It was a normal day. Completely and utterly normal for a day in England. Wet, cloudy and boring. I walked along the concrete path with a rucksack hanging loosely one arm. My mind was wholly consumed by the thought of my Dad. The Dad who never kept his word exactly the way he said it. He never did return for me after those weeks. But I never stopped waiting. For four, long, though easy, years I waited. It was a burden to carry but I did so vigorously.
After a few more minutes trudging along, I heard loud footsteps from behind me. Then there was a firm grip on my shoulder and I was forced to spin around. It was then I faced a man I thought I'd never meet again. His quirky bow tie, brown hair and whole outfit looked the same as it did so many years ago. My wait had been a hard one, but seeing him again made me so happy. But his face was one full of anxiety. He looked as if he was missing something extremely important.
"Please, tell me, is there a girl around here? Eight years old, brown frizzy hair, kinda looks like me? Please, please, tell me she's here!" He looked as if he was about to burst into tears. Man, why did I have to have an emotional Dad. After looking right into his eyes for a few moments, I snapped. How could he not recognise his own daughter? It was practically a crime. In order to get him back to normal, I slapped him. It was the least I could do for him and he really needed it. After another session of being taken aback, he clicked. The penny dropped. However you could describe it. Then he smiled. "You slap like your Mother."
Somehow, I had forgotten how funny he could be. As I lead him back home we shared a bundle of laughs. Unfortunately his collection of earth jokes was quite scarce and ended up in me not understanding half of his jokes. Stuff about other planets, satellites and orbits. Stuff like that. After a while of walking and talking, we arrived. Out of my rucksack I got a key. The key was silver with Jessica written on it in a TARDIS blue colour. I inserted the key into the lock, turned and went inside. Of course, I took my key out first. It would be stupid not to do so.
We were still laughing when we went in. But as well as making jokes, he also told me about what he did. Time travel. How he described it was amazing. You could watch a star burn in it's final days, watch the Olympics in 3012 and meet Shakespeare so long ago. The picture he painted in my head was truly beautiful. But once we went in, our talk came to an abrupt end as Gran came in.
She was very angry at Dad. Then again so was I. Both for the same reason. His late arrival. Actually, extremely late arrival. For four years I wouldn't think just a 'late arrival' would cut it. So she shouted, screamed and slapped for about five minutes until she cooled down. It was quite impressive how long she went for. Gran was never that angry. Plus, they were best friends (Dad told me that too). But when she had finally cooled down I could tell her anger was still there. Just being held back by better judgement. At least, it would hopefully be better judgement. After that screaming, Gramps came down. Dad suddenly burst out laughing. He pointed to Gramps nose. I really couldn't tell why. But I was about to find out.
"You've had a nose job!" he exclaimed. Then I saw it. Since four years ago I had never noticed that Gramps had had a nose job. Truthfully, I had to join in with Dads laughing. They do say that laughing is contagious. Dads laughing more than others. It was also pretty obvious that Gran was holding in snickers. Gramps just shook his head and rolled his eyes. He then looked at the doctor and started to talk.
"Well, at least you can't call me 'the nose' anymore." He said with a hint of relief. Dad smirked at Gramps. Then he turned towards the direction of the front door again. But just before leaving the place, he turned back around. He seemed slightly troubled though it was quite hard to detect. Actually, it wasn't just hard, it was almost impossible. The happy grin, cool posture and way he looked at us wasn't any help. It was his eyes. His old, experienced eyes. They held such sadness in them. I couldn't believe I didn't see it before. Then again I was only eight. After looking at us for a while, Dad spoke.
"Now, Amy, remember what I nearly asked you four years ago?" Gran nodded her head at this. "Good, because I'm not just asking now. I've missed more than enough years of her life. She deserves to know her Father, just as much as I deserve to know her. There's only one persons word that could stop me, and that is hers." Gran looked at him. She was much more obviously sad than he was. I could hardly believe how sad she looked. As if she was losing something so precious and would never get it back. I felt a need to comfort her. So I did so by hugging her and promising I'd be back (and not in four years). Then she bit her lip.
"Fine, on one condition. One more night, you staying this time, and we have to come with you on the first adventure. Me and Rory. Just so that everything's in check and proper." Then she turned around and marched up the stairs. It must've been hard for her, deciding to let me go. I probably wouldn't be able to stand it but then again Gran was a very strong woman. Smart, witty and charming. I'd never exchange her for anyone else as my Gran. Then again, who would? After Gramps had also went up, me and Dad went to the kitchen and started to talk.
In the kitchen I got up on the counter and looked at him. He looked at me back. Truthfully, I really didn't know what to say. What could I say? He had a time machine, was an alien from another race and thought bow ties are cool. It was all quite unbelievable. The bow tie part was extremely alien. So after a while of awkward silence, he started to speak. But he spoke more happily now and with a tone that was seeking to impress.
"All of time and space at your fingertips, where would you go?" He said. Then he leant on the table and grinned at me. "We could play hide and seek at the Royal Gardens of Hanalon 7, meet Liz the tenth or talk to Shakespeare. Oh, no, wait, sorry, we can't meet Shakespeare. That'd be going over my own personal timeline..." I shook my head. What was I going to do with him? He was nearly speaking gibberish. If I was a normal twelve year old it would probably go over my head. Then I thought about it. What would I like to do? Oh, I knew. It had to be that. Whatever we did, it had to be that. And it wasn't just for me too, he probably wouldn't settle for anything less.
"Hmm, why don't we go to the second planet that humans inhabit? What would they call it? Earth 2, New Earth?" I said. He grinned and nodded. After that we chatted about general stuff. How my life had been since his long absence, how I had skipped three years at school and stuff like that. Though there was a strange absence of his life. It was as if nothing had happened between the time that he was there last and then. Then again, maybe it didn't. He did have a time machine after all. It was also 'not reliable' as he had said long ago. For me, that was. After our talk I was quite tired. So I just went to bed.
The next morning was quite a sunny morning. Sunlight made the garden looked as if a paintbrush with thin gold paint had just swiped across it. Also, the trees swayed gently in the subtle wind, and the flowers seemed more vibrant. It was a truly beautiful sight. Though I couldn't stay there for too long. If I did I'd probably be greeted by some fish fingers and custard for breakfast. That would be quite unpleasant, though that was probably an understatement. So after a quick change into jeans and a white top with a police box on it (I made it in creative design class). My hair was just let down and I kept my blue bed socks on. I didn't know why I had bed socks. I just did.
Then I rushed downstairs. The day was beautiful and I was ready for adventure. Sweet, sweet adventure like I'd never had before. Actually, I'd never had adventure before. After my arrivals downstairs I started to make my breakfast which was pancakes with syrup. I would of had butter on it if we had any. But it didn't take long to make the pancakes, which was quite fortunate. I was quite lucky and wise with many things. Especially when I wanted it to be. But it was probably because of my bizarrely great intelligence that allowed me to be so 'lucky'. I could calculate things twice as fast as many adults. All my teachers thought I'd be at college level with my work soon.
After breakfast I started to wonder where Dad was. I hadn't seen him at all that morning. Then again he was probably fiddling about with the TARDIS. It was quite a valid question as to where he parked it. I'd probably find out soon enough. But as my patience wore thin my curiosity took over. Of course, my first place to look was outside. It was quite logical. He would be close to the house and able to get to me quickly if anything went wrong. I could really tell he cared for me. Thankfully, I was right. It was right there on the path of which it had been on four years ago.
Because of me knowing the agreement between Gran and Dad, I ran to their room as fast as my legs would carry me. My knees were one of my week points. As a little girl they were quite stiff and they were once so bad I had to have crutches. But when I was around eight they became slightly better. Unfortunately, they never fully recovered. At least it only took me a couple of seconds to get to their room. As I was technically a child, I decided to do something childish and wake them up by jumping on the bed. It was a success and didn't take long for them to wake up. To avoid a potential telling off I quickly ran downstairs and opened the back door. Not closing it, though, so they could come out.
It didn't take long for them to catch up. I was leaning on the fencing around the circular platform in the middle of it, with Dad keeping a lever down. When he saw them enter he smiled. He let it go and suddenly there was a weird noise and the TARDIS was shaking. Dad laughed.
"Here we go again, Ponds!"