AN: That last chapter was really long, huh? It's just how I picture if the Doctor met the Baudelaires. You may have pictured something differently. In the Doctor's timeline this is between A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three, and the two friends he is referring to are obviously the Ponds. The story will encompass a bit of The Power of Three events, as well as The Angels Take Manhattan, and will end after the Snowmen. Also, Sunny is going to cook in this even though I know she doesn't discover her cooking talents until the ninth book. I just want her to have something more to do in the Ponds house. The inspiration for this chapter is: You see...it's not the big things we remember in the end. It's the little things that matter the most.
Chapter 2- The Pleasant Ponds
The Baudelaires clung to the console and each other as the impossible box rocketed through time and space until at last it landed with a shudder and a wheezing of it's engines.
"Is it supposed to do that?" Violet asked, tying her hair up in a ribbon, presumably to think of a way to fix the ship.
"I like it when it does that," the Doctor protested defensively. "My friend, well, wife I suppose, River, she once flew it with no sounds at all, but that's no fun."
Klaus arched an eyebrow at the man, but said nothing.
"Diwev mo?" Sunny asked.
"Yes, Sunny, we moved a couple thousand miles to my friend's house in Leadworth!" the Doctor explained.
"How can we have moved?" Klaus asked. "Boxes don't have wheels!"
"The TARDIS can move fly. Don't believe me, look outside. Now, come along Baudelaires!" he called to them once more, scooping Sunny up once more and Violet and Klaus sighed, following after them.
"At least he seems to like us," Violet shrugged.
"What if he's only pretending like Esme?" Klaus whispered to her.
"I can hear you, you know!" the Doctor proclaimed. "I have very excellent hearing. And I would like it if you discussed things aloud, for one. For two, never compare me to that vile woman. For three, I think you are rather excellent and intelligent children. Don't worry!"
With that, the man hurried over to a blue plain looking house.
The children had almost expected a rather weird house, seeming as the Doctor himself was eccentric, but they supposed he must just have normal friends.
The Doctor rapped on the door a few times when they were all standing around him on the doorstep, and a redheaded woman opened the door.
"Well, this is a surprise," she said with a Scottish accent. "When ya said ya would visit us before, I assumed ya'd be alone." She quickly shook her head and smiled at the three children surrounding the Doctor.
"Hello! I'm-"
"Amelia Jessica Pond!" he introduced to the children before the woman could get a word out.
"Just Amy, if ya don't mind," she told the children.
The Baudelaires instantly liked the fiery haired woman. Violet grinned and said, "My name is Violet, my brother is Klaus, and the baby the Doctor is holding is Sunny. We're the Baudelaires, the Doctor's godchildren."
Amy's eyebrows rose in surprise when she mentioned godchildren, and she looked at the man as if asking him a silent question. "It's nice to meet ya," she said to the children. "D'ya mind if I hold Sunny?"
Violet shook her head. "No, go ahead."
Amy held her arms out to Sunny in the Doctor's hands, and he let her go over to Amy. The Doctor threw his arms around Amy and Sunny, surprising Sunny, but not Amy. The redhead looked nonchalant, a phrase which here means she must have been used to the man hugging her all the time.
"Nice to see ya too, Doctor," she beamed at him, and he answered her with a wide grin of her own.
"How's Rory?" he asked her, stepping into the hallway.
Amy shifted Sunny to her hip, and motioned for the children to follow her inside as she shut the door. "He's fine, he's at work right now, but he should be home tonight in time for dinner."
"Oh, good! It'll be like a-what'dya call 'em?" he asked, looking to Amy for clarification.
"A family dinner?" she suggested.
"Yes, that!" the Doctor pointed at her in agreement.
"Would ya three like some cookies and lemonade?" she asked. "I made them just yesterday."
Violet and Klaus looked at each other and smiled. "That would be lovely, thank you," Klaus said.
"But could you get Sunny a carrot?" Violet asked Amy. "She likes to bite hard things."
"Of course," Amy smiled warmly. She turned to the Doctor. "What about you now? Would ya like some cookies and lemonade?"
"Actually, do you have some Jammie Dodgers and tea?" he asked, examining a picture frame to the left of them.
"Ya know I do," she told him. "I only keep them for when ya come here." She winked at the children and they followed her into the kitchen.
"So, how long have you known the Doctor?" Violet asked Amy.
The redheaded woman set Sunny down on the counter and pulled some glasses and plates out of the cabinets. "Uh, I dunno. In reality, seventeen, but technically three?" She pulled the fridge door open to grab the carrot and lemonade. She poured the lemonade. She grabbed some cookies from the jar on the counter and took them over to the children. She picked Sunny up and went to sit with her in her lap.
"Technically three?" Klaus questioned.
Amy bit into a cookie. "I was a child when I met him, and I was supposedta go with him and travel, but the TARDIS overshot it and he
returned twelve year afterwards. He got rid of the alien prisoner in my house, and promised to come back soon, but didn't come back until two years after that. Then my husband and I travelled with him for three years until he dropped us off about six months ago."
"I'm sorry...I don't understand," Violet shook her head. "Alien prisoners? Returning years after promising to come back soon?"
Amy smiled sympathetically. "First trip in the TARDIS, eh?"
"Yes," Klaus told her.
"You'll see a lot of weird things travelling with the Doctor," she told them, "ya know, considering it travels in space and time."
The Baudelaires spit out their lemonade. "What?"
The red head put her hand over her mouth. "I guess he didn't tell ya that yet. Oops."
"You mean, I could go back to see Herman Melville?" Klaus asked.
"And I could go see Thomas Edison?" Violet asked.
"Yes and yes," Amy acknowledged. "Now, I'm really sorry I don't have much to entertain ya while I'm writing, but there's a Wii if ya want, in the living room."
"A what?" Klaus asked, confused.
The Doctor popped his head into the kitchen at that moment. "You have a Wii! I want to play!"
Amy sighed. "Go ahead, Doctor. Don't you want your Jammie Dodgers?"
"Nah, I'll eat them later. A Wii! This is exciting!" and he dashed out again.
"A Wii is a video game console," she explained to the Baudelaires.
"Oh. Well, that's very nice, ma'am, but we much prefer other things," Violet said. "I like to invent things, Klaus likes to read, and Sunny just recently discovered her love of cooking."
The red haired woman thought for a moment. "I have just the thing for all of you. Follow me."
The Baudelaires followed her into the hallway past the Doctor yelling at the TV. "That's rubbish!" Amy rolled her eyes and stopped at a doorway not far off. She opened it to reveal a small office of sorts with a few bookcases from floor to ceiling against the far wall and some comfortable chairs.
"It's not the best library," she admitted to Klaus. "But there's quite a few books in there."
"Thank you," he said to Amy earnestly. He immediately walked over to the shelf and started scanning the titles. Amy smiled and quietly closed the door.
They continued their walk down the hallway until they reached a door to the right. She opened it to reveal a medium sized garage.
"You can open the garage door if ya want," she told Violet. "This is usually where Rory's dad works when he comes to visit, and all of his tools and supplies are in here. I know he won't mind as long as everything's back where it was."
"It's lovely," Violet assured, walking in with awe on her face.
Amy took Sunny with her back to the kitchen. "As for you, little one, I'm sure we can find plenty of hard things to bite until I finish writing, and then ya can help me with dinner."
"Thwa belo!" Sunny shrieked.
"That sounded positive, so I'm assuming it was a yes," she smiled at the baby.
…
"Hello?" a male voice called when he got out of his car. "What are you doing here?" he asked Violet.
Now, Violet Baudelaire had gotten asked this question many times from many different people, and she usually knew how to answer straightforwardly, but this time she was stumped.
"We came with the Doctor?" she offered, hoping this would offer some type of explanation.
"We?" he questioned, moving further into the light, keys in his hand and scrubs on.
"My siblings and I," she informed him.
"And you are...human, right? I don't mean to insult you, it's just you never know with him," The man stumbled on the last part of the sentence.
"Yes, human," she agreed.
"Okay. I'm Rory," the man replied, holding out his hand to shake hers. He had light brown hair and blue eyes, and his face looked kind just like Amy's had. "I'm assuming you met my wife Amy?" he asked.
"Oh, yes. I'm Violet Baudelaire, by the way. She was the one that brought me out here, because I like to invent, sir," she explained.
He grimaced at Violet Baudelaire calling him sir. "Call me Rory, please." He smiled and held out his arm for her. "Let's go inside to see the others, yeah?"
Violet agreed and placed the tools back in their appropriate spots. "I noticed you have a jar of popcorn kernels, but no popcorn maker, so I made a makeshift one for you." She picked up the small device she had been working on and Rory looked at it closely in his hands.
"Fascinating," Rory approved. "How'd you do that?"
"Well, I started with a soda can and a piece of rubber that I poked some holes in. I cut a trapezoid shape into the can, leaving the top of the shape still attached to it. Then I popped the shape out, creating a spout like opening. All you have to do is add a teaspoon of canola oil and 3 tsps of popcorn kernels, flip the tab around, and place it on the stove. Turn it on, and you have popcorn," Violet explained.
"Wow! Very cool," Rory told her, and Violet beamed.
"Thanks." The two of them walked into the house chatting about the popcorn machine until they reached the library.
"My brother's in here," she told Rory, and opened the door.
Klaus Baudelaire was reading quietly on the chair when Violet knocked on the doorframe.
"This is Rory, Amy's husband," she introduced when he looked up. Klaus closed the book and placed it on the small table beside him. He walked over to the two of them and stuck out his hand to shake Rory's.
"I'm Klaus Baudelaire," he said. "We're the Doctor's godchildren."
Rory looked at the pair of them. "Godchildren?"
"If it helps, we only learnt about it today as well," Klaus told him.
The man nodded. "Okay then. Let's go into the kitchen, shall we? I think I smell something good!" He smiled warmly at the eldest two Baudelaires and they jumped for joy in their heads, a phrase which here means, got excited at the possibility of a tasty dinner with lovely people. Good company is hard to come by, but when you do, it is always best to enjoy it.
So, the Rory into the Ponds kitchen. "Take that tennis lady!" the Doctor called from the living room as they passed, to which Rory just rolled his eyes.
"I'm home, Mrs. Williams," Rory said sweetly to Amy, going around to kiss her on the cheek. He noticed Sunny in her arms. "And who's this?" he asked, smiling at the baby.
"This is Sunny, our sister, sir," Klaus said.
"It's Rory, please, Klaus."
"Just ya wait for dinner, tonight Mr. Pond," she said. "Sunny here helped me cook your favorite: roast beef with onion gravy."
"Did she now?" he asked, scooping her away from Amy and raspberrying the baby, making her laugh hysterically. "I think you're my favorite Baudelaire now."
Violet and Klaus smiled.
"Why don't ya two go wash up and grab the Doctor, eh? Dinner's almost ready," Amy informed them, and the Baudelaires walked off to do just that.
…
The Baudelaires were stuffed, a phrase which here means extremely full and happy after a dinner of roast beef with coconut cream cake for dessert. They yawned and found they were actually quite ready for bed already after the events of today.
"I have an idea!" Amy announced to the children. "D'ya want me to tell ya a story?"
The three children nodded, and Amy gathered them together and marched them up the stairs to the guest bedroom. "Unfortunately, we only have one guest bedroom, so ya have to sleep together, but it's just for tonight." She shrugged in apology.
"It's alright," Violet assured her. "We've had worse."
Amy smiled sadly at the children and opened a door to the left of them. "This is it," she announced.
The children smiled at the cozy room, with the bed already turned down, and the pillows fluffed and ready to be laid upon. "It's very nice," Klaus said.
"Oh, thank ya for thinking so," Amy said, pulling the blanket back for the children to scramble into bed. They quickly complied and she tucked them in very snugly. "D'ya have any specific suggestions?" she asked.
The children thought very hard. Finally Violet spoke up. "Could you tell us about your first adventure?"
Amy's eyes took on a glassy look. "Ah, yes. That's a good one. Alright. The Doctor had just taken me from my bedroom and I was twenty-one. We went a few centuries into the future and landed on the Starship UK. We immediately saw a crying girl, and we walked after her. We were angry because none of the adults seemed to be helping her at all. The Doctor mumbled something about non-normal engines and instructed me to follow after Mandy. I finally track her down and I ask her about the ship and she said, 'I lost my friend to the beast below because he wouldn't follow the rules. He made the smilers angry.' I asked her about them, but she refused to tell me. We reached a tent, and so I decided to investigate, figuring it was just the thing the Doctor would do, and she tried to get me to stay out, but I assured her I'd be fine. Well, there was some kind of tentacle thing inside, and I backed away back into the ship, only to be taken by Winders to the voting booths. An automated video played explaining about Starship UK and the truth about the entire thing. When it ended, I could choose between forgetting and protesting. I pressed the forget button, but I recorded a message to myself to get the Doctor off the ship. The Doctor and Mandy arrived and Mandy explained that the voting takes place every five years and everyone chooses to "forget". The Doctor, however, pressed the "protest" button, sending us plummeting below the ship. Finding ourselves in the mouth of a giant creature, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to make the creature throw us up and Liz 10's helped us evade the Smilers waiting for us when we escaped. Liz 10 revealed herself to be Queen Elizabeth the Tenth and the Doctor begins to question her age, which she believes is around 50, although her body clock was slowed to retain its youthful appearance. The Winders arrive and take Liz 10, the Doctor, Mandy, and I to the Tower of London, where it is revealed that all of Starship UK rides on a giant Star Whale that provides the ship's motion. The Star Whale, believed to be the last of its kind, arrived at Earth at the time of the solar flares; it was captured and the ship was constructed around it. However, in order to direct the whale, the pain center of its brain has been exposed to receive frequent jolts of electricity. The Winders show Liz 10 that she ordered this, centuries ago, but every ten years she finds her way to the Tower and chooses to have her memory wiped to prevent herself from remembering. She implemented the voting programme to do the same to the population, out of fear that remembering the truth would lead to the populace demanding the whale be freed, destroying the ship and killing everyone aboard. The Doctor was furious, realising to his despair that he has to choose between saving the humans or the Star Whale, and angrily yells at me for choosing to forget about the whale so he wouldn't have to face the choice, telling me he is taking me home after we are finished there. Liz 10 says there has to be another way, but The Doctor slammed his fist on the control pad and angrily told us not to talk to him, because nobody human has anything to say to him. He then decided to alter the controlling device programming to render the Star Whale brain-dead, allowing it to continue through space but no longer feeling the pain. As the Doctor worked, I saw Mandy found her friend alive, because the whale refused to eat children. I considered all I had seen and heard, took control, and used Liz 10's hand to strike the "abdicate" button that disabled the controlling device. To everyone's surprise, this served to make the whale move faster and does not kill the ship's inhabitants. I explained to the Doctor that I saw the similarities between him and the Star Whale, which came willingly to Earth to save the children at the time of crisis, and we reconciled."
"That was a good story," Violet said.
"Sefav bered hood," Sunny mumbled sleepily.
Klaus explained that the infant meant it was her second favorite besides Red Riding Hood.
"I'm glad," Amy smiled. I'll go fetch the Doctor and Rory to say goodnight." She kissed the tops of the children's heads and walked out of the room.
…
"So, you have godchildren?" Amy heard Rory say to the Doctor.
"It's a long story," the Doctor said. "They're my responsibility now, because I knew their parents."
Amy cleared her throat as she entered the room. "The Baudelaires are going to sleep."
Rory and the Doctor sighed collectively and followed Amy up the stairs. "That's my boys," she said affectionately.
Rory went in first saying goodnight, and promising they would do something together in the morning.
The Doctor went in last, shooing the Ponds off to bed. "You deserve some sleep," he told them.
He looked at the Baudelaires and air kissed their cheeks one by one, astounding the children, before he ruffled their hair.
"I'm rather out of practice at being a father," he whispered to them sheepishly, and they giggled in spite of themselves.
"Please, Doctor, how did you know our parents?" Klaus asked.
"Ah, that's a rather long story, my dears. That's a story for another day, but I promise I'll tell you."
The satisfied and sleepy Baudelaires snuggled down into the covers and the Doctor smiled at them. He waved and turned off the light, shutting the door until a sliver of light shone through the door, and the Baudelaires had the best night of sleep they had in a while.