Chapter 03

Zoe wandered through the TARDIS, she liked to sometimes, when they were 'travelling through the vortex'. She had often attempted to get the Doctor to quantify the exact physical reality of the vortex through which they travelled, but his answers were always so vague that they defied definition. It was most frustrating.

She liked to walk through the corridors of the TARDIS consumed within her thoughts, cataloguing and filing her and their own recent experiences, Jamie had said she was 'day dreaming', but it was far more of an exact science than just letting her mind and imagination wander through random firing of the synapses.

Inevitably, she arrived in the console room, it was inevitable that she arrived there through her wanderings, no matter how much effort she put into to designing a theoretical random route based on something such as the stochastic process or a more simple extrapolation of pi, she always ended up in the console room.

The Doctor was not at the controls but beneath it, a mass of wires, circuit boards and other assorted technology around him.

Zoe was often perturbed by how simple the TARDIS appeared, yet how complex its operations had to be for it to function as it did.

"Doctor?" She enquired.

"Ah Zoe, I thought you would be getting changed after all that rain on Earth," he said, his voice muffled from within the console.

"I did," she looked down to him. "Jamie's asleep. What are you doing?"

"Just a bit of clearing out, pass me the laser spanner would you?" His hand reached out, Zoe looked at the assorted tools that he had laid out, she recognised his sonic screwdriver, a chisel and another odd looking tool. She passed him that.

"Oh that's not it…never mind. I'll be finished in a moment Zoe." A short while later, 5 minutes 43.23 seconds later by Zoe's measurement the Doctor pushed himself away from the underside of the console and stood up, brushing assorted wires, dust and other indeterminate things from his checked trousers.

"There we go," he smiled brushing his hands. "Now let me see," he bent over the controls.

"What were you doing Doctor?" She asked again.

"Just a little bit of clear out Zoe," he said offhandedly.

"Has another piece broken down again?" Zoe asked critically eyeing the many circuits and wires that were on the ground.

"Zoe, the TARDIS is far more than just a machine, it needs care, maintenance. Our recent travels have been varied and wide, a little maintenance every so often makes it a much smoother," he said focusing his attention on her momentarily. "Now, I think just this, and now this, and there…in full control." He stepped back and watched the central column rise and fall.

"Where are we heading now Doctor?" Zoe asked.

"It's a surprise." Zoe gave him a look. "Even I don't know, the TARDIS is in full control, a nice little trip to get all the bits and pieces working, stretch the legs a little bit. So to speak."

-/

In an alcove between two shops on High Street in Guildford a 1960s police box groaned into existence, its engines momentarily pulling apart the space time continuum allowing it to materialise. None of the early morning commuters seemed to notice or if they did took no notice of its appearance on the street.

A moment later a small man in checked trousers stumbled out into the street and looked around.

"Ah, lovely," he sniffed the air. "England." He looked around and clapped his hands as he caught sight of a newspaper vendor and patted down his pockets removing a wad of notes, seemingly unconcerned by their value, the newspaper vendor paid him no heed as the man gave him a ten pound note absently saying he could keep the change. There were plenty of weird ones in this neck of the woods.

The Doctor flipped through the paper, reading the articles faster than any human could his eyes flicking over the various pieces detailing the local and international news events, then he say the date as he folded the newspaper over.

"Oh my word, so that's the date," he looked up at the police box for a moment. "You do choose the dates don't you?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the box that was far more than a machine then pushed open the door and bustled past Jamie and Zoe.

"Oi, where're you back off to?" Jamie called as the Doctor rushed past them.

"Out you go you to, the weather's lovely! I'll be along in a moment."

Jamie and Zoe shared a look and stepped out into the early morning daylight of a Guildford day.

A few minutes later the Doctor bustled out of the TARDIS shutting it behind him, a box with a red ribbon around it under his arm.

"What's the box for Doctor?" Jamie asked.

He was elbowed in the side by Zoe. "It's obviously a gift for someone."

"So when's the TARDIS brought us this time Doctor, Zoe said somethin' about you lettin' it go where it wants."

"I said nothing of the sort Jamie! Just that the Doctor had allowed the TARDIS to be random in its landing," Zoe explained.

"More random than usual?" Jamie said, though it was more like a statement than a question.

"Come on you two, stop arguing," the Doctor said as he stepped out onto the road making a signaling gesture with his hand, a moment later a black taxi rolled up. "Alright you two, in, in!" The Doctor waved his hand and passed the box he was holding to Zoe as he also climbed in.

"Where to guv'nor?"

"Privet Drive, Little Whining, thank you," the Doctor said as he climbed in slamming the door behind him.

"Right you are guv'nor."

Jamie and Zoe looked at the Doctor as he settled himself into the seat as the taxi moved off.

"We're on Earth," he said looking out the window.

"We gathered that much Doctor. Who's this for?" Jamie asked motioning the box he held.

"An….acquaintance, a friend, his birthday's not too long now, a week I think…it's been sometime since I saw him," he paused and muttered mainly to himself. "But not long for him I suspect."

Zoe stared at the Doctor having heard everything he said, whether to them or himself. "Who is this person Doctor…is he one of your family?" She asked tentatively, Jamie had said some things about the Doctor's family before, but from what he and the Doctor had said the impression she developed was that he didn't have any.

"Goodness no Zoe! Just a friend, someone I've met a few times in the past…"

-/

"Guv'nor, what number you after?"

"Number four," He said in a somewhat dark tone.

"Doctor, these houses all look the same!" Jamie said looking out the window.

"I know Jamie, ghastly isn't it, like gingerbread, all cut out exactly the same." The taxi stopped and the Doctor followed by his companions got out, the Doctor peeled away a large numbered note and handed it to the driver.

"Here you go sir, if you could wait, my friends and I will be back shortly," he grinned. The driver looked from the 50 pound to the oddly dressed grinning man and nodded. This wasn't the first odd little man who'd been in his cab, though he was an odd one out to actually pay in large notes, very large and almost crisp in its newness. He held it up to the early morning sun, checking the watermark, just in case and then tucked it into his pocket. And nodded to him with a smile.

The Doctor walked up to the front door and rapped on it with his knuckles, ignoring the doorbell which no doubt would play some horrible rendition of an equally bad tune.

When the door opened it revealed a large man, who apart from getting a bit bigger hadn't changed, at all from the way the Doctor remembered him.

"What the blazes are you doing here, do you have any idea what time it is?" He all but yelled then he tried to slam the door, the Doctor put his hand firmly on the door stopping it and making it flex under the pressure exerted on it from Vernon Dursley.

"Hello there Vernon, I'm the Doctor," he said in a bright, yet dark tone.

"The Doctor…he was and old bloke with those, those teachers, he was an old man." He repeated, the Doctor just looked past him towards the stairs. "Time does the strangest things. I'll just go up and see Harry, come on Jamie, Zoe." He beckoned as he started up the stairs.

Jamie shrugged and followed him walking around the man who was huffing and puffing by the door.

"Doctor who is this Harry person, does he know you?"

"I hope he does," the Doctor said as he knocked softly on the door.

"Alright Uncle I'm coming." A muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"It's not your uncle Harry, it's the Doctor," the Doctor called in a level tone at the door, before turning to Jamie and Zoe. "Jamie, watch out for another…young person, he's a handful, I just want to have a word with Harry." Zoe stepped forward an expectant look on her face. "Alone," he said taking the box out of Zoe's hands as the door opened.

-/

Harry wrenched open the door and looked at the man in checked trousers and coat, holding a box with a ribbon on it, he looked nothing like the Doctor.

"Hello there Harry, do you mind if I come in? Excellent," he said not waiting for an answer as he walked back into Harry's room.

Harry looked at the man as he sat down on the old wooden chair Harry had found in the shed one weekend that he'd been forced to clean it up after Dudley and his friends had messed it up again.

"You're not the Doctor," Harry said, standing beside his bed, watching the stranger. The man smiled, a large smile.

"Oh yes I am, do you remember Harry, what I said about my people, about if we might meet again," he gestured down his body.

"He said…that when your bodies get old and tired you change…you mean?" Harry's eyes went wide, when the old Doctor had told him all about the old men in cloaks and the young men in robes lording over the galaxy, he had imagined…Harry wasn't sure what he'd meant, not really, it had seemed so real, yet so other worldly and distant, when the Doctor had told him, almost like a story he was being told, it set his imagination running wild, hearing the stories that Ian, Barbara and the Doctor had told him about their adventures, the Daleks, being an Aztec god, about the Voord and finding the keys and then there was his cloak that the Doctor gave him, Harry stole a glance over at his wardrobe where he had it neatly folded up, some nights he just held it, wrapped around him on the cold nights in winter when he wasn't allowed heating in his room because Dudley needed all the heating for when he was watching TV. It always felt so…so alien, so different, sometimes he wasn't sure what it was, a tingling of excitement, also not unlike when he had appeared on the roof of the art building, or when he turned a teacher's hair blue, or other times like that, since the Doctor, Ian and Barbara had departed the second time.

"I see you do remember," he clapped his hands together.

"But, but I thought…" Harry shook his head as he sat heavily onto his bed.

"Well that's jolly good then, here, I know it's a week or so early, but happy 11th birthday." He held out the box to him, Harry accepted it, smiling, the Doctor had been the only person, ever to give him a birthday present, the Durselys never acknowledged his birthday, only to give him more work to do over the school holidays and on weekends each year.

"Go on, open it!" The Doctor, if he was the Doctor said smiling. Harry looked up at him, looking at him in the eyes as he pushed his glasses against his face a little more. It was the eyes that made him believe this was the Doctor, the stormy eyes, old, older than they should be, it comforted Harry knowing that the old man he had met a couple of years ago was this man here before him, that he still lived. Only a small part of him acknowledged that this man, was an alien, but now he believed that assertion a lot more than when he had told him the first time. When he had told him that, he'd just imagined the Doctor's home as a place with mountains, and a great cathedral and old and young people watching over and out at the universe, though some weird telescopes or looking glasses, observing, never doing.

Harry carefully removed the bow and looked into the box, inside was a folded green jacket, it looked like an army jacket.

"A momento of one of my recent 'adventures'," The Doctor smiled "Enhanced for usefulness like the TARDIS." Harry looked at him wide eyed. "Err I mean like the picnic basket, useful pockets Harry." Harry placed it beside him, and looked in the box, at the bottom was an envelope with photos in it.

"What are these Doctor?" Harry asked.

"I thought, something to look over, something that might interest you," he said as he stood up to look at the books Harry had on a shelf beside his bed, they were books the librarians at school had given him, ones that they were throwing away or replacing, they were the only teachers who really liked him and didn't care what the Dursleys said. He'd taken Miss Wright…Barbara's advice to learn about things by reading, knowledge was a good thing.

"My word this is an interesting library you have here Harry. Ah Gulliver, a wonderfully spoken man," the Doctor mused.

Harry nodded as he carefully looked through the photos, there were photos of the Doctor, a man in a kilt, who he was sure he could see outside his door and a woman. Plus another man with a moustache in a military uniform, there was a logo, he was sure he'd just seen…Harry almost dropped the photos as he looked at the jacket that Doctor had given him, on the side was a word, an acronym UNIT. As he continued to look through he vaguely noticed the Doctor step out of the room. There were photos of men, metal men, like robots, but not, walking around London and others dead in a pile.

"They're called Cybermen, wee lethal beasties." Harry looked up at the man before him, he was in a kilt, but had a calm expression on his face.

"Harry these are my two friends, Jamie, and Zoe," the Doctor introduced.

"Hello, how do you do?" Harry said.

"Doctor, are those the photos from…" Zoe began.

"Yes they are Zoe, I thought they might be more useful out of Isabelle's hands."

"Should you really be giving them around like that?" She asked critically. Harry frowned and went to put them back in the envelope.

"Don't say things like that Zoe, they're a gift Harry, something of a record of our adventures, and of the dangers that ensue during them. Now, it's a nice day! And we're going to go out, get your shoes on and Jamie and Zoe will come with you down stairs." He clapped his hands together and left the room.

Harry looked between the two of them and sighed, placing the jacket and photos back in the box and took them to his wardrobe, grabbing the cloak that was also there he pried away a section of the plyboard between the wardrobe and the wall, there was a small cavity that he had managed to find where he could his certain things, it was either that or the small place under the floorboards he'd found one day when he'd been stuck in his room.

Harry grabbed his tatty sneakers and pulled them on, tucking the oversized shirt into his pants and looked to the two people before him expectantly.

"Ye ready te go?" Jamie asked.

Harry nodded.

"I'm sorry I was so concerned before, I wasn't sure that's all. I'm Zoe," she held out her hand. Harry took it shaking it, there weren't very many girls who would speak to him at school, they all knew what would happen if they did and Dudley and his 'gang' got word of it, Piers had already been suspended for hitting a girl earlier this year.

"That's okay," Harry said smiling slightly as he followed Jamie down the stairs and out the door, the Doctor came out a moment later.

"There," he began with a dark expression for the briefest of moments before smiling brightly "I've told your uncle that we'd be out for the day, he can make his own breakfast."

"They make you make their breakfast?" Zoe asked shocked.

Harry nodded he didn't add that he usually had to help make lunch (of which he might get some) and dinner (of which he might get a little or more likely something else, that he had to eat quickly before helping Aunt Petunia make the others' dinner).

The Doctor ushered them into a waiting taxi, Harry didn't quite catch where they were going before they departed.

-/ - \\-

Harry sat back against his bed and waved once more to the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, he had had an…an amazing day, a brilliant birthday, even though it was still a week away. The Doctor had taken them around all the old buildings around Surrey, he'd never noticed or never had anyone to show him around and the Doctor told them so much about each place they went to as though he'd been there, though Jamie said he probably had or he was making it up.

Harry leaned down to untie his new shoes, more of a boot, that Jamie had insisted the Doctor buy for him, they were certainly better than anything he'd ever owned.

Jamie seemed to think that this was an important thing, a good set of shoes. Though Zoe had added "For all the running we do." The Doctor has shushed her at that point.

When they had been walking around one of the castles Jamie had taken him aside while Zoe and the Doctor had been off…talking about something.

"Ye've known the Doctor for a while then Harry?" Jamie asked.

Harry nodded. "You've ben travelling with him for a while then?"

"Aye, seen some beastly things," Jamie nodded.

"He's mentioned, I've met other people before you know?" Harry asked, running his hand over the rough surface of the castle wall.

"Yeah, he has mentioned before."

"Were you…" Harry started. "Were you there when he changed?" Jamie shook his head.

"I had a wee conversation with Ben and Polly, they saw it, said he changed completely, you knew him, before?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah, he's so different now, but then there's something…" Harry trailed off.

"He'll get himself all worked up, like a storm coming across the moor, and then 'e just goes quiet, bringing things to an end," Jamie said in a low voice watching the Doctor.

"Yeah," Harry wasn't sure what to say.

"And he's always walking into trouble." Jamie said.

"Doesn't sound much like the Doctor," Harry said with a laugh. "Come on, we'd better get back to them before he starts arguing with the historians about what they've got wrong.

"That sounds like him Harry." Jamie laughed.

Harry grinned to himself.

He loved hearing about Zoe's homecity, to think she was from the future and Jamie from the past, and not just the 1960s, like Ian and Barbara, but the real past, history, real history.

When Jamie spoke of his time before he met the Doctor, of the Battle of Culloden, it brought chills to Harry's neck, that amount of fighting, of death. Even though he'd subsequently read up on the Aztecs and their more sacrifices and various practices, hearing some of it from Ian and Barbara, at the time was just a tale of an adventure, not something that people lived their lives through.

Jamie's reminiscences brought everything back into sharp focus. It made history feel real, in all its scary, bloody realness. History wasn't just facts in a book, it was everything, the small people, not just the notable names, but everyone who was there had a tale, an experience.

-/

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe waved at Harry up in the window before making their way back to their taxi.

"Doctor…" Zoe started to say as she looked up and around.

"Yes Zoe?" He asked.

"Should there really be so many birds around?" She looked around them pointing.

The Doctor stopped in his tracks and looked where Zoe was pointing, there were a lot of owls, sitting on the power lines and trees, very odd, that that they were out in the relative daylight.

"Oh my word…" he began with wide eyes "I think it's time for us to get going now Zoe, Jamie, into the taxi."

"But Doctor…"

-/ - \\-

A/N:

In case anyone is trying to place where this happens for the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, the dialogue between Zoe and the Doctor is the clue.

It's set just after The Seeds of Death.

A slightly different spin on all this from the previous chapter.

I considered writing all the 'what we've been doing' conversations between the Doctor, Zoe, Jamie and Harry, but they can be very difficult conversations to write and it would become a re-hashing of their previous adventures with Harry's reactions added in and that wasn't something I had in mind for this story.

Some of the meetings with the Doctor will be brief and reflected upon (this chapter for instance) others will be longer and more detailed, various characters for me lend themselves differently to the writing process.

Obviously this is meeting occurs just before Harry gets his letter and things will kick into gear soon.

Thanks for reading.

Harry will be meeting the Doctor again, sooner than he thinks…