Beauty and the Doctor

Belle was still groggy when she heard it-- a very strange noise, like a sort of swooshing and something metal. It was rhythmic and getting nearer, but all she could do in her half-asleep state was listen.

It was the crash that truly woke her up. A loud bang and several crunches that shook the floors of the little house Belle lived in, and with a surprised, "Oh," she sprung out of bed and changed as quickly as she could. Tying her brown hair up as she walked outside, Belle was not surprised to see her plump father climbing out of his inventing workshop. His hair was wild, and his eyes were wide behind a pair of magnifying spectacles.

"B-Belle, did you hear that?" He asked excitedly, scurrying beside her as she rounded the house.

"Felt more than heard, but yes I did. I wonder what it could be. What could make such a noise?"

Her question was answered when the father-daughter pair reached the back of the house, their view usually of nothing but a wide open field. In the midst of the grass, however, was a large, blue, rectangular box. They had never seen anything like it before.

Frowning, Belle walked in front of her father, rushing over to it. She did always enjoy new, mysterious things.

The box looked to be made of wood, and it was cracked in several places. It also seemed to be on its side, as there was sideways writing at what she could only assume to be the top of it.

"Police Call Box," she read aloud. A short scream was elicited from her, however, as a door flung open--upward, really, and a figure dressed primarily in brown lunged out only to fall in a heap on the grass.

"Oh, sir!" She cried, running over to him. Her father watched curiously as Belle sat on her knees, hands hovering over the man's form as if she was afraid to touch him. "Sir, are you okay?"

A soft groan escaped his lips, and then he stuttered, "T-tea. Warm tea." He sounded English from the three words he had actually spoken, and the young brunette looked to her father with worry etched all over her face.

"You go, dear," he told her, walking closer. "I'll stay with him."

She nodded then got up and fled to the house, making tea as fast as humanly possible and tapping her foot when not even that was fast enough. Who was this man? And, how did he come out of that box? Most importantly, where had he come from?

Belle and her father didn't get many visitors. Maurice had a bit of a reputation in the village, and most people avoided Belle whenever she would go into town. She only really talked to the town book keeper and that brutish Gaston on occasion. So, why had a stranger suddenly appeared in the field behind her house?

Belle poured some tea into the largest glass she had, then grabbed an apple for good measure. She hurried out of the house, doing her best not to spill the tea, and when she came upon them again, the strange man was sitting up, though it seemed to take a great effort.

"Here you are," she said, holding out the beverage. "I also brought you an apple in case you were famished."

"Oh, you're good," he said, voice now stronger. "I love apples!" He grinned a sort of boyish grin, and Belle laughed, sitting down next to her father.

The two let him eat and drink, which seemed to do him a world of good, as he got very energetic once he finished. Then, they decided it was time to start asking questions. Before they even could, though, he had a few questions himself.

All he had wanted to know was what year it was (1756) and where they were (Provence, France)-- strange inquiries, but they still told him.

"Right, well thanks very much for that. Now, I reckon you're wondering just who I am and what I'm doing in your yard or, um, pasture, so I'll tell you. I'm the Doctor-- Nothing else, no surname, just the Doctor. That blue box over there is my mode of transportation, and she's just crash landed, so I need to find a way to fix her. Any ideas?"

Belle and Maurice stared at him for some time, trying to process everything he'd just said. Both were fairly smart individuals, but it was a lot to comprehend.

The Doctor?

Crash landed?

Perhaps she could look something up in one of her books to find a way to fix his mode of transportation. Better yet, maybe her father would know!

"I'm going to be honest with you. I haven't any idea of how to help you, but my father here--"

"Belle--"

"My father is an inventor," she finished with a sly smile, and the Doctor's big, brown eyes lit up. "He's very good at creating things, so I don't see why he wouldn't be able to fix your blue box."

"Well, I-I don't really know h-how I would go about fixing a box. I mean--"

"Brilliant! Come on, then! Get your tools! Allons-y!"

He stood up quickly, cup of tea still in hand, and the tiny family scrambled to their feet, following the Doctor as if he knew where he was going.

Maurice led him into his workshop, and the man peered around the dusty space as the other looked for his own, invented tools.

Belle paced over to the skinny man. He was dressed in a funny way, in a brown, long waistcoat of some sort and strange, loose breeches. He also wore a pair of shoes that she had never seen before. White and covering his feet and ankle, but they weren't boots. Belle liked to think that she was very open-minded, but even she had to stare, especially at that hair. How did it stick up like that?

"So, Doctor," she started after clearing her throat.

"Yes, uh, Belle, was it?"

She nodded. "What exactly is that that you do in that blue box?"

He looked at her sideways, eyes shining, and the ghost of a smile played at his thin lips. She knew that it wasn't just any old wooden box, and he knew that she knew this.

"Well, Belle, that blue box is unlike any other blue box in the world. In the universe, actually."

"How so?" She lifted an eyebrow.

"It's called a TARDIS."

"A tah-dis?"

"No, there's an 'r' in there, you just can't hear it with my accent. TARDIS," he enunciated clearly. She nodded again, but she didn't look any less confused. "It's an acronym, actually, stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"Pardon?"

"Yes, space, surely you've heard of it from ol' Galileo or Thomas Digges."

"Just that there's a vacuum out past all of this," she gestured with her hand, and the Doctor blinked, still smiling.

"Oh, there's so much more out there than a simple vacuum. Friedrich Bessel will tell the world a bit about that in around a century's time, though."

She could only watch him with huge eyes. Her whole body seemed to be thrumming with excitement. This man was so different. He had just fallen into her life, and the way he spoke was so... crazy! He must have been a madman!

"So, if that's your mode of transportation," she began, trying to put some pieces together. "And, it's called time and r-relative dimension in space, then that means..." She frowned again, looking at the ground as she lost herself in thought.

It couldn't be. There was no way that he could just...

Belle looked up again to find the Doctor grinning wider than ever, and she knew that by the look on his face, that she was on the right track. She was right about him.

"That means that you travel in time and space."

"Like I said before," he smirked. "You are good."

She made a face, but he only chuckled and told her, "Most people leave out the 'time' bit," before he walked over to her father who had been completely oblivious to their entire mind-blowing conversation.

Belle just stood still with her mouth hanging open.