"Busy, busy," muttered Lila while she helped Bill and the others as the library dealt with an influx of people. It's a mix between checking out books and handing out pieces of paper with the passcode to the library computers. Lila's been going between floors helping with the load as the others done periodically since the library opened today.
With it getting cooler out and higher chances of snow, lots of people wanted a good book to read in their homes, and others wanted reliable internet, just in case theirs gets knocked out by the weight of the snow.
"I can't wait for vacation," Bill mused that she couldn't wait to leave for her four-week vacation. Deciding she can't stand the coldness for a spell, Bill wanted to slip away to somewhere warmer, and decided on Italy.
Lila snorted at this, but not because she disagreed with Bill's vacation. She certainly earned it. For Lila, ever since a spaceman broke into her flat, she's never gotten a vacation. If she's not working in the library, she's usually off on an adventure with Theodore. Often not by choice, Hammond and Hamon have a way of coaxing her to go along for the sake of keeping an eye on Theodore.
The day Lila gets hers, she's not answering her phone nor telepathic messages, and she's certainly not going near disjointed police boxes. She's going back to America for old time's sake. Maybe bring back a couple of things that she can't find here.
While she might've asked Theodore or 'Ziggy' (her nickname for the TARDIS,) Lila knows that she couldn't trust Ziggy. That machine's got a sense of humor and Lila doesn't like it. Any time Theodore wanted to go somewhere peaceful, the damned thing always took him somewhere completely opposite of where he wanted.
One'd think by now Ziggy would've softened up and take Theodore where he wanted without adding onto his plate, but the machine seems to feel differently.
It's a miracle that they're even able to go home once a while to cover shifts and keep up with their respected families, but Theodore hasn't tried skirting around his duties as the Doctor.
After what happened with the Daleks, he's been tact about it, since.
Lord knows what that aloof giant would do the moment Ziggy cuts him loose and lets him have a vacation without things trying to kill, maim, use, abuse, and eat him.
Man's what one called "on the lean side" for that eating part, but Lila wasn't arguing with creatures that considered her and Theodore edible.
Even if he gotten a vacation, Hammond's certainly making sure he doesn't do anything foolish, whenever he goes on vacation's going to be an interesting story on account the man's not the one to take vacations.
Like clockwork he'll work in the library without missing a beat and considering what Lila knew about him, he's probably addicted to working, or this' what Time Lords consider vacation.
"I hope I get out of here before the snow starts dropping," Bill sighed as she went through the returned books, scanning them back into the system as she goes through them.
Lila remarked, "Bill, with your luck, you're going to sip on mojitos getting a tan!"
Giggling, Bill asked if Lila planned to take her vacation soon and it took Lila willpower not to laugh loudly at the thought.
"I'd figure you spend Christmas with them," Bill raised her finger as she shoved the last book back on the cart.
Lila responded that her brothers' on tour at the moment and one's in Singapore while the other's in Japan. Dad's in Norfolk for the time being.
"Must be tough," Bill noted that with her family dispatched in different corners of the world, Lila won't be able to spend time with them for the holidays.
Lila took it in stride as she said that she's used to it.
"So, what're you going to do for Christmas?" Bill inquired Lila's plans while Lila helped scan the next set of books for check-in.
As she scanned, Lila said that she's not doing anything outwardly, going to grab everything she can the week before Christmas and probably watch a movie marathon.
Bill teasingly asked, "Going to watch "A Christmas Carol"?"
Snorting, Lila remarked, "Bill, Charles Dickens works here, I'm pretty sure I'm in "A Christmas Carol"!"
Bill raised her thin brow to this remark as she guessed who Lila referenced before responding, "I mean, retro's in, isn't it?"
Ah, Theodore, the aloof giant who's the only one able to somehow make a modern blue suit look older than it really is without even trying. He might as well come to work wearing the same clothes as Charles Dickens!
It's a stark contrast to Hammond's wardrobe of wearing proper suits and all, not a tinge older than a few years.
Then again, Hammond's always been on the prim side of things compared to Theodore's business casual and whatever he considers as good enough for the day.
Shaking her head, Lila sighed.
While the women worked at the counter, they heard footsteps coming towards them and automatically prepared to answer questions, give slips, receive returned books, and found Hamon standing in front of the counter with a brown box on the sides there's small rounded holes.
"Oh, hey Hamon, didn't know you were coming down," Lila greeted the old Time Lord as he stood in front of them.
Smiling with his Cheshire grin, Hamon replied that he wanted to drop something off for Theodore and Hammond before he headed off to a convention further south.
"Ooh, what convention?" Bill showed interest as Hamon rested the box on the counter.
Smiling at her, Hamon replied that he's visiting a science convention, supposed to have a lot of interesting things and guest speakers, should be a lot of fun.
"And you're going to prove them wrong on every calculation they have?" Lila summed what Hamon planned to do with his time in the convention.
Nodding, Hamon said that he just wants to make sure they didn't get anything wrong, it'd be a terrible waste if they get anything wrong.
Checking the time on his pocket watch, Hamon asked for the two to give the boys his love, he needed to hurry on.
They waved him off as he departed and Bill turns her head toward the brown box sitting on the counter.
"What do you think, it is?" Bill wondered.
Lila replied with, "Knowing Hamon and their family, anything's possible."
She's about to take the brown box off the counter when they heard a distant noise.
"Yow!" a voice cried out.
Sharply the women turned their heads to see Theodore going through the doorway as he's being zapped by…
"What the hell's that?" Lila raised her brow at the sight of what looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie.
No larger than a medium sized dog.
It had the brushed steel colored head of the shape of a dog without the ears. Where the eyes' a green tinted visor. Trapezoid brushed steel body and an antenna for a tail. It's got something sticking out from the front that looked like a 50's ray gun that might've been the reason Theodore yow'd moments ago.
Not a dog.
"Will you please, behave!?" Theodore demanded the strange thing.
There's an audible robotic voice coming from it, "Command unrecognized!"
Groaning, Theodore looked agitated and stared off in the distance for a few moments before he noticed the brown box on the counter.
"If you're done having an argument with the toaster dog, your uncle came by and dropped a box off for you," Lila calmly told Theodore before passing along that his uncle sends him love.
Theodore's icy blue eyes sparkled as he looked at the box and like a giant child on Christmas, he opened it without hesitation.
Top came off easily and his eyes widened with joy.
"Aw!" Bill held her hands together as she looked at the sight.
Lila remarked, "Oh boy!"
Inside, there's four ferrets.
There's a cream colored one with beige stripes. A panda looking one with brown paws. A red bodied one with white accents. The fourth one popped it's head up from the soft paper, it had a chestnut body with a white face.
"My fur friends!" Theodore's squealed as his held his arms outward and the four ferrets besieged him, clinging onto him as they rubbed their faces on his.
Seeing the sight, Lila remarked, "What is even going on, anymore?"
She heard Hammond coming to through the doorway, "K9, halt!"
The strange thing retracted the ray gun and Hammond commanded to disengage the protocol. It did and became placid while Hammond looked up to see the ferrets.
"I thought you turned that damned thing off years ago!" Theodore hissed at Hammond.
Hammond casually remarked as he leaned on his umbrella that he'd simply forgotten to turn off the protocol. He didn't get the chance to do it before K9 went on an adventure elsewhere.
"Excuse me, not to cut in, but what's K9 and what's with the ferrets?" Lila called out as the brothers looked at the respected things their uncle gave them.
Theodore held his four ferrets as he said that they're his pets.
K9's Hammond's pet.
"What?" Bill's as confused as Lila's about the whole scene.
Hammond coyly said, "Science project."
It's enough for Bill to understand K9, but Lila isn't buying it, and she knows she can't call them out since Bill's present.
"Oh, yes, yes, I miss you all so much!" Theodore smiled broadly as he nestled each and every ferret in his long arms.
He introduced them all to Bill and Lila.
The white-faced ferret with the chestnut body's Starlight.
The panda looking one with the brown paws' Panda.
The red bodied one with the white accents' Bam Bam.
The cream colored one with the beige face's Oxford.
Bill asked if they bite, which Hammond chimed with, "Yes!"
Scoffing as he rolled his icy blue eyes, Theodore remarked that Hammond's not an animal person. If he was, he wouldn't been bitten multiple times by them.
"And if you understood the rudimentary of electronics, you'd know how K9 functions!" Hammond retorted as the ferrets contently held onto Theodore's suit.
Checking the time, Hammond told Theodore to set them up in his flat, he's on break, and library policies aren't the ones to favour the presence of ferrets.
"And annoying robotic dogs," Theodore sharply said.
Hammond reminded him that he can keep K9 in his office until the end of the day.
The brothers go back and forth before Hammond leaves with K9 trailing behind him and Theodore looking down at his ferrets with excitement in his eyes.
"So, where have these little munchkins been?" Lila asked Theodore where his ferrets and K9 been and Theodore told her that they stayed with his uncle.
In a way, to keep him from feeling lonely if he couldn't visit the family.
"I'm guessing they been held up by red tape?" Lila asked as Theodore ordered the ferrets to return to the safety of the box as he's prepared to take off for his flat.
Nodding, Theodore said that red tape is the favorite pastime for busybodies before he told the ferrets to say goodbye to Lila and Bill.
The ferrets clamored as they made noises before Theodore headed off with them.
Seeing the scene close, Lila wondered, "How are they even brothers?"
Polar opposites, them.
Bill replied as she found it hard to believe either, "That my dear Watson, is a good question."
THE END