Chapter 12: And YET
The Doctor grins at the girl's words.
"Clever… clever girl… you are a clever girl. Acting as a gatekeeper to this town's secrets. Wiser than you appear…"
"Finally, someone recognizes that aspect of my personality," Crystal smirks.
Maintaining eye contact, the Doctor removes his screwdriver once more and scans her, but he's done it so many times that she's basically numb to it now. One of his quirks as an alien.
"You keep doing that, but your device isn't going to tell you anything," she says in a teasing tone.
"Which hardly ever happens I assure you. While it may not tell me a lot it does tell me that you're a 21-year-old female with blue eyes and brown hair, which you like to wear in ponytails I see. Your face contains many freckles with a single small mole above your lip and you have dimples when you smile. You're 162 centimetres tall and won't be getting any taller due to your genetic makeup. You have no piercings or tattoos and YET, you have distinct marks that set you apart. You have some damage to the veins in your arms, possibly due to intravenous drug use during your adolescent years. Your lungs have also sustained some damage, an indication of early use of cigarettes. You bear a number of scars indicating either you served in some kind of battle or warfare or the more likely reason being that you got into fights when you were younger and YET you don't seem particularly violent. The only scar on your body that does not come from violence is a scar on your hip from an appendectomy. Everything I have just listed implies that you were troubled when you were much younger, and YET you have turned over a new leaf for the sake of someone close to you. Who that is for remains to be seen, but I can assume that it has something to do with the name carved into the golden heart you wear? All this information indicates that you appear to be a normal human being who has a past you'd rather forget, fitting as I do the same, and YET… there is more to you. My screwdriver cannot pinpoint exactly what, but there's something that makes you stand out. Some strange field of energy within you that is unlike anything I've encountered in the known universe; keep in mind that there is also much more to be discovered. I have just managed to discover more about yourself than a person might if they encountered you in a pub… And YET… the question remains… who are you?"
While stunned by the rapid-fire amount of information thrown at her, Crystal remains relatively composed. It was impressive, but then again, he was an alien so maybe this was normal for him. He seemed extremely confident in his abilities to read people and analyze the situation and YET, the one thing he cannot figure out is what she inherited from her father and what made her the daughter of the Dark One.
"All that from a screwdriver… can you tell me where I can buy one of those things?"
"Your sarcasm also often leaves much to be desired," Eleven adds.
Crystal laughs. "I've heard that before."
"I'm sure you have so… tell me… Who are you? Miss Crystal…"
He hesitates on the last name as there were quite a lot of humans who had greeted him previously, all with various last names.
"Miller," she replies. "Crystal Lillian Miller. And that's the million-dollar question isn't it?"
"Quite the extraordinary name. Really rolls off the tongue quite nicely, doesn't it? Another mystical name that belongs in a fairy tale. Your parents had interesting tastes in names I must say. Crystal is the clearest, purest and sometimes the hardest substance in the universe. I've been on many planets made of that material… quite a sight I must say. Tell me, Crystal, what inspired your parents to name you as such?"
"Well, my mother… I think it was a hope she had… that I would be a pure individual with a strong heart, but that's just my best guess."
She fiddles with the blue crystal heart around her neck.
"Lillian, while not one of my favourite flowers certainly one of simplistic beauty."
"It's my mother's name," Crystal replies.
"And Miller?" the Time Lord says puzzled. He looks at the sign above them and then points at her.
"If he's your father, shouldn't your name be…"
"No!" Crystal snaps. "It's Miller. Always has been, always will be."
"I sense that my inquiries into your personal life have hit upon a sensitive topic for you."
"Yes, you have. It's not as bad as it used to be, but the scar will always ache if you poke at it. I'll spare you most of the details" (mostly because it involves magic). "But basically, my dad was not always the best person, and he betrayed my mom's trust. So, she escaped him and ran off to raise me alone, which is tough as you can imagine. I never even knew who my father was or saw his ugly face until I was almost twenty. I blame him for a bunch of things including hurting my mother like that, but the main reason I keep the name is that it's one of the last physical connections I have to my mother."
Crystal is fighting back tears and swallows her sadness in order to not display it in front of this alien. She holds tightly to the golden locket engraved with her mother's name and closes her eyes to allow the memories to pass.
The Doctor steps closer. While he can sense the sadness, he had no idea how to provide proper support or comfort. Human emotions and their need to be held while sad was always unusual and something, even in his lives in which he experienced similar emotions, could not fully comprehend.
"I'm terribly sorry."
"It's okay. If you're curious, she is the reason I've done everything I can to make my life better."
"Ah," the Doctor says. "I will always admire those who put in the effort to better themselves."
"Sadly, it's not as common as you want it to be."
The two strangers go into silence for a few moments. The bitterly cold weather reaches them and Crystal shivers, adjusting her jacket.
"Well, if you're little investigation gets tiring, I live a few blocks that way for a warm drink. Granny's is great, but she's not open all night."
"Thank you for the offer. Good night, Crystal Lillian Miller."
"I can live with just Crystal. Good night, Doctor."
The two begin to part ways, the Time Lord still unable to understand what made the people of this town so unusual.
He continues on his quest, scanning random everyday objects on the suspicion that they might be dangerous or attack him. He comes to what appears to be the centre of the town with a grand and historic-looking building. Situated atop this unusually shaped building was a clock tower, telling him the time of night. The Doctor reads the sign: Storybrooke Free Public Library and walks to the doors under the portico.
They are locked as one would expect them to be in the middle of the night, but such things never deterred the alien when he's on a mission. Using his screwdriver, he "sonics" and enters. Inside is pitch black, but fortunately, he still has the torches he'd brought from the TARDIS when he, Rory and Amy were thinking that they'd be walking for a long time in the dark to find civilization. The single-beam hardly pierces the black curtain surrounding him, so he brightens it with his trusty tool.
He examines the bright green paint on the walls, followed by a large wooden counter with "Circulation Desk" labelled on the front in equally large wooden letters.
Across from the desk is what really catches his eye. A large and ornately carved elevator. It had various knobs, switches, gauges, a few lights, and a large brass wheel.
"Crank elevator," he ponders to himself. "That makes things a little more complicated."
The Doctor runs his hand along the surface of the door, impressed by the craftsmanship. He then examines the different devices and analyzes which one will open the doors. After a few guesses, the doors slide open, revealing a cage-like interior. He opens the waist-high barred metal gate and enters. He looks up and down, before deciding to take it for a spin and find out what secrets this library had to offer.
Using his screwdriver once more, the elevator springs to life with the lights coming on. He shuts the small gate then aims his tool at the wheel and slowly, but surely it begins to move.
The platform slowly moves down to the next level, with the Doctor in control.
However, as he's plunged into darkness from his descent, the elevator car begins to rattle. The lights above him begin to flash. His screwdriver stops blinking and the Time Lord has no time to scream as the elevator goes into a free fall, down deeper into the earth. He clings to the rail for dear life and braces for impact imagining it was like plummeting into a black hole… though funnily enough, the inside of a black hole was rather light inside.
When metal collides with stone, the Doctor can see nothing, not even the hand in front of his face. Darkness has completely engulfed him and up above the elevator doors close of their own accord.
A/N: Please follow and review. The blackhole thing is obviously just a joke as the Doctor would have flown into black holes before or at least considered doing so. His rambling to Crystal is so Matt Smith, I hear the speech in his voice.
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The Trickster Eris: It is coming, it will come but first the Doctor has to get himself into a situation first.