"Go on," he said nonchalantly leaning against the TARDIS dashboard. "Open the door." I looked at him, then at the door, then back at him. Slowly, I walked over and gently pulled. It swung open and as I looked outside, my jaw dropped.
A clear, blue lagoon and a lush forest. Beautiful, picturesque.
With dinosaurs.
"Ah yes, the Jurassic Period," said the Doctor, grinning and walking up behind me. "Lovely time. No pollution or skyscrapers or wars, just peaceful valleys and endless seas." I laughed delightedly as a triceratops lumbered past.
"So," he said and I turned to face him, "you believe me now?" I nodded,
"Oh yes, definitely, that is I do." I trailed off a thought hitting me. The Doctor closed the doors and went back to adjusting the Tardis's controls. "Doctor?"
"Yes?" he said, not looking up from his work.
"Why me? And why now?" He looked up at me, confused. "I mean, why did you show me this... now of all times? Something's happening, back at home, isn't it? Something bad." He was silent for a long moment. Then he walked over to me and took my hands in his, looking my directly in the eyes.
"Emily," he said and I swallowed. "Something is happening and I need help." He fell silent and I said,
"That answers the 'why now', but not the 'why me'." He gave me an odd look before saying,
"All of time and space and no one, no one has ever looked twice at my TARDIS... except you. That's why, because you see things the way others don't. You've known something was off for a while, just not what..."
He turned back and pulled a lever down and the TARDIS shuddered again, flying through what I could only imagine was the magic vortex of time and space. It stopped and the Doctor handed me my umbrella before leading the way outside, back into the rain.
Soon we were back in my apartment, sipping cups of hot chocolate. The Doctor sat forward, asking me,
"Now, Emily, I need you to tell me everything you know about what's been happening, even if it doesn't seem important." I thought back to a couple weeks ago, collecting my thoughts. Finally, I set down my mug and started,
"Well it began with the plumbing oddly enough. Everything just sort of... stopped working. Bit by bit. We all thought it was part of the apartment's plumbing system, but it was happening everywhere.
"Then people started going missing. No one else seemed to notice, first the cleaning lady, then the recluse down the hall. Just gone. Throughout all that it's been raining, even flooding in the some parts, daily... I don't know what to make of it."
As I spoke the Doctor's face never changed, but something in the aura around him did. As though someone had taken the very air and pulled it taut.
"What is it?" I asked, as he'd clearly figured something out.
"If I'm right... well... we've got work to do..." he flashed me an ironic grin before jumping up and running outside. I followed him as he detoured through my kitchen and grabbed the vase off the table.
Once outside, he poured out the flowers and water onto the porch, peering up into the stormy skies.
"Hey! Those were expensive," I pouted, mourning the now soggy petals plastered to the cement. He ignored me, merely holding out the vase and letting it fill with water. Satisfied, he stepped back inside and re entered my apartment, setting the vase back down on the table.
As he began rummaging through my kitchen cupboards, I peered into the vase, curious, but there was nothing special as far as I could see. Just water.
"I'm not sure I understand... what's it doing?" I said, looking at the doctor. Continuing on his rampage, he replied,
"This rain is obviously unnatural, but the big question isn't 'what's it doing?'. No no no! The question is, is it a what or a who that's doing the doings?
"If my suspicion is correct, then it is a who and a very dangerous one at that. But to make sure I'm going to build a neuron scanner to test it's deoxyribonucleic acid-" Finally he paused for breath and I quickly cut in, repeating,
"But... I'm not sure I understand..." He looked at me as though I were an idiot, then turned back to his work, saying,
"Basically, I think the water's connected to an alien and I'm going to try and match up it's DNA traces with a species using this..." here he held up what he'd been fiddling with, "... scanning... thingy..."
"Hey, that's my good frying pan!" I protested. He ignored my complaints, continuing with his project. Bored and feeling a little useless, I watched him for a while before wandering off.
I turned on the telly for a while, but was bored with repetitive weather forecasts of rain, rain and oh yeah! More rain! So I tried to read, but was distracted by the banging coming from my kitchen.
Realizing it would be useless to ask him to keep it down, I decided to go for a walk. Throwing on my long, dark coat and scarf, I grabbed my newly returned umbrella and stepped back out into the rain. I looked left and right as though looking for inspiration before finally setting off to my favorite location.
The library.
It was a mere five minute walk from my apartment, but despite the shortness of length, I was glad to be out of the rain by the time I got there. I stepped into the old building, shaking the rain of my umbrella as I closed it.
Inside, the librarian greeted me with a friendly smile and I waved back. Before setting my stuff down and heading off into the tall hallways of bookshelves.
In seconds, I was lost among the rows and rows of bound paper. I was slowly making my way to the fantasy section, where I hoped to find a new book, when I saw him.
I was somewhere in the science fiction section and in front of me, frantically searching through the rows, was a man. He was older, in his mid-seventies judging by his gray hair and hunched back, with a tatty looking robe covering what looked like a hospital gown.
Concerned he might be some sort of runaway, I slowly approached, asking,
"Sir?" No response. "Sir, are you alright? Should I get the librarian?" I reached out to touch his arm soothingly, but at the contact, he abruptly spun around to face me and I jumped back, startled by the frenzied look in his eyes.
"No," he said in a raspy voice. "I'm fine. I must find it. Quickly. Time is running out. They are coming..."
On that obscure and crazy sounding thought, he trailed off, turning back to the shelves. I was becoming more and more convinced that this man might be a little bit crazy and was wondering if I should call the hospital when he suddenly cried out.
He triumphantly pulled out a think book and clutched it close. Not seeming to notice I was still here, he rushed out the way I'd came. I debated letting him go, but now that I'd talked to him, I felt slightly responsible and with a sigh, I too retraced my steps.
The closer we got to the library's exit, the faster he seemed to go until we were sprinting for the door. I grabbed my things, struggling into my coat as I ran. The librarian was trying to get him to stop, calling,
"That needs to be checked out! Stop right now!" He completely ignored her and I shrugged at her helplessly as I followed him out.
"Wait!" I called trying to see through the rain. I ran, finally catching up with him and handed him my umbrella, saying,
"Here, take it. That way you won't get wet." He seemed to understand the kind gesture and patted my hand, saying,
"Bless you." Before opening it and hurrying into an alley. I was about to walk away when I heard a cry. Spinning around I ran into the alley.
"Hello? Sir?" I called, trying to find him. Then I stopped.
There, in the middle of the alley, was my red umbrella, open and abandoned and a book that was quickly soaking up the rain.