They arrived at the train tracks just minutes later. May parked her car while the Doctor hobbled down the hill to where the many pieces of the TARDIS lay. He reached the area in no time, and was pleased to see the ship, while in many pieces, was broken into many large pieces, pieces he could probably drill back together fairly easily. The hard part would be fixing the inside. He didn't know if it could fly again, but maybe if he got the box restored enough it would work. He counted at least fourty pieces of broken wood, but they were not terribly broken, and the floor was completely intact. Putting the police box together would be easy; putting the TARDIS back together might be difficult. He began to gather the pieces of wood from the tracks, moving them into a large pile next to the hill. May, whom he had not noticed standing behind him, began to help. She moved much quicker than he did, probably because she had two functional legs. In almost no time they had gathered all the pieces of the TARDIS. The Doctor gazed lovingly at the pile. His TARDIS, broken into many pieces, was still beautiful. It was still his prized possession. Now, he hoped he would be able to restore it to it's former glory. It was not as badly broken as he thought it had been.
But he couldn't rebuild it here. He needed to find a good place to work on it where he wouldn't be seen. Or hit by a train. He looked over at May, who was watching him curiously.
"Is there somewhere I could rebuild this where it wouldn't be noticed?"
"Well you could build it in the barn in my backyard, if you wanted. It hasn't been used in years. I think it's empty."
"Will it be large enough?"
"Of course."
He nodded, considering this option. He supposed that he did not have anywhere better to go. And May was beginning to grow on him, though he wished she would talk more, instead of just staring at him with those piercing green eyes. Yes, he would take this option.
But how exactly was he going to fix the TARDIS? May probably wouldn't provide much help to him there. He supposed he would have to try to mend the broken wood with his sonic screwdriver, then once the outside police box was restored the interior of the TARDIS would hopefully appear again. He would have to work on the inside for quite a while, unless the TARDIS somehow managed to repair the interior itself. But he doubted that was possible. It was going to be difficult to restore his beautiful machine, but if the control room was not too damaged, he would be able to get it flying at least. As long as the control room was there, he could make it work.
"Doctor?"
"Yes, yes. Sorry, I'm thinking. Give me a minute. Shut up. Sorry, I didn't mean that. Give me a minute."
"Doctor, it's raining."
He snapped back to attention. The rain was heavy and freezing now. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees in the past hour. How had he not noticed? May stood looking at him, shivering slightly. He felt a pang of guilt. She was standing out in the cold to help him. And he could do nothing for her in return. Silly, selfless humans.
"Doctor." She said sharply, knocking him out of his thoughts again. "We need to get the TARDIS out of the rain or the wood will take damage."
"Yes, yes, you're right. The wood will expand if it's wet. It needs to be moved." "Then what are we waiting for?" She motioned to the top of the hill, where her truck was placed with the bed open and waiting. How had he not noticed it before?
Slowly, they hauled the bits of the TARDIS back to the truck, the Doctor tried to take as much as he could at a time but was still no match for May's pace. This amused him; he was not used to humans being superior to him in agility. This was a humbling experience.
They finished in about an hour of work, and the rain had morphed into a downpour. The Doctor sat in the passenger seat of May's truck, watching as she closed the bed and pulled a tarp over the broken pieces of the TARDIS. He wondered how her single heart was managing to keep her body temperature up; his dual hearts had no problem, but he imagined that if he felt chilled, she was probably freezing. He was right. As she climbed behind the wheel of her truck, he could see her struggle to control the tremors rocking her body, but she could not stop herself from shivering. She was completely soaked, her golden hair was pressed against her face and dripping, and he suddenly came to the realization that she was not wearing shoes. He smiled. Silly, unpredictable humans.
The ride home was peaceful, the Doctor quickly found that he was completely at ease with May. Making small talk was not hard, she was very curious about his origins and eagerly listened and asked questions as he told parts of how he came to crash in Bibury, England. He liked that. Curiosity was good. Of course, he was biased.
When they arrived back at May's house, they wasted no time moving the TARDIS out to the old abandoned barn. The Doctor stared at the pile of wood, his magnificent time machine, and slowly began to work.