The Visitor

xi. April the 8th, 1969

Rory led Annie onto the TARDIS, where she stood in amazement for a few seconds. Her reaction was something that cheered Amy up, as well as River, who rolled her eyes as the Doctor waited impatiently for the girl to say the phrase.

    "Wow," Annie breathed, "Is it another dimension? How does it work? It would have to exist across all of time and space for it to logically move anywhere, and you can only enter the Vortex at a certain angle- it would take years to work out..."

    The Doctor looked disappointed at first, but then just looked put out as Annie figured out the interior workings of the TARDIS. Amy laughed at his expression, and River reevaluated her first thoughts of the little girl. She was impressed, and a little confused at the same time, watching her wander about the Console Room.

    "She has your quantum mechanics book," said Rory, assuring the Doctor of something.

    Meanwhile, inside Annie's head, things were moving at many kilometers per minute. She was trying to understand exactly how the TARDIS worked, now that she had seen it with her eyes. She didn't realize that she had been rambling until she reached the top of the stairs, her audience forgotten.

    Blushing, she closed her mouth and let the Doctor speak.

    "So, Canton Everett Delaware the Third- Who's he?"

    "Ex-FBI agent," responded River promptly, "Got kicked out. Seven weeks after he left the bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting."

    "Yeah, 1969- who's President?" The Doctor examined the monitor.

    "This is a personal matter. You were my second choice for this, Mr. Delaware,"

    "That's okay. You were my second choice of President, Mr-"

    "Richard Milhaus Nixon," blurted Annie, "69 to 1974."

    Everyone looked to the girl, who continued, "The 37th President to Office. He was the only one to resign his presidency, Watergate, Vietnam- some good stuff, too..."

For Rory, it was extremely hard to not laugh at his sister in that moment. Annie had always been interested in America, so it made sense that she memorized every one. Though when had she done it?

"Not enough," The Doctor said quietly, but his look was intense as they continued the conversation. Annie began to shuffle her feet; she still felt odd about stealing lines that had to do with the show she had seen.

"Hippy!" River took over- unfazed as the little girl took a step back from the console. Annie did, however, manage to notice the woman's wink send her own way as the Doctor bantered, also completely oblivious.

Annie was also well aware of the fact that Rory seemed to be keeping a very close eye on her. She was so in awe of the TARDIS herself that it was hard to not burst (into what her aunt may call obsessive fangirling), but at the same time, it was additionally hard to gauge what her reaction should be.

The girl had long since believed that she was not dreaming. The TARDIS was very well real, but if Annie had learned anything from watching Doctor Who on the telly, it was that things were never quite as they seemed. And if she wasn't on guard- who knew what could happen?