Sally walked into Banto's DVD Store where a bearded man was sitting at the counter watching a shoot out on a film on the TV that was fastened to the wall.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for Lawrence Nightingale." She said. "In the back." He said and Sally walked past him. "Hello?"
"Martha." The Doctor said, looking up at her.
"She does have a point, dear." A voice came from behind the camera.
"Galaxy." The Doctor frowned at the screen, though you could tell it was to the person holding the camera.
"Sorry." Martha mumbled as she walked off.
"Quite possibly." The Doctor said then paused, "Fraid so."
"Oh. Hello. Can I help you?" Larry said as he entered the room. "Hi."
"38." The Doctor said.
"Er, just a mo." Larry said and paused the playback, "Hang on. We've met, haven't we?" He asked, looking at Sally. "It'll come to you." She said. "Oh, my God." He said, crossing his hands in front of his groin. "There it is."
"Sorry. Sorry again about the whole..."
"Message from your sister."
"Oh! Okay. What? What is it? What's the message?"
"She's had to go away for a bit."
"Where?"
"Just a work thing. Nothing to worry about."
"Okay."
"And..."
"And what?"
"She loves you."
"She what?"
"She said to say. She just sort of mentioned it. She loves you. There, that's nice, isn't it?" Sally asked. "Is she ill?"
"No! No."
"Am I ill?"
"No!"
"Is this a trick?"
"No. She loves you."
"People don't understand time. It's not what you think it is." A voice behind the camera said.
"Who is this guy?" Sally asked. "Sorry, the pause thing keeps slipping. Stupid thing." Larry said. "Last night at Kathy's, you had him on all those screens. That same guy. Talking about, I don't know, blinking or something." She said. "Yeah, the bit about the blinking's great. I was just checking to see if they were all the same."
"What were the same? What is this? Who is he?" She asked. "An Easter egg." He said. "Excuse me?" She asked. "Like a DVD extra, yeah? You know how on DVDs they put extras on, documentaries and stuff? Well, sometimes they put on hidden ones, and they call them Easter eggs. You have to go looking for them. Follow a bunch of clues on the menu screen."
"Complicated." The Doctor said.
"Sorry. It's interesting, actually. He is on seventeen different DVDs. There are seventeen totally unrelated DVDs, all with him on. Always hidden away, always a secret. Not even the publishers know how he got there. I've talked to the manufacturers, right? They don't even know. He's like a ghost DVD extra. Just shows up where he's not supposed to be. But only on those. Those seventeen."
"Well, what does he do?"
"Just sits there, making random remarks. It's like we're having a conversation. Me and the guys are always trying to work out the other half." Larry said. "When you say you and the guys, you mean the internet, don't you?" Sally asked. "How'd you know?" He asked. "Spooky, isn't it."
"Very complicated."
"I like her."
"Laurence? Need you."
"Excuse me a sec." Larry said and went to the front of the shop.
"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect." The Doctor said and Sally frowned when the camera shifted slightly as though it was changing hands while still focused on the man, "But actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint..."
A woman with blonde hair and purple highlights appeared on the screen then and she moved so she was next to the Doctor. "Basically it's a giant ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."
"Galaxy."
"You do know not a lot of people can't understand when you get into your tangents about time, right? I was just helping." Galaxy said as she looked at the Doctor, then walked off the screen. The camera shifted again.
"Started well, that sentence."
"It got away from me, yeah."
"Okay, that was weird. Like you can hear me."
"Well, I can hear you." The Doctor said and Sally paused the screen as Larry came in.
"Okay, that's enough. I've had enough now. I've had a long day and I've had bloody enough! Sorry. Bad day." She said. "Got you the list." He said. "What?" She asked, confused. "The seventeen DVDs. I thought you might be interested." He said.
"Yeah, great. Thanks." She said and walked out to see the man talking to the film he's watching. "Go to the police, you stupid woman. Why does nobody ever just go to the police?" He said and Sally walked out heading to the police station.
-9-
"Look, I know how mad I'm sounding." Sally said as she was standing before a desk sergeant. "Shall we try it from the beginning this time?" He suggested. "Okay. There's this house. A big old house, been empty for years, falling apart. Wester Drumlins, out by the estate. You've probably seen it."
"Wester Drumlin?"
"Yes."
"Could you just wait here for a minute?" He asked before leaving her. She turned around to see two statues on the church opposite the building. She blinked and they were gone. "Okay, cracking up now." She said, not knowing on either side outside the window were the statues.
"Hi. DI Billy Shipton. Western Drumlins, that's mine." A man said as he walked over to Sally, "Can't tell you know, got a thing I can't be late for, so if you could just. Hello." He said, looking at her. "Hello."
"Eh, Marcie, can you tell them I'm going to be late for that thing?"
-9-
"All of them?" Sally asked as was taken to an underground car park. "Over the last two years, yeah. They all still have personal items in them and a couple still had the motor running." Billy told her. "So over the last two years, the owners of all of these vehicles have driven up to Wester Drumlins House, parked outside and just disappeared."
"What's that?" She asked when she saw a 1960's style police box in the corner. "Ah! The pride of the Wester Drumlins collection. We found that there, too. Somebody's idea of a joke, I suppose."
"But what is it? What's a police box?" She asked. "Well, it's a special kind of phone box for policemen. They used to have them all over. But this isn't a real one. The phone's just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size. We can't even get in it. Ordinary Yale lock, but nothing fits. But that's not the big question. See, you're missing the big question."
"Okay, what's the big question?"
"Will you have a drink with me?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Drink? You? Me? Now?"
"Aren't you on duty, Detective Inspector Shipton?"
"Nope. Knocked off before I left. Told them I had a family crisis."
"Why?"
"Because life is short and you are hot. Drink?"
"No."
"Ever?"
"Maybe."
"Phone number?"
"Moving kind of fast, DI Shipton."
"Billy. I'm off duty."
"Aren't you just." She said and wrote in a notebook. "Is that your phone number?"
"Just my phone number. Not a promise. Not a guarantee. Not an IOU. Just a phone number."
"And that's Sally?"
"Sally Shipton. Sparrow! Sally Sparrow. I'm going now. Don't look at me." She said and walked off. "I'll phone you."
"Don't look at me."
"Phone you tomorrow."
"Don't look at me."
"Might even phone you tonight."
"Don't look at me!"
"Definitely going to phone you, gorgeous girl!"
"You definitely better!" Sally said as he left.
Four angel statues stand around the Tardis, one of them with its hand up to the lock. Billy walks around, looking at them, then blinks.
Sally crossed the street from the police station when she stopped and took the Yale key from her coat pocket.
"Ordinary Yale lock, but nothing fits."
She ran back to the car park but the Tardis, Billy and the statues were gone."