Swings

Some people might think it a little creepy to hang out at playgrounds at the age of twenty one, but Lilly Fanta's only interest was the swingset.
It was a Fanta family tradition to take Sunday trips to the park back at home. Lilly's mother would go off with her sister, Claire, while her father would spend hours doing the only thing she ever wanted to. Swing.
Lilly could swing for hours and never get bored. Even now, an hours drive from her childhood home, she would still go out to the nearest park and try to touch the clouds.
Lily closed her eyes and felt the wind rush to her face as she flew back and forth. The whooshing in her ears calmed her stressed mind, and thus removed all the tension from her shoulders. She stopped pumping her legs and let her speed slowly decrease, eyes still closed. The sound of chains jingling to the right of her told Lily that someone had taken the unoccupied swing next to her.
"Excuse me, sir. Aren't you a little old to be at a child's playground?" She asked the man. He looked to be about in his fourties, with tall, crazy brown hair that stuck up from the top of his head and dragged down his scraggly face in the form of sideburns. His eyebrows seemingly took up half of his face, and his legs-stretched out on the ground- looked taller than the rest of his skinny body.
"Oh, I reckon I am. Still, it's good fun, the swings! And you're here, so who are you to judge?" The man warbled.
"I'll have you know, I am only twenty-one. A lot younger than you, mate. Besides, I'm not wearing a suspicious trench coat, now am I?"
The man just smirked. " Alright, you're right. You're definetly a lot younger than me." He smiled at the sky, as if he was sharing a joke with himself. The smile slowly faded into a remorseful stare. "Twenty one, I had a friend who was twenty one."
"Had?" Lily's eyebrows crunched together.
"Yeah, she's, she's gone now. Gone forever." The man's eyes had a faraway, glassy look, as if he were trying to catch an evasive memory before it got away and he forgot it forever. Lily couldn't help but ask,
"Is she dead?" That made the man's head shoot back to her.
"Oh, no! Safe and sound, with her family. Happy, too. I hope." He looked anything but happy.
"See, there! That's not so bad, is it? Things coulda turned out worse!" Lily attempted to cheer the man up. He smiled at her feeble attempt, but it wasn't genuine. Lily tried again.
"What was her name?"
".... Rose. Rose Tyler." He smiled at the sound of her name, and Lily smiled at the obviously love-strucken man.
" A flower name, huh? Well, we're in the same boat. Lily Fanta." She held out her hand for the man to shake it. He did.
"Lily Fanta? Wow!" He shook her hand dramatically, and stared at her as if she were a museum display.
"Okay... aren't you going to tell me your name now?" she asked.
"Lily Fanta, what are the odds I get to meet Lily Fanta! Oh, wow. Brilliant, just brilliant."
"Um excuse me, do I know you from somewhere?" Lily was now genuinely concerned.
"What? Oh, no. Nowhere. I'm just passing by. I'm The Doctor, by the way. Lovely to meet you." He waved. Lily leaned back in suspicion.
"The Doctor?"
"That's me."
"That isn't your name."
"Well, I should know."
"But it's just a title!"
"And, it's my name."
"People just call you, The Doctor?"
"The Doctor, Doctor, never Doc though. Just, eugh," he made a face and stuck out his tongue.
"Doctor of what, exactly?"
"Oh, a little bit of everything."
"So, you're an old man who's a 'Doctor' and enjoys hanging out near children's playgrounds? You're not making a good first impression."
"I'll have you know I am very good with kids!"
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I was a dad once."
"Once?" Lily stopped him in his tracks. The faraway look returned to his eyes as he shifted his gaze to the clouds.
"Yeah, they.... they died. Everyone died. All because of me." The last sentence was a whisper so quiet Lily could barely hear it.
"I'm so sorry. I really am. But you know, everyone dies eventually."
"Not like they did." Lily wanted more than anything to smack the sad look off The Doctor's face. So that's what she did.
"Hey!" He whined. "What the hell was that for?"
"For being unnecessarily sad! I can tell something bad happened to you, and for that I'm sorry. I really am sorry. But I can also tell that there was no other way for things to happen, that it had to happen, and that it happened a long time ago. It's time to move on again. Whoever you lost that you love, Rose, your kids, they would hate to see you so upset over something that can't be changed. Live you're life, do whatever you want to do. Appreciate the beauty of the universe that you have been given! I'm not saying forget all your loved ones who are gone, but don't let them be an excuse as to why you aren't happy." Lily ranted. The Doctor just stared at her in shock. His eyes grew wide. Lily just stared back expectantly. Slowly, The Doctor's mouth formed a grin. He leapt from the swing he was sitting on and grabbed the girl's wrist.
"Woah woah woah woah! What do you think you're doing? Where are you taking me?" She protested as he dragged her through the park.
" I'm thanking you for cheering me up!"
"What, by dislocating my shoulder and kidnapping me?" Lily struggled to keep up with The Doctor's fast pace.
"Come on, hurry up!" He shouted. Lily sighed. She was probably going to get killed or worse by this man, but she couldn't manage to escape his grip, so she just followed.
The Doctor led her to a small foresty part of the park which Lily had never explored. Still, she was fairly sure the large blue Police box in front of her was not supposed to be there.
"What's this?" She asked. The Doctor smiled and opened the door for her.
"See for yourself." Lily carefully peered her head in and gasped. There was a massive room inside it! She ran around the small four doors on the outside, then back into the impossible ship. There were coral like columns circling around what looked like a massive control panel, various engines and doodads peeked out from the grated floor, and circular panels covered the massive, dome shaped walls.
"It's bigger on the inside." Lily breathed. "It's impossible, how is it possible? Is it some kind of alien technology?" The Doctor nodded, impressed by the girl's ability to keep up.
Lily hesitated with her next question.
"Are, are you an alien?" she asked tentatively. Another nod answered her question.
"Is that okay?" The Doctor asked.
"Give me a minute or two." Lily breathed. The Doctor smiled and bounced up to the console.
"Now, one thank you trip, where to? Ah, I know just the place!" He yanked down a lever and the whole room trembled. Lily grabbed on to the nearest coral column for dear life as everything around her shook.
"You mean this thing moves?!" She shouted.
"Of course it moves, it's the TARDIS! TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimmension In Space, not Time And Relative Dimmension In Statitory Position, then It'd be the TARDISP!" The Doctor howled as he hit more and more buttons and slammed down more levers. Finally, the TARDIS came to a shuddering stop.
"Here we are!" He cheered.
"Where's here?" Lily asked cautiously. The Doctor gestured towards the door. Grinning, Lily raced towards it and pulled them open. She immediately stepped back, to avoid falling into space.
Standing before her was dead space. Stars all clustered together in interlocking rings, all in varying shades of red or orange, to form a galaxy. A milky white dust floated around all the stars. Lily couldn't even speak, just let out a squeak of shock.

"There it is; the Carmelia Galaxy. Four thousand stars, fifty-three planets, twelve of which with populations over ten billion. It's the center of the Universes' trade in the Earth year of 2007, and you humans don't even know it exists." He gazed out at the wonder.

"Wow, just wow." The two continue to gaze out at the stars, watching them flicker, and the gases shift occasionally. After a while, the Doctor returns to the console and begins turning knobs.
"Okay, London, Earth. Back home, here we go!"
"Wait! Can I see somewhere else? Like, somewhere really far in the future? Or in the past? I don't know, there's so much to see! Do you live like this?" The Doctor looked at her grimly.
"You can't. I promised one trip only. I'm taking you home."
"But surely you have people travel with you all the time! I bet Rose did! Why can't I? I won't be a bother, I promise!" Lily begged. The Doctor let out a frustrated sigh. He couldn't even begin to explain that the life of Lily Fanta was a fixed point, that she had to stay on Earth and win a Nobel prize for her research that paved the way for science hundreds of years into her future. It would disintegrate the fixed point and form a paradox.
"I'm sorry. But no." He flipped one more lever, and the time for talking was over when the TARDIS began to rumble and shake. When it was over, he sadly walked towards the door and held it open for Lily.
"Why?" She begged, tears threatening to spill from her big brown eyes. The Doctor grasped for a logical enough reason besides the truth.
"Rose Tyler's gone and you look like her." He admitted. It wasn't a lie, Lily looked very much like rose. maybe a bit taller, but her blonde hair was exactly the same shade, just longer than Rose's.
Lily's head drew back; her lips parted slightly in understanding. She seemed to understand, as she walked out of the doors without a complaint. She was clearly still hurt though. She didn't even bother to say goodbye. The Doctor began morosely setting the coordinates. He halted, however, when he heard a faint knock coming from the TARDIS doors. Cautiously, he opened it to see Lily, smiling up at him.
"Promise me one thing, before I leave you forever, Doctor." She smiled sadly.
"What?"
"Find another traveling partner. You need someone to help you see how beautiful the universe is, because sometimes I think you forget." The Doctor smiled, and nodded.
"I promise, I will." He waved as Lilly ran off, back to the playground and the swings.
"Hey, Lily!" He called. She spun around to look at him.
"You're ruining my dramatic goodbye!" She smirked.
"I never asked you, are you in Uni, studying for school?" He called. Lily frowned at his random question, but answered,
"Well, yeah, I'm a science major."
"Brilliant. Don't give up, okay? Something tells me that you're going to achieve great things." Lily smiled at his implication, then turned to run away.

"I mean, Hell, Lily. You might even cure cancer!"