1
The full moon pasted a pastel sheen over the blue manifestation that stood in the trees. As Tegan Jovanka leaned against an old brick wall, her features hidden by the shadows of the branches, she looked out into the night. The air was thick with humidity, and she felt her blouse beginning to stick to her back. From her little hideaway, she heard the sound of traffic; music blared from open car windows. She saw few people, and guessed that it was late at night (she had not bothered to wear a watch for over a year now). Still, it was nice to be someplace warm for a change. But if it was late, the night, it seemed, was giving little relief from a summer heat.
Behind her, the coolness of the TARDIS doors beckoned her, yet she felt like exploring, despite the warmth. They had only recently arrived, and the Doctor, not in the most pleasant moods, didn't seem to notice that she had wandered off.
Leaning against the brick wall, Tegan reflected back on some of her recent adventures with the Time Lord. It was her impression that he had lost more than he gained since his regeneration way back when. But mostly, Tegan sensed that the loss of Adric was at the center of all his disappointments of late; it was an open wound, and a constant reminder to the Doctor that his meddling in other people's affairs was costing him. Even Turlough, who never seemed to care about no one but himself, was concerned. He even told the Doctor to jettison Adric's room, because leaving as is, was hurting everyone. Yet, the Doctor had said no; he wanted to keep the room, so he would be reminded of the consequences of his interference; what he was doing every time he jumped into another planets personal business.
Things just appeared to be balancing out, when Nyssa decided she needed to stay on Terminus. The Doctor had argued with her. Yet, he knew deep down that her staying was keeping her alive. One day, he reflected to Tegan, he would return to see her. Just to say hello.
Then his mood deepened like a winter sunset, it was like a thick veil of fog had covered his spirit. He continued that way until sometime after their departure from the freezing cold of 1215 England. Despite the fallout he had everytime he tangled with the Master, the Doctor's disposition lightened. He told his two companions of his plans to update the TARDIS console. He had just finished when he found himself the cornerstone of President Borusa's plan to take over the High Council permanently.
The betrayal of Borusa had shaken the Doctor's faith once more. For all his pomp and arrogance, Borusa kept the Time Lord centered. He still could remember the last time he was on Gallifrey, after the incident with Omega. Barusa was his old and blustery self. In hindsight, the Doctor was able to put the puzzle pieces together, and chided himself for not seeing the big picture. It wasn't until he had been with his otherselves, had he seen how naïve he had become. While he never considered himself omnipotent, somewhere deep in his conscious, there had to be place where he thought himself and his companion's untouchable.
After their departure from the Black Tower, the TARDIS flew on, running smoothly. The fair haired Time Lord had wandered into the endless bowels of his ship. For a while, Tegan wondered if she was all alone. Still, he would pop in every now and then, mutter something to Tegan and Turlough, and disappear for days. On his last mood swing, he had vanished for nearly ten days.
Tegan wondered if the Time Lord would ever come to terms with himself. Everyone had a dark side, she considered, and maybe that was what bothered him; that he could never shake that darkness off.
No matter where or when he went.
* * *
When he finally returned to the main control room his eyes were bright and his voice light, and in control. He asked Tegan were she wanted to go.
"To go?" she asked, her face a mixture of surprise, and confusion.
"Yes. Where would you like to visit? I think we've all been cooped up much to long in this old bucket. It's time, no pun intended, to venture out into the world." A smile swam over his face. "Or someone's world."
She wanted to shout, but felt that would be useless. She ran a hand through her hair. "Doctor, just a few weeks ago, you were moaning about screwing up the space/time continuum, altering the destiny of other people, and all that other stuff."
He winked at her, and turned to the six-sided console. "Yeah, well to quote another Doctor I know, 'what the hell'."
With that, he steered the TARDIS to where it sat now.
2
The Doctor stood pondering the TARDIS console. He stooped and starred at the buttons and knobs, looking like a child trying to figure which piece of candy he should take. He turned to Turlough, who stood to the left of him.
"This is most unusual", he said to the young man. Turlough, for his part, stood with his arms crossed, and a mild look of amusement on his lips. He raised an eyebrow and spoke with a soft accent that might have sounded British in origin. "Tell me what isn't".
The Doctor frowned. He brushed his long, pale fingers through his blond hair. "Well, for one thing, we've landed where I programmed it."
Turlough blinked, wondering if the Doctor was trying to humor him. Or make him look like a fool. But the Time Lord, if anything, had no sense of humor, so he guessed he was playing him for a fool. " Isn't that the purpose of setting coordinates? " His voice, however, did not betray his anger at being played the patsy.
"Yes, it is, " The Doctor said. He turned back to the six- sided console and stared at the time rotor, which blinked a colorful dance of lights. "It's just that we've arrived a little later than I planned." Turlough looked like he was about to say something, but he seemed to change his mind, and let the Time Lord talk. "It's odd, though. I was so sure that refitting the TARDIS after some many decades, and after the attack by the Cybermen, that I had finally worked all the bugs out."
"Bugs?" Turlough asked.
The Doctor smiled slightly. "An Earth term." The red haired man nodded his head as if in a perception that he understood what the Doctor meant. Of course he didn't. The Time Lord moved around the console, checking readout on all screens. "That's one of the problems with these old type 40's."
"One of the problems?"
The Doctor ignored the comment. "The Time Rotors are very sensitive." He moved around the counsel, his arms moving like he was going to embrace it like a dancer. "This was what I was hoping to eliminate when I updated her. Yet, here we are. Again." The Doctor moved to a high back chair that Tegan had recently brought from one of the many storage areas on the TARDIS. She complained that the console room lacked any style, and had taken it upon her self to "liven up the place" as she put it. Of course, one chair did not a house make, yet it was different. He sat down, and his face seemed to shrink inward.
Turlough looked at the coordinates, not really knowing where they were. If only because he wasn't sure what system they were in. If he were a betting man, he would guess Earth. He turned to the Doctor. "Still, we are in the place you wanted to be, right?"
"Right place, wrong year." The Doctor stood up again, and looked at the computer screen. "We've arrived a little later than I wanted too."
"How much later?" Turlough asked, almost not wanting to know. The Time Lords track record of getting where he wanted to go was very suspect.
"About eighty years." The Doctor smiled slightly. "Still," he added "we are were I wanted us to be at."
"Then why worry if were a little late?" Turlough asked, moving to the chair the Doctor just got up from. "Isn't there an old terran saying that says better late than never?" He sat down, a look of complete endearment on his face.
The Doctor looked over at his young companion, trying to figure him out. Turlough had been traveling with him and Tegan for a short time, and the Time Lord was still unsure what really motivated the boy, but he did have a point. Yet, he felt uneasy, and he wondered why. He had originally planned to bring the two to Chicago in the 1920's were he secretly owned a speak-easy, a bar that was selling alcohol illegally. For Chicago in the twenties was the time of gangsters and prohibition. The Doctor felt Tegan would get a kick out of city during this legendary era. Yet, now that they arrived, eighty years later than he planned, he felt something was wrong. It was an uneasy he's felt many times before, and would again, but he hoped that this time he would be able to recognize the problem before things got out of hand.
"How can you know about that term, yet don't understand 'working the bugs out?'" the Doctor asked. Turlough looked at him, but said nothing. That was why, at times, the Doctor did not completely trust him. Also, since his regeneration when he had a chance to see his "future", the Doctor knew that Turlough was going to betray him. He just was unsure of when. He sighed and spoke with resignation. "I suppose your right", he turned to the young man, "Still, we should be cautious. There is also Shakespeare who wrote: by the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes."
Turlough laughed out loud, and stood up." Must you be so melodramatic? We've been here, what two hours, and you are already finding menace in your own shadow."
"It comes with the territory," the Doctor said, rather pointedly, irritated at Turlough's attempt at being perky. The boys' sullen attitude was bothersome at times, yet it was something you could count on. This recent, and sudden change to his personality, was always making Tegan irritated. Now he was beginning to see her point.
"So, what time period are we in?" Turlough asked, turning to the view screen that showed a city skyline at night.
The Doctor looked at the chronometer, and then at the coordinate screen, and then at the view screen. "Chicago in the year 2001."
Turlough turned to the Doctor. "It looks quite peaceful."
The Doctor smiled. "It normally is. I love this town." The Time Lord moved closer to the view screen. "It's one of the largest and richest and most impressive cities in what they call the heartland of North America. It's really the crossroads to the Midwest, despite that they say about that big arch thing in St. Louis."
"One thing for sure, is this town is in the middle of a heat wave," came Tegan's voice as she sulked back into the TARDIS. The Doctor and Turlough turned to her. She looked tired, and sweaty, like she had just run a marathon. She had a newspaper in her hand (for a moment, the Doctor wondered where she had got the money and the newspaper, for that matter), which she slammed down onto the console. She looked at the Doctor and tilted her head. This was a sign to the Doctor that trouble was ahead. "I thought we were going to land in the 1920's. I still have my dress from Lady Cranleigh. I was hoping to wear it again."
"Yes, well", the Doctor began, "we seemed to have arrived a little later than I wanted, but there is still plenty to see." The Doctor smiled, but Tegan seemed to ignore it.
"So, what's happened now?" she asked.
Well, what did you expect, Doctor, he thought to himself? He stopped smiling, and moved towards the console again. He decided to become sheepish. While it was not enduring and probably a little childish, Tegan usually fell for it. In the end, she did trust the man. Still, at times, she began to wonder why. "I'm not really sure," he admitted, "the TARDIS sensors are detecting something." He danced his fingers over the controls, keeping one eye on the small view screen. "I'm picking up a slight waver in the Space/Time imaging array."
"Which means?" Tegan asked.
"I'm not sure," he admitted, again. The imaging array was new, and he wasn't sure what to make of these new readings. The TARDIS computer itself seemed also confused by the recent additions and it appeared to be taking her time in analyzing the new data. "Still, I'm sure it's nothing." He looked at Tegan, who seemed not to be buying his explanation. He sure wasn't. He fished out his pocket watch, and opened it up. "It's late; 1:45 am local time." He shut the watch and put it back in his pocket. "I suggest a little rest, and I'll take you on tour." He smiled and then turned, and walked out of the console room.
Tegan stood for a moment, looking at door the Doctor had left by, then at Turlough. She wanted to say something, anything, but kept quiet. She had said it all before, and was getting so bad that even she was getting tired of complaining. With a shrug, she closed the outer doors and followed suit. Turlough stayed for a while, and looked over the TARDIS console. He flicked a button and called out: "Computer."
"Working", came a soft, elegant female voice. During his refit, the Doctor installed a voice-activated program into the TARDIS' mainframe. He did not like to use it, though, saying that Tegan and Nyssa disagreed with him enough, and he didn't need a computer arguing with him also. However, Turlough found the conversations he was having with the TARDIS enlightening.
"The Doctor mentioned something about a slight flutter in the imaging array. Could you please explain." Turlough moved over to the chair and sat down.
"The sensors are picking up a fluctuation at 000.70 on the Time/Space elliptical line."
"Another TARDIS."
"Negative."
Turlough leaned forward. "Then what's causing the flutter?"
"Insufficient information." the computer reported.
"Theoretical."
The computer voice was silent, and Turlough thought that the console seemed to frown. Hesitating. Then it spoke. "A 63.7% possibility of a unauthorized time displacement."
"Time displacement," Turlough muttered. Just what in the hell did that suppose to mean, he thought. The computer became silent. The boy sat back in the big chair, thinking.
With in a few moments, though, he was a sleep. It would be restless, and filled with unknown images, but none the less, sleep.
3
Tegan walked into the console room, feeling rested and refreshed for the first time in a long time. At first this bothered her. She was getting used too always running from some sort of danger. At times, the danger felt like a drug. It was like when she chose to become an airline hostess. She always liked adventure. She craved action, and when things were slow, she would get restless like a tiger in a small cage. Now though, with all she had been through, she wondered if she ever be a
peace again.
Tegan had dressed casual. The newspaper she got informed her of the heat wave that was hitting the city, so she went with a pair of yellow shorts, and a white Tee shirt. She had found some tennis shoes stuck in the corner of the costume room. She really wasn't surprised to find that the fit. But, the new outfit made her feel she was ready for anything.
Tegan found the console room empty of people, and the TARDIS doors were open. She walked over to the doors, and peered out. Faint sun light was all she could see. She called out to the Doctor, and then Turlough. She went over to the console, and pushed the com button, and called out again. It was Turlough who responded.
"Yes, Tegan?"
"Where's the Doctor?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Turlough answered. "But, I think he's wandering outside. He woke me up about an hour ago, and told me to change. So that's what I'm doing. I'll be up shortly."
"Fine. I'll wait." Tegan switched off the com, and looked at the view screen, and only saw the skyline of Chicago. She had never been to the States before, and she was looking forward to seeing the "Windy City". She tried to remember what she learned about the States in school, but she soon realized that despite all the her years of history; she knew close to nothing about the them, except for its political structure, and its status as one of the richest and most diverse countries on the planet. History was never one of her fortes, which was ironic, considering she spent a lot of time in Earth's past.
Just then, Turlough walked in. He had replaced his school outfit with a pair of blue shorts and a colorful striped, button down short-sleeve shirt. On his head, he wore a baseball cap with a logo that spelled Cubs.
Tegan smiled, finding that she liked the new look, and hating to admit that she was starting to like this young man from another planet. She looked towards the corridor. "What of Kamelion?" she asked suddenly. She had forgotten about the shapeshifting android that had recently joined the crew. Since his escape from the clutches of the Master on Earth in 1215, he had secreted himself away. Like the Doctor's mood recently, Kamelion tried to spend as little time as he could with the crew. Tegan thought this was little creepy, but Turlough only shrugged and said that she should not stick her nose into things that did not concern her.
"I have no idea. But, I think, if he wants to come with us, he will." Turlough walked past her, and out of the TARDIS. Tegan stood for a moment, wondering if she should page him. Turlough's attitude was typical, yet she knew he was right. She just hated it.
"You're on your own, then", she muttered, and followed Turlough.
4
The Doctor stood on a concrete barrier, looking across the huge lake, taking in the skyline of the city. In his left hand he had a small device that was square in shape, and was lit with colorful lights. It also made noise. Not annoying noise, but just enough for some one to ask what he was doing. Which was what Turlough did.
"I'm just taking a few readings."
"Is there something wrong?"
The Doctor said nothing at first, moving the pocket shaped device around the air, and looking at the small video screen it had. It seemed to be measuring something, but what, seemed to escape the young man. Finally, as he spoke, Tegan came up to them. "Well, nothing that this device can pick up, but yet I sense something is not right." The Doctor pocketed the device, and from his other pocket, he produced his hat. He dusted off some imaginary dirt, and put it on his head. He had left his coat in the TARDIS, but he was still wearing his white shirt with the question marks on the collars.
Tegan looked at the Time Lord, trying to read into his thoughts. She was wondering if she should begin to worry, but then she decided that there really was no use to it. What ever would happen (and she hoped just once that nothing did happen) will happen. The Doctor had mentioned several times about something called the web of time, and that all his adventures were some how pre-ordained. Tegan couldn't decide if the Doctor was being truthful or just full of horse shit.
"Where to, then?" she finally asked.
"Well," the Doctor smiled." How about we get some breakfast. I know a great place on Michigan Ave."
5
They had breakfast at a small restaurant called Mom's, which wasn't on Michigan Ave at all, but a small hole in the wall off on State near Rush. Tegan was worried that the place was about to be closed by the health inspector, but found the food hot and delicious. Although the Doctor ordered food, he didn't eat, but kept talking to an older woman behind the counter like they were old friends. Tegan watched the exchange, while munching on some crisp bacon. Turlough, meanwhile, ate his pancakes and sausage with abandoned, almost like a condemned man, fearing his food is about to be taken away.
After a while, the former airhostess' attention was drawn to the walls of the restaurant, were scenes of Chicago were played out. The murals were like a timeline of city, from its humble origins in the early 19th century to its skyscrapers that seemed to reach for the heavens in the later half of the 20th century. She stopped to ponder the Great Chicago Fire that took place in 1871. The drawings were horrendous, and
Teagn thought back to when the TARDIS crew had arrived in London in 1666 at the time of the Great Plague. London had burned then, killing thousands. It appeared that two hundred years later, the city of Chicago fell under a firestorm.
Tegan turned to see the old lady looking at her. She smiled slightly, and Tegan felt a shiver cross her body. Wondering where that came from, she turned to the Doctor, who lowered himself into the booth next to Turlough. The Time Lord looked at Tegan, then at the old lady, and then back at his companion.
"A nice old bird," he whispered.
"You seem like old friends."
"In away, yes. I knew her grandmother when she first opened this place in the 20's. Now she was a real character."
"Doctor, that was 80 years ago, don't you think it's a little odd that you haven't aged."
The Doctor smiled slightly, and picked up a small piece of bacon off his plate. "Well, I'm sure it will make her think for a while, but then again, when I knew her grandmother, I didn't look like I do now."
"Can we go?"
The Doctor and Tegan turned to Turlough. He had said nothing since ordering his food, and when it arrived, he began to shovel it into his mouth. They both had forgotten he was there.
"I beg your pardon?"
6
From his vantagepoint across from Mom's, Caleb Parker took a sip from his coffee, and watched the street. But, he really wasn't paying much attention to the cars or the people. Even his textbooks were strewn on the table like a child's abandoned toy; his pending history test forgotten.
He didn't know why he was here. Well, that was a lie. In truth, he was told to be here by Harrison. The reason was not to him, but he had insisted that he be here at this time on this day. He had called his best friend and told her to bring her class work, and that they would study. But that too had been a lie. He had no intention on doing his homework; it was a cover story. But he had brought them; more to keep his story than just in case he needed them.
He would often reflect on his irony of returning to school a decade after leaving it all behind. When asked why he had decided to go back to school, he told family and friends because he saw his life was slowly closing in on him, and if he didn't do something to change it, he felt the universe was going to swallow him up.
When he was younger, he hated school, hated the homework. He had wondered if his dislike for school was rooted in fact he had lost his father at such a young age, or maybe there was something really wrong with the way his brain was wired. He would study until all hours, only to discover that once the test was in front of him, all the answers had fled him, like a bird from a prowling cat. He would stare at the questions, knowing that he had gone over the problem, yet the answers would never come. He wasn't a failure, by anyone's measure, but he never achieved the greatness some of his other fellow students seemed to do with little ease. He was easily distracted, and lived in a world where his father had lived and had parted great wisdom. Today, he guessed he might be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, commonly known as ADD.
On the other hand, he would consider sometimes, with his father dead, and his mother trying to be both, he had grown cynical and maybe, he conceded, bitter. He saw other kids are more successful than he is, even the troublemakers some how always came out on top. For the last twelve years of his life, he knew, he had been coasting, hoping that a door would open so he step through to a better life. That was what his Mother used to say to him and his siblings all the time. God never closed one door without opening another. After a while, Caleb wondered if he was just missing the open doors, or because his cynical side would take over him, too unbelievable.
For he believed you made your own destiny. But the fault to that logic was, he also was too much of an optimist, too trusting of other people, in particular his coworkers and bosses. He trusted them that some how they would see his brilliant abilities, and would go out of their way to help him. When he was passed over for a promotion at work, he began to wonder why. Sure he had the experience, which he often told to stop apologizing for, but why was he missing the boat to success? At times, when he was more reflective, he would try to analyze what went wrong, only to discover that maybe he was to eremitic and to up front with his beliefs. For, Caleb Parker was not a person who hid his emotions or feelings on certain subjects. He told people how he felt, whether they liked it or not. True, he was not so much like his own Mother, a woman who had to bring up four kids by herself after her husband passed. She had it rough, with being told by her own father not to expect any help from him or her mother. She had to take the horns of the bull and tried to navigate a bumpy world with four kids, all between the ages of two and nine. She did do it, at the sacrifice of a lot of things.
At some point, she even sacrificed her children's own future. We are all a product of our past; she was fond of saying. You teach your children what you were taught by your own parents. Of course, you eliminate the items that no longer apply, mostly because times do change. If there was one truth in the world, if you don't change, you fail. A lot that his mother taught him and his siblings no longer work in this modern world. Stephen King had written that the world had moved on, you have to move on with it.
On this, though, his mother would disagree with him. He knew when they talked on the phone, and as he would listen to her ramble on what things his siblings were doing wrong as they brought up their kids, that the world was essentially the same as when her parents reared her. Caleb would tell her to not stick her nose into their business, that times had changed, but she wouldn't. It was her right as a parent, she would say, to have some say in the upbringing of her grandchildren. This coming from a woman who took what her father said to her to heart, and brought up her kids the way she believed was right. Sure she taught her daughters and sons what was right and wrong. But in doing so, she also taught them to be negative and find the darkness in everything before seeing the light of good.
That was why he stayed away so much, why he talked to her only occasionally, why he failed to tell her he was gay. She would make him feel guilty. He had enough doubt in his own life, and sit and listen to her put more in his brain, was not helping.
Why was he here now, on this warm summer morning? He truly didn't know. All that he was sure of was that maybe if this helped Harrison; he might have a chance to be loved again.
Beside him sat Hollis Gleason, his best friend, and fellow student, who was feeling the pressure of summer school, and her parents deep unapproval of the company she kept. She had met Caleb three years ago, when she started working at the same bookstore as he was. They became fast friends, and try as she might, that's all they would become. When her parents had met Caleb, and discovered things about him, they tried to stop her from seeing him. Their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from accepting him.
Their reaction made Hollis want to spend more time him and his friends. She turned and watched Caleb; her deep blues eye's trying to find what he was feeling on his face. His brown, specked with gray, hair was cropped short, as was the current style. He wore a light blue tank top, which hung loose on his thin, swimmer type body. He had a pair of dark blue, nylon running pants, and sandals that showed off his sexy, bare feet. At least that's how she thought of them. Yes, she was in love with him. She had always found the older man attractive. He was thirty, while she just 21. She also knew that he loved her, but was not in love with her. He was already hopelessly in love with someone else, and right now, and Hollis assumed that is were his thoughts were currently.
"Tell me how you feel." she murmured. He turned to her. His brown eyes were blood shot, and she could tell he had been crying again.
"How I feel?" Caleb said it as a statement more than a question. He took another sip of his coffee. "There's a man that I love, who I've haven't spoken to in over a year, a man who now lays dying and refuses to see me." His voice was sad, a little distant." I've always wanted to be part of his life, yet he's always shut me out. Now, when I think I need him more than he needs me he slams the door in my face. How do I feel?" he
paused, and a tear ran down right cheek. "I feel an emptiness has grabbed my heart, and is tearing it apart. I feel old and useless."
"Harrison blames himself," Hollis said gently. "He always has. When you two broke up last year, he was thinking of you. He knew what kind of hell he would be going through, and didn't want to put you through it. He argued to me that since it his stupidity that got him sick, that it was best he take the final journey himself."
Caleb smiled, and shook his head. "He always was a sentimental old queen", he said fondly." I never blamed him for that affair he had. Hell, we weren't really serious eight years ago. But, that's just the point, Hollis. We've known each other for ten years, and have been in love for six of those years, and now he thinks he can shut me out like some forgotten child's toy. I just think that it's unfair."
"So do I". Hollis moved around the table, and sat close to Caleb. She brushed her dark brown hand over his buzz cut hair. "Guilt is a terrible thing. He blames himself for his HIV, and now his full blown AIDS, and wants to protect you from feeling anymore pain on how he got infected."
"I know who he got it from, and I don't blame him. Hell, Harve was a great looking guy, but an asshole none the less. Harry was always attracted to the jerks in any crowd. But I've never stopped loving him. It's like the poem by W.H. Auden: He was truly 'my North, my South, my East, my West, my working week, and my Sunday rest.'"
Hollis idly stirred her coffee, wondering what to say. She looked around the shop. It had grown quiet, almost as if the people in the store were trying to listen in. After a few moments, she spoke. "I guess the question is, what do you do next?"
Caleb let the question go unanswered. For he truly didn't know what to say. It was one of those rare times that he could think of nothing to say.
Hollis looked out the window suddenly, her eye's drawn to a trio of people leaving Mom's across the street. She watched them, thinking for some reason that they were odd. She knew somehow that they must were tourist, but how she knew that, was anyone's guess.
Caleb seemed to notice them, also. Hollis turned to look at him. His eye's narrowed as he stared at the three. He turned to Hollis. "Don't ask me how I know this, but I think I just got the answer to that question." With a sudden jolt, he kissed her on the cheek, and was gone.
Hollis sat few seconds, trying to figure out just what the hell had happened. She stared at the mess of books and paper on the table, and then back to her friend who was making a beeline towards the three departing people.
She swore.
7
Tegan Jovanka fanned herself with one of the paper menu's she grabbed before they left the restaurant. It was still early, yet the heat and humidity were already quite unbear-able. Turlough, meanwhile, seemed to be unaffected by the heat, saying that he spent a lot of time on a planet called Sarn, were volcano's dotted the landscape like tree's in a forest.
This did little to change Tegan's mood. As far as she was concerned, Turlough could just shut up and let her sweat in misery. She was about to ask the Doctor something, when a handsome man in his middle to late twenties came running up. Tegan raised an eyebrow, taking an instant like to this man.
"Excuse me" his voice was winded, and a bead of sweat fell down the side of his face. The TARDIS crew stopped and looked at the young man. The Doctor, ever the diplomat, stepped forward.
"Yes, what can I do for you?"
"I know this is going to sound odd, " the man said between breaths. "I have to admit that I didn't really believe him, but when he told me to be at the Starbucks this morning, of all mornings, I thought it was his dementia again. But he knew you would be here. He knew what you look like, even down to those question marks on your collar of your shirt." He paused and took a deep breath while three people looked at him with utter confusion. " I just can't believe it."
The Doctor looked at the young man, wondering what to say. It seemed to him that this person was little confused, yet his eyes gleamed with some knowledge. Finally, the Doctor spoke his voice soft, and gentle.
"Young man, I have no idea what you are talking about. We just arrived his morning, and no one knew we would be here."
The young man smiled broadly." He knew," he jumped up with roar of joy. "Dammit, he knew. He said you would be here."
"Who said?"
"My boyfriend, or really my ex-boy friend." The man looked at the befuddled Time Lord. He suddenly realized that he hadn't asked the most crucial question yet." You are the Doctor?"
Two mouths dropped open. As both Tegan and Turlough sputtered, the Doctor looked at the young man.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Fascinating."