Start of a new adventure arc! Asylum got me ahead an extra chapter which was great because it meant I got to finish this whole four chapter arc before posting this first chapter of it. It's set in my hometown, and brings back a classic monster as well as one of my own invention.
I hope you like it!
If someone had told Jay a month ago that he would end up in a McDonalds in small town New Zealand with three aliens, he would have laughed and told them that they were insane or high. And yet -
"I guess I'll have a Big Mac combo. What about you, Jay?"
"Same here. Aliya?"
"Well, since all the burgers have meat in them, I suppose I'll just get chips - ooh! And one of those McFlurry things."
Jay had to laugh at how Aliya's eyes widened when they landed on the picture of the soft serve swirled with M&Ms and chocolate sauce. For all her often seeming wise beyond her years - or perhaps having more years than one might assume to look at her - Jay was learning that she practically turned into an excited child with a sweet tooth when confronted with a new dessert.
The Doctor likewise was chuckling. "And I'll just have a chicken caesar wrap as a combo thing. Thanks."
"You do actually have money, right?" Jay asked him. "Because I only have pounds and they're in my other jeans anyway."
The Time Lord dug around in his pockets before pulling out two of the green twenty dollar notes with the queen on them and handing them to the teenager behind the counter. "Is that enough? It doesn't necessarily look like enough - I can never tell."
The server gave him an odd look and accepted the money before giving him some coins for change and handing him their order number. They moved back to wait for their food, even though the fast food restaurant was currently rather quiet and no one else was in line behind them.
"I've always wanted to come to New Zealand," Jay said, "But being stuck in a tiny inland town where every single shop and sign makes a pun on the town name isn't quite what I had in mind."
"It is a bit regreta-bull," Jenny said, grinning.
Jay groaned at the same time that the Doctor outright giggled. "Please don't. It's bad enough that someone named a town Bulls, but the fact that the people here have turned every possible piece of signage into a bull pun is just-"
"Unforgetta-bull?" Aliya asked, unable to hold in her own laughter when he threw her an exasperated look. "I'm sorry, I think it's funny."
"No, I mean, it is funny, but it's also just so...dumb."
"Isn't that the point of puns?" Jenny asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"But it's so...wonderfully silly," Aliya said to Jay, grinning, "Where I came from, no one would ever do anything like this. It's brilliant. I like that most members of your species don't take things so seriously. "
Jay hadn't thought about it quite like that. "Well, when you put it like that…" A small grin found its way to his face. "Yeah, it is pretty funny. Humans are idiots, but in ways I tend to like."
"Me too," the Doctor said fondly.
Their number for the food was called up and they moved forward to take their trays and sit down in one of the booths, the elder pair on one side and Jay and Jenny on the other.
"Not to mention, the antique shop was kind of hilarious when you think about it," Jay added as he ate a few of his fries.
Jenny lifted an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Well, you know, we were essentially in a china shop in Bulls. As opposed to that old saying about a bull in a china shop."
"As someone who has experienced both," the Doctor mused, "I can say that this version was much more peaceful."
Jay and Aliya stared at him.
"You know what, I don't even want to know," the latter said a moment later, shaking her head and dipping a couple of fries into her McFlurry.
Jay took a bite of his Big Mac and let out a sigh of contentment as he chewed. "There's something really comforting about this. After everything we've seen, eating McDonalds is just...soothing."
"A true piece of home, huh?" Jenny said, amused.
"Well, yeah. Doesn't matter if we're in New Zealand, McDonalds is McDonalds."
"This place is so global that it's comforting to you?" Aliya asked, with great interest. "Huh. Maybe that explains why it makes me so uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable?"
"Well, maybe uncomfortable is the wrong word." She made a face. "Except it's not, really. It's sort of like culture shock. Something so completely alien to me personally. It's fine, because I'm with all of you, but ending up in places like this or huge crowds on my own is always unsettling. I don't know. It's hard to explain."
"No, I get it," Jenny said, "I remember the first time I found myself in a big alien crowd. They were this species that were huge and purple with these really slimy tentacles. It was...not fun."
Jay pictured that and shuddered. "See, that would totally freak me out. So fair enough."
Aliya smiled at him until she noticed that the Doctor had taken their conversation as an opportunity to steal some of her McFlurry. "Hey!" She yanked the spoon right out of his mouth, making him yelp. "That's mine!"
"I paid for it," he countered.
"You bought it for me. Stealing it is still rude." She went to keep eating it, but he dipped his finger in the chocolate sauce and stuck some on her nose. "Seriously?"
"And yet somehow I'm the four year old," Jenny said, shaking her head with disbelief.
The Doctor just grinned and licked his finger clean before swiping it across the chocolatey tip of her nose, gathering most of the sauce onto his finger, and again cleaning it off with a flick of his tongue.
"Mmm."
"There's this thing called personal space boundaries, Doctor, you might want to try it sometime," Jay said to him, eyebrow up.
Aliya's annoyance had faded into a strange sort of affection as she regarded her absurd, dessert stealing friend. "Don't worry, Jay, I gave up on that a long time ago. I know what I signed up for." She delicately cleaned her nose off with one of the napkins. "All gone?"
"Yeah, you're good."
"At least I didn't lick it directly off your nose," the Doctor said defensively. "And believe me, I definitely considered it."
"I bet you did," Aliya replied, with a tiny wry smile, "But that's because you're utterly ridiculous."
He tapped her on her now clean nose and smiled. "Proudly."
Jenny rolled her eyes at them but couldn't disguise the fond smile on her lips as she bit into her burger. Jay was again reminded of their being a sort of psuedo family, but knew that they considered him a part of it now in most of the ways that mattered. And as someone who was perfectly happy with his actual biological family, that was all he could ask for.
Once they had finished their meal and gone back to the TARDIS, a bit of tinkering meant that the TARDIS was at least able to accomplish a short hop.
"How about I show you a more impressive part of New Zealand?" The Doctor asked them. "We should be okay to get there, and then all we have to do is keep ourselves busy until she's finished calibrating."
"As much as the bull puns have been great, that sounds like a good plan. Where did you have in mind? Not that I've probably heard of it anyway."
"I'm thinking...Mount Maunganui. Beautiful place, you'll see."
He danced around the controls, patting the console soothingly as he went. He asked Jenny and Aliya for help here and there and they were quick to hit the button or pull the lever in question. Soon they landed and he was telling them all to get their beach outfits on. Aliya, doubtful of his steering, stuck her head out the door to ensure they were somewhere sunny before complying.
By the time they left the TARDIS, the women were in sundresses and sunglasses, Jay was finally able to indulge in shorts, and the Doctor went so far as to change his shirt (all of them put their swimming costumes on underneath, though). The Time Lord looked ridiculous wearing the tweed suit with a pair of aviators, but Jay wasn't really sure how to tell him that and was more concerned with putting his guitar on his back for when he found a prime spot to perch on a rock and do some playing.
The TARDIS had materialised by a block of public toilets, and they stepped around it to be rewarded with the view of an exquisite bay of flat water with many children playing in the shallows. Behind them was a small mountain - or depending on one's perspective, a very large hill - covered in bush and some white specs which looked suspiciously like sheep.
"Doctor, you finally got it right," Jay said, grinning.
The other man straightened his bowtie. "No need to sound so surprised."
"Welcome to Mauao," Jay read, spotting a nearby sign and making for it, "I thought you said this place is called Mount Maunganui?"
"It is, but Mauao is the Maori name for the mountain," the Doctor said as he followed. Jay had to wince at how bad his own pronunciation of the word had been going by the difference in how the Doctor said it.
Jay moved to read the smaller writing on the sign. "Says here it means caught by the dawn."
The Doctor nodded. "In the myth, this mountain was a small, nameless servant to the huge mountain Otanewainuku - which is over that way - and was hopelessly in love with the beautiful mountain Puwhenua. But she was in love with Otanewainuku, so he asked the children of the night to use their magic ropes to pull him to the ocean where he could drown himself."
"Cheery," Jenny remarked, her and Aliya having come to stand behind them.
"Except the night children fled when the sun came up, and the mountain was left stranded here. Hence the name Mauao. Caught by the dawn."
Aliya snorted. "What a load of bullshit."
"Aliya!"
"Oh please, if I had a pound for every bit of mythology I've heard about sentient land masses or objects or gods, I'd have more money than I could ever spend."
"You never spend money-"
"Missing the point, Jenny!"
The Doctor shook his head, vaguely exasperated but also a little amused. "It's just a story. Primitive people like their stories."
"Yeah, like that one about the guy rising from the dead after three days after getting nailed to a cross, I honestly don't know who comes up with that sort of thing-"
Jay frowned at Aliya. "I'm not really sure you can compare the two. You know that whether he rose from the dead or not, Jesus was a real guy who actually existed, right?"
"If you say so," Aliya said, shrugging, "Your planet."
The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Anyway, point is that without this story, the mountain wouldn't have its lovely name. So let's appreciate that, and move on. If my memory serves me correctly, there's an ice cream shop behind us, just across the street and down about ten metres. Come on."
The ice cream shop was called Copenhagen Cones and had freshly made waffle cones. They all indulged in huge ice creams even though they'd just eaten. Jay opted for orange chocolate chip and a rich dark chocolate, Jenny got a coffee flavour and the same chocolate one as Jay, while the Doctor went for strawberry ripple and boysenberry. Aliya's choice, however, was horrific. She got lime, macadamia, and strawberry ripple, topped off with chocolate chips and caramel sauce.
"Ew," Jay said, watching her eat it as they left the shop.
Jenny laughed. "This is what it's like when she has pancakes too. Every topping possible as long as it's sweet."
Aliya shrugged and didn't bother trying to defend herself even though it was obvious she was itching to. She just enjoyed her ice cream and let all three of them talk shit about her problematic dessert choices as much as they liked. They ended up walking to the other end of the street, where on the other side of the stretch of land from the flat bay there was a sandy beach with plenty of waves and even more people stretched out on towels or yelling at each other in the water.
The four of them sat on the grass bank and let their shoes rest on the sand.
"You're right, Dad, this is lovely," Jenny said, hugging him tightly from the side, "Thanks for bringing us here."
Aliya made a noise of agreement from where she had shut her eyes and let her head tilt back to enjoy the warmth of the sun.
"Yeah, thanks," Jay said to the Doctor, who smiled at him.
"You're very welcome."
"Hang on, I've got to snapchat my sister, she said she wanted a look at where I was travelling."
Jay got out his phone, opened the app, and held it up just in time to capture the Doctor stealing some of Aliya's ice cream and her looking at him with great exasperation. He laughed and captioned it the dumbest geniuses in the galaxy and saved it before sending it off.
"Jenny, take a selfie with me to send to my sister," he asked his friend, who happily shuffled a bit closer to him and beamed at the camera. The picture came out beautifully and he saved it before sending it without a caption.
He got a reply a minute later, with a view of the San Francisco waterfront. I think I know why you like these people, she's cute ;) He rolled his eyes and took a picture of the ocean so that he could assure her that Jenny was just a good friend.
All the same, as they walked around part of Mount Maunganui and stopped at a more secluded beach down from the walking track, Jay couldn't help thinking about his friendship with Jenny. He'd been close friends with girls before, platonically and romantically, and in that regard it felt very familiar, but there was also something new about it. Not romantic, of that he was certain, but just unique.
It was probably just that Jenny was so singular in herself. She was like a light that brightened everything around her, and drew people of all kinds to her like a moth to a flame. Who wouldn't want to be around someone like her?
"Oi, pretty boy, you still on this planet?"
Jay snapped out of his thoughts to see Jenny - in a blue bikini now that she'd shed the sundress - laughing at him from near the water's edge. He immediately grinned at her and yanked his t-shirt over his head so he could join the others.
"Asks the alien," he retorted as he made his way across the sand.
"I reckon we should do that thing where one of us sits on the other's shoulders and we try and knock each other off," Jenny said thoughtfully, gaze moving to where the Doctor - who was wearing horrific Hawaiian shorts - seemed to be doing his best to coax a reluctant Aliya into deeper water.
"What, you mean like shoulder wars? Or I think some people call it a chicken fight."
"Yeah, that's the one. Thinking about proportions, me on your shoulders and then Aliya on Dad's would probably work the best."
"What are you two muttering about?" The Doctor asked.
"Some friendly competition," his daughter said, pulling Jay into the water, "Me and Jay versus you two. Me on Jay's shoulders and Aliya on yours. What do you think?"
He started grinning, while Aliya's eyebrows had skyrocketed.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"It's a game. We try and push each other off." Jenny did her best to look innocent. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"It sounds ridiculous, I'm a-"
"Scaredy cat who's afraid of falling in a bit of water? Or afraid of losing, maybe?"
Aliya's eyes flashed, and a ghost of a smile tilted her lips. "Watch it, young lady. I might be a shitty swimmer but I'm not afraid of losing or falling."
"Prove it."
Jay and the Doctor shared a grin when Aliya's chin lifted and determination sparked in her eye. She put a hand on the latter's shoulder.
"Okay, fine. How do we do this?"
"Like this." Jay dropped below the water so Jenny could settle herself on top of his shoulders before he stood up as much as he was able under her weight.
"Oh stars," Aliya said, right before the Doctor went under the water too. She got on his shoulders, but let out a shriek the moment he lifted her up into the air upon standing. "Fucking hell, this was a mistake, this is a new kind of human nonsense."
She grabbed onto the Doctor's hair on what had to have been an anxious reflex. He yelped loudly and she winced upon realising what she'd done. Releasing him, she let herself balance properly.
Jay couldn't help the powerful laughter that shook his body, but Jenny shook with him and she told him to cut it out unless he wanted her to fall off.
"It's okay, I've got you, I won't let you fall," the Doctor was promising Aliya in the meantime, and reassuring her until he added, "At least until Jenny pushes you off. Won't be able to help you there. You've got to get her first, okay?"
Aliya muttered something in agreement and then Jay brought them closer so that the two women could lock arms and start wrestling with each other.
It wasn't much of a fight. Within seconds Jenny's upper body strength won out and Aliya went tumbling off the Doctor's shoulders and into the shallow water with a loud splash. Jenny had nearly lost her balance, but a bit of teamwork with Jay had her mostly stable again. To their surprise, when Aliya came up, she was laughing.
"This is a fantastically stupid game, and I want another go," she said.
They played round after round, Jenny winning every time no matter how close Aliya came, and eventually swapped so Jenny was on her shoulders and Jay on the Doctor's. This time the teams were more even, and trash talking became even more important than the competition itself.
Jenny's strength in the end meant that she stole the tiebreaker, and the men had to admit defeat.
"You'd think that since she was grown from me, I might have the same muscles as her," the Doctor said to Jay, sighing as Jenny celebrated her victory by whooping loudly, "But somehow, that's not the case."
Jay chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Just let her have this one."
The alien man looked at his daughter and smiled. "No problem there." He then made a beeline for Aliya and tried to pull her back into the water. When she refused, he picked her up around the waist and spun her around while she screamed with laughter and no small amount of alien curse words.
Smiling, Jay grabbed his phone and snapped a picture, then took a selfie of himself with the beach in the background and set it as his new profile picture on Facebook. Once that was done he settled himself on his towel and let the sun warm him.
They stayed at the beach for several more hours, before the Doctor eventually suggested thinking about food since it would be dark soon and 'he knew how humans needed to eat constantly'.
Jay couldn't really argue with that. So they made their way back around the Mount until they were at the road where the TARDIS was parked. They dumped the towels but didn't get changed because the Doctor was certain the locals weren't fussy about attire so long as one was clothed in some way.
It was only a short walk to a full stretch of shops and restaurants, and they found a casual one where their clothes and sandy toes didn't put them out of place. Jay was surprised to find a lack of tipping culture when the waitress was very thankful but surprised at being given a tip. He guessed wait staff were actually just paid a living wage and so it wasn't really a problem.
They began the walk back to the TARDIS with full bellies and light hearts. It had been a good day.
"So much food," Jay moaned.
Jenny laughed at him, slinging her arm around his shoulders. "I've never seen one person consume so much garlic bread in one go. It was downright impressive."
"I have," the Doctor said, shuddering, "Ace had a real appetite after she blew something up. And don't even get me started on Adric."
"They sound like my heroes-" Jay started to say, before frowning at something across the street. "Did you guys see that?"
"See what?"
"I...I dunno. I think I'm jumping at shadows now."
"Don't worry, Aliya does that all the time," Jenny said lightheartedly, and Jay noticed for the first time that the older blonde was quiet and tense where she was tucked under the Doctor's arm.
"Scared of the dark?" He guessed. "Even with the street lamps."
"The street lamps are why I'm not screaming my lungs out," Aliya replied tightly, "The joys of irrational phobias."
"My sister's deadly scared of clowns, so I get it, don't worry."
Jenny's head whipped around to look behind them. "Okay, so not to alarm anyone, but I think someone's following us."
Jay glanced behind him. "Shit, I think they're what I saw in the shadows earlier."
"It's probably just someone walking to their car, it's a public street," the Doctor said, frowning, "There's absolutely no reason why anyone here would want to follow us."
"Unless it's a vampire who thinks we look tasty," Jay joked.
Aliya yelped. "Why would you say something like that?! That's not something I want to have to worry about!"
He was totally bemused by her reaction and had to chuckle. "Aliya, it was a joke. This isn't Twilight, vampires aren't real."
"What?" She stared at him incredulously. "Of course they're real. Why would you think they weren't?"
"Because...aliens? Surely vampires can't be real too."
"Unfortunately they are," she said, shuddering, "I've never actually met any, but they're my people's natural enemies, and I'm technically meant to eradicate any I find on sheer principle. The Doctor has encountered vampires before, though."
"More times than I'd care to remember," the Doctor said with a grimace. "But thankfully we're in New Zealand, where the weather changes every few hours and it's sunny most of the time. Any vampires would have to be a bit thick to want to live here. It's just plain dangerous."
"Please tell me you guys are kidding," Jay said weakly, but the look they gave him dashed any last hope of that. He looked at Jenny, who could only give him a hopeless shrug. It seemed it was news to her as well. "This is too much. Aliens I can do, but not vampires. Nope."
"You make a good point about the weather, Doctor, but there's this incredible thing called night time, and so I'm not entirely reassured."
"Aliya, there are not going to be any vampires in this part of New Zealand at this time of year, and there is definitely not one following us." The Doctor looked over his shoulder to be sure. "See, no one there. We were imagining things." Sure enough, when they all looked behind them, the path was clear.
"Huh, guess I was," Jay said. He wasn't half relieved.
They rounded the corner onto the last street and crossed the road, and they all started thanking the Doctor for a truly lovely day when the TARDIS came into view and they came to a halt.
There was a group of five standing in front of the box, their pale skin glinting in the light from the nearby street lamp. All but one had red hair, and none of them looked friendly. One was leaning against the TARDIS door and she cocked an eyebrow at the four travellers.
"Oh shit," Aliya breathed.
"Time Lord," the woman against the door said, pushing away and stepping closer, "What an unpleasant surprise."
The Doctor was solemn as he eyed her. His expression was uncharacteristically cold. "I could say the same. In fact, I will. What are you doing here?"
"We live here," she snarled, baring pointed incisors.
"Creepy, pale, hostile, knows about Time Lords, and now the fangs," the Doctor said, making a face, "Well, Jay, it seems you were right after all."
"That is not even remotely reassuring."
Yes, vampires ARE a canon part of the Whoniverse! It's been so much fun writing them just because Time Lords and vampires hate each other so much. They're all so salty and I live for it.
Let me know what you thought! I know this was 98% fun/fluff but we're getting stuck in with the storyline next chapter.
-MayFairy :)
