Gift

Charlie sat at her kitchen table, watching this strange Man curiously as he chewed on black chips he had requested, saying about how much nicer burnt chips tasted. He was a curious Man to say the least.

Charlie was sure that she had never quite met anyone like him, anyone so…strange, so different compared to the young Man sat right in front of her in the heart of her small kitchen table which she shared with her Mother and older Brother.

He didn't seem to notice the curiousness written right across the Girl's face as he dunked the black chips into the heap of tomato sauce that he had placed on the edge of the plate for himself, before chewing happily on the chips with his fingers.

Charlie cleared her throat, deciding that she should probably make conversation with this stranger seems as though she had took a big risk and invited him into her house with only just meeting him.

She knew Mother would flip out if she came home to find him here, but Charlie liked this Man already. He was very different to anyone she had ever met before in her short, five year life so far.

"So who are you really?" She asked him curiously again, even though she had already asked that question to him, back in the garden and Charlie wasn't so sure that The Doctor was really just his name.

He looked up from his chips, finishing the one he was chewing on, before he replied to the young Girl's question.

"I'm The Doctor." He said again, before diving back into his chips, and dipping it in tomato sauce before eating it without a care in the world. "Hmm…you're right; these chips are really good." He added after he finished munching, seeming quite content with the black chips.

Charlie couldn't help but screw her nose up a little bit as he chewed on the next chip without a care in the world, before asking the same question again.

"Urm…thank you….but…what's your real name? You cant surely be just called The Doctor. I mean…that's a silly name!" She huffed with not much belief at all. It seemed like such a silly name to Charlie; I mean, she didn't know anyone else called something along The Doctor or such name.

He looked up from his chips, and a flicker of a smile passed on his face for a split second, before it turned back to looking serious again.

"I'm just The Doctor." He replied, before diving into them damn chips again.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that?" Charlie sighed. "I'm not stupid; I know that Adults lie enough times, and I can tell when they're lying too…you're lying to me." Charlie stated; wrapping her arms across her chest stubbornly.

Of course Charlie didn't truly believe that this Man was lying to her; he had a trusting sort of look about him, and Charlie found this Man curious, but believable. And she wanted to believe' more than anything else, she wanted to believe.

"Now, do you honestly believe that I could be lying to you about that, Charlie Stewart?" He asked her, looking up from his chips and watching the little Girl extremely closely. Charlie knew the answer.

"No." She said back, quicker than she had even thought through her answer because she already knew it was true.

"I don't ever lie…about anything. Which probably makes me the most trustworthy person on this Earth….or the stupidest, one or the other." He pondered, with a carefree shrug of his shoulders.

"Okay, so….what is that box that you came here in called?"

Charlie had lots of questions to ask this strange Man, and now he had told her that he didn't ever lie….she wanted to ask away.

"That is called a TARDIS."

"And what exactly is one of these TARDIS'S?" Charlie asked him intrigued.

He smiled in response, finally pushing the empty plate away from him, before replying to her question.

"It's a Time and Relevant Dimension in Space."

"Soooooooo, it's a-"

"Time Machine." He interrupted her curious confusion; his eyes remaining on hers to catch the reaction from this small, young Girl. Charlie's deep brown eyes widened in shock, her brain trying to figure out he was having her on or not.

After all, Adults lied to Children all the time.

But she knew, she just knew by the way he was looking at her, the way he was telling her this, trusting her with this. He wasn't lying.

"You're not lying."

"I told you Stewart…I don't ever lie about anything." He replied smugly, watching her with the same seriousness as before.

And yet, it was so easy for Charlie to take this in, to believe every word this young Man told her, because something told her to. She'd never met anyone so…honest, so strange and yet so believable too.

"I believe you." She replied with pure honesty, nodding her small head once to confirm this to him.

"So how did you get your….time machine here? Right inside my back garden?" She asked him curiously, whilst his eyes shifted, taking in the whole of the small kitchen slowly, pondering on something or other.

"Nope…I have a question for you. Where's your Mother and Father, what are you…three?" He asked her in sudden alarm, almost as if he had just suddenly noticed how young the little Girl looked.

"My Mother's out, but-"

"Out, where?" He asked her, his eyes coming back to hers as he casually leant on the kitchen table, ignoring her question she was about to ask him.

She frowned thoughtfully, not really liking him interrupting her question about something so insignificant as where her Mother was. It wasn't as though her Mother really cared where Charlie always was, because she was always under her feet, and Charlie wanted to know more and more about this Man.

"She went to the shops…she forgot my birthday today."

"Happy Birthday Charlie Stewart, how old are you today then?" He asked her with one of those lucid grins of his.

"Five," Charlie replied with a shrug. She never really saw Birthdays as important days if she was honest. It was just another normal day for Charlie Stewart, or at least, it may as-well have been anyway.

"Ah, the big…five," The Doctor commented lightly, nodding his head once as his minor joke passed in a second.

"Yeah I guess, anyway-"

"How about I give you something? A little present for you're birthday?" The Doctor asked her curiously; a grin spreading across his face as he considered it himself.

Charlie liked the sound of him giving her a present, something to keep to remember him by, but then again…she also knew that she wouldn't be in her Mother's good books if she accepted something off a stranger.

"That's a very thoughtful idea, but…my Mum would be mad with me if I accepted something from a stranger, anyone else…."

He smiled smugly across at her, a cheeky glint in his glistening, green eyes. "Except…you know I'm not like anyone else, don't you Stewart?"

He was right.

She nodded, grinning back as he held his hand out across the table, willing her to take it if she dared…

She did.

She followed him out of the kitchen with the same eagerness as this Man, heading back to the blue box, as he explained how he had managed to fly his TARDIS right into her back garden, just half an hour ago.

***