Melody Pond and the Man Who Fell from the Sky (Doctor Who, Melody Pond #1)

The dream was always hazy, and deep down she suspected it was even the truth. Among all of those drifting thoughts and half-remembered memories was this one slice of her childhood, before it had all gone wrong. 

She was 4. She’d gone down for her nap in her bed, but she woke when she felt the sun on her face. She stirred and found herself wrapped in blankets, her head on a small pillow. She sat up and squinted. There were trees and pavement and people, and she was on a big rock. Tall buildings rose around her, and she was more fascinated than scared.

Across the blanket, she saw her mum and a man that wasn’t her dad. He had floppy brown hair, a strange-looking coat and a bow tie around his neck. He was making grand gestures with his hands, and her mum was laughing.

“Mummy?” She pushed the blankets off her legs.

“Melody! Come here, love, and see the surprise we have for you!”

Melody crawled to her mother’s side and took a better look at the stranger. His eyes were warm and kind, and he looked like he was going to cry. He sniffled a bit. “Melody Pond,” he said with a great deal of reverence.

Melody pressed herself against her mother and stuck a finger in her mouth. She sucked on it a moment, remembered that she wasn’t suppose to suck her finger and pulled it out. She chewed on her lip instead. “Your bow tie is ugly,” she said after a moment.

The man laughed and leaned into her, tapping her nose. “Bow ties,” he proclaimed, “are cool.”

“Oh, you’ve got the right of it, Melody.” Amy squeezed her. “Now, this is the Doctor. He’s a very old friend of Mummy and Dad’s. He’s going to watch over you a moment while I go look for your father. I don’t know what’s taken Rory so long, there’s a coffee cart just around the corner. I saw it when we walked in. Be good for him, Mels.” Amy kissed the top of her head and left Melody with the strange man.

And the man stayed with Melody like her mum asked. He stayed with her for hours and hours, sprinting across the park with her in his arms to the closest loo when she informed him she needed to go right this second. He bought her a hot dog and a soda, promising not to tell her mum he’d sneaked her the treats. He stayed with her until the sun set. He stayed with her as the police searched all over the park for her parents. As she fell asleep, she felt him carry her into some place warm with music flowing all around her.

When she woke, she was in her bedroom at home. Her grandfather was sitting at the foot of the bed, crying. 

Melody Pond never saw her parents again.

-----

Twenty years later

“Look at you. You’re a successful writer. When I was your age, I was just about to move back into my bedroom at my parents because … well, let’s say the man I was going to marry became a spider. Literally.” 

The odd statement from Melody’s editor was perfectly timed. She’d just taken a sip of her latte, and it took every ounce of self-control not to spray it all over the table. She managed a swallow before laughing. “I can assure you that while I’ve date a few prats, none of them have ever turned into spiders.”

Her editor gave a little harrumph, and Melody shook her head. She loved Donna Noble. Donna had sought her out during her undergrad years after seeing a short story she’d submitted to a literary magazine in her free time. She’d convinced Melody to take her ideas and spin them into something original. For that, Melody would always be grateful. She had a trust fund from her parents, an extremely large one that would keep her very comfortable for the rest of her life. But she honestly enjoyed writing every bit as much as she loved archaeology.