The three knocks echoed loudly into the cavernous space of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor raised his head. Lost in his dark thoughts, he had not even realised he had landed. His hand hovered over the controls, as he seriously considered taking off without even checking what was outside.
It had only knocked three times.
Finally, the Doctor mournfully turned to the scanner screen. His hearts skipped a beat as he saw a young blond woman appear on them.
Still not over her, Doctor?
It was not even the right colour. The young woman's hair were more platinum than blond. She wore a light blue dress, and was looking expectantly, and a bit shyly, at the TARDIS.
The Doctor frowned while looking at the readings flashing on the screen. Eventually he took a decision and walked up slowly to the door. The young woman backed up in surprise when he opened.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were the Doctor…"
"I am the Doctor."
She frowned.
"I'm sorry, then… I knew a man also called the Doctor, and he came out of a blue box just like this one… But he did not look like anything like you."
"Must have been the next guy, then" said the Doctor, smirking sadly. "But it's still me. I can change a lot from time to times… Only, I have probably not been him yet."
The woman looked at him uncomprehendingly.
"My life is… complicated. I don't always meet people the first time they meet me. It's a bit of wibbly…" He stopped. He hated this expression now. It made time sound like a game, whose rules he could twist to his own liking. He had found the hard way that it was not the case.
The woman looked at him quizzically for a few seconds, then appeared to reach a decision.
"Well, I wanted to thank him. Maybe you could pass him the message." She straightened up. "I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle. I've met the Doctor when I was younger, and he was… kind to me."
"Really? What did he do?" What will I be doing in my next life?
The woman hesitated.
"Not much actually… He simply was there at a time when I was… lonely. He was enthusiastic about… what I could do, while I was frightened by it at the time. He… talked a bit about it." She paused. "Actually I think I was able to help him a little." She smiled. "And I think he was the same man who built snowmen for my sister, when we were younger. This meant a lot to her, and to me."
The Doctor arched an eyebrow.
"Snowmen?"
The woman was about to answer when she was interrupted by someone shouting. A few seconds later, another young woman appeared beside her. She looked a lot like her, maybe a few years younger, and with strawberry blond hair and a rosier complexion.
"That's the box!" she exclaimed. "The box where the doctor… doctor… I never remember who he was called…" She looked at the Doctor dubiously. "Have you met the man with the bow tie? Or the nice red-haired woman… She was called…"
The Doctor raised his hands hurriedly.
"Please, no spoilers about my future self." He looked at their puzzled glances. "Listen, I really should be going now. I don't like to meet people in the wrong order. There is always the risk of a paradox". And I don't like people knowing more about me than I do.
"Oh, are you going to make your box disappear? I will fetch Olaf, he will love this!"
The younger woman departed running. The blonde woman looked at her go lovingly before turning back to the Doctor.
"I'm not sure I understand what you said but, if you know the man we are talking about… please thank him for us. He and the women with him were kind to us at a time where we needed it." She smiled. "He even encouraged me to practice my… abilities. I'm not sure I would have been able to use them so easily when I needed them if I had not followed his advice."
The Doctor cocked his head, interested despite himself.
"What sort of abilities?"
The woman hesitated a fraction of a second.
"This", she said, twirling her fingers.
The Doctor started as something white fell on his shoulder. He turned to look as snow gently fell on him and the TARDIS. He caught a snowflake on his fingers and examined it intently.
"It's snow!" he said, his face lightening with a childlike smile for the first time. "Real snow! How are you doing that?"
The woman smiled.
"I always could. I was simply very afraid to use it."
The Doctor thought about taking out his sonic screwdriver to analyse her, then decided against it. He was not in the mood for over-analysing things today. At least, it appeared to be real, non-threatening snow. He had had enough of sentient water under any state for a while.
"Sometimes it's good to be afraid of what you can do" he mused, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "It can stop you from going too far."
The woman looked at him quizzically.
"And sometimes you simply need to trust people and yourself" she countered eventually. "I spent my life fearing to hurt my sister, and I did just that because of this fear."
"Was she the young woman who was here earlier? She seemed fine."
"Yes, she is. It all turned out all right in the end." She smiled warmly. "I simply had to remember how much I loved her."
The Doctor shrugged, smiling forlornly.
"Good for you, then." He stepped back. "I should be going now."
"Wait!" The woman held out a hand. "When you meet the… other Doctor. Could you give him this? As a thank you."
The Doctor's eyes widened as he saw ice form on the palm of the woman's hand. In a few seconds, it coalesced into a perfect replica of the TARDIS.
"Thank you", he said, gingerly picking up the TARDIS-cicle. He whipped out his glasses and looked it over. "Impressive" he said eventually. "Thank you" he said again, smiling broadly.
The Doctor slowly retreated into the TARDIS, smiling at the woman. Before he closed the door he heard voices approaching and recognised the voice of the younger woman, along with another, nasal voice, complaining that it was simply a big box. He could not hold back a little mischievous smile.
The last of the Time Lord walked slowly back to his console and rested the little ice TARDIS on it, noting with interest that the sculpture did not seem to be melting. He absent-mindedly punched a few controls on his console.
Still impressing vulnerable little girls, Doctor? When will you ever stop?
He breathed deeply and slammed back the lever commanding the TARDIS take off, looking at the central column pulsing as the sounds of the TARDIS engines echoed around him.
Maybe now was the time to confront what Time had in store for him.
As the TARDIS took him away, the Doctor realised he had been too distraught to properly commit to memory the name of the young woman. Queen Elsa of… something that sounded like a name of a fairy tale, or a Scandinavian fishing settlement. Hopefully he would remember it eventually.
High above the clouds, something was flying along the winds.
It had been in the wood, but it had not been able to really control what it did. The wood was too raw, too savage to properly command, little more than a feral beast. Then it had been imprisoned in ice, a forgotten icicle in a frozen bedroom. It had remained there for years, perceiving, learning, changing.
The country had been thawed, and the icicle that had imprisoned it had joined the ice in the sky to form a giant snowflake that had exploded in thousands of little flakes. It was in one of them now.
It was little more than information by now. And intelligence.
As it drifted along the winds toward the British Isles, the snowflake carried with it memories of lonely children, knowledge of magical snow, ideas of animated snowmen and glimpses of people turning to ice statues.
And a ravenous desire to learn more.
Author's Notes: And now it's complete. In case you are wondering, the Doctor in this chapter is the Tenth Doctor, shortly after the events of Waters of Mars.
The ending is a reference to the Christmas episode The Snowmen. I always had fun with the surface similarities between this episode and Frozen.
This story now has a sequel, Am I a good girl?, which is longer and more action-packed, and full of wibbly-wobbly timey stuff. You can give it a try if you want.
I have a further sequel in mind, but it's only at the planning stages for now.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it.