Apologies for gratuitous use of Doctor Who dialogue. Doctor Who does not belong to me.
Chapter 3
The Doctor sat in his lab, staring intently at the instrument in front of him. He occasionally tweaked a certain part, pressed a button, making mental notes to himself. He hummed contentedly.
There was a knock at the door.
"Not today, thank you," the Doctor quipped, his whole attention on the experiment.
The door slowly opened, and a young lady entered. She had short blonde hair and despite her current position she possessed a certain self-confidence. She stepped forward cautiously, unsure of her presence. She gripped the papers she carried.
"Doctor, I—"
"I said not today, thank you."
The girl blinked, nonplussed and opened her mouth as if to speak. At that very moment, however, the instrument the Doctor was working on seemed to explode. Sparks flew and smoke filled the room.
"Oh, no!" he cried.
Swiftly, the girl grabbed the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall and hurried across to the Doctor. She then sprayed the instrument until any possible semblance of fire was gone. The smoke cleared, revealing the Doctor who wore a distinctly peeved expression.
"Oh, no."
"It's alright! I dealt with it," the girl said brightly. The Doctor's expression remained unchanged.
"Dealt with it? You've ruined it!" he admonished.
"But it was on fire!" she exclaimed, confused.
"Three days delicate work on it and now look at it, you ham-fisted bun vendor!"
"But this whole place might have gone up in flames!"
"My dear young lady, steady-state microwelding always creates more smoke than fire," the Doctor said, his voice rising.
"Steady-state microwelding?"
"Yes." He returned to tinkering with the instrument, choosing to ignore the bemused girl.
An awkward silence emerged as both parties kept quiet.
The Doctor had had enough. He gave his full attention to the girl. "Look, I said I don't want any tea today, thank you."
"I'm not the tea lady!"
"Then what the blazes are you doing in here?"
"I—"
"Don't you know this area is strictly out of bounds to everybody except the tea lady and the Brigadier's personal staff?"
"I'm you're new assistant!" she finally said, smiling mischeviously.
"Oh, no." The Doctor's face was now distinctly depressed.
"The Brigadier sent me along to introduce myself, Dr. Smith. Josephine Grant," she said, extending a hand.
The Doctor took her hand and shook it. "How do you do, Ms. Grant. But I…I really don't think you're suitable."
"I'm a fully qualified agent, you know. Cryptology, safe-breaking, explosives—"
"Fire fighting?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Yes, well I'm sorry my dear, but what I really need is a scientist."
"I took general science at A-levels!" she proclaimed, indignantly.
"Yes, I'm sure you did." He leaned back and rubbed his lip. "So you're to be my keeper, are you?"
"Keeper?"
"Yes. You're the one who's supposed to stop me gallivanting across the countryside, biting people's necks."
"The Brigadier didn't put it exactly in those terms."
"No, I'm sure he didn't. You do know what you're going to be doing here?"
"I'm going to help you with your experiments and investigations!"
"Well you've been a great help already, haven't you."
She pursed her lips. "I'm also supposed to make sure you get the right amount of blood."
It was the Doctor's turn to look nonplussed. "Well, I'm sure you mean well, but as I told the Brigadier, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
"Oh, really. When was the last time you had any?"
The Doctor's mouth opened and closed a few times.
"That's what I thought. Now you look here, Doctor. You never gave me the chance to tell you why I'm here in the first place."
"And why's that?"
"The Brigadier wanted me to tell you about this house in Essex. There have been sightings of some sort of…ghost."
"A ghost?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You know there are dozens of ghost sightings across the country nearly every day. Why should this one be any different?"
"Because there have been at least a dozen witnesses. One of which was a duke."
"I see. So this is to be my first 'case' is it?"
"I suppose so."
"A vampire investigating a ghost, hmm? How appropriate."
We meet Jo! And the plot finally begins!