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The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, ready for some amazing new sight. He was on his own again, but it was probably better that way.
“What do you have for me this time, old girl?”
He looked around. And blinked.
Sparkling shards of light in the air.
“What?”
A triceratops munching on rose bushes in the garden of a small cottage.
“What?”
The supposed to be dead Private Ross Jenkins grinning at him like a lunatic.
“WHAT?”
****
“Identify yourself.”
That was from the hot blond bloke who was pointing a gun at him. Huh, must not be UNIT then, the Doctor thought. The Doctor twitched. Ross Jenkins was dead, the Doctor had heard him die.
“Ross? How? But, the Sontarans? I heard you get shot. But you’re here. Not that it’s not great that you’re here, but how? And is that a triceratops? Brilliant! Oh, I’m the Doctor by the way. You can stop pointing your guns at me. But what’s a triceratops doing in modern day London? Oh, I suppose that ball of time energy might have something to do with it. You’re not playing with time are you? Because that would be bad. Humans aren’t supposed to have developed time travel yet. If Jack’s been fiddling with his wrist strap again I will have to have words.”
Ross laughed. “Don’t worry boss, the Doctor is a good guy. Met him during my UNIT assignment. They refer to him as Code 9.”
The blond bloke with the gun still didn’t look convinced. Neither did scruffy looking bloke in the green jacket.
“He came out of a blue box that appeared out of thin air. How is that possible?” The scruffy looking bloke had an expression of scientific curiosity as he peered at the TARDIS.
“That’s my TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. She’s the best ship in the universe. But can we get back to the triceratops in London? I’m fairly sure it should actually be in the late Cretaceous.”
“But...” Scruffy was interrupted by the blond in charge.
“Any ideas on getting that thing back home, Prof? Preferably before we have to tell Lester that the budget needs to be stretched to compensating the loss of someone’s prize roses?”
“I think it might be best to try creating a half circle around it and using a combination of our voices and waved objects, you know, coats and branches and such, to gently encourage it back through on its own. I don’t really fancy trying to move it if we tranquilise it.”
“Right, you heard the professor, lads. Move out.”
“It’s Captain Ryan in charge, and Professor Nick Cutter is head of science,” Ross muttered to the Doctor before following orders.
The Doctor watched as Ross grinned at him and turned to join his squad mates in a forming the suggested half circle. He cheerfully accepted the leafy branch handed to him and on his Ryan mark, started waving it in front of him while he moved forward.
With the soldiers distracted, the Doctor found himself being peppered with questions from Professor Cutter and some geeky bloke named Connor who kept referring to Star Trek.
***
By the time the triceratops had disappeared back through the anomaly, the professor and the Doctor were having a full blown argument about some theory of evolution. Ross nearly burst out laughing as the Doctor resorted to calling Cutter a stupid ape. The UNIT files had mentioned his liking for that particular insult.
“Jenkins.”
Ross turned to face Captain Ryan. “Yes sir?”
“With me. This Code 9 seems to react well to you and if we don’t separate him and Cutter soon we may have a homicide on our hands. Either that or Cutter is going to give Temple another concussion with his arm waving.”
Ross laughed. “And we can’t have Connor concussed again. If Abby has to wake him up through the night again, she’ll commit Connor-cide.”
As they approached the arguing intellectuals Ross called out, “Hey, Doctor, have you heard from Dr Jones recently?” He knew better than to ask about Ms Noble. He had bumped into Martha not long after the planets in the sky crisis.
It worked. The Doctor was distracted from his train of thought.
“No I haven’t. How is she? Married to her Dr Milligan yet?”
“Oh no. She’s engaged to Mickey Smith now.”
“Really? Good for Mick, Mick, Mickey. Good bloke, him.”
Ross glanced to the side and saw that Captain Ryan had managed to corral Cutter with the help of Hart. Turning back to the Doctor, he continued. “Are you travelling alone then?”
“Yep. I don’t suppose you would want to join me?” The Doctor gave him a look that reminded Ross of a hopeful puppy.
“If you had asked me right after the Sontaran incident, I probably would have said yes.” Ross sighed. “I have a good thing going here though. I trust my team and the work we do is important. Today was a good day. No one got hurt. But we have already had raptors come through an anomaly, not to mention giant centipedes, prehistoric parasites, sabre-toothed cats and some sort of future predator. What if a T-rex is next?”
The Doctor blinked. “I see your point.” He patted Ross on the shoulder as he grinned cheerfully. “At least I know you’re alive now. Maybe I’ll look you up again in the future.”
Ross smiled. “You do that. I might just say yes one day.”
“Well, I’ll be off then. Maybe I’ll go and visit Martha and Mickey.”
“See you soon, Doctor.”
“Soon.”
The Doctor walked over to the TARDIS and let himself in, giving Ross a final wave before shutting the door. Soon, the tell tale noise filled the air and the blue box faded from existence.
“Jenkins, where did he go?”
Ross turned to face Captain Ryan. “Who knows, sir? The Doctor has the entirety of time and space at his disposal and the ability to find adventure where ever he goes. He might turn up again one day, if we’re lucky.”
“The entirety of time and space?”
Ross laughed. “Yes, sir. But don’t worry – this time traveller is on our side.”
With that, he moved towards the anomaly. He had a job to do.