Lost In Thought

Piggy In The Middle

The Doctor:

Elizabeth was super mad at me. Like, to the point that she hadn't left her garden, which the TARDIS had now actually stopped me from entering, but I had the secret weapon. Crappy diner food which she could stuff her face with. It was impossible for LizBeth to be angry when she was eating, she was too happy about the food, so long as it was cooked properly. 

So I took her into the diner in the middle of the desert, seeing the waitress pouring coffee to the lone customer and listening to the Everly Brothers. I hadn't actually known that, she'd told us the moment we landed. "Howdy there, pardners."

"Hello." She nodded, hair long and straight today. If she wasn't already mad at me, I would have taken her to LA instead, let the humidity have it's way. "Sorry about my brother in advanced."

I pulled a face at her as the others just nodded at us. "Howdy."

"How you doing?"

"Ah, the smell of fast food on the desert air. The perfume of America."

"I thought that was egotism and rednecks?"

The waitress just frowned at us. "Hey, are you British or something? You sound like you're from up North though, Miss."

Close enough. "Something, that's us, definitely. We were passing and my sister here got the fancies. A bowl of chili. The sort you only ever got in an American diner before 1962. I'm the Doctor, by the way, this is my sister LizBeth."

"I'm Cassie. This is Jimmy Stalkingwolf."

"That's so not terrestrial." Lizzy muttered, ignoring the people in favour of some thing in a case on the bar. "Where did you get this, Cassidy?"

A green coil with metal ends. Huh, well spotted, Little Sister. "It's supposed to be from the saucer that crashed five years back. You know, like that Roswell thing over in New Mexico. My mom, she used to run this place, thought it would bring in the tourists." Pause. "Wait, how did you know I was a Cassidy?"

She didn't answer, instead taking it out of the case, the glow  brighter just from the contact to her gloved hand, not even bare skin. "Sister..." Her eyes suddenly burned bright green and it blew the bulbs in the ceiling so I quickly grabbed it from her. "Ooo. Sorry, she's. She's. Yeah. Sorry."

"What did you just do, man?"

"It's far from junk. I know what this is, but there's something very different about it right now."

Cassie blinked at her as I had a look myself. Bog standard fuel cell to me. "Are you saying this really did come from a flying saucer?"

Possibly, there were a tonne of 'em currently up in your airspace, daring each other to get as close as possible to the locals without getting caught. "Well, a flying saucer, maybe. They were quite fashionable in the fifties. Bit like bobbie sox and haircream."

Jimmy looked at his mate. "I told you. I told you there was something going on round here."

"What do you mean?"

"Jimmy works out at the Broken K ranch. Says there's this space monster eating the cattle." Very likely, to be honest, things ended up stuck here all the time, we had to pick up after them half the time. "I told him it's a cougar."

He shook his head. "No cougar did what I saw, or left those tracks."

Now someone new came in, dressed in a black suit and shades, so my sister stepped forward, eyes turning black. Ah. Robots? "What do you want?"

"I'll take the ionic fusion bar."

Cassie was confused, so I lowered my voice. So much for some chili to bribe my sister and get her talking to me again. "He means your piece of junk."