Lost In Remnants

Doppelgangers

The Doctor

I had a proper posse again now. The Ponds and Ellie, the little gang I had around me, even if there was someone missing. There would always be someone missing, but at least it felt like it filled that hole, however temporarily.

The first trip I took her on once she officially moved into the TARDIS was back to the Old West, somewhere Sissy hated but I'd always wanted to go again, hopefully for us to not get chased out of town. Again. It was a thing, we got chased out of places a lot. This place was all wooden, a cattle skull on the sign for main street, a Keep Out sign and the residents count recently changed from 80 to 81. "Mercy. Eighty one residents."

"Look at this. It's a load of stones and lumps of wood. What is it?"

Ellie just looked at Amy as I rubbed my hand together before scanning them. "A load of stones and lumps of wood, Mrs Williams."

"Great. Thanks. What exactly are you here for again?"

"The sign does say Keep Out."

Rory, how long had you known me? "I see Keep Out signs as suggestions more than actual orders, like Dry Clean only."

"Is that what happened to the clothes I had in my laundry hamper?"

To which I quickly moved on to avoid my new house mate, stepping over the load of stones and lumps of wood that circled the town and headed down the street, towards the Grand Central Bank. An electric street lamp outside the Post Office sparking. "That's not right."

"It's a street lamp."

"From what I was told of the Earth solar year, it is an electric street lamp about ten years too early."

Of course the Centurion just shrugged. "It's only a few years out."

Had LizBeth taught you nothing? "That's what you said when you left your phone charger in Henry the Eighth's en-suite."

"Doctor, er."

Shh, Amy, let me savour in this. "Anachronistic electricity, Keep Out signs, aggressive stares. Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?"

"Doctor."

Finding a toothpick in my pocket, one of the ones you got in little packets at a restaurant, I put it in my mouth and headed into the saloon, Ellie and Amy just behind. Making the piano stop as two new women walked in, but I just headed up to the bar. "Tea. But the strong stuff. Leave the bag in."

"I do not believe that in a place like this they serve simple tea, Doctor."

The lady behind the bar just looked at me. "What're you doing here, son? You and your little lady?"

Yeah, definitely not my lady, I mostly had Ellie because it was better than always being alone. And by no means could Ellody be called little, she was huge. "Son? You can stay."

Another man in a faded suit came over next. "Sir, might I enquire who you is?"

"That is incorrect grammar-"

I now put a hand over Ellie's mouth and smile at the man. Don't get us kicked out the moment that we got here, please. "Of course. I'm the Doctor. This is-" Everyone now got up as Ellie pulled free and went to her own holster. The one condition to her coming was that I didn't take her pulse pistol, or her rather... Extensive hunting knife collection. "No need to stand. You see that? Manners. Oh, thank you." Someone was now measuring me. "But I don't need a new suit."

"Doctor, that is the undertaker. He is measuring you for a coffin."

A younger man in a brown suit and bowler hat stepped forward, Ellie trying to stand in front of me. She was as usual taller than almost everyone here, but a lot of them were rugged and made hard by the landscape. "I got a question. Is you an alien?"