"Come on, come on…" She muttered, peering down the road for the bus. It wasn't there, so she continued to mutter, bouncing slightly on her heels and glaring at the divers zipping past her. If it hadn't been for those road works she would've passed her driving test, and would be sitting comfortably and smugly in a fashionable car, rather than waiting for a notoriously late bus in the pouring rain. There wasn't a shelter at this particular stop, and her umbrella didn't quite cover her heavy backpack. She bit her lip, worrying about the mass of work she had in there.
At last, the bus rounded the corner. She waved at it madly, it slowed, and then went straight past, splashing her. Biting back an uncharacteristic profanity, she glared once more at the timetable. Another one wasn't due for half an hour. The person standing next to her slouched against the lamppost, and began tapping an irritating rhythm on the metal. Duh-de-de-duh. Duh-de-de-duh.
Vote Saxon.
Jumping, she looked widely around. Just two words, and yet they came from nowhere, in the screaming colours of an election campaign. And that rhythm, like a long-forgotten tune from her childhood. Always there, in the back of her mind, and yet it was impossible to put her finger on where they came from. And who the hell was this Saxon bloke, anyway? A echo of manic laughter, and one word. Doctor…
Duh-de-de-duh. She jumped again, and glared at the offender. He grinned at her, turned his blaring heavy metal music up another notch, and settled back against the lamppost once more. Irritation levels very high now, she looked down the road, and back at her watch, demanding to know what the delay was.
Only ten minutes had gone by.
Her phone rang suddenly, and she fumbled with the umbrella and her bag for a few moments, before the boy next to her took the umbrella, with a small smile.
"Yeah?" She said breathlessly.
"Kath, hi, it's me." Smiling, Katherine took her umbrella back mouthing thanks at the metal-head, her phone balanced on her shoulder. 'Me', was the voice of Adrian, nicest, smartest, cutest boy on the planet. And he happened to be in love with her.
"Hi, you alright?" She asked, hardly pausing for breath before regaling him with her story. "So, tell Prof. Litton I'll be late, okay?"
"Yeah, listen Kath, I just…Well, I just wanted to say, it's not really working between us, is it?"
Time seemed to stop. Metal-Head looked at her curiously. She wondered what her face was like. Turning away from the boy, she hissed into the phone. "What? What do you mean?"
"Well, you know…Kath, this was never like a forever thing."
"But you…Are you dumping-are you dumping me?!" She demanded, feeling the heat rise in her face.
"Not really dumping Kath, more like…setting you free."
"Free to do what, exactly?!"
"Well, you know, whatever…Anyway, I've got to go, I'm meeting Sophia before lectures."
"Wait, Sophia-" She fell silent as the phone beeped. He'd hung up on her. She groaned quietly, banging her head off the bus timetable.
"Woah, woah," Metal-head grabbed her arms, easing her away before she could do more damage. "Come on, lets get out of here. Forget lectures. Lets have lunch." Katherine allowed herself to be dragged along, not really knowing or caring where they were going.
She was only roused when they met a strange man lying on the pavement in what looked like pyjamas, arms and legs spread-eagled, staring up at the clouds where the sun should be.
"Um…" Metal-head lent over him. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine thanks." The stranger said, smiling blandly.
"What are you doing?" Katherine asked.
"Waiting for the sun." He looked at them at last, as if to demand why further explanation should be necessary. "Problem?"
"…No…" Metal-head said slowly, and began dragging Katherine away again.
*
"So…" Metal-head began after they were sat down with coffee. "Name? Personality? Blood type?"
"Katherine Kellen. First year English Lit student and first class loser. Blood type boring. You?"
"Daniel Doherty. Second year English Lit student, first class lover, expert at picking-up girls on the rebound. Blood type …simmering." He raised an eyebrow. "Interested?"
"How about first class weirdo?!" Katherine fumed. Then the reality of what had just passed hit her. "He dumped me." She said slowly, as if in a foreign language. "He dumped me."
"Yes, he did." Daniel nodded, slowly, patronisingly. "Shall we add slow-on-the-uptake to your description?"
"Slow on the pick-uptake, definitely." Katherine said, slurping her coffee.
"Darn. After I held your umbrella too." He banged the table with his fist. "But certainly not slow at coffee drinking. Want another?"
"May as well. I've already missed the bus for that lecture." She sighed. "It's not like it's going to make a difference to my current failure."
"One of Prof. Litton's? Lets see…second term, so…" He pulled out his laptop, and after a few moments found the appropriate PowerPoint, complete with carefully typed notes of his own making. He raised an eyebrow again. "I reckon I could teach this stuff. Just call me your hero."
"Just get on with it." She dragged her stool round to his side of the table, and went to order coffee.
Unnoticed to both of them, the sun had come out.
*
"Come on!" The pyjama clad man commanded, holding a small magnifying lens up to the sun. A spot of concentrated sunlight landed on the tip of the strange device he held in his other hand. It was vibrating and buzzing gently to itself. Between the lens and the device, a strange cloud of dust was appearing. It glinted and shimmered in the light, swirling around. Dancing. He pressed a button on the buzzing machine, and the dust changed. Buzzing like a swarm of bees, they searched for the disturbance. Smirking, the man pressed a little more. The dust disintegrated, into a white power that slowly fell to the pavement. He caught some of it in a tissue, and ran off grinning madly.
*
While watching for a video that he 'just had' to show Katherine to load, Daniel tapped the table incessantly. Katherine was fast learning that it was a habit of his. At first it was a complicated drum rhythm, but as he grew more absorbed in frustration with the slow broadband connection at the café, it changed to a simpler rhythm. Duh-de-de-duh. Duh-de-de-duh.
"Stop that." Katherine's fraying nerves could take no more. Daniel gave her a questioning look.
"Stop what?"
"You know what. That tapping, that rhythm!"
"Ah." He raised his eyebrow. "The sound of the drums."
"What?"
"It's familiar, isn't it? Like something you knew before you can remember, but you just can't trace it. And there's a person too, isn't there? A name. Saxon. Over and over."
"Who is he?" Katherine found she was whispering. "Where does he come from?"
"And a doctor," Daniel murmured. "Half-forgotten voices and events."
"A general election…" Katherine agreed. "But our next election is supposed to be this year."
"And doesn't it seem familiar?" Daniel leaned forward, clearly thrilled to have someone to share this with. "Doesn't this whole year seem the same, but slightly different to you? Like we've already done it once before? Like this Saxon was elected? And something…Happened…Something we all had to forget…Something…And now the year's repeating itself."
"What this country needs…" Katherine strained, trying to remember words spoken long ago, or never spoken at all. "…Is a Doctor."
"Too right it does." A loud voice interrupted, snatching Katherine's coffee. It was the man from earlier. "Britain invaded by Sun motes, and you lot sit around drinking coffee and watching Youtube videos."
"Sun motes?" Katherine asked vaguely, watching as he stuffed a tissue into her coffee. It glowed brightly, and then burnt itself out.
"That's what I said." He rolled his eyes and strolled out of the café. Daniel and Katherine glanced at each other, grabbed there things and hurried after him.
"What are Sun motes?!" Daniel demanded.
"Motes that come from the sun. Is it really that hard?" He checked a pocket watch. It had no discernable numbers, only strange spiralling pattern. "Got to go, there's another outbreak in Surrey ten minutes ago." He jogged down an alley.
"Um, Sir…" Katherine said politely. "Perhaps you ought to accompany us to the hospital? You seem a bit…confused."
"Confused? It's never been clearer! Heartburn! Ha!"
Katherine and Daniel glanced at each other again, worried.
"Heartburn?"
"No longer! I am a true Doctor!"
Daniel and Katherine stopped dead, their heats beating fast. Doctor…They watched as he unlocked a door into a blue police box. Katherine realised with sudden clarity that she wouldn't see him again.
"Saxon!" She yelled. "Harold Saxon! Martha! T-Toclafane!" She glared at Daniel to join in.
"The drums! The sound of the drums!" He swung his bag at the dustins. Duh-de-de-duh.
The door to the police box opened. He stuck his head the door, looking terrified.
"In. Now."
*
"Right. Where do you want to start?" He asked tiredly. Katherine had the impression he'd done this many times. Not wanting to waste time on the interior, knowing she wouldn't understand it, she chose the next thing of importance.
"Pyjamas?"
To her horror, he looked offended. Pulling at his clothes, he glared at her in the way her history teacher always did before being an intellectual lecture that she clearly should know.
"That would get you executed in Hullabaloo. These are ceremonial robes worn by the high monk of Hulla-Splon-Urch-pellon-baloo-tongue-click-Smith. He gave them to me after I saved his temple from the Conscious Fires of Vindola. Don't they suit me?"
"They don't suit the time era." Daniel was looking around him, excitedly. "That's what you are, aren't you? A time traveller?!"
"Well, actually, oh…" He sounded almost disappointed, as he watched his hand glow.
"What?! What?!" Katherine demanded.
"I about to get…Heartburn. I didn't quite kill them after all." There was a paused, and then he doubled over, yelling in agony, his hands scrabbling at his robes in an attempt to stop the burn. "Ahhh-I need-I need-"
"What?! What do you need?!" Daniel was at his side, trying to stop him thrashing around.
"-Gaviscon!"
*
"Gaviscon! No better cure for acid reflux!" The Doctor grinned at them. Katherine and Daniel weren't impressed.
"All that screaming and agony…Over heartburn?" Katherine said slowly.
"Two hearts! Twice the pain."
"…You have two hearts."
"He's not the only one with lots of room for loving." Daniel winked at her. He was ignored.
"Yes. Now, about Saxon-"
"Two?"
"Yes, one-two. How can you-"
"Alien?"
"Yes! Now, can I get a word out?!"
Katherine suddenly burst into tears. They were loud, noisy, unladylike. The Doctor looked at Daniel. It was clear what he meant. Daniel was on his own with this one. He pulled her into a hug.
"Okay, okay…What's matter, hmm?" He asked.
"First I missed the bus, then Adrian leaves me for Sophia the bimbo, then we end up in a- a thing that's bigger on the inside with an alien who can't handle heartburn talking about Harold Saxon! I just want to go home!"
The Doctor was giving Daniel a quizzical look. "Hormones." Daniel mouthed over her head.
"It's not bloody hormones." Katherine growled. "I know what your thinking. Men."
"Definitely hormones." Daniel mouthed at the Doctor.
*
"All the time, over and over again. That rhythm. Duh-de-de-duh. In the back of my mind. Tapped out on a table. And everyone's doing it. The whole world…And yet no-one knows where it's come from. No-one even seems to realise apart from us and a few others."
"There are faces…Voices in my dreams. Like I've forgotten them, and can't put my finger on where they've come from. One man, one phrase in particular. Harold Saxon. Vote Saxon…"
"The whole world knows his name. And yet he doesn't exist. He's on no records, no videos, or news reels. Nothing. He doesn't exist, he's not real. Like the Bogey man…A childhood nightmare…"
"And sometimes…There are others. I was in…A refuge, a house of some sort. And there was a girl. Martha. And she told us about a man."
"Just one man, who could save us…"
"And she called him…"
"The Doctor."