Glitch

“Hello!” He said to the receptionist.

“Who are you?” She asked, uninterested.

“I’m the Doctor.”

“Haven’t seen you here before,” she frowned.

“That’s because I haven’t been here before.” He flicked something black in front of her eyes, and the receptionist sat up quite quickly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t realise who you were.”

“It’s okay. I’m on an inspection, nothing too drastic though. If you wouldn’t mind, could you find the medical records for my friend here...” He looked to me.

“June Temple-Noble.” I said. The receptionist looked unsure. “I’m eighteen, he’s allowed to see it if I say he is.” I said. The receptionist got up and searched through the files. She prised out my files and handed them to the Doctor.

“Just want to see how you set them out, things like that.” He said reassuringly, even though he studied it in great detail. After about two minutes he handed it back.

“Thank you very much.” He smiled widely at the receptionist. “I would like to inspect your surgery if that’s alright with you.”

“Oh um, okay, sir, just this way.” She led us through a hallway and into a carpeted room with a desk, two chairs and a surgery bed. The Doctor began to rummage through the equipment, pulling out random objects and inspecting them. He looked up to the receptionist.

“Thank you I’ll be fine for now.” He smiled, watching her walk away. “Close the door.” He said, turning back to his hands. Jack gently pushed the door closed. Then the Doctor turned to me. “You don’t know how good it is to see you!” His eyes were bright, and his smile was even brighter. “How’s your mother? I hope she’s well. And I hope she met a good man. Well, I’m sure she did! I hope you’ve been treating her well, she deserves it.” His smile was just... extremely enigmatically inhumanely wondrously- “June!” He said.

“What? Oh, yeah, she’s er, good?” I could feel my cheeks go red. “How do you know my mum?”

“You know.” He scratched his chin. “Our paths have crossed once or twice.” He looked at me, then behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Jack walking towards the Doctor. He muttered something, frowning. “Yes.” The Doctor said to him. “Donna, yes. D-o-n-n-a.” Jack looked at me and smiled.

“You’re mother was a really great person.” He said. I smiled back but wasn’t sure why they were saying all this.

“My mum’s never said anything about you two before, no offence.”

“Really?” The Doctor said. “I’m sure she had her reasons.” He looked into space for a while, then suddenly looked at me and blinked. “Why did we come here again? Oh right! Yes. Timey wimey stuff.” He pulled out a stethoscope and put it in his ears. “I hope you don’t mind, but I need to do a check-up.” He brought the chest piece to where my heart is, and listened for a few seconds. He then moved it across to the right. He frowned. “You’ve got one heart, so that’s, well, human.”

“Yeah...” I laughed. He put a piece of dry wood on my tongue.

“Say ‘ahh’.”

“Ahh.” I said. “Whas sthis got to do withs time sthuff?” I asked.

“Everything’s got to do with time stuff.” He said, throwing the piece of wood in the bin. He checked my ears next.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” I raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“Of course, I always know what I’m doing.” He got me to sit on the seat, and hit my knee with a small wooden hammer. It flew up a little. Then he picked up a ruler from the desk.

“Catch this.” He said, then after two seconds he dropped it. I caught it a bit less than halfway on the ruler. “Hmm.” He said. He reached in his pocket and brought out the small silver object. He pressed a button and a small green light shone from the end of it. It made a funny, high pitched noise that wavered like two untuned notes.

He shone it over my eyes, then down and up my body. He stopped and looked at it, reading something. “Have you ever had that detachment from time before?” He looked at me.

“So that’s what it is? Detachment from time?” I asked him.

“That’s a theory.”

“Well, I can’t remember any...”

“Are you smart?” He asked.

“I guess.” I shrugged.

“What’s the square root of sixty four times brackets two plus seven end of brackets?” He spoke quickly but slowed down at the end.

“Seventy two.” I don’t know how, but the answer just came to me. It was weird.

“Good!” He smiled.

“Listen, why are you doing this?”

“Because you are not all human, I think.” He said. I frowned. This guy was crazy.

“What?”

“I think you are part Time lord. That’s what I am.”

“But nobody in my family is like you. They don’t travel time.” I half-laughed.

“Who says I’m not part of your family?” The Doctor smirked, his lips pressed together. “I could be your uncle twice removed.

“You look young enough to be my brother.”

“Really?” He said. “Well it’s good to know I’m looking young for my age.” He grinned. If his smile got any wider his face would split in half.

“How old are you?”

“I’m nine hundred and eight.” He had to be joking.

“No you’re not.” I laughed. There was no way he was that old. But then again, I’d seen some strange things today.

“Yes I am, how would you know?” He turned to Jack. “Aren’t I, Jack?”

“Is he?” I raised an eyebrow at Jack.

“He is about that age, but he really can't remember. The age gets to him, y'know.” Jack smirked at me.

"My age does not get to me! You forget too."

“But I’m older than you.” He winked at me.

“This is crazy. But I understand it.”

“That’s because you are one quarter Time lord.” He said simply. “If your mother is Donna Noble then you have inherited some Time lord from her.”

“This is weird.” I said, turning to the door. “My mother is completely human! And so am I.” I walked out, through the hallway, and out onto the street. The Doctor and Jack followed. But I was soon distracted by something so obvious I’d wondered why I didn’t notice earlier.

“Doctor,” I said. “The rain.”

“What about it?”

“It’s raining.” He looked at me blankly. “If it’s raining why aren’t we getting wet?” His eyes grew wide and he pursed his lips.

“Oh.” He said. Jack picked up a stone and threw it in a puddle in front of us. There was a sucking noise, like water draining from a sink. And then it was gone.

“What is it?” I asked Jack.

“Something bad.” His grim voice had the shadow of an American accent. Like an American who hasn’t been living in America for a while. His eyes were dark and his voice was grim. Even the laugh lines in the corners of his eyes looked dull. All of a sudden everything had become a little bit darker.