Traveling so much, it's hard to say how long it's been since he stole the curious machine from his father, that it's almost impossible for him to put into words, but when he stole the curious machine, it was after the death of his mother.
It happened suddenly in her sleep, so he was told by the coroners that worked finding the cause of death, saying it was a heart attack, and for a long time, William believed them, but something changed his mind when he noticed something peculiar.
His mother's wedding ring.
It had a cut onyx as the centerpiece, his father likened it to her eyes, and that's why he gotten it for her.
She always wore it and hardly took it off unless her finger became swollen, which was rare.
When she died, it was missing, he read the sheets that he received from the coroner's office, detailing everything that was on his mother's body when it arrived, but they didn't list her wedding ring.
William made an appearance, wanting answers, but the coroners that performed his mother's autopsy plead innocence to the alleged theft, they showed audio tapes of them detailing the autopsy and even went far as showing the logs for the personal effects that were collected for the family.
His mother's ring didn't appear anywhere, leading them to guess that it might've fallen off the nightstand, or perhaps during his father's panicked state, he might've pulled it off by mistake, trying to grab her hands, and William scoured the family home.
He never found the ring, he made sure there wasn't a chance someone from the ambulance took it, and unable to ask his father if he had it, in fear of sending his father further in his depressed state, losing his beloved so sudden.
No matter how much William tried, he couldn't find his mother's ring, and it set off a chain reaction that resulted in him doing the unthinkable.
Stealing the curious machine his father once piloted since he was as old as William, currently.
He had no choice, his father grew even more bitter as the years gone by, that he feared his father would do something foolish with it, that he had no other choice but to get it away from him before he got the aspiration to use it, again.
His father always told him and his brother stories about the curious machine and how it took him and his mother everywhere in the known world and even further than that, but never let them use it, much less bring them anywhere in it, out of worry.
During his youth, William remembered how his father locked the curious machine away in the garage, hidden by a burlap wrapped around it, and how he and his brother always tried getting inside the ruinous machine, but never succeeded.
There were rare arguments between his father and mother, about what to do with the curious machine, and how attached his father was to it, that he wouldn't let it go, even when his mother tried to reason with him.
Until William stole it, his father used the curious machine many times, until his mother's death broke something in him, and for the first time since they've owned it, William managed to enter.
Since, he traveled, learning about the very worlds his parents traveled, becoming the mask, so it was, the Doctor, as he's now known across the land, it gave William perspective, and in that perspective, he came to what was an unsound conclusion.
His mother's missing ring, the unexpected death, William believed that his mother didn't die of a heart attack, she was murdered.
Not by his father, of course, he ruled him out instantly, but someone killed her, they had to have done it when his father wasn't near the room and slipped out the moment, he became distressed after finding her dead.
William wouldn't come to this conclusion hadn't he went through every available scenario that came to mind as well as nitpicking his mother's autopsy report.
Before his mother died, she was in peak health and had already went through her yearly physical, the doctor applauded her for working out and keeping her weight in the normal ranges.
The doctor affirmed that there wasn't anything unusual with his mother's physical, William made sure to ask him everything under the sun, even went far as asking for prior physicals to check.
No reason for his mother's heart attack, none, and he accounted for the rare instance that it was a misfortunate fluke.
Eventually, from obsessively looking over photographs of his mother's body looking for anything out of place, William found his smoking gun, they were faint, but he saw them clearly, bruises around her neck.
The coroner had to ask him sensitive questions, but William affirmed it wasn't that, and the way the bruises looked, someone stood over her when she was on the bed.
Alas, he couldn't ask his father, much less face him after the theft of the curious machine.
It was foolish on William's part not telling his father what he done, but now, he thought he hadn't a choice.
His brother, especially.
William knows what he'll face should he make an appearance after all these years, expecting his brother punching him square in the face, his father belligerent with him for stealing the curious machine, but in his heart, William believed he was doing the right thing.
He struggled internally wanting to use the curious machine to take him back to that point in time before his mother died and even if he wanted to do it, the curious machine wouldn't take him, it wouldn't even let him try to go the day before.
His mother's death was a set point, messing with it risked far worse consequences, that he couldn't do it, it'd be against everything his father stood for, and then some.
If he couldn't stop his mother's death, he could at least bring her murderer to justice, and that's what he's going to do, even if he grew another wrinkle in his forehead!
He'd gotten word, a whisper really, that possibly couldn't be anything, but William's willing to search them out, out of desperation, and desire for closure, about a man.
This man, it's hard to describe from the few whispers, but apparently, he's capable of things that no person's capable, even things that William couldn't with the curious machine, that he knew now was called the TARDIS, and that's saying something.
He couldn't find more about the strange man, the TARDIS didn't help, so he ended up going through that huge book his father helped write that was stowed aboard the TARDIS, and through the pages written by various people who piloted the TARDIS, William sees different passages all referring to the same strange man.
Heavily censored, hardly found anything where he'd find the strange man, and he didn't find a name.
Still, the strange man's his chance, and William searched for him throughout his adventures, asking anyone who'd know about him, barely finding anything more than he already knew.
Until now.
Someone contacted him with information regarding the strange man that William searched for, it was repayment for helping them one adventure, and they went out of their way looking for the strange man for him.
It came up that the strange man seemingly appears out of nowhere, the known characteristic of his appearance was his unusually illuminating eyes, but no one's sure if he even exists, his purpose, but William's willing to do whatever it took.
"I'm not sure if you want to find him, though," his contact warned him, "something about him, it's like he's always thinking, and he can go anywhere."
William waved away the worry, saying that he survived worse odds before, and thanked his contact for finding out the last known appearance of the strange man, hoping there's something fresh he can use to further track him.
The last known location the contact found's Purgatory, a place of scum and villainy, something strange for what the contact found about the strange man, wearing a pristine navy blue suit, looked more like a businessman honestly, with his eyes, he would've stuck out against the backdrop of thieves and murders.
Why he was there in the first place, his contact couldn't figure out, but it's good enough for William, and he didn't hesitate to set out his adventure to the seedy planet, filled with oddballs, whackjobs, name it, they probably roamed Purgatory at one point.
Stepping into the TARDIS after his latest adventure, wanting to venture out to Purgatory, William tugged on his tweed jacket, stitched and patched more than once, about to go towards the console when he smelled a heavy cigarette smoke that wasn't in the TARDIS before.
His dark eyes scanning the console room, William spots a figure leaning on the railing, puffing a cigarette.
Dark eyes narrowing, William went towards the figure, calling out, demanding to know how they got inside the TARDIS, he locked it, and it never opened for anyone except him.
"Forgot about me after all these years, Willy?" William heard a gravely voice call out to him.
Underneath the years of smoking, William recognized that voice, and he sees the figure closely.
"Tom?" William's mouth dropped at the sight of his older brother, having appeared out on nowhere, haven't seen him since their mother's funeral.
Puffing smoke, Tom says, "In the flesh!"