mushy. "It looks like it rains a lot, but why is the ground not like…"
"Rain soaked?" The Doctor suggested turning around.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," I said.
The Doctor only smiled his mischievous grin that he always puts on his face. He smiles a lot, I realized, staring at his ever growing grin.
"You'll see," he said, raising his eyebrows. He checked his watch, "Should be any time now…" he murmured.
Suddenly, there was a raucous boom, lighting the sky above, sending shutters down to the ground. The Doctor's face broke into a sun-shiny smile, despite the hovering gray beasts above.
"Ah! There is it!" He said.
"There is what?" I asked but he didn't answer. I was just about to say something again when the sky started…raining. But it wasn't any rain, not the rain that we see on earth with those big drops of crystals but weirder rain.
"What in the world…" I held out my hand to catch one. Something landed in the middle of my palm. "Is this a…" I turned the twisted metal piece in my hand, "…paperclip?"
"Well, indeed. Yes!" The Doctor looked like he can barely contain his excitement. "That's what gave this town the name: Paperclip Rain-town. Every day 6 o'clock pm, the skies will darken and it will start raining…paperclips." He said the word 'paperclips' as if it was something clandestine, something sacred in the world.
"So right now, it's raining paperclips?" I asked just to be sure.
"Why yes my dear Watson!" The Doctor clapped my back. "Amazing isn't it?"
I had to agree it was quite amazing, and not to say, weird, but what can be normal when you're traveling with a two-hearted alien? The paperclips are now falling more torrentially, hitting the ground like tiny music notes. They dug in my hair, light metal clips resting on my head creating a tingling sensation. I held out my hands and some dropped softly onto my stretched out palms. It felt like a tiny massage, the round bent iron kneading into my skin.
"Ready to meet some of the townspeople?" The Doctor asked after while.
I smiled at him. There was really no answer to that actually. We follow the mad man as he bounded before us like a ten-year old child.
"Come along Watsons!" He said. "It time to meet some very-good-at-cooking people!"
—
We went to meet the towns-people. They were kind, a bit like Mrs. Hudson, from my perspective, pestering you with their biscuits and herbal tea, asking whether you want more or not. We had dinner with them, fish, bread, potatoes, just a typical normal dinner, and we decided that it was time to leave before Sherlock, or any other fretful neighbors, gets worried.
It was till the sky began to darken when we finally reached the glowing blue Tardis, humming gently around the corner of a building.
"I would like to remind you that my Tardis is a time machine!" He exclaimed, raising a finger to prove his point.
"Doctor, we've already been out with you for an entire day, and Mary needs to go home and rest," I said. The Doctor only frowned. Mary shoot me an indignant expression of, 'I'm not tired' face.
I sighed. "Let's just go home, I need to rest too," I told the Doctor. "You can stay for tea if you want,"
The Doctor did a little happy jump. "To the Tardis!" He cried, pointing to his beloved box. We followed him into the time machine.
"Well, you've got the address right?"
"Of course John, how could I forget?" He pushed down on a random button. The familiar wheezing noise started once again, filling the air with it's mythical sound.
"There we go!" The Doctor said happily, jiggling some jolly stick. "All is fine!"
The ground started shaking.
"Uh… are you sur-" I was interrupted by a loud explosion from the main console. The shock was so great it sent the Doctor flying back and Mary and I to the railings. Sparks flew ever where around the middle and above, showering us like tiny meteorites.
"What is going on Doctor?" I shouted over the creaking and small outbursts all around me. Red light flashed from above, like the kind of fire alarms in the large buildings.
"I don't know!" Was the Doctor's reply.
I groaned and went to search for Mary. If she's hurt… I couldn't imagine what it will be like without her. Would my life resume to the time I believed Sherlock was dead? No, I must not think those thoughts, concentrate on what is happening now.
"Mary!" I yelled.
"Here!" A figure was clinging to the rails like me, holding on for life. "I'm fine!" She decided to add, probably just to reassure me. As if the phrase worked, it felt like a metal slab was lifted off my chest.
"Oh, thank God," I breathed. I began crawling towards her. Meanwhile, the Doctor was running around like a manic yelling;
"No! NO NO NO! No! Nononononono NONONONONO Awwwww comeon! Sexy!"
While trying to get near the center. Insanely, he managed to make it to the panel, stumbling like a drunkard.
"Ok, this better, work!" He pulled down on some red lever with the words, "Only when you really need it!" stuck on there. A simple "emergency lever' would be fine. Or perhaps that wasn't an emergency lever…
The ground shuddered to a stop.
It felt like everybody stopped breathing at once as we lapsed into silence. Dark gray smoke filled the Tardis interior, creating some kind of screen between the Doctor and I. Mary was still slightly visible to my right, only a few yards away. Flashing lights spun above us, silence filling the atmosphere that we so quietly stood in.
And then, "Well, that went well, didn't it?" The Timelord's optimistic voice floated in the air. "I mean, at least nobody got hurt or anything?"
He stepped out of the smoke, face entirely blackened by soot and hair looking like a nest for birds.
"An explosion caught me off guard," the Doctor explained.
"Uh, okay, I see," I nodded. "Um, so… is your Tardis working now? Like, what just happened back there?"
"Oh, nothing much,"
Nothing much?
"we crashed into something, that's all."
That's all?
"Happens lots of time, don't worry, I'll get things fixed!" The Doctor began scrambling down.
"Wa-wait, then when will we land?" I asked.
The Doctor stuck his head back up again. "Awww, comeon Ponds, bear with me," he moaned.
I knitted my eyebrows together. "Sorry, what?"
"What?" The Doctor went back to fixing whatever he was fixing down below.
"It's just I…" the words were taken out of my mouth when I saw Mary's look.
He lost many important people if his life, so lets just give him a bit time okay? Mary's expression seem to say. I nodded and Mary smiled.
"Well, we landed somewhere didn't we?" Mary pipped up, forgetting about the mysterious 'Ponds'.
A hand emerged from the wreckage like the small white surrender flags you see in cartoons. \
"Ahh, yes indeed Mary, we have landed somewhere, but that shouldn't be the least of my concerns, just somewhere in London, that's all, 2016 I think, maybe a few days later since the day I took you guys, you know, on second thoughts maybe I'll just send you guys here, anybody there's only a two day difference…"
But Mary wasn't listening. Instead, she started making for the set of closed doors, sealing the world lying behind.
"Er… Mary, I think we should just…"
"It's Earth right? It's not like some alien race is going to catch us and send us to prison or something. Plus I want to see where we landed."
"Well…"
The Doctor popped his head back up. "You've got a point," he said.
"But still we have to take precautions who knows what's out there… Mary?" It was too late. She opened the door.
And to our three's astonishment, a familiar voice rang through, breaking me from all my thoughts. The baritone voice was so distinct there was no doubt it was the man that once lived with me. Yet he said something that I never thought in my whole life that I'm living he would ever say. One single word, that will change everything.
"Dad?"
Bum bum buuuuum! Hey guys, Izzy here! Please review, I need to know whether I should continue or not! If not a lot of people like it I won't continue so… yeah.