For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her : Chapter 2
"Doctor Who?" Rachel asked nervously.
"Just the Doctor, don't worry, I get that all the time," he replied. He pulled out a dark leather wallet and waved it in front of the teens, "I'm here investigating… ummm… stages. Yours is fine. Getting straight to the point, you appear to have a problem with the local cheerleader population."
Rachel jumped in close towards the man, "You saw them?"
"They're very hard to miss, especially in those skirts."
"We…" Rachel glanced at Kurt nervously who shrugged helplessly. She turned back to the other man and stated professionally, "Mister Schuester hadn't mentioned that we had someone coming. I'm sorry you haven't seen us at our best. Those girls vandalized our stage earlier. We'll get it cleaned up, we promise."
The man dismissed it distractedly, "No doubt, now… getting back to those cheerleaders…"
While the other two seemed preoccupied with nervously composing themselves for who they assumed a theatre professional, Blaine glared narrowly at the strange man. "Why was the paper blank?" He asked. Kurt and Rachel glanced at him with a skeptical look of horror, but he persisted, "Who are you really?"
The man hummed, tapping the wallet and studying Blaine critically. "You're right; I'm lying about the stage, it needs some work. You should really look into the Palladian tradition of forced perspective. The floor creaks off-pitch and should be more of an A-flat. However, I did clear off those girls, at least for the moment, and I didn't get so much as a thank you."
Rachel excitedly confessed, "No, we're very grateful. It's just been a really weird day."
The Doctor tipped an imaginary hat to the trio, "Those are my specialty."
She smiled holding out her hand, "I'm Rachel Berry. It's a pleasure to meet an international professional and enthusiast of musical theatre. These are my friends, Kurt Hummel and his boyfriend Blaine Anderson." Kurt gave the Doctor a small wave and Blaine continued to stare dubiously at the man.
The Doctor returned the handshake enthusiastically repeated the action for the two other boys, albeit Blaine's was decidedly one-sided. "I would love if you all could show me around your campus. Yes I know the weather's rubbish but a little rain has never hurt anyone. Well that's not true… there's acid rain, sulfuric rain… did you know that on Cordinanolli there's rain which is actually made of hyper cooled glass? It's absolutely brilliant when it crashes in an explosion of shattered light and dust," Seeing the forced, confused smile Kurt was giving him, the Doctor faltered, "I suppose that's not important. Campus! Lead the way!"
Kurt mumbled under his breath, "Hopefully without the ravenous harpies."
The Doctor leaned in and stated matter-of-factly, "They aren't harpies."
"Whoever they are, I've never seen them come to school before," Rachel supplied.
"Because they don't," the Doctor replied simply. The man led them out the door and to the stage. Rachel was fast at his side while Blaine hung back reluctantly near Kurt.
"What's with the sour grapes?" Kurt asked his sullen boyfriend.
"Something just doesn't sit right," Blaine confessed in a whisper. "He just shows up, waves around some blank paper claiming to be stage inspector? And you guys just trust him?"
"Well for one, his I.D. said he works for some British Society of Stagecraft or something like that," the taller boy supplied, "Secondly, we haven't heard those girls at all while he's been with us." Blaine half-smiled dubiously. Kurt huffed and swung his and Blaine's hands as they walked. "Come on…" he whined, "He's wearing a bow-tie. Bow-ties are very in right now."
"I know, I know…"
The group made it outside, where thankfully the weather was letting up a little bit, although the sky was still dark as the sun was quickly sinking beneath the clouds. The Doctor was happily chatting with Rachel about the different stages he had apparently been to, and it gave the Kurt the opportunity to think about what Blaine had said earlier. "Why did you think his I.D. was blank?" Kurt asked softly.
Blaine didn't reply, but looked away with a troubled expression on his face.
Kurt glanced at him sympathetically, "We'll go to the hospital after we get out of here. You probably have a concussion from earlier with the piano."
The Doctor twirled around mid-conversation, and startled the group by waving the green flashlight at Blaine. "He's right," the Doctor began, inspecting the flashlight, "You do have a…" The strange man quieted, a dark expression growing on his face.
"Have a what?" Kurt asked in alarm, holding Blaine's hand tightly.
"Oh, concussion," the Doctor waved off, "Minor really. Nothing to worry about."
The teens looked at him with disbelief.
"Really," the man insisted, "You have alien cheerleaders invading your school and this is what you're concerned about?"
"You seem concerned about it," Rachel protested.
The Doctor glared at her, "Oh clever now, aren't we? We'll deal with it later. I am a Doctor. The Doctor in fact."
"What do you mean by alien cheerleaders?" Kurt asked accusingly.
"Oh… I shouldn't have mentioned that. I hadn't meant to," the Doctor fumbled before awkwardly cheering, "Surprise!"
Kurt raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Aliens are even less likely than vampires."
"Have you ever met a vampire before?"
He scoffed, "Those girls had these… huge teeth, like fangs a snake would have. It's not unreasonable to assume they're vampires."
The Doctor fiddled with his flashlight and conceded, "Common misconception. Some old friends thought something similar were too, turned out that group were actually fish people! Can you believe that? No. No… these are aliens, I'm sure of it."
"At least vampires are rooted in some historic mythology," Kurt replied critically.
"Kurt… stop it," Rachel whispered to her friend. She gave a disarming smile to the older man, "They're not vampires or aliens, obviously. It's probably the work of one of our teachers, she isn't a huge fan of the dramatic arts and_"
The Doctor held his index finger up to Rachel's lips. "You talk a lot don't you?"
"Excuse me? I don't_"
The man raised an eyebrow and Kurt barely suppressed a laugh.
"Just because you think someone looks like something, doesn't mean they are," the Doctor said seriously. "Doesn't mean they won't lie and deceive you." He abruptly turned his attention on Blaine, whose mind had drifted away from the conversation of vampires and aliens. "Blaine Anderson," he commanded, drawing the teen out of his reverie, "When you first saw those girls. What were you doing?"
"Ummm… Kurt and I were on our way to the practice room from our lockers. They kind of collected in the hallway," the dark brunette replied. Kurt squeezed his hand for support. "Anyway, we had asked if they could move but one of them… uhhh… hissed at us and tried to jump Kurt."
"That's when we saw the fangs. All of them, I mean, it was just unreal. So we hid in the choir room until we decided to go find Rachel," the taller teen added.
"And they only all started to attack when you confronted them?" The Doctor asked.
The two young men nodded, and Rachel added, "I was in the auditorium the whole time. They didn't attack me, I was hiding in the bathroom, but I could hear them, it sounded as though they were looking for something."
"They were looking to get into a fight," Blaine continued adamantly, "They would have done something regardless of whether or not Kurt and I had spoken with them."
The Doctor hummed, twirling the flashlight in between his fingers. He suddenly backtracked, and then paced in a circle in the hallway they were in. The teens watched him impatiently, and just as Kurt opened his mouth, the Doctor promptly began back in the direction they had originally came. About halfway down the hallway, he turned again, finding the teens hadn't moved. "I don't know where I'm going," he joked.
"We don't know where you want to go at all," Rachel replied slowly.
"Choir room!" He squawked. He gave them a lopsided grin, "That would be good! Let's go to the choir room."
"Might I say, excellent choice," Rachel commended as the Doctor rejoined them, "A distinguished expert such as yourself understands how from script to the screen is important in any production, regardless of level of the profession, whether it is community theatre to the Great White Way itself!"
"What if we run into the cheerleaders again?" Kurt asked.
Rachel blinked, as though she couldn't understand why Kurt had even bothered to ask. "The Doctor could say he's a teacher," she said simply.
"Sound's like a plan," the Doctor agreed, "You can call me Mister Smith. I teach English literature. My favorite novels are the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series by Douglas Adams." He winked at Rachel, "The key to any lie is in the details."
The rest of the way went on without incident. At the chorus room, Rachel tried to open the door, only to meet another resounding crash from the piano.
"What in the..."
Blaine coughed, "Oh. That was us. We had... barricaded the door."
"Vampire cheerleaders," Kurt reminded her.
"Alien cheerleaders," the Doctor corrected.
She stared dubiously at both of them, then huffed and went to try the other door. The young woman frowned, and tried the other door.
The Doctor pulled out his green flashlight thing, which the teens were quickly doubting it was a flashlight at all, and managed to unlock and open it. He held it open for the three of them. They all shuffled in and he clapped his hands together, "Fantastic! Wonderful tour. Now if you don't mind. Berry, Anderson, you two can and should stay here. Kurt, let's go visit the gymnasium."
Rachel pulled the Doctor to one of the seats, "But you haven't even heard us practice. To truly appreciate the quality of a space you need to experience the intended purposes for which it was designed. We can't have you leave or grade the music facilities at McKinley without a performance of some sort."
"I did mention the possible alien invasion didn't I?" The Doctor protested.
Blaine grabbed the guitar from the back of the room and took a seat next to the older man. The Doctor seemed distracted, shifting in his seat anxiously. The man's eyes never settled, flitting from corner to corner, from the door to the back windows, to the posters on the wall. The dark brunette gave him a helpful smile. "This is worth your time," he promised, "They're both amazing."
Kurt and Rachel couldn't be bothered, whispering between themselves. Kurt folded his hands together and turned to the two, "Okay, so this may be a little bit 'country' for some palettes, but I feel that we've adapted it in such a way that still retains the story and emotions of the original piece but with a little more classic Broadway to it."
"Blaine, you know the song," Rachel added excitedly, "This is the ever amazing Sara Evans, and the song, Born to Fly."
It was slow at first, but Blaine picked up the tempo, tapping his foot silently before giving Kurt and Rachel a small nod.
Rachel Berry knows how to begin a song. She knows the important of a confident smile, grabbing the attention of the audience, and hitting the high notes.
The Doctor stilled.
"I've been telling my dreams to the scarecrow, about the places that I'd like to see. I say, 'Friend do you think I'll ever get there?' Oh, but he just stands there smiling back at me."
"So I confessed my sins to the preacher, about the love I've been praying to find. 'Is there a brown-eyed boy in my future?' And he says, 'Boy, you've got nothing but time..." Kurt's eyes twinkled at Blaine, the younger boy laughed and looked away to pretend to focus on the instrument, his face flush with embarrassment. "But how do you wait for heaven?"
"And who has that much time?"
Together, the two continued, "And how do you keep your feet on the ground when you know that you..."
Blaine abruptly stopped playing, his hand clamped over the strings of the guitar to mute any reverberation left from the last chord. The others stared at him. "Did... did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I thought I heard something."
"Okay! Enough singing and dancing and frolicking and the general merriment we've been having!" The Doctor shouted, flailing his arms as he got up from the plastic choir chairs. "Alright, let's be honest now. I'm not here for the stage, but that was still lovely." Rachel and Kurt smiled hopefully, hanging on the compliment. "Nevertheless... there are shapeshifting vampire aliens that are invading your school and I want to know why."
"Ah-ha!" Kurt exclaimed, "Vampires."
"Vampire aliens," the Doctor rolled his eyes.
Blaine furrowed his eyebrows, thinking through what the Doctor was saying. Rather slowly, he put away the guitar and questioned, "So why do you need Kurt?"
"Wait... what?" Kurt asked the Doctor in alarm.
"Yes, well... what's the one thing that they always do in that show with the talking great dane and the brightly colored Volkswagen solving mysteries? Oh come on, Americans love their cartoons you should know this."
"Ah!" Rachel said excitedly, catching on, "Scooby Doo!"
"Right. Let's split up gang," the Doctor replied cheekily.
Chapter 2! Hope you enjoy and again please, please, please leave a review! Next chapter will be up sometime next week!
