Last Time on Jenny and the Warehouse: "Here we are. Pete, put it up there, next to Einstein." – "This is said to be Einstein's old ID card." – Psychic paper. – 'Dear psychic person, this paper belongs to The Doctor.' – She smiled and concentrated on the words as the formed in circles in her mind. 'Hello, Dad.'
Jenny and the Blue Box
Time Vortex / Somewhere in South Dakota. 12 August 2011, 14:07
In the TARDIS.[1]
"I still can't believe that the moment I pop up to check on my two favorite newly-weds you ran out of your house into the TARDIS because Rory's parents were visiting! And then you left your husband alone with them!"
"Oh, please. Have you ever had parents-in-law? They were there since 6 AM, asking about our honeymoon! What the hell should I tell them? 'Yeah it was awesome, we saw fish swimming in fog'? And you should totally be okay with me running away! That's pretty much the only thingyou do!"
"Yeah, alright, alright. Oh, and believe me, most of my companions had at least one relative they wanted to visit all the time! And they all hated me! I might not have been looking as good as I do now, but that's no reason to hate me, right? One time, we accidentally arrived a teeny tiny bit late and without even letting me explain I got slapped! In the face! Can you believe that?"
"You always went for the mad man with a box image, right?" Amy said, wondering why he never talked about his former friends and companions.
"Well, I looked not as handsome as I do know… but that's no excuse to slap me!"
Suddenly a ball of light flew threw the TARDIS doors towards the Doctor and hit his chest. He kneeled down and supported himself with his left hand.
"Doctor? What was that? Are you alright?"
"Uff, that one was intense! I really hope this isn't just one of River's bloody love letters!"
He pulled his psychic paper from his jacket pocket. He stared at it for a second, his mouth opened, but he closed it again. He put the psychic paper back into his pocket and turned around to reach for the nearest buttons and began pushing them.
"Doctor? What was that message? What does it say?"
"Now, that's a stupid question, 'cause frankly, it wouldn't say much, it's more like just half a sentence or something…", he muttered. "A good question would be, who sent it to me and why?"
"Okay then, who sent it?"
"Someone… impossible."
"Impossible as in Doctor-impossible or still a bit more unlikely?"
"Erm, right, now that I think of it, that question is rubbish, too, 'cause you wouldn't know her. The really good question would be: Where are we going now?"
Amy sighed. Annoyed, she said, "Where are we going?"
"I have no idea!", and with that he pulled the lever. "Geronimo!"
— ❖ —
The TARDIS lurched suddenly forward and, while Amy and the Doctor were falling, again to the right. They were holding tight to the console and both sighed when it all came to a stop. The Doctor got to his feet again, shook of some dust off his tweed jacket and marched towards the door. Amy followed one step behind him.
"Doctor, where are we? Please tell me you know where the hell we are!"
They both opened one of the TARDIS doors a bit and looked out.
"Is that– Is that a pyramid?", Amy asked gaping at the triangular building in front of them.
"Well, it's rather small… and what is that?", the Doctor said, pointing to the sky.
"What planet has a purple sky? Without a sun?"
"Oh no, this is no planet." They both finally stepped outside. "This is… a tent!"
"We are in front of a miniature pyramid. Inside a purple tent." Amy paused, then spoke louder, "Why?"
"Uhm, I'm not sure. But I guess this is not where the psychic paper wanted me to go." The Doctor turned around and stepped back into the TARDIS.
"What? And you're not gonna investigate? Like… I don't know? Always?"
"Maybe later! Come on, Pond!"
Now, Amy was worried about that note on the psychic paper.
And with that the TARDIS dematerialized again.
— ❖ —
Jenny heard a strangely familiar sound.
Woosh. Woosh.
She looked around. How could she hear that? She was standing it the middle of the Warehouse.
Woosh. Woosh.
She had returned to the Warehouse with Artie and the other agents after she finally made the psychic paper do something, although she now had a bit of a headache and didn't know whether it worked or not. So, she wanted to help Pete and Myka move some artifacts to another part of the Warehouse, as a distraction. And to ask tons of questions while doing so.
Woosh. Woosh.
It was more like a soft knocking in her mind then a real sound.
Woosh. Woosh.
She sat down the crate she was holding, turned around, looked straight ahead and began to run.
She ran past hundreds of shelves and boxes, jumped up the stairs past Pete and Myka, took five steps to cross Artie's office while bouncing around Claudia and the chair Artie was sitting in and twenty-five more to get to the door to exit the warehouse. One step in front of it she jumped and kicked the door open.
A few metres in front of her was a big blue box.
— ❖ —
A big blue box just appeared out of nowhere in front of a top secret warehouse. It looked very clean, as if it had just been repainted. Jenny glanced down at herself. The box was the exact same color as the t-shirt from the airport shop, that she currently wore.
Jenny stepped further towards it like she wanted to touched it's doorframe but stopped after a few small steps. There was a beautiful music coming from inside the box. But it wasn't actually coming from anywhere, it was in her mind.
The door opened soundlessly and a young man with dark hair and a bow-tie looked out of the box. His eyes fell on Jenny and he stared at her. She felt him looking at her intensively in complete silence. Suddenly he frowned and, without moving his eyes from her, took a small silver cylinder with a green top from his pocket and pressed a button. The green top lit up two times and beeped. Then he jumped towards her.
Jenny initially wanted to move away, evade him. She wanted to defend herself. Or at least move. But she didn't. Somehow she just… didn't.
The man reached her and pulled her into a hug.
"Oh! Jenny! You're alive!"
"Wha– Do I know you?", she managed to say. The man pulled back a bit and looked her into the eyes.
"Oh! It's me! Look!" He actually said that in Gallifreyan. And she understood it.
He put one hand on her left cheek and slowly moved it up on her temple. She began to hear what sounded like another song of the same music that came from the blue box. Images started flooding into her mind, images of her short time on Messaline, images of the blue box on different planets, images of Donna and Martha, and finally, images of how her father began to glow and screamingly changed with a burst of bright yellow light into this man in front of her.
Jenny looked at him as he slowly moved his hand back down.
"Dad?", she asked quietly. He nodded and hugged her again. This time she hugged him back and lay her head against his shoulders while he kissed her hair.
"But how can it be you?", she said against his chest.
"That's what Time Lords do just before they die. We regenerate into a new body. Oh, Jenny, I thought you were dead – you died in my arms and didn't regenerate! How are you alive?", he whispered into her ear.
She took a step back and looked at him with tears in her eyes. "I… I don't know… I woke up on Messaline with a human and a hath standing next to me and I exhaled some yellow stuff and they told me I had been dead for six hours and then I got up and went looking for you!"
"Always running, weren't you?" He grinned at her.
Then she saw in the corner of her eye how a redheaded girl exit the blue box. 'There was enough space in there for two people?'
"Oi! Who is she? I'm home for two weeks and you already replaced me?", the girl asked. "Isn't she a bit young for you, Doctor?"
Jenny looked at her. She looked a bit like Donna, but then again… not. 'Who is she?'
"That coming from you is so wrong! But I'm sure you're gonna love her, Amy!", the Doctor exclaimed, putting an arm around Jenny's shoulder, who just smiled shyly. "Amy, this is Jenny, my daughter! Jenny, this is Amy, a good friend of mine… I kinda met her by accident, ruined her childhood, saved the universe with her… in mostly one day."
Amy stopped right outside the box and looked quite perplexed. "What? You have a daughter? You never mentioned her! And you never visited her!"
"That's not the point, Pond! She's alive! She died, but she's alive! Oh, that's brilliant!" And he hugged her again.
This behavior was what Amy considered incredible untypical for the Doctor. The Doctor she knows didn't often hug people, let alone have a daughter. Who died.
"Wait, what? You died? How did that happen? And when? Were you all this years on your own? And, Doctor, since when do you go around, hug people and say 'brilliant'?"
Jenny wanted to answer her, but her father was faster, and spun on one foot around towards the warehouse door. "Not now, Pond! Much more interesting is, what the hell is that building here in the middle of nowhere? And why are you here, Jenny?"
Jenny grinned, took his hand and dragged him into the Warehouse.
— ❖ —
They were walking through the entrance tunnel towards Artie's office, when the Doctor asked, "How long has it been for you?"
She mused a moment, until she realized what he meant. "Oh! Time travel!" Then she gasped. "Oh god! That must've been years for you! I'm so sorry! I've only been traveling for ten days!"
"Ten days! Fantastic! Not much time lost in which you could have grown up without me!"
"I'm still not a child…" She smirked at him.
"But you haven't seen the whole universe yet either, have you?"
Amy, in the meantime, tried quite hard not to ask, but couldn't help it. "So, Jenny, who's your family? I mean, I wanted the Doctor to tell me something about himself for ages, but 'Time Lord' is all I ever got."
"Uhm, actually, he's the only family I have…"
"Pond! This is a happy reunion! And in my book, it has to be happy! Don't ask questions like that! I'm just glad the universe has been kind to me, for once! Jenny and I could have traveled for centuries before meeting!"
"Can I still travel with you?", Jenny asked shyly.
The Doctor instantaneously stopped behind her, turned her around, placed his hands on her shoulders and answered with a grin that seemed impossibly huge, "I would love it if you would!"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She shrieked as she jumped towards him for another hug. 'Oh, what a déjà vu.'
— ❖ —
Jenny opened the door to Artie's office and let them come in, before she spoke, "Hey everyone! May I present… my dad! And Amy."
Then she looked into the office herself and saw only Artie sitting there. "Thanks for the majestic plural, Jenny."
He stood up and held a hand towards Amy and the Doctor. "Hi, I'm Artie. Wow, you're her father? I'd believe it for the tweed… but you look like you're only ten years older than her?"
Amy chuckled, while the Doctor answered with a wink, "Yeah, well, let's just say I look rather good for my age. Oh, and I'm sure she's not even old enough to drive in this country!"
"Don't tell them that! Driving cars is so much fun!", Jenny quickly intervened.
"What? You've actually driven a car already? Nah, 'course you have, first thing I'd have done in this time myself, get a car… Where are we, anyway, Artie?"
"This is Warehouse 13, you're in South Dakota."
"Of course! A Warehouse! I should have known it!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Thirteen? Well, it's… 2011, thirteen seems right. So, where is everyone? I always thought there were at least the four famous agents around here?"
"Famous? We try to avoid that… But, well, there was a breach in the Egypt section and the others are looking into it…"
"Egypt section you say?"
Amy interrupted him, "Miniature pyramid in a purple tent?"
Artie nodded.
"Yeah. Sorry, that was us, got the coordinates slightly wrong the first time", the Doctor finished.
Artie just looked at them, puzzled. "What? How can you just appear in a highly secure tent, for god's sakes!"
Amy snorted, "Oh believe me, that was no easy flight…"
At that moment, Artie's Farnsworth rang. It was Pete.
"Artie? There is nothing here. No breach, no sparks, no markings. Should we search around the corner by the Greeks, too?"
Artie answered, "No, Pete. The breach's been… resolved. And the Doctor's just arrived. Come back to my office."
"Alright, Kirk out."
Artie closed the Farnsworth and looked up, right into the eyes of a fascinated Doctor. "What?"
"Oh, nothing. Just quite an interesting communicator thingy you got there."
"It's called a Farnsworth", Jenny added from behind him.
"Oh! Farnsworth? Like my good ol' pal Philo? That guy was a genius. Met him once in 1923 when he was so desperate to capture some boring black and white movies for his family. Sometimes, I think, had I not given him the idea to treat pictures like sounds, Earth wouldn't be obsessed with television today… Does he still use these funny buzzing bells in his devices?"
Artie was still holding his Farnsworth, while the Doctor had moved around his office again and was now, that his speech seemed finished, holding a purple iridium coil that he picked up from Claudia's desk.
"Oh god, put that down!", Claudia shouted as she stormed into the room.
He immediately let the coil drop back onto the desk where it landed with a slight 'tock'.
"What? Sorry! What's that, then? Not a regular iridium coil I presume?"
"No! It's part of an experiment and overcharged with artifact-energy! You shouldn't even be able to touch it without gloves!"
"Yeah, well, you see, 'artifact-energy' never seemed to stop me before… I'm the Doctor by the way," he gestured beside him towards Amy, "and this is Amy."
"I'm Claudia." She moved forward and shook the Doctor's hand, still wearing her purple gloves. "Sorry, I'd rather not take them off after you just touched that…"
"Hey Myka, a group meeting and nobody told us!" Pete grinned as he stepped up the stairs and into Artie's office.
"I'm Pete, and somewhere behind me is Myka."
"Hi, I'm Amy Pond, and he's the Doctor." Amy greeted them and pointed at the man behind her, who was just stopped by Jenny before he picked up Artie's keyboard.
"Nice to meet you two.", Myka said.
Pete stood next to Claudia, beside her desk. "So, Doctor, I heard you've lost your daughter somewhere in time and space?"
Amy chuckled, "Oh, you can say that!"
"Well, if I'd known she was alive, I'd never have left her in the first place!", the Doctor grinned at Jenny. "But, clearly coming after me, she found just the right people to help her find me."
"Yeah, what is it you do here anyway?", Amy asked curiously. "I mean, this thing here is prettyhuge and isolated for a regular office building."
"Oh, collecting dangerous stuff, mostly. Snag it, bag it, tag it.", Claudia supplied.
"Cool! Like… pyramids? Alien stuff?"
"Why do you people keep asking that? I'm quite sure most of it is from Earth…", Artie replied. "Oh man, I still can't believe I'm actually saying this… Anyway, you're both aliens?"
"Nah, only me.", the Doctor answered and, before turning around to wander around the office again, added, "She's just Scottish."
— ❖ —
The Doctor had inspected most of Artie's office, finishing with the large map of the Warehouse, and was standing outside on the balcony overlooking the dark aisles of the Warehouse and talking to his daughter.
"So Jenny, how did you find these guys? I mean, this thing here is pretty secret. I've been working at Warehouse… Two? Or was it three? Well, I worked there for about half a month and stole or destroyed everything alien there… So I'm really relieved they didn't recognize your DNA or something and killed you on the spot… Although, that was 85 AD, they probably couldn't store or check my DNA anyway…"
Jenny just giggled.
"What?"
"You look just so… different. I mean, I actually feel that you're still the same, but when I saw you ten days ago, you were… I don't know, a guy in a suit with crazy hair, and now… you're like…" She giggled again.
"I'm like what? Tell me!" Then he takes one step towards her and eyed her suspiciously. "Don't you like the bow-tie?"
Jenny couldn't hold it any longer. "You're like a crazy guy with hair that suits him!", she bursted out laughing, but the Doctor soon joined her.
After they calmed down a bit, the Doctors finally said, "So, do you like this knew look on your old dad? Because even after 900 years I still can't promise I don't keep getting crazier."
She looked at him, laughing. "If I can still dress like I want… Oh, I'm so looking forward to traveling with you! Can we go some place… now?"
The Doctor's smile slowly formed into a huge grin. "Oh I hoped you would say that!" He took her hand and dragged her back inside. "Come on, I know just the place!"
— ❖ —
"Hey, anyone of you want want to grab a bite to eat? I haven't had some decent fast food incenturies!", the Doctor exclaimed while walking into the office again, with Jenny at his side. Amy was just telling the agents how she had been floating in outer space in her nightgown.
Claudia turned around, "You actually let her float in outer space? In her pajamas?"
"Yeah, within the TARDIS' force field of course. So, should be around three in the afternoon around here, anyone want to grab something to eat?"
"Oh, actually we just had lunch before you came…", Myka began, but was interrupted by Claudia.
"Count me in! Where are we going? There's not much around here for takeout…"
"Oh, let that be my problem, I think I know a few places. Alright! Let's go then!", the Doctor walked towards the door and added towards Pete, Myka and Artie, who wanted to stay in the Warehouse, "See you in a minute!"
Once outside the tunnel, Claudia saw the TARDIS for the first time.
"What's that thing?"
"It's the TARDIS. My spaceship."
"Seriously? Amy, you just told us about your room in there? This thing's made out of wood! And there isn't enough space for two people! Let alone four!"
"Oh? There isn't?", Amy asked sarcastically.
Meanwhile, Jenny was running towards the TARDIS and just touched the doors. She was hearing the same music she had heard earlier, more intense now that she was touching it. She slightly pushed the doors, and was quite surprised as they gave away and she was now looking into a much larger room on the inside. She shrieked in surprise and wonder and jumped inside, spontaneously running around the console room laughing happily. She just finished her round as the door opened again and her father came in.
"Okay, but don't take up too much space, Clau–" He didn't finish as he was tackled by his daughter who promptly hugged his chest.
"Oh dad, this is the most beautiful ship ever! I can hear her singing to me!"
"Oh my god! What is this! It's… it's… bigger on the inside!", a perplexed Claudia exclaimed as she was standing just behind the Doctor.
"I just love it when they say that." He said grinningly as Jenny let go of him and walked towards the console with her.
"So! Some decent, American fast food! I know just the place!" He danced around the console, setting controls, typing numbers, pushing buttons and finally resting his hand on one big lever. "Geronimo!"
— ❖ —
The TARDIS came to a stop with her special woosh sound, and the Doctor got up to his feet again.
"Here we are!" He jumped towards the doors, pushing both open at the same time. "Colorado, 1967!"
The TARDIS was 'parked' in the space between a Chevrolet Caprice and a brand new Ford Mustang. In front of a Burger King restaurant.
The three woman stood fascinated next to the Doctor. Jenny and Claudia fascinated that they just traveled in time and space, Amy fascinated because of the Doctor's passion for burgers.
"So, here we are! Almost a traditional American restaurant!", the Doctor proclaimed while walking towards the Burger King's doors. "Good thing we didn't land on a Sunday, 'cause now I can be food inspector!"
Amy just smirked as, five minutes later, they were sitting at a large table and a Burger King employee was coming towards them, with a large plate Burgers.
"You said there have been complaints about the quality of our meat, Sir?", the employee asked in a voice that sounded strongly like he had been trained to be extremely nice to customers. "Here are several samples of every dish we serve. If there are any complaints, don't hesitate to ask for the manager."
The Doctor nodded, "Thank you very much."
After the guy was gone, Amy and Claudia burst out in laughter. "I can't believe you just made Burger King to a high class restaurant with a waiter and stuff and still got you food for free!", Amy commented.
The Doctor took a burger from the plate in the middle of the table. "What can I say? I just like to see the good in people… besides, did any of you have currency that could have already existed in 1967?"
He looked at them as they shrugged. Then, he added towards Jenny, "But don't think it's okay to steal! I just do it because without me, these guys wouldn't have a moon landing to celebrate in two years!"
— ❖ —
"Okay, dad, what do I need when I come with you?"
"Hm… that's an interesting question." He seemed to look unfocused at his hands, as if remembering something. "Okay, four things."
"Four? What are those?", Amy interjected. "And why did nobody tell me?"
"Four? I always thought three was charm…", Claudia began, but as the Doctor looked at them, went silent.
"First: Clothes! I see you bought some, so bring those. But don't buy any new, the wardrobe room is full as it is already…", The Doctor begins to explain. "Oh, and bring especially the ones in TARDIS-blue, like your shirt. It's a very nice color on you. Oh, I think I should wear my TARDIS-blue bow-tie more often!"
Amy made a panicked expression, but Jenny just giggled, again noticing the color of her top. "Okay, I've clothes. What else?"
"Boots. Second is boots. There will be miles of running every day. So don't wear high heels too often." Jenny nodded.
"Third. Your vortex manipulator. That could come in pretty handy. I always thought about getting one myself, but it always feels like cheating on the TARDIS… well, anyway, you have one and you should use it. Except when I say 'don't wander off'…"
"Okay, okay, got it. What's the last?"
"Yeah, what else would she need? I mean, when you asked me to come with you I was in my bloody nightgown! And I am still alive!"
"Fourth", The Doctor paused dramatically. "A catchphrase! I always have a catchphrase. I mean, even my bow-tie is a catchphrase. So, Jenny, the most important thing, do you have a cool catchphrase?"
Jenny's mouth slowly formed an 'O'. "A… catchphrase? I never thought about that…"
"Well, now is the time! I can't really give you a proper cultural background or a childhood or unimportant stuff like that… but! Being second to last Time Lord means you should have aremarkable catchphrase! So, what have you got?"
"I… have no idea? When should I say it? What's your catchphrase, dad?"
"Hm, I've got a few. I mean, in my ninth life it definitely was 'fantastic', in my tenth I said 'allons-y' and 'brilliant' a lot… and now… I guess I use 'cool' more than before…"
"And 'Geronimo'!", Amy added.
"Your catchphrases are single words? Like 'awesome'? Or 'legendary'? Or 'incredible'?", Claudia suggested.
"Oh, those are great catchphrases! I haven't used any of those yet!"
"Awesome", Jenny said slowly with a huge grin. "I like that."
The Doctor smiled widely as well and held out a hand. "Welcome aboard, then!"
— ❖ —
Claudia took a sip from her drink and asked, "So, Doctor, you travel in time? How is that possible?"
"'n' sbace."
"What?"
He swallowed the last piece of his burger. "The TARDIS travels in time and space."
"Oh, yeah, of course. I saw that. But how do you do that? I mean, just recently some guys in Hong Kong have proven that there are no particles faster than light. And then some colleagues of my brother discovered neutrinos at CERN that were slightly faster than c. And now I've heard that Eureka is building a FTL drive as we speak."
He smiles at her while taking few fries. "I see you've done your time traveling homework. Oh, and don't talk to me about that town. I mean, these amateurs actually used the Einstein bridge device! Every sane person sees that it's full of flaws and uses wormholes with only non-temporal stability… Last time I checked, five or six or so of them were originally from a different timeline but they messed with time travel and voila, came back to another future. Just what they deserve, if you ask me…"
"What? There are people in Eureka from another timeline? And you know about that?"
"Of course I do, but why should I intervene? Time corrects itself and now the people have to suffer… and by suffer I mean, like, be head of Global Dynamics without knowing it. Although, if you see it, it's so obvious that he's from another timeline…"
"Seriously? Fargo?"
"Yeah, exactly, that's the little guy's name. Noticed him once because he was flying in a bloody spaceship that was leaking megatons of chronon radiation… Oh, wait, maybe that was in your future. Never mind!"
"Erm, okay. I'll try not to ask him that the next time I see him… So, how do you do it? Travel in time without disrupting it?"
"Do you know what TARDIS stands for?"
"Well, no."
"Then why didn't you ask?"
"I thought it was like… the name? Of your ship?"
"Nah, that's not her name. A name that's an abbreviation? That's rubbish." He sips on his coke. "It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. TARDIS. Always brings a smile to my face to say that. Even after all those years", he says dreamily.
"Okay… So what? It switches dimensions?"
"Very good. You're quite clever, you know that? If I hadn't a cheeky ginger on board already–" he moves his head in Amy's direction "– I think I would have asked you years ago to come with me."
"Oi!", Amy cried from the seat next to him. "You'd be crying after one day on which you didn't have to answer my stupid questions and feel like a bloody genius after it!"
Claudia laughed, "Ha! I bet you still can ask me years ago!"
"Nope, doesn't work that way. No interfering in a once established timeline. You'd remember it now or it didn't or won't happen. Ever. Not even a Time Lord can change that. And believe me, some have tried."
"So, Time Lords. What are they like? Where are you from? Are you from a type three civilization[2]?", she asked.
"Ha! Finally someone who's interested in a bit of technology and stuff. I like that."
"So? Would you tell me something about that?"
The Doctor thought a second about that. "Yeah, why not. But not too much. Just to show off, you know. Although I really don't need to, I know I'm pretty brilliant, but you"– he moved his hand in a circle in front of him –"you don't know that and even if I tell you all about my people's technology you wouldn't understand it. So… What's a type three civilization for you?"
"That, Mr. Show-off, is a civilization capable of manipulating the power of a black hole. But it's pretty much theoretical right now, at least on this planet I guess. Or what energy source do you have?"
"Oh, humans, one just has to love you and your technical terms for everything. Manipulate the power of a black hole." He nodded in appreciation. "Wow. That sure is a decent plan if you're looking for power."
Claudia waited, looked at him expectantly to continue his speech and maybe even begin to answer her questions. He waited a moment, then suddenly actually continued.
"Okay, assuming that you have a black hole, although I personally think supernovas are way more cool, and look better, by the way… anyway, you have a black hole, build a nice large… funnel in front of it's focal point and convert all the radiation to energy. What then? I tell you what. Then you rip a hole in the fabric of space-time and I've to come and fix it."
He made a dramatic pause. "Time Lords were much more delicate with that topic… Well, I said, 'were', I mean, I still am and I hope Jenny will be… Anyways, what my TARDIS and what even one of this adorably small vortex manipulators do is to actually use the power that's surrounding us right now. Humans can't see it, of course, or you'd be using it for millennia. But let me just tell you, I see it, I see the timelines, and still, it's really not easy to just vanish here and pop up 25 years in the past instead… Well, it is easy, if you've got the technology, but that's not the point. You can't just jump in time without ensuring that you stabilize the timelines you are in. Because if you don't, then you either destroy the principle of cause and effect in this universe, which would, by the way, collapse it quite a bit, or you create a new parallel universe and cannot return to your own past which is everyone else's future." He said that at fifteen words per second.
"Wow."
"Yep, that's the spirit: Leave the time travel to the experts."
"But… we got this case a few days back, Jenny was with us, and this guy had an artifact that sent messages into the past. And he heard them, followed them and then when the time was right, sent them to himself again so he can have heard them in the first place… how's that possible!"
"Wow, that sure were some beautiful time loops! All self-fulfilling paradoxical timey wimey stuff, that's what it is! And don't you just have to love it!"
With that the Doctor threw his now empty coke bottle down, took his tray and stood up.
"Ah, American fast food. Almost as good as fish custard!"
— ❖ —
After leaving the fast food restaurant, the group went back into the TARDIS and stood in the control room. The Doctor was running around, pointing at and touching buttons, screens and levers and at an incredible speed. He seemed to explain to Jenny how everything works.
When he was finished, Jenny, who stood still in the same position a bit offside the control panel, looked at him, smiled and said, "Okay, sounds all self-explanatory! Not sure if I understood the dimensional offset part, but the rest seems doable!"
"Yes!", the Doctor exclaimed, "Then, into the vortex!"
With that, he began to press several buttons and Jenny, who had stepped forward now, in turn pressed some buttons on her side of the control panel. The dematerialization began and the room shook slightly. Jenny felt that and instantly pressed some blue buttons and the shaking stopped.
"Oh, why the stabilizers! They make everything so boring!", the Doctor said, once they were in the vortex. "So, where to next? Back to the Warehouse? What did I say to them anyway? We'd be back in a minute? Then let's do just that!"
Without waiting for any answers, he began entering the coordinates and times by using various screens, buttons and one typewriter. The central column began to move again and a faint sound was heard. Then he jumped forward next to Jenny and signaled her to use the handbrake next to her. She slowly pulled it and the whizzing sound transformed into the typical woosh wooshmaterialization sound.
Jenny shrieked in joy and turned to the other passengers who had just watched the interaction. "Let's go! We're here!" She ran down the ramp, followed by her father, Amy and then Claudia.
Upon opening the door, they all could see the large building in front of them. The TARDIS was back on the same spot it was before, right in front of the Warehouse entry.
They left the police box, entered the Warehouse and finally got into Artie's office. Pete, Myka and Artie himself still stood there, like the others only just left the office.
"Wow, you're back already?", Pete greeted them. "You were only gone…" He glanced at his watch. "…a minute or so. Forgot something?"
"Nope, we just had a very nice meal!", Amy answered. "And for some reason, he actually got the timing right…"
Pete shot Myka a look, and she said, "You were gone for a minute."
"Did she mention it was at Burger King in Colorado?", Claudia said grinning. "In 1967?"
When Pete and Myka looked befuddled, the Doctor just winked and Jenny took a still wrapped up and seemingly hot burger from her pocket and threw it at Pete, who caught it reflexively.
[1] This story takes place after season 5 of Doctor Who (2005). It can be considered AU after that, but one can also argue that the next time Amy meets the Doctor (season 6), he is a younger Doctor who has not yet met Jenny again.
[2] cf. Wikipedia: Kardashev scale
A/N: Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoyed it so far! I loved writing this chapter. And you know how turns up next! (The next chapter might take a bit longer to write, again.)
Thank you for reading this story so far! It probably took you two hours to read this story from chapter one up to this line and I would very much like to know how you liked these two hours. Was it boring? Exciting? Did you notice an error in the plot? Did I somewhere fail miserably in forming an English sentence? Or do you have any suggestions for further chapters or scenes? I am sure an attentive reader has an opinion that could improve this story. Please take a minute, reflect on what you just read and write a review.
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