DW: A Child in Time

Doctor Who
AU - season 6ish (written before River's identity was revealed)
A Child in Time



The Doctor ducked into the cupboard. Things were going bad, very, very bad. It was a roomy cupboard though, so that was something, he thought, as he looked around to evaluate his assets.
    "Who are you?" came a voice, clearly that of a child.
    "I'm..." the Doctor began, turning towards the voice, and was half way the the word "the" when he stopped. Some children bare very little resemblance to the people they will grow up to be, but despite her appearance, the Doctor knew instantly who this child was.
    "You're the what?" she asked, eying him closely. She was wary but not frightened. He wondered if anything had ever frightened her.
    "Did I say 'the'? I meant 'a'. I get distracted sometimes, you see, loose track what I'm saying. I talk a lot, think more, actually, but never mind that. You asked who I am, well, I'm a friend."
    "And how do I know that?" she asked.
    "You don't." he replied. "Yet. But keep your voice down."
    She nodded. And he wondered why she was hiding in the cupboard too. She was about seven he guessed though he didn't have time to focus and find out the details. Why did he always meet them when they were seven?
    "Why are you hiding in this cupboard?" she asked, softly.
    "I don't wish to be spotted." he replied.
    "You're not helping." she said. "I'm trying to work out if you're dangerous."
    "Right. Sorry." he said after noting that the cupboards only contents were stuffy clothes, a collection of sports cards from someone's youth, and three shoes. And the curious child.
    "Look," he said appreciating the symmetry of the situation. "I can be dangerous. So can you. Oh you've no idea, but right now I'm not, not to you anyway."
    "Are you dangerous to the Warden?"
    "Yes. I think. Who's the Warden?"
    "The man that took us. Did he take you too? I thought he only took children."
    "No...I came on my own. But maybe you better tell me about it."
    She frowned. "You have no idea where you are, do you?" she said finally. It was more of a statement than an actual question. She was clever, the Doctor thought.
    "Nope." he replied, trying out a smile. It did not impress her. She sighed. And he realized she'd just written him off. He'd gone from potential threat to potential ally to annoying younger kid in about three minutes. "I may be able to help though."
    She bit her lip then and he suddenly realized that while she hadn't been frightened of him, she was scared. She opened her mouth to begin an explanation when they heard a scream.
    "Damn." the Doctor said and shuffled her behind an old dress-suit belonging to the gentleman who seemed to have three feet. "Stay here and don't move. I'll be back in a moment."
    "Why?" she asked, her voice muffled in layers of cloth."
    "And stay absolutely silent whatever you hear." he continued. "Your life depends on it." He nearly used her name he was so anxious about the situation. He was playing this whole thing by ear. Not that that was unusual, but there were some people you didn't want to see die twice.
    To his relief she didn't ask anymore questions, which he took to mean she understood and would obey. He dashed out of the cupboard. There was no one in the room. Bad sign, but good for the child in the closet. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and skirted the bed toward the door, listening carefully.
    He approached the door from the side, carefully not tripping the motion sensors that would open it. Once he was safely flat against the wall to the left of it, he stuck out his hand to trigger it to open. It went up, receding into the folding up in space between the door frame and the ceiling. Peering very carefully around the corner, the Doctor saw what to most people would have looked like a giant gray dog eating a dead man's arm. But the Doctor knew better. He took a deep breath, and pointed the sonic screw driver at the control panel for the door. Working as quickly as he could he reprogrammed it to do exactly what was needed.
    As soon as it heard the door the dog-thing looked round. It could smell more meat in the next room, but, it was unconcerned. That prey was trapped. It could enjoy this meal first and then worry about other food. But when it heard the high pitched, painful whistle-buzz of the screwdriver, it turned and lunged for the door while shifting and twisting into a bipedal, hideous, clawed form.
    The Doctor sprang back, running over the bed to put that between him and the monster, not that it would help if things went wrong. But the Doctor had disabled the motion sensors on the door and the safety features to keep anyone being caught as it came down. It caught the creature with deadly force, pinning it to the ground as it tried to stretch through. But as it's shape gave way to change into something else, the door came fully down and cut the pool of melting flesh in half. It shivered and bubbled, but could not reform into anything dangerous.
    The Doctor sighed in relief. He brushed a hand through his hair as he considered the situation. It wasn't dead, and, in time would collect on either side of the door, but for the next hour or so, everyone would be safe from it. He opened the cupboard door.
    "It's ok now." he said to the dress-suit. "You can come out."
    The dress-suit trembled and produced the blonde hair child who came out cautiously.
    "What's that?" she asked staring with mild revulsion but distinct curiosity at the fluid on the floor.
    "One of several species of inter-dimensional multiform. This variety can take the shape of anything it's eaten. I've split it in two with the door so it can't hurt as at the moment."
    "It changes it's shape?" she asked. "And eats...what?"
    "Anything, really, anything alive I mean."
    "People?"
    "Yes, and, about that...this Warden...was he perhaps a tall, fat man with blue hair and smoke coming out his nostrils?"
    "No. That was his deputy." She said. "Did it eat him?"
    "Partly." The Doctor said. He wondered if it would disturb her.
    She did look a bit grim, but said, "That thing...it changes shape, eats people, and doesn't die when you cut it in half?"
    The Doctor nodded. She shuddered slightly. "It sounds like a monster."
    "Nah. Monsters are way scarier than that." he said. "Tell me about this Warden then. How did you end up here? Where is here, anyway?"
    "The Time Institute." she replied.
    "Not sure I like the sound of that." he said to himself, but she laughed, a hollow, adult laugh that unnerved him. Children did not laugh like that. The bitter amusement did not suit her.
    "You shouldn't," she said. "It's horrible. It's...wrong."
    "Start at the beginning." he said, sitting on the bed and gesturing for her to do so. She sat down, but with a gap between them that said she didn't trust him still.
    "We've been recruited." she began. "All hundred of us. They came to our homes and told our parents different things. With mine it was that I was to go to school at a special academy for gifted youngsters. They made up this whole thing about a school founded by a genius and stuff. They had data-records of course, all official. But with some of the kids I've met it was schools for art or special educational needs, or one boy had been in an orphanage so they actual sent a fake family to fake adopt him. Then they brought us here. But when we got here...they told us they had recruited us because we were special.
    "We do have classes, I suppose, but it's almost all history. Some science and technology, a lot of weird old fashioned skills too. Like I had to learn to peel fruits and vegetables by hand, no automated devices at all. But that's not the bad bit. They do something to us when we sleep. Experiments or something. We're all hooked up to medical machines but no one says what they're doing." She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt to show him the port in her arm where she was nightly connected to those machines.
    "I think." she said finally. "They're going to make us travel in time. It's supposed to be impossible, but, this is called the Time Institute, I've heard them say so. And sometimes they don't notice us or forget and say things. I think they're trying to make us into a kind of Time Police."
    "The Time Agency." the Doctor suddenly realized. "Or the start of it, maybe."
     She watched him carefully. "You travel in time, don't you?"
    "Well....yes." he said startled. "How did you..."
    She shrugged. "They do things to us. I can just...tell."
    "Oh that's not good." he said springing up and scanning her with sonic screwdriver, not caring if it altered their time-line. "Oh..." he said looking at the readings.
    "I told you it was wrong." she whispered. "It's not going to kill us though, right? I mean, there's no point in that, right?"
    "It absolutely will kill you." he said. "If I don't stop them."
    "Can you do that?" she asked.
    He looked at her. Normally, he was relatively confident he could do things, but, never absolutely certain. However, in this case, he could kneel down look her straight in the eye and say,
    "River Song, I can definitely stop them."