Two weeks have passed, what a wonderful two weeks it has been, Theodore and Lila felt rejuvenated since they took time away from their hectic lives as the Doctor and companion, respectfully, taking time to spend with their families, and working at the library.
Within the span of two weeks, they had to their lonesome, things happened, as they did, Bill's over the moon at the news that Dolus got the confirmation, she's coming to London mid-August, she's in the process of finding a flat near her job while packing up things, which took time.
It's a difficult process, as competitive as the London housing market is, but she's got leads on some flats coming up for rent, within the time that she's coming down, so she has that, but she's scoping London from the comfort of Cheshire for the time being, though there was a twist.
This happened while Theodore and Lila spent time in the alternate Japan, but Dolus made an appearance at the library, a surprise visit while Bill went on break, much to Bill's happy squealing in the break room.
Didn't know anything about the visit until after the two returned from their extended visit, but from talking to Mark and the other librarians, Dolus's sharper than Hammond.
They even found out her real name.
Dolus, real name, Louise Demonbruen, aged thirty-two, about Lila's height, head full of bourbon colored hair with curls at the end, some fine lines around her pale cheeks, and dark eyes.
Not much of a sharp dresser like Bill, wearing drab and muted clothing, but Louise said she wanted to save enough money until after the move for emergencies.
She was nervous meeting them all for the first time, but fell into the swing of things once Bill helped her open, and she chatted up a storm with the other librarians, giving Hammond a run for his money.
The horror of Theodore learning he missed out on Hammond becoming stumped by Louise's impressive knowledge!
Indeed, she's everything Bill wanted from a partner, that Bill did happy dances after Louise left the library to check out some flats that her agent found that were going up for rent soon.
"Where were you two, anyway?" Bill asked where Theodore and Lila went once they came back to work a day after their respected day-offs, she tried calling them to let them know Louise came down, but neither answered their phones.
Shockingly, they didn't need to lie, they had convenient reasonings for why neither answered Bill's calls.
Theodore forgot to charge his mobile (which he's prone to doing because his brother usually hounds him via telepathy) and Lila had to take hers to the cellular store due a serious of events that happened in her absence that resulted in her phone becoming a melted mess that burnt and left globs of melted plastic stuck to the nightstand after Lila initially cleaned it up.
It happened hours after Theodore and Lila went off to Japan, left her phone on the charger because it was forty percent, and when she came back, everything looked as it did when she left, until she smelled a foul smell wafting from her bedroom.
On the nightstand, her phone melted, left a nasty permanent plastic blob on the nightstand, and the charger, a crispy remnant, melted away from the charger base to one fine copper wire.
A miracle that it didn't completely catch fire and Ms. Hudson went out to play craps with the girls before Lila left, else, Lila wouldn't hear the end of it due to the old bird screeching how Lila nearly cost the flat.
Anyhow, Lila had to get a new phone and nightstand, as there wasn't anything remotely possible to fix the phone, everything sort of a gloopy mess, the screen's bubbled, smells foul, everything else.
Much of it was stuck to the nightstand that Lila couldn't salvage enough of it to show to the geeks at the cellular store.
The nightstand became too warped from the discharged heat and the remnants of the melted phone stuck to it, that chunks of wood would've came out of it if she tried having them removed, the smell of burnt phone stuck to it, it was deemed a lost cost.
The geeks at the cellular store diagnosed the cause of this bizarre incident as simply, a defective phone that didn't communicate with the battery properly and it overcharged to the point of exceeding regulatory bodies' expectations.
They're surprised it didn't happen sooner, thankful that it didn't start an actual fire, and helped Lila out getting a new phone, a different model this time.
Point of the matter's that not only did Theodore and Lila have explanations for their absence, Bill believed them, and that was that, though she watches her Blackberry like a hawk, now.
Working in the library with the two weeks they have, it was a change of pace, no running around, not having to duck because Daleks fired weapons, and relaxing compared to trying not to die every other adventure.
"What do you think?" Bill talked with Theodore as they're sitting around the break table with their lunch, it's raining out, and some roads closed due to clogged storm drains.
With his pastrami sandwich with a smidge of mustard in his large hands, Theodore looked at her with his icy blue eyes mirroring the sandwich, "I'm sure you'll have a good chance, my dear Potters."
Bill crossed her arms as she sat in deep thought, before Theodore prodded her, and she mentioned, "She's just… smarter than me… you know… it'd be like a nuclear physicist and a barista from Starbucks."
Wiping his hands on the napkin, Theodore comforted Bill, telling her that he's sure Louise likes her just the way she is, and from what he gathered, seemed humble.
"If she wanted someone comparable, she wouldn't have answered your messages, correct?" Theodore pointed out that if Louise didn't like that Bill wasn't smart as her, she would've never reached out to her in the first place.
A slight frown on her usual joyful face, Bill responds, "Yeah, you're right. The forum's pretty good at rooting out those types, anyhow. I'm just, nervous, is all, how lucky could I've been getting that message in my inbox?"
Shrugging his wide shoulders as he picked up his pastrami sandwich again, Theodore says, "It's alright to be nervous, my dear Potters, but don't fret yourself. She seems like a fine woman and you know where to go if you have problems, hm?"
He struggles as Bill gave him a side hug, causing him to awkwardly hold the sandwich, trying to avoid spilling its contents onto the wrapper below, he heard her say, "Ah, you are just what the doctor ordered!"
Showing her his pearly whites as she released him, Theodore smirks, before beginning his consumption of one of his favourite foods.
As Theodore bites chunks out of his pastrami sandwich, Bill daintily ate her salad in comparison.
Half of the sandwich gone, Theodore wiped his mouth, before he heard Bill ask him, "Well, anything new in your life, big guy?"
Slowly lowering his half-eaten sandwich, Theodore raised his brow at this as he processed what she said to him, before holding back a grin.
"I don't know," he began as he wiped his hands again, wiping down his mouth of crumbs. It got Bill's attention quick and she prodded him for details. He then says, "I don't know if I should tell you, what if Hammond finds out?"
Raising her fine brow, Bill gestures, "Come on! You can trust me, can't you?"
Holding back the grin, Theodore sheepishly says, "Cross your heart, hope to die?"
He watched as Bill moved her finger around her chest, before saying, "Yes!"
Sighing, Theodore folded up the used napkin before looking around, making sure they're still alone in the break room, before leaning towards Bill, "I'm dating Lila!"
He couldn't recoil fast enough before Bill whacked him in the arm, chiding him for that, "God! I can't believe it! I open my heart to you and here you are making jokes!"
Theodore apologized before Bill sighs and returns to her salad, in between eating, she continued her conversation with Theodore until their breaks ended, their rubbish thrown away, and they returned to the grind.
"Listen pal, I don't know what school of thought you went to, but this ain't funny!" Theodore heard Lila shouting at someone over the library phone, visibly annoyed as she held the phone away from her ear, while Mark went around the counter, ready to take his break after Theodore and Bill got off theirs.
"What's going on?" Bill asked him as he showed visible concern, glimpsing back, telling her, "I don't know, some guy called the library multiple times while you two were on break and said some creepy shit, now Lee's telling him off."
Raising his brow, Theodore responds, "What things?"
Mark shrugged as he responded, "I can't even hear half the things said, but it sounds like a garbled mess. They keep calling our section and I already told Hammond. He's working to get the number blocked."
The phone calls started right after Theodore and Bill went on break and they started off static-y with garbled noises. Lila kept hanging up on them more than once and eventually, the phone calls started becoming frequent with the static even worse, to the point that they had to hold the phone away from their ears.
Lila got fed up with it and started chewing out the crank caller.
"Seven days, this!" Lila huffed as she slammed the phone down on the receiver, aggravated. She noticed Theodore and Bill's presence before shirking in her spot as Theodore stepped beside her, curiosity in his icy blue eyes.
He inquired about the phone calls and Lila mustered, "I don't know, I could hardly hear a thing over the static. I got fed up, this schmuck kept dialing us, I can't even take inquiry calls without them butting in!"
Sighing, Theodore comforts her before mustering that it's her break, before she went around Theodore, leaving the counter.
"Weird," Bill commented as she wasn't sure about what unfolded.
A crank caller?
Weird things happened in the library before, not on their floor, but nothing like a crank caller.
"He'll handle it," Theodore sighs as he's prepared to log into the library computer with his login, when he realized that the computer lost connection with the network.
Bill checked the one in front of her and found it also wasn't connected to the network.
Glimpsing over to the public computers, they see the sparse people there complaining that they lost connection to the internet.
"Oh, boy!" Theodore groans.
THE END