CHAPTER 2 - A Friend in Need
"Time: The present, location: Leeds...coordinates, locked in!" The Doctor announced as he threw several levers and switches with exaggerated showmanship.
Thomas watched him carefully. He shook his head. "And that's it?"
"And that's it!" the Doctor repeated happily. "So, who is this friend of yours?"
Thomas sighed. "He used to work at the Abbey, as a footman. I got letters from him for a while when he first left. But I haven't heard from him in a couple of years now. Just worried about him, you know?"
The Doctor nodded pensively. "Yes, I know exactly what you mean" he agreed, the faces of past companions flooding his memory. "Amy Pond" he said sadly under his breath.
"Who?" Thomas asked, barely catching the name.
The Doctor shook his head dismissively. "So, Mr Barrow...uh, actually, do you have another name? Mr Barrow seems quite formal."
"Thomas. But I'm usually addressed as Mr Barrow. I'm not a footman anymore you know."
"Quite" the Doctor replied with a frown. "So...Mr Barrow...where abouts in Leeds are we going?"
"He worked at a club last I heard. Holbeck Working Men's Club to be exact. He plays piano."
"Oh I love the piano. Ask anyone!" the Doctor waffled in joyous memory. "Don't ever duet with a Rasselhoffer mind you" he warned turning serious. "Fingers like knives..."
Thomas frowned and thought it best not to ask.
"So, you're a Doctor? A Doctor of what? Science? Engineering? Psychology?" he guessed.
"Not a Doctor. The Doctor. There's a difference."
"The Doctor?" Thomas repeated. "Like it's your name or something?"
"Let's say, it's how I think of myself."
"Why?"
"Because I like to help people" The Doctor shrugged dismissively. "Push that green button in front of you, will you?"
Thomas did as he was told. "So what does that do?"
"Prepares the TARDIS for landing...So, Mr Barrow, what were you doing when I met you?" The Doctor asked intrigued, trying to figure out why the Tardis had chosen this 1920's under-butler.
"Just on my break" Thomas answered.
"Alone?" the Doctor quizzed.
"That's right...why, what's it got to do with you?" Thomas said defensively, wondering if the Doctor had somehow seen him crying.
The Doctor looked up at Thomas surprised by his reply; Thomas' whole demeanor had seemed to change. "Nothing...nothing..." the Doctor shrugged awkwardly trying to work out how he'd caused offence. He felt it best not to pursue the question anymore and took hold of the big red lever on the control panel.
"You might want to hold on Mr Barrow, the landing might be a little bumpy" he directed.
Both of them clung tightly to the TARDIS console, prepared for a jolt, yet the landing was relatively gentle.
"...Or not" the Doctor smiled.
"So we're here?" Thomas asked dubiously.
"Step outside. Have a look" the Doctor invited.
As Thomas opened the door he was surprised to be met by the sound of nearby traffic. He stepped outside and felt the softness of freshly cut grass beneath his feet. He gazed around. The TARDIS was surrounded by a small cluster of trees. As he ventured further buildings and roads and a city skyline came into view.
"Is this it? Is this Leeds? Is this really Leeds?" Thomas gasped.
"It's really Leeds!" the Doctor smiled.
"Stone the crows! We're in Leeds!" Thomas laughed. "It would have taken hours on the bus!"
"Ha! This is just a small step for the TARDIS" the Doctor proclaimed proudly as he straightened his bow tie.
Thomas gazed around excitedly, breathing in the fresh morning air and taking in all the sights and sounds. He felt giddy with joy, in fact he couldn't remember the last time he felt so alive.
"We must be in one of the parks of the city" he exclaimed. "Look, I can even see the clock of the town hall from here!"
The Doctor rubbed his hands together contentedly. He always got a kick out of the reactions of those taking their first trip in the TARDIS.
"So is this the same day?" Thomas asked excitedly. "Or have we travelled in time too?"
"No. Same time as it would have been for you at Downton...so Mr Barrow, your friend."
"Oh yes, I clean forgot!" Thomas exclaimed. "I guess we can ask where this Holbeck place is...just a moment!"
With that Thomas bolted across the grass and over to someone who was walking on the other side of the park. Pretty soon he was back. "It's on the other side of the river" he told the Doctor between gasps for air. He pointed in the general direction. "Shall we take a bus?"
"Why not!" the Doctor exclaimed happily. "It's been a while since I took a 1920's bus ride!"
They boarded the bus and took seats right at the back.
"By'eck this is grand!" the Doctor said in his Yorkshire accent as the scenery passed them by and the bus sped down the street at at least 15 mph. "What do you say Mr Barrow?"
"Something I don't understand Doctor" Thomas began, not as taken with the bus ride as the Doctor. "If this is the same time as back in Downton, then Mr Carson has surely already come looking for me and found me missing. And yet, you say, you can take me back to just before that time, so that he doesn't need to come looking for me at all."
"That's right" the Doctor agreed happily, distracted by the city's sights from his vantage point near the window.
"But that doesn't make sense. He must have already done so."
"Well, not quite."
Thomas frowned.
"You've travelled in space but not time as yet...so the first case would be true...but when I take you back through time, that will negate the first case...so it is at this moment as if I have already taken you back...as long I don't fail to take you back at all that is. It's like it has already happened."
Thomas shook his head. "So, history will be changed then?"
"History has already been changed...that is, the history that is relative to you."
"So Mr Carson won't know at all that I was missing in the first place?" Thomas asked.
"Yes, well...not completely. Sometimes an alternative reality can be vaguely remembered."
"It can?"
"It sort of seeps through. What do you think deja vu is?...but don't worry, he won't know that it's true, or rather would have been true. To him it will just be a feeling."
Thomas' head spun as his mind tried to process what the Doctor had just explained. "Unbelievable!" he gasped.
"And it will be for him too!" the Doctor agreed. "Ah, here we are. Jenkinson Lawn."
They alighted the bus and walked the short distance up the road. The sound of music and laughter met them even before they had approached the Working Men's Club.
They stopped just outside the well worn black painted door. "Well, here we are then" the Doctor said rubbing his hands together. "I'll wait for you here."
Thomas stared at the doorway and couldn't seem to move.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked.
"What if he isn't pleased to see me?" Thomas asked anxiously. "I mean, he stopped writing, didn't he?"
"What! And you've come all this way to see him?" the Doctor retorted. "Talk about ungrateful! Now, in you go!" With that the Doctor gave Thomas a gentle shove towards the door.
"Okay" Thomas nodded. "Well, here goes."
Thomas emerged just moments later, disappointment written all over his face.
"Well?" the Doctor asked impatiently.
"He doesn't work here anymore, at least a couple of years" Thomas replied worriedly. "They've no idea where he might be."
"Well, we'll just just have to look a bit further afield, won't we?" the Doctor replied positively, tapping Thomas on both shoulders.
"You what? All of Leeds?" Thomas exclaimed.
"Oh I wouldn't let a little thing like that stop me! Although, it is a shame we're not in the mobile phone age...we could just 'text him'...Oh well, nevermind, let's get started!"
They systematically worked their way through the main streets of Leeds, asking at all the clubs and bars until at last Thomas emerged from the King Edward.
"He used to work here, just a month or so ago!" Thomas cried excitedly. "And I've got his address!"
...
"Here it is! Sykes Yard..." the Doctor remarked both excitedly and then deflatedly in turn. He subsequently held his nose from the unpleasant smell wafting from the filthy state of the street.
"It's not what I imagined" Thomas said dispiritedly.
They traversed the street slowly, the pitiful state of the houses and the dirt heaps in the street impressing on them how poor and unfortunate the people must be to live here. Children dressed in rags played in the street. The Doctor smiled at them sympathetically, and yet, for it all, they seemed happy enough.
"Ah, number 10" he pointed.
They climbed the uneven steps up to the doorway and Thomas gave the door a loud knock.
The door opened abruptly. A teenage girl stood at the threshold. She stared at the fine looking strangers in their smart clothes. Ashamedly, she pulled her torn shawl around her tightly, covering an ill-fitting dress that would at one time have been white and now was coming apart at the seams. "Yes? What do you want?" she snapped.
"Uh...I was looking for a Jimmy Kent" Thomas uttered subdued. "But we must have the wrong address."
The girl looked over her shoulder. "Jimmy! Someone here to see you!" she shouted. She looked back at them, noticable envy in her eyes before she walked off.
A voice came from within. "Mr Ross, I promise I'll have the money by..." Jimmy stopped mid sentence as he appeared in the doorway. He stared at one of his two visitors in shock.
Thomas stared back in disbelief. The Jimmy he knew was a slight man to be sure, but the Jimmy he saw now was painfully thin and sickly white. His once pretty blond hair was dirty and matted. He wore a dirty white vest and his trousers were marked and ripped. In his arms, he carried a young child.
"Jimmy?" Thomas asked in disbelief. He turned to look at the Doctor who gave him a sympathetic smile.
Jimmy led them into a back room of the house. "I suppose you're surprised to see me like this" Jimmy said awkwardly as he sat down in a solid looking armchair and balanced the child on his knees.
Thomas and the Doctor pulled up two kitchen chairs opposite him.
"Jimmy. What's happened to you? You don't look well" Thomas remarked.
Jimmy gazed at the floor. "I'm sorry I stopped writing" he said regretfully. "When I lost me job I lost me tenancy too. Mr Vasey kindly took me in. I'm a lodger. Any bit of money I get now goes for food."
"Doesn't look like you get much of that" Thomas remarked.
"Not really" Jimmy sighed.
"Pretty baby" the Doctor smiled, needing to lighten the mood.
"He's not mine" Jimmy shrugged. I look after him for Mr and Mrs Vasey. They give me a little money when they can afford to."
"Uh, hate to interrupt but I think he wants you to put him down" the Doctor commented. "Holding him up on your knees is giving him vertigo."
"You what?" Jimmy asked perplexed.
"I speak baby" the Doctor explained.
Thomas and Jimmy looked at him a little bewildered.
"Oi, put wood inth 'ole!" the girl shouted from the other room.
"What was that?" Thomas asked.
"She wants us to close the door" Jimmy translated.
"Ah, Yorkshire slang!" the Doctor grinned as he stood up and closed the door. "I love a bit of Yorkshire slang!"
"So how many live here?" Thomas continued.
"Mr Vasey, his wife Jane. This is John. That girl is Jane's sister Mary. There's Jane's other sister Roseanne and her brother Anthony too. And there's another lodger, Michael...and that's just downstairs."
Thomas shook his head. "You can't stay here Jimmy. You'll get ill...or worse."
"I've got no choice Thomas" Jimmy declared sadly. "Where would I go?"
"Doctor?" Thomas looked at him hopefully.
The Doctor gave an optimistic smile. "Pack your bags Jimmy!" he declared. "You've got new digs!"
Jimmy grabbed his jacket and packed the small suitcase that contained all the belongings he had in the world.
"There you are Mrs Vasey" he said passing John over to her. "Thank you for everything you and Mr Vasey have done for me. I'm indebted to you both."
"Well, if you can't help a poor soul in need...but, we'll miss you Jimmy. Promise you won't go too far away."
"I promise" Jimmy smiled.
The Doctor did his best to suppress a wry smile.
They left Sykes Yard and headed back down the high street.
"Jimmy, it was the Doctor who brought me here to see you" Thomas informed him.
"Thank you Doctor. I'm grateful" Jimmy smiled. "But where are we going to go?"
"Well first, a good restaurant I think. You need a decent meal inside of you."
"And then?" Jimmy asked.
"And then Jimmy, not even the sky's the limit!" the Doctor smiled. "Come on!"
...
"You came in this..this...Police box?" Jimmy asked totally perplexed, as he pointed at the Tardis.
"Of course!" the Doctor cried. "What else?!"
Jimmy huffed. "Is it like a trailer or something? I don't see any wheels."
"A trailer?" the Doctor replied, mortally offended. "Does it even look like a trailer?"
Thomas sniggered.
"Well..." Jimmy shrugged.
"Pay no attention to them" the Doctor directed to the Tardis, giving her paintwork a loving stroke.
"He's talking to the box" Jimmy directed to Thomas out of the corner of his mouth.
Thomas smiled at his friend. "Just you wait till you look inside" he said excitedly.
The Doctor unlocked the door and entered. Thomas followed him in.
Jimmy shook his head quizzically. "Gonna be a bit of a squeeze!" he remarked. "...Thomas?"
Jimmy followed his friend in. Seconds later he was outside again. He walked all the around the Tardis, trying each side.
"But that's...that's..."
He stepped into the Tardis once more and gazed around. "That's..."
"Do you like it?" the Doctor grinned.
"But...am I seeing things?" Jimmy asked. "I mean...is it just me, or is it a heck of a lot bigger in here?"
"Time Lord technology Jimmy" the Doctor answered proudly.
"You what?" Jimmy asked.
"I'll explain sometime" the Doctor answered. "Now, where would you both like to go?"
"Go? I thought you were going to find me somewhere new to live?" Jimmy quizzed "...and a job you said!"
"Yes.A job. If you so want one Jimmy" the Doctor replied rolling his eyes. "But in the meantime, say hello to your new home!"
"Here? But I can't live here!" Jimmy answered in confusion.
"Why ever not? I do!" the Doctor replied disgruntled, straightening his bow tie.
"Better than your last accommodation Jimmy" Thomas noted.
"Less smelly too!" the Doctor added under his breath.
"But..." Jimmy started.
"Doctor..." Thomas cut in. "...before, you said the Tardis can take you anywhere?"
"That's right."
"Anywhere on the planet?" he asked slowly.
The Doctor paused for emphasis. "This planet...and beyond."
The hairs on the back of Thomas' neck stood up as the Doctor spoke his reply.
"The moon?" Thomas dared to ask.
"Or several billion light years further if you wish" the Doctor smiled.
"Ok" Thomas nodded slowly, as his stomach excitedly did somersaults. "I'm up for that...Jimmy?"
The Doctor gazed at his two new companions - confusion on Jimmy's face, sheer awe on Thomas' - and broke into the broadest of smiles...the adventure was about to start once more... he threw the lever and the TARDIS groaned into life...