It had to happen sooner than later, Hammond learnt from Theodore that he's dating Lila, and while he admonished his brother for keeping this from him, he's elated that Theodore found someone.
Of course, Hammond "politely" tells Lila what he expected of her, though in his own way, thanked her for making his brother happy.
Losing both their parents, their lot in life as half-Time Lords, it's difficult to have interpersonal relationships with people, and with the knowledge that Theodore's with Lila, Hammond can rest easy knowing that Theodore can be himself.
A struggle for Hammond to show this, his early years of living on Gallifrey embedded into his brain, he didn't quite convey his true emotions, but it was the thought that counted.
Hamon wasn't at all surprised, his smirk showing that he always knew, and he predicted this would happen the moment he saw the two together for the first time.
Ben and Odette subtly knew it was inevitable, seeing parallels to how they met, without the part where they're chased by aliens, of course.
Of course, the word spread to Lila's family, Daphne had a laugh, winning a victory over calling Theodore Lila's boyfriend the first time they met.
Billy and Ethan had a laugh, too, pointing out that they caught on quick.
The one snag's Lila's father, who did what Lila dubbed, the "mouth full of cookies" where he proceeded to have a mouth full of cookies, obstructing his ability to talk correctly, preventing him from having to talk.
He ended up having a one-on-one talk with Theodore, by the end of it, in his own way, he accepted Theodore as Lila's boyfriend.
Not without giving his subtle threats with a wink, that is, despite the fine lines around his face and the crow's feet, Mr. Watson's threats rang true.
He even reminded Lila what he taught her growing up, how to maximize damage with her knife, dropping Theodore like a sack of bricks.
Still, he's happy for Lila, and though he does stare at Theodore with his side-eyes, he's coming around to him, in time.
Although, Lila hadn't figured out how to explain to her family what she does when she doesn't work at the library or at family dinners.
Still things to work on that.
So that said, it's been an interesting time.
…
The return of Autumn brought periodical rain, cold bursts of wind, and the return of the infamous flavor, pumpkin spice.
October's here and with it, brought childlike wonder with the leaves slowly turning red, the ground covered in fallen leaves, whisked away by the cold breeze.
While Halloween isn't celebrated in the UK as it is in the US, it didn't stop creative individuals like Lila from planning a way to celebrate despite living aboard.
What better way to celebrate Halloween?
Horror movies.
Marathons worth.
With the cable box altered by the Sonic Screwdriver, she's able to watch the horror hosts from overseas, record them at her leisure, and she planned this marathon with Theodore in mind, as Mrs. Hudson's planning on visiting family in northern England during the Halloween week, returning sometime after November 5th.
There's plans of going to the Diner and buying a smorgasbord of food so they don't have to cook anything, while they watch the marathons in peace.
Cheesy, Lila knows, but this time of year has a special place in her heart, and while she doesn't visit the States much, this is close to her satiating that itch.
Forward to now, it's the third week of October, Monday to be exact, next week's Halloween week, with Lila counting down to the hour when she'll have everything ready for the marathons.
Theodore's looking forward to watching fictional horror movies rather than live them, so there's that.
For now, they continue doing what they've been doing since that fateful day, saving worlds over, thwarting conspiracies, dealing with Daleks and the like, so forth.
Their latest adventure took them to a costal British island, upon arriving in the TARDIS, the smell of salt in the air hit their noses, as the two stepped out, surveying their new surroundings.
The reason for their presence's because of disappearances on the island, ten people went missing over a span of two months, and no bodies to show for, while the beaches were a popular tourist trap that everyone visited when they come to the island where they drank well into the night, beer bottles found at the time police investigated, Al found an irregularity with two of the disappearances.
The first missing person was known to be afraid of water, refusing to step on any beaches, there's no records or indications that they went to the beach, at all, something the police failed to note when they investigated the disappearances.
The second missing person had allergies to alcohol, thus wouldn't drunk any beer at the beach, but the police hadn't found any soft drinks or other non-alcoholic drinks when they investigated the beach, more the second missing person's an athletic swimmer, had they been swept out to sea, they'd have a better chance reaching the shore.
While this appeared to be nothing more than police oversight and nothing for the pair to investigate, Al discovered something else, there's a legend on the island of a fog that overtakes the island on certain nights.
Anyone caught in it's said to disappear without a trace.
Now, Al didn't want to make any assumptions, but it sounded plausible that the people missing encountered this fog, of course nothing showed on his scanners anything out of the ordinary, but that's why they're investigating.
Smelling the salt in the air, bringing back memories of Virginia Beach and the Boardwalk, Lila looked around, seeing the gray clouds above, the waves swaying in the breeze, as Theodore found a pathway that'd lead them into the town that catered to the tourists that come from the ferries located at the wharf ahead of them.
Al didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the search about the town, no different any other costal town, catered to the tourists that came around the spring-summer seasons, dead as a door nail come fall-winter.
No sharks, Al checked.
No cults, he also checked for that.
No Christopher Lee hanging around leading a cult to set fire to any unsuspecting person that lands on the island to appease a harvest god.
He's busy in New Zealand, actually.
Don't worry, Al's got his fingers on all pulses, if anything blips, they'll be the first to know, the usual.
"Hm, something smells good!" Theodore commented on the smell as they're closer to the town, it's enough to cause a rumble in his stomach as he strolled the maintained pathway with Lila close to him.
Smelling the faint spices that's par course with seafood cooking, Lila followed Theodore as her arm wrapped around his, as they walked along the pathway, going up the concrete steps to see the road, with storefronts facing the beach welcoming them.
"What about John Carpenter?" Lila asked Al as she's linked with Theodore while Al's in his head, Al telling her that John Carpenter's working on a movie, elsewhere, so it wasn't him, either.
No Rob Schneider, obviously.
Al's working on finding them someone who knows more about the strange fog, so far, it's legends and stories told to keep kids from sneaking out of the houses at night, but it didn't deter Al from looking.
"All good, Al, we'll be eating our lunch," Theodore tells him as he tracked the smell of the seafood vexing him, Lila following him as his long coat fluttered in the breeze.
He even pointed out that if they're lucky, someone would know about the fog at the Crabby Annie, seeing as they've arrived sometime at the start of the dead season, feeling the cold breeze shot past them as they walked, there should only be locals at the Crabby Annie they can talk with.
Al agreed to the idea, as he disappeared from Theodore's mind to continue his searches while the pair arrived at the Crabby Annie, the smell of the spices hitting their faces the moment they entered through the door.
Eyes immediately laid on them from people sitting at their tables and booths, silent judgement coming from them, something Lila recognized in her youth.
Guess they're used to yokels butting into everything they shouldn't.
A waitress came up to them, asking questions, which Theodore dutifully answered, table for two, booth, and she led them to the empty booth in the back.
Sitting down on the plump seats across from each other, the two were immediately asked for their drink orders, both responded, and the waitress handed them their menus before heading off to grab them their drinks.
"Hm, takes me back to Virginia Beach," Lila commented as she looked over the menu, everything that a menu would have in a restaurant close to the open sea.
Still some turf items for the adverse and cautious types.
With their appetites, they picked out their appetizers and entrees in a fell swoop.
Crab cakes and lobster chips for their appetizers.
For their entrees, Theodore settled on beer battered fish and chips with a side of Caesar salad, Lila went with fish tacos.
The waitress returned with their drinks and a complimentary basket of freshly baked cheddar biscuits, she took their orders, and went off to put it in while the pair took in the ambiance of the restaurant once the locals stopped looking their way.
"So, what do we think?" Lila asked Theodore his thoughts as she reached for a cheddar biscuit from the basket.
Thinking it over as he reached for one himself, Theodore responded, "Fogs don't kidnap people, that much apparent."
Theodore didn't believe in the idea that this fog kidnapped people, obviously, he believed that someone's using the fog as a cover to kidnap unsuspecting people who stayed out long enough for it to come through the island.
Someone who knows the island from the back of their hands they're able to time when the fog forms and when it moves through the areas where the people disappeared from.
"Al didn't detect any anomalies, not even a ship," Lila shrugged as she finished off her biscuit, grabbing her drink as she pulled it close to her, sipping on it as Theodore drugged into his second biscuit.
Of course, the way things are, they're not going to overlook anything just because it's not obvious, though how benign it seemed, and the fact that ten people seemingly went missing within two months without being found, dead or alive, it's unusual.
"Al says the official reports list them as possible victims of riptides," Theodore sighed as they finished off the remaining biscuits, putting the basket to the edge of the table, as they held their drinks while talking to one another.
Understandable, riptides are a death curse to swimmers, especially at night, and intoxicated, even the most skillful of swimmers have been known to become victims to them.
Swept out to sea, where they are doomed to inevitably drown, as they're unable to swim back to shore within time, and their bodies becoming a feast for any opportunistic sea dweller or seagull.
With the way of the sea, their bodies far from shore, that it's inevitable they're not found, as the currents swept the bodies away.
"Arr, she's a harsh mistress!" Lila commented on Theodore's musings.
Their waitress returned once again, giving them refills of their drinks, taking up the empty basket, giving them another basket of cheddar biscuits, there Theodore got the opportunity to ask about the legendary fog that seemingly hanged over the island and as the waitress gave them their appetizers, she talked about what she knew.
The island sometimes gets fog after heavy rain, later in the evening hours, always at the dead of night, when everyone closed for the night.
Her grandfather told her how he knew friends that went missing when they snuck out of their homes to head to a party on the beach, never to be found, never to be seen, again.
Drove their parents over the edge, moved off the island in anguish at their losses.
"So, what do you think happens to people who get caught in the fog?" Lila asked the waitress's take on the legend, the waitress replying that when she was younger, she thought her grandfather's friends were spirited away.
Older and wiser, she thinks that in their confusion trying to get around the thick fog, they fell to their deaths, swept away by the crashing waves.
Excusing herself, the waitress moved on to tend to other tables, leaving the pair to consume their appetizers, mulling over her words.
"Not the first time it's happened," Lila summed as she pulled a portion of the cheesy lobster fries onto her plate, using her fork to cut through the cheese strings.
Doing the same, Theodore added, "Something's different, then."
A person or two disappearing every now again's a story old as time, but ten within two months, sounds awfully suspect to him and Lila agreed.
Consuming their appetizers as they talked to each other, listening to the backdrop of the busy restaurant, filled with fishermen and dock workers who came for their supper, as they called it here, and they took no notice to the pair, busied with their friends.
From eavesdropping, the pair learnt a great deal.
Fishing industry's booming, everyone's getting paid handsomely risking their lives every season, the tourist industry's growing by the year, seemed like the town's happy as a bee.
Still, always the quiet ones.
"Hm, we ought to book a room for a spell," Theodore noted after their supper, as the fishermen called their lunches, they establish a room and board somewhere.
Al would've had to move to a different location, as the forecast noted a storm's coming through the area sometime in the night, maybe a good chance to catch their supposed fog, though Theodore tempered his expectations.
"Right, don't want to have to clean him, again," Lila noted they didn't want a risk of Al coated in dried-on sand, having to work tirelessly to clean him off, rough, coarse, gets everywhere.
Nodding, Theodore says that should they not catch sight of this alleged fog, they'll try again another time, by then they'll learn a great deal about the legend.
However, should they see this fog, well, they have their chances discovering the causes behind the disappearances.
Finishing their appetizers and biscuits, the waitress returned, refilling their drinks, replacing their empty baskets of food with their entrees before disappearing from their table, again, leaving them to consume their supper.
Sharing their entrees, Theodore took two of the fish tacos while Lila took two of his fish and two of his chips, before consuming them while continuing their quiet conversations.
The jolt from the lighting that lit up the sky in the distance, the wide windows catching the sight as onlookers watched, as the storm's slowly making its way to the island.
When the waitress came over to check on them, Theodore asked her the best lodging for them, and if this morning was burning red.
As Lila's father taught her and as Theodore's mother taught him, red mornings meant take warnings.
The waitress stated that no one mentioned a red morning, thus putting Theodore and Lila's mind at ease, returning to their conversations.
"You think if we get a red morning and a big storm, that fog's gonna show up?" Lila asked Theodore's opinion as he munched on his beer battered fish.
Chewing on it, he replied, "It's a possibility my dear Watson."
Their supper came and went, their desserts were called snacks, and they consumed their snacks, before departing the restaurant, the air having a different feel as there's a storm off the coast, lighting bright enough the pair saw from a distance.
With their lodging recommendation, the pair made their way to the Inn on the Rocks, where they booked a room for a few nights, allowing them time to figure out the correlation between the fog and the disappearances.
From the feel, this town didn't have Cthulhu on speed dial, any elder god for that matter, not fish people walking among them, enigmatic people, a church of questionable services, no strange monuments erected around the town, anything like that, so there's that.
Seemed like any other costal town, using tourist and fishing industries to survive the seasons, isolated by the ocean, they've developed their own culture, and didn't regard tourists well, other than a means to an end.
Sitting on the edge of their bed as she looked out the window, seeing the storm slowly blackening the skies above in the distance, closer than it was when they were at the restaurant, Lila proceeded to undo her shoes, dropping them to the side as she noted that with the storms and the culture of the island, they weren't getting anywhere until the morning, anyway.
In agreement as he hooked his long coat on the coat rack, snacking his scarf around the hook, topping it with his suede fedora, Theodore sighed as he undid his belt, resting it on another hook as he walked barefoot towards the loo.
When he stepped out, holding the clothes he wore when they arrived, Theodore wore simple pajamas.
Rather uncomfortable sleeping dressed as he was, then.
Lila undid her belt, folding it up like an accordion, placing it on the seat in front of the mirror as she undid her buttoned navy-blue blouse, revealing a simple white shirt underneath, folding it over the headrest.
Wearing simple women's boxers, Lila stretched out her pale arms, yawning as she heard the rain splattering against the window.
Going over to the window, she closed the blinds and the curtains, barely the lighting shown through the darkened curtains as she turned around, returning to their bed as she sat on the edge, quickly combing her chestnut hair as she readjusted her yellow scrunchies.
She felt a gentle poke on her back, when she turned her head, she sees Theodore with a look in his eyes.
"I thought you already had dessert!" Lila teasingly said to him as she moved closer to him.
Grinning ear to ear, Theodore replied as he held up his finger, "Not quite so, my dear Watson, I had a snack!"
The locals say so, thus it must be true.
Giggling, Lila then added, "Shouldn't you wait an hour after eating?"
Pulling her into his arms, Theodore grins.