The Lost Time Lord (A Doctor Who/Tenth Doctor Fanfiction)

Chapter Thirty-Six: Different But The Same

"Doctor!" Rose screamed.

"Stay still!" His voice called as the creature grew progressively closer to my face. 

"You sure, 'cause I was thinking of headbutting it." I quipped, folding my arms over my face. It moved away from me, only to shrink down into a much smaller, significantly less alive, squiggly ball, which fell directly into my defending hands. 

The Doctor ran over, putting a foot on either side of me and peering down, his eyes flicking between me and the creature in my hands. 

"You alright?" He asked, grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet. 

"I'm fine. Just your typical Tuesday," I said, turning to look at Rose, "Sorry for the shove. You alright?"

"Sorry? You saved my bloody life." She said, pulling me into a hug. I smiled hugging her back before pulling away, tossing the creature up into the air and catching it again. 

"I'll give you a fiver if you can tell me what the hell it is, 'cause I haven't got the foggiest." The Doctor said, pushing it around my palm with the end of his screwdriver. 

"Well, I can tell you've just killed it." Rose said, bending down slightly to look at the creature.

"He can't have killed it, it was never alive," I corrected, "Its been animated by whatever that energy is permeating the street." 

"The same energy that's snatching people," He said, throwing it up and catching it just as I had, "That is so dinky!" 

I caught it before he could, holding it up towards the sun.

"Dinky enough for the TARDIS to analyze?" I suggested, turning my head to look at him. He smiled.

"I like the way you think, Ms. Perdita."  He said, sliding his hand into my free one and pulling me off towards the TARDIS, Rose trailing behind us and giggling all the while. 

~~~

"No, there-I think you want to run the imaging protocol," I suggested, pointing at the monitor, "That's that one, just there."

The Doctor looked at me in surprise, placing the creature on the analysis dock. 

"Well, look at you Ms. TARDIS expert." He cooed. I rolled my eyes, bumping my shoulder against his. 

"That's not expert level knowledge-Did you even pass your exams?" 

"That...is besides the point," He replied, looking back at the screen, "Oh, Hi-oh, here we go. Let's have a look." 

I followed his gaze, and both of our smiles fell as we read the results. 

"What's it say?" Rose asked, unable to read the Gallifreyian writing on the screen. I grabbed the ball off of the dock without looking away from the screen, holding it up to the Doctor. He reached into his jacket, pulling out a pencil. 

He put his hand over mine, bringing the pencil eraser down to the ball and erasing the top bit. 

"It is," he said, blowing it off and taking it out of my hand, "Its graphite. Basically, the same material as an HB pencil." 

"Mary was attacked by a pencil scribble?" Rose questioned.

"A scribble creature," The Doctor corrected, "Whatever we're dealing with, it can create things as well as take them. But why make a scribble creature?"

"Maybe it was a mistake," Rose suggested, "I mean, you scribble over something when you want to get rid of it. Like a drawing, like a..."

"Child's drawing." I finished for her.