New Girl In The Box (Ep1)

Chapter 1: Worst Tea Ever

Clara looked around as she sipped her tea, taking in her surroundings.

She and the Doctor were sitting at a tiny little cafe on the outskirts of London. The lane was long and straight, and quiet to the point of being unnerving. Shops lined one side, various restaurants and cafes the other. All of the shops were closed, their windows grey and dull-looking. The cafes and restaurants, on their side of the street, weren't much better. Shabby, run-down, old. Mostly in disrepair of one kind or another.

Clara, in her defence, had opted to travel somewhere nicer for tea, like Ireland, but the Doctor had scoffed and waltzed into the least shabby cafe on the street (which wasn't saying much). And of course, she'd had to follow.

So here she was, in what was quite possibly the most colourless part of London, drinking tea that wasn't even remotely nice, now that she thought about it. It tasted like water and bacon grease with a few soggy tea leaves from the bottom of the teapot thrown in.

Clara distastefully swallowed her mouthful of grease-tea, trying her hardest not to make a face at the taste, and put the chipped cup down on the cracked saucer, both of which needed a good clean.

"So, Clara," the Doctor said casually, leaning back in his chair. "What do you think of this part of town?"

"Uhhh..." Clara shifted in her seat and tried to find something positive to say about the trashy neighbourhood.

"Well it's... it's very... quiet? Not many people around, no crowds, no noise, no - anything, really."

The Doctor nodded, looking around contentedly. Clara secretly wondered, for what must have been the hundredth time, whether the Doctor was fully in his right mind. Probably not, she reflected, thinking back on all the things he'd done. But then again, maybe that isn't such a bad thing. It makes him interesting at least.

"Hmmm," the Doctor hummed. Clara glanced at him. He seemed to be considering something - he had his thinking face on.

"What? What is it?"

"What do you think is happening over there?" The Doctor pointed across the road to the entrance of a narrow alleyway, where two men were just visible, skulking in the shadows. Clara considered the scene briefly, but it wasn't very interesting.

"Um, nothing, by the looks of it. Why? Is there something there I should be seeing that I'm not seeing?"

"Not just yet, I don't think. But we'll just have to wait and see."

Clara sighed slightly in exasperation and went to pick up her cup of tea, before remembering how awful it was and hastily whipping her hand away from it and back under the table. She turned her attention back to the two men in the alley. She knew well enough by now that the Doctor hardly mentioned things for no reason, so something significant must be happening. Or about to happen.