Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's. That's about it really.

A/N: I am currently in love with Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett.

Chapter 21

Aliens of London: 12 Hou- I mean Years.

Confused. The only word that can describe the Doctor's feeling at the moment. He was confused about Gwyneth's warning; he was also confused why or what was going to get his new companion in danger. He did a quick scan just to be sure that he was human or if he was different, he even checks if Sam was time sensitive, or a bit telepathic like Gwyneth. And the result is still the same for his new small companion.

Completely human-one hundred per cent human with no traces of anything or otherwise. He was an ordinary human boy, recently nine years old, and nothing like anything he'd ever encountered before. It didn't make any sense and his curiosity was blaring wild. The first time he met him at the museum, he can't see his timeline and his time-sense were going crazy, but he thought it was the child factor of him; for time lord, it was more difficult to see the timeline of children than ordinary adult. The sole reason taking him traveling with him change from having a ward or companion change after their trip to Cardiff and the warning Gwyneth told him.

After getting some rest, Sam stepped back into the console room with his backpack and original red jacket he wore the day they started to travel, to find the Doctor was busy with the TARDIS controls. He was now setting the coordinates of Sam house, it was his request to take him home and the Doctor thought he was really going home until the boy explained his weekend time is up and it was time for him to started school at Monday. The Time Lord was relieved and was now setting the right coordinates.

"Ready to go home?" the Doctor asked.

He nodded in response, which made the Doctor smiled and set the coordinates.

The TARDIS materialized in the same spot of the Powell Estate, there was the sound of city traffic clamouring in the background and kids playing on a nearby playground echoed off the concrete. Sam stepped out of the blue time machine after the Doctor, shielding his eyes from the sun, smiling. The Doctor stayed by the TARDIS, leaning against the door frame, crossing his leather jacket, covered arms over his chest, watching the boy.

"How long have I been gone?" Sam finally asked.

"Bout 12 hours," he answered with confident.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Course I'm sure," the Doctor told him with a frown.

"Positive?"

He hesitated slightly. "Yes."

"Because the last time you were sure, we were supposed to be in 1860 Naples," Sam teased him.

"Oi!"

Sam laughed at his offended look, which immediately softened as he chuckled.

"I'll see you next weekend," Sam said, walking back to the estate.

"What are you going to tell your mum?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"I don't know," Sam shrugged. "I've been to the year 5 billion, meet Charles Dickens, and only been gone, what; twelve hours?" the Doctor snorted at the thought as he smiled, "Nah, I can't tell her the truth. I did tell her I was spending a night with a friend. See ya!" he walked off, waving at him.

The Doctor gave him a mock saluted as he leaned against the TARDIS, looking up at the sky until he spotted an old poster that was half stuck to a concrete pillar, scanning it. The Doctor's eyes widen with horror, as he dashed after Sam.

Sam took out his key and unlocked the front door of the flat, "I'm back!" he called as he entered the flat. "Science club was crazy, so I had to stayed a night at Lois house. I did call." He stopped when he saw Jackie standing in the doorway looked shocked. "Jackie? You alright?"

"It's you!" she said simply.

"Of course it's me," Sam replied. His foster mother's behaviour was starting to frighten him.

Jackie dropped her mug, making the boy startled as she reaching her hands out to him. "It's you," she said shakily. Sam watched warily as tears formed in her eyes. "It's really you. Oh my God." she said as she threw her arms to the boy and hold him tightly.

The Doctor chose that moment to burst into the flat. "It's not 12 hours, it's err… twelve months. You've been gone for a while year," he said, laughing nervously while the two of them looked at him, stunned. "Sorry."

0o0

Jackie Tyler had immediately called the police and Mrs. Miller, his social worker. Sam cringed at idea they need to call her but there's really nothing he can do, he can't just say for them not to tell her, especially if he was missing for a year. He withdrew to an armchair, where he was currently curled up and gazing out the window as he chewed his nail, and trying hard not thinking about being moved by a new family with an anxious feeling of Mrs. Miller come knocking to the flat any moment and dragged him out to her car, without saying a proper goodbye.

"The hours I've sat here, days, and weeks, and moths, all on my own!" Jackie ranted as a policeman took notes, "I thought you ran away, or died, Samuel! I've checked the school, checked Lois house, and you weren't there. I've called Mrs. Miller and thought maybe she picked you up without me knowing, even had a fight with her, but you weren't there! And your reason was what? Travelling?" she yelled at Sam before turning to the Police Officer. "That's not sort of answer. You ask him. He won't tell me. That's all he says. Travelling."

"That's what I was doing," Sam told her.

"Samuel Alexander Elios Holmes! Do you think I'm a bloody idiot?" Jackie countered. She glared at him making him squirm uneasy, especially with her using his full name. "I might never get a great education, but I know when you're lying through your teeth, young man! This is just another lie after another."

"But I did phone, I really did!" Sam insisted.

"What, one vague phone call? Saying you're in the bloody science club making rockets, and spending the night with Lois that end up as a lie?" Jackie shrieked. Her voice quivered, and tears began forming in her eyes. "And I am left sitting here! I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Actually," the Doctor cleared his throat, "It's my fault. I sort of employed Sam as my assistant, companion in fact."

"Employed?" the policeman began, seemed to peak an interest. "It is illegal for you to employed an underage child, Mr.?"

"Doctor. Smith, Doctor John Smith." the Doctor told them, "And yes, I do know it's illegal. But it was not for labour, it was for educational purpose. He was just helping me out with an educational research."

"When you say educational purpose, is this implying any sexual activity?" the police officer asked again. The man stared at him with suspicion.

"No! Never." the Doctor told them firmly.

"Then what is it?" Jackie turned to him. "Because you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, he vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty -five? You promised him some kind of treat or something? What, did you find him wandering around in the playground, or the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"Prove it. Stich this, mate!" Jackie then smacked the Doctor across the face, sending him stumbling backwards. Sam can only grimace sympathetically, when the Time Lord, the Oncoming Storm had just received the famous Jackie Prentice slapped.

0o0

After they failed to extract anymore information from Sam, or the Doctor. Jackie was taking Sam to the kitchen while the Doctor wondered off outside. She was crying and hugged the boy tightly, afraid of letting him go.

"Did you even think about me at all?" Jackie asked him. She looked at Sam in the eyes, cupping her cheek.

"I do," Sam admitted genuinely.

"Then why-" she started but choked at her words and can only hugged the boy again. Concerned about her son wellbeing, and afraid of what's going on. He might not be her real son biologically, but it didn't matter for her, what matter was for him to be safe. But now, Jackie Prentice was more scared of the safety of her son.

"I'm sorry," Sam whispered. He hugged the woman back tightly. "I really am, sorry."

"Do you know what terrifies me, is that you still can't say. What happened to you, Sam? What could be so bad that you both can't tell me, sweetheart? Where were you?" Jackie said, switching to pleading once more.

Sam was silent at first, he was considering to tell her the truth. It's not like he was going to stay here forever, in the end; it'll be great for her to know the truth. He thought how it was not fair for her being lied to, especially if they won't be seeing each other anymore, and lying to her after she took him in and take care of him as if she was one of her, it was not fair.

"Alright," Sam said. He took a deep breath, preparing himself. "I am being travelling. Travelling with the Doctor. That's the truth. But there's more to it, because I didn't just travel countries to countries, but I've been traveling through time and space."

"Don't be daft," Jackie said, backing up.

"But I'm not," Sam pleaded. He looked at her. "Cause I've seen it. The end of the world and I spent Christmas in Cardiff, meeting Charles Dickens. All because of him, and he's not just anyone. The Doctor, he travels all over, between planets, galaxies, and different time."

"You made him sound like he some kind of alien," Jackie said, staring at him with disbelief.

"But he is," he told her. "He's an alien with a ship that can travel to any point in time and space."

"Sam, please just don't. If you don't really want to tell me-"

"But I am telling the truth." Sam insisted. "The last time with the clown and missing children incident, he was there saving them. He saved the children and trap the being that kidnapped them, I was there Jackie."

He waited for Jackie to reply or say something. But the woman just continues sobbing, denying the truth, thinking that Sam was lying to her. Sam can only stare at her, walking to the kitchen and having a sat down with herself, trying to calm herself.

0o0

Later on, Sam fled to the roof for a break. He wanted to be alone, he loves being alone when he was being put in a stressful thing like this, but then he saw the Doctor on the roof, leaning against a low wall with his arms crossed. Thinking how he had just been slapped by his companion's mother, something to add for another new experience the Doctor had have on his life.

"Owww…" he whinged as he prodded the bruised jaw and glared petulantly across the depressingly grey blocks of functional institutional estate apartments, wondering what in the hell had gone wrong. He had just been there the day before his own personal time, he replayed the calculations and coordinates in his head, never been so bad as the whole year off before. What in the hell happened?

"No offense Doctor, but you are a rubbish pilot," Sam said. He walked towards the Doctor, crossing his arms.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you gonna stay here now?" the Doctor questioned.

"I don't know," Sam replied. He hopped up to sit next to him.

"Either way, we are not bringing her on board. I don't do domestic," the Doctor told him in a matter of fact.

"She got you good, didn't she?" Sam at least looked a tad sympathetic, scrunching his face as he squinted at his face. "Should have warned you of the Prentice slap."

"It hurts!"

"Your face!"

"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother," the Doctor protested.

"What? You're nine hundred years old?" Sam asked.

He nodded.

"Thought you'll be older," Sam said.

The Doctor looked mildly offended. "And to think, she thought I kidnapped and exploited his son to do some works, thinking I'm taking some liberties with her son."

"You can't blame her. This day and age, there's all sort of crazed psychos out there, making off some money by kidnapping kids my age," Sam told him. "There's even one of the estate kids who were found in some sewer near here or somethin'."

"The world is dangerous yes. But I'm not some raving madman to carry off young children to have my way with." He couldn't believe they would assume that of him. "I'll have you know, I travelled with a lot of people, some younger and some even older and they all perfectly safe in my company."

"So you travelled with others?" Sam asked. It was the first time he had ever mentioned another companion.

"I've been around for a while, picked up a stray or two along the way," the Doctor told him. He didn't elaborate, he couldn't really see why. It wasn't exactly a secret, but he knew if he mentioned the others, all the other companions he had travelled with him, Sam would want to know about them and their stories, and he couldn't bring himself to think of them. Sometimes children curiosity is a dangerous thing.

"So is this what you do, just pick up people like me and show them the universe?" Sam said him again. His tone was casual and curious.

"Yeah." the Doctor admitted.

"You're lonely."

"Samuel Alexander Elios Holmes," the Doctor began, tried to shift the conversation. He glanced at the boy with a grinned. "That's quite a mouthful name."

"Don't start," Sam warned him. "She always used the full name in full blown anger. Besides, yours not any better, is your name really John Smith?"

"No," the Doctor told him. "It's not my real name, just an alias my friend made up for me." He looked up at the sky.

"Sam."

"Hmm?"

"What did you tell her?" the Doctor asked him.

Sam sighed. "The truth."

"You didn't!"

"What else was I supposed to do?" Sam asked him. He was still looking at him with a shocked expression.

"Sam, knowing about me puts people in danger!" the Doctor cried. "This is your mother!"

"Foster mother!" Sam corrected him. He felt a twinge of pain in his heart.

"That's beside the point-"

"I'm not going to be with her," Sam blurted out. He stopped and glanced at the Doctor wearing a confused look. "They probably already on the phone with her right now, and if I will be move again, at least she deserved the truth." He looked down at his shoes. "The real truth."

"Sam, I really am sorry," the Doctor said to him. He felt seriously guilty about this. "I really did mean to have you back in twelve hours, just like we promise."

"It was an accident; I know" Sam said to him. "It's fine really, I'm used to this, moving away to a new place, having new friends, and carer. It'll be fun," he added, but the Doctor can see how he hated it. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"I-"

As if on cue, a bellowing horn blew and suddenly a shop trailing black smoke passed overhead. The Doctor pulled Sam down and they watched it heading straight for Central London; smashed into Big Ben with a loud crunch and then landed with a splash in the Thames, spraying water everywhere.

"Never a normal day with you, huh Doctor?" Sam commented. He looked at the Doctor who was as surprised as he is with his mouth gaping slightly.

He then broke into a grin. "Fantastic!"

Aww.. Sam. I am so sorry. Also! I do not know how foster house works, I don't even think we have here in my country so if I get it wrong, I'm so sorry.

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