A Love Stronger Than Time

Chapter 1

October 21st, 2015

Tuomas stared at the date on the
calendar until it blurred before his eyes. 10 years. It had been 10 years since the End of an Era. 10 years since he had done what he regretted most, what he would never forgive himself for. 10 years since he had forced the woman he loved out of his life for good, in the cruelest way possible.

These thoughts were swirling through his head as he stepped out into the crisp Finnish night air and began to walk. He didn't have a destination in mind; all he knew was that he couldn't bear to be in his house any longer. Tears began to stream down his face until he couldn't see what was in front of him anymore, and he didn't see the blue police box until he had almost walked right into it. Startled, he stepped back and looked around. He had walked a long way, but he still recognized the street he was on, and he knew for a fact that there was not supposed to be a police box on this sidewalk. Tentatively, he reached up and knocked on the door, not knowing what had possessed him to do that because for all he knew there could be a serial killer inside. He stepped back, cursing his stupidity, and was about to turn and run when the door opened and a man with a brown pin striped suit, brown hair, and glasses stepped outside.

"Hello," the man said. He had an English accent. "How can I help you?"

"Um, I just ... I noticed the, uh ... box and I hadn't seen it before, so I ... um," Tuomas struggled to find what to say and rocked back and forth with his hands in his pockets. He caught a glimpse inside the police box and saw that its depth was much larger than he would have estimated from the outside. He almost fell forward trying to see further inside it, but caught himself.

"Want to have a look inside?" the man asked.

"Well, I don't really know ... why does it look like it's so big? Is it some sort of optical illusion?" Tuomas asked.

The man said nothing, just walked inside, as if silently daring Tuomas to follow, which he did.

Tuomas froze as he stepped inside and his eyes scanned the space he was now in. It looked like some sort of control room, with a console in the center and cords and supports stemming out from it. The only problem was that it was vast. Much too vast to be contained in the small police box Tuomas had seen from outside.

He dashed back outside and then slowly walked around the edges of the box, running his hand along the dark blue painted wood as he did so.

He walked back to the entrance and cautiously stepped inside again to find the man in the pinstriped suit and glasses leaning against the console, his arms folded across his chest and an amused expression on his face.

"It's ... it's ... ," Tuomas stuttered. "It's bigger on the inside."

"Yes, yes it is," the man smiled. "Wonderful observation."

"What is it?" Tuomas asked.

"A TARDIS. Time and relative dimension in space."

Tuomas just stared at him.

"Or in more simple terms, she's my spaceship."

"Your spaceship," Tuomas repeated.

"Yes."

"Okay, what- what is this? Is this some kind of a sick joke to get my autograph? You could have just asked, I mean-"

"Your autograph?"

"...you don't know who I am?"

"No," the man said. He looked genuinely confused. "Am I supposed to?"

"Well, no, of course not. Especially if you're not from here. It's just, I'm in this band called Nightwish and we're pretty famous in Europe, but in Finland almost everyone knows who we are."

"Oh," the man smiled. "That sounds nice. But no, I actually didn't want your autograph. I was just passing through here. She broke down all of the sudden so I Ianded immediately in order to repair her. Did you say we're in Finland?"

"Yes," Tuomas nodded. "In Kitee."

"Nice country, Finland," the man said.

"Yes, it is," Tuomas said.

There was an awkward pause.

"So ... who exactly are you?" Tuomas asked.

"I'm the Doctor," the man stuck out his hand, and Tuomas climbed the steps to the console to shake it.

"I'm Tuomas," he said. "The Doctor ... of what, exactly?"

"Just the Doctor," he smiled.

"Okay ... why do you have a spaceship?"

"Well, I'm an alien. Don't all aliens need spaceships?"

"You're an alien? You look just like me."

The Doctor winked. "Clever disguise, huh? Feel my hearts."

"Hearts?"

"Yes. I have two hearts. I'm a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey, not a human."

Tuomas tentatively placed his hand on the Doctor's chest. He gasped when he felt two hearts beating.

"But that's ... that's ... impossible."

The Doctor smiled knowingly, as if he had seen this reaction many times before.

"So this is really a spaceship?" Tuomas whispered, hardly daring to believe it. He wrote about magical worlds with supernatural beings all the time in his songs, but he had never dreamed that something like this would actually happen to him.

"Yep," the Doctor grinned.

Tuomas looked around the room in awe.

"But she doesn't just travel through space. She also travels through time."

Tuomas' head snapped back to face the Doctor.

"Did you say time?"