AU Short Story (Doctor Who)
The Doctor had good nights. Nights where lots of wonderful stuff occurred. Nights where story's were told and legends were made. Then he had...not so good nights. Like the night when he counted all of the children on Gallifrey. Or the night after Amy and Rory left. Or the night when...well. There's no need to mention that. Everyone has secrets, things they'd rather not say. Especially the Doctor. That night was one of those nights. The Doctor had nothing to do, which meant that he began to think about things. Not good things. Sad things, terrible things that he had done a very very long time ago. He began to miss people. And when the doctor has one of those nights, it always seems to help if someone's with him. It's no mystery to anyone that knows the Doctor, or has known him, that he really shouldn't be alone for prolonged periods of time.
Just when he thought he couldn't get more lonely, he felt that finial tingle in his right brest pocket. A message on his psychic paper. He opened the little brown booklet. On it was scrawled in a child's handwriting, Tell me a bed night story, I'm lonely. Not a distress call, he didn't think. But if the signal coming from that child was so strong it could reach his psychic paper, then there had to be a good reason to go. So the Doctor shook off his sadness and wiped his face and piloted the Tardis back to the origin of the signal.
When he arrived, the Doctor was surprised but not to astonished at his destination. A small house, on the corner of a totally average street in a totally average neighborhood in London, on Earth. He walked up to the house, straightened his bow tie, and rang the doorbell. While he was waiting, he looked at the stars, remembering lots and lots of things. The door of the Ordinary House clicked open, and a little girl stood in the light. She was small, probably about 5 or 6, an had the biggest mess of hair the Doctor had seen on a child. She was holding a little cardboard Tardis, and when she saw the Doctor, her jaw dropped, and her thumb fell out of her mouth, her hand flopping at her side.
"Hello Melody. I'm the Doctor."
The little girl began squealing and hopping about, until a bedraggled woman came down the stairs, wrapping a dressing gown around her nighty. The Doctor knew that red hair anywhere, and as soon as Amy saw the Doctor, her face lit up, and she said
"Hello, sweetie! C'mon in! But be quiet though, Rory's asleep. Perhaps I should go fetch him..."
But the Doctor said "No, no. Just go back to bed Amy, I'll just be telling Melody a bed time story."
Amy smiled tiredly and petted her daughters hair, who was now clinging to the hem of her mothers robe. The Doctor took Melody's hand, and led her up the stairs, with Amy behind.
"And where's your room?" he asked Melody.
She didn't say anything, just bounced a bit and pulled the Doctor to a pink door riddled with drawings taped all over it. All of them had a least one Tardis and the Doctor. He recognized many of the events in them, and expected Amy and Rory must have told her lots of stories. Melody opened the door and the Doctor flipped on the light. If he thought the door was good, Melody's bedroom was heaven in a house. The Doctor saw himself everywhere. Amy leaned against the doorframe.
"She's almost as obsessed with you as I was. She's been dying to meet you. How come you came? Why now?"
The Doctor turned, in his silly way, and said, "She sent me a message. On my paper."
He showed Amy the psychic paper, and she lifted her eyebrows.
"Well then. I hope you can find one we haven't already told her."
And she went off back to her bed. Melody had gotten herself all tucked in, sitting up with a little Star pillow and a Tardis onesie that had obviously been painstakingly sewn by Amy. Goodness that must have been a sight. Amy, sewing. The doctor pulled up a stool next to the child's bed, and Melody plopped her thumb right back in her mouth, eyes wide and eager to hear every syllable out of the Doctors mouth.
The next few hours passed all to quickly for the little girl and her hero. The Doctor used just about every toy in Melody's room for props, and was probably much to loud for the hour of the night, but Melody was in ecstasy. The Doctor told her how he saved Amy and Rory's marriage with the Vampires if Venice, and again with the Asylum of the Daleks. He told Melody of his adventures with a beautiful woman named River Song, and of the Lone Centurion, who waited 2000 years to save her mommy. He talked and talked, and told everything how it happened, and he knocked things over and jumped about much to much. At last, the little Melody had fallen asleep. He was in the middle of a story about the Daleks and her parents, and she just fell over onto her side, and began snoring little baby snores that sounded more like purrs.
The Doctor stood and looked at her for a moment. Then he pulled up her Galaxy coverlet, and switched off the light. When he got back to the Tardis, he knew that this was a special night. This was the night Melody Pond saved the Doctor.