Christmas Eve, everything's prepared for tomorrow, there's stacks of DVDs by the TV, with the mug ready for hot chocolate goodness that's going to keep Lila warm for the coming days. Since Theodore so 'kindly' invited himself to eat what should've been leftovers the other day, Lila's taken the measure of making something closer to home.
Fried chicken.
With Theodore busied getting Christmas plans together with his siblings and uncle, Lila hoped to enjoy the fried chicken in peace and not having to split it between a hungry giant and his four ferrets.
Don't know a thing about space ferrets, but the fact that they're able to eat all that without having an upset stomach baffled her.
The fact they were still hungry for dessert's another matter, Lila didn't expect them wanting her cheesecake to go along with their dinner, and she's lucky to get two pieces!
Well, at least Theodore helped clean up after all that, that's something, but the point stood that this gaggle ate her entire dinner and dessert without missing a beat!
Now, Lila's hoping to get some dinner to herself, she's got the cast iron she gotten from nana, seasoned and readied, her spices, everything from the Watson family cookbook, she's going to have herself a nice Christmas Day meal and top it off with a marathon of Christmas classics like, 'Die Hard.'
"Oh right, I have to give his present after their dinner tomorrow," Lila remembered that she needed to give Theodore, his Christmas present.
What does one give a giant like that for Christmas?
Lila took a stab in the dark and gotten Theodore something that she hoped he'd like, don't ask why she thought this' a good idea, but hell, it's something.
A white elephant statue with gold painted inlays.
Got it during an adventure when she saw it, thought it'd make a good gift at the time. Theodore didn't know anything about it because she kept that memory locked up tight, even if he doesn't snoop in her head.
Never going to get used to the fact that she's had telepathic conversations with someone who's in a different part of the city, but after countless strange adventures, it's not the weirdest thing to happen to her. That's saying something.
"Alright, Ziggy isn't hounding us, Hammond's busy, just you and me and fried chicken," Lila murmured as she prepared to grab everything and begin marinating the chicken.
Good idea, she thought.
Cook today, leftovers tomorrow.
Clean now, potato later.
Ever since she became acquitted with Sontarian, Lila had different opinions of potatoes. She wondered if the potatoes she cooks with were of a devolved relative of the Sontarian.
Theodore assured her that potatoes weren't, but with their strange days, Lila doesn't want to begin thinking about the chances that he's wrong about it.
While getting the flour out, Lila felt the air shifting in her 'flat' and stopped, she knows that air shift.
No.
No.
Not tonight.
She just wants to spend the holidays to herself!
For the love of God, doesn't that machine have something better to do than bother them?
Frozen in terror, Lila heard that ruckus coming from behind her of the TARDIS appearing in her 'flat' and she relied on old films as she stayed quiet and didn't move an inch.
She hoped, well, maybe it'll go away, and she'll make some fried chicken with the works without having to run for her life again, she'll do plenty after News Years!
As Lila stood, she heard the familiar door open and…
Two footsteps?
There's talking.
Hold on, that's not…
"What do you expect me to do with them, they're getting antsy!" Lila heard a woman tell someone.
There's another voice, an older Glaswegian accented voice, definitely not Hamon, and he said nonchatantly, "Well, I don't know, luv, they can't hurt you, just stick some earplugs in!"
They're talking as they stepped out and stopped as they noticed they're not where they're supposed to be and noticed Lila as she stood quietly in her kitchen.
It forced Lila to slowly turn around to face them as they're looking at her quizzically.
"Um, where are we?" Lila sees the woman turn and ask the tall slender man.
He responded with an exasperated, "I don't know. Excuse me, where are we?"
Lila, not even sure at this point, replied that they're in her 'flat' and the moment she talked, it resonated with the tall slender man that she's not British.
Even before he could try to hand wave the TARDIS, that looked strangely different than the one she and Theodore uses, the tall slender man's shocked as Lila immediately identified him as the Doctor and that he and his companion came out of the TARDIS.
"Trust me, I know," Lila summed for them how she knew all this even before they tried to tell her and it amazed the tall slender man as he asked her how.
She summed that a series of events led a spaceman into her life and that when she's not a librarian, she's out and about saving worlds, fighting evil, and god knows what.
"So, what are you doing here?" Lila asks them as they looked around her 'flat' as they assessed the situation.
The Doctor replied that they're in a situation that they needed to deal with and deal with now, because of what they had to go through.
"Since you're on the up and up, y'know the Daleks?" asked the Doctor as he crossed his dark suited arms.
Frowning, Lila replied that she knows them plenty, and hated them every chance she gets, because they give her headaches with their synthesized voices and their shrilly.
"Good," the Doctor nods as he's told by Lila that she knows about them before turning his head and asking his companion, Clara, to grab him something.
She hesitated, but the Doctor assured her that it's fine, and she disappeared into the TARDIS before returning, holding something in her hands.
Her chestnut eyes looking at Clara's hands, Lila sees a small Dalek with a vivid red body with silver colored linings and eyestock.
Raising her brow, Lila's perturbed by this, but immediately ducked when she heard that same, familiar shriek.
"Doc-tor!" The tiny Dalek shouted, coming out as a tiny squeal, but Lila's able to hear it fine, considering she dealt with them enough to know what they're saying off the top of her head.
Which is scary as it is.
The Doctor turned his head as he blinked before telling the tiny Dalek that he'll help it, something Lila never expected to hear, but he needed to show the gravity of the situation.
He sent Clara to return the tiny Dalek before turning his head towards Lila as she slowly poked up, hiding from it, and told her that it can't hurt her.
It's disabled.
"I don't think they use that anymore," Lila dryly tells the Doctor before he reiterated what he meant. It can't hurt Lila or them, its weapons are disabled, and it can't do anything except talk.
"Okay, color me interested, what the hell happened to it, accidentally shot a shrink ray at a mirror?" Lila asked the Doctor how the Dalek shrank so tiny and how did it become disabled.
The Doctor tells her that he doesn't know, but he and Clara have been running around, trying to get them before they go on sale or before some 'git' tries buying them out of the back door.
"Y-you mean someone or something shrank these damn things and made them into toys?" Lila's eyes widened as she hears the Doctor tell her.
He nods as he affirmed that it's the case and they've managed to successfully grabbed all the Daleks. Now, they're in a situation where they don't know what to do with them all.
"I'd advise dropping them into the surface of the sun," Lila gave the Doctor a suggestion as he curiously took an interest at her stack of DVDs.
Dryly laughing, the Doctor replied that he wished he could do that, but he gave the tiny bastards his word that he'll fix them and send them on their way, provided they don't make any problems along the way.
"Trusting a Dalek not to turn on you's like trusting your lunch not to be pirated from the fridge, Doc," Lila pointed at him as she told him plainly that Daleks couldn't be trusted to keep their word. They never did, not with her and Theodore, and certainly not now.
The world would be ending and the Daleks wouldn't keep their word even if it meant they'd live, they're pretty spiteful as it is.
"Unfortunately, luv, I made a deal and deal I have to abide, but I gave my terms. If they try anything, they'll remain as is for the rest of their miserable lives," the Doctor gave his word that the Daleks wouldn't try anything with them if they help. Should they try, they'll wish the Doctor wiped them off the face of the Earth.
Used as Barbies for one day would change their tune, no questions about it.
Crossing her arms, Lila asks the Doctor what he knows about the miniaturized Daleks, how they got that way, and when did they show up for sale.
Looking through the DVDs, the Doctor tells her that he received a distress call from a Dalek ship and when he went to intercept it, it was gone. Like that. No reason for it, honest. He went looking for the ship and found that it's gone. Someone or something dismantled it. Not to use it for scrap or a project to bring forth a being called 'Drill' but something else.
He found out what happened to the Daleks from going through what he found through the transmission he managed to pick up with the TARDIS.
The Dalek Supreme arguing with an unknown entity and when things got heated, the comm went dead, and the ship disappeared.
"Arguing, with who, Cybermen?" Lila gestures as she's curious about who turned the Daleks into tiny chess pieces. The idea the Cybermen did it didn't strike her as plausible, the two races hated each other over everything else, topped by the Doctor, but otherwise those two hated each other.
Different ideologies do that.
"I don't know, but I managed to hear that whoever they argued with sayin' that the Daleks should have a 'trip' and to see them next 'fall,' that's as much as I got from the transmission before it went dead," said the Doctor as he studied the case for 'Die hard' before musing it was one of his favorites.
Lila asked if he thinks whoever or whatever did this to the Daleks are still here and he replied that he thinks so, considering they'd have to make sure every Dalek's wrapped up in packaging.
"So, what then, they got into an argument, said choice words, and whoever or whatever did this wanted to have the last laugh?" Lila gestures.
Stepping in, Clara answered Lila's question as she tells her that they're not sure. They don't even know who or what they're looking for. Not even sure how to return the Daleks to their proper sizes much less what to do with the thousands that have miniaturized.
Lila replied with, "Shot through the canon into the sun!"
What, who's going to miss the literal thousands of Daleks, they don't even like each other to begin with, no one's going to tear up if they send the fleet into the smoldering surface of the sun. Makes no sense helping them at all, considering they're incessantly loud and rude!
Reminding her that he gave his word, the Doctor sat the DVDs down as he went to stand by the kitchen island with Lila and Clara. He tells them that they have to find out who or what did this because he doesn't know what they planned on doing after dealing with the Daleks.
"You're forgetting something, Doc," Lila spoke up as he looked at her with his blue eyes glistening under the light. "How the hell did those tin cans get here in the first place?"