Out There ✿ The Doctor [1]

13- The Empty Child (pt. 1)

"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" The Doctor asked them as they exited the now materialized Tardis.

"Five days?" Rose guessed, half joking with her answer. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

"Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow." The Doctor comments before refocusing on the situation at hand, "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."

"A month?" Avery questioned, in disbelief, following the Doctor as he began to walk away.

"We were right behind it." Rose added.

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place. We're bound to be a little bit out." The Doctor replied defensively, "Do you want to drive?"

Avery smirked, "If you're offering..." He shot her a pointed look before shaking his head.

"How much is a little?" Rose asked.

"A bit." The Doctor responded.

"Is that exactly a bit?"

"Ish."

Avery rolled her eyes at his vague answers, "What's the plan, then?"

Rose smirked, jesting lightly, "Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask." The Doctor shows Rose and Avery his psychic paper ID for the occasion.

"Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids." Avery reads before looking up at him, "I've been meaning to ask what this is since Satellite Five."

"It's psychic paper." He explains, "It tells you whatever I want it to tell you."

Avery smiled at that, "Cool." She slows to a stop as they reach a door marked 'Deliveries Only.'

"Not very 'Spock,' is it?" Rose says, "Just asking."

"Door, music, people. What do you think?" The Doctor asks them.

"Sounds like fun." Avery tells him as he gets out his sonic screwdriver.

"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose complains as the Doctor crouches down and buzzes the lock on the door, "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?"

The Doctor looks at Rose for a moment before asking, "Are you sure about that t-shirt?"

Rose looks down at her Union flag t-shirt, answering, "Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin."

"Mummy?" Avery feels chills run up her spine at the haunting voice of a child filling the air, "Mummy?" Rose wanders away slowly, looking for the child.

The Doctor unlocks the door and tells them, "Come on if you're coming. It won't take a minute." The Doctor goes inside.

"Mummy?" Avery hears the child call again, but chills run through her rather than worry and she follows the Doctor in, trusting Rose to follow.

Avery meets up with the Doctor in a hallway full of boxes and they share a look before following a waiter through a bead curtain to where a saxophonist and jazz band is accompanying a woman in 1940s clothes, singing, "For nobody else gave me the thrill. When I have uphold silence still, it had to be you, wonderful you. It had to be you."

Avery and the Doctor stand to the side, waiting patiently for her to finish her song. The Doctor finds his eyes drifting from the singer to Avery, who had a soft smile on her face as she watched the performance. His eyes ran along the profile of her face before falling on her earrings. They were his gift. He couldn't help but wonder when she had put them on, but he was beyond happy to see her wearing them.