𝔏𝔬𝔫𝔡𝔬𝔫, 𝔈𝔫𝔤𝔩𝔞𝔫𝔡, 𝔈𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔥
𝔄𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔩 2005
A day without laughter is a day wasted. Charlie Chaplin said it once; in many respects, he was correct. Laughter was something that took away the hurt, and made the days pass with an ease of never before. If there was one person who never let a day pass without laughing, it was EJ Thompson.
He was a boy, only a few months into his twenties, mischievous and a self-proclaimed genius. There were many things that he loved, and found joy in, but most of all football and skateboarding. He had a natural knack for them- just like his mischief. EJ used his inane stupidity and general nonchalance to create the sort of place where chaos was both encouraged and welcomed.
Whenever he was around, it only ever seemed to be chaos. It was his definition of fun; though, it seemed to be much different to that of his friends. When they were younger, it wasn't so noticeable, but with age, they had all seen how much he had changed.
Ever since the autonomous mannequins, EJ's mindset had altered completely. There was no doubt that he had partially lost his wits. After having a gun directed at his head, and surviving, he couldn't have been expected to stay the same. That wouldn't be fair.
Perhaps, he was a little more reckless and a little more fun-loving. There wasn't much harm in that at all.
He was surprised at how his friends had stuck by him, through the worst of it, and kept him sane enough to carry on. EJ was getting better, but without them, he never would have made it this far. Not many people could look past such a horrid past, and difficult circumstances.
They did, though.
"Jesus Christ, EJ!" Ty Keltie snapped as he ran back onto the pavement from the road. Fury crossed his freckled features, only making the Thompson boy laugh, loudly. "Don't do that!"
"Oh, come on!" EJ rolled his dark eyes, running a hand through his spiky hair. Angel had helped him dye it only last week, and the frosty tips had caused much disruption with his friends. They found it hilarious. "It wasn't that bad!"
"You pushed me into the road." Ty deadpanned.
EJ just swung his skateboard from side to side, spinning on his heels like he was in some sort of daze. "There wasn't any traffic."
"You shouldn't push anyone into the road." Elliott Jones, another one of his friends, the most sensible of the three who had gone out, added. "It's dangerous."
EJ just huffed. He started to walk just a little bit faster, forcing the others to match his speed to catch up with him. "I wouldn't have done it if there was any traffic. Jesus! It's not like I want to kill you!"
Ty raised his eyebrows, and sneezed. It probably wasn't helping that he had been victim to the winter-bug cold for three months, and was thoroughly pissed off by it, and therefore, everything else. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure." The blonde groaned, like a toddler. "If I wanted to kill you, I'd just inject air between your toes and mimic a heart attack."
"Does that really work?" Elliott raised his eyebrows, slightly taken aback by EJ's brutal fascination with death, and murder. He knew that one day it was going to get him in trouble- he just didn't know when.
Slightly frightened, Ty edged away slightly. "Have you thought about this?"
"Have you not?" EJ asked, sceptically.
"That's creepy." Elliott mumbled into his hot chocolate, wrapping his hands around it for warmth. Not that the spring air was cold, just... not hot.
"It's not creepy, you shit." He stuck his tongue out, playfully. "It's just a normal shower thought."
"That's your definition of a shower thought?" Ty couldn't believe what EJ was saying. He sounded mad, almost all of the time. "Jesus, mate." He shook his head. Sometimes it was a wonder he could put up with his friends. "Do we need to get you help or something? Cause I know-"
"Look at that!" Elliott interrupted them, uncharacteristically. Usually, he was mortified if he cut someone off before they had the chance to finish. But there was no way he could let this go one more moment without comment.
At his instruction, they looked up to the skies, where they heard the echoes of engines revving and spluttering. It was cloudy now, and windy too, but it became irrelevant fairly swiftly. The entirety of London just stopped and stared as a spaceship soared overhead.
It was beautiful.
It was completely and utterly beautiful. EJ was in awe of its creation- and he knew that it was happening again. He could feel it.
The aliens were back.
They watched with bated breath as it circled over London, like some sort of show. Then, it started to go wrong. It was loosing control, spinning, and soaring. The engines were excusing more smoke that it seemed able to produce, every possible exit was grey. Like a new winter was descending purely from smog.
"Holy shit." EJ marvelled, wondrously. He had never seen anything like that before. "That's a bloody-"
"Spaceship?" Ty sniffled, blowing his nose. "I kind of got that."
His state of encapsulated awe never surpassed as the machine twisted overhead. "Where do you reckon it's from?"
"I don't know." Elliott scoffed. "Mars?"
"Nah." Ty shook his head. "If it was from Mars it would be red."
"That's so-" EJ prepared himself to criticise all three of his friends, but found the words stuck in his throat.
The ship, in all of its mysterious glory, truly had lost control. They watched as it spread its wings like a metal eagle, and crashed straight into Big Ben. A structure so old, with so much history, had almost been cut in two. The clock-face itself was smashed too, the pieces flying onto the streets like shards of glass from a broken window. If that wasn't enough to prove the inevitable invasion, then landing directly in the Thames certainly did.
Once again, under his breath, EJ whispered. "Holy shit."
"Yeah." Ty chuckled, uncomfortably. "Holy shit."
"We should go home." Elliott spoke with a monotone, pushing them in the opposite direction, already beginning to walk herself. "There's gonna be a huge jam."
He was right, as he so often was. The entirety of London became a gridlock as the army cordoned off half of the roads and streets. If they hadn't left as soon as they did, before the mad panic, they never would have made it. All they really wanted was the watch the news, but even that would be difficult in their home.
EJ's home life was interesting to say the least; it was complex enough to fool the great mathematicians of history. He lived only with two roommates- Ty and Angel- but was often more, both boys of his age. They were his family. It didn't matter if they weren't blood, because family was in short supply. The flat they shared was just outside of London's centre, which was great for a social life, otherwise, not so much.
Elliott didn't live with them, as much as he would have liked to. As Angel's boyfriend, he was allowed certain privileges that perhaps their other friends weren't. No one minded, really. Their home often felt like a youth hostel.
However, their schedules were all over the place, so they hardly saw each other as much as they should have. Angel worked full time in Canary Wharf, and Elliott was a children's dance instructor. Ty worked as a cashier, but was pursuing music actively every day, busking in the city centre at every chance. EJ was slightly more flexible than that. As a tattoo artist, he only worked when there were customers: he had far too much free time.
When they arrived home, however, they saw no sign of Angel, despite it being his day off. Instead, they found Taylor Watkins and Soren Ødegård, who seldom left the home. Between them they worked five days a week, in the same place, earning just enough to excuse their lazy behaviour. They seemed to always be anywhere else but their flat, claiming that they had creepy neighbours. EJ, Ty and Angel were kind enough to let them stay put.
Soren and Taylor were glued to the television, as was expected. It couldn't have been more like them to be oblivious to the extremities of the world around them, even as it happened.
"Put the news on!" Ty exclaimed as they raced through the door, pushing each other along.
"What?" Taylor peered over his shoulder, sighing loudly. "No way!"
"We're watching an Emmerdale." Soren grinned, clasping a mug of tea close to his chest. "It's just getting good."
"Put the bloody news on!" EJ scowled, jumping between them on the sofa, and snatching the tv remote. "You'll thank me later."
The BBC One broadcast had the damaged Big Ben in the centre of the screen. It was enough to cause their friends to gasp, and silence themselves instead of complaining. He knew that they would want to hear it.
"Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash-lands in central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting, and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene."
The footage was flipped over to a ginger man in the middle of London, reporting on the events.
"The police urge the public not to panic. There's a helpline number on the screen right now if you're worried about friends or family."
Before they could properly hear what was going to be said next, Taylor snatched the remote from his friend, and turned off the TV completely. It was no secret had he hated the news, but this was history in the making, and they had to see it. Elliott knew this too, so pressed one of the buttons on the TV itself to turn it back on.
By then, they had missed a lot of key information, and EJ grumbled deeply about it all. He was intensely curious, and so shushed everyone else when they began to talk again.
"The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No-one knows what they're going to find."
"Well, it's going to be an alien, isn't it?" Taylor scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It's a spaceship."
"Shut up!" EJ hissed, craning his head towards the TV set. "I wanna hear this."
"Du pratar skit." Soren mumbled into his hands, shaking his head. "This is ridiculous."
"Yeah? Faen deg. Dette er viktig! I swear to God!"
Soren gritted his teeth. "You didn't say it right."
"Better be quiet, guys." Ty called from the kitchen, finding more kitchen roll to blow his nose with. "EJ's about to kill someone."
"Shut the FUCK up!"
Thankfully, his anger managed to silence the room. EJ breathed heavily, running a hand through his hair, and sighing.
"News is just coming in and we go to Tom at the Embankment. They've found a body. It's-it's unconfirmed but I'm being told a body's been doing in the wreckage, a body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore."
"A body of some sort has been found inside the wreckage of a spacecraft. Unconfirmed reports say the body IS of extra-terrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding live in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary, whereabouts as yet unknown. Roads in..."
"Told you it would be aliens." Taylor smirked, smugly.
Ty hit him over the head with the back of his hand. "You're being an idiot."
"What was that for?" He complained like a four-year-old, holding onto his skull. "Jesus!"
"Everyone knows it's aliens." Soren pushed him from across EJ.
"Leave me alone." Taylor grumbled. "This is bullying."
From beneath the clamouring of his friends, the Thompson boy was attempting to hear where the alien was being taken. It was much harder than he first expected as he was surrounded by idiots. Although, he did manage to hear one phrase.
"Albion Hospital."
And that was enough for him.
The blonde boy flung himself over the back of the sofa and towards the door, picking his skateboard up with the tips of his fingers as he went. It didn't take long for anyone to figure out what EJ was going to do. It wasn't like he was trying to hide it.
"No." Ty declared. "You're not going."
"Are you going to stop me?" EJ questioned, sceptically. "I've been waiting for something like this for ages."
"An alien?" Taylor raised his eyebrows, disapprovingly, changing the news over to Emmerdale once again. "Really?"
"Didn't have to be an alien." He grumbled. "I mean, I just want to have some fun."
"You have any more fun and you'll be arrested." Soren sighed, fed up.
With his head already half out of the door, EJ sent them a cheeky smile. "All the more reason to go."
"You don't even like hospitals." Elliott said, rather confused. He was a piece of work at the best of times, but when his mind was set on something, he was even worse.
EJ shrugged again. "There's an alien; I'm still going."
Despite his best efforts, EJ didn't get very far. It wasn't as if he wasn't trying. Usually, he was quite efficient at getting to where he wanted to be- but the entirety of London was cordoned off into certain areas to make travel almost impossible. There were so many people trying to get home, or to work, and EJ was in the middle of it all.
Eventually, he did manage to get there, not far outside of Albion Hospital's gates. EJ had seen them before, but not enough to scope out anything too properly. With so many people surrounding him, he couldn't break in just yet anyway.
This time was a godsend.
As the day went on, and hours passed slowly, EJ practically tiptoed around the sight. He was hidden, for the most part, which made it easier to watch the rotation of the guards so he could work out a scheme for himself.
By the time he was given a window, the sky was completely black. Stars were twinkling in the sky, and the Thompson boy had been hiding in a bush for almost three hours. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as it sounded, and it didn't even sound that comfortable.
EJ pulled himself over the tall metal fence, using a foothold only once to hike his three-quarter-length trousers over the pointed spikes at the top. After that, it was much easier. His skateboard had fit through the small gaps in the fencing anyway, and he was able to see an easy way into the hospital as a door had been left ajar.
Sometimes, he wondered why he even bothered. What was the point of being good at picking locks if there was never any locks to break through?
The corridors were dark too, but not through any fault of their own. The overhead lights were broken, and flickered every few seconds. It felt like a horror movie, goosebumps lining EJ's skin as he took in his environment. Every door would have conserving behind it, and he needed to work out where the closest exits were- just in case.
Despite doing well to keep out of sight, EJ couldn't avoid the man that ran straight into him. This man, though neither fat, nor thin, seemed to fill the entire corridor. It was impossible to stay away.
"Watch it." The Thompson boy sneered, rolling his eyes as he attempted to continue walking. "Jesus Christ."
"Eh, 'scuse me!" He sounded annoyed. So much so, that EJ wanted to take the time to see who exactly this man was.
He shrugged. "What? You're excused."
"Has no one here got manners anymore?" He muttered beneath his breath, shocked by the lack of hospitality coming from the boy.
"Mate, kindly, fuck off. You're not supposed to be here, just like me."
"Who says I'm not supposed to be here?"
EJ smirked. "That leather jacket."
The man breathed, his eyes looking over the blonde boy twice. "Why are you here?"
"Why should I tell you?" EJ shook his head in disbelief. "Who even are you?"
"I'm the Doctor."
The man, the Doctor, spoke with an immense amount of confidence. It was like he had spent his entire life perfecting the way he introduced himself. He must have met a lot of people.
"The Doctor... any other names? Like Keith or something?"
"Nope." He clapped, rubbing his hands together. "Just the Doctor."
"EJ."
"What?" He was caught off guard.
"EJ." The blonde offered a sheepish smile. Something embarrassed, but altogether intrigued. "That's me. I'm EJ."
"How'd you get in here?" The Doctor questioned him. It was staring to feel like an interrogation rather than something he was trying to do for fun.
The boy shrugged, swinging his skateboard from hand to hand. "I'm a handy person." It wasn't untrue. "You?"
"Something like that..." He replied, his eyes scanning the place. "Yeah."
Surprisingly, the two men decided to stay side by side and walk down the corridor together. It wasn't as if either of them had anywhere in particular to be: both were curious, and that was enough. However, it was rather quiet, which did frustrate EJ a little.
Whenever there were others around him, he wanted to have fun. This Doctor seemed to be anything but. Then again, the Thompson boy wasn't sure if he had ever met a fun Doctor.
EJ wasn't exactly sure that he was supposed to be following the man either, if it was classed as that, or walking with. Either way, at the first corner the Doctor took, he did the same in turn. It also happened to be the first door they opened- and EJ cackled louder than he ever had before.
Right in front of them, twenty give a soldier or so, on their break. It took them maybe half a second to react with all guns standing to attention. There was only one person who could raise a room in such a way, and that was the Doctor.
It seemed like no one knew what to do for a moment or two. They just stood there, looking at the odd pair, until there was a scream. It was like something clicked inside of their minds, and suddenly they were aware of what they were doing once again.
The Doctor was the first to react, sprinting away from the door and shouting at the soldiers.
"Defence plan delta! Come on, MOVE!" EJ stood there, looking at the mass movement, unsure of where he fit into it all. Perhaps this was his cue to leave. "That means you too, EJ."'
Taken a little by surprise, it took the boy a little amount of time to react, but when he did, he ran down the corridor to meet the Doctor. He had no idea where he was going- but the man grabbed his free hand, skateboard still in the other.
Following where the scream had come from, they ran as fast as they could to the room where the noise came from. There, they found a woman in a white lab coat, curled into a corner. She whimpered, like a small child.
"It's alive."
"Spread out, tell the perimeter it's a lockdown." The Doctor commanded. He sounded like a general, and EJ wondered whether he had been some sort of battlefield doctor- he certainly sounded like one.
"Oh, my God." Her hands clasped around her mouth, shaking as she was so frightened. "It's still alive!"
Both the Doctor and EJ went to attend the woman, the latter arriving first. "Are you alright?"
The elder man demanded from the remaining soldiers. "Do it!"
Only after they scattered did the woman finally talk properly about her ordeal. "I swear," she promised. "It was dead..."
"You're bleeding." EJ insisted, quickly searching for something he could use to tend to her. Thankfully, there was some gauze not so far away.
"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything... what does it look like?"
The blonde boy wiped the blood from her head with a disinfectant wipe before taping the gauze to it. "It might have only been dead by our standards, Doctor." He gulped, slightly out of breath. "If it's an alien."
There was a clink of metal.
The room fell silent.
"It's still here." The Doctor whispered.
He pushed himself to his feet, beckoning over one of the soldiers to act as backup. The entire room was locked into an intense silence, unable to move without setting off some sort of sensory alarm. Knowing that he was the only one able to make a change to it, the Doctor scooted around the room, attempting to go unseen by the creature.
EJ, however curious, stayed put. Even if he knew what he was doing, he probably would have made a dogs ear of the whole thing.
More clashes of metal. Another thing fell to the floor.
The Doctor crawled across the ground, around the table, slyly. He supposed he knew where the creature was.
And then, it peaked its head around the corner of a table. It snorted, pig-like in sound.
"Holy shit." EJ breathed.
It really was a pig. A short, pink, dressed in a space-suit, walking on two legs, pig.
The Doctor smiled, goofily, at it. "Hello."
It didn't reply- it couldn't. Instead, all it did was squeal and run, like a small human, a toddler maybe. The poor thing was so frightened, and terrified, running in a place it didn't know or understand.
And then there was a gun. One of the army men was just as scared, and directed it towards the small pig.
"Don't shoot." The Doctor commanded, and he complied.
He pushed himself from the ground and ran after the pig, dragging EJ along with him. They went as fast as they could, trying to keep up between all of the twists and turned.
But there was a gunshot.
"What did you do that for?" The Doctor screamed furiously as he turned the last corner, seeing the creature sprawled flat on its back. "It was scared!" The surrounding soldiers seemed to cower under the volume of his hatred. As he kneeled by it, he spoke again, with more feeling. "It was scared..."
The pig was not dead, yet. EJ watched from afar, at first, as the Doctor stroked the pigs face. It kept snorting, each getting softer, and further apart from the last. He wanted to see it properly, but couldn't bring himself to.
The poor thing was the victim of a plan greater than itself. More relatable than anyone might have thought.
"It's alright." The Doctor beckoned for him to join them. "Come here."
"Alright."
EJ didn't understand why the pig had to die, or why it even came to Earth in the first place, but it didn't matter. It was sad, and dying. So, the blonde sat by it, and stroked his face to make it less lonely until he passed.
He didn't think he could have an emotional connection to an alien after mere moments. But he did. And now, it was dead.
Within the next half an hour, the pig was moved into one of the labs. The kind woman from before did as many scientific and medical tests on the pig as she was allowed. That was when the Doctor decided that he wanted to look in; and EJ had decided that he didn't want to be by himself.
It wasn't as if he hated hospitals: he had been in enough already in his life. There was some sort of estranged fascination hidden in his memory. The military, however, were another story. After a few interesting brushes with the police, EJ didn't fancy his chances against their more aggressive partner.
The kind woman still seemed to be frightened by all that had happened. The blonde boy didn't blame her. It was shocking, and she hadn't signed up for it. Although, EJ was beginning to wonder himself what he was doing there.
"I'm only covering today." She admitted as the pig lay on an operating table, half covered by a white sheet. "I just assumed that's what aliens looked like."
"Why would an alien look like a pig?" EJ grumbled from beneath his breath. The Doctor nudged him.
"But you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?"
Despite his focus, the Doctor seemed to be in his element, and his perfectly set on every word that he was saying. "More like a mermaid."
A bell rung in the back of his mind. "Like the Victorian ones?"
"The Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish, and calling it a mermaid." The Doctor informed the woman, as she seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. None of it seemed relevant. "Now, someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on. Then they strapped it in that shop, made it a dive bomb, it must have been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."
"So it's a fake," She took note. "A pretend, like the mermaid." Then, she paused. "But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien."
EJ rolled his eyes, and scoffed. "Well done."
"Aliens are faking aliens?" She shook her head, looking over her notes furiously. "Why would they do that?"
Despite her curiosity being commendable, by the time she turned for her answers, the boys had disappeared. The Doctor, as seemed normal for him, had started to run. He was running, and he wasn't going to stop, so the blonde followed after him, in hope, perhaps, of finding out who he really was.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" EJ groaned, dragging his heels a little.
"Just-"
They turned a corner, and his eyes widened. There was a nineteen-sixties police box shoved into the corner of a corridor. It looked a little battered, and the paintwork was scrappy.
"That's a bloody police box!" EJ exclaimed, stopping himself altogether. "It's tiny! I'm not into that kind of shit- kind of counts as exhibitionism."
"No..." The Doctor looked disgusted by what he was suggesting. "It's-it's my... a... ship?"
He pulled a series of expressions, none of which made any sense, before replying. "You're alien too?"
"Yep."
It did make sense. He was weird, with clothes that didn't fit properly. And, he was called the Doctor. What sort of name was that?
"Okay, cool." He nodded, calmly, before refocusing his attention to the police box. "It's still a shit looking ship, though."
"Oi." The Doctor was offended again.
Touching her sides, and feeling what was just essentially wood, he was concerned. However, if it allowed travel, what was to say it wasn't stable? EJ wasn't exactly an expert on spatial travel. "What's her name?"
"The Tardis." He beamed like a proud parent. "Time and relative dimension in space."
"I bet you think you're clever." EJ shot back.
He retorted. "I am."
"Sure." The younger said, with some skepticism.
Then, the Doctor opened the doors with a key, and pushed them. He leant against the box as a faint orange glow emerged. His head gestured towards the inside of the ship. "Go on."
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Disclaimer!!!
I do not own Doctor Who, it's characters and original storylines. The only things I do own are my own characters, my addition to the series and my own storylines. Any similarities to real life are purely coincidental.