"See, I told you," Rory says as he takes another photo on his phone. "I'm not crazy."
"I never said you were," Peyton shakes her head, looking back up to the sun which had turned a vibrant shade of orange. "But you have to show this to her, not wimp out like last time."
She looks across the park to the man and his dog, Rory insists that he cannot be here. The man, he's a patient in the coma ward. Strange.
"I did not wimp out," he glares at her.
"You sorta did," she shrugs.
Twelve years ago, Peyton flung herself through time and space, landing in this little town of Leadworth, travelling nineteen years into the past and about a hundred miles north-west.
Today, it's a relatively warm summer's afternoon in 2008. Rory had called that morning for her to meet him in the park during his lunch break to tell her about something weird that had been going on at work. Amy and Mels, they just laugh Rory off while Peyton listens to Rory about his paranoid theories.
Lately, there has been more and more alien activity. London at Christmas is not a safe place anymore and strange things happening is becoming more common. Peyton follows every single event eagerly, looking for signs of the extra-terrestrial race of her ancestry.
So when Rory mentions something strange happening, she was more than happy to accompany him. Strange things happening in Leadworth might just mean the Doctor could return, even if it has been twelve years since he first dropped from the sky in his Police Box.
Out of nowhere a man runs past and snatches Rory's phone from his hand. The act shocks Peyton who frowns as she watches the stranger from behind as he studies the device curiously.
"The sun's going out and you two are photographing a man and a dog, why?" The man turns around and presses the phone back into Rory's hand. He's quite tall and the floppy mess of brown hair atop his hair looks hardly managed. His blue shirt is untucked and torn in several places with his black and white tie hanging loosely around his neck.
To make things weirder, Amy appears, apparently in one of her kissogram outfits, panting loudly.
"Amy," Rory gasps with a mixture of surprise and relief.
"Oh, ah. This is Rory and Peyton," Amy introduces. "They're... friends."
"Boyfriend," Rory corrects her with a silly tone of pride. Twelve years of being best friends. Mels and Peyton both agree this has been way too long coming.
"Kind of boyfriend," Amy interjects. Peyton raises an eyebrow which she shrugs at.
"Man and dog, why?" The man insists, his eyes frantically racing, searching for something, looking both Peyton and Rory up and down.
Something clicks in Peyton's head. The scruffy outfit, the messy hair, his manic movements. "Oh my God, it's him," she stares. It's the Raggedy Doctor.
"It is, isn't it?" Rory adds.
"Just answer his question please," Amy sighs hurriedly.
"It's him though isn't it, the Doctor, the Raggedy Doctor," Peyton stares.
"Yeah, he came back."
"But he was a story, he was a game-"
The Doctor leans forward and grabs Rory by the jacket to shut him up. "Man and dog, why? Tell me now."
"Sorry, because..." Rory looks to Amy then to Peyton for support. "He, he can't be there, because, because-"
"He's in a hospital, in a coma," they both say at the same time.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
