Kate Oswald always loved Space. She would sit outside and watch the stars. She would read every book and watch every tv show and movie that had anything to do with space.
So when a strange man, in a blue police box wearing a bow tie, asks whether o...
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ɪɴ Leadworth Nursery, Kate Oswald reads to half-asleep children a story of a mysterious man in a time-travelling box, fighting his way through the stars to protect the universe. They ooh and ahh in perfect harmony, watching as her face lights up, her eyes sparkle, acting as if she knew this man once upon a time. But, even children below the age of five know when stories are just stories. One by one, as her story continues about an old box she calls the Pandorica, the children start to fall asleep, small snores echoing around the room as they curl up on the pillows and blankets she laid out before starting storytime.
Kate watches as the last child - a tiny three-year-old with startling blonde hair - sprawls across a blanket covered in stars, yawning before they finally close their eyes and allow themselves to be consumed by dreams of her exciting tales. She gets to her feet, hitting the lights on the way out of the room and notices all the other nursery workers waiting for her with lunch in plastic takeaway boxes. She smiles as she sits with the people she works with at a low table that's usually used by the children, all of them sitting on bean-bag seats so they have better access to it.
It's been two months since she last saw the Doctor, she realises as she digs into a perfectly cooked risotto. Two months since he dropped her off at home after a wonderful adventure in the catacombs of Paris fighting an operatic ghost. He had stood in the hallway of her new flat above the post office, eyes darting over the boxes she had yet to unpack because he had whisked her and her two best friends off in the middle of the night without warning. She had invited him to a cup of tea, but he had refused, so she invited him to sit and talk for a moment, but he had refused again, and that's when she realised he was going off on his lonesome for a while. She didn't know how long it would be before she ever saw him again. She didn't know how long it would be before she ever got to kiss him again.
"What'ya thinking about?" asks one of her newer co-workers who always sits a little too close to her for her liking. She sends him an awkward smile, spooning some risotto into her mouth so she has more time to come up with an answer. It's not like she can tell them that she's thinking about the time-travelling alien she's kissed too many times to not call him her boyfriend.
"Her out-of-town boyfriend, probably," jokes one of the older teachers, laughing as she pulls apart a brioche bun. Kate rolls her eyes, good-humoured, but tries not to let her sinking heart get to her. What if it takes him years to come back? Should she wait for him?
