Eyjafjallajökull
Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart finally sat down after a seven hour journey. What would have taken less than an hour by helicopter of plane, took seven hours by road, all because of that bleeding volcano in Iceland that nobody could pronounce. It was ridiculous. The country had seen more alien threat than America for centuries, and then a volcano erupts and the entire travel system comes to an abrupt halt.
The former Brigadier sighed as he leant back into his sofa. Doris had just put the kettle on, so a cuppa was imminent thankfully. That was one thing he liked so much about his wife. She made tea ten times better than Benton or Mike ever did. Women always seemed to make better cups of tea in his mind.
Suddenly, an annoying buzzing came from his left-hand side on the coffee table. His 'UNIT' line was ringing. Or rather, the guard at his front gate was asked by someone for permission to enter the premises. Meaning UNIT staff normally, as all his close friends knew better than to ask for permission. Some would just walk straight past the guard, others climbed over the fence, and one even had a habit of materialising on his Turkish rug out of nowhere in a blue box.
"Who is it this time George?" Alistair groaned into the intercom.
"He has given me the name of Benton sir. Said you would know who he is straight away" George responded.
"Yes", Alistair was quick to respond, a slight smile on his face. He hadn't seen Benton in over six years. There always seemed to be something in their lives stopping them from meeting up; him being sent to Peru, or Benton visiting family. "Let him in George".
"He is already halfway up the drive sir", George responded.
"Very good George", Alistair smiled, "Resume your post".
"Yes sir", George replied.
The old Brig stood up with the aid of his cane, and headed for his downstairs hallway. It was always nice to see old friends. But it was always better if they came for 'business' reasons rather than social calls. Always gave him that little rush that he had gotten so used to in his younger days. Luckily, social calls didn't seem to be in the vocabulary of his friends, especially Miss Smith's, so he was always in for a good buzz.
"Alistair", Doris called from the kitchen, "There is a man walking up the drive. Do you know anything of it?"
"Yes dear", Alistair replied to his wife, "He is an old friend".
"Ah", she responded, and he could tell that she was smiling. She enjoyed these visits just as much as him these days. "I'll put an extra cuppa on then".
The Brigadier was at the front door before his Sergeant even had a chance to knock. Benton saluted his old Brigadier, and he saluted back, before the two men encaged in a solid handshake. As Benton stepped through the door, he removed the hat from upon his head, and as he slithered out from his coat, Alistair noticed that he was holding an A4 envelope. Rather full too. "So, what do you have there John, hmm?" Alistair was quick onto him.
"Ah, that is for when we are sitting down", Benton smiled back at him, "An old friend has been rather busy over the past few days".
"Would this old friend happen to fly around time and space in an old blue police box?" Alistair mischievously smiled as Benton followed him into the lounge.
"Maybe", Benton laughed back.
The two old soldiers sat down opposite each other in the lounge. Benton let out a small groan as he sat, his age starting to catch him up. He was by no means as grey as Alistair, mainly from the fact being he was several years younger. But, it was evident that his 'business' days were long over. As it was the story for most of the old soldiers these days.
Benton smiled as he placed the envelope onto the table, and leant forward to open it. "I received these this morning from Miss Smith", Benton told Alistair, "UNIT doesn't even know about this yet".
"God, they aren't as good as they used to be is Miss Smith is miles ahead of them already", Alistair laughed, "What about Torchwood?"
"I think it was a collaboration effort from both Harkness and Miss Smith sir", Benton responded, "They are being sent to all the Children of Time, as he is now calling us, as we speak sir".
"Oh, he has given us a collective pet name now, has he?" the Brigadier raised an eyebrow.
"Easier to keep tabs on us sir, I think", Benton answered.
"Well, carry on then. I'm dying to know what this is", Alistair ushered him on.
"A Geology survey team in Iceland captured these photos moments before..." Benton wondered even if it was worth wasting his breath on trying to pronounce the name, "the volcano erupted. Thankfully, I think Harkness has a 'friend' up there who intercepted the images before sending them to UNIT. Miss Smith helped with identification, and managed to retrieve the images from before even these photos were taken".
Benton handed the Brigadier the images. He first looked at the ones sent by the Geologist. It was an image of something smouldering on a rocky bed, with debris scattered all around the central area, and next to that was a blue police box. Alistair felt himself smile. The next picture was an enlargement of the first, and revealed a tall thin man entering the box. He had spiky hair upon his head, and was wearing a blue pinstripe suit along with a long brown coat. There was a big arrow with the caption at the end reading: the Doctor.
The next photo was moments later, after the box had 'disappeared'. Alistair could see at the centre of the debris now, lava was starting to come out, along with steam, ash, and various other gases. The photo after that was the volcano fully erupting. "So, the old boy is cause of all my misery over the past seven hours?" Alistair grumbled and looked up to find Benton smiling.
"That's what I felt at first sir", he told the Brig before he could even demand an answer as to why he was smiling, "Look at the ones Miss Smith acquired. I think you'll find that his actions were, well, not justified, but understandable".
Alistair muttered something under his breath at the Doctor's various actions throughout the years. Some of them were necessary, and others weren't. But even the ones that weren't necessary, turned out in the end to be worthwhile.
The old Brig placed the original photos down onto the coffee table separating him and Benton, and picked up the confidential ones. The first frame was of the TARDIS semi materialised on the rocky crater. The next was the Doctor beginning to exit the box, dragging something ten seconds later. Ten seconds after that, the frame now revealed the Doctor to be standing in front of the object he had pulled out, in the location where the centre of the debris from the pictures before was located. Another ten seconds on, the Doctor was stood off to the side, smiling with his thumbs up.
What he had left standing on its own in the middle of the volcano crater, made Alistair smile, along with Benton, remembering the image. It was a papier-mâché Dalek, and a rather good one at that. Alistair thought it almost looked like one of the presenters from Blue Peter had made it. He also had that Blue Peter feeling as the pictures were out of order (here's one I made earlier), but as he looked closer at the Dalek, he realised that he had to see the pictures in the order he had to fully appreciate what the Doctor had done.
Sitting on the Dalek's sucker arm and ray gun, was a painted white piece of cardboard with writing upon it. It read: it was going to explode eventually. Alistair shook his head as he laughed and moved onto the next image.
In this one, the Doctor was standing by the TARDIS once more, holding a detonator plunger. It was evident that it was connected up to the Dalek, as that was the only thing that could be exploded. The look on the Doctor's face was menacing to say the least. The final photo was of the Dalek exploding. Debris was flying all over the place as the main Dalek went up in a ball of flame. The Doctor was standing back up against the TARDIS, arms crossed and smiling at his work.
"Well", the Brigadier started, "I have to admit, he has style".
"Nothing changes there then", Benton added, as both of them filled the house with laughter.
AN: I have recently been studying volcanoes and earthquakes on great detail, and this popped into my head. I'm thankful I didn't get caught up in the mess it caused the airports to get into. Please review. It would make my day!