Summary: the Doctor goes back in time and is witness to an historical event. The meeting of Mickey and Rose.
The Doctor stood at the edge of a school yard, eating an apple. He wasn't quite sure what year it was, but then, he thought fondly, even if he had had one in mind, the TARDIS would have found something else to do with him. It was nearly time for school to let out, and he watched the lineup of 1st grade students as their teacher counted them off one by one and they left the yard. He loved children, so young and full of energy, he wished that humans stayed like that throughout their lives, and that he didn't have to seek out the once-in-a-million companion that was willing to risk a commitment to see the universe.
The children ran out the iron gates of the school yard, towards waiting mothers and fathers, smiles on their faces as the held up the pictures they'd drawn or the sentences they'd written. Suddenly the Doctor heard a shriek from behind him and turned, looking at a wild ball of blond and brown writhing on the pavement.
"That was mine, Mickey! Give it back!" the blond girl squealed as a book bag went sailing past the Doctor's head. He ducked it, dropped his apple and pulled the two of them away from each other by the back of their shirts.
"Oi! Give it a rest will ya?" the Doctor shouted. But for all he did, he might as well have stood by watching. Even with the Doctor holding them over three feet apart, they continued to swing at each other futilely. He watched for a few seconds be fore giving another shout. "SHUT UP, the both of you! What exactly did he take from you?" both the blond girl and the one she had called Mickey stopped for a second before launching into an explanation, both trying to shout their story over the other's.
"First he took my lunch box! Then he tried to pull my hair!" "Did not, I just wanted to see it, that's all I wanted to do!" "What about my hair! You nearly ripped it out you little thief!" "did not" Did too" Did not" "LET"S TRY THIS ONE MORE TIME THEN SHALL WE? O.k. just tell me you names, one at a time, that's good, let's start with you." He pointed at Mickey.
"M'name's Mickey Smith, I swear all I wanted to do was look at it."
"Good, all I needed was your name" a trill of laughter went through him; this was Mickey Smith, the Mickey Smith. "And yours?" He looked at the blond girl with curiosity.
"Rose Tyler." The Doctor tried hard to hide his surprise, he had just met little Rose and little Mickey, on the same day, he had to admit, they hadn't changed much.
"O.k., Mickey, give Rose back her lunchbox, and Rose, go get your book bag, it landed in the shrubs over there, then I want you to come back and apologize to one another, this is unacceptable!" he had always wanted to say that. Then as they left, to retrieve the other's belonging's, he congratulated himself on not bursting out laughing. Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith! Fighting in 1st grade! Some things even time can never change. When Rose returned a few seconds later with her book bag, a slightly embarrassed Mickey handed her the stolen lunchbox and mumbled an apology. Rose pushed a misplaced hair out of her face and mumbled a sorry in return. Satisfied at a job well done, The Doctor got up.
"Oi! What the 'ell are you doin' with my Daughter, you freak?!" the Doctor turned, just in time to see a young, albeit irate Jackie Tyler raise her hand bag. He didn't even pause to explain himself, just took off running in the opposite direction, bracing himself against the blows from the handbag. Funny, he thought as he ran full speed around the corner, 900 years of running from you-name-it villains, and the thing that scared him more than any of them was Rose's Mum.
R&R people! I love it.