Chapter 4, comin' right atcha! Let's do this!
Chapter 4
The two time-traveling companions found the 14-year-old staring at the TARDIS, mouth slightly agape. Stepping around her, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the TARDIS. He and Rose moved into the blue box, leaving Kiera to cautiously peer inside. Her mouth dropped open.
She watched as Rose and the Doctor started pushing buttons and pulling levers on the oversized control panels. Little lights blinked everywhere, and yes, it was much bigger on the inside then it was on the outside.
The Doctor glanced over at Kiera, still standing uncertainly outside the door. "Come on, then!" he said impatiently. Nodding slightly, Kiera stepped inside, trying to take it all in as she closed the door behind her.
"Wow…" she breathed. "I never thought I'd get to be here…" She didn't have much time to appreciate the TARDIS, though, before it suddenly lurched violently to the left, causing Kiera to stumble over her own feet. She grabbed onto a rail to support herself as the TARDIS moved again, causing her to grab with her other hand and hang on for dear life.
Slowly, the shaking stopped, until Kiera was able to stand on her own again. She carefully walked over to the control panel, looking at the displays.
"I can't make heads or tails of this." She admitted finally. "Where are we?"
"Well, I don't think I'm the only intellect needed to solve this problem," the Doctor admitted. "So I thought we'd visit an expert, seeing as how he exists now."
"That didn't answer the question, Doctor." Rose sighed.
"We are currently outside the address of 221B Baker Street."
A grin started to split Kiera's face in half, accompanied by a dawning look of comprehension and anticipation. "Oh, this is going to be priceless."
"Why?" Rose asked curiously.
"Sherlock is going to hate the Doctor so much!" Kiera said gleefully. "I can't wait to see this argument!"
The Doctor looked perturbed for a moment before shaking his head and opening the TARDIS door, Kiera and Rose close behind.
The three of them walked up to the door of 221B and knocked. The friendly, if somewhat frazzled, Mrs. Hudson opened it. Kiera gave a small squeak of recognition but was ignored. From inside, the sound of a violin faintly echoed out the door.
"'Allo, there!" The Doctor said brightly. "We were wondering if Mr. Holmes was in. I'd like to have a word."
"Oh," It was quite clear that she'd had to deal with people like them far too often for her liking. "He's occupied with something right now."
"Um…Mrs. Hudson?" Kiera said in a small voice. Everyone turned to look at her, and Mrs. Hudson seemed taken aback by her American accent. "With all due respect, I'm pretty sure whatever Mr. Holmes is doing can wait. This is a matter that could possibly change our world for the worse. Please," she implored, "Just tell him that. If he doesn't come, we'll go elsewhere."
Mrs. Hudson gave Kiera a long look before raising her eyebrows at the Doctor. Clearly, she didn't trust the word of a teenaged girl. To her surprise, he nodded seriously. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded an affirmative and withdrew.
"Sherlock?" She called as she moved up the stairs. Very faintly, Kiera heard the squeak of a violin string as he set the instrument down. They could not, however, hear the famous detective's words.
Meanwhile, the Doctor raised his eyebrow at Kiera. "You know of others?"
Without looking, Kiera responded. "In the extremely likely situation that Sherlock won't help, yes, there are some people we should try and recruit. Of course, we'd probably need to recruit them anyway. Let's see about Sherlock and not worry about them for the time being, though."
"No, it's not Lestrade, Sherlock." Mrs. Hudson said patiently. "For goodness sake, you're playing your violin, not on a case! You can spare a few minutes of time."
There was a short pause as Holmes spoke.
"I don't care if you doubt it will be mentally stimulating. Hear the people out!"
She bustled back down the stairs. "I think he can spare a few minutes." She looked somewhat annoyed, but it wasn't at the threesome.
They climbed the stairs to the room at the top of the stairs. Kiera nervously twisted her hair over her ear as the door opened to reveal Sherlock Homes, staring at them with a bored, disinterested expression.
"Good mornin'!" The Doctor exclaimed. "We've got to a bit of a problem."
"If you've lost your cat, you can go bother Lestrade at Scotland Yard." Holmes said in a voice as equally bored as his face.
"Erm…no." The Doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm afraid it's quite a bit more urgent than a lost cat or family member."
"And you think that I'll be interested?"
"If you're not, then there's something seriously wrong with you."
Sherlock arched an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
Meanwhile, both Rose and Kiera were watching the exchange like it was an extremely interesting tennis match. Rose looked apprehensive, Kiera excited.
"Yes, really." How do you feel about time-travel?" The Doctor asked.
"A trivial notion. Time is strictly cause-to-effect, and in between that the idea is impossible."
"Well, most people assume that time is strictly cause to effect," The Doctor began, and Kiera began bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation. "But if you look at it from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff."
"Excuse me, what?" It was finally the time for Holmes to actually sound confused, and this fact sent Kiera into a badly covered laughing fit. Sherlock glared at her, and she made an enormous effort to straighten her face, her nostrils flaring with the effort, her lips trembling as they pressed firmly into a line.
The Doctor chuckled lightly at Kiera before turning back to Holmes. "If you just come into my TARDIS, I'm sure we can talk about his more."
Mr. Holmes was now eyeing the Doctor cautiously as though he was under the impression that he was in the presence of a madman. "I don't think I will."
"Oh, good lord." The Doctor sighed. Grabbing the startled Sherlock Holmes by the hand, the Doctor charged down the stairs, scaring Mrs. Hudson.
"Was that really necessary?!" Both Kiera and Rose cried, running after him.
The two of them managed to get into the TARDIS before the door completely closed, and came inside to see Sherlock staring at his surroundings, clearly struggling to keep his disinterested expression in place.
"I'm really very sorry about him." Sherlock turned to see Kiera staring at him with some mixture of awe, amusement, and exasperation. "He's a bit weird, but I guess we'll both get used to him."
Sherlock trained his eyes on Kiera observing her posture, her eye movement, and everything that she did, quickly deducing everything about her. Her parents sold condiments (she had a small amount of ketchup under her fingernail), her favorite color was blue (even a novice could figure it out, as she wore almost entirely blue), and she clearly wasn't getting enough sleep, although she covered it up fairly well. Her posture suggested that she was uncomfortable or unused to her surroundings. However, he couldn't figure out why she seemed to know him.
"You haven't been here long." Holmes decided. "And you seem to know me, but I cannot recall ever meeting or seeing you before. Who are you?"
"My name's Kiera Riley. Yeah, I know of you. I'm going to wait 'till a couple more people get here to explain, though. I'd rather not explain my… ah… slip-up 6 separate times. Maybe two or three. And yeah, this is only my second time in the TARDIS."
"It travels through time and space," the Doctor called from the control board. "The TARDIS can go anywhere!"
"You learn to work around the spastic side." Kiera told Sherlock before walking off to confer with the Doctor.
A/N: wow…. That chapter was super long. I wouldn't expect it in the future… but… you know what, screw it, don't even expect a certain chapter length anymore. The first three chapters were short to the point of me questioning whether it was even a proper chapter. Now that chapter was practically exactly my standards for a full-length fanfic chapter (3 Word Document pages) so… I'm just going to write until it feels like the chapter should be over. It could be 1 Word page. It could be 5. So sorry if that bugs you.
Arm and a Leg, I do believe your moment will come soon. ;D
Love you all! 3
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