Chapter Two: Back to School

For a very long time the Doctor stood in the console room as the TARDIS drifted through the time stream. His ship hummed quietly, understanding that he needed time – and time she could give him. How long they drifted, neither knew, until finally the Doctor roused himself from his stupor with a single word.

"Jenny."

-

The Doctor checked once on the monitor after he landed, waiting until a passing girl had turned the next corner before dusting off his hands and jumping around the console to the door. "Back soon," he called, although there was really no need. He really did miss having someone to talk to.

With a friendly pat on the wooden planking, the Doctor locked the door, flung the key into the air, caught it with his other hand, and slipped it into his pocket. Glancing about once more to be sure of the absence of any Donna Noble-like problems, he picked a direction at random and began to walk at a brisk pace.

Jenny, he thought, and then, again, Jenny. Jenny – Jenny – Jenny. But where to look? The TARDIS, usually so adept at locking onto specific persons, was unable to pinpoint his daughter's location. The Doctor had tried to go to the place and time that Donna had seen Jenny – he'd learnt the details of that during a very helpful discussion with Wilf – but there was a blip in the time stream and the TARDIS had been unable to land. Phoning both Martha and Jack had been equally unhelpful. That was when the Doctor had finally let the TARDIS have free reign, for if she was able to bring him to both Jenny's birth and Donna's clue, surely she'd bring him somewhere helpful this time.

And yet – the Doctor looked up at the large, beige school that stood before him and inwardly sighed. He had had bad experiences at schools. Nevertheless, if the TARDIS had taken the trouble to bring him here, he was fairly sure this was where he was meant to be.

There seemed to be some sort of parent information evening going on, judging by the full parking lot and the procession of adults trickling in through the main doors. With a mental shrug, the Doctor joined the crowd, allowing himself to be swept in through the doors, where a pamphlet was thrust into his hands, and on towards the gymnasium.

The lights had already been dimmed as the Doctor took his seat in the middle of the back row. With cautious interest he crossed his legs and flipped through the pamphlet. There was not too much information there, other than the school's name and a list of teaching staff. On the back was the evening's program, but even that was reduced to 'A video introduction in the gym, followed by the parent-teacher interviews.'

Well. He was a parent. Hadn't known he was for some time, and was extremely out of practise since the time before that, but all the same, a parent he was. The Doctor flipped back to the list of teachers and tried to decide which ones he should 'interview' for information on Jenny.

Before he could decide, the dim lights flickered once and shut off completely, casting the gym in total and complete darkness. There was a moment of silent shock, followed by some fervent whispers and rustling fabric, and then tiny white pinpricks of light as people flicked open their cell phones. The Doctor jumped to his feet, his sonic screwdriver already in hand, and was about to scan the light fixtures up above when a male voice began shouting over the noise of the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm and in your seats. We have just sent a man down to – ah, here we are." With another feeble flicker, the lights flashed on once more. The Doctor resumed his seat slowly, staring suspiciously at the fixtures above him, but they seemed to be functioning fine.

He turned his attention to the front of the gym, where a tall, dark man stood in the middle of the stage, presumably the man who had been speaking just as the lights had turned on. As the noise in the room quietened, the man straightened his tie, tapped the mike once, and began.

"I must apologize for the inconvenience tonight. The school has been having a few minor issues with the lights this past week, although I assure you we are working hard to solve this problem before it affects classes. Now, carrying on, I am Mr. Johanson, principal of the school, and I welcome you..."

The Doctor paid little attention to the principal's speech. The lights had been acting up all week, the man had said, and yet the problem had not yet been fixed. The school did not look old – in fact, it looked relatively new – and the Doctor could not understand why the lights might be so problematic in the first place, let alone unable to be fixed in a week's time.

On stage, the principal had finished his speech, and a video began to run on the white screen. It was a classic promotion video, and the Doctor paid little attention until, without warning, the video gave way to grey fuzz and a loud burst of static. A moment later the lights shut off again.

The Doctor was on his feet, his chair tipped over behind him, almost before anyone else in the gym could realize what had happened. A frail hand grasped at his arm, and an old woman's voice was asking in near panic, "It's just the power again, isn't it? Just a power outage?"

"If that's what it is," the Doctor replied as a chill ran down his back, "then why has the video projector not shut off?"

At the front of the room, the square of chaotic fuzz was still being projected onto the screen, and the sound of static still echoed across the gymnasium. The Doctor gently unlaced the woman's fingers from his sleeve and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the projector. According to the readings, the projector wasn't even on.

"But it is, it is!" the Doctor shouted in frustration. The screwdriver went back into his pocket and, using the little light available from the screen, he made his way past several stunned people to the door. A moment later he was out the gym and into the hall, using the screwdriver to scan for the main circuitry system of the school.

So it was that he was out of earshot when the static in the gym gave way to a mechanical voice saying, "The Doctor... Where is the Doctor..?"