The Doctor was alone.
He was alone in space, drifting in his blue box without companion. He seemed to have solved every problem in the universe and no one called him for help. No one needed him. It was just him and the TARDIS.
He was so alone.
Absentmindedly he looked through Amy and Rory's files on his computer. Of course, he knew them already. If asked to do so he could probably recite the whole thing. It comforted him to see that, at this moment, they were all right. They might even be drinking tea with River for all he knew. Without him. But that was okay, he kept telling himself. If that was what it took to keep them safe, he would do it. He would do anything.
He looked up when he heard a faint ringing from the other end of the console. He ran to the phone, as if it might stop if he wasn't there soon enough. There. Someone wanted his help. He picked up.
"This is The Doctor speaking, from-" He glanced at one of the screens. "Er- far away."
"Doctor, you are needed."
He smiled. Finally. Adventure. He pressed a few buttons.
"Wait a second, I'm just tracking your signal."
The person on the other side of the phone hung up.
"Okay then." He rammed his hand on the keyboard. The TARDIS produced a protesting 'beep'. "Yes, we'll get you somewhere, okay?" He murmured. Without pressing any more buttons, a series of numbers appeared on the screen. The Doctor smiled. "Oh, you piece of beauty."
They moved through time and space.
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, locked the doors behind him and rubbed his hands together. "Let's see who needed help." He pressed a few buttons on his sonic screwdriver and looked at the screen. "The inhabitants of 221B Bakerstreet." He hesitated for a second. Thé 221B? That couldn't be. He was sure that place had been turned into a museum at this point of the time stream. So something had been changed. Interesting.
He didn't have to walk very far to see that his assumption had been right. A man stood in front of the building, ringing the doorbell furiously. "Damn it Sherlock, you can't keep locking me out like this." The Doctor walked up to him. "Hello." The man gasped and turned around. The Doctor smiled. "I'm sorry, did I startle you?" He didn't wait for an answer and held out his hand. "I'm the Doctor. And you must be John Watson." John frowned. "The Doctor?" He sighed. "I see. You must be another one of those fans. Please leave, I have more pressing matters to see to now." He rang the doorbell another time for good measure. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the door. It clicked open. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. I am a great fan of mister Holmes' work tough." John put his hand on the doorknob and stood in front of the door. He hesitated for a while. "You don't know my blog then?" The Doctor gave him a big encouraging smile. "You blog? How cool!" John retreated into the building. "Yes- well, thank you from Sherlock then, because he's not going to say- What are you doing?" "I'm coming with you." "Er- no you're not." The Doctor closed the door behind them. "You might be right, look," He walked up the first few steps of the stairs. "You see, I'm walking in front of you. You're just standing there." John walked towards him. "You can't do this. You're obviously a madman." The Doctor smiled. "Yes, well, I like to think of myself as a madman in a box." "A b- Oh I've seen some weird things, but I'm calling the police right now." The Doctor ignored him, walked up the stairs and went into the room. "Oh hello." He saw a man sitting in a chair. In his hands lay a violin. That would be mister Holmes then. "I said,get me a pencil." He didn't even look up. John entered the room. He sighed. "And when did you last say that?" Sherlock shrugged. "About an hour ago." "I was getting groceries at that time." "Well that's hardly my fault, is it?"
The Doctor observed the conversation awkwardly. "Er- Sherlock?"
Sherlock turned in his chair. "Oh John, you've brought me another case, I love it when you do that." "I didn't- oh." Sherlock walked up to The Doctor and observed him closely. "Curious." The Doctor hopped up and down on his toes. "What's curious? Always love a strange thing." "You look like you're about thirty- no, wait, twenty-nine, but your eyes signify that you are a very old and wise man. Yet when I watch you, you behave like a six year old." "No offence meant," John apologised. "And yes he's always like this." The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I've heard about how brilliant you are at deducing things. Quite right too." Sherlock's eyes quickly scanned him up and down again. "Very strange. And I'm not talking about that bowtie, because that's just ridiculous. Like you're trying really hard to be human but picking the wrong time period." The Doctor stoked his bowtie protectively. "But bowties are cool." "Mm." Suddenly Sherlock's face lit up. "Oh! Yes, I see. You're not human at all, are you?" John looked from one man to the other. "Of course he is. There's no such thing as aliens. How could you know that, anyway?" "Oh don't be daft, John." John sighed. "Here we go again…" Sherlock gestured at The Doctor. "For once, observe. You see before you a man who is twenty-nine, very old and six years old at the same time." The Doctor opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off. "Shut up, I'm deducing you. He's suddenly here, if he lived here in the past weeks I'd have known and he obviously didn't just move here. I mean, look at his sleeves, they're still very neat. They wouldn't be this neat if he'd just move here." The Doctor smiled. "Yes, that's quite enough, thank you." He put his hand on Sherlock's shoulder. "Now, as for why I'm here…"