The Companion

The next day started out well, everyone was cheerful and business was doing brilliantly. But since just before lunch time when the Doctor had accidentally made a bit of a mess having slipped on a wet patch near one of the freezers and dropped some ice cream cartons, his behaviour had changed somewhat. He was, of course, perfectly happy to clean himself up and kindly refused help from Marie and I, insisting that he wasn’t hurt. But since the little mishap had had become a bit preoccupied in a sense. He spent less time out by the counter like he usually did and tended to take any chance he got to return to the back room.

It was Marie’s turn to lock up tonight and so the Doctor and I departed via the back door. Stepping outside I once again noticed the absence of cars in our area. In fact, Marie’s was the only one there.

“Doctor? How do you get home?” I asked.

“Just like everyone else, don’t I?” he said.

“You said something about a TARDIS the first day I met you. You said it was some kind of vehicle…” I said, my voice trailing off.

“Ah yes… well, there’s a time and place for everything, Kylie,” he said.

“Why so secretive?” I said, raising my eyebrow at him.

“What do you mean secretive?”

“Well, I mean, there’s no shame in having a vehicle that’s not up to the ‘big boys’ toys’ standard, if that’s what you’re worried about. I wouldn’t mind in the slightest.”

The Doctor was about to answer but before he could, a massive white light hit the corner of my eye. My head snapped around and I saw the edges of the back door to the shop engulfed in a light that shone so brightly that it could have blinded with direct exposure.

“What is that?” I asked no one in particular, struggling to close my gaping mouth.

“That is… not good,” said the Doctor suddenly running up to the door. I didn’t even hesitate and ran straight after him.

“What’s not good?” I asked.

“Stay there, Kylie,” he said, digging into the pocket in the lining of his tweed blazer.

“What is it, Doctor?”

“Nothing… nothing, just… wait here,” he said as he pulled out his funny metal device I had seen on the first day. A Sonic… something… I couldn’t quite remember what it was called.

“Doctor! Just tell me!” I said, raising my voice in desperation. If he knew something was at stake then sure I had a right to know because Marie was in there.

“Kylie, I’m trying to do a job here and I’d very much appreciate it if you gave me a moment to just get this going,” he said, gritting his teeth as he fiddled with his “sonic” and it began whirring and the end lit up green.

“Please, Doctor! That’s my friend in there,” I said and without realising it my hand closed around his device, which was still in his hand, in a desperate attempt to understand at least something.

“Look, Kylie, I really have to do this. Please just… let go,” he said, looking me directly in the eye and mirroring my expression of desperation as the light around the door brightened slightly.

“Tell me something, just… something!” I said, still gripping his gadget.

“Kylie, the survival of your world could be at stake here, I need to do this and I need my screwdriver,” he said calmly but with a sense of urgency.

I didn’t move, my hand didn’t even flinch. My mind understood that the Doctor had a job to do but my body didn’t seem to want to cooperate. The part of me that knew something strange was going to happen, wanted answers.

“Kylie, please. There is a possibly dangerous crack behind your storage cupboard and I think its open and if you haven’t noticed your best friend is in there,” he said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible but as he spoke I only picked up on one thing.

“You know about the crack?”

“Yes, yes I know about the crack. I’ve seen it before all over the place. I thought, maybe I had got rid of it by blowing up the universe. I have no idea how it could have possibly happened again but please, I need to get in there and stop it. I need to save Marie!” he yelled desperately and gave me such a fright that I quickly let go of device. Just as I did so, the light around the door dimmed slowly until I could barely see it.

“But… Marie? Who’s Marie?” I said, confused as the Doctor took this opportunity to turn back towards the door and fiddle with his device.

“Marie, your best friend Marie who also works in the shop,” said the Doctor, highly concentrated on what he was doing.

“Doctor, what are you talking about? We’re the only ones who work in the shop,” I said and at this he looked around at me and it was as if all the blood had drained from his face. He was white as a sheet.

“Oh no no no! She’s been erased!” he said, turning and beating the door in anger before working faster than ever.

“What? What do you mean erased?” I said.

“Just… just give me a second…” he said, still struggling.

I watched as his device finally did what he had wanted it to do and so he gave the door a whiz with it.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Sonic Screwdriver, I thought I’d mentioned it,” he said, pushing the door open and walking inside. I followed closely behind.

“Screwdriver?” I said.

“Yes a screwdriver, what’s so strange about a sonic screwdriver?”

“Well, its just… screwdrivers are generally for… you know, driving in screws.”

The Doctor didn’t answer my query but walked over to the store cupboard and pulled it back from the wall.

“Kylie, tell me about the day we met,” said the Doctor, out of the blue, his tone rather conversational.

“Why?”

“Just tell me everything you remember.”

“Well umm, you sonic-ed your way in with that screwdriver of yours and then we talked about… I dunno, your non-existent criminal record or something and then… well, I gave you the job.”

“No, you see, you didn’t give me the job,” he said putting emphasis on the second you as he began to scan the crack behind the cupboard with his sonic screwdriver.

“What are you talking about? Of course I did,” I said, still highly confused.

“No no no, Marie gave me the job,” he said.

“Who is Marie? Doctor, Harry and I were the only ones there when you got the job,” I said. He was talking like I should know what he means but I just didn’t understand and yet again, he didn’t answer my question.

“How can this be here if I rebooted the universe? How can it possibly have returned?” he muttered to himself.

“Doctor, what on earth are you talking about? How can you reboot the universe? Who are you?” I said, curiosity taking over as I grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him around to face me.

“It’s a long story, now if you don’t mind-“

“Doctor, who are you? Nothing weird… nothing like this has happened here, ever. Not until you arrived.”

“Weird things are always happening, you just don’t see them,” he said, tapping my head with his screwdriver before going to turn around again.

“But this… this crack, the fact that someone can be erased… these things just… don’t happen,” I said, wanting to believe my own words but hoping otherwise.

“Ok, if you’ll let me finish what I’m doing, I’ll explain. Just give me five minutes,” he said as calmly as possible.

“Five minutes?”

“Yes five minutes, I promise,” he said, looking me straight in the eyes.

“All right, go ahead,” I said, walking over to lean against the nearest bench.

“Ok, time to find out what brought you back,” he said, turning back to the crack.

Notes