The Companion

I hadn’t really noticed in the few days that I’d known the Doctor, until I was on the outside looking in, that he seemed to enjoy having long meaningful conversations about life. He was quite a good wordsmith and appeared to have a lot of worldly experience, even if he didn’t explicitly state any of the situations to which his metaphors and advice applied.

“You know I once said to this fella, I told him, its not the time that matters, it’s the person,” said the Doctor.

“Very wise, Doctor. You know, you’re absolutely right,” said Liam, looking genuinely impressed at what a great conversationalist the Doctor had turned out to be.

“Well I’ve been around a bit, seen a few things,” he replied.

“Are you a traveler?” Niall asked.

“You could say that.”

“Do you travel with anyone?”

“Well… I haven’t in quite sometime. I’ve been wandering alone lately, thought I might settle down for a bit and get a hobby. Live life in the right order.”

“In the right order?” said Louis.

“Its just a figure of speech I enjoy using,” he said.

“So where do you come from?” asked Liam.

At the sound of this question I turned my full attention to the Doctor, remembering that first day when we’d received his application. Marie had mentioned a place and I could only assume that it was where the Doctor was from, despite not being familiar with it.

“Gallifrey,” he said simply.

“Gallifrey? Where’s that? Europe somewhere?” asked Louis.

“Uhh, yes,” said the Doctor semi-confidently.

The boys lapped this up fine and continued to talk more about travels and such, but I couldn’t help but feel like Gallifrey was further abroad than Europe. Nevertheless, I let it slide. I’d ask questions later.

We spent most of the evening in conversation about various different things both amusing and less so. The boys told the Doctor all about their less than ordinary lives for it seemed, and don’t ask me how, that he didn’t know about the phenomenon we had sat under the roof.

“Well, that does sounds like fun,” said the Doctor, grinning as they told him about some of the things they’d done.

“Yeah, traveling is a great part of it all,” said Niall. “Although you do miss home and your family.”

“I can understand that,” said the Doctor and there seemed to be a slight shadow behind his eye as he said this.

“I mean we can be away for months at a time,” said Niall.

“But its all good fun,” added Liam.

“But how about your family, Doctor? What are they like?” asked Niall.

“My family are… were… lovely.”

“Oh… I… I’m sorry,” said Niall detecting the not so bright tone to the Doctor’s voice and the rather obvious change in tense.

“You people apologize too much. Don’t worry about me,” said the Doctor trying to bring the cheerful tone back into the conversation.

There was a bit of an awkward silence before Louis quickly changed the subject.

“So do you play football?” he asked.

“I dabble. I helped out a friend a while back with his football team,” said the Doctor. “It was great fun although he didn’t seem too happy after we won the game.”

“After you won? You’d think a man would be stoked about that.”

“Well, frankly, I was confused but his mood picked up again after a little while. Do you play?”

“Yeah, I played a few charity matches with the team from my hometown,” said Louis, grinning proudly.

It had got quite late by the time we’d run out of conversation topics and eaten all the food. I was lying against Harry’s chest as the talking began to die down a bit. I let out a small yawn, feeling rather content, relaxed and just a bit sleepy.

“You tired, babe?” said Harry, stroking my hair.

“A little,” I said, yawning again.

“Home to bed, I reckon,” he said and I nodded.

“Are you guys off?” asked Niall as Harry stood up and turned to take my hands to pull me up off the couch.

“Yeah, Kylie’s getting a bit drowsy,” said Harry, wrapping his arm around me once I’d found my feet.

“Ok, well, we’ll see you guys next time then,” Niall said, getting out of his seat.

“I should probably get going as well,” said the Doctor. “Got a few things to do before… bedtime,” he finished, slightly awkwardly.

“It was nice to meet you, Doctor,” said Niall.

“Yes, yes, it has been a pleasure,” said the Doctor, gratefully.

The rest of the boys and Marie all got up to exchange good byes with the three of us before we headed out the door.

“Hey, Doctor, thanks for coming along, it was great to have you join us,” said Harry as we reached the end of the driveway.

“Well, thank you for inviting me. It was a rather pleasant evening,” said the Doctor, as he looked left down the street.

Both Harry and I followed his gaze but there wasn’t really anything to see

“Where bouts are you parked, Doctor?” said Harry, as he had noticed the lack of unfamiliar vehicles in the street.

“Oh, just around that corner,” he replied, pointing down to the left.

“Ah ok… well… have a good night then,” said Harry, giving a small wave as we went our separate ways.

“Good night, Doctor,” I called after him as he walked down the road.

“Yes, good night, see you at the shop,” he called back before disappearing around the corner.

“All right, time to get you home, babe,” said Harry, as we walked to the car where he very kindly opened the passenger door to let me in, looking back down the road as he did so.

Notes