Don't Panic!

Holiday Special! Chapter Twelve- Oh Christmas Lights, Keep Shining On.

A month later, Christmas Eve.

I sat at my window looking on to the busy street filled with last minute holiday shoppers, I listened to the Christmas music that played thru my radio, white snow fell on the ground. I wondered, were has my doctor, my father been. I got up from my window and went over to my dresser. I opened my dresser draw and took the locked box out of my drawer and opened it, I took the photo of me and my father the first time we met and smiled, I took the bowtie out of the box and rubbed the smooth fabric against my face. I took a picture of me and Luke out and smiled at it, Luke was right I did kind of look like my father. I heard a knock on my door; I quickly locked the box and put it back in my drawer. “Come in!’’ I said. It my mother, “Me and Christopher are going out tonight, we wanted to know if you would like to come with us” she said. “No, I’m fine I’m just going to be staying home and watching Christmas movies till you come home or I fall asleep”. “Alright Charlie, I trust you home alone so don’t go and do something without telling me”. “Yes mum, I promise” I said. She nodded at me and closed my door. I went to my phone and checked it I had no messages. I would be spending my Christmas Eve alone, still categorized as a runaway in some way to the police of London, more categorized as one to Detective Lewis. I got off my bed and went down stairs and turned on the television, they were showing the classic they show every year on BBC, I was used to watching every year with only my mother, but yet again she cared about my probably new stepfather soon. Suddenly I heard my phone start going off up in my room, I ran up the stairs and grabbed my phone looking at the name that went across the screen “Luke’’. I answered the phone, ‘’Hello Luke’’. “Hello Charlie, Marry Christmas!’’. ‘’Merry Christmas Luke’’ I said back. ‘’I just wanted to know if you would like to maybe go out with me tonight if it’s okay with your family’’ Luke said. ‘’I would love too, pick me up maybe in ten, fifteen minutes?’’ I asked. ‘’I’ll be right there!’’ Luke said. ‘’Oh wait, Luke wear a nice sweater’’ I said into the phone and smiled. ‘’Alright Bye Charlie’’. I hung up the phone with a big smile on my face. I went into my closet and picked out a new outfit, skinny jeans, my blue Jack Wills sweater and I slipped on my converse and waited at the door with my bag, I left a note on the kitchen table saying who I was with. I heard a knock on the door and opened it, ‘’Luke!’’ I said. ‘’Hello Charlie, Merry Christmas again!’’. Luke was wearing a red sweater I’ve seen him wear before and black jeans. ‘’Your dressed nice’’ I said. ‘’Thank you, you too’’. ‘’Hey I wanted to know if you would like to meet somebody, we would need a ride there though’’. “First Charlie, where are we going?’’ asked Luke. ‘’To meet some family of mine, one thing though they live an hour away from here, in Leadworth’’. ‘’Well taxi then maybe?’’ asked Luke. ‘’A taxi would work I guess’’ I said.  ‘’Okay let’s try to get one then’’ Luke said. Luke raised his hand and whistled. Soon a taxi came over to us, ‘’Leadworth please’’.  “Alright’’ the taxi driver said. ‘’Thank you’’ Luke said. The driver nodded. ‘’So Luke, you didn’t want to be with your family for Christmas Eve too?’’ I asked. ‘’Yea, my Christmas Eaves are basically full of my family fighting over stupid things, so I decided Charlie probably wasn’t doing anything so I guess I’ll spend my Christmas with her’’ Luke said and smiled. ‘’My mother was going out to eat with her boyfriend Christopher so I just stayed home, I was going to be doing my regular Christmas Eve thing I always do every year watch Christmas movies in till I fell asleep’’. ‘’Sounds fun, I love Christmas music, and Christmas movies, they always give me the Christmas I always wanted’’ Luke said. ‘’Christmas was always me and my mother, my father was never there, though my mum always said that he was still here, even if we didn’t see it, my mum always tried her best to make me happy on Christmas even when I was just a little girl I always would be happy with what she got even if it was little’’ I said. Luke smiled, ‘’I remember when I was little every Christmas Eve I would dress up in my pink pajamas and sing to Christmas songs on the radio, it was good times’’. I smiled at the thought of my childhood and how good it, knew my mum was waiting too for my father and not just us. I looked out the window and snow fell, as we went on the road on the highway. ‘’Last time I visited my family I found out who my father really was’’. ‘’I’m going to be meeting your father?’’ asked Luke. ‘’Well I hope so, I hope he will actually be there, what he is and what he does is kind of confusing to some people, timey wimey as he explained it too me’’ I said and laughed. The taxi stopped, ‘’are we here?”’ I asked the driver. ‘’This is Leadworth’’ he said. I gave the driver his money and drove away; we were in Leadworth, just not Amy’s house yet.  ‘’Well do you know where to go?’’ Luke asked. ‘’Nope!’’. ‘’This is great, who’s house are you looking for?’’ Luke asked. ‘’A girl named Amy Pond’’ I said. ‘’Why don’t we ask some of the people around here’’ Luke said. ‘’Oh this is just trouble waiting to happen’’ I said. We walked to a green field and I looked up at the stars, I could hear a familiar noise up in the sky. “Do you hear that?” I asked. I looked up at the sky and suddenly saw the police box that could fly. “Follow that flying police box!’’ I shouted and started running. ‘’Wait, what flying police box?’’ asked Luke. ‘’Long story’’ I responded. I followed the police box up a road, and it disappeared. ‘’Wait, where did it go?’’ asked Luke. ‘’I’m not sure’’ I said, out of breathe from the long run. I looked up at the sky, where had my father disappeared too. ‘’We’ll never find my family’’ I said. ‘’Come on Charlie, its okay’’ Luke said trying to comfort me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to hear it again, ‘’Father, father, tell me where have you been?’’ I whispered to myself. I heard a voice, “Rory, he’s here!’’ I heard someone say. ‘’Hello Pond!’’. ‘’Charlie, you okay?’’ asked Luke. ‘’I found them’’ I said and smiled. ‘’Wait how?”’ asked Luke. ‘’Follow me!’’. I ran up the road and got to their house, the Amy and Rory’s house, where my father is. I went up to the door and Luke stood behind me confused, ‘’Luke what’s the matter?’’ I asked. ‘’Everything that has happened this Christmas eve!’’ he shouted. ‘’Calm down Luke, there really nice, you’ll like them’’ I said. ‘’Okay, I trust you on this one’’ Luke said. I smiled at him, ‘’thank you’’. I knocked at the door, ‘’don’t tell me, you brought someone else too’’ I heard Amy say, ‘’I swear I didn’t!’’ I heard my father say. ‘’If you’re lying to me’’. I giggled, and Amy opened the door. ‘’Charlie!’’ Amy shouted and gave me a hug, ‘’and Charlie’s friend!’’. ‘’Charlie’s here?” I heard Rory ask. ‘’Go upstairs and tell doctor she’s here!”’ Amy yelled to Rory. ‘’Doctor, come downstairs!’’ yelled Rory. ‘’Amy, this is my friend Luke Campbell’’ I said. ‘’Nice to meet you’’ Luke said. ‘’Nice to meet you too Luke, I’m Amy Pond’’. ‘’And I’m her husband Rory’’. ‘’Come inside, its cold out’’.  I heard rushing footsteps down the stairs, and saw my father. ‘’Charlie you’re here!’’. ‘’Hi dad’’ I said and gave him a big hug. ‘’Hello stranger that followed Charlie!” he shouted. ‘’Oh dad, this is Luke Campbell my friend, don’t worry he knows about the whole father daughter situation’’ I said. My father whispered in my ear, ‘’did you tell him about the whole timelord stuff?’’. I nodded no. ‘’I’m the doctor also Charlie’s father, nice to meet you Luke’’ I asked. ‘’Nice to meet you too doctor’’. ‘’Well we were just about to eat, you can come eat dinner with us’’. ‘’Okay, come on Luke’’ I said. He followed me to the dinner table and sat down next to me. Everyone sat at the dinner table and gathered around the food that Amy had made. ‘’So Charlie, how have you and your mother been since I last saw you?’’ asked my father. ‘’Well I am still categorized as a runaway in London in till January 2nd of 2013’’. ‘’I am very sorry about that’’. ‘’It’s okay, it’s not your fault it was the dectective you was the one who said I was a runaway’’. Everyone had awkward faces with the conversation out loud that we were having, everyone looked at each other. ‘’Who’s hungry, I am!’’ Amy said. ‘’Shall we eat then?’’ asked Rory. ‘’I’m starving let’s eat!” my father said. I took a little pit of salad, mashed potatoes, and ham. I looked over to my dad, ‘’what are you eating?’’ I asked. ‘’Fish fingers and custard’’.  ‘’Um, is that good?” I asked. ‘’Yes, would you like to try some?’’ he asked. ‘’I’m good’’ I responded. ‘’Your missing something good’’ my father said. I shook my head and ate my food. ‘’Everyone liking the dinner?’’ asked Amy. ‘’Thank you Amy, it’s delicious!’’ Luke said. Í smiled at him. ‘’Thank you very much Luke, I worked all day on this dinner’, I even made extra food in case I did have an unexpected visitor in case he wanted something besides fish fingers and custard’’ Amy said. My father looked at Amy with fish finger hanging out of his mouth, and went back to his odd combination of food. I ate my food, and laughed with are small conversations between eating. Finally everything was off my plate and I was full. ‘’Thank you for the food Amy, I’m stuffed though’’ my father said. ‘’I’ll help with the plates’’ I said. I started picking up silverware and plates, I went over to the sink, ‘’so is Luke just your friend?’’ asked Amy, I nodded. ‘’You sure?’’ she asked again. ‘’I’m very sure’’. ‘’Just making sure, the way he kept looking at you and smiling it just seemed like you two were more than friends’’ Amy said. I smiled, ‘’me and my mum always did the dishes with each other’’. Amy grabbed hot chocolate out of the microwave that she had warmed up and handed me a cup. ‘Ready to open presents yet girls?’’ asked my father yelling from the sitting room. ‘’You got presents?’’ I asked. ‘’Of course!’’ she said. I went into the sitting room and sat next to Luke on the couch, Rory took a present from under the Christmas tree and looked at the label attached to it, ‘’This one is for the doctor’’ he said and handed present wrapped in tardis blue wrapping to my father. My father ripped open the wrapping paper like a five year old and opened the box; in the box was a circle top shaped red hat with a string attached to the top. ‘’A fez, you got me a fez!’’ shouted my father in excitement. ‘’Mr. Pond come over here’’. ‘’I didn’t get it for you, I think someone else in this room did’’. He looked over to Amy, and ran over to her giving her a hug. ‘’Merry Christmas raggedy’’ she said. Rory took another wrapped present from under the Christmas tree, ‘’this one says it’s too Amy’’ a grin went upon his face, ‘’let’s save this one for tomorrow shall we’’. He stuck the present back under the Christmas tree. ‘’There’s two presents under here for Charlie it looks like’’. He handed me two little wrapped presents one was from Amy, I tore the wrapping paper off the package, and it was a red jumper. ‘’Thank you very much Amy’’ I said and went over to her giving her a hug. I went to my bag and took the four wrapped presents out of it and stuck three under the tree putting one of them in my pocket. ‘’Oh you have presents for us?” asked Amy. ‘’Yes I do you can open them now if you would like too’’ I said. ‘’Sure good idea, I bet you would like to see are faces when we open them’’ Amy said. I gave Rory, Amy, and my father their presents. Amy finished unwrapping her present first; I had gotten her a bracelet. ‘’Thank you Charlie for the bracelet’’ Amy said. Rory unwrapped his; I got him a new lanyard for his name tag. ‘’Thank you very much Charlie’’ he said. Finally my father got done unwrapping the three layers of wrapping paper I used to wrap his present. ‘’You got me another bowtie!’’ he shouted excited like a little child. Amy gave him a look. ‘’What bowties are cool’’ he said. I gave him a hug, ‘’Merry Christmas dad’’. ‘’Merry Christmas Charlie’’. ‘’Well lets save the rest for tomorrow’’ Rory said.  I looked at Luke and smiled, ‘’I’m going to put this on tomorrow!’’.  I got up and took Luke’s hand and grabbed my hot coco while everyone was distracted in their own conversations, ‘’Bowties are not cool!’’ Amy said. ‘’Yes they are, how many times do I have to tell you!’’ Amy said. I opened the door to the front door and sat on the steps, and Luke sat next to me. I took the wrapped package out of my pocket. “Here, this is for you’’ I said and handed him the present. ‘’You got me a present?’’ asked Luke. ‘’Yeah, I wanted to give my best friend Luke a present for Christmas’’ I said and smiled at him. ‘’Thanks a lot Charlie, I guess I’ll open it now’’ he said and laughed. He slowly unwrapped the present giving me a smile we he took the top of the box off, to show a dog tag necklace that said ‘’and I will fix you’’. He turned the necklace over to show ‘’From Charlie, Christmas 2012’’. I took the necklace out of his hands and put it around his neck. ‘’Thank you so much Charlie, I love it!’’. I looked at him and looked into his eyes. ‘’its cold out here’’ I said. ‘’It is’’ Luke said. Luke took his jacket off and wrapped it around me. ‘’You didn’t need to do that’’ I said. ‘’But I wanted too, I didn’t want to have you be cold’’ Luke said. I smiled at him, ‘’Thank You Luke’’. I rested my head on his chest, I looked up at him and looked into his blue greenish eyes and kissed him. His lips were soft as if they were lips of an angel.

               I grabbed my phone and cuddled up to Luke and took another picture. I looked at the time, it was almost midnight. ‘’Shoot, my mum is going to call dectective Lewis again if I’m not home’’. ‘’Do you think we should just go get a taxi or have your father drive us home?’’ Luke asked. ‘’Good idea’’ I said. Oh gosh, this is going to be hard to explain, I thought. ‘’I don’t want to leave here Luke, this is my true family’’ I said. ‘’Charlie, you have to go back, I don’t want you getting in more trouble then you were before, that was terrible’’ Luke said. ‘’I guess I should go back to my mum for Christmas” I said. ‘’Come on, let’s go back inside’’ Luke said, grabbing my hand. I was about to open the door when I saw pairs of eyes peeking thru the window, I darted a look at them. I opened the door and the three tried looking innocent. ‘’Father, can you please take me home?” I asked. ‘’Why, I thought you would be staying the night?’’ he asked. ‘’I can’t because of what happened last time, even though I promise you I wish I could stay here’’ I said. “Your right Charlie, It’s a little late anyways plus I don’t think Luke would want to stay at some person’s house that he just met for the night’’ Amy said. ‘’Well I guess Amy, Rory I’ll be visiting you soon again’’ I said and smiled at both of them. I gave Amy and Rory a hug, ‘’Thank you so much for the presents’’ Amy said. ‘’Yes, thank you everyone will love my new name necklace’’ Rory said. ‘’Hope you have a good new year’’ I said and went out the door still holding Luke’s hand. ‘’Get ready Luke for an amazing sight’’ The Doctor said. I brought Luke over to my father’s police box, ‘’Police box?’’ he asked. ‘’Not just any police box, it’s something called a tardis!’’ shouted my father. “He acts this way often” I whispered to Luke. My father unlocked his tardis to and opened the doors. Luke’s jaw dropped. ‘’Cool, right?’’ asked my father. Luke nodded, speechless. I held tight onto the bars, and the tardis started making the whipping sound it always did. The tardis stopped and I could no longer hear the noise it made. I opened the doors, we were in my backyard, “you two want to come up?’’ I asked. Luke climbed the ladder up to my balcony and up to my room, ‘’Well Luke this is my room’’ I said. “Nice room you got here’’ Luke said and laughed. ‘’Thanks, oh and yeah my father is actually a time traveler, he is from space and he has a flying police box called a tardis’’. ‘’This night I have to say has been a crazy one’’ Luke said. ‘’I’m actually getting used to it by now’’.  I sat on my bed and my father sat next to me, ‘’I’m glad I got to see you for Christmas Charlie’’. ‘’I’m glad I got to spend my Christmas Eve with my father for the first time’’ I said and hugged him. I went out to the balcony and looked at the stars, ‘’I hope we get to see each other again and if we don’t I will find some way that we do’’ I said. ‘’Or I will do the same’’ my father said. My eyes started getting heavy and I yawned. “Goodnight Charlie’’. I didn’t respond, and I fell asleep.

Christmas Morning

I awoke to see sunlight peering thru the windows. I woke up to realize what morning it was, Christmas morning! I looked over at the chair next to my bed to see Luke asleep. I tip toed to Luke and shook him, ‘’Luke, Luke its Christmas morning’’. He smiled and yawned. I grabbed his hand and ran downstairs to see my mother and Chris making breakfast. ‘’Good morning mum’’ I said, she looked back at me and saw Luke. ‘’Oh, looks like we had someone sleepover last night’’ my mother said. ‘’Oh yeah, this is Luke he’s one  of my friends from school we hung out last night and it was too late for him to walk home’’ I said. ‘’That’s fine Charlie, want to open your presents?’’ Chris asked. I walked over to the Christmas tree and sat down on the floor, unwrapping presents by presents in till there was none left except for one small box. I read the name tag ‘’To Charlie’’. ‘’Is this from you?’’ I asked my mum. ‘’No you already opened all the presents from me’’. I looked over to Luke he shook his head no. I opened the box to find a note inside reading ‘’Merry Christmas Charlie, this is some of my regeneration energy, always keep it on you if you ever get badly hurt and I am not there it will heal you, from your father, the doctor’’. I took a little bottle hanging from a string out of the box there was glowing energy in it. I looked over to Luke and he smiled. ‘’Thank You father’’ I whispered.