The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor
Chapter 1
A/N - Welcome to the first chapter of The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor! I'm already looking forward to this book so much! There will ups and downs and Elise will finally grow into herself and find her voice.
The TARDIS was drifting when a distress signal started going off.
Elise dropped her sketchbook and ran for the console. "Daddy!" she yelled.
The Doctor came running into the control room and grabbed the monitor. "Hold on…that's the ship we left Amy and Rory on." He directed Elise to a set of controls. "These are going to flash in a particular order and you need to press them exactly a second after they flash, okay?"
Elise nodded as the Doctor typed something in.
Come along Pond.
"Something's controlling the storm…" The Doctor did a few more calculations and the TARDIS locked on. "Got it. Elise, now!"
Elise started pressing the buttons as the Doctor flew around the console.
The TARDIS landed on a roof and they stepped out.
The Doctor saw a chimney and jumped in before Elise could stop him.
She groaned and rolled her eyes before following after him. She landed next to him and he stumbled out of the chimney. "Graceful," Elise muttered, brushing herself off. They were both covered in soot and Elise briefly wondered if it would come out of her clothes. They'd been a gift from River.
"Ah. Yes. Blimey. Sorry. Christmas Eve on a rooftop. Saw a chimney, my whole brain just went, what the hell." The Doctor approached the family in the room. "Don't worry, fat fellow will be doing the rounds later. I'm just scoping out the general chimney-ness." He walked over to the chimney and leaned against it with his hand.
Elise wondered how long it would take him to realize it was still hot.
"Yes. Nice size, good traction." The Doctor yanked his hand off. "Big take."
"Fat fellow?" the boy asked.
"Father Christmas, Santa Claus or, as I've always known him, Jeff."
"There's no such person as Father Christmas."
"Oh, yeah?" The Doctor pulled out an old photograph. "Me and Father Christmas, Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge, 1952. See him at the back with the blonde? Albert Einstein. The three of us together. Keep the faith. Stay off the naughty list."
Elise hadn't gone on that trip. He'd dropped her off with River and they spent the day together. That's actually when Elise had gotten the clothes she was wearing.
The Doctor ran over to what looked like an organ. "Ooo. Now, what's this then? I love this. A big flashy lighty thing. That's what brought me here. Big flashy lighty things have got me written all over them. Not actually, but give me time, and a crayon. Now, this big flashy lighty thing is connected to the spire in your dome, yeah? And it controls the sky. Well, technically it controls the clouds, which technically aren't clouds at all. Well, they're clouds of tiny particles of ice. Ice clouds. Love that. Who's she?" The Doctor turned and pointed at the young woman frozen in the ice.
She was blonde and pretty. She reminded Elise of a princess.
"Nobody important," the old man in the room said.
"Nobody important! Blimey, that's amazing. Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before." The Doctor ran back over to the organ looking contraption. "Now, this console is the key to saving that ship, or I'll eat my hat. If I had a hat. I'll eat someone's hat. Not someone who's using their hat. I don't want to shock a nun, or something. Sorry, rambling, because, because this isn't working!"
"The controls are isomorphic. One to one. They respond only to me," the man said.
"Oh, you fibber. Isomorphic. There's no such thing."
The man reached over the Doctor and turned the contraption off and on again.
The Doctor tried the same thing, but nothing happened. He even tried sonicing the contraption. "These controls are isomorphic," he said.
"The skies of this entire world are mine. My family tamed them, and now I own them."
"Tamed the sky? What does that mean?"
"It means I'm Kazran Sardick. How can you possibly not know who I am?"
"Well, just easily bored, I suppose. So, my daughter and I need your help, then."
"Make an appointment."
"There are four thousand and three people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt. Without your help, they're going to die."
"Yes."
"You don't have to let that happen."
"I know, but I'm going to. Bye, bye. Bored now. Chuck!"
The servants grabbed the family, Elise, and the Doctor, but the Doctor managed to get free and walked over to Sardick who was sitting in a leather armchair by the fireplace.
"Ooo, look at you, looking all tough now."
"There are four thousand and three people I won't allow to die tonight. Do you know where that puts you?"
"Where?"
"Four thousand and four."
"Was that a sort of threat-y thing?"
"Whatever happens tonight, remember you brought it on yourself."
"Yeah, yeah, right. Get him out of here. And next time, try and find me some funny poor people."
The boy in the family picked up a piece of coal and chucked it at Sardick.
It hit him in the head. Sardick got up and ran over to him with his hand raised.
In that moment, Elise's knees hit the floor with her head down.
"No, stop, don't!" the Doctor yelled.
"Don't you dare. You leave him!" his father yelled.
"Get him out of here. Get that foul-smelling family out of here. Out!" Sardick ordered.
"We're going!" the boy told him.
The servants let go of Elise and she collapsed to the floor in tears of relief.
The Doctor picked her up and cradled her to his chest, stroking her hair.
"What? What do you want?" Sardick asked the Doctor.
"A simple life. But you didn't hit the boy."
"Well, I will next time."
"You see, you won't. Now why? What am I missing?"
"Get out. Get out of this house."
The Doctor looked around the room. "The chairs. Of course, the chairs. Stupid me, the chairs."
"The chairs?"
"There's a portrait on the wall behind me. Looks like you, but it's too old, so it's your father. All the chairs are angled away from it. Daddy's been dead for twenty years, but you still can't get comfortable where he can see you. There's a Christmas tree in the painting, but none in this house, on Christmas Eve. You're scared of him, and you're scared of being like him, and good for you, you're not like him, not really. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because you didn't hit the boy. Merry Christmas, Mister Sardick."
"I despise Christmas."
"You shouldn't. It's very you."
"It's what? What do you mean?"
"Halfway out of the dark."
The Doctor and Elise left and he carried her outside and set her down.
She wasn't crying anymore, but she was continuously wiping at her face.
The Doctor took her frantic hands in his as he knelt in front of her. "Your father hit you didn't he?" the Doctor asked her gently.
Elise's watery blue eyes met his. "Only when I tried to help mama."
It explained why she was terrified whenever he lost his temper.
"I would never hit you. I hope you know that."
Elise smiled and nodded.
"C'mere."
Elise threw her arms around his neck and the Doctor placed a couple of kisses in her hair. When Elise had calmed down, he stood up and pull out an odd looking phone. Elise assumed it was to talk to Amy.
"Yes, I do. Yes, I am. Okay. The good news. I've tracked the machine that unlocks the cloud belt. I could use it to clear you a flight corridor and you could land easily. But I can't control the machine. But I've met a man who can. And he hates me. Yeah. How did you know?"
The father of the family called out to the Doctor. "Sir? Sir."
"Hang on," the Doctor told Amy.
"I've never seen anybody stand up to Mister Sardick like that. Bless you, sir, and merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas. Lovely. Sorry, bit busy."
"You'd better get inside, sir. The fog's thick tonight, and there's a fish warning."
"All right, yeah. Sorry, fish?"
"Yeah. You know what they're like when they get a bit hungry."
"Yeah, fish, I know fish. Fish?"
"It's all Mister Sardick's fault, I reckon. He always lets a few fish through the cloud layer when he's in a bad mood. Thank you. Bless you once again, sir."
"Fish?"
Elise looked around and saw small fish swimming around the street lamp. "Daddy."
The Doctor looked at where she was pointing. "Fish. Fish that can swim in fog. I love new planets."
A few fish swam down to the Doctor and Elise and nibbled on their fingers.
Elise smiled and laughed, sharing the Doctor's sentiment about new planets.
"Now, why would people be frightened of you tiny little fellows? Look at you, sweet little fishy-wishies. Mind you, fish in the fog, so the cloud cover. Ooo. Careful up there. I know."
The speakers below the street lamp started playing "Ding Dong Merrily on High".
"Oh, just give me a minute." The Doctor started pacing. "Can't use the TARDIS, because it can't lock on. So, that ship needs to land. But it can't land unless a very bad man suddenly decides to turn nice just in time for Christmas Day." The idea hit the Doctor. "A Christmas carol."
"What?" Elise asked him.
"A Christmas carol. A Christmas Carol! Kazran Sardick. Merry Christmas, Kazran Sardick." He hung up the phone and took Elise's hand.
"What's a Christmas Carol?" Elise asked him.
"It's a book. I'll read it to you tonight, but right now we need to deal with a Mr. Kazran Sardick."