The Doctor was possibly having one of the worst days of his life.
Well, not really, but you get the picture.
He hadn't expected any of this to happen. He'd had some unlucky days, but this was just impossible. The TARDIS was gone.
But after all, he did try to believe three impossible things before breakfast.
The Doctor frantically searched, his blue eyes darting from left to right. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but the weird thing was that his companion had disappeared into thin air as well.
He sighed, leaning forward and placing his hands on his knees, trying to figure out how this had happened. It was just another trip to Earth's past - a rather leisurely one at that.
The Doctor heaved a deep breath as he continued to ponder upon the situation.
The TARDIS shook again, throwing Elisabeth and Tristan to the walls.
"What's it doing?" Tristan called from the other side of the console room.
"I have no idea!" Elisabeth yelled, hanging on for dear life. "Fighting back, I suppose?" She clawed her way back to the console, pulling on a random lever. At once the TARDIS stopped moving, and Elisabeth let out a sigh of relief. But her relief was short-lived when something started to show up on the screen.
It wasn't much, just static. Just as the type of static she would see on her television back at home sometimes. But Elisabeth could hear something within the white noise. She squinted, turning up the volume of the speakers, but the speech was still undecipherable.
"Well, so it's all some garbled speech. What good will that do?" Tristan sighed, fiddling with some of the buttons on the console.
"Hey!" Elisabeth snapped, slapping his hand away from the console. "Let's not touch anything we're not familiar with."
"Oh, alright."
Elisabeth glanced back to the manual. There should be a translator, somewhere around here..." Elisabeth said, ducking under the TARDIS console, coming across a locked compartment. "The manual says it's somewhere in there." Elisabeth dug out the brooch pin she kept, along with Caroline's wallet (which was starting to get heavy, to be honest). Setting the wallet on the console she bent down again, picking the lock with the brooch pin. It took her some work, but the door of the compartment swung open, the lock undone by her efforts.
"Elisabeth, could you explain something to me?" She heard Tristan call.
"Alright, what is it?" She hit a few last buttons inside the compartment and crawled out from under the console, pushing back a segment of her hair with the back of her hand.
Tristan peered at the contents of her wallet. "That's impossible. The dates on this identification card..."
Elisabeth shrugged. "I don't understand them either. Maybe some day I will." She took back the wallet, stuffing it back into her pocket. She glanced over to the small, pixelated screen, where a message read out: Your lives are both forfeit.
"Well, I guess we've got to pick up our pace. We'll be dead by whoever wants us dead." Elisabeth said, slamming the console in frustration.
"What were you doing out, anyway? I thought you would be waiting for your brother to return or something." Elisabeth turned to Tristan, and he stuttered before trying to answer.
"Just popping out to the general store."
"The general store was closed when we came by on the way to your house, don't you remember?" Elisabeth recalled, and she saw Tristan become even nervous, putting his hands in his trouser pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet.
"Fine, I didn't have any reason to be out."
There was a bout of silence as Elisabeth continued to work her way around the console.
"Do you ever feel lonely, Elisabeth?"
Elisabeth stopped, taken aback by his sudden statement.
"Well..." She started, turning back to the console. "It's none of your business, anyway. Why do you care?"
"Is there a reason you're travelling with this...Doctor friend of yours?"
"I...it seemed like an accident. I don't even know where I was from." Elisabeth explained, her voice wavering.
Tristan took a breath. "You don't know where you were from?"
"I know nothing of my origins. I don't know the place, I don't know the time...life before stumbling upon the Doctor just seems like a hazy dream."
"No family? No friends?"
"There were probably some. But I can't remember them." Elisabeth almost squeaked, swallowing back the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes.
"Maybe when all this is over, perhaps you could stay..." Tristan suggested.
Elisabeth shook her head.
"You don't want to give him up, don't you?" Tristan asked.
"I don't know."
"He cares for you, don't you know? You're a very lucky girl, to be honest."
Elisabeth almost smiled. "Is that so?"
"The Doctor, told me to keep an eye on you. He didn't want you to run off. He cares for you, don't you see?"
"When do I not see?"
"You seemed rather cold and distant to him before he ran off to join the cricket game. He says he's got...a duty of care or something." Tristan recalled.
"So?"
"As you said, we are going to get out of this alive, aren't we?"
Elisabeth crossed her arms. "You were the one who suggested that we're going to face our imminent demise."
"Well, we'll be dead at the hand of whoever wants our lives forfeit if we don't do something."
"I think what we need to do is break the signal. Make it so that the signals can't transmit to the TARDIS." Elisabeth assumed, working according to the manual.
"Well, you're starting to speak like the Doctor, that's for sure." Tristan observed.
"Come over and help me, Tristan. Unless you want to be dead in the middle of nowhere, that's your choice to make." Elisabeth huffed. "Just watch the meter on the screen. What's it reading now?"
"Seems pretty normal to me."
"What do you mean, seems pretty normal?" Elisabeth walked over. "Uh, just ensure the value here," She pointed to a line of numbers, "doesn't go above a thousand." She wasn't sure how she knew, but she was certain that if that value went over the normal amount it would spell doom for the both of them.
"What if it does?" Tristan raised an eyebrow, peering intently at the screen.
Elisabeth twisted a knob on the console. "Radio. You know how it works, don't you? Just change the frequency until you get the lowest value."
"How on earth do you know all this? This is your technology, isn't it?"
"It's not mine. The Doctor's." Elisabeth replied, her hands flying at the controls. She didn't know where all this knowledge came from. When she flipped through the manual, everything made way too much sense for her. She didn't know how she understood these concepts, that seemed abstract to her before, so quickly. It seemed like she had been doing this all her life, but she knew it was impossible. Even if she couldn't remember anything about her past, she knew that a life like this was simply not possible for a human woman.
"Where are you from?"
"I've no idea. Didn't I say that already?"
"Who's waiting for you at home, I wonder? Your parents? Some old friends? Even a bloke?" Tristan raised an eyebrow, leaning on the TARDIS console. "How long have you been away from home?"
"I've only been travelling with the Doctor a couple of days." Elisabeth admitted. "Whoever's at home probably won't be missing me too much. Not that I remember anyone from home, that is. I'm pretty sure I've never dated anyone, though. As for friends and family, I don't remember any of the sort. It's weird, see," Elisabeth stared up at the ceiling. "I don't remember who I was."
"I'm just wondering, have you been fancying him? The Doctor? He's rather good-looking even if I do say so myself." Tristan teased, and Elisabeth felt him creep his hand over hers as they stood toe-to-toe at the console.
Elisabeth took a step back and crossed her arms. "You're just saying that because he and you look exactly the same, aren't you? And, to answer your question, no, I don't fancy him. Well, at least I don't think I do. I've never really fancied anyone before."
"Mm. Maybe when this is over we'll get a drink together, perhaps? I'm almost certain we'll get along well," Tristan offered, snapping Elisabeth to her senses.
"Let's just make sure this is over first, Tristan. Then I'll consider your offer." Elisabeth dismissed his comment, turning back to the console to work.
"Do you think we'll be on our way yet?" Tristan asked as Elisabeth pressed down a button on the console, and stood back to wait.
"There, I think this will do." Elisabeth grabbed onto the console as the deep engines whirred again, attempting to break the signal of whoever had tried to dematerialize the TARDIS. "It seems that we were being taken out of our own timeline."
"Why?"
"I know as much as you do," Elisabeth sighed, hoping that all was going well. The TARDIS severed the final signal, and Elisabeth jumped back as orange sparks flew from the console, and the TARDIS went into turbulence as it traversed the unstable time vortex. She stumbled, almost falling onto the floor if it weren't for Tristan who had caught her.
"What now?" Tristan inquired, and Elisabeth studied the console. The machine was now in a state of rest, perfectly stable except for a bit of smoke drifting from under the console. She got up to her feet, examining the dials and readings.
"Uh..." Elisabeth ran back to the manual, flipping it through and through again. "We seem to be stuck again. Floating in some vast void in space and time."
"What do we do now? How do we get back to where we were?"
"I don't know." Elisabeth ran her fingers through her hair, grasping some of it in a tight fist. "I...I just simply don't know what's wrong with it. I've tried, but nothing seems to work."
"Well, I'm just going to assume we're going to be stuck here for some time then." Tristan produced another cigarette from his pocket, lighting it before putting his hand back in his pocket.
"Oh, put that out!" Elisabeth yelled, yanking the cigarette from him and damping the burning end. "How could you not care at a moment like this? We could be lost here forever, and we'd just be stuck here wasting away our lives!" She turned away from him, storming to the other side of the room, calming herself down with a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry for my sudden outburst."
"Well, aren't there some coordinates or something?" Tristan suggested, and Elisabeth was suddenly reminded of how the Doctor flew the TARDIS this morning. Honestly, just looking at Tristan was able to trigger such a memory because of how alike he and the Doctor looked. The Doctor just flew the TARDIS as usual this morning. During her few hours in the TARDIS after, she must've glimpsed those coordinates at least once on that tiny pixelated screen. She rose, heading back to the screen, and the coordinates flew right into her mind in an instant, just like reviewing a photograph. She started to work, pushing buttons left and right, and the lines of code started to appear on the screen. Line after line after line she keyed in as Tristan stood by her side, watching her in awe and fascination.
"That's a lot of code," Tristan remarked. "How did you figure it out?"
"It's in my memory." Elisabeth replied, enjoying the confusion on Tristan's face.
"Are you sure this will work?"
"I'm half-certain."
"Don't beam me up into some planet full of killer ants or something."
"I'll try not to." Elisabeth moved over to the lever that would start the engines, her hand trembling with fear and anticipation. She stopped herself, pulling back from the console.
"Oh, pull the damn thing already!" Tristan cried, exasperated and impatient.
Elisabeth weighed her options. "I'm not sure whether I'll get us back. For all we know we could end up in much greater peril."
"You're an expert with that thing!"
Elisabeth shook her head. "It was all instinct, Tristan! I'm really not sure what I did or how I did it! I'm not sure whether I've made the right decisions."
Tristan sighed, walking over to her. "Well, the thing is, you've put in so much effort. We'll never know what's going to happen if you don't activate the ship. You've got to be brave enough to make that first move, my winning strategy to- oh, never mind that."
"Well, let's see where this gets us." Elisabeth affirmed, pulling down the lever.
"Tristan, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
The Doctor groaned, rolling his eyes. "I'm not your brother, it's just that he and I look ridiculously identical.."
Siegfried slowed his pace as he caught up, out of breath. "Don't you be playing games with me, there's work to be done." He pulled the Doctor by the sleeve, almost starting to drag the Doctor back up the hill if it weren't for the Doctor holding him back.
"Wait. Just let me explain." The Doctor pleaded, and Siegfried turned back, looking him in the eye.
"You better hurry up. You're wasting precious time here." Siegfried huffed, putting his hands at his sides. The Doctor took hold of one of his wrists, and he marvelled at Siegfried's confusion as he set Siegfried's fingers upon his wrist, allowing Siegfried to feel his pulse.
Siegfried's eyes widened, and he took a moment to process this information. "I don't understand, it's impossible."
The Doctor gestured to the medical bag Siegfried had placed down on the ground. "You've got a stethoscope, I presume. It'll help you to further prove that I'm not this 'Tristan' you're talking about."
Siegfried stood back, furrowing his brow, not wanting to go with the Doctor's suggestion. How would he be able to explain him, the local vet, performing a medical examination on a human, of all creatures, in the middle of the road in broad daylight? "How do I know you weren't impersonating my little brother all this while?"
"Hm." The Doctor thought for a while. "We'll have to find him first, don't we? My companion's also gone missing and she may or may not be with him."
"I've told him time and time again that he should be studying and not spending this precious time loitering around, chatting up members of the fairer gender!"
"Ah. And let's hope they're not off to..." The Doctor cringed. "Never mind that. Where do you think he'd be?"
"One of the public houses, I suppose. He's always down for a glass of that Darrowby bitter. Or two. Or ten." Siegfried took up his medical bag. "Come on, I'll show you around."
"Uh, hold up a minute." The Doctor knelt down, swiping his finger against the road where the TARDIS had previously stood, and his finger came away blackened with soot. He held his finger up, giving it a sniff. "Seems to be something left over when the TARDIS disappeared. It must've taken some effort, to dematerialise that ship of mine. I might even say it was forced to."
"Oh, whoever you are, follow along!" Siegfried yelled over his shoulder, and the Doctor stood, dusting his finger off on his trousers. Oh dear. He was going to have to apologise to Tristan after this.
"So, if you're not my younger brother, who are you and where did you come from?" Siegfried asked as they walked along.
"I'm the Doctor. Where I come from...you wouldn't believe me."
Siegfried chuckled. "Well, I certainly believe that double pulse of yours. Anything's possible, I guess. And you were saying your name was?"
"The Doctor. Just the Doctor."
"Just a title? Don't you have a name? You don't go around all the time just calling yourself that, don't you?" Siegfired raised an eyebrow.
"I have many aliases." The Doctor briefly put it. Siegfried kept silent, and the Doctor almost heaved a small sigh of relief.
Siegfried stopped in front of a pub. "Yes, this is the one he frequents. He comes here so often I fear his spirit may never rest in piece after his possibly untimely demise, spending all of eternity haunting the public houses he frequently haunts during his lifetime!"
"Ah."
"And let me tell you, he's a terrible one as well, with so many women of his. I'm surprised he still has time to loiter around!" Siegfried pushed open the door of the public house, and the Doctor could hear the chattering from within. "Oh, I think you'd better stay out here. They'll mistake you for Tristan again and it'll only make me look like a raving lunatic."
Siegfried disappeared into the pub, leaving the Doctor standing outside. He leaned on the outer wall, stuffing his hands in his pockets, deep in thought.
"Hello, Tristan. Out for a drink today?"
The Doctor turned his head to see a young man, with striking red hair. He had a dazzling smile (and to be honest this young man reminded him so much of Vislor Turlough, his previous companion, but just a lot sunnier), and he was full of energy and vigour.
"I'm just..." The Doctor hesitated, thinking of something to say that wouldn't blow his cover. Who was this young chap to Tristan? A close friend? Or just a friendly acquaintance?
"You seem awfully quiet today, Tristan. Anything wrong?" The ginger looked at him with a concerned expression. "Being left by your girl again?"
The Doctor kept silent once again, rocking back and forth on his feet.
"Tristan, are you alright? The way you look at me, it seems that you've forgotten who I am? How could you forget your good friend James? We just saw each other this morning."
The Doctor wracked his brains. Didn't Tristan say something about a friend named James this morning? One of the other occupants of Skeldale House.
"Oh, none of the sort." The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, I think Siegfried wants you back. He's er...working on something in the surgery."
The young man nodded, turning to leave. "Then I'll be off." He raised an eyebrow. "Won't he need your help back there?"
"Only a capable vet like you could get the job done. Oh, don't mind me. I'll be back soon."
The Doctor turned, wiping a palm across his forehead, heaving a great breath as James left, and he found himself lucky, so very lucky that Siegfried didn't come barrelling out of the pub at that very moment.
Siegfried stormed out of the pub. "Not there, and it's funny that nobody has seen him around since this morning, since the cricket game."
The Doctor got a flash of inspiration when he heard the sounds of the radio from inside the pub. "Do you think you have a radio back at your place I could use?"
"I'm pretty sure I won't mind you using Tristan's, whatever the matter is. How are you going to use that to-"
"I think I've just gotten an idea."
The Doctor leaned over the table, tinkering with the screwdriver as he reconfigured the radio, tweaking the systems here and there. He worked in a flurry, his forehead slick with sweat as he tried to get the device to work. James sat by his side, handing him tools and asking questions all the while, which honestly increased the stress of the whole situation.
The woman, Helen, entered with a glass of water. "Would you want some water, I'll just set it down on the table here."
The Doctor didn't have time to look up. "That would be lovely. Thank you." He tucked the screwdriver (oh, it reminded him of an old friend, whom had been destroyed) behind his ear, setting the device on the table.
"What have you done to it?" Helen asked, just as Siegfried entered the sitting room.
"Let's take a look at that, shall we, Doctor?" Siegfried sat in the chair, clasping his hands together.
The Doctor made some final adjustments before setting the radio down again on the table. "I've reversed the polarity. Now it sends out signals. I've made it so that the signals can travel through space and time. They should be able to receive something..." The Doctor turned the knob on the radio, and the radio crackled to life, before settling. "I think they've got it."
"Hello?" The Doctor started. "Can you hear me?"
Everyone waited in silence before something came from the other end of the signal.
"Doctor, it's me!" The radio sprung to life. "It's me, Elisabeth!"
"Oh, yes!" The Doctor beamed. "Have you got Tristan with you?"
"He's right here with me." The occupants of the sitting room heard a bit of shuffling around on the other end.
"We're fine, and hopefully on our way." Another voice spoke from the other end, strangely similar to the Doctor's.
"Great." The Doctor breathed. "I've managed to send a signal, so if you could just follow it..."
"How?" Elisabeth spoke up again. "Is there a tracker or something?"
The Doctor raised both eyebrows. "It's underneath the console, I think. On the side with the flashing buttons."
"You're not helping!"
"I trust you're smart enough to figure it out, I hope." The Doctor spoke. After a considerable amount of silence, the Doctor promped again. "Have you got it?"
He could hear cheering from the other side, and he knew he had succeeded. "We're on our way, Doctor!"
The wheezing of the TARDIS got louder and louder as the blue police boz materialised in the corner of the sitting room.
The lock clicked open, and Tristan and Elisabeth scrambled out. They looked like the dead - absolutely exhausted. Elisabeth's face was powdered with soot, and their was an oil stain on her nose, and on the flannel shirt she was wearing. Tristan looked pale and worn, as if he'd been through a bad hangover.
"We're back." Elisabeth breathed, running a hand through her hair. "Missed us?"
Helen and James were having the weirdest days of their lives. "How-" James exclaimed, looking to Tristan then to the Doctor, and back. "How is this even-"
"Possible?" Tristan finished his sentence. "Let's just put this down as a series of extraordinary events."
"Which one is the Doctor? And which is Tristan? How can we tell them apart?" Helen asked, tilting her head to the side. "That is right, they do look ridiculously similar."
Tristan (or was it the Doctor? Nobody could tell anymore) stepped forward, spreading his hands in a matter-of-factly way. "The difference is one of us has two hearts, and the other has one." Helen looked at him in a state of disbelief, before testing his claim. As she did, her face contorted into a state of confusion.
"James, you better take a look at this."
There was a moment of silence before James burst out in surprise.
"I can't believe it. It's just marvellous, I-" James grinned.
The Doctor faced Elisabeth. "Didn't I tell you not to run off?"
"For what I've done, I'm sorry," Elisabeth admitted, slipping her right hand over his left wrist, confirming the Doctor's double pulse.
The Doctor spoke up. "As much as we'd like to stay, I'm afraid that staying on any longer is only going to cause a bout of confusion."
"Yes, I'm sure Elisabeth would want to spend some time with her friend, wouldn't she?" Tristan chuckled. "Take care of each other, you two."
"And same to the rest of you." Elisabeth followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, taking a last look at the world around her before she shut the door.
A/N: Thanks for the reads! Thanks for bearing with me, as I'm currently lagging a bit behind my one-post-a-week schedule. The holidays are coming up and I'm hoping to be able to progress a bit faster. I'd appreciate any reviews and feedback you have on this story, so that I'd know how to improve from here. My next story will hopefully feature more of the Doctor, as I've been pushing him to the side for these two stories.