Zoe and the 11 Doctors - The Image of an Angel

Chapter 3

"Would you care for a jelly baby?"

"Let me guess. Doctor?"

"How do you know? Have we met before?"

"Well, sort of." Zoe waved a hand in front of the two Doctors that were already standing next to her.

"Goodness, it's me! Now, I know you." he said, pointing at the first Doctor, who kept his frown as still as ever. "But which one of me are you?" He looked at the other Doctor inquisitively.

"I'm number eight."

"And which one are you?" Zoe inquired.

"I'm number four. But you never answered my question!"

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine thanks."

"Ok then." He popped the jelly baby into his own mouth with a satisfied smile. "Quite tasty, actually." He stepped out of the Tardis, taking in the surroundings. "So, what exactly are we looking for, then? There must be something that made the Tardis want to come here." The other two Doctors raised their eyebrows. "Apart from the fact that there are already two of me here."

"Yeah, Checkers over here wanted to see the smiley face thing that appeared on my phone. Apparently it's something alien."

"Well, yes. it would be, wouldn't it? And may I just ask, Checkers?" He glanced from the first Doctor to Zoe, and then back again, waiting for an answer. Zoe laughed, so it was the eighth Doctor who explained.

"Zoe here has decided that calling us all the Doctor will get a bit confusing."

"No it won't! That's nonsense!"

"Doctor?"

"Yes?" the three of them chorused together, and then looked at Zoe, who had put on her 'proves my point' face.

"Anyway," the eighth  Doctor continued, "Zoe's decided to give us names based on our different characteristics or appearances. He's Checkers, I'm Curly."

"Hey! My hair's curlier than yours!" The fourth Doctor ruffled his own messy flop.

"Yeah, but Curly was here first. Now, would you prefer to be Scarf or Jelly Baby?"

"Jelly Baby. They mean a lot to me." He picked another one out of his pocket, and began to slowly nibble it.

"Really, what has age done to me?" The first Doctor huffed once more at this 'ridiculous' naming.

"Oh! I never asked you my question, Curly."

"Fire away."

"Well, seeing as these two are your past selves, you must know what happens. And if you're the eighth Doctor, do you know how many more of your past selves are coming?"

"No."

"Huh? How's that possible? Surely you can remember?"

"None of us will." said the fourth Doctor. "Every time we regenerate, or change body, time fixes itself. You see, if we remembered, then we'd be able to sort out the problem without any of the bits in between happening. As we'd only be able to do this after seeing it how it actually was; it would create a paradox. To stop this, we forget after each regeneration."

"Well that's rubbish. Hold on, Checkers said time can be rewritten."

"But there are some fixed points in time, that would tear a hole in the universe if changed. I assume this is one of them."

"Even worse. So, if I were to die during this, none of you could change it?"

"I'm afraid not." said the eighth Doctor. His voice was grim and dark. The room went silent for a few seconds as everyone tried to think of something to say. Zoe was puzzling over the thoughts of fixed points. Of course, before today, she would have thought every point in time is fixed, for there was no such thing as time travel. But now she had met the Doctor, or Doctors, her mind became confused. What made a point in time fixed, or changeable? What was the difference? She wanted to know.

The first Doctor was thinking about why he had come here in the first place. A smiley face when Zoe pressed the dial button. That was unusual. Usually aliens would make a physical attack. He'd never seen anything done like this before. But maybe his future selves had. Despite thinking he would grow older to become a crazy, strange, and annoyingly silly character, he had no choice but to ask.

The fourth Doctor was not thinking of anything to do with the last few minutes. He was daydreaming off to a few weeks ago, when he had said goodbye to one of his dearest his companions, Sarah Jane Smith. He was thinking off all of the times he had spent with Sarah, promising himself that he would never forget any of them. But he never forgot. He had never forgotten any adventure's he'd had, whether it was with Sarah, or whether it was with any of his former companions. As he nibbled the last bit of his jelly baby, he urged to speak. He didn't like it when it was quiet; he loved to be running around or jumping up excitedly, and just generally mucking about. He wanted to break the silence.

The eighth Doctor was thinking about Zoe. He reminded her a little of Grace, who he had once defeated the master with in San Francisco, New year's Eve. But Zoe was different too. She seemed to be much more quick-witted, and a lot more laid back. In this face, he had never met a girl who was anything like Zoe. He hoped he would be able to learn more about her as the adventure went on. He was about to ask her more about this 'smiley face' problem, so he opened his mouth and began to speak.

"Zoe, -"

"So -"

"What -"

"About -" They all spoke at once, then stopped and looked at each other. Then they each tried to speak once more, but stopped again.

"Ok, one at a time! Ok, Jell Baby, you go first."

"Oh, I was just wondering what we were actually going to do about the, smiley face, is it?"

"Me too." said the eighth Doctor.

"And me." said the first.

"What were you going to ask about?" asked the eighth Doctor.

Zoe thought about her question, then decided it was not relevant. "Nothing. I'll ask one of you later."

"Ok. So, smiley face. May I see?" The first Doctor retrieved the phone from his pocket, and showed the fourth Doctor. however, the first Doctor looked slightly confused.

"That's different."

"What?" Zoe walked over to look at her phone. The image had changed. Now it was a stick person with a face, and a triangular dress. "How's that happened?" she asked in confusion.

"It's obvious, isn't it." said the fourth Doctor. "If the image has changed, then the sender is obviously sending a different signal."

"Yes, maybe we need a little help from someone else. Someone with more experience." said the eighth Doctor.

"And who would that be?"

"Me, of course. I can use the Tardis to send a message to my future self, who may know a little more about things like this. Come on!" He grabbed Zoe's hand and took her into the Tardis once more. She still expected to run into a hard, wooden back, which meant that she stumbled when they ran up the staircase. he patiently pulled up and lead her to the console screen, from which he began to compose a letter of help. He set the Tardis to save this message and make it pop up on the screen in 50 years time.

"Hopefully another one of me will trust the letter and come."

"What if it's still you? As in, you, you."

"Then, even though we'd have already seen everything happen, I would have to reset the Tardis to show the message in another 50 years or so."

"Ok, so should we be expecting another one of you to come any time soon?"

"There might be another one of me here right now. Shall we go and see?"

They both smiled as they walked out of the Tardis. And as expected, there was yet another man standing outside, with another Tardis parked rather inconveniently between the doorway from the kitchen to the living room.

"I hope this is good, because I was just about to go and pick up Rose to take her to 1920s America; I thought she might like to meet Al Capone. He's actually a nicer bloke than people imagine." In front of us was standing a man with a black shirt and a black leather jacket, with his hands in his pockets, looking rather bored.

Here was the next Doctor.