A/N: To anyone reading this, thank you so much! I'm surprised that this has gotten the attention it has, even if it isn't much. Thank you all. Sorry this chapter is a bit short, and is mostly dialogue.
I'm afraid I'm not sure I've said this before, but I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! Not the characters, or their previous escapades, nuthin'! All rights go to BBC *sigh*
Chapter 3
When the Doctor got back, he set the tray down on an edge of the console that somehow had no buttons or switches or knobs, and sat back.
"Well, what all do you want to know?" Sherlock picked up his cup and stared at the Doctor, looking over him yet again.
"What are you?" he asked. John nearly spit out his tea at the bluntness of his flatmate, partly shocked at the -horrifically rude- question, and partly surprised at what it suggested.
"Sherlock!" he exclaimed, but the Doctor grinned, and said "No, no, quite alright. I'm a Time Lord." After an ever so slight pause, he added "The last of the Time Lords." Sherlock nodded, thinking. Flashbacks to something traumatic, probably a war. Perhaps that's what wiped out these "Time Lords"?
"I'm sorry." said John, and the Doctor shook his head.
"Well, it's not your fault is it?"
John watched the Doctor's face, and if Sherlock had asked him, the ex-army doctor could confirm that the man-Time Lord- had indeed seen the ravages of war, and had not come out any better for it. He recognized the pain, but more acutely, he had recognized the mask fabricated to cover it. However, John noted, The Doctor didn't seem very good at keeping his up. But there was something else...
"How old are you?" John asked, and Sherlock raised an eyebrow at the question.
"Nine hundred and something."
John looked shocked, and said "How?! I mean, you barely look more than thirty!"
"Well thank you! Us Time Lords, we have this little trick- a way of cheating death, if you will. Whenever we die, we can regenerate, grow a whole new body that'll keep us going. I'm on my tenth regeneration now."
John frowned. "That's not possible. People don't just...not die."
"Yeah well, I'm not exactly 'people' am I? I'm an alien."
John shook his head slightly, grinning to himself. Again, he wondered how the hell he had gotten himself into this ridiculous situation. It was not the first time he had found himself thinking this.
However, the Doctor misinterpreted, thinking John didn't believe him.
"Well, I am!" He said, indignantly. "I've got two hearts- Y'think your ordinary, everyday human has that? 'Cause I don't!" Sherlock and John froze, and John looked at the Doctor.
"Two hearts?"
"Yeah, Time Lords have two hearts. Check for yourself." He pulled a stethoscope out from somewhere in his pockets, and handed it to John. John took it skeptically, and put the earpieces in, putting the metal disk on the Doctor's chest with a hand he really wished wasn't trembling so much. He heard a heart, right where it was supposed to be, working fine. But there was something else, a soft echo. Hardly daring to believe it, John moved the stethoscope to the left, on the other side of the ribcage.
His breath caught in his throat when he heard the solid thumping of an undeniable second heart.
He swallowed, and slowly removed the earpieces from his ears. He wordlessly handed the stethoscope to the Doctor, not looking at him.
"Well?!" Sherlock asked, curious. John nodded mutely, then seemed to find his voice.
"Yes, yes he's got...two. Two hearts." he laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head. "He's not lying."
"Of course he's not. I'd know it if he was." Sherlock scoffed. Then John stopped, and something clicked in his head.
"So, if you really are an alien..."
"Yes." The Doctor replied, grinning.
"And everything you said about Time Lords... is true..." The Doctor nodded.
John looked at the Doctor with a mixture of pity and fear. "You've died ten times?!" he whispered.
The Doctor looked thoughtful and said "I suppose, yeah. But it's been loads of fun, mostly." John was shocked at this, remembering his terror facing Death in Afghanistan, and trying to wrap his head around the fact that this Doctor had done it so many times over.
Sherlock, however, kept up the interrogation, as that was what the conversation had turned into. "You mentioned time frequently before, and now Time Lords, am I right in assuming that..." he frowned, not quite able to make himself say it.
"I time travel? Yup. Anywhere in time and space. I could go anywhere, and be home in time for dinner!" he laughed a bit. "In fact, the TARDIS here, she's a time machine. My own little ticket to the universe." Sherlock stood up, and started pacing for the second time that day, his footsteps clanking against the metal floor. He shook his head, and looked at the Doctor as he moved.
"No, no, no. see, aliens are possible. It even makes sense, a bit. The ship is okay, even the whole bigger-on-the-inside bit could work. But time travel? That is a physical impossibility. It cannot happen."
The doctor grinned, and proposed "Well, what if I could prove it to you?" Sherlock frowned.
"Prove it to me?" Sherlock asked. The Doctor shrugged.
"Well, I proved to John that I've got two hearts, I'll prove to you that I time travel. Honestly though, you two aren't very trusting. Why won't you just believe me?"
John laughed. "Strange man shows up in a magic box and starts talking like a nutter? Not exactly gonna believe you right away, mate."
Sherlock ignored the comment and asked "How?" The Doctor rolled his eyes at the query.
"Of all the people to ask stupid questions, Sherlock, really. I'd take you and Dr. Watson of course!" John set his own cup down and interjected "hold on now- take us where?"
"Anywhere you'd like! Consider it a thank-you gift for helping me get the TARDIS back up and running." Sherlock was quiet for a while, and looked like he was about to decline the offer, but John piped up.
"Yeah, we'd love to go." Sherlock whipped his head around to stare at John. Since when did he make the decisions?!
"Oh come on, Sherlock. When in the world are we ever going to get another chance like this again?! And weren't you just complaining five minutes ago that you were bored? That you wanted something exciting to happen?!" Sherlock stopped pacing, and his voice rose to a level just louder than John's, getting louder as he spoke. Sherlock Holmes was confused, an emotion he certainly didn't do well with, and it angered him. And as if that weren't enough, now John was suggesting he wanted this?! No, that was too much for the man. He had been hiding his frustration at not understanding pretty well up until this point, but now it came pouring out.
"Well, yes, something exciting! Something interesting, but not something that would take the very laws of physics and turn them on their heads, John! Not something that would shatter every single rule that governs our world, that makes it make sense! Not something that could literally change the course of human history and make modern science seem like a child's game! This is NOT something I wanted, John, do you have ANY idea the disarray my Mind Palace is in right now?! I'm telling you, This. Is. IMPOSSIBLE!" There was silence for a while, except of course for the TARDIS, and Sherlock's sharp breathing from his rant. After an awkward and shocked silence, the Doctor cautiously asked, "Well, I do my best to avoid changing any major events… I take it you're… not coming, then?"
There was a short silence in which Sherlock closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a deep breath before answering quietly.
"No, of course we're coming."
The Doctor shot out of his chair as if he had been jabbed with a hot poker, shouting "BRILLIANT!" as he raced to the console and began running around it, pushing buttons and twisting knobs, and pulling levers. All in all, Sherlock noticed, it looked not entirely unlike a dance.
"Oh, this'll be wonderful! The great Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, in the TARDIS, going who-knows-where, exploring the universe!" The Doctor stopped to look at them for the briefest of moments, and Sherlock saw his eyes were filled with excitement. He grinned against his will, the pure joy in the Doctor's frantic rushing around was simply contagious. John was smiling ear to ear, and chuckled, looking at Sherlock and asked "Still bored then?"
A/N: Thanks again for reading guys! Please review! They make us storytellers jump for joy! (note to self: gotta repair that ceiling)