The spring warmth in the air provided the jolt needed for nature waking up after the long winter. Flowers opening their buds, revealing extravagant petals that stretch outwardly, capturing the sunlight.
People mingling outside more as they no longer worry about the sudden frigid cold returning for a few months.
Spring festivals already planned for throughout the season, complete with food tasting, kiosks, stands, everything needed celebrating the return of spring.
There's already fervent plans going to the beaches, sunburns and sand in places nobody wants, galore.
Normally, the changeover would've incited happiness, not needing to bundle up like he's an Eskimo, but unfortunately, there's no springtime for Theodore.
Work in the library became hectic with the transition in the season finally complete, new book releases, book signings, people of all walks checking out books that they had to start checking out books not assigned to their floor because his coworkers on the other floors couldn't handle the surge.
Book fairs started where the library sold old stock of books from the year before, making room for new stock for this year, that was a lot of fun.
Theodore played with some of the toys that were sold alongside the books. Hammond, of course, disapproved, but that's Hammond, for you.
Oh yes, puppet shows galore, too, Theodore using his wits to entertain the children, and so forth.
Give credit, Theodore's a natural at it, his father's teachings didn't go unused. Manipulating his vocals to do whatever needed, gave Lila a scare more than once, which she got him back after the day ended.
Hammond, of course, didn't see the humour when Theodore mimicked his voice for a part.
Oh yes, busy, busy, but that's only the library, adventures, so many adventures. If not for his healing factor, Theodore probably would've never gotten out of bed again with the way he twisted and turned every corner.
Poor Lila struggled, but she tries, and Theodore more than once offered her a break from adventuring with him until she's well rested, but the stubborn woman wouldn't hear of it, she's getting out of bed, she's getting chased by whatever's after them that day, end of story.
She insisted that she didn't leave Theodore alone in his adventures, but he knew she thinks she has a sense of obligation because of his uncle and Hammond.
Multiple times, Theodore told her that she didn't have to worry about them, he'll deal with them if they're upset with her inability to join him on adventures due to suffering from injuries or soreness.
Yet, Lila proved stubborn.
Oh, what will Theodore do with his companion?
Ah, yes, anyway, it's been busy, with seldom time to himself, and thankfully there's light at the end of the tunnel, once he completes the unexpected adventure that landed on his lap.
He'd receive a phone call from a southern woman, asking for help, but it didn't sound like she needed help dealing with an alien or anything of that nature.
Instead, it'd appear that this adventure's different than all the others, as weirdly as it sounded.
The woman claimed that she's immortal and she's not sure what to make of her predicament.
So, she sought the Doctor, thinking that he would be the one knowing what to do, and perhaps he did, but the claim that a seemingly normal woman's immortal, didn't make sense to him.
Of course, once Lila heard that the woman had a southern accent, she jumped in at the opportunity going with him to investigate the claims of an immortal woman, despite Theodore's prior attempts keeping Lila back for a spell.
"You might need my knowledge," Lila pointed out that since Theodore's meeting a southern woman, some terminology might get lost in translation.
Shaking his head, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore pointed out that he's well-aware of the concept of sweet tea.
Lila's made it so many times in the library, he knows it by smell and taste.
Everyone knows the sight of the pitcher in the fridge by now, that it wasn't the traditional tea that they're accustomed to, but the sweet tea that Lila drank by the gallon.
"You're saying it like it's a bad thing. You complain I drink too much coffee, you complain I drink too much sweet tea, where does it end?" Lila pointed out that Theodore's been giving her grief about how much she consumes the drinks.
It's not like it stays in her system long, running like a madman from danger helps overlook the issues at hand. She's burning more calories than anyone could've in a day, makes up for overindulging.
"Mhm, but decadence is a virtual," Theodore plainly told her that despite the fact she had a point, less is more.
Sighing, Lila joined his side as they're walking up a corridor on the West Bank, somewhere elsewhere, who knows where the TARDIS brings them today.
They're meeting this woman somewhere in a cafe, they'll easily find it because in her call, the woman said it's one of the originals left in the city.
The moment they see the neon lines etched into buildings taller than anything they've seen, they realized how easily finding the cafe is, as Theodore deduced, they're in the 3000s.
Of course, not their current universe, somewhere else, per usual, but they got around just fine, maybe a bumbling here and there because there's newfangled things in the sidewalks that easily take you places without walking so long.
"Immortal woman, first I heard of it," Lila pondered their adventure.
Really, not an adventure, they're meeting someone who seemed solemn, doesn't really give off the air of an adventure where they're fighting for their lives, again.
Theodore reminded her never to take it for granted, anything can and has happened before, and while it may be a simple adventure, they shouldn't become complacent.
"Fair enough," Lila acknowledged that Theodore's right about that, with their luck, anything can happen in a span of minutes.
Like the time they went to a wedding that the bride and groom invited another Doctor, but it ended up becoming chaos with cake being thrown around, bottles shattering on the ground, rain coming down like someone left the sink on, the poor alien that wandered during the chaos getting whacked in the face by the wedding presents.
There have been boring weddings and then there's these weddings.
Maybe a good thing the two don't get invited to them, always seems like everywhere they go together, chaos follows.
Not exactly something Lila wanted to wear on a shirt.
Following the directions to the letter, Theodore and Lila came across the cafe, as the woman said, it stood out against the towering buildings surrounding it, and on the front of the cafe, there's a plate congratulating for existing over 450 years.
Considered a heritage building, it survived the changes over the decades and still as popular as it was when it was created.
The cafe looked like an old English pub converted into a cafe, there's still bricks that's older than the cafe's existence, for example.
Still some repairs here and there, as it goes, but otherwise, the cafe stood the testament of time, and survived where others failed.
Impressive, really, and the two made their way to the front where they entered through the wrapped wooden doors.
The smell of food wafted through the air and it's making them hungry, but thankfully, they didn't have to wait long.
A blue skinned waitress came over to them and asked how many in their party, but Theodore tells her they're meeting someone.
The woman told him that when they arrived, ask for Abbey.
So, he did and the blue skinned waitress led them through the large area filled with goers of different shapes and sizes, talking over plates of food that looked as it did when the cafe was founded.
It smelled like home cooking and the moment he smelled it; Theodore craved pastrami sandwich with a bit of mustard. His mouth started watering as he sees goers in the cafe devouring them by the minute.
The blue waitress led them to an area of the cafe with a large table and leather seated booth wrapped around it. She handed them menus, asked for their drinks, and Theodore immediately asked for a large pastrami sandwich with a smidge of mustard.
As an appetizer.
He'll want another for his entree.
Maybe another for takeaway.
The blue skinned waitress's amused at this, but she wrote it all down on her digital notepad, before moving towards the other people at their respected tables.
Sitting down on the booth seats across from each other, Theodore and Lila look to the side where there's a woman waiting patiently for them.
She had a cup of coffee and her reddened hair in an updo, looked no older than twenty-five.
"You're not the one I expected," the woman looked at Theodore with her fine brow raised up in curiosity.
Oh, she expected a different Doctor, it happens.
Often.
"It's been... a while," Theodore summed why he's not the same Doctor as the one she met prior, but without implying they're not the same person.
He leaned on everything he had on hand, learning the woman's plight.
She called out to the Doctor prior, but that was then, now she needed him again.
"I'm sorry," Abbey softly apologized to Theodore as she says that she didn't mean for it to happen the way it did.
She didn't want him to see her, she was very confused. She hoped she didn't bruise his wrists tying him to the chair.
Blinking, Lila asks why Abbey sought the Doctor again and Abbey explains in a soft voice that she's watched the world around her change, not a wrinkle, not a gray hair, nothing.
"I mean, some people age with flare," Lila gestured as she tried understand Abbey's strange frustration.
Hearing her, Abbey's eyes twinkled as she mused that she didn't know there was someone else from the south. Hard to find anyone with a genuine accent these days, she found.
Nodding, Lila replied that she was born and raised, but traveled overseas much of her youth.
In her heart, she still consumed her weight in the usual suspects.
Pork, chess pie, oh my.
Smiling, Abbey mused that it's good that she hadn't lost sight of where she came from.
The blue skinned waitress returned with their drinks and the pastrami sandwich with a smidge of mustard for Theodore, when she left again, Abbey tells Theodore that the reason she called to him, she found a breakthrough on why she survived on that operating table, but she doesn't know how to feel about it.
"What do you mean?" Lila raised her brow at Abbey.
Looking at her curiosity, Abbey responded that she was dead on the operating table, but then she wasn't. Somehow, she survived when her friend didn't.
"How?" Lila's baffled at the explanation that the woman had an operation that killed her, but somehow survived it, but her friend didn't.
Frowning, Abbey says that a man wanted to use her to save his sister, but unfortunately, it didn't work the way he hoped.
He did what any brother would and died for his troubles, his efforts in vain.
Her brow raised as she processed what Abbey said, Lila couldn't believe it, but Abbey tells her that she came to terms what happened to her so many years ago.
She didn't have a choice, she didn't have anyone to turn to, they all aged while she remained youthful.
Death was a natural consequence and moving in the darkness of the night a regular occurrence.
Abbey had to move around when she realized the extent how she came back to life.
"I was dead. But I wasn't. He somehow brought me back, but he couldn't bring her back," Abbey stared into her cup, sadness in her eyes.