The Big Blue Box

Lily sat in front of her second story window, scribbling on a piece of paper as she sat at her desk. She was better at painting, but she wanted a rough sketch of what she was going to paint before she actually started. It would help it to actually look as good as she wanted it to. She paused in her work as a peculiar whooshing could be heard outside of the window, and her head popped up after a few seconds, but the only thing she could see was a police box, which was odd. It looked to be from the nineteen sixties. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she put down her coloured pencil, standing up. A few minutes later, she was down the stairs, and out the door, walking over to the peculiar box that had appeared out of nowhere. But it couldn't have, someone must have placed it there, probably when she wasn't paying attention. She looked around, before circling the police box, and calling out. "Alright, who put this police box there? I know someone must have." She looked at the neighboring flats, and started thinking of which one of them would have thought this a funny practical joke to pull on her. She gave a small roll of her eyes, and after a moment pushed the door open. She knew nothing would be in there but she wanted to see if the inside actually looked like a police box. What she saw shocked her, and she took a quick step back, hand flying up to cover her mouth. "Oh my god..." She breathed, unable to comprehend how such a big room fit in such a tiny box. She circled the police box once more, before standing at the front of it again, just staring into the police box.

Returning from a journey to acquire a few eatable ball bearings, The Doctor held one in his hand and another partially hanging from his mouth, a smile prominently displayed across his face. The smile, however, dropped immediately upon seeing a girl standing in front of his TARDIS, the door wide open and her mouth gaping open in shock. "Oi!" The Doctor proclaimed, quickening his pace to a fast walk, bits and piece of his ball bearing cakes falling on the ground beneath him, "Who told you to open my TARDIS?! I swear, i leave the doors open for five minutes and someone just goes charging in" he grumbled. Approaching the girl, The Doctor eyed her carefully, then peered over to the open door of his TARDIS, "How did you see it?" he asked her with an eyebrow raised, stuffing in another bite of the cake, "My TARDIS...my...blue box. How did you notice it?".

Realizing the rudeness of his approach, The Doctor offered her one of his ball bearings, "Eatable ball bearing?" he asked, handing her one with a smirk, "Nice to meet you, i'm The Doctor. And yes...that's mine".

Lily blinked, and gave a small chuckle, still in awe. "How did I see it? How wouldn't I see it?!" She shook her head slightly, and ran a hand through her hair. She could still hardly believe that this was real. She had to be hallucinating, or asleep, or something. "I was in my room, just drawing, something, I don't remember what, and i heard this..." She paused, trying to think of the best way to explain it. "Whooshing noise." She finally said, moving her arms as she talked. "And when i looked out the window, there it was. Your, what did you call it again? TARDIS?" How was this even happening? It was like something out of a TV show, it just didn't happen in real life. She accepted the, eatable ball bearing, not wanting to seem rude, and glanced from him, to it, before taking a bite. It actually tasted pretty good.

"Doctor who?" She asked cocking an eyebrow at the man. "Oh, my names Lily. Lily Davis. And your TARDIS, is amazing, how does it even work?" She peered inside at the interior, still amazed at how such a giant room could fit into a tiny box. Whoever invented this, TARDIS, must have been a genius. "And what do you mean by how did i see it? How wouldn't I have been able to see it? It's sitting right here." She let out a small chuckle.

Harleen ran down the street as some men were running after her. "Hey baby! Come over here!" One of the men shouted at her and she glanced behind her, "No! Shut up you are drunk! Go home!" She shouted angrily at them, she was getting annoyed at men coming at her, especially drunk, married men.

She ran into an alleyway, hoping to lose the men, she backed up and hit her back against something wooden. She turned and her eyes widened, "T-the TARDIS?" She blinked before reaching into her outside, breast pocket of her t-shirt, she quickly grabbed a TARDIS key she had been given and she smiled before opening it up and walking in, "O-oh... hi." She awkwardly waved at The Doctor and the woman she didn't know, before putting her key back in her breast pocket, hoping she wasn't interrupting anything.

"Mmm, perception filter. Blocks anyone from seeing it..well..not from seeing it but from approaching it. Unless the TARDIS lets you see her" The Doctor explained, speaking through another bite of his ball bearing before the doors of the TARDIS opened to reveal Harleen on the other side before closing them behind her. "Harly! Hello!" The Doctor exclaimed, his mouth still full with the ball bearing he had just taken a bite out of, gesturing her over with his hand, "Got you an eatable ball bearing. Thought you'd be off on your thing. You said it would take a few days, figured i drop by..always get the time messed up though..amazed i got it this close to be honest". Handing Harleen the last ball bearing, The Doctor turned to the controls as he took the last bite of his eatable ball bearing and pulled over the scanner, "I've taped into the Torchwood main frame like you said. Couldn't find anything..well..apart from a few articles and very little evidence from the last case".

Glancing over to Harleen, The Doctor smirked, "Nice to have you back by the way" he added before looking back to the new girl, "Oh! Sorry! Yes, emm....Harly, this is Lily. Lily, this is Harly. Lily..umm..found..my TARDIS. First human out of millions that have seen it to actually see it..much less open the doors. Lucky me, i came back with the food just in time before more people showed up".

Harleen smiled happily at The Doctor, "Hey Doctor!" She said with a massive grin. She walked over to him and took the eatable ball bearing and she sighed a little. "I finished my thing yesterday, I didn't even mean to come down here but drunk men were after me.." She sighed before biting into her eatable ball bearing.

"Ah, that is ok Doctor... thanks for trying." She smiled at him and walked over to him, she finished her eatable ball bearing and she looked at the scanner. She looked over to Lucy, "Hello." She waved at her with a grin before she looked to The Doctor. "It is nice to be back!" She exclaimed before hugging The Doctor tightly and planting small kiss on his lips. "I missed you."

Lily nodded as the Doctor explained the perception filter, eating the ball bearing the man had given her. She looked around at the TARDIS as he talked to the girl she didn't know, but turned her attention back to her when he introduced her. "Hello!" She grinned back, waving the hand that didn't have the remnants of a eatable ball bearing in it. She finished it quickly though, seeing as how there wasn't much left of it, and looked around the room. The TARDIS was.. magnificent, and brilliant, and nothing she would ever be able to imagine. She thought about drawing it, not the inside, she wouldn't be able to risk people finding it, but the outside. She'd know what it was, but no one else would.

She turned her attention back to the Doctor and Harly, and chuckled. "I thought it was a joke at first to be honest, that one of my neighbors had dropped off a police box in the alleyway by my house so they'd get me to look at it." She had also thought it was just a plain old dummy police box, but boy was she wrong about that.

The Doctor paused at the sudden kiss from Harleen then shifted his attention to Lily as she spoke, "A neighbor?" he asked, his eyebrow raising with curiosity, "What neighbor told you about the TARDIS?". Walking away from Harly and over to Lily, The Doctor eyed her curiously, awaiting her answer then retreated back to the control console. "How could someone know about my TARDIS?" The Doctor mumbled to himself as he reviewed the ships readings through the scanner, "Bloody perception filter is acting up again. I told you to remind me about that" he added, turning his attention back over to Harleen, pointing his finger at her.

Bending over, The Doctor searched through a compartment on the control console of the TARDIS where the perception filter was located, "Where are you?" he mumbled to himself. Sighing, The Doctor stood up straight then flipped out his glasses and put them on, squinting at Lily as he glanced over to her then back over to the compartment, "So tell me Lily, have you ever had a good sense of when people are lying or telling the truth? Maybe a good critical thinker in school?".

Harleen smiled at The Doctor gently and then she blushed a little as she realized what she had done, she kissed him. Oh my god, I kissed him! Ah! I am such an idiot! She shouted at herself in her mind before looking towards The Doctor, "Doctor... she didn't literally mean someone knew of the TARDIS. She meant she thought it was a prank one of her friends had pulled on her." Harleen giggled a little at the fact that The Doctor thought that Lily was speaking about someone who knew of the TARDIS, when they really didn't.

Harleen then blinked and glared slightly at The Doctor as he pointed an accusing finger at her, "Well, sorry... but I haven't seen you in at least a week, how was I supposed to know you hadn't fixed it yet?" She sighed before sitting down on the chair beside the console.

Lily chuckled. "Yeah that's what I meant. No one actually told me about the TARDIS." She moved to lean slightly against the console. "I probably wouldn't believe someone if they told me about it without seeing her for myself first. I mean really, a police box that's bigger on the inside.. It's brilliant though."

She looked around the room, before taking a minute to think about the Doctors question. "I'd say I'm pretty good at telling when someones lying to me.. It's easy to tell, they won't look you straight in the eye usually, and if you ask them something about what you think they're lying about, it'll take them a minute to think of a response, unless they already have one planned. And I was pretty good at critical thinking problems in school. Why?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

The Doctor looked back up from the compartment, wires in both hands and dangling from his mouth as he stood up and glanced over to Lily once she had finished speaking, "Because i was too" he replied with a smirk. Placing the wires on the control console, The Doctor began his work as he spoke, "You see, my people took children from their homes at the age of eight to study at the academy. There they decided what your role in the society would be. One test was the perception test and it is said that those who pass it have high skills in those specific areas...it's even thought that, that fact is carried on in humans and other species besides my own" he paused as he looked back over to Lily, "Yeah, that's my theory and you're just proving it all the more right". With a chuckle, he shifted his attention back to the wires and began putting them back into place on the control console.

"If i can just fix this blasted perception filter then we'l be fine. Can't afford anymore humans noticing my ship" The Doctor growled as he worked furiously on the wires and their connections to the ships main frame located beneath the panels of the control console. Suddenly a thrust echoed throughout the entire TARDIS, sending The Doctor back straight into the railing and the wires fell dangling from the side of the console. "Lily! Harly! Hang on!" The Doctor called out to them, trying to get his footing back and make his way to the control console but the trust was too much.

Harleen listened to The Doctor as he explained what Gallifrey did to the children of the planet. She smiled a little, "Well, yeah that is pretty much what we do. But, knowing Gallifrey, they must do something to get the children into the academy, right? Isn't there like initiation?" She tilted her head in curiosity but before she could get an answer The Doctor had done something and a massive thrust happened and The Doctor's back went into the railing. "Doctor! You ok?" She asked with worry as she clung onto the chair at the side of the TARDIS.

Lily nodded as the Doctor spoke, listening. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she opened her mouth to ask a question, before closing it again. His people? Gallifrey? Another thing that was slightly confusing her was that he talked about humans as if he wasn't one. Her eyes widened slightly, and she turned to look at him. He was an alien. But he looked so much like a human! She chuckled, and turned her head to look at Harly, wondering if she was a... what did they call themselves? Gallifrians? She could be totally off, but how was she to know? They could have a massive name and she wouldn't know unless he told her.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by a giant thrust, and she clung to the console, almost losing her grip and falling. She straightened up, and turned so she could see the Doctor. "Doctor! Are you alright?" She shifted so that she was a bit closer to him, and reached one arm out, the other clinging to the console. "Grab my hand! I'll pull you back to the console."

The Doctor reached for Lily's hand, grabbed it and yanked himself up to the control console with a mad man's grin. "Ha! You're brilliant, aren't you?!" He exclaimed to Lily, glancing over to her before looking over at the scanner, "We're being pulled! Just hang on! If i can stabilize the gravity inside of the TARDIS then it won't be as bumpy!" he shouted back to both of them. Grinding his teeth, The Doctor extended his arm as he reached for a pump on the side of the control console then released a sigh as he finally got it to be pulled down. The thrust inside of the TARDIS began to calm down, but only when The Doctor got his hands on a crank towards the front of the time rotor, did the banging around completely come to a halt. Releasing a sigh, The Doctor stood up straight and peered around the control room, "Everyone alright?" he asked, his eyebrow raised as he walked over to Lily, checked her, then finally walked over to Harleen and did the same with her.

Once he knew they were both fine, The Doctor turned his attention to the doors and the scanner on the control console. Smirking, The Doctor got an idea, "Keep an eye on the scanner. Let me know if anything red pops up" he told his two friends as he raced down the ramp. Slowly, he inched open the doors, immediately being hit my a morning breeze and the smell of ocean. Sticking his head out, The Doctor peered upwards, only to see the rotation of a helicopter above and slammed the doors shut immediately after seeing it. "Bloody UNIT thinks they can pick me up whenever they like" The Doctor grumbled, turning and walking back to the control console and joined the two women around the scanner, "Looks like we've been summoned somewhere." he concluded with a sniff, "So important that it couldn't wait for us to get there the usual way".

Harleen looked to The Doctor and waited for the thrusting to stop before she watched him walk over and check her, she nodded, "Y-yeah I am fine, Doctor." She smiled at him gently before he ran down the ramp. She nodded and looked to the scanner for any red dots to come up. She heard The Doctor say 'UNIT' and she froze up immediately, she didn't move at all, her eyes wide and she stared at the scanner screen in surprise and shock.

Why the hell are UNIT here?! Oh no! If they see me they will be really angry with me! She started to panic inside her mind but on the outside she just looked like she was in a trance.

Lily grinned back as the Doctor pulled himself up beside her. "I try!" She chuckled, smirking, and held onto the console until the TARDIS calmed down. She turned to the Doctor and nodded when he asked her if she was okay, and nodded. "Perfectly fine." She glanced at the scanner, then back to the Doctor as he ran down the ramp and to the doors, and back again to the scanner. No red at all.

"UNIT? What's UNIT?" She turned to the Doctor as he came back, wondering if he worked for them. He must, if he was being summoned by them, yeah? Or maybe they just really needed his help for something. She glanced over at Harly, and her brows furrowed. The girl looked like she was in... shock, maybe? She had just said she was alright though, so she decided not to push it.

"Unified Intelligence TaskForce" The Doctor replied to Lily as he approached the control console and glanced over to her, "Assembled by the UN for years back to prevent incidents like Roswell and many others from happening again. Basically stop the world from alien intrusion when i'm not around...worked for them a while back..well...still do technically. Chief scientific adviser i am" he chuckled, "You can imagine the expressions on people's faces when they find out i've kept that job for over a few hundred years..well..in my life time anyways". Upon glancing over to Harly and seeing her expression, The Doctor stopped speaking and walked over to her. "Harly" He called out to her, waving his hand in front of her face and even snapping his fingers, "Snap out of it or else i'll have to get the water", seeing no reply, The Doctor sighed and peered back to Lily, "Get the water for me will you?".

"Ah not the water!" Harleen blurted out before she looked to The Doctor with slightly widened eyes, "Y-y-you work for UNIT?" She stuttered a little in surprise, she was just getting out of her trance of all her memories with UNIT, she waited for The Doctor's reply and she continued: "Heh, UNIT hate me." She said with a small smile, "Played a prank and it went wrong..." She sighed before sitting down on the chair next to the console, putting her face in her hands, "If UNIT see me they will probably kill me... just like they did with my father." She looked down sadly and she felt a tear roll down her right cheek, "It was UNIT's fault... all their fault..." She said between her sobs as she hugged herself and cried.

She nodded at the Doctors explanation of UNIT, but turned to him, eyebrows raised, and mouth hanging open slightly. "A few hundred years?" But he didn't look to be any older then forty at the most. She chuckled, and shook her head slightly, wondering how old this Doctor really was. She turned to Harley, and moved to stand next to her. "Hey, I don't think they'll threaten to kill you, and even if they did you'd be safe. I mean, the Doctor is obviously someone important to them, and from what he said he's saved Earth at least a few times." She glanced over at the Doctor, and shifted to kneel next to the chair. "I remember once there were these metal men, ghosts at first. And apparently there was this huge battle. I was in America at the time, with my dad, as we only moved here a bit more than a year ago, but he almost died, because he thought the 'ghost' was my mother, she died a long while back you see? And then there were these flying robots with what looked like toilet plungers, and the two started fighting. And then out of nowhere, they started getting pulled, like there was a giant magnet, and we never saw them again. The battle at Canary Warf, they call it. But I bet you the Doctor was behind that. If he can do things like that, then I bet you he's important enough to them, that if he told them to not harm one hair on your head, they'd have to do it, y'see?" She gave Harley a small smile

The Doctor turned back to the control console, his eyes on the screen before the words of Lily struck his eyes and forced his attention slightly back over to her and Harleen. Quietly, he listened, smiling sadly as the images of that day with Rose, the Cybermen, the Daleks and Mickey flashed before his eyes. Oh how he would love to have those days back..when he was young, when everything seemed to fall into place. These days, there was no consistency, ever sense The Valeyard brought all the incarnations of The Doctor back to they can live out their lives without regeneration, nothing has been the same. Years have passed, countless years, sense The Doctor last saw Rose, Mickey, Jacky and Pete but to hear it play out in the words of Lily, those memories felt like it just happened yesterday.

Once she had finished, The Doctor turned around, his smile still in tact, "Yep, that was me" he finally cut in before turning his attention over to the TARDIS doors, "Bit more action in my story but yeah...still ended the same way. Sucked both the Cybermen and the Daleks straight into the void, also known as hell. Anyways! More to an important matter at hand! Ready to go meet UNIT?". Smiling, The Doctor did not wait for an answer before shooting down the ramp, flinging off his trench coat and thrusting the doors open. Immediately he was met by the unchanging facial expression of Kate Stewart and her trusted team of armed guards and Osgood at her side. "Hello Doctor" Kate said plainly, "Not expecting this incarnation to show up", The Doctor cringed his face, "Oi! I'm rather fond of this incarnation. Not unlike my next one. Chin's a bit too big." he retorted before smiling, "Nice to see you again Kate.".

"I know about that..." Harleen sighed, "I believed my father was one of the Cybermen, I guess I wasn't the only one stupid enough not to realize their feet looked like boots." She murmured before standing up and smiling at Lily, "Thanks, I guess he wouldn't let them... kill... me." She said before walking down the ramp towards the TARDIS doors.

She stuck her head out slightly from behind The Doctor, she waved a little at Kate Stewart and Osgood. "Heh, erm... hi Kate and Osgood." She smiled a little before hiding behind The Doctor as she noticed the armed guards the had gripped their weapons upon her appearance. She hid behind The Doctor as if she was a scared, little girl. She really hated the armed guards because they would always take any opportunity of shooting her.

She stood up with her, smiling back, and gave small shrug. "I would have believed it was my mum as well, it's just, it didn't feel like her.." She followed Harley down the ramp, and poked her head out behind the Doctor, grinning. "Hello," She paused for a moment, before saying. "Technically he didn't 'show up', you basically just grabbed him and brought him here." She looked out at where they had landed, taking in the view, and knowing she probably shouldn't have said that with arm guards surrounding them, but they wouldn't hurt her, right? She hoped they wouldn't. She wrapped the light leather jacket she had grabbed on her way out of her house earlier closer to herself as she thought. She glanced up at the Doctor, and wondered what his other incarnations looked like, but they could probably look completely different to him, or similiar to what he did. She was excited to find out why UNIT had thought it so important to ask for his help that they couldn't call him. Surely he must have a phone? I mean she kept hers on her at all time, in case of emergency and such.

Kate took a step back, along with Osgood, at the sight and emergence of Harleen from the TARDIS, Osgood's face cringing as Kate smiled in a friendly, welcome, manner. "Nice to meet you both. And welcome back Harleen, i apologize for your fathers death. It was unexpected and mourned by all of us" Kate began before turning her attention back to The Doctor, Osgood still eyeing Harleen carefully, "But Doctor. We have a huge problem on our hands. I'm sorry i couldn't call you...it was too urgent. We had to get you as soon as we could..". The Doctor rose an eyebrow, his attention immediately caught and grabbed by the conversation as he placed both hands into his pockets, "Show me" he finally replied, "Alright well i'll have to sh-" Kate paused, her mind finally processing what The Doctor said with a smile, "Oh, you're right. I do like this one. I've always got to say i have to show the problem to all the others. Come with me".

Gesturing behind her, Kate turned around and began walking back to the Tower Of London, which loomed in the distance; The Doctor nodded and followed after her and the group of soldiers and Osgood. Peering back over his shoulder, The Doctor smirked at Harleen and Lily, "See, no killing" he joked before turning back where he was immediately met by the eagerly smiling face of Osgood, "So you're The Doctor" she said joyfully. The Doctor nodded, "Yes i am. Hello. Nice scarf by the way" he replied, "I'm Osgood..l-last time you met me, you called me yes. I was a bit nervous..first time meeting you" she quickly replied, taking a breath from her inhaler afterwards.

Harleen smiled at Osgood as she kept close to The Doctor, maybe a little too close as her hand would briefly touch his, she walked a little slower so she wasn't so close and she looked to The Doctor as he joked, she sighed and watched Osgood as she quickly spoke and then used her inhaler, "Be careful Os... you don't want to lose your breath." She smiled at Osgood before following The Doctor into UNIT.

Harleen eyed the armed soldiers as well as Kate Stewart, just to make sure none of them were glaring at her or anything. I really hate UNIT, they give me the chills... She would say to herself, she really wanted to whisper it to Lily but she couldn't find the urge to say it to the stranger she had just met.

Lily bit her lower lip, looking around as they walked towards the Tower of London, and trying to keep a grin from springing to her face. Her eyes flicked over to the Doctor as he made his small joke, and she chuckled, glancing over at Harley and smiling a bit. She turned er attention back to where they were going, doing her best to block out the armed soldiers walking around them. She glanced over at one of them as she walked behind the Doctor, and ran a hand through her hair.

She still kind of felt like she was in a dream. A blue police box that was bigger on the inside, aliens being real, and then being picked up by a helicopter and taken here? Kate had to be high up in whatever chain of command there was, look at how many armed soldiers were around them. The fact that the guards were there kind of gave her the creeps. Could they really be in that much danger that they needed to follow Kate around with their guns?