by Becky Miller
overwhelmed by the thoughts, that he totally forgot the question she had just posed him.
'Sorry, what did you say?' he asked after he came back from his thoughts.
'I call myself Lynne. Tea?' she answered him.
The question surprised the Doctor a bit but he could really use a cup of tea now indeed.
'Yes. With-', he started.
'I know how you like your tea.' she said and set off to make some.
'And she knows her way around the TARDIS too.' the Doctor thought to himself. 'But then again, so does Rose...'
All evidence so far pointed at this woman indeed being a Time Lord, but the Doctor still thought it too good to be true. And how does she know how he likes his tea? He barely knew that himself after his recent regeneration.
Meanwhile Rose and Mickey were having a great day out on the beach. Rose floated on an inflatable mattress and Mickey swam around in the water. They were enjoying the warm sunrays tanning their skin. Rose thought of the Doctor.
'This is great, isn't it Rose? Some relaxing time for ourselves.' Mickey cheered.
'It would be better if the Doctor were here too.' Rose said sadly.
Mickey sighed and rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe she was still thinking of the Doctor. She should be enjoying the sunshine and her boyfriends company, but Mickey felt as if he was dumped for a much, much older alien man in a pin striped suit with goofy shoes and weird spectacles. He didn't want to upset Rose, so he kept calm and quiet about it.
'What would he be doing right now? Do you think he is bored, waiting for us?' Rose asked him.
'No, I think he has invited the entire neighbourhood to a "fantastic" party in the TARDIS. They're all getting drunk and dance until they drop.' Mickey said teasingly.
'Mickey?!' Rose called agitatedly, but she did get the message.
'I don't know what he is doing. How am I supposed to? Come on, cheer up!' Mickey said and splashed a wave of cold seawater all over Rose. She toppled off her mattress straight into the cold water and screamed, but then she laughed.
Mickey was right; she should have some fun, even without the Doctor.
The Doctor and Lynne were having tea in the TARDIS. They had made themselves comfortable on the chairs near the control column that looked like the back seat of a trashed car.
'You look like you are not glad to see me. I am really glad you are here, though.' Lynne said as she gave the Doctor his cup of steaming hot tea.
'It's because I want to know more, about who you are and what you are doing here. Why did you send the numbers? What were they meant for?' the Doctor asked her, because he was still puzzled about the meaning of all this. He took a sip of his hot tea, just how he liked it best.
'I sent the numbers because I need help. Apparently you do not recognise me.' Lynne said gravely.
'I am sorry, I don't remember much of the past.' the Doctor replied.
'Well, it was a long, long time ago. I still remember you, though. You have changed.' Lynne said.
'How many times have you regenerated already?', she asked him boldly. It wasn't a very appropriate question to ask a Time Lord. She knew, but posed it anyways.
'Nine. I changed, my TARDIS has changed.-Everything has changed.' he said sadly, staring into his tea cup. A small silence fell.
'I got stuck here by accident. At first I tried everything to get back to Gallifrey, but my efforts seemed futile. I had no resources. I couldn't stay hidden forever, so I decided to go out and integrate into human society. I took a job at a utility repair company. I'd take tools and parts to try and fix my ship. That was 28 years ago, in 1985.' she told the Doctor.
'Your ship? Don't say you have a TARDIS too?!' the Doctor asked happily. His sad mood had gone like lightning.
'Yes, of course. Maybe you could help me fix her. I did manage to keep her alive all these years.' Lynne said hopefully.
'I will help you fix your TARDIS if you tell me more about yourself. Where is it?' the Doctor said and jumped up from the seat, plonked his mug down on the console somewhere and went to get his coat.
'Okay, but it is over in the city. We could go by bus.' Lynne said.
'No problem.' the Doctor said. He held up his wallet with the psychic paper and smiled.
Lynne smiled back and followed the Doctor out.
The truth revealed
'It says police box. Your TARDIS doesn't look particularly camouflaged. What is a police box anyway?' Lynne asked as they walked to the bus stop on Castle Avenue.
The Doctor explained what a police box was and why it still looked like one, despite the TARDIS's ability to adapt to it's surroundings.
'How does your TARDIS look like then?' he asked her.
'Oh, it is a penthouse on top of an apartment building, but the Council has plans to tear the old building down. They declared it inhabitable and so I had to move. For appearance sake, you know.' Lynne said. She and the Doctor got on the bus to Cardiff without any problems. Public transport is truly great for getting about easily.
'So you now live in Penarth.' he concluded.
'Yes. That is a recent development. It started about two years ago. I heard about strange and disastrous accidents, such as the killer shop dummies and then there was the Sycorax who declared war with the world at Christmas. I got a heart attack seeing all those people on the roof just in front of my door.
'Anyway, there were rumours about a man who chased them off; A time traveller. That is when I began digging to find out more about who he was.
'Recently I found a company that had lots of information about all the alien encounters and about you. They offered me a job six months ago, and Torchwood pays for my new apartment too. Though, recently they make me work overtime a lot.
'Anyway, here we are. This is our stop.' Lynne was quite a chatty lady. Once she started talking she was hard to stop.
'Torchwood? Isn't that in London?' the Doctor wondered, while he stood gazing up at the apartment building, with his hands in his pockets, as usual.
'They have a department here too. It's that big glass building over there.' she pointed eastward to a slim and tall glass office building only a few blocks away from where they were now.
They were in front of Lynne's apartment building. It looked quite old and uninhabitable indeed. Most windows were broken and wooden boards blocked the doors and ground floor windows.
'We can get in through the back.' Lynne said and showed the way.
Lynne's TARDIS looked just like a penthouse. It wasn't even much bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. It looked just like a proper house, with rooms, a kitchen and cupboards. It looked like a TARDIS too, though. There were lots of cables everywhere and some computer screens and lots of other technology the Doctor seemed to recognise. He was amazed how homely Lynne's TARDIS looked.
Lynne started up some of the systems by pushing buttons and turning knobs. Lights began to flicker and a soft humming came from the walls. The Doctor looked around all the systems shortly. His eyes wide open and a smile stretched over his face. Then he crouched down and pulled a hatch loose from the wall. He started tinkering with the cables inside.
'Lynne, could you?.' he gave her directions to assist.
Together they worked on fixing Lynne's TARDIS all afternoon.
Rose and Mickey returned from the beach. They arrived at the TARDIS all giggling and still wet from the water.
'Were back!' Rose called as she pushed against the police box door. 'It is locked.' she said disappointedly to Mickey.
'You have a key, right?' Mickey asked. Rose confirmed and unlocked the door with the key the Doctor had given her, but it meant the Doctor himself was not inside.
'Where could he be?' Rose wondered aloud. 'Do you think he found anything about the numbers?'
Mickey shrugged. He had no clue and he knew Rose was not really expecting an answer. They changed into dry clothes.
'Don't worry, Rose. I am sure the Doctor can take care of himself.' Mickey assured her as
he rummaged his backpack for a dry clean T-shirt. At that moment Rose heard voices outside, one of which she recognised too well. It was the Doctor and he was with a friend, a woman.
'Oh, he has taken good care of himself all right. And someone else as well.' she remarked. She went to the door to peek outside.
The Doctor had his coat and jacket over his one arm and the woman on the other arm. They stopped just as they came out of the alley. Rose got the impression the woman had seen her spying on them. The woman spoke a while with the Doctor and they said goodbye. The woman returned through the alley while the Doctor walked towards the TARDIS with the biggest smile on his face Rose had ever seen. He had his eyes closed but he still seemed to walk straight to the TARDIS without any difficulty. Rose went back inside.
'Hello Rose, Mickey. How was your day at the beach?' the Doctor asked as if nothing had happened. Rose noticed he had also loosened his tie and collar.
'Hi!', Mickey called from the bottom of his backpack. Rose was not very pleased and it showed.
The Doctor walked right past her, hung his coat and jacket on the hat stand and slumped down on the sensible chairs. His smile was still there and he dreamingly stared out in front of him.
'And what did you discover?' Rose asked the Doctor quite suddenly, waking him from his daydream.
'Hm? Yes. I found the person who sent the numbers. They were sent asking for help to get back home.' the Doctor explained.
Mickey was still looking for his T-shirt, he scolded. Rose approached the Doctor.
'It was her, wasn't it?', she said softly. She looked him straight in