TWO IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

by elfin


First a police box - blue, wooden - then this -  

"Oh, that is beautiful!  I mean just… would you just look at that!  It's stunning.  Seriously.  That's gorgeous."

Nick stared at the stranger who had stepped out of the impossible box only to be followed by another man.  What they'd been doing in there, a space so small, wasn't all that difficult to figure out, especially when he'd spent the last few days getting reacquainted with the possibilities.  But what it was doing there defied explanation.  Like so much else in his life. 

They both seemed to ignore the fact that they'd just stepped out of an old police telephone box into the woodland clearing - a phone box which itself had somehow just materialised without warning.  No, wait.  There had been a warning; that sound like the universe tearing itself apart.  He'd thought it had come from the anomaly now he wasn't so sure.

"What is it?"  So the second man was an American.  Not that it made any more sense for him to be a yank. 

"It's a hole, a tear, in space and time.  A portal.  A wormhole."

"Excuse me."   

The first man - brown jacket, pin-stripe suit, tall, lanky even.  And wearing All-Stars on his feet, something which struck Nick as being - for some unfathomable reason - the oddest thing of all.  He stepped forward, hand out in greeting.  "Yes.  Sorry.  Should have introduced myself.  Very rude.  I've been told that.  Sorry."  Nick shook his hand out of manners, which apparently hadn't left him while the world around him grew increasingly bizarre.

"Who are you?" 

"Doctor.  The Doctor.  And this is Jack."

'Jack' put out his hand too, and Nick reached for it.  Skin had barely touched skin, and Jack hadn't managed to speak before 'The Doctor' barked, "Stop it," at one of them.  Presumably his companion, whose features immediately took on a mock-innocent expression which made his initial expression, initially harmless, look like the greatest come-on Nick had ever seen. 

"I was just about to introduce myself."

The Doctor bounced to Jack's side, a real spring in his step, hand settling on Jack's hand - the one Nick had been about to shake.  "No need, I did that for you."  He looked up.  "Now, what is that?" 

Turning to follow the Doctor's pointing finger, Nick tried not to let confusion take control of the situation.  "You just said... it's a portal."

"I said it was a wormhole." 

"Or a portal.  Or a tear in time and space.  It's all of those things."

Dark eyes with pinpricks of light like stars settled on him, so heavy for just a moment before that moment winked out and they were just eyes again.  "Clever.  What's it doing here?" 

Nick ignored the question.

"Who are you?"

"I told you."

"Well…" he decided to let that go for now.  "What were you doing in the police box, apart from the obvious?"

Jack's face broke into a grin, but the Doctor frowned.  "What's the obvious?" 

"Doc…"  Jack nudged him, and realisation crept over his face.

"Oh.  Yes.  That.  Well, obviously.  And travelling." 

"Travelling.  In a police box."

"Yes.  It's a TARDIS - creates its own holes in time and space.  Mends them afterwards though.  Someone didn't mend this one."  He stepped forward and immediately Nick blocked his path.  "I should fix it." 

"There are loads of them, all over the country, probably all over the world.  And I wouldn't go too much closer, they're very dangerous."

The Doctor looked at him again, closely, curiously with just a touch of wariness.  "Where are we?" 

"In Dean's Wood."

"No, I mean… bigger.  Country, planet." 

Nick laughed, he couldn't help himself.  "Country, planet?  Your sense of scale is really weird."  He relented - might as well play along.  "England.  Earth."

"When?" 

"Presuming you mean the year and not the geological period - 2007."

"Who's prime minister?"

"Gordon Brown."

He rolled his eyes.  "That explains it."  Turned to Jack.  "We're not on our Earth.  Probably slipped through another gap between universes.  We should get back."

Jack shrugged, smiling in Nick's direction.  It wasn't a bad smile.  "Shame." 

But instead of making a move to leave, the Doctor had come closer.  "What's the big gun for?"

"It's a tranquiliser gun.  It's for when the dinosaurs come through the hole in time and space." 

For a second there was no reaction.  Then the Doctor tipped his head back and laughed.  "Dinosaurs!  Good one." 

He turned, heading for the box, Jack following with a last - was that longing? - look over his shoulder at Nick.  And a wink too.  "Mind you don't get eaten."

They were his last words before they both vanished back into the police box, the door closing behind them.  Fascinated to see how long they could stay in there, Nick watched.  Watched as that terrible - addictive - sound heralded something more amazing than anything he'd ever seen.  The box, travellers and all, de-materialised right in front of him.  He walked forward, kept walking, expecting to bump into it - that somehow it had been made invisible - but he didn't.  He walked right through where it had been. 

So distracted was he, that he heard Stephen's shout before he saw the thing with teeth and claws hurl its way through the air with the sole aim of taking a large bite out of his person.