Henry: "Uh.. alright man" You know I'm feeling better as of now. Thanks for lending me the coat. I might even return it to you some time. Nice meeting you". With that, the man was up and walking towards the TARDIS doors. The British guy sounded slightly panicked as he suddenly reached out, grabbed at Henry and said,
"Hang on. Don't-"
Prepared for any attempt to stop him leaving, Henry immediately pulled at and twisted British Guy's outstretched arm, then landed a fist squarely into the Brit's jaw. The guy was down for the count.
Doctor: Eyes snapping open, The Doctor came to the realisation that he was looking at the TARDIS from a sideways angle. He was on the floor. Memory came flooding back to him as he spotted his physical assaulter. The guy stood, with his back facing The Doctor, at the TARDIS entrance. Henry simply stood there, seemingly frozen in place, with both hands still holding the doors open to deep space.
"Impossible", Henry uttered so silently, the Time Lord's keen hearing only just caught it.
"You should know all about impossible, Henry DeTamble."
Snapped from his wonder, the man spun around suddenly at being addressed by his full name.
"I didn't tell you my surname. How could you possibly know it?" Henry probed.
"Oh, Mr DeTamble, I should have realised sooner. I'm old though. Old and thick and I need more room in this daft head of mine." The Doctor was standing now and rubbing at his throbbing jaw, where the man had struck him. "Chronically displaced, if ever I saw", his hands now in his pockets as he strutted towards the man, then stuck out a friendly hand to his time travelling counterpart.
"Hello, I'm The Doctor and it is really very nice to meet you. Sorry if we got off to a rocky start there."
Henry stared at The Doctor's outreached hand suspiciously. "I'm sorry, but do you know me?"
"Well", began The Doctor. "I don't know you as such. But I know of you."
"Okay", said Henry, still seeming hesitant. "Explain?"
The next thing The Doctor said sounded more as if he was reading off information rather than having a conversation. "Henry DeTamble; born 1963, first ever officially recorded Chronically Displaced Person in Earth's history." Henry was nodding, with his mouth hung open slightly, looking a bit like a dog, before managing to somewhat compose himself and ask,
"Fine and how do you know that?"
"How does anyone know these things? I read about it of course", answered The Doctor as he returned to his console and began turning knobs.
"So, you're a doctor, from the future, am I right?" asked Henry, smiling at seemingly having had figured it out.
"Err, yes and no. Sometimes, I can be?" distractedly replied The Doctor, who then got overly frustrated and wacked the console with a convenient mallet. This action obviously had the desired effect, because The Doctor then grinned happily and turned his attention back to the now eager passenger.
"All this isn't new to you is it? Is time travelling common, where you're from? Here – I mean." Henry was practically bursting with excitement now. The Doctor was scratching the back of his head, when he answered.
"Where I'm from? You could say that it is common, yeah. However, in your personal future, I can't say time travel is a frequent occurrence for that many. Well, at least, not especially by Chrono-Displacement. Although there does seem to be more cases that crop up. There's still very little that anyone knows about your condition, Henry. Even my people, with their science have been a bit at a loose end with this one. All I can say about it is that it is to do with a concentration of this sort of background radiation. Somewhere along the lines your human genes were exposed to it and eventually with various evolutionary changes, well you were created. The space between universes, 'The Void' is literally flowing in your veins. And.. Henry, you're bleeding."
