Chapter 1 – Goodbye Rory
It began in the middle of the night, as do all great friendships begin.
At a quarter past eleven in the soggy air of Leadworth, a raggedy man walked away from a girl who had ginger hair. The sound of his boots squishing noisily as he walked could have been heard two doors away. Perhaps little Amelia would have heard it had she not been filled with excitement and wonder and an insatiable hunger to return to bed and dream of her future with dinosaurs and Romans.
Perhaps the Doctor would have noticed and parked the TARDIS slightly nearer had he not been stricken with grief.
He walked slow lethargic steps, savouring the last he could of his dear Amelia Pond - the cold night air, the orange petunias that peppered the edge of the garden, the aura of the house that had too many doors, the cracks that defined Amy – that led him here. That led him crash landing to this very place – this very spot. In fact, he could almost hear the squishing of her little red boots now, scurrying towards his broken blue box.
The Doctor let himself stand there for a moment – allowing himself to reminisce before shutting himself and filing the place 'Leadworth' in his TARDIS under lock and key.
Squish. Squish. Squish. Squish.
What? The Doctor turned on his heel and looked down. That particular flashback had ended two minutes ago. He narrowed his eyes at the wet soil before him. That was definitely not the sound of Amelia Pond. He waited for a few more minutes before actually following what the instructions on the TARDIS door said and pulled to open.
Maybe he was hallucinating. He rubbed a hand over his face. His skin was clammy and cold and all in all thoroughly uncomfortable. He could almost hear the voices of Amy, River and even Brian.
"This is what you get when you travel alone."
And the Doctor couldn't help but muse that it had hardly been an hour since River had left. He already felt like dying.
The TARDIS hummed in discontent and the Doctor found himself moving towards the console. His fingers flicking, twisting, pressing knobs and buttons in what a real doctor might have called muscle memory. After his ritual, he stroked the console endearingly. "No offense, Sexy."
The TARDIS groaned and shook again in a state of utter annoyance. The Doctor gripped at whatever he could hold on to as Sexy continued to bellow him with moans and rumbles and incomprehensible words that he was relieved only he understood.
"What do mean there's an intruder?!" he gritted out.
His eyes searched the room desperately. "Come out whoever you are! Seriously. Show yourself! When the old girl gets cross, well let's leave it at that…!"
He reached for his sonic and managed a hasty scan. He could barely read the detections before a loud low whining sound interrupted the TARDIS's rampage.
The whining soon turned into short ragged pants and before the Doctor (and the TARDIS) knew it, full-blown barking echoed across the room.
"No. NO! Stop! For the sake of Gallifrey!" the Doctor shut his ears, suddenly finding it difficult to regain his bearings.
And quite unsurprisingly, the barking became increasingly louder.
The Doctor eventually found the source of the chaos hidden under the console floor- tangled amongst the mass of colourful wires which even the Doctor felt, were there for more purpose of decoration.
He hurried down the stairs and attempted to untangle it. The big hairy creature was wrestling and toppling and together with the Doctor, they made a combination of flailing limbs – which would have made a beautiful picture if Amy was there; who probably would have entitled it ' First Pet' for family keepsake. After what seemed like a century of uncoordinated teamwork, man and dog managed to untangle themselves from the wires and each other.
"You've got to be joking. A dog!" The Doctor exclaimed in the aftermath of having his personal space (if he had any) invaded by a slobbering ball of fur. The TARDIS, however, couldn't have agreed more.
The Doctor successfully managed to transport the dog upstairs with commendable ease compared to his previous physical encounter with it. In fact, he managed to secure it to the rail using a leash the TARDIS had conveniently supplied. Perhaps this dog wasn't too bad…. After all, animals are nice. Dogs are companionable even…
But where did it come from? Why did it follow me? Sexy let it in even though she knew she was allergic?
The Doctor ended up a few feet away from the dog due to his pacing while the dog continued to stare expectantly at him. Its big doe eyes following his every movement.
When the Doctor finally remembered the dog's presence (and his manners), he asked politely, "What's your name?"
The intelligent reply he expected never came. Instead the dog continued to gaze at him in awe. It almost always looked like it was thoroughly fascinated.
"Hmm… I suppose I've lost touch of that language," he said thoughtfully reminding himself to get the TARDIS to refresh his memory.
"For now, let's have a look see." He reached for thick band of leather nestled beneath the blanket of fur. With his hands groping through its never ending mass of soft fur, the Doctor found the dog rather comfortable.
He read the label, "Ginger is your name, apparently."
The Doctor couldn't have helped to feel slightly jealous. He gave the dog a once over before declaring "Well, you are actually a dull shade of brown," he pointed out.
He inspected the collar some more and noticed with quiet surprise that written on the band with thick black marker was, 'If lost, please return to Rory Arthur Williams.'
The Doctor stared at the writing for a while. It was neat and adult that it must have been belonged to Brian.
Oh little Rory.
And suddenly, he felt enourmously unhappy and a little guilty. Well, if this is what it takes to move on.
The Doctor never believed in fate and destiny. But he did believe in hope and perhaps this indeed was.
The TARDIS hadn't moved and as the Doctor stared at the closed doors that would have led them back to Leadworth, he decided that this dog was going to see so much more than that.
"I'm going to call you the Nose, if you don't mind," said the Doctor.
Ginger didn't mind at all. (well at least, not at the moment.)