A/N: Exactly four years ago today I posted my very first gleekathon daily story! :D See yesterday's shift A story for a message from me to you awesome reader people! ;)

"Guardian of the Array"

6. Wherever You Would Go

Inside the TARDIS

Gemma had been the one to get shoes on him before lifting him into his wheelchair and getting him through the doors of the ship. Even as they were rolling over the threshold, Artie was still showing concerns over the size and the space available within the ship. He'd been looking back and up to Gemma mentioning just that, and she smirked, nodding for him to turn back ahead and look. She had to hurry and shut the doors behind them quick, hoping his cries of surprise didn't reach his mother.

"It's bigger on the inside!" he exclaimed. The Doctor, who'd gone ahead of them, now stood at the controls, and while she was busy getting them out of the house, Gemma could only notice that this statement, which was at times both awaited and regretted, had not provoked the slightest of reaction. Rather than to let anything on to the boy, Gemma took up the charge of giving him the introduction.

"I had the same reaction as you did, the first time." Sort of.

"What if it crashes though? It's small on the outside," he pointed out.

"She's a strong ship," Gemma promised, coming to stand in front of them and crouching. "It's called the TARDIS. It stands for 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space.'" Artie blinked.

"Time?"

"Caught that, didn't you?" Gemma smirked.

"It travels in time?"

"That it does. You want to know something?" she asked, and he firmly nodded. "By your time, I haven't been born yet."

"You haven't?" his voice was just a hush and she shook her head with a smile.

"And I won't be, not for many years."

"What about her?" he looked to the Doctor, who was now standing silently staring at a screen.

"Oh, well, I couldn't even tell you when she was born, not by our years. She's hundreds and hundreds of years old," she didn't know where this air of mystery had slipped into her voice, but Artie was hooked.

"But that's not possible…" Then it clicked in his head. "She's not human, is she?" She wasn't even a she until not too long ago. She shook her head, and Artie looked at the older woman in awe.

Gemma was looking at her, too, and it wasn't so much with awe in her case as it was with concern. She was getting used to this evasive-until-necessary behavior of the Doctor's, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. Even then, she kept feeling like this was different from any of the other times, like there was much more to this story. It's like she's waiting for something to happen.

"Right, well we've promised you an adventure, so the question here is where would you like to go?" Gemma turned back to Artie, seeing as she was getting nowhere with the Doctor. "Is there any place you want to see? Anything you'd like to do?"

"I'm kind of hungry," he admitted and, spying his wristwatch, she noticed it was nearly dinner time for him.

"Alright, that's fair. What would you like to eat? What's your favorite?" Gemma asked and the boy thought before answering…

"Pie."

"I… Pie," she repeated. He nodded. Gemma cleared her throat. "Doctor?" she called. No response. "Doctor?" she tried again, louder, and it was like switching a light on. She turned from the screen with a smile.

"Yes, welcome," she nodded to Artie. "Well, this is the TARDIS, it…"

"Yeah, I already told him all of that," Gemma smiled awkwardly. The Doctor paused.

"Time and…"

"Did that."

"Bigger on the…"

"Done."

"Time Lady?"

"Well, no," Gemma replied, and the Doctor started to nod. "Told him you weren't human though." The Doctor reached to straighten her jacket before approaching the boy in the wheelchair. "He's hungry, and it's just about dinner time, isn't there anywhere you could show him where he could eat something special or…" Gemma explained. "He wants pie."

She had no idea what was going on through the Doctor's head, but when presented with this request, she looked downright reluctant. But then she would look at the boy sitting there, and there was something else going on there. Gemma knew the Doctor had said this was an old friend, except they hadn't met yet as far as Artie knew. Was it just strange for her to see him so small? She didn't see how this might be it, or why she felt the need to visit his child self and take him off on a TARDIS ride… The Doctor had so many rules, and she had to wonder if she was breaking any of them in doing this.

"Pie," the Doctor repeated, and she breathed out in nothing short of surrender. "Well it so happens I do know where they serve the best one in all of time," she shrugged casually. Meanwhile, Artie was very interested.

"Can we go? Please? Is it on another planet? Are there going to be aliens?"

"Ah, well, no aliens, and it is on Earth. Indiana," she specified, and Artie almost looked disappointed.

"Indiana? That's one state away."

"Then you're very close to some remarkable pie…" the Doctor congratulated him. The boy was starting to lose some of the shine on his adventure, but the Doctor wasn't done. "But see, here's the thing. To get that pie, we need to go back in time." Artie was listening. "You won't even have been born yet. And after you've had your pie…"

"And an actual meal before that," Gemma pitched in, and the Doctor rolled with it.

"Yes, you like burgers, they've got burgers…" Artie liked burgers. "Not as good as the pie, but…" Gemma stood to direct Artie's chair further into the TARDIS. "And when all that's done, I do have a few more tricks up my dainty sleeve."

"Like what?" Artie asked.

"All in due time," the Doctor flipped a switch and the ship rumbled. "Next stop, Indiana."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)