ODDITY ⇆ DOCTOR WHO

0.11 | G.L

   
      "Hey!" A voice cried, as the door to the nearest car opened. "What are you doing out there?! The fumes will kill you, get inside!" He beckoned, the two waisting no time to make towards the car. The man patted their backs as they piled in.

       "The masks." The man said, as the two gagged and coughed. A woman from the front seat leaned forward, handing a oxygen mask to the Doctor.

     "We only have the one." She sighed, as he quickly inhaled as deeply as he could for a few moments, and then pulled it off and holding it over Valarie's face. Her eyes fluttered shut in relief.

      "The two were just standing there! There's a story, ya know." He sighed. "There's this story, says back in the old days, on Junction forty seven, this woman stood in the exhaust fumes for a solid twenty minutes. By the time they found her, her head had swollen to fifty feet. " he told the two the tale as if he was warning his own children. The Doctor's breathing had returned to normal, except for a few coughs here and there. Valarie still inhaled the oxygen mask deeply.

      "Oh, your making it up." The woman scolded. Valarie's eyes opened, flickering to the man who had undone his scarf around his face. The face of cat peered at the front passenger. Valarie's eyes widened, and her calmed breathing hitched again. The Doctor's hand patted her shoulder reassuringly.

      "A fifty foot head! Imagine picking that nose!"

        "Oh, that's disgusting!"

         "What, you never picked your nose?" The man chuckled, as the woman motioned him to the seat beside her.

          "C'mon Bran," she scolded, "we are moving." The man took a seat, and took control as the vehicle barely moved.

        "Twenty yards. We're having a good day. And who might you be, sir? Very well-dressed for a hitchhiker." He asked, turning to the Doctor who watched the motorway through the windshield.

       "I'm the Doctor." He introduced. "And this is Valarie." He motioned back towards where he had left it. She had seemingly vanished behind a curtain. The Doctor stepped towards it, gently tugging it back to expose the scene.

Valarie kneeled at a animal bed's side. In it was a small litter of kittens; one of which had boldly crawled towards Valarie.

"Medical man! Names Thomas Brannigan." The cat-like man introduced. "And this is the lovely Vicky." He purred as he gazed lovingly to his wife. "It appears your friend found the rest of the family." He laughed gently upon seeing Valarie holding one of the kittens.

Valarie peered to the Doctor who moved before her. "These are their children?" She silently asked. He shushed her with a smile, and set his large hands on the head of the one she held. They silently gushed over the kittens.

"How old?" The Doctor asked, and more of them began to want the two strangers attention. "Two months." Bran replied.

"Never known the ground beneath their paws, poor souls. Children of the motorway." Vicky sighed.

"They were born in here?" Valarie asked, obviously horrified of the idea of giving birth in the cramped car.

"We couldn't stop. We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries on Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance." Bran sighed. The Doctor turned to him, with a white kitten in hand.