Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who....and I ate all those cookies I was rewarding you diligent reviewers with. :( CHAPTER TWO: OF CHIPS AND DISAPPEARANCES
"You just can't beat good old British chips."
Brittany continued frowning at the alien sitting before her. They could go anywhere in all of space and time, and they had come here. They had come to twenty-first century Earth. Out of all the places they could have gone, the Doctor had chosen to bring her to some dingy little shop on twenty-first century Earth.
"Oh, come on Brittany. You must be starving," the Doctor said happily, waving a chip at her. "These are absolutely amazing."
She folded her arms with a sigh. "Yeah, whatever," she grumbled, watching a mouse skitter across the floorboards. "I'm sure they are."
The Doctor followed her gaze, giving the small mouse an interested look. He turned back to Brittany with a shrug. "It's your loss," he said, popping another chip into his mouth. "A few health code violations never bother me."
Brittany shook her head in dismay and looked out of a grimy window. She could just make out a street outside, with a couple of cars parked along its length. The TARDIS was sitting on the corner of an alleyway, but surprisingly, no one was giving it any notice. They just walked right past it without a second glance. Brittany had never imagined that her first trip off-planet would be quite like this. The Doctor didn't seem to have much control over his ship, and to put it bluntly, this place stank.
A sharp prod in the shoulder brought her out of her reverie. She shot the Doctor a harsh glare. "What?"
He smiled and flapped a newspaper in her face. "Have a look at this."
Brittany read the headline out loud. "Mysterious disappearances baffle authorities." She frowned at the Doctor. "That certainly doesn't sound good."
The Doctor's grin widened. "It says here, that almost thirty people have gone missing over the past week, the latest of which being the detective working on the case. Some chap named Christopher Walker."
Brittany shrugged. "So?"
"So, we go find out what happened," the Doctor replied in an exasperated tone. He blew his breath out between his lips and raised both of his eyebrows. "You have a lot to learn Brittany." Readjusting his blue suit and slinging his brown overcoat on, the Time Lord stood and ran out of the shop. Brittany grabbed the newspaper off the table, and followed him out, blinking in the harsh light of the sun.
The Doctor smiled at her, slowing down and sticking his hands in his pockets. "Where do you think we should look first?" he asked Brittany cheerfully. She sat down on a nearby bench, and unfolded the newspaper. After a quick scan of the front-page article, she looked up at the Doctor.
"What makes you think you can work it out, if the police don't even have any leads?" she asked, pointedly jabbing a finger at the newspaper.
The Doctor waggled his one of his fingers at her. "Just because a newspaper says the police don't have any leads, doesn't mean they don't have any." His expression took on a thoughtful look. "Actually, I think I might go talk to them myself. They're bound to know something."
Brittany rolled up the newspaper and threw it in a bin as they resumed walking. The Doctor had decided to start whistling a merry tune, and a bird tweeted somewhere off to her right. Neither of those occurrences helped raise her spirits, and she wrapped her jacket tighter around her body to ward off the cold wind that was whistling between the buildings. It was cold compared to her tropical, humid homeworld of Sydoriv, but the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Actually, she couldn't ever remember him sweating in the sweltering Sydoriv heat either, even though he had insisted on wearing that heavy coat of his.
A car drove past them, noisy and smelly compared to the skimmers she was used to. They ran on gasoline, she recalled from the history course she had done in university. Earth was so primitive compared to her home, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste as a truck rumbled past them. The Doctor, however, didn't seem to care, breathing deeply and whistling merrily, unfazed by the amount of cancer-causing fumes he was inhaling. Perhaps his species didn't get cancer?
They paused at a set of lights, and the Doctor hammered a silver button on the pole next to him. Brittany impatiently waited next to him for the cars to stop, and once they did, she set off at a furious pace across the road. The Doctor hid a smile as he followed her.
Her reaction to London was amusing to the Time Lord, though he was trying not to show it. Many of his previous companions had been British through and through, and had thought cars and traffic lights were mundane and boring things, hardly worth a second thought. However, these everyday things were irritating to Brittany, and she made no effort to hide her displeasure. The Doctor covered his mouth with his hand, concealing the smirk that was starting to form. Now it looked as if Brittany was taking out her anger on an innocent sparrow. He decided he should intervene.
"What are you doing to that poor little bird?" he asked, standing between Brittany and the sparrow, which let out a sweet chirp.
Brittany pointed at it accusingly. "It pooed on me!" she exclaimed angrily, taking a step forward. The Doctor put a restraining hand on her shoulder.
"Now, now, we don't want anyone to get hurt," he said calmly, pulling Brittany away from the little bird. He pulled a serviette out of his pocket, and carefully wiped the white smudge off Brittany's shoulder. He chucked the dirty serviette in the bin, and smiled at Brittany. "All better?"
She frowned and avoided making eye contact. "I s'pose," she muttered. Her frown deepened as she looked over the Doctor's shoulder, and the alien followed her gaze. She was staring at a little shop with a glass-fronted window; various mundane products arrayed on the display shelves. He narrowed his eyes and looked closer. After thirty seconds of close scrutiny, he turned back to Brittany.
"What are you looking at?" he asked, unsure of why his companion was staring at what was a perfectly ordinary shop.
She slowly extended one of her hands, pointing at a particular display in the window. "Look at the snowglobes."
