Doctor Who: Series A [COMPLETE]

Episode Twelve: Judgement Day

Elliott Green was born on May 18th, 2023 to two loving parents: Callum and Sarah. They loved him, at least; what they felt for one another often boiled over into impatience, indifference, and occasionally, rage.

Like his father, Elliott was a fast learner. Milestones raced by - he could sit up, then crawl, then walk, then talk - until his parents worried that he would grow up too fast. Like their son's development, the end of their relationship also developed too quickly, and neither Sarah nor Callum could maintain the pretence any longer.

For Sarah, it was Callum's immaturity; his partying with 'the lads' at the weekend, his inability to properly do the dishes, his quips and jokes in serious situations. Callum, meanwhile, felt out of his depth in the relationship, untrusted, looked down upon, and not good enough. If they had talked more, perhaps they could have figured it out.

They separated - unmarried - when Elliott was two. By the time he was three, he was capable of understanding the separation of mummy and daddy, both geographically and emotionally. And although he loved his father all the same, little Elliott Green dreaded staying at Callum's new flat, all because of the thin men who creeped out of the walls at night.

"This is the last time," his mother had said, leaving him behind to face the scary men alone. Only on that night, he wasn't alone: he made two new friends in a man called the Doctor, and a nice woman called Jade. They looked after him with daddy, but once they had gone, the bad memories lingered. Sarah never made him stay there again.

After that weekend, his father disappeared. They never heard from him again, and he would hear his mother mutter curses under her breath from the kitchen, even as her new boyfriend put a ring on her finger, and later married her.

As time went on, Elliott continued to be a fast learner. He learnt to cheer his mum up, to avoid asking about his dad, and to love his new stepdad all the same. He learnt to use computers, and to fix them, and all about physics. He also learnt to be by himself, to never talk about that weekend again...and to no longer fear monsters.

By the time he was fifteen, Elliott Green would have considered himself to be well-adjusted and normal. Although he still thought about the thin men and the Doctor and Jade and his dad, he never let those thoughts bubble to the surface; never let anybody know what he was clinging onto.

Of course, that meant that his father's face - which he had revised over and over again, committing it to memory every night - was instantly recognisable, even from afar. He was sitting in the park, his bike resting against the bench, taking a drink of water on a warm summer's day when he saw Callum, stepping out of a blue box parked between some trees. 

Elliott squinted, his heart racing as his father gazed over at him. He seemed to panic, turning to retreat back into the box, only to stop, and slowly return to where he was. He started to cross the grass separating him from his son.

Nervous, unsure, and a little bit freaked out, Elliott screwed the lid back on his bottle and got to his feet. Was it his dad? And was he expecting him to run across the field to greet him? He didn't, of course; he was rooted to the spot, watching the man come closer.

Elliott sat back down, his legs reversing their decision to ever have risen like his hopes. It was probably just a doppelgänger, he reasoned. 

Reason fell apart once Callum was standing in front of his son, now a teenager.

"Elliott?" he asked, tearfully.

"D-dad?"

Callum nodded, and Elliott leapt to his feet, hugging his father tightly.

"You got so tall," Callum sobbed, holding his son close, crying for every missed day.

"You haven't changed," Elliot said suddenly, backing away with a puzzled look on his face. "How is that possible?"