The sun was shining brightly, the sky bright blue, the birds chirping, a breeze of cool air blew by, full of the aroma of flowers in full bloom.
The moment the Doctor and his companion stepped out of the TARDIS, they were greeted by the sight of slightly rundown, low rise buildings.
"Ah... I should've known," the Doctor said. He looked around nervously, almost as if he was expecting an alien with multiple eyes and tentacles to jump out of no where and attack him.
"Alright, so where are we Doctor? Another Earth Colony planet? If it is, it looks remarkably similar to Earth." His companion said , her voice dropping with sarcasm.
"We ARE on Earth. Planet Earth, London, Powell Estate on-" they walked past a newspaper stand and the Doctor took a glance at the newspaper before continuing, "19th August, 2007."
The Doctor's companion followed him as he led them round a corner, through a grey coloured door and up a flight of stairs. He walked with purpose and familiarity, as if he had walked this path a million times and knew EXACTLY where he was going.
Well, hopefully he did, she thought silently to herself.
They reached the fourth floor and saw Bad Wolf leaning on the door of one of the apartments. She grinned and waved her hand at them, as if she had been waiting for them all along.
The Doctor approached her with a wary look on his face.
"The door's locked." Bad Wolf said, simply.
"Yeah."
"I want to go in."
"Who's home is this?" The Doctor's companion asked, her eyebrows raised in question.
"Mine."
"Jackie's."
The Doctor and Bad Wolf answered simultaneously.
"Don't you have, oh I don't know, keys to your own home... Jackie?"
"Lost 'em," Bad Wolf said, shrugging her shoulders, not bothering to correct the other girl. "It's been a while since I last came back here."
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. A flash and whir later,the lock gave a satisfying click, allowing the trio entry into a slightly cramped apartment.
"She's not Jackie, that's her mother." The Doctor whispered to his companion, just before they stepped into the apartment.
The apartment looked it had been left in a hurry, items strewn about haphazardly, a cup of tea which had weird orange mould growing on it, a magazine dating from July abandoned on the sofa. It was as if someone had just popped out for a visit to the store, but obviously had not make it back for a month or so, judging from the thin layer of dust covering the floor.
The Doctor and his companion were in the living room. Any feeling of awkwardness she had been feeling was quickly doused out by curiosity as the she began snooping around.
She picked up a few framed photographs. They mostly were pictures of an older blond haired woman and a slightly younger-looking version of Bad Wolf. She assumed that the older lady was Jackie, Bad Wolf's mother. Bad Wolf herself looked more or less the same as in the photographs, but something in her eyes made the present day Bad Wolf look older.
There were a few photographs that included a young, good-looking dark skin boy. In most of these pictures, he had an arm slung casually over Bad Wolf's shoulders, both their faces glowing with joy and laughter.
One particular photograph caught her eye. It was a group photo of Bad Wolf, the dark-skinned boy and a pinstripe clad,spiky haired pretty boy who had twinkling eyes and a charming grin.
The pretty boy and Bad Wolf were wearing bright coloured paper crowns. The three of them were seated around a dinner table enjoying what was probably a Christmas dinner, judging from the Christmas decorations in the background. The picture had probably been taken without their knowledge as none of them were directly facing the camera. On the contrary, it looked as though the picture had been taken in the midst of an inside joke between the trio as all three of them were either laughing or grinning.
The Doctor was on the other side of the living room, picking up random books, flipping through them, before carelessly dumping them on the nearest surface (aka the floor). He picked up a few trinkets and ornaments lying about.
There was a bell from the planet Tristwch, he picked it up and gave it a small shake. It gave a loud and sharp "TING!" that surprised them both, almost causing his companion to drop the photograph that she was holding. She promptly gave him a glare, which he replied with a sheepish grin.
He moved and began fiddling with a small metal Big Ben. He turned around to begin telling his companion about how this particular ornament came from. Then he noticed that she was staring rather intently at a photograph, a glimpse of the past, a glimpse of his past.
In two strides, he was across the room and he promptly plucked said photograph from her hand, and placing it on a nearby shelf, using a bit more force than he had intended.
"What was that for?" She asked, somewhat annoyed.
"Look at this. It's from Alenxena, which roughly translated to Land of Memories in English. Theres a species of aliens there that practically adore human culture. Look! This is what we bought when we went to visit. a miniature Big Ben, from an actual tourist shop." The Doctor said, holding up the tiny Big Ben.
"So this Bad Wolf, she was a companion." His companion asked, not deterred by the Doctor's obvious efforts in trying to avoid the subject of Bad Wolf.
The Doctor fell silent, he turned away from her, his shoulders sagging slightly, as if just bringing up the topic was causing him invisible pain.
"Yes." His reply was soft, almost inaudible.
She was just about to continue with her onslaught od questions when Bad Wolf came bursting out of one of the rooms, smilling brightly. She excitedly grabbed the Doctor's hand saying, "Come 'ere Doctor, there's something I wanna show you."
The Doctor was dragged by the petite blonde, with his companion trailing closely behind, into a room with bright pink wallpaper. The bed was covered with a dusty pink duvet, and on top of the duvet sat a slightly ragged blue teddy bear. It looked like it had been squished and squashed quite a bit, but it had all four limbs. Around it's neck was a brown ribbon, the words "Bad Wolf" were written on it with golden coloured ink.
"Isn't that the teddy bear we saw on the planet just now?" His companion asked,her voice coming from somewhere behind him.
"Nope, this is Mr Tedopolous."
The Doctor's companion looked around the room. Inwardly, she cringed at the amount of pink there was. Above the writing table in the corner of the room, she noticed a few photos stuck to the wall. They were mostly photos taken using a cell phone camera, since the quality of the photos were mediocre at best.
Some of the photos were of Bad Wolf and the pinstripe-suit pretty boy.
The photo that caught her eye was a photo of Bad Wolf with a middle aged man, his hair closely cropped and he wore a black leather jacket.
"Is that your dad?" She couldn't help asking.
Bad Wolf looked up from her teddy bear, her eye brows raised, mouth curved in a small smirk.
"Nope."
"He sure has a big nose and ears though."
"The better to smell you and hear you with, my dear." The Doctor muttered, looking away with a grimace.
His companion merely looked at him in mild confusion.
"Why are you offended?" She said.
"Nothing. We should leave. If you're done." The Doctor looked pointedly at Bad Wolf. She gave a nod before leading the way out of the apartment, Mr Tedopolous in hand.
The Doctor was about to relock the apartment door with the sonic screwdriver when Bad Wolf stopped him with her hand on his arm and a small shake of her head.
"In a few more days, Beth who lives next door will come by, looking for Jackie Tyler and her daughter. She has not seen either for a month. She happens to try the door and find that it's unlocked. She will realise that neither Jackie Tyler or her daughter have been back for an extended period of time, and this apartment will later be sold to a time agent." Bad Wolf said, in a matter-of -fact sort of way.
The Doctor seemed to accept her reason without question, but the rest of the trip back to the TARDIS was filled with silence, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts.
As soon as the TARDIS took of into the time vortex, the Doctor did his little dance around the TARDIS console, before clapping his hands together and turning to both his companion and Bad Wolf.
"Where to next? Rozu is a planet known for having trees covering the whole planet that are akin to cherry blossoms on Earth, just that they bloom all year round. Or what about Vilkan? It is the home planet to a species of aliens that visited Earth in the early 20th century, it's said that these are the aliens that inspired the whole Star Trek series!" The Doctor said , excitedly.
"How 'bout Trǎtréath? " Bad Wolf said from where she sat curled on the jump seat.
The Doctor stood motionless for a second before he gathered himself, smilling but with a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Rainbow beach it is then. But this time, I'm driving."