Doctor Who: The Boy Who Remembered (Fan Fic)

Chapter 6: Impossible Possibilities

The Doctor and young Benjamin French had been taken to the dungeons within the Tower of London. There had been no chance to argue their case, nor ears willing to listen. Even Sire William Marshall had only cast his head in shame after believing he had endangered his King. For in an age where war was always on the horizon, and one's own brother was often found to be one's greatest threat, strangers were seldom welcome. And what greater threat could there have been to the Kingdom of England than a mysterious man with a screwdriver aided by a twelve-year-old boy dressed in his pajamas.

Hours had passed without word from the King, neither regarding their internment nor their condemnation. Benjamin had never before imagined he would find himself a prisoner, let alone in the historical Tower of London. The Doctor had done his best to make light of the situation explaining that they shared the fate of Kings and Queens. Whether through villainy or shame, they were sharing the same cells as the most infamous Lords and Ladies throughout the history of England. But such a cold comfort had done little to do away with the awful freight of a young boy, even one as courageous as Benjamin French.

"You know," began the Doctor in hopes of breaking the awkward silence. "Now that I think about it, the last time I ran into Richard he did sort of...banish me. Thought it was just a figure of speech. Figured he'd forget the mess all together. On the bright side they did let me keep my screwdriver."

The boy could not see the bright side quite as clearly as the Doctor. The complexities of time travel were not so easy to brush off for the average person. Benjamin could only hold his head a little lower as the weight of his sadness grew heavier. It was then that the first tear began rolling down his cheek.

"Are you leaking?" he regarded while remaining oblivious to the boy's sadness. "Well stop that. This is no time to lose control of one's bodily functions."

Rearranging atop the few bundles of straw that had been placed upon the stone floor, Benjamin did his best to turn away from the rambling time traveler.

"Come on Benjamin! My French-less Squire French. I'll find a way out of here. I promise," stated the Doctor in hopes of consoling the boy.

"Yeah?" he bulked in reluctance. "And how are you going to do that?"

"Hmm. There was a time I tried changing the molecular structure of this very same door via harmonic resonance. The calculations took centuries, should still be somewhere in this thing." The Doctor switched on his screwdriver and point it towards the door with steadfast confidence but nothing changed, "Nope...definitely not the same door. It's not unlocked, tried that already, and it's a deadbolt so there's no unlocking this one. I'd say we're stuck with waiting. I rather hate waiting."

A defeated Doctor sunk his head and sat back down beside the boy he had pulled through time. Although the cells of the Tower were an upgrade from most of the damp prisons of the Dark Ages, the cell was still far from hospitable. With only a few bundles of straw placed as the sole objects in the cell there was enough room to move about but nothing to do with the space. A consistent chill filled the emptiness, all as if an endless stream of wind was spilling through the cracks between the stones. Even the stale smelling confines of the locker-rooms back at school sounded more appealing to young Benjamin.

The Doctor had begun thrashing the back of his head against the wall as he shouted, "Gah! What is going on Benjamin? Is someone, or something, erasing pieces of time?"

"You said that wasn't possible," pointed out the sulking boy.

"It's not!" restated the expert on the subject. "Or at least it shouldn't be. It's just as I mentioned before, time should be ripping in two right about now. Events can't go missing without taking everything else around them."