Disclaimer: We do not own Doctor Who. I'm pretty sure a guy named Stephen Moffat is in control of that... oh well, we could pretend?
Chapter Four: Of Trashcans and Spaceships
There was a long pause, before the Doctor broke the silence.
"Aha. I see." The Doctor looked perplexed. "So. What is your name?"
"Nicole James."
The Doctor took this in and looked at her again from top to toe. Then he shrugged.
"You never really looked like Kelly anyways," he said, smiling slightly.
Now it was Nicole's turn to look surprised.
"You believe me, just like tha'? I mean, I lied to you about my name. Why should you trust me now?"
The Doctor cracked a goofy grin.
"Why shouldn't I believe you?" Pause. "So, you're the receptionist?"
"Yes."
"Are you lying now?"
"No!"
"Okay. So where did you find him?"
Nicole looked at the Doctor, amazed by his smoothness. He trusted her. And she found that, shockingly enough, she trusted him as well.
But she was probably going bonkers anyway. Maybe this was all a dream. A very strange one, because Nicole could swear she wasn't asleep.
"Over by the park, it's not far from here."
He nodded. She started to walk along the road. The evening was starting to get cool, but Nicole still had the warmth from the trip down the stairs.
"Ain't this a bit weird? No, wait, let me rephrase that. Aren't you a tad weird?"
The Doctor merely chuckled as a reply.
"Oh, so you're cryptic as well. And what's with the lightin' toothbrush?"
The Doctor looked surprised. So it does look like a toothbrush.
"It's sonic. It's a sonic screwdriver."
Nicole gaped at him. He couldn't be serious. A sonic screwdriver. What on earth had gadgets come to these days? A small giggle escaped her lips. The Doctor looked at her.
"Who'd invent that?"
The Doctor paused. "Me?"
Nicole giggled again. "Well, you do seem like the type of person who would do that."
"Really? What makes you think that?"
"Hmm.. The bowtie?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes but kept walking, Nicole following. They walked silently to the park, Nicole stealing glances at him all the time, still trying to wrap her head around what's happening.
"So, where did you find the man?" The Doctor asked.
"Eh, somewhere around there," she said, pointing to a small area with trees. They continued walking to the area.
"This is it," Nicole said, as they approached the spot, where she'd found the man.
The Doctor looked around. There wasn't much around there; a bench, grass, some bushes, and other stuff that seemed normal in a park.
The Doctor took out his sonic (toothbrush)screwdriver and flicked it so it opened up. He looked into the bushed, searching for something, analyzing with his screwdriver. Nicole looked as the green light lit up the bushed.
"So what are looking for Doc?"
"Don't call me that," the Doctor mumbled, silent enough for her not to hear it. He walked into the bushes disappearing from Nicole's sight.
"Doctor?" She could hear a slight rattling between the bushes. She looked around. The park was completely empty except for them. Suddenly she heard a loud beeping.
"Found it!" the Doctor exclaimed, jumping up from the bushes.
"What did you find?" Nicole asked, getting curious about this strange adventure.
"A spaceship."
Nicole followed him into the bushes, wondering what she would see in there. She was prepared for elaborate UFO's, shrunk to the size of a hand, but when she finally found her way to where the Doctor was, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"So... where is this spaceship?" she asked the Doctor. He, in turn, did not look at her. He was busy examining a trashcan with his gadget.
"It's right here." he told her without looking up. If he had done that, he would have seen Nicole's face all scrunched up in wonder and surprise and a little disappointed.
"Are you serious?"
"No. Actually it's a space capsule."
"Oh... of course. Yeah, that makes sense. Except that that is a bloody trashcan!"
"Long story short: It's a trashcan AND a space capsule."
"So... some persons sent a trashcan into space, and thereby made it a space capsule."
He rose from beside the trashcan, sorry, the thing from space (whatever it was), where he had been sitting down. "We need to get this back to the hospital."
"This... is... so... stupid..." Nicole huffed, as they carried the trashcan back to the medical centre. "Why are we bringing this back?" she asked, getting more annoyed with every second.
"You'll understand in a minute," he said.
They went down a short-cut, finding the easiest way to the medical centre.
"Isn't this a bit suspicious," Nicole suddenly asked. "Walking down the street with a trashcan?"
"No," The Doctor answered.
"What? How is th-... oh, never mind." She dropped the subject. She had already learned that it was probably best not to argue with The Doctor, strange as he may be.
"Right..." Nicole said, dropping the trashcan in front of the medical centre. "So, here we are. Care to enlighten me, Doc?"
He ignored her, as he began looking at the trashcan in an odd manner. Or, rather, looking in the trashcan. Actually, it looked like he was disappearing into the trashcan. Frankly, it was a quite disturbing sight.
"What are you doing now?" she asked, curious all of the sudden.
"I'm looking for the button. It should be in here."
"What button?"
"THE button." The Doctor emerged from the trashcan, looking all excited and smiling. "Aha! This button," he smiled, pressing what Nicole assumed was it.
Nicole stood amazed, as the former trashcan transformed in front of her eyes. It was as if someone had glided hula hoops over it, creating a field that bit by bit changed the exterior – and probably the interior as well – of the trashcan. Where there before had been a small sign that read "Only paper", was now a little window. There was no top, which made Nicole wonder how you closed it.
"So," she began. "You weren't kidding when you said space capsule."
'The elevator said ding, and the Doctor and Nicole stepped out.
"So, I'm almost getting the space capsule thing," Nicole started, as they walked through the first door. "But how is it connected? I mean, it could all be just a big coincidence."
"Nothing is a coincidence," was the Doctors answer. So Nicole stopped talking, and began thinking. They walked through another door, and another one, until they eventually reached the patients room.
The Doctor was the first to speak:
"But what is he? Why is he here? What is his purpose?"
He bend down beside the beds side. He whipped out his screwdriver, flipped a switch and it started lighting green, and he traced it up and down the patient once more. While this happened, Nicole looked over the paitents clipboard, like she wanted to memorize it, wanting to stop feeling so useless.
She was deep in thought as a noise pulled her from her trance-like state, but she didn't look up. She didn't think it was important. Anyway, it was too faint to make out what it was.
The Doctor looked up at Nicole.
"Right," he muttered. "He's in a coma."
Nicole looked up from her clipboard, looking at the Doctor. Hadn't he figured that one out yet?
"Yes, we haven't been able to wake him."
The Doctor flicked his eyes towards the man in the bed. "So why did he just grab my arm?"
Nicole now looked at the man. His arm was stretched out towards the Doctors. His lips were moving, very faintly, but they were moving. It was as if he was whispering something, but she couldn't make out the words. She looked closely, and tried to copy his lips movements. Then she realized what the man was saying.
"Doctor..." the man muttered. "... Doctor..."
"He's not supposed to do that, he's in a coma!" Nicole exclaimed.
"Well, I kind of figured that out of my own." The Doctor answered, making no move to get away. He crouched down to look at the man's hand.
"Don't just sit there; get away! You don't know what he'll do!"
The Doctor ignored her and reached his free hand towards his capturer's hand, examining it closely. It looked like any other human hand, five fingers, hair and nails. But the Doctor knew better. He fished around after his screwdriver, tracing it over the hand, a small beeping occurring. After that little inspection, he began prying the fingers from grasping at his own arm.
He looked up at Nicole.
"Right. So, have we got any information about this man?"
"Right," Nicole said, looking at his clipboard again. She sighed. "The thing is we don't really know much about him."
She looked down at the piece of paper again.
"All it says is that he was brought in with no ID or anything, we don't know family relations." She looked at the Doctor. "Basically, all we know is that he got worse when they gave him a turn inside the MRI."
"The MRI?"
"Yeah, you know: That magnetic scan thing."
"Yes, I know what a MRI is."
"Good, if not, what kind of doctor would you be." She smirked at him.
The Doctor took his screwdriver and pushed a button. It flashed green and made a strange noise, as he traced it over the coma patient's body.
"I knew it."
"What?"
"He's got a chip inside his arm," The Doctor explained, reading something off his screwdriver.
"What?" Nicole questioned. "Like the ones owners have put into their dog?"
"No, no, not like that. It's like a categorizing number. I think that he actually was born with it."
"So, he's a robot?"
"Well, no, he's flesh and blood. This chip allows him to disguise himself. Chamealeon circuit."
"A what?"
"His body is programmed to change to its surroundings. It scans the environment and determines which disguise would be most suitable."
"So, basically, he can change appearance after the environment. Just like a chameleon."
"Yes."
"Well, why didn't you just say that? Much easier." Nicole said, and the Doctor looked at the patient. She walked a little closer, so close that she now stood at the end of his bed.
"So... he doesn't actually look like that?" she asked. The Doctor nodded, whilst looking his sonic screwdriver for the readings.
"What do we do now?" she asked, looking at the man in the hospital bed.
The man that wasn't actually a man.
The Doctor followed her gaze, contemplating the options. Finally deciding, he spoke out loud:
"I'm going to wake him up."
A/N Yay, cliff-hangers!
And you know, it's still possible to write your opinion about the story! What do you think will happen?