Tea for the Doctor
Charlie stopped to catch her breath and the boy was nowhere in sight, "Who was that boy?" She glanced down at the wooden box.
The clock tower above stuck twelve, the bell ringing alerted Charlie as she looked up at the clock's face. "Crap! I'm late!" She threw the box into her pocket and ran for work.
Charlie ran inside of Rose's Café and headed straight to the back.
"Hey, Charlie! You're fifteen minutes!" A man with graying hair scolded the girl from his desk, "Show up late next time, you're fired! Got that?"
"I got it, Mike." Charlie nodded her head as she took off her jacket and tied a black apron around her waist. "Jerk." She muttered.
"Charlie, you'll never believe what happened?" A girl with twinkling green eyes ran up to Charlie.
"What, Lily?" Charlie tied her hair up into a ponytail.
"Ritchie from school is inviting people to go to Colorado for a ski trip, and he invited me!" She squealed with delight. "Can you believe it?"
"That's great." Charlie gave out a weak smile.
"I also heard he's invited you." Lily held her friend's hand.
"He did, Lil, but I can't go. Someone's got to hold down the fort at home while my mother and my stepdad are taking their two month second honeymoon."
"Poor Charlie, when are you going to have an adventure? You're always here, at school, and at home. You should get out more." Lily hugged her friend and ran off.
Charlie looked down and bit her lip, "I hate it when she's right." She felt the wooden box in her pocket and pulled it out. She stoked the top, which had some foreign carvings to her. "I wonder what's inside here that made that boy all fussy." She opened the box and gasped at the contents. "A necklace?" She pulled out a tiny emerald hanging on a gold chain. "It's really pretty." She placed the necklace around her neck and stoked it.
"Hey, Charlie, serve the man at table eleven." A cook said from behind.
"Okay." Charlie picked up a menu and headed over to the table where the same brown haired man in the tweed jacket and bow tie sat, "Hi, welcome to Rose's Café. I'm Charlie, I'll be your waitress. I can get you anything?"
"I'll have a tea, please." He said, "Not that cold, sweet tea. Just a hot cuppa."
"Okay. Hot cup of tea it is for the professor." Charlie jotted the order down her in notebook.
"Professor?"
"Well, yeah. You look like a professor to me. Tweed jacket, the British accent, and the silly bow tie." She chuckled.
"Bow ties are cool. And I'm not a professor."
"Okay, who are you then?"
"I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor Who?"
"They call me the Doctor, don't know why. I call me the Doctor, too. Still don't know why."
"All right, one hot cup of tea for the Doctor. It'll be right out." Charlie smiled as she headed for the back.
Suddenly, a man came in, he looked like the boy from earlier, but a bit older. His hair was spiked, looked sinister, and wore a black suit. He sniffed the air around him and cracked an evil smile as he sat down at nearby table from the Doctor's.
Charlie came back with a cup of tea and placed it down in front of the Doctor, "There you go. Is there anything else I can get you?"
The Doctor smiled and noticed the emerald dangling from her neck, "Your necklace."
"Oh, this?" Charlie looked down at it. "I just got it today. Some random boy ran up and gave it to me."
"Oh? What did he look like?"
"British. Skinny, brown eyes, shaggy blond hair, and he looked like he was running for his life." Charlie said, "He thought I was the friend of somebody he knew."
"Did he say anything to you?"
"He said 'just tell him that he's found me already'." Charlie words widened the Doctor's eyes.
"Charlie, did that boy just give you the necklace?"
"No, it came in a wooden box. Let me get it for you." Charlie snatched the box from the back counter and gave it to the Doctor.
The Doctor looked at the box, then at Charlie. "Thank you."
"No problem. Holler if you need me." Charlie smiled and returned to the back, where the man in black slowly got up and followed her.
"Charlie, could you fold these?" A fellow waitress handed her a pile of fresh, clean, cloth napkins.
"Okay." Charlie set the napkins down and began folding.
The man in black suddenly approached her, "Give me the gem."
Charlie turned and was startled by the sight of the man, "What?"
"You heard me, human. Give me the gem!" He stormed up to her.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Charlie looked for a way out.
"The Gem of All!"
The Doctor took a sip of his tea and spat it back in the cup, "Ugh, she's probably better at making coffee." He examined the box and the carvings. Since the TARDIS can translate any language in the universe for him, the carvings became words.
Doctor,
I leave you the Gem of All. My parents said that you were a good man, saving worlds and civilizations. I trust you to keep this vital item safe and never leave it into the hands of anyone else. Not even my brothes, Thalos. Please take it far from here that he will never find it, for he has already found me. Thank you, Doctor, for everything.
His Royal Highness,
Prince Mikquin of Corsect
The Doctor glanced towards the back where Charlie was, "This is not good."
The man grabbed Charlie's wrist and gritted his teeth as she cried in pain, "Give it to me or die, earthling!"
"Hey, what the hell is going on in here?" Mike entered the room.
"Silence!" The man pulled out a laser gun and shot it at her boss, dissolving him into ashes.
Charlie screamed at the top of her lungs, shooting the Doctor out of his seat.
"Charlie!" The Doctor ran into the back where he found Charlie being held hostage. "Who are you?"
"I am Thalos, king of Corsect." The man said with pride, "This disgusting human is holding the Gem of All!"
"Ah yes, the tyrant king, they say." The Doctor dug his hands into his pockets and smiled. "You found your little brother hiding here on Earth, did you?"
"Hi, I'm being held at gunpoint here." Charlie waved her hand.
"Oh, sorry." The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it the gun, short-circuiting it.
Thalos dropped the gun and pulled out an even larger weapon from his jacket.
The Doctor grabbed Charlie hand, "Come along, Charlie!" He pulled her out of the café.
"No, stop!" Charlie broke away from him. "What's going on? I want an answer!"
People ran out the café screaming as the laser gun fired a hole outside the restaurant.
"On second thought, let's continue running." Charlie took the Doctor's hand and ran.
"Ha! I like your sense of adventure, Charlie." The Doctor laughed as he ran with her.
Even though they were being chased down for their lives, Charlie gave a smile to the Doctor's compliment.