Chapter Text
Amy and Rory sat in their kitchen, enjoying cups of hot English Breakfast Tea. Their home in the outskirts of London had all the makings of one well-suited to a young British couple eager to start a family. Compact, but still comfortable. The perfect place to raise children. When, of course, they finally had children.
However, their lives were anything but ordinary. Already, they’d been through countless adventures together. Amy had traveled with the Doctor just before her wedding, long before Rory joined in. They’d fought off the Silence, met River Song, and of course, tolerated all of the Doctor’s hallmark quirks.
This was their life. Endless days spent waiting to hear even the faintest hint of the TARDIS materializing in their street, waiting for the next time the Doctor would take them through time and space to save the day. However, it was the inbetween parts that were the most challenging and bizarre. It had been one month since they had last seen the Doctor, and the anticipation was maddening. Already, they had begun to question just how long this arrangement could last. Could the Doctor really be with them for the rest of their lives? Or should they simply move on, start a family, and leave all of those adventures as the story of their youthful days?
But, any questions of moving on had to wait. For, suddenly, the whirring noise of the TARDIS sounded from across the street. Amy was the first to hear it. She was in the middle of a sip, and dropped her tea cup so fast that it spilled on the table and floor.
“Rory!” she called, but he was already following.
Hardly caring about spilled tea, she raced to the front window and pulled back the curtain. Sure enough, directly across the street, was the same police box. It looked just as it did the last time, as if it were only yesterday. Of course, for the Doctor, it really could have been yesterday.
“Let’s go out to him, shall we?”
Amy started to open the front door, but Rory gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Look, before we do –“
“Yes, Rory, I know,” Amy said, lowering her voice and looking solemnly. She didn’t seem overly aggravated, though this had been a popular topic of conversation over the past month. “We need to talk to him… I’ll tell him. But clearly he wants us right now.”
Leaving Rory in the doorway, Amy sprinted through the door and across the street. On cue, and with Rory following slowly behind, the Doctor emerged – dressed, of course, in his red bowtie and tweed jacket. But, this unusual combination paled in comparison to what seemed to be his latest quirky fashion.
The Doctor was wearing a snorkel and swimfins.
He pranced about joyously, extending his arms in greeting to his old companions.
“Amy! Rory!” he called, as he embraced the both of them. “A week, and you haven’t changed a bit!”
“It’s been a month, Doctor,” Rory quipped in awkwardly.
“Oh…has it?” the Doctor said, pausing with a funny look on his face. “Time…always a difficult thing.” He glanced at his TARDIS, looking a bit worried. But suddenly, his worry transformed itself again into a stream of joy.
“But nevermind that! New adventures to be had, and you’re just the two I need!” He pulled them close, grabbing each of their shoulders and speaking into their ears like he was giving them a pep talk before a sports match.
“We’re going to catch a fish!” He said, as if this was the newest, most exciting idea ever. “A really, really big fish!”
Amy and Rory just looked at him, unimpressed.
“And, do all sorts of other clever things! Maybe sit on the pier, share some life stories, while we eat chips and think of merry days gone by!” The Doctor said, pitching the thought to them by waving his hands around in obscure ways.
Amy continued staring at the Doctor, her arms crossed. She knew him well enough to demand the full story right from the start.
“Oh, all right,” the Doctor, said, giving in with the exasperation that reminded one of a child whose antics had been discovered. The Doctor knew Amy well, too. “And maybe save the Earth from an alien along the way.”
“Good enough, Doctor. But what’s with the scuba look?” Amy inspected his new wardrobe.
“Thought you’d never ask! Got it from Jacques Couseau himself! Mind you, the real one. I kept it for the day I’d get to see a fish up-close again!”
“Doctor, you did say this fish is really large?”
“Yes, I did…”
“So you wouldn’t be catching it by scuba diving?”
“Well, no…”
“So, why do you have a snorkel?”
The Doctor paused for a moment. “I like snorkels. Snorkels are cool.”
Amy looked at Rory before looking at the Doctor. “We’ll go with you, Doctor,” Amy said, smiling confidently as she brushed past him into the TARDIS. “But, lose the fins. You’re not a fish.”
The Doctor smiled, as if he’d expected this. Turning back into the console room, he excitedly began the dematerialization procedure, putting in the coordinates of their destination.
“Good then! Next stop, Japan!”
The Doctor pulled a lever, and the TARDIS took off. It quickly materialized again, thousands of miles away in the small town of Enoshima. It hadn’t even bothered to go backwards or forwards in time.
Excitedly, the Doctor raced to the door, eager to get a glimpse of the village. He didn’t even notice his monitor camera, which would have shown the figure of a blonde boy racing just as quickly to the newly arrived blue box, carrying a fishing rod behind him.
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The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS. He’d opened the door of the TARDIS to many things, including armies of Daleks, empty space, and countless dangers. But rarely had he ever opened the door, only to find someone standing on the other side, as if they’d been eagerly expecting him.
And yet now, the Doctor looked down to find the face of a young boy with blonde hair and purple eyes staring up at him. The boy’s mouth was open in excitement. He pointed up at the Time Lord, before pointing to himself.
“I Haru!,” the boy said. “I’m an alien!”
Haru gazed wildly around the TARDIS, managing to get a look on the inside.
Before the Doctor could get in a word, Haru cried out in excitement,
“This box is so blue! And bigger on the inside! If only it were red!”
He caught sight of the Doctor’s red bowtie and stared at it, transfixed. He reached out a hand to prod it.
At this, however, the Doctor shooed the boy’s hand away and spoke up.
“Yes, it’s the TARDIS. And I’m the Doctor. You said you were an alien…”
Ignoring him, however, Haru brushed past him and ran into the console room, spreading his arms out in a wing-like fashion as he ran in circles, looking excitedly at everything. Alarmed, the Doctor simply stood there, taken aback.
“Bigger on the inside! Bigger on the inside!” Haru chanted happily, before settling his eyes on the console itself. Amy and Rory, who had been trying to gather what had been happening for the past few minutes, stared at him, giving the young alien a look that mixed concern with stunned surprise.
“Bowtie man, what does your box do?” Haru said, turning to the Doctor.
“It’s a time machine,” the Doctor said, clearly proud that someone was impressed by his super-cool taste in neckwear. “It can go anywhere in time and space!”
At this, Haru jumped in excitement.
“A time machine! Make it fly, bowtie man!”
He pointed a green water gun at the Doctor. Smiling, he squirted it into the Time Lord’s face, causing him to jump back in alarm. Moments afterward, however, with a calm look on his face, the Doctor walked over to the TARDIS controls, beginning the dematerialization sequence again.
Continued in chapter 2