Peyton's fingertips brush against cardboard as she reaches around blindly in the top of her wardrobe, balancing precariously on her toes.
She retracts her hand as she rocks back onto her heels. She had just been looking for her lighter blanket as the weather had begun to brighten as Autumn lifts into Summer over England but seems to have found something else entirely.
She reaches up yet again, this time with the intention of pulling the object down, the blanket can wait.
Slowly, she lowers her hands and stares down at the shoe box between them, a thin layer of dust settled on its lid. She had not remembered putting it there, she doesn't even own a pair of shoes from this brand.
With one hand, she peels the lid back to reveal a jumbled pile of photos inside, their bright colours overlapping one another but she immediately recognises some of the ones on the top.
Peyton walks back over to her bed and places the box down before sitting beside it, crossing her legs beneath her. She pulls out a photo, the first one on the top.
It's a photo of Amy and Rory in front of the newly opened Eiffel Tower, embraced in eachother's arms with Rory placing a kiss on Amy's cheek.
Peyton smiles sadly. She remembers taking this photo. The Doctor had taken them to Paris, 1889 for Amy's birthday and it was just the most beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and surprisingly warm for early Spring.
She places it down and picks up another. It's a picture of her and Rory back to back, swords raised and ready, taken from the front row of a Roman style arena. Of course, it wasn't actually Ancient Rome, it just looked like it. The photo is from the day that she and Rory entered into the Gallappoon Olympics, the event: doubles duel.
She gently sets it down with the first image and plucks yet another from the box.
The image causes Peyton's eyes to water, threatening to spill onto the photo. She sees herself with her eyes shut closed, mouth wide open, caught in the moment of a rib aching laugh as she has her arms draped around Amy's shoulders, Rory and River beside them, also laughing heartily at a joke Peyton can't quite remember.
What she would give to just spend one more day with them, one more adventure. Maybe then she could finally say goodbye to Rory.
The chime of the doorbell ringing prompts Peyton to tear her eyes away from the box and she pushes herself up from her bed to trot down the stairs to the entry way.
She pulls open the door to reveal a bored looking post lady, who presents a letter toward her.
"Thank you, have a nice day," Peyton says, taking it from her hand with a pleasant smile which was not returned.
She closes the door and looks down at the envelope in her hand. The paper is old, quite yellow at the edges. The recipient and address are printed in jet black ink with elegant cursive font.
Peyton Barrett
72 Wisteria Street
South Acton
It's the print in the top right corner that causes her to raise an eyebrow however.
To be delivered:
Tenth of April, Two Thousand and Thirteen
Peyton had received a handful of letters from the past before. Her first thought is that the Doctor had got himself stuck in the past again. That is until she turns the letter in her hand and her eyes fall upon the black wax seal with the ornate 'V' pressed into it.
She walks into her living room and snaps open the seal to pull out a letter and small black candle. What has Madame Vastra got in store for her today?
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
