“Don’t forget to close the door! So, where do you want to go? There’s this planet called Twilight where it’s never quite night... or 5997! Harry Potter fandom’s still going strong and some guy set up a real Hogwarts on the Planet Horrux. Or...”
“Wait!” Hannah interrupted. “We have to pick Terrie up!”
The Doctor paused in thought as if he was reliving a pleasant memory before jumping into action. “Terrie’s it is!” He exclaimed, pulling a few more levers. “Hannah, can you hold this button down? And Rosanna, this one aaand Ellie, this one. Boys, erm, just stay over there... Right, Alons-y!”
The TARDIS screamed into life before silencing a few minutes later.
“Is that it?” One of the boys piped up.
“Sssh!” Hannah rebuked. “You’re spoiling it. Doctor, can I go get Terrie?”
“Why not?” The Doctor replied, grinning his trademark grin.
Hannah peered around the deep blue of the TARDIS door to find herself looking at her reflection in Terrie’s bedroom mirror. She almost forgot to breathe as she took in the sight of herself in the TARDIS. The Doctor noticed Hannah still standing, unmoving in the doorway, and walked over to the door putting his hand on her shoulder.
“I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to contact her telepathically for another few hundred years.” He whispered in her ear.
“Ok,” Hannah whispered back, taking a deep breath. “Urm, maybe you could come with me? I’m not sure she’ll believe me ‘cause I barely believe it myself.”
The Doctor slipped his hands into his pockets instructing Hannah to lead the way. Following the unique beats of Tom Milsom’s Song for the Painfully Indie, Hannah led the Doctor out of Terrie’s mess bedroom, down the stairs and through into the kitchen where Terrie, oblivious to the large blue box that had landed in her room, was dancing around and singing in her loud but slightly off key voice. She was obviously feeling a lot better than she had that morning and was now busy making herself lunch. Watching Terrie butter some bread before raiding the cupboards for something to put in them, Hannah made her way over to the other side of the room with The Doctor.
“For the love of G...”
“Language, Terrie,” said Hannah, interrupting Terrie’s loud exclamation at seeing both Hannah and The Doctor standing in her kitchen.
“For the love of Tennant, what are you doing here?!” Terrie corrected herself for Hannah’s benefit while still baffled at the presence of someone she thought was at school and someone who she thought was only fiction. “How... what... when... ... wait... ... How comes you’re real Doctor and why on earth have you come here, to see me, with Hannah?”
The Doctor’s eyes momentarily lost their gleam at the realisation that Terrie couldn’t remember their previous meeting but neither Hannah nor Terrie noticed. The Doctor quickly corrected himself and answered Terrie’s question.
“I’m real because I may have given my story to the BBC. I was getting too much attention and people were looking for me so I thought if I convinced the public that what I do is fiction I’d get a bit of peace and quite. Well, I’m not really that keen on fan girls and some of my fans just have a habit of getting in the way. And why have I come here? Because Hannah asked if we could pick you up. You managed to miss the mechanics lesson where the boys create a machine that attracted the TARDIS! I’m still not quite sure how they did it. Huon energy is so old and there’s not really anything special about mixing pulleys and string and a table... Perhaps the particles arranged themselves into a huedron kaleidoscopic arrangement aligning the alpha and beta hutrons and galvanising the cacoethes of bombilation before converting the heat and sound energy into huon energy. Except that usually requires a clithridiate hole in the main body...” The Doctor trailed off leaving both Hannah and Terrie totally confused and lost for words. Huon energy was certainly not covered in their GCSE physics syllabus and they were pretty sure it wasn’t in the A-level syllabus either.
“Urm...” Terrie said, breaking off The Doctor’s train of thought that he was still following in his head. “Not that huon energy isn’t interesting but does this mean I get to travel in the TARDIS? With you?”
“Quite possibly,” the Doctor grinned at Terrie, “You, Hannah and the rest of your mechanics class. I couldn’t very well leave them all behind and only take Hannah, Ellie and Rosanna. Although I’m beginning to think that bringing those boys wasn’t my best idea...” The Doctor ended as a loud thump resonated down the stairs followed quickly by Ellie telling the boys to stop mucking around.
Music was still blaring out of Terrie’s speakers and in the lull of the conversation the track moved on to another of Terrie’s many YouTube songs. “Hey, isn’t that a song about me?” The Doctor asked curiously as Chameleon Circuit started to play.
“Trock: Time Lord rock. Basically songs about the TV series Doctor Who so yes, I guess it is about you. Technically,” Terrie replied, smiling as the song reached the line ‘we’ve got galaxies and planets and moons, and an awful lot of running to do.’ “How about some galaxies, planets or moons then Doctor? I’m ready for an awful lot of running.” Terrie smiled up at the Doctor and glanced over at Hannah who was also grinning broadly.
“That’s why we came!” The Doctor smiled at Terrie. “Where do you want to go? The TARDIS is up in your room - I’m hoping I didn’t squash too much of your stuff - so she’s ready to leave when you are.”
“Alons-y,” Terrie whispered, smiling uncontrollably. She switched off her music and together the three of them made the short journey up the stairs to the TARDIS where the rest of the mechanics class were waiting patiently...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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