Hi! This is another short, silly Halloween story I wrote for a contest. The prompt was: In-a mall, With-a skirt, While-a strange thing happens.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Nibbles at the Mall
by Rowena

"Mommy! Mommy, I can have this, right? Please say yes. Pleeeeze!"

Daya Kestrel glanced down at her daughter and sighed in exasperation. A scarf that would have looked ridiculously long on a giraffe was wrapped around and around and around her little neck, its multi-colored fringes dragging on the Halloween shop's thinly carpeted floor.

"Robyn, honey, no," she said. "That thing is longer than you are. Go put it back."

"But Mooom!" Robyn whined. "That's not fair! You never like anything I like." Her little brother Jay, who was sitting in the front of their shopping cart, made a few babble noises and slapped his hands against the cart's handle in sympathy. Daya pinched her nose.

"Look," she said, "come on over here. Aren't these butterfly wings pretty? Ooh, and this skirt!" She pulled the airy, light purple garment from the hook and ran her hand admiringly over the layers of soft fabric. "It's absolutely lovely, honey! You can be a pixie for Halloween! Now, put that eyesore back where you found it and I'll–"

"No!" Robyn exclaimed, hugging the scarf to her chest. "I don't want to be a pixie! I was a fairy last year and it's practic'ly the same thing! 'Sides, I can't put it back. I didn't get it from here."

Daya lowered the skirt. "Where did you get it, then?" she frowned, her voice growing sharp and wary.

"From the guy with the dog," Robyn smiled, pointing out the door to the mall's crowded main corridor. "He's right over there, Mom, see him? Standing by the pretzel stand." She waved happily, then furrowed her brow, looking suddenly confused. "But where's the do–"

"Eeekk!" Daya shrieked in alarm as she felt a sharp, unexpected tug at the skirt she was holding. Looking down, she very nearly screamed for real, but while she was gasping for the necessary air she breathed in a fleck of spit and ended up coughing instead.

"Nibbles!" Robyn exclaimed happily, crouching down to pet the creature on the head. The little black animal gave another firm tug on the skirt's hem with his teeth and shook his head like a wolf worrying a rabbit. Daya dropped the garment's hangar as if it were coated in slime.

"Hello, Nibbles, hello!" Robyn giggled, tickling the creature's perky ears. Growing bored with the now-'dead' skirt, the little animal eagerly climbed into Robyn's lap and rolled onto its back, exposing its furry belly for a tummy rub. "Howya doin' there, Nibbles! Good boy," Robyn laughed.

Daya could only stare, frozen awkwardly in horrified disbelief. How did her daughter know this creature? With a sickening, guilty pang, she suddenly realized Robyn must have wandered off while she was picking out Jay's costume. But just how long had she been out of her sight? Daya's disorientation grew worse when a bright, accented voice spoke up from just over her shoulder.

"Hello," the British voice said. "I see you've met my dog."

"D-d-d-!" Daya stammered, waving her arms in helpless frustration as she tried to force the words out. "How can you call that…that thing a dog! It has no nose! How on Earth does it smell?"

"Quite nice, really. He just had a bath," the dog's slender owner quipped with a broad, cheeky grin. "Sorry, I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist."

Daya scowled a scowl that only grew deeper when the strange British man knelt down beside Daya's daughter with suspicious familiarity. So, that was where Robyn had gone. She understood it now–Robyn had run off and this man had used his repulsive dog to attract her attention, to get her to come closer to him. Daya huffed, her guilt morphing into outrage mixed with fear. The man reached into the pocket of his long, tan overcoat and her eyes widened–but her defensive instincts faded slightly when he pulled out a tiny rawhide bone. Robyn clapped in delight as he and the dog began playing tug-of-war.

"Nibbles is a very special kind of dog," he explained in a rambling sort of way, apparently oblivious to Daya's anger. "From Barcelona. That's the planet Barcelona, of course, not the city Barcelona."

"Of course," Daya frowned.

"I didn't plan to take him with me, but when I got back to the TARDIS he just refused to leave me. And Donna did say I should find someone to travel with, so I figured, why not! I've missed having a dog since K-9 had to stay with Romana in E-Space, and little Nibbles here is just so cute…!" He rubbed the dog's belly and the dog snuffled a happy, nose-less snuffle. "Who's a happy puppy, then? Who's a good puppy?"

Daya glared down at the man with her hands on her hips. "Did you give that scarf to my daughter?" she demanded

"Hm?" the man blinked up at her, then glanced at Robyn. "Oh, that! Yes, yes I did. Halloween spirit and all that," he grinned. "Why, don't you like it?"

"That's it," she frowned, striding over to Robyn and forcibly uncoiling the lengths of multi-colored knitting from around her neck before dropping the whole mass in the man's astonished lap. "I want you to stay away from my daughter, you hear me? Take your nasty little dog and leave us alone, or I swear I'll call security."

"You what?"

"Mom!" Robyn exclaimed. "No! You can't just–"

"Robyn, this man is not normal," Daya said, her glare fixed on the flabbergasted young Englishman as he lifted his dog in his arms and straightened back to his full height. "Now, come away from him, honey. We're leaving."

"No! I don't want to go! Doctor, Doctor, please tell her I can stay!"

"Doctor?" Daya repeated suspiciously. The man raised his chin.

"That's his name, Mommy," Robyn said. "He's the Doctor, and he came to the mall in his space ship because he had to catch this little alien–"

"I don't want to hear it," Daya snapped, switching the chewed violet skirt for a fresh one from the rack and pushing the cart toward the check-out. "There we are. Now come on, Robyn, let's buy these costumes and get out of here."

"No!" Robyn shrieked, starting to cry as she pulled at the cart, trying to impede her mother's stubborn progress. "No, don't buy that skirt! I don't want to be a pixie! I want the Doctor's scarf! I don't want to wear that skirt! I mean it, I won't wear it!"

Jay was starting to become agitated too, fidgeting in the cart and whimpering. Meanwhile, Robyn's cries were becoming screams. Daya stopped short and brought a hand to her forehead, grinding her teeth as she counted to twelve.

"I'm sorry."

It was that British nut's voice, soft and sad and surprisingly sincere. Daya felt ready to explode.

"Oh, you are, are you?" she snapped. "This is all your fault, you know. What kind of a pervert are you, anyway, hanging around the mall with that deformed dog of yours. You're lucky I don't call the cops! I swear, if I ever see you anywhere near Robyn's school, I'll–"

"I wasn't speaking to you," the Doctor frowned at Daya, and she suddenly swallowed, seeing something in his brown eyes she hadn't noticed before. It was something deep and ancient, and it chilled her to her core.

"What are you?" she gasped. The Doctor ignored her, turning instead to Robyn.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Robyn Kestrel," he said, and the little girl nodded through her tears. "Thank you for helping me capture the bounding Snerg. Rassilon only knows what kind of havoc the little fellow could have caused if you hadn't coaxed it away from the food court in time."

Adjusting the dog in his arms, he pulled a clear plastic canister from his pocket and held it up to the light. A tiny, orange, hedgehog-like thing blinked out from its center. "They expand like hot air balloons when they eat," he said. Robyn giggled and the Doctor winked. Then, without warning, he replaced the canister in his pocket, strode up to the window display and walked right in to the tall, blue, cobweb covered box in the corner. Daya opened her mouth to alert the sales clerk, but Robyn stopped her.

"No, Mom, just watch," she said with a wicked grin. "This'll be good."

Daya stepped back in alarm as the box began emitting a strange, whooshing, whirring sound, the light at its top blinking on and off. As they watched, the blue box faded away, vanishing in a gush of wind as if it had never been. Daya's knees gave out and she crumpled to the floor, her limp hand covering her mouth as she stared at the empty space where the box had stood. "OK," she murmured to herself. "OK, that was strange."

"Yep! Told ya he had a space ship," Robyn smirked, ruffling her mother's hair. Then her eyes widened and she bounded across the store with a yelp of joy.

"His scarf! He left it for me!" she exclaimed, wrapping it around and around and around herself in happy satisfaction. "Come on, Mom," she said, "let's buy these costumes and get out of here. I think Jay needs a nap."

The End

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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