Author's Note: Ten said goodbye to Rose Tyler in 2006 (Doomsday) and then he met little Veronica back in 1995. They met again in 2004 after her birthday/suicide attempt in the summer before the school start in September. There will be no Martha Jones, Donna Noble, or Amy Pond in this story. Please enjoy!
Veronica was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. After being rescued from falling down a cliff, The Doctor actually asked her to come with him to travel. And not just any travel, but traveling around the universe to see the stars. This was her dream for a long time, and it came true. She watched as The Doctor whistling and doing his routine, driving the TARDIS. He didn't wear his brown coat, but he was wearing a matching blue pants suit and a pair of sneakers.
"So what do you think, Veronica Mars? I added extra seats around the console. I was thinking about putting a sofa, but I thought against it because this is not a hotel, you know?"
"N-nice." Veronica stared at The Doctor, making sure that she wasn't dreaming.
The Doctor typed something on the keyboard, pulled a lever, and then honked a bicycle honker. Veronica widened her eyes watching his antics. Apparently, that was how you fly the TARDIS.
"Right. Hold on tight." He kicked the console lightly and the TARDIS made a sound. Veronica felt the TARDIS moved, so she held onto the railings. After few seconds, the TARDIS made a wheezing sound and the movement stopped with a thud. "We arrived!"
"We…we are?" Veronica blinked several times. "Where are we?"
"Go ahead, check out yourself." The Doctor leaned back against the console and put his hands into his pockets, watching her. Veronica walked to the wooden doors and then opened them. She held her breath when she saw the spectacular view.
"Doctor…"
Veronica was speechless. It was the same beach he had taken her to when she was a child; the purple ocean and the golden sand for the eyes could see. There were two binary planets nearby, and it made the view so beautiful. She could see there were few dragons flew nearby, but they seemed friendly. One of the dragons perched on top of some sort of palm tree and it was watching the TARDIS with its head tilted to the side. The dragons were big as horses and they had feathers and scale on their bodies. They screeched when they flew around the beach like seagulls.
Veronica walked out from the TARDIS and approached the edge of the water. The water was so clear and yet it was so purple.
"Like I mentioned before, I was going to Planet Neptune. Did you know that Neptune have oceans that are made up of liquid diamonds? Beautiful as…well, diamonds – but the water was poisonous. So I thought we could check this planet instead; I mean it's not as pretty as Neptune is, but it's okay. And it's safe as there are no dangerous creatures, I've checked." The Doctor was behind her, rambling as usual, as he approached her. "Do you like it?"
Veronica smiled at him, "I love it, Doctor."
"I did promise to take you here again." He looked at her up and down. "You look taller than I remember. Weren't you this tall?" He gestured with his hand about her height. "That can't be right. I just saw you recently. You can't sprout overnight!"
"Doctor, I was only a kid back then."
"Wait, how old are you now?"
"I'm…" Veronica bit her bottom lip. She remembered she just had her seventeenth birthday without her mother and her friends. It was just her, her dad, and her dog in that small dingy apartment. Her father brought a birthday cake and she blew the candles, trying to hold back the tears. "I'm seventeen now. Doctor, you saw me when I was a little girl."
"Huh." The Doctor jutted his lips. "It seems like it was yesterday. Or maybe it was?" He shrugged and then put his arms around her shoulders. They walked slowly on the beach, admiring the view. "Isn't this place brilliant?"
"What planet is this?" Veronica asked. She rested her head on his shoulder. She felt so safe near him. She felt like she was with her father…
"I haven't named it yet." He squeezed her shoulder. "It's not important anyway. Why humans have a need to name everything? Can't they just enjoy things as they are?"
Veronica chuckled, "You're not a human."
"Well, of course not!" He feigned offense, "But I like humans. They're brilliant."
She scoffed, "Really?"
"Don't you think so?"
Veronica didn't answer.
Humans were the worst. Her best friend was dead and nobody knew the killer was, her mother left, her friends treated her like a trash, her ex-boyfriend was ignoring her, her other friend was bullying her, the town was treating her father like a leper…
"Whatever you say, Doctor."
The Doctor saw her facial expression and exhaled, "Well I think they are brilliant. No other species in the universe that can contradict themselves." He chuckled as if he just told a good joke. "Anyway, I thought this trip might cheer you up."
"It is, Doctor. Thank you so much. I dreamt about this place for a long time."
The Doctor made a gesture as if it was a not a big deal. "This is the fifth time I visited this planet." He looked at her, grinning. "You're the only person I take here. I thought back then little girls like glittery things."
"They still do," Veronica said softly. "You never had someone else with you when you're traveling, Doctor?"
The Doctor let her go and sighed, "I had many people traveling with me. But they… well, moved on." He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, "Or sometimes they can't stay with me because…"
He trailed off and didn't finish his sentence. Veronica didn't push him, but she still looking at the view in front of her. The planets on the horizon were looking so beautiful. The sun warmed her face and she closed her eyes as well.
Then her stomach made a grumbling sound. The Doctor heard it and he laughed, which made her blush. "Sorry… I haven't eaten since this morning."
"I know a good place to eat. Do you like dinosaur burger?"
Veronica stared at him as if he was crazy.
"When you said dinosaur burger, I didn't expect you'd take me to McDonald's." Veronica and The Doctor were sitting at a table of McDonald's. Veronica looked around and there were people and aliens eating and waiting in line to order food. She saw a green alien was taking an order at the cashier from a humanoid alien wearing some sort of spacesuit. She could hear the cashier was asking whether the alien wanted some fries. She watched The Doctor slurping his soda. "Where the hell are we?"
"Oi! Language." The Doctor dipped his fry into green tomato ketchup. "I thought we'd get something to eat where you are familiar with the food. McDonald's is pretty popular on earth, right?" Veronica nodded warily as she inspected the meat inside the buns. "Ough, technically everything from earth was from dinosaurs."
She was, again, overwhelmed with the whole situation when they arrived at a space station on the moon. She was in awe when she stepped outside the TARDIS and saw so many aliens walking around. The space station looked like an intergalactic airport or some sort – there were computerized signs and monitors with many different languages including Aliens, English, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and many more. She saw ticket counters and aliens with flight attendant uniforms – even some alien tourists; complete with Hawaiian shirts and straw hats carrying suitcases.
"And you took me to an airport food court." Veronica grinned at him.
The Doctor rolled his eyes as he chewed his fries, "It's an intergalactic space station. This is where everyone goes to places."
"I thought everyone can come and go as they please – like you." She raised her eyebrow.
"Well, not everyone has a spaceship, do they?" The Doctor bragged. "Besides, after the World War Five, your Earth government is trying to put database for alien refugees that are coming from their war-torn planets so they decided to put this space station on the moon to monitor the aliens. It's harder and harder to get into planet Earth in this era. Glad that it doesn't apply to me, because…" He shrugged and plopped another fry into his mouth. "Well, I am The Doctor." He chewed the fry, looking very smug.
"World War Five?" Veronica widened her eyes in horror. "What year is this?"
"Doesn't matter. If you ask me, it's more about capitalism." He pointed out the food court and the shopping boutiques around them.
Veronica shook her head in disbelief. "Please tell me that I won't be alive to even witness World War Three!"
The Doctor grimaced, "Now in my defense, I couldn't stop those wars because I was on the edge of the universe trying to stop the Daleks from taking over before the World War 3 on earth." Veronica stared at him dumbfounded. "It's hard to explain. It's more about timey-whimey stuff." He cleared his throat. "Don't worry about it. Eat your dino burger."
"Can't you just… go back in time… or forward in time… I don't know… to stop the wars?"
"Well…" He scratched his head. "Humans are more difficult to convince when it's about their wars. Believe me, there are some world leaders that I'd rather not talk to."
Veronica decided she'd rather not know about everything because it made her head hurt. She started to eat her burger, surprised it was actually good. She chewed slowly, trying to decide whether it was actually a dinosaur burger. "Is this a real dinosaur?"
"Yep."
"How? Dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago!"
"Silly girl, they cloned dinosaurs in the 22nd century. Your human scientists managed to extract some dino DNA and then cloned it."
"So I guess the movie got it right?"
"What movie?"
"…Jurassic Park?"
"I am more of a book reader."
"It was based on a book."
"Huh. I better check it out sometimes." He shrugged. "I can always go to The Library."
"The Library?"
"It's a planet-sized book repository. I will take you there next."
"A planet library?" The Doctor nodded and grinned. Veronica shook her head; everything was so strange and brand new to her, she decided to accept it.
While she was eating her burger, she noticed a family was walking together, talking, and laughing. They looked like humans with antennas and they were wearing some sort of Hawaiian robes. She saw the father picked up the smaller child and put him on his shoulders. The child laughed and raised his hands and yelled happily. The mother was pushing a baby carriage and she was smiling. They looked like a happy family on a vacation.
Veronica swallowed hard.
Suddenly she felt like there were rocks inside her stomach. Here she was, eating a dino burger with a stranger on the moon, while her father was all alone on planet earth. Did he get the suicide note she wrote back in their apartment? He was away in Mexico, chasing a bail jumper when she put the note on the kitchen table. Her dog, Backup, was whining when she left him alone in the apartment. For any consolation, she thought at least her dad would be with Backup. She blinked her tears away as she drank her soda, not feeling hungry anymore.
She missed her dad so much.
What kind of daughter was she? She left her dad alone, after she made a decision to stand with her dad when he accused Jake Kane of killing his daughter. Her decision to stand with her dad had great consequences to her life – but that wasn't supposed to make her to make a drastic decision like this…
If The Doctor hadn't saved her life…
"Something on your mind?" The Doctor asked while he was looking out the window. The view was planet earth and it was a breathtaking view. Veronica looked outside too and she had an urge to cry. "Do you regret coming with me?"
Veronica shook her head hard. "No."
"Then what is it?"
"Nothing." Veronica forced herself to smile. "It's just… it's too much for me to handle right now. I mean, look – I am sitting in McDonald's eating a dino burger on the moon with an alien." She choked a chuckle. "You'd think a big blue box that is bigger on the inside is the top of the top."
"You haven't seen anything yet." The Doctor smiled. He knew why she was sad, but he was also a master of avoidance. Veronica wouldn't talk about it, so he wouldn't say anything. The best thing right now was to make her happy, and this trip – he didn't know for how long it would take – should be good for both of them. He just lost Rose at the parallel universe, at that lonely beach, when she told him that she loved him. The worst thing was he couldn't say it back as the TARDIS already took too much energy, and Rose disappeared forever. When the TARDIS took him to Neptune, California, and saw Veronica, he knew that he needed to be there for her. It was a fortunate timing from the TARDIS when he was transported back to California again, and he saw Veronica was hurtling herself off the cliff. He was glad that he was on time to save her.
"Where are we going after this?" Veronica asked.
The Doctor clapped his hands, "Right! Where do you want to go?"
She smiled, "I'll go everywhere you go."
The Doctor grinned, showing his pearly-white teeth. He offered his hand to her, "Let's go!"
Inside the TARDIS, The Doctor was trying to control the console. The TARDIS itself was bucking and Veronica was hanging on the console. "Why do you want me to fly this thing?! I don't know anything!"
The Doctor was holding on to the console as well. His foot was on the surface of the console, trying to keep the lever steady, while his other foot was on the floor. His hands were busy pushing and pulling buttons. "Push that square button twice and pulled that metal thingy above you! I only have two hands!" Veronica tried to do exactly what he instructed. She yelped when the TARDIS shook very hard, and she fell on the floor panel. The TARDIS stopped immediately and The Doctor exhaled loudly. "Phew, that was fun. Wasn't it fun?"
"Yeah, a bag of fun." Veronica sarcastically answered as she got up. She watched The Doctor putting the console back to normal. "Damn, do you have to pass a test to fly this thing?"
"Yes, and I failed it." He gleefully looked at the monitor to see outside.
"But how do you travel in time? What makes it go?"
The Doctor groaned, "Oh let's take the fun and mystery out of everything! Veronica Mars, you don't want to know. It just does." He pointed at the wooden door. "Now, make the most of it. I promised you time travel, and voila - outside that door, a brave new world."
"Where are we?"
"Take a look." He opened the door and let Veronica walk out first. "After you." The TARDIS apparently landed on a field and both of them walked outside as they inhaled deeply; which resulted in her coughing and he made a happy sound.
"What is that smell?!" Veronica covered her nose while choked.
"Fresh air, my dear – no pollution, no smokes, no air freshener that could ruin the ozone…"
"It could use some air freshener!" She made a face.
"What do you mean? Look at the view. Here we are-Jamestown, Virginia. 1650-ish. See, no cars whatsoever."
"Only cow dungs." She gagged and pointed to the cows that were everywhere. The cows mooed while they were sniffing the TARDIS. "And probably some…human fecal matters."
"What do you expect? These colonies haven't invented indoor plumbing. People relieved themselves in a bucket and then threw the dejection to the street. Fascinating, isn't it?" He explained happily. "Funny tidbit; did you know the origin of slapstick comedy was actually coming from King's Court where the jesters purposely slipped on a banana peel to symbolized poor people slipping on the ordure? Kings never walked on the street, so this was funny to them."
"Charming." Veronica deadpanned. "Laughing at the poor people's misfortune."
The Doctor chuckled, "Yes – it's horrible, isn't it? I saw one of the performances back then during Henry V's tenure. So funny, I couldn't stop laughing." He looked at her, "But come on! Look at this! Isn't this great?"
Veronica smiled, "Yes. I can't believe it. We really went back in time, are we? This is… this is amazing." They both entered the town and she was mesmerized to see the houses and the people. "I can't believe that we're actually hundreds of years before the modern 20th century." She watched a gaggle of people were walking in the street. "This is like walking into a movie set." She looked at The Doctor. "This is the real thing, right? You're not pulling my leg? We're actually in 17th century, and not just a Hollywood set, right?"
The Doctor opened his mouth in disbelief, "O ye a little faith. After flying dragons and a space station, you'd think I would take you to a fake city."
"I'm just joshing with you." Veronica giggled and hugged his arm as they walked together. "Oh my god, we traveled in time. We are so traveled in time!" She sounded excited. The Doctor grinned. He loved that giggle; something apparently never changed. They walked and looked at the street – noises and sounds from the past and present seem intertwined.
The Doctor pulled Veronica aside, "Ooh! Watch out!"
A man emptied his slop bucket from a house to the street while yelling drunkenly, "Eat this!"
The Doctor held Veronica's hand and they both tried to maneuver their walk from the street filth. "I can't wait until they invented the flush toilet. Sorry about that."
"I've seen worse." Veronica grimaced. "If you live in California for a long time, you bound to see things." She looked around. "But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?"
"Of course we can. Why do you ask?"
"It's like in that TV episode from The Ray Bradbury Theater: you step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race."
"Tell you what then; don't step on any butterflies. What butterflies ever done to you?" The Doctor sounded aghast. "You watch a lot of movie and TV apparently!"
Veronica rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed at The Doctor. "What if, I don't know if I kill my great grandmother?" She looked around. "I am sure my family is Anglo-European."
"Italian-Polish, my guess." He pulled a strain of blonde hair from her head and sniffed it, which made her slapped his arm, but he ignored her. "Yep, definitely white." He then looked at her. "Look, are you planning to kill your grandmother?"
"No!"
"Well then." And the matter was finished as The Doctor held her hand again. Veronica shook her head, a bit exasperated but walked with him anyway. Veronica looked left and right, holding The Doctor's hand tightly. She didn't know how to feel to be in the middle of the street with these people from the past. But she braved herself and walked amongst them. "Look, if there were any danger whatsoever, I mean let's face it, this is Virginia back in the day where they treat the natives poorly –"
"Annihilated." Veronica corrected him.
" – let's just run and go back to the TARDIS. Okay?" He said to her. "But in the meantime, just walk about like you own the place." He shrugged. "Besides, you'd be surprised that people back then not so different from your time."
"Okay…" They walked hand in hand together, sightseeing. They could see the Jamestown's church in the middle of the town. "I wish I bring my camera," Veronica said.
"I don't get why humans like to take pictures all the time." He blew a raspberry. "Just enjoy the moment, will 'ya?"
They both were running back to the TARDIS as they were chased by a mob of people with pitchforks and torches. They managed to get inside and closed the door immediately. Both were panting and breathing very hard, as they pressed their backs on the door. They could hear angry mob were yelling and shouting.
"I'M SO ENJOYING THIS SO MUCH!" Veronica yelled sarcastically. "What did you do to those people – they are so angry at you!"
"Shush! I don't know! I must've done something in the past – or future." Both went to the console and started it. "Help me fly this thing, and let's get out from here."
They immediately flew the TARDIS to some new place. Veronica actually enjoyed the beginning of their adventure; not knowing what would happen in her future.