John Smith let out a tired sigh before he took a seat on one of a bench over looking the sea and old town below.
He had been living in here for a month now and yet, he still couldn't see the point of it. The university, or rather, his sister had suggested he go on sabbatical for a year.
Of course, when she had first suggested it to him, the idea was met with nothing but resistance. John had argued that there would be no point in him just sitting at home doing nothing.
"I don't see the point of it, Missy," the Doctor hissed as he glared at the woman seated behind the desk.
Missy, who was busy marking a paper, never looked up as she spoke, "Well, I see the point of it. You're going on sabbatical. Yay!" she then waved her pen in the air in a sarcastic manner.
John closed his eyes for a brief moment and let out a defeated sigh before taking a seat in front of his sister. "Look, if this is because of my lack of research progress, then I-"
"I think a small town in the south coast would do you good, too," she added, smirking.
Sometimes, it was just too difficult to change his sister's mind once it is set but the Doctor wasn't going down without a fight. He had no intentions what so ever to leave London and let alone, live in a small town for the next 12 months.
"I'm not agreeing to this," John growled.
"Yes you are," Missy insisted as she looked up and gave her brother a bored look. "Allow me to give you reasons why you should take sabbatical leave. One, I'm your sister so I know what's best for you. Two, you're going nowhere with your work so I'm giving you all the time you need."
"Those are hardly relevant."
"And three, students have been complaining that you're not doing your job properly. According to last year's survey, you got an average of 2 out of 5 points for student satisfaction."
This time, the Doctor fell silent. He knew it was true. They were right. He was slowly losing his passion for teaching. He was slowly hating his job that he once loved so much. He was slowly losing the very few things he cared about.
Missy grinned when she saw the look on the Doctor's face. "See, I'm right. I win. Now then, you'll start your sabbatical next week."
John always hated it when his sister is right. And now here he was, in a small town just an hour away from Brighton. He hated the town the day he moved in to his new home. Everyone was just so… sociable. He had spent most of his life in London and people hardly acknowledge you and he loved it. He could dress up as a magician with a guitar strapped over his shoulder and nobody would look twice.
Maybe he just needed more time to get used to the new environment and finally get work done or maybe this was all a huge mistake. He would love to prove Missy wrong for once.
The Doctor's train of thought was interrupted when the phone in his pocket began ringing. He scoffed over the name of the caller before swiping the screen to answer the call.
"Hello, John! How's life going for you there?" Missy said on the other end of the line.
"Boring," he grunted, looking at the calm waters of the sea. He could imagine his sister rolling her eyes at his expected response.
"Let me guess, all you did today was lock yourself in your room like a 12 year old going through a phase."
"What do you want?" John demanded, a little too harshly.
"I just wanted to know how you've been doing – I mean the last time we were in contact was when you moved in and then poof! It's like you disappeared. Just wanted to be sure that you haven't kicked the bucket. I'd resurrect you and then slap your head for that."
John said nothing as he waited for Missy to continue. He looked up and saw a few seagulls flying in the direction of the beach.
"Are those seagulls I hear? Well, that's interesting. You're actually out and about!"
John cleared his throat and meekly said, "Yes."
He could have sworn he felt his sister grinning widely. Missy was about to make fun of him. All he could do now was brace for the sheer amount of teasing and roasting she would unleash.
"And here I thought the Grumpy Doctor was indoors, glaring at his research paper and hating the current predicament he's in!" Missy exclaimed. "Or maybe I should say 'who are you and what have you done with the Doctor?'"
"Are you done?" John grumbled.
"No, not really. Just wanted to inform you that I checked your house the other day to make sure that everything is ok in case you're wondering."
"Thanks, even though I didn't ask you to."
But it was still kind of her to check up on his home in London.
"And speaking of London, I'm taking over all your modules for the second year!" his sister revealed enthusiastically although John couldn't really tell if she was genuinely happy or just being her usual sarcastic-self. Probably the latter.
"But you're a Physicist."
"That doesn't mean I don't know the basics! You know what they say – Physics is just-"
"-the Maths Mathematicians don't want to deal with," John finished as he watched the sunset.
"Exactly! Besides, Amy and Kate will be handling your third year modules so everything is in good hands."
"Yes, thank you for giving me information that I don't really need to know," the Doctor said as he rose from the bench.
"Also, one of my PhD students is teaching your first year module."
John furrowed his brow. "I thought I told you that I didn't want any PhD students teaching my modules," he grumbled, walking in a steady pace.
"Well it sucks to be you since I don't have the time to teach it and neither do Amy and Kate and he's not so bad. Quite good, actually. You've met him before, remember? Name's John, too. Wears a bowtie. Has a massive crush on Amy."
Oh, that's right. Missy's favourite PhD student. John had met him a couple of times back when the boy was in his first year of his research degree. A bit odd but then again, nobody is really normal these days. Not even John himself but the one thing he found amusing was Bowtie's crush on Amy.
"Is he still unaware that Amy is married?"
"Can't really blame Bowtie since Rory works in Medical school and they hardly see each other during office hours."
"Well, if that's all then I'm going to hang up now," the Doctor said but all he heard was a chuckle. "What's so funny?"
"I can see or at least hear that you're slowly returning back to your normal-self. Not quite there yet but there is progress. Toodles," Missy said before she hung up, preventing John from asking any further questions.
The Doctor could only stare at his phone as it beeped for a couple of seconds before the call ended. He will admit that the town does give him a sense of peace that a city couldn't and that was it. He didn't really understood what Missy had meant but brushed the thought away. It was probably just her way of messing with him.
He pocketed his phone and took a left back to his temporary home. As he was walking down the hill, a woman bumped into him and his hand automatically gripped her arm to stop her from spilling her hot drink. That would have been quite a mess had he not reacted quickly.
"I'm so sorry!" the woman apologized profusely.
John could have just said it was fine or that it wasn't a big deal. No, the moment he locked eyes with her. His brain decided to give up. As in, not functioning properly anymore. Usually, he would have just brushed it off and walked away, but no. He was speechless for a second and the next thing he knew, his mouth moved by itself or at least the logical part of his brain was controlling it. Not that it made much difference.
"Yes, well," he said. "Watch where you're going next time. Maybe not having your eyes glued to the phone would help," he wasn't trying to sound rude. He really wasn't, but it was a logical thing to do when walking. Never glue your eyes to your phone.
It was then he realized that he was still holding her arm and released his grip before walking away as quickly as possible. He could feel his ears burning and didn't understand why. All he knew was that he needed to go home as quickly as possible.