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"She's a TARDIS," the Doctor said, patting her panels. "It stand for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It means she travels through time," he explained, because he had to assume that the boy looked so terribly unimpressed was because he was failing to grasp just why the TARDIS was so special.
"Right," the boy said, sniffing in that dismissive way all children seemed to have when they were humouring the adults around them.
"She does! That's what she does, she travels through time and space."
"Yeah," the boy managed to draw the word out far longer than necessary, "I guessed that, given the name."
"Right. Of course you did." The Doctor took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself. "Now, I will take you for a trip inside my TARDIS if, and only if, you help me find my screwdriver."
The boy grabbed his chin in the classic thinking pose and hrmmmmed as he stroked it. "Where will we go?"
"Where ever you want," the Doctor said quickly. "Anywhere. Any time. Just tell me where my screwdriver is."
"You can take me to the future? Where there's flying cars and rockets and things?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"Or the past with mastodons and saber-tooth tigers?"
"Whichever you want."
The boy frowned. "So you can do all that, but you can't figure out where you dropped your screwdriver? What kind of spaceman are you?"
"The kind not used to having holes in his pockets. Now, kid, did you see what happened to my screwdriver or not?"
"It's not kid, it's Calvin. And I did. But if you want me to show you where it is you're going to have to take me to the future and the past."
"I said one or the other!"
"Do you want your screwdriver or not?" Calvin said, crossing his arms and staring up at the Doctor, a look of unwavering determination on his face.
"Fine!" the Doctor huffed. "Screwdriver. Now."
Calvin pointed at a cardboard box sitting upside down on the other side of the yard. "It's in my transmogrifier, I put it there for safekeeping earlier. Or at least it was in there." He shrugged. "With a transmogrifier you never know if what you put in is going to come out, but, if we're lucky, your screwdriver's still there and hasn't changed much."
The Doctor rubbed his temple. He had a feeling this was going to be a long day. A very long day.