Meanwhile…

The man who was seen inside the coffee shop, now could be seen by the world itself leaving it at a very steady pace, coffee in hand and a determined look on their aged face. What was most peculiar about them, was that their clothing seemed very out of style for such a less classy place to get something to drink. This did not seem to bother them, however, as they walked away.

What the two that were left behind in the cafe did not realize was that this man was someone that at least one of them knew very well. Not in a personal sense per say, but a clear and understandable one at least. The only problem was, neither of them could see his face clearly to distinguish the details. If only the elder gentleman knew the sort of position he had gotten himself into. He'd have probably ran for the hills and not looked back with the sort of attention he'd end up getting. Luckily for him this was a smaller town in a nowhere state that it made getting lost in the space of it all, very easy. One would think that, that wouldn't be possible, but for his sake it was a strong blessing. Not that he realized that of course as he made his way back to his home.

Approaching, he unlock the blue door before him and pressed with an open faced palm against its wooden etched surface. It swung inward with a creek before he stepped through its straight edged arch and closed it with a light rattling click behind him. By any standard it should have been impossible for him to find any comfort whatsoever behind that door, if one were took look at it from its outside perspective, which seemed dimensional crapped for even a single person to find soloist in. However, if one were to enter inside, just like he had, they'd have found the impossible more than grandly over assumed.

In fact the whole interior was big enough just in the few steps alone to get inside, for two people to walk comfortably elbow to elbow next to each other without so much as a bump into one another in between them. The rest of the room, when one got over the sheer shock of the initial entrance, would notice just how cavernous the rest of it was. It wasn't just one floor, but multiple, with what looked like a circular platform with an encased beam of light, a control panel surrounding it, and it jutting up to a very much high rotating ceiling all the way down to just under its wire meshed floor. Of course circular panels lined the walls and accented lights surrounded everywhere for a more dramatic effect. To the nonresident this would be something of a shock of awe seeing such grandiose, but to a simple old, very much mad, man in a silly blue nonsense making box; it was much more a home away from home.

Not even hesitating, he walked up to where the controls were and looked at them, coffee still in hand. With a free hand he grabbed the screen and whirled it towards himself to look at what was on it. It was still working on repairing itself, his home that was, the TARDIS. Yes, that silly old man was none other than the Doctor himself. His tired twelfth face, looking over the information of how things were coming along before giving a weary sigh. Taking a step back, he took a drink of his coffee and paced.

"This is all your fault you know." he said to what seemed like nothing in particular. "You got us into this mess somehow so, it justifies my reasons for not feeling sorry for you right now."

A moment of silence, and then a sound of whoops, blips, and other light chirping sorts of sounds the TARDIS could make came ringing through the room. To the normal ear this would seem like nothing, just normal ship noise, but the Doctor knew better. He could tell that his girl was pouting. As she should, was his thoughts. The TARDIS nearly had an internal meltdown conniption fit just getting where they were. Though, in the older time lord's mind it could have been worse he supposed. He was just glad she had landed on Earth, early twenty first century, something he knew quite well at this point. So he wouldn't be bruised at his TARDIS for long.

As was, there was already something to do. A mystery to solve. Perhaps that was why he was more in a mood than actually being mad at his girl for almost nearly frying herself. The Doctor never screwed up so badly, not that often. Yet the night before seemed like quite a disaster as he was trying to recall the details to put them together as he paced about, sipping slightly at his coffee every few seconds.

The night before…

Cloister bells going off, the TARDIS had wheezed and landed with a hard thud. The Doctor, having waved off smoke that had started emanating from the control panels, tried to see where they had ended up. Unfortunately the screen had been black out at the moment. Stupid, stupid, stupid, was all the Doctor could think of. Something had gone completely wrong with their travel through the time vortex.

Sure he had picked up a reading of something strange, but that shouldn't have caused the TARDIS to go haywire like she had. No there was something more to this, but the Doctor couldn't put his finger on just what quite yet. He especially couldn't with the TARDIS's mainframe down. She had immediately gone into repair mode as soon as they landed. He was just going to have to do this search more the old fashioned way he supposed.

Going swiftly, he went and grabbed a special device from within one of his many hidy drawers. He was going to go out into the open world armed with a searching tool and his own time lord intuition to find out why they ended up in such a messy predicament.

"Don't you dare go anywhere, you hear me?" he spoke sternly to the TARDIS. "You better still be here when I get back. I don't care if you have to do repairs you can stay put."

He was in a bit of a grumpy mood, but nothing too serious. Nothing that wouldn't go away after a few hours of some fresh adventurous air. Tucking the device close to his chest and making sure his sonic screwdriver was well in his pocket, he made his way to go out the TARDIS door. The poor girl only made a few pathetic whirring blip sounds of what seemed like dizzy induced understanding before she could sense him close the door behind him and walk away from her.

The Doctor was now a man on a mission. Before even turning on his device he was able to at least gauge the planet, the century, and almost up to the month and day he was in. He could practically gauge even where he was in proportion to where he was on the planet, just by his time lore senses alone.

The sun was just passing down to the horizon where it would fade into a lovely TARDIS blue skyline before its light vanish for the evening. The air he had taken note of, was sweet in taste, grassy and wild. It almost made him think of home just a bit. But, he couldn't dwell on such a thought, there was work to be done. Taking out the device again, he turned it on and began scanning the area with it and his sonic screwdriver. There was definitely something strange. He could even say temporally odd.

Yet what intrigued him more, was that his readings just around the area of the TARDIS, weren't the only ones he was getting. There was more. There was something, or maybe even someone or ones, here. Other than just plain simple humans. Actual alien activity there other than himself. This, he was going to have to definitely investigate. As he watched the screen, the readings were telling him that they were the strongest coming from what looked like a very downtown area of this city.

Only geared with his own feet, he began walking at a very fast pace towards where the signals were coming from. By this point, the sky had gone dark, and the only light he was able to go by was the ones the streets provided, which unfortunately really wasn't much. However, he didn't need much to keep up with what he was doing.

Most of the town, he was starting to realize, seemed quite quiet for the most part. The Doctor didn't know how to take this really, the eerie silence of it all, so he tried hard not to focus on it. It didn't help that he jumped, however, the moment he heard what sounded like a scream nearby, and by the time he reach the area known as downtown central he could hear it even louder. Naturally his caring and curious nature, made him pick up his pace and run towards the sounds that he had heard.

By the time he had gotten there though, the scene before him was one he did not want to see, helplessness. Before him a girl and a guy were standing in front of another man, their postures threatening. They were attempting to bully the poor guy. The Doctor stood there momentarily frozen in shock (and maybe a bit intrigue) as the girl just watched the other man approach the frightened individual cowering against a wall. It was then that man started to do something unnatural, very alien in fact. From what the Doctor could see was a sort of light emanating from the attacker and dissolving into the victim, which seemed to leave the victim to seem like they were being drained like a battery. This motion was what prompted the Doctor to take action.

"Hey!" the Doctor, finally snapped out of his temporary haze, and began running towards them at full tilt. Anger started spreading all over his face as he called out again in warning, "Hey!"

The two who had been ganging up on the terrified man, turned to look at the Doctor as he came barreling down on them. Frightened at seeing such a sight and the thought of possibly being caught, they began to take off just as the Doctor reached the now slumped man who was out cold by this point. Quickly he had reached down to test the man's pulse fearing the worst as he looked up watching the direction the other two were running. Unfortunately the man as far as he could tell, was dead. A solemn look etched his lips. The Doctor got back up quickly, backing away from the man with regret before he turned and full force running after them. He mused in a fanciful belief that his ability to run fast would be a hope to catch up to the alien culprits.

Sadly he did not catch them or catch even up to them at all for that matter. All this did was make him sigh with frustration as he gripped at his hair roughly, eyes darting about searching as he turned in a three sixty in one spot. He wondered to himself if he was actually just getting to old for this nonsense. Defeated, he slouched back to go find the man hoping against all reason he had been wrong and actually had saved the man from such a fate as death, but by the time he got there he found an even bigger shock, disappointment, and frustration. The body was gone! Which meant whoever, whatever those things where, their victim somehow just managed to come back to life and walk away. Luckily for him, the man's face was etched into the back of his mind and that if he had to see them again, he'd know that whoever they were, their definitely most likely at this point dangerous.

Even though he was left in a state of frustration, he was also in a state of exhilaration. There was something to do, a consolation prize to the fact him and the TARDIS pretty much crash landed. Armed with this knowledge, he made his way back in the direction of his TARDIS, a cold stare on his face and a determined step to his walk. They weren't going to get away with this, whoever they were, because now…the Doctor was in.

Back to the present…

His mind reeled over the situation, over and over again. He was at a loss though, that fire he had hours before now extinguished with tired weary headache filled thoughts. There was definitely something he was missing. Something huge, but with so little facts, it made things quite hard. Taking another sip of coffee he tried to recall more of what had already transpired. Of course there was a bit of domestic things, like going to get coffee at the coffee shop.

He didn't have to do that, not really he could have gone to the kitchen to grab a cup, but somehow taking the domestic approach felt more right for some odd reason. It sort of made him smirk to himself slightly. Oh if only Rose could see him now, she'd be making loads of fun pokes at his approaches to things these days compared to back then. People change, even him.

He drew his ever quickly cooling cup of coffee to his lips as he passed around the massive control room at least part way before stopping and looking at the controls solemnly. He was glad that part of her was working again. Yet, it was like, there was a certain nagging at the back of his mind when he looked at them these days. One that if he only just had access to, he'd probably look back on fondly, but alas it was just that, a distant unattainable thought. At least for the most part. There always seemed to be this feeling though, this sort of "I told you so" or "go on do it" sort of vibe he'd get and it always seemed to push him on, but in the end there was always still something missing, something that felt like it sat between his two hearts and almost wanted to wretch them both out like a gaping hole.

Even as he moved up to the panel in front of him and flicked a lever on it, he felt that deep hole aching at him. What he didn't realize was, what it was, was the fact that the TARDIS aside from her sentient self, was empty. The Doctor could have had all the rooms in the multiverse he wanted, but that wouldn't ever make up for the missing thing that he wanted most right then. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately depending on how one saw things he couldn't remember it anyway. So all he was left with was only the feelings, ones that seemed to keep telling him to keep going.

After the switch was flipped a map came up on the rotatable screen. It was a map of the local area. This allowed him to try and contemplate better where the aliens might have gone, possibly locations they'd hide out at out of habit. Most of the collected info so far located things mostly downtown. There had seemed to be a lot of abandoned places down there so probably it was one of the best bets. He could have thought maybe they had plans for the base that seemed to be located in town he was sure that might become their next target so they could eventually get out of there or even try and take control of earth at least. He had to stop whatever they were though none the less from harming anyone again.

Brows furrowed he downed more of his coffee, frustration filling him again. In his mind he then heard that little voice going off again like a memory. You know you want to. Just do it already. Go on, get out there. What are you waiting for? You're surely not gonna save the day wallowing about in here. So go on…run you clever man…run like you never have before.

He finished off this drink at that point, downing it fast, and then throwing it over his shoulder as he turned away from the screen, it luckily landing in a waste bin near a chair he had about in the control room, "This is ridiculous!"

It was like he was trying to exclaim it to someone, but he was the only one there. His words fell on deaf ears. He looked to the ceiling, "What am I supposed to do!?"

He then looked down and said more quietly his accent carrying just a hair thicker as he covered his face, "What…..am I supposed to do…."

Tears almost threatened to rush from his eyes, though a part of him didn't even understand why. He didn't let any fall though. Instead, he ran his hands down his face and turned with a more hurt stare into the nothing in front of him, "If you think I'm so clever then what should I do!?"

Almost as if whatever he was trying to talk to responded that or just the universe mocked, a sound went off on his console, indicating there was activity again. He looked at it almost in genuine bewilderment before racing over to the screen to get a better view of what the TARDIS instruments were reporting. There was definitely something. He had to go back out there. He had to find the answers. The voice in his mind was right, whether he liked to admit that or not. He had to do something. Even if his stubborn, now Scottish esque, pride was getting the better of him.

"Alright…." he stated backing away from the console, grabbing his things he had from the night before and began to get ready to leave the TARDIS once more. "Alright."

He made sure he had everything before he went to the door itself, and then turned back to the TARDIS core at the center of the room, "You know….I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."

The TARDIS beeped, whirled, and blooped a bit in response as if to say "Yes, yes now get out of here my thief." to him. He then turned and dashed out the door, locking it behind him as he made his way to where the signal had been emanating from. He would make this right somehow. Even if he had to scour the whole city he'd find them and make it right.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.

A/N: Sorry that getting this chapter out came so late! i lost track of time (much like the Doctor does often) I guess. In any case, hope you guys enjoy the introspective on the 12th Doctor. Told you he'd be wandering in eventually! Anyway, I was able to get this chapter and one other done that will be posted with this one. Everyone have a great New Year!