And here we have chapter one! This episode was fun to watch and put Logan through :)
Chapter two is in the works!
Logan slowly blinked awake.
This wasn't his bed. His bed was more comfortable, and wasn't this small.
He had to still be dreaming, right?
"In here, Brigadier?" he heard the voice of the Third Doctor ask.
Ah, so he was having another dream where he was inserted into his comfort show.
Wonderful.
He wondered how it would become "weird" this time. Would the Master show up and do the hula in drag? Would talking cats appear?
Who knew? All he knew for certain was that his dreams always became strange in some way.
He put his hands behind his head, interlocking his fingers.
He might as well get comfortable, it might be awhile before the alien threat arrives.
"Yes, I'm afraid so, Doctor," Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart said. "Not exactly the Ritz, I know, but Mr. Brent seems to have made himself quite comfortable."
Logan lifted his head up in acknowledgement, turning it and giving a half-hearted salute to the Brig. Sure, he may be a bit anti-military, but Sir Alistair got a pass in his book for being an example of what a good man should be.
"But you know," the Brigadier continued. "It's no joke providing emergency accommodations for all these scientists."
"All right, Brigadier," the Doctor said. "You've had your little mystification. Now I know where we're supposed to stay, perhaps you don't mind telling me why?"
Logan was a little confused at that. What did the Doctor mean by "we"? If he remembered correctly, this was after Jo had left.
To be fair, he didn't watch much of the Third Doctor, preferring the episodes of the Fourth Doctor and beyond when it came to Classic Who.
Maybe he had seen part of this episode, but had forgotten most of it? Yeah, that sounds about right.
It's not like this was real or anything.
Right?
He sat up, about to say something, when he noticed something on the palm of his left hand.
On Logan's left palm was a bunch of golden swirls, much like the tendrils from his dream earlier.
He tried wiping it off, oblivious to both the conversation around him and the pair of eyes that kept glancing at him.
It wasn't coming off.
Why wasn't it coming off!?
He was starting to panic, he had suddenly realized how real this all was. The smell of the bedding, the shadows that were being cast by the objects and people in the room.
Was he actually in the Doctor Who universe? Was this not a dream? Sure, he had dreams like this, but they were never this realistic.
And he never had golden swirls on his palm.
He needed to breathe.
Why couldn't he breathe?
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see that the Doctor was leaning down to his level.
"Logan? Can you hear me?" the Time Lord asked in a soft voice.
Logan took a deep breath, he needed to calm down. Panicking would do him no good in the long run.
"This isn't a dream, is it?" he asked quietly, needing to hear it out loud.
"I'm afraid not, my boy."
Brown eyes gazed up into blue, scared into reassuring.
"What's going on, Doctor?" he asked, he needed to know.
"All will be explained in due time, my boy. For now, why don't I make you a cup of tea? To help with the nerves."
Logan nodded. "Earl Grey, please." He opened his mouth to tell him the rest of his tea order, but was beat to it.
"With enough sugar to trigger early onset diabetes, yes, yes, I know," he said with a grimace on his face.
Logan let out a little laugh at that. Of course the Doctor would know this particular tea order of his and would be disgusted by it.
"What can I say, Doctor?" he let his southern drawl seep through his voice. "I'm a southern boy, all tea has to be sweet for me to enjoy it." He tilted his head in thought. "Except peppermint, that one is fine on its own."
The Doctor shook his head fondly, as if they've had this debate before, before leaving the room to make Logan his tea.
A thought occurred to Logan once the Doctor left.
How close were they if the Doctor knew his tea order? He didn't usually tell that to people, preferring to make it himself.
He dismissed the thought from his head as quickly as it came. He couldn't afford to panic right this minute.
~0~0~0~
Logan was sitting cross-legged on the table in the makeshift accommodations, where the TARDIS had been relocated to, the Doctor sitting on the only chair. He had offered it to Logan, but he had declined.
Tables were better anyway.
He took a sip of his tea, relishing in the sweetness of it. The Doctor had made it just right… almost. It was almost sweet enough.
Logan watched as a blond man wearing a lab coat walked into the room.
"Rubbish," the man said.
Logan blinked. He thought these accommodations were fine, given the circumstances.
Then again, he could sleep pretty much anywhere if he had something to cover him.
Maybe these accommodations were rubbish.
"I beg your pardon?" the Doctor asked.
"Joseph Ruebish," the man introduced.
Oh that made much more sense.
"Oh, I see. I'm so sorry. Hello. How do you do?" The Doctor got up and shook the man's, Joseph Ruebish apparently, hand.
"It's disgraceful, of course. Utterly disgraceful," Ruebish complained as if it were obvious what he was talking about.
It wasn't, at least to Logan.
"Oh, what is?" the Doctor asked.
Apparently it wasn't obvious to the Doctor either.
"Well, shutting us up. Like a lot of kids kept after school. That Brigadier chap. Military idiot."
Logan didn't like Ruebish, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was not an idiot and deserved respect, in his opinion.
"I'm sure he means well," Logan interjected. "Given the situation."
"Haven't seen my wife and family in three days."
"I'm sorry to hear that," the Doctor said, genuinely.
"Ah, well, just shows that there's always a silver lining." Logan scowled lightly at Rubeish's words. He hated jokes like that. "Your names?" Ruebish asked.
"Er, Smith. Doctor John Smith, and my associate and friend, Logan Brent."
They were close enough that the Doctor considered them friends? Just how close were they?
And how did the Doctor know him? Did Logan jump around his timeline like River, just more extreme?
Speaking of River, was she even the Doctor's wife in this universe? Were she and Logan friendly with each other, both of them finding kinship in jumping around the Doctor's timeline?
Did he have a journal like River, to keep track of events like she did? Or did he have something else?
He took a deep breath. He was starting to panic again. He needed to calm down.
He could panic later, when he was alone.
Rule number one; never let them see you panic, it just makes things worse.
"Oh. Seems to be a lot of them today," Rubbish said.
"I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"Well, I was talking to a woman just now, also Smith," Ruebish explained.
Logan perked up at that. If it was who he thought it was, he would be ecstatic to meet her.
He always enjoyed The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Logan watched as a young woman with brown hair walked into the room, a grin growing on his face.
It was her! Sarah Jane!
He was meeting Sarah Jane Smith!
What was he going to say to her? He didn't want to mess this up, she was one of his favorite companions.
He finished off his tea and got off the table. He was going to speak to her and he wanted to make a good impression, he wanted her to like him.
If this wasn't a dream.
The smile slowly fell off his face at that thought.
What if this was real, and he fucked it up? He still wasn't sure if this was a dream or not, and meeting one of his heroes while thinking it was a dream would probably make something stupid fall out of his mouth and it would mess up everything.
He needed to leave.
As much as he would love to see this happen, he really needed to be alone right now.
He couldn't hold it in any longer. This was just too much.
It was officially time to panic.
He didn't notice the Doctor watching him sadly as he left, as if he knew exactly why Logan was leaving.
~0~0~0~
He ended up locking himself in a stall in the men's bathroom.
He leaned against the stall door, his breath shaking as he rested his head against it.
He needed to list what he knew about the situation.
If this was real, which it was starting to seem so, that means he was no longer in his universe.
Okay, so that meant he possibly needed to find a way home, if he can somehow.
Sure, there wasn't much waiting for him back home, just his apartment and Greg, his succulent.
But it was home.
It was what he was used to.
He went to work, he went home, he ate, and he took care of Greg.
He didn't go out much, only when he had to or when one of his small group of friends invited him somewhere, usually to the movies. They knew he wasn't good with crowds.
Oh god, he was gonna have to deal with crowds of aliens, wasn't he?
Crowds were loud, he couldn't deal with loud, continuous noise sometimes, especially without his earbuds.
Did he even have his earbuds?
He checked his pockets, patting them down, only to find nothing in them.
Wonderful.
Okay, first thing on the agenda, find a way to get music and a new pair of earbuds.
Maybe the Doctor could give him a phone?
He shook his head, he was getting sidetracked, he needed to focus.
Okay, so he was in the universe of his go-to comfort show.
He could deal with this.
Maybe he just went through the show from this point on? Or maybe this was a very realistic dream?
He still wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not.
He took a breath to calm himself.
Okay, so, on the off chance this wasn't a dream, he needed to come up with rules/guidelines. Those helped.
1. Don't tell anyone about being from another universe, as plausible as it is here, people would probably want to use your knowledge to their advantage.
2. Don't tell the Doctor about their future! Don't even hint at it, you don't want to mess things up with them.
Let's see, what else was important?
3. Most important one: don't EVER let them see you break down. You need to be strong.
Okay, he had a list of rules/guidelines.
He could do this.
He unlocked the bathroom stall and walked out.
~0~0~0~
Logan walked back into the makeshift accommodations, only to stop short when he saw the Doctor messing around with a transparent dome with some kinds of electrical components inside of it.
He had no clue what the Doctor was doing with it.
"What are you doing?" he couldn't help but ask.
The Doctor barely looked up. "It's my alarm clock."
"Oh, no it's not, it's a rhondium sensor that detects delta particles," Logan said, before freezing. It was like the information streamed itself into his brain as soon as the Doctor answered. "Why do I know that?"
Great, now he had another reason to panic.
The Doctor paused, actually looking up at him, as if he was actually seeing him for the first time since he arrived. "Logan, my boy, is this your first time? I figured you were at the early stages, but not this early in the timeline."
The Doctor's words confused him. Was… was he a time jumper? Was he like River? Was he a more extreme version of River Song?
And he had just stopped panicking, too.
"Doctor, what is going on?" Logan asked, finally asking the question that had been on his mind. "I-I'm still not sure if I'm dreaming or not," he admitted softly.
"Well, my boy, from what you've told me, which isn't much, you originally came from a universe where all of this was a television programme, and that you 'pop up' along my timeline, with no control to where you go. So… no, my boy, this isn't a dream."
Logan put his head in his hands, before asking the other question that had been on his mind. "And… How do you know me, Doctor?"
"As someone very dear to me once said; that's not for me to tell you, you must live it yourself," he said gently, smiling at Logan before turning back to his alarm clock.
Logan went to sit on the bed, before the Doctor spoke up again.
"Oh my boy, you left some of your belongings in the TARDIS the last time I saw you, perhaps you should go get them."
Confused, Logan stopped what he was doing, before looking at the TARDIS.
It seemed to hum at him, welcoming him.
Cautiously, he opened the doors, and stepped inside.
~0~0~0~
The inside of the TARDIS was much bigger than what they showed on screen.
Sure, it was bigger on the inside, but it was bigger than it seemed onscreen.
For example, the TARDIS interior from Classic Who was smaller than the ones from New Who, obviously, but when Logan stepped inside, it was bigger than he thought it would be.
It was hurting his brain a bit.
It was one thing to watch it on screen, it was a completely different experience living it.
When Logan stepped into the police box, he didn't expect it to give him whiplash when he saw exactly how big it was inside.
There was the console room, with its "round things", as he remembered the Doctor calling them once, on the walls.
But as much as he wanted to look around the console, the coat rack that was next to the entryway was calling him.
On it was a long, blue, Belstaff coat.
Very much like the one from another show he used to watch, Sherlock, only a different color.
He approached the coat rack, as if in a trance, tracing his fingers along the sleeve.
The Doctor had said that he had left some things in the TARDIS, maybe this was it?
He gently took the coat off from where it was hanging, and put it on.
It fit him perfectly.
With a little smile, he brushed his hands against the front pockets, getting a feel for the coat, only to freeze when he felt something in there.
He opened the pocket to find a journal.
The cover was black leather, with studs around the edges and on the spine, and with a decal of a blue police box taking up the center of the cover.
He opened it, flipping through the pages, only to realize that the amount of pages was never going down.
So it was bigger on the inside.
Wonderful.
What shocked him the most about this journal was not that fact, however.
No, it was the fact that in his original universe, he had one just like it.
~0~0~0~
Logan was in the TARDIS, still reeling from the fact that his journal, his beloved journal, was in this universe.
He was sitting on the floor, turning it around in his hands, when the Doctor flew open the door, barely stopping when he noticed Logan, and grabbing a briefcase that was by the console.
"Doctor," Logan greeted, standing up, slipping the journal into his pocket. "Did something happen?"
"No time to talk, my boy," the Doctor replied, barely looking at him. "Professor Rubeish is missing!" He walked swiftly out of the TARDIS.
Logan could hear the Doctor and the Brigadier having a conversation about the situation, something about a ghost and someone in a suit of armor, when he heard Sarah Jane speak.
"Professor Rubeish, are you in there?" she was asking, before Logan watched her enter the TARDIS.
Uh oh.
Logan watched as Sarah Jane donned a baffled expression on her face, obviously confused. She went towards where Logan was standing by the wall, opening her mouth to say something.
The Doctor walked in, going straight for the console, not even glancing at Sarah Jane and Logan.
"Uh, Doctor?" Logan tried to get his attention.
"Not now, my boy, I need to concentrate," he said, messing around with the console.
Oh no.
He needed to get the Doctor's attention. Now.
"Doctor!" He tried for the second time, only to be ignored.
The room stumbled as the Doctor flipped a switch.
It seemed the Doctor was always a terrible pilot no matter the incarnation.
The TARDIS seemed to hum, as if it were amused, when Logan thought that.
That was something to deal with later.
The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, poking his head out, and Logan went to follow, only to stop.
This was Sarah Jane's first adventure, she wasn't experienced with aliens and time travel yet.
She would need help.
And this was Logan's first adventure as well…
Well, who better to spend it with than the one and only Sarah Jane Smith?
He waited until the Doctor left, before leaving the TARDIS himself, Sarah Jane right behind him.
"It's still only a police box," she said quietly, once they were outside. "I must find a telephone." She didn't even seem to realize he was there.
Logan patted his pockets, before remembering. Right, he didn't have a phone anymore.
Maybe the Doctor could set him up with one?
Logan shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was getting distracted again.
He walked behind Sarah Jane, about to say something, only to stop when he spotted an archer aiming his bow at a castle wall.
How did he not notice the castle?
More importantly, were they in the past? If so, how far? Judging by the archer's clothes and the castle, it seemed to be pretty far back.
"Wait," Logan started softly, only for Sarah Jane to walk up to the archer, not seeming to hear him, and say something to him, only for him to shoot the arrow up towards the castle and run away.
Fuck, this wasn't good.
This really wasn't good.
Men were running out of the castle courtyard, seemingly after the archer. Logan watched helplessly as Sarah Jane was taken prisoner by one of them and taken into the castle through the courtyard.
This wasn't supposed to happen!
"How the blazes did she get here?" he heard the Doctor ask, the Time Lord a few feet from him.
Logan marched up to him and lightly smacked his arm with his hand. "Because of you, you idiot!" He froze, not entirely sure where that came from, he usually wasn't like this with people he just met.
The Doctor, however, smiled at the redhead's actions, for some reason, like this was the sort of behavior he was used to from Logan.
The Doctor started walking towards the now empty courtyard, Logan following along silently.
"So, what exactly is going on, Doctor?" Logan asked, hesitance in his voice.
"Well, my boy, someone is operating a matter transmitter, and the oddest thing is, there is also a time transference."
"Oh, so the past and present are getting mixed up?" Logan said, without thinking, before freezing again. "How do I know that, Doctor? And please answer me this time."
"I'm sorry, my boy, but I can't."
Silence fell between them as they entered the courtyard, the two of them hearing a twig snap, and then rushing to duck behind a barrel-loaded cart.
The two watched as someone in a suit of armor entered the courtyard.
Wait, he knew that type of armor.
Logan watched as the Sontaran lifted his helmet, revealing himself.
Oh fuck, how were they going to get through this?