Now : On The Sunny Side Of The Street
"Was that you Doctor?"
"A few incarnations ago," The Doctor nodded.
The Doctor's young companion frowned at this, obviously as far as Digby was concerned The Doctor had barely been gone for a few moments, but to The Doctor the passing of time had been more like thousands of years.
"That's a long time to leave him Doctor."
"Nonsense he hardly noticed! Besides I've been busy…"
But they both knew that this was a lame excuse, the young girl remained unimpressed.
"You'll understand when you meet him," The Doctor snapped, "he really is the most irritating…"
But whatever it was The Doctor said, was drowned out by the engine of the large cleaning tank gradually moving up the street. It's large suction hoses absorbing everything that wasn't pavement.
"DOCTOR?" Digby's voice rose above the din, he said something else but it was inaudible. Digby made his way across the road still raising his voice determined to be heard above the din.
"DIGBY WAIT!"
But The Doctor's warning cry came too late; Digby had strayed into the path of the cleaning tank and suddenly disappeared beneath the vehicles traction.
The Doctor and his companion looked on in horror as Digby must've been instantly crushed. The suction and cleaning pads shrieked in protest at the sudden amount of spillage it was being asked to deal with as a red warning light suddenly came alive on the vehicles roof.
"Stupid boy!" The Doctor muttered as the vehicle came to a sudden halt, and the driver got out.
"Well there's nothing more we can do here," The Doctor declared, "Come let us away to New Skaro!"
"But Doctor you can't leave!"
The Doctor shrugged, "why not? There's nothing we can do for him now!"
The driver nodded in confirmation.
"There's nothing left of him anyway; the cleanser saw to that, in fact it has to be the cleanest fatality I've ever seen, that is if you discount the time I was almost drowned in a beautiful lake by the Spanish inquisition," The Doctor shook his head, "just when you think you've seen everything… "
"Doctor did you know this was going to happen?"
"OF COURSE NOT!" The Doctor exploded with outrage at the suggestion, "Had I known this was how Digby was going to end up I…" The Doctor floundered.
"Would've got here sooner?" His companion replied helpfully.
"Oh dear me no, I wouldn't have bothered coming back at all, what would be the point?"
"But Doctor you left him here!" His companion snapped. "This is your fault!"
Suddenly there was a tapping noise from within the cleansing tank; a muffled cry of "Doctor" could be heard.
"Digby? Doctor he's alive!"
"So he is…" The Doctor muttered without much enthusiasm.
"Call emergency services!" An onlooker cried.
"Yes, and whilst you're at it call the stupid accident squad too…" The Doctor sighed, "I really need to go and sit down…"
*****
It took several hours for the fire and paramedic attendees to remove Digby from the tank, run him through decontamination, and examine him for any permanent damage.
Of which there appeared to be none, other than the fact that Digby had now lost his baseball cap and crushed his headset.
"Not that it matters much," Digby grumbled about his headset, "as my MP3 player was blown up!"
The three of them were back inside the Tardis.
"I made you a new one." The Doctor replied, "handing over a small silver sphere, "with one or two modifications."
The Doctor handed Digby two small coin sized circular soft pads.
"Cordless earphones." He explained.
"Cool! Thanks Doctor, how much space has it got?"
"Its Artron cells yield infinite capacity," The Doctor explained.
"Wow! Can I use the Tardis console to download some music?"
"No need, you will find every song produced in the twentieth and twenty first century has been downloaded from the Tardis databanks."
"You never told me the Tardis databanks had music!" Digby exclaimed.
"I didn't know!" The Doctor shrugged, "the old girl collects information from wherever she lands I seldom access the contemporary culture databank after a landing, I'm far more interested in knowing whether there is gravity and oxygen before I open the Tardis doors…"
The Doctor's voice trailed off as Digby was no longer listening to the world outside; he was tuned into the world of mp3's.
"What are we going to do with him Doctor?" His companion sounded amused.
"He is a liability," The Doctor explained, "he is idle, apathetic, selfish, and ignorant, he is quite possibly the most dangerous man I've ever met."
"So are we taking him home?"
"Home?" The Doctor laughed, "certainly not! He's coming to New Skaro, where I'm sure his talent for destruction and mayhem will prove very useful indeed!"
The End.