It was the afternoon, the smell of tea and coffee wafted through the kitchen, a mug and a teacup rested on the table while a woman hummed, going around the kitchen getting plates for homemade raspberry scones and bear claws, complete with dusted powdered sugar on top.
In the background, there's music playing on the radio, while the woman rested the serving platter with both scones and bear claws at the center of the table.
She stopped when she heard a knock at the door.
Huh, she didn't know there was anyone coming today.
Wiping her hands on a rag before patting down her apron, she gone to the door, upon opening it, her chestnut eyes widened.
"Paul!" She wrapped her arms around her son.
Hugging her back, Paul greeted her back, "Hello, mother."
Letting him through, his mother led him to the kitchen, upon entering she grabbed him a teacup and filled it with tea.
"Where's Grace?" Lila asks as she sat down across from him while he grabbed a scone off the serving tray.
Paul tells her, "She was needed at the museum."
Nodding, Lila sighs, "Work's never over."
Her hands wrapped around the coffee cup, Lila glances at Paul as he took bites out of the scone, sipping his tea afterwards.
"I should know my own son, something's wrong, what is it?"
Mid-sip, Paul abruptly stopped as he looked across to his waiting mother, her brow raised.
As he sat down his teacup, Paul wiped down his face, once he finished, he admitted, "Something in my adventures is troubling me, mother."
Seeing the look on Paul's face, Lila sensed the seriousness, staring off in the distance briefly, before telling him, "Your father's coming down."
There's a loud yawn echoing throughout the family home, footsteps as someone came down from the upstairs, shuffling feet towards to the kitchen.
His wild hair subtly lighter in spots, his icy blue eyes shining bright, Theodore smiled as he greeted his son.
Standing up, Paul went over to greet his father, but Theodore gave him a strong hug, nearly turned him blue!
Upon releasing him, Theodore showed his pearly whites as he welcomed his son.
"Where's Grace?" Theodore then asked.
He heard back, "The museum."
Nodding, Theodore sighed, "Work's never over."
Trust him and Lila on that one!
Seeing the look in his son's angel eyes, Theodore asks, "What's wrong."
Exhaling sharply as he took his seat again, Paul explained, "Father… I don't want to cause alarm, but I don't know how else to explain it."
Sitting down beside Lila, Theodore leaned forward as he asks, "What's that?"
Frowning, Paul haphazardly tells him, "Father… when you and Uncle Hamon killed him… were you absolutely sure he was dead?"
Recoiling, Theodore's mind caught up to him as he heard his son talking about…
"What happened?" Theodore was quick to ask.
Lila grew alarmed as she looked at her son with fear in her chestnut eyes.
Paul told them about his last couple of adventures and how a Dalek outright named the Master as the perpetrator that caused chaos in the complex, how Daleks invaded trying to kill him, and everything after.
"Are you sure it was him?" Lila reached out to touch her son's hand.
Struggling, Paul pointed out, "Who else could've it been?"
Understandably nervous, Theodore asks, "Did you see him?"
Shaking his head, Paul replied, "No. He made sure there was no camera footage, too."
Sharing looks with his beloved wife, Theodore chewed on his inner lip as he tried coming up with an explanation.
"Father… what reason would he have going to Doctor Ivo?" Paul asked Theodore, going off the theory that it was the madman himself, back from the dead, once again.
Heavily sighing after taking a swig of his tea, Theodore responded, "The Daleks chasing him wouldn't be a surprise, they'd still be mad at him for his betrayal. This Doctor Ivo… it's possible he wanted to kill two birds with one stone."
Her eyes focused on Paul, Lila questioned as she clasped her mug in her other hand tightly, "Leaking? What the hell was leaking?"
There are other doctors that madman could've gone to if he had a leaking problem…
"I don't know, I couldn't find out. I tried the TARDIS, but it didn't come up with anything. Father… mother… I have to know… are you sure everything was destroyed?" Paul asked his parents as he looked between them.
He saw their reactions, his mother looking nervous, his father taking her hand into his as he gently stroked it, the two unsure of themselves as they shared looks with each other.
"Uncle was sure of it when he…" Theodore murmured as his eyes dropped to the table.
Lila quickly brought up, "Has to be some copycat… wouldn't he come after us if it...was him?"
The Master wasn't the type to allow loose ends to exist, if indeed the madman somehow survived, he would've come after her and Theodore, finish what he started.
Feeling the warmth from her husband's hands, Lila struggled as she tried to explain how this couldn't be the Master… that if it was him, he wouldn't waste time with his schemes, that he would go after every person who put him in his grave.
More, the Master always knew things, someway somehow, he would've known Paul was their only son.
He'd always sneak around in the shadows, taunting, waiting, and Paul admitted that he never experienced this phenomenon himself.
"I don't believe it's him," Theodore concluded as he gave his reasons why he believed that this wasn't the Master having resurrected, yet again.
Silently stunned, Paul gestures as he pointed out, "You told me…"
His wild hair bobbing as he nodded, Theodore affirmed what he told Paul many times in his youth, but he reminded him that even though he wasn't traveling anymore, he is the Doctor.
"Did the robot give names?" Theodore inquisitively asked Paul, cupping Lila's hand into his large hands.
Recalling the names of the Daleks, Paul watched as cogs turned in his father's head, when he heard, "Find their cabal, see what they know."
Turning her head sharply, Lila recoiled as she sputtered, "Why doesn't he bake some homemade bread and bring it to them, too?"
Acknowledging this with a subtle nod, Theodore pointed out that only the Daleks would know what really went on, and he suspected that if this was the work of the Master, they'll all be dead.
"And if they're not?" Lila questioned her husband's logic.
She heard back, "Then this wasn't him."
Tilting his head, his freshly-cut chestnut hair stiffly moving, Paul then asked, "And if they're dead?"
A light shrug, Theodore then tells his son if that's the case, then they'll think of something.
No need to get scared unless there's reasons to be scared.
"Your brother always said you were a half-glass full person!" Lila shook her head at her husband's seemingly blasé responses.
Leaning over to kiss the side of her head, Theodore held her close as he comforts her, before telling Paul, "Find the Daleks, my boy. They'll find you anyway."
With his father's encouragement, Paul agreed to find the cabal that the deceased Daleks belonged to before he makes final judgement on the matter. "Don't do anything stupid!" Lila reminded her son.
Doctor or not, he's her son, and the last thing she needs on her mind is him going out and getting into a fight with someone like the Master.
"If it is him," Theodore gently tapped her nose.
Acknowledging their requests, Paul asserts that they'll be the first to know what he finds.
As he sat in the wooden chair, Paul discussed what was leaking to have driven whoever responsible for the complex's downfall to come to Doctor Ivo.
"Whatever it was, it was incompatible with Doctor Ivo's process," Paul tells his parents.
Sharing looks with each other, Lila turns her head to her son and says, "What was special about his process?"
A shrug, Paul tells her that he doesn't know, himself.
Everything went up in flames in the complex, not to mention with the outpouring radiation, well, he can't do much about that.
The TARDIS helped, but Doctor Ivo was too careful about anything leaking (no pun intended) anywhere online or published elsewhere.
Thinking it over, Theodore tried to come up with an explanation on the matter, leading to Paul to suggest, "You don't put suppose…"
His words were silenced when he and his parents started smelling smoke coming from the oven.
Quickly, they hurried to check, crumbs from the scones and bear claws that fell onto the bottom of the oven caught fire, the oven wasn't turned off.
Paul and his father were quick to put the small fires out, Lila in disbelief as she uttered, "I made sure the oven was off when I was done!"
Checking the face of the oven closely, Paul deduced the fault being a failed motherboard.
"Damned thing. I thought the point of these "smart" ovens was to make things easier?" Lila frowned as she sat in her chair, sighing in frustration that the oven's motherboard failed at the worst time.
Comforting his mother, Paul smiled as he patted her back, saying, "Don't worry, mother, things happen."
Theodore spoke up, "I can get this fixed in a jiffy, Lee. Worry not."
He sees his wife's frustration and he brought up all the times during their adventuring where things didn't work out the way they should, and Lila sighed as she uttered, "Lord, who let this spaceman into my life?"
Cue Theodore, "Myself, actually!"
Paul chuckled at his mother's expense.
With the fires put out and the oven safely turned off and disabled until it's fixed, Paul helped his mother clean up while his father worked to replace the motherboard.
"So, how's it with Grace?" Lila fished for details about her son's girlfriend.
Smiling at her, Paul responded, "She's doing fine, mother. You worry too much."
Lightly jabbing him with her soapy finger, Lila brought up, "I didn't wait eight hours to not worry about you, y'know!"
Ah, the "joy" of birthing.
Smiling, Paul assures her that Taylor is treating him fairly and that he reciprocates it equally.
"You two better!" Lila eyed her son, wanting the best for him, as she overheard her husband chuckling, "Oh Lee, you worry too much. He wouldn't be standing here, if he wasn't our son."
After all, Paul inherited every bit of their traits, both positive and negative.
Why, Paul descrambled every bit of the airwave by the age of eight without their intervention!
Seeing his mother exasperated, Paul nudged her with his elbow, "Don't worry, mother, I made sure I was careful."
Leaning forward, Lila warned him with a sly eye, "Careful enough not to get caught watching something you shouldn't, hm?"
Embarrassed, Paul expressed, "I thought it was a documentary about the trials and tribulation of a monk!"
Well, he wasn't inherently wrong…
Giggling, Lila nudged her son back as she said, "Ah, you weren't any different when I was at your age, honey. Curiosity gets the better of us."
Have to learn eventually, right?
Smiling, Paul thanked his mother for her wisdom, as they heard Theodore finish replacing the motherboard, the oven now worked with little trouble.
"It shorted," Theodore showed them the old motherboard, there was a nickel-sized burn mark that caused the chain reaction where the motherboard couldn't tell if the oven was off.
In its shorted state, it perceived that it was still operating, causing the crumbs to burn beyond recognition, and catch fire.
Regardless, it's been replaced, and they were all in the kitchen when it happened, thus preventing a very interesting call to the firehouse.
Sighing, Lila uttered under her breath, "Easy my ass!"
Checking the time, Paul remembered that he was supposed to pick Taylor up at the museum.
Time flies when you're dealing with an oven almost catching fire and helping with the dishes.
"Don't let us keep you," Theodore gestures as he tells his son not to be late, but his son pointed out, "The Doctor arrives precisely when he means to, right?"
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore acknowledged those words.
"You stay safe and call if anything happens, got that?" Lila hugged her son tightly, he almost squeezed air out of her because of his inherited strength.
Hugging his father, Paul expressed, "You do the same, hm?"
Showing his pearly whites, Theodore pointed at himself, "We can handle ourselves well, can't we, Lee?"
Leading his wife to bring up, "Unless it's a butterfly."
Recoiling, Theodore mustered, "I thought you loved me, Lee."
Gently pulling on his cheek, an exasperated look on her face, Lila said, "And I love you plenty, spaceman."
Seeing their son off, the couple returned to their non-hectic life, a bit bored compared to when they used to adventure throughout the worlds over, but they adjusted to their new lives well.
Come nightfall, they retired to their bedroom, Theodore fiendishly pulling Lila close to him in bed.
Hours passed, Lila woke from her deep slumber, next to her snoring into a pillow, her husband.
She slid out of bed, wrapping herself in her robe, heading downstairs.
It was dark, hardly any light coming in since it was cloudy that night, and the street lamps weren't that bright.
Going through the refrigerator, Lila poured herself something to drink.
She sat at the table with it, almost expecting someone to appear.
"I may be old, but I sure as hell ain't senile," she scowled in the darkness. "Some dirty trick you pulled!"
There's movement in the darkness, a form appeared, two bright blue eyes cut through the ark nests, swaying as it approached the chair across from her.
"It… is good… seeing you… again…" she heard that familiar voice.
Her cup in her hand, Lila barked, "Well, don't hold the audience in suspense, what's going on?"
Smiling at her, though uncanny as it appeared, the man with illuminating eyes says, "It is… for his own… good."
Paul can't know everything that's happening, the man with illuminating eyes won't let him.
"So, it's true then, here we are again, dealing with a madman?" Lila gestured as she asks if there was some truth.
To her amazement, the man with illuminating eyes stiffly shook his head as he tells her that it's not the Master.
"I've… made sure… of it," the man with illuminating eyes asserted that their plan to kill the Master worked.
He is dead.
"Then what the hell did I hear today?" Lila wanted to know what exactly she's supposed to think.
Shaking his head, the man with illuminating eyes stated, "Things… are… shall we say… in motion. I am ensuring they… go… as planned."
Snorting at this, Lila brought up, "If I had a nickel for every time our plans failed, I'd be richer than Molly Ringwald!"
Seeing her dagger eyes in the darkness, the man with illuminating eyes assures her, "Your son… will be… fine… I… have plans…"
Sensing that she didn't like his response, the eerily movement with his hand assured that Lila couldn't do anything that he didn't want her to do, and made sure she listened to his words.
"I… need him… I… cannot do this… without him…"
He needed Paul and in time, Paul will come to depend on him, so it will be easier to get his help, when the time comes.
Be sure, nothing will come to harm Paul, the man with illuminating eyes won't allow it to happen, unless of course, it will help him, in some way.
"My son's not a damn puppet!" Lila refused to have her son used that way, but the man with illuminating eyes lightly scolded her, saying that Paul accepted the risks that came with becoming the Doctor.
"He… owes… me…" the man with illuminating eyes tells Lila that Paul has a debt to settle with him, that this plan of his will absolve Paul of his perceived debt.
Until then…
"You lay a finger on him; I promise I'll send you to your father, myself!" Lila threatened the man with illuminating eyes.
The man with illuminating eyes was only amused by her threat, cryptically replying, "Then you… understand…"
It's enough to give Lila pause as she realizes that something's amiss.
She couldn't call him out on this, as he flicked his wrist, sending her back to her bed, where she woke up in the morning in a daze with no memory of their conversation.
THE END
"Tick… tock… goes… the… grandfather… clock…"
