Swings

Notes: I wrote this fic for a competition but decided not to enter it…so you're getting it instead! It's something a bit fun and light hearted with the 8th Doctor (that's the one in the movie). I was thinking about Buffy y'see (as I often do) and how great the episode 'Restless' is…y'know, where Spike and Giles are on the swings? And I thought, 'wouldn't it be great to see the Doctor on the swings…?'

This fic is dedicated to my dear friend Nez because she likes it so much…

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The sun was shining merrily, if merrily can be used to describe such an action, and all was right with the world. The Doctor knew this implicitly because he'd just put it that way. There had been a bit of a nasty business just a few moments ago concerning a couple of war-waging Kalacktians, and by a couple he actually meant an army. Still, that was all wrapped up nicely. No need to think about it now, he decided, brushing all thoughts of it from his mind and striding out over the grass. There was nothing quite like Earth grass. Perhaps there was a scientific explanation, or perhaps it was the human in him, but the Doctor loved it. It was a great pity, thought the Doctor solemnly, that humans seemed to like getting rid of it.

This was a fairly ordinary patch of grass in a very ordinary area. Derby was nothing special at the best of times, and at the worst of times it was a grey, drizzly little place overshadowed by the much glossier cities of Nottingham and Birmingham. But it was quiet, and if you picked the right time of day, you could get a park pretty much to yourself. First pick of the swings, and no bigger kids pushing the roundabout too fast.

On this occasion, the Doctor found himself in the company of one other person. He smiled in greeting and claimed the swing next to hers. "Hello Sophie," he said jovially, settling himself into the cracked plastic seat.

"Hang on a second," she said crossly, swinging herself higher. She was almost high enough now to go over the bar. She kicked once more, then launched herself into the air. She managed to land feet first on the asphalt, but was forced to perform an awkward forward roll with the extra momentum gathered by swinging to such a great height. Coming to a halt at last, she flopped onto her back, giggling.

"Not your best landing," said the Doctor critically. "But bonus points for the roll. I give you a four."

"A four?" she said, acting outrage as she clambered to her feet, dusting herself off. "An eight, at least!"

"Perhaps four and a half," said the Doctor grudgingly, pretending to look stern and serious. The twinkle in his eye gave him away though. "Aren't you going to say hello?"

"Hello Doctor," she said, rolling her eyes as she jumped back onto her swing. Sophie was roughly twelve, or so the Doctor guessed, since he had never actually asked. She had thin ginger hair which she hated, and a slightly crooked nose which she had broken when she was ten during a particularly violent hockey match.

"I haven't seen you for ages," she commented, kicking her legs determinedly. The Doctor pushed his own swing slightly, the wind picking up his long brown hair.

"How long exactly?" he asked.

"Oh, ages," she said unhelpfully. Clearly, time was of no consequence to her. The Doctor thought about it himself. For him, it had been a year perhaps, maybe a little longer. He couldn't remember exactly when they'd first met, but he could remember stepping out of the TARDIS and into the park to find a small girl playing by herself in the sandpit and looking distinctly bored. He'd told her a quick story and in return she'd allowed him the use of her spade.

"Had any adventures recently?" she asked, pointing her toes and arching her back so she could grin at him with her head hanging upside down.

"Oh, lots of them," the Doctor teased. "What about you?"

She stopped kicking for a moment as she thought, allowing the swing to gradually slow down, her trainers dragging and scuffing along the ground. "Jacob punched Ben Thomas in the stomach and got suspended," she announced eventually. "Because Ben Thomas was going around saying I was his girlfriend." She pulled a face. Obviously, Ben Thomas was not in favour.

"Jacob's your older brother, isn't he?" said the Doctor, trying to remember the details of their last conversation on the swings.

"Mmhmm," she said, nodding. "He's fourteen now, and his voice is breaking. It sounds really stupid."

"I should tease him if I were you," said the Doctor, grinning.

"Oh I do, all the time," said Sophie, grinning wickedly back. "Tell me your adventures."

"Well, I saved the world today," said the Doctor, trying to look nonchalant and somewhat enigmatic before realising he couldn't quite pull it off on a swing.

"Which world?" Sophie asked with her eyes narrowed, suspecting a trick.

"This one!" exclaimed the Doctor as though it was obvious. "No other world gets in trouble quite as often as the Earth. Today it was being threatened by a whole army of Kalacktians."

"So what did you do?" she asked, gripping the rusty chain of the swing.

"Well," said the Doctor, bending forwards conspiratorially. "First, I allowed myself to be captured by their leader."

"You mean their leader tricked you and locked you up," Sophie interrupted with a grin.

"Never!" gasped the Doctor, but he was grinning too. "And of course, the next part of my plan was to allow their leader to also capture the Prime Minister, because this triggered all sorts of alarms. Then the British army started firing on the Kalacktian spaceship."

"What did it look like?" asked Sophie immediately, leaning half out of her seat as she listened in anticipation.

"Green and shiny, like a huge round gobstopper hanging in the sky," said the Doctor making a spherical shape in the air with his hands.

"And no one noticed it?" she said incredulously.

"No one, except the people who had been specifically told about it," said the Doctor. "You humans do have a remarkable ability for not seeing things that are right in front of you. You also have a knack for thinking up very complicated explanations for very basic things, so that they fit in with the way you imagine the Universe to behave."

"I would have noticed," said Sophie firmly.

"Anyway, there were all sorts of explosions and suddenly this huge wailing began on board the ship," said the Doctor, speaking faster and faster as he got into his role of storyteller. "The whole place was about to self-destruct! Boom!" Sophie jumped, then scowled at the Doctor.

"You did that on purpose," she accused.

"So I dashed to the TARDIS with the Prime Minister and we only just escaped in time."

"Are you going to get a medal for saving her?" The Doctor shrugged. Sophie flopped back into the swing, making the chains jangle and clink.

"Is everything you tell me true?" she asked after a moment. "Only…some of it is really weird."

"It's all true," the Doctor said firmly.

"All of it?" she persisted.

"Well, no," he admitted with a heavy, theatrical sigh. "I wasn't really an original member of Take That."

Sophie giggled, and they swung in companionable silence for a while.

"So the Kalack…the aliens are gone?" she asked, looking up at the sky.

"Every last one," said the Doctor, wondering why this thought weighed so heavily on his mind, and more alarmingly, his conscience.

"That's a shame," she said. The Doctor glanced at her curiously. "I mean, maybe they weren't all bad. Maybe one of them never wanted to invade the Earth. Maybe some of them…maybe some of them had families. And now…" She stopped suddenly and kicked the asphalt. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," the Doctor insisted gently. "It matters a great deal that you think about these things."

"You've got to see the bigger picture, that's what my Dad said," she said. "I think he was talking about getting a new car though."

"But a picture is made up of many brush strokes," said the Doctor, looking her in the eye. "And every single one matters."

"You blew them up," she stated, not judging him for it, just trying to get the facts straight in her head.

"Do you think I was wrong to?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You still saved the world. And there was no other way, was there?"

"I did look for one," he said, nodding. "But things are prone to turning violent when the armed forces get involved because they will insist on being armed. Terrible things, weapons."

She nodded. The Doctor laughed.

"Such a serious discussion," he commented with a grin. "When did you get so grown up?"

Sophie shrugged. "My mum says I think too much these days." She gave him a scowl. "And by the way, that's really patronising."

"Such a long word for someone so small," he teased.

"I've grown five inches!" she shot back, glaring at him. He laughed in response, and after a moment, stood up.

"You're going already?" she asked, looking surprised. He stuck his hands into the pockets of his green velvet coat and smiled.

"I've got work to do," he said.

"But you'll come back again, won't you?" she persisted, a little anxiously. He looked out over the park. So quiet. So…normal.

"I'll definitely come back," he said happily. "I like it here as much as you do."

She scuffed the toe of her trainer along the ground, staring intently at it's progress. "Wish I could come with you," she mumbled. The Doctor felt suddenly awkward.

"Maybe, when you're a little older…" He trailed off helplessly. "Sorry."

"S'alright," she muttered.

"I'll come back again soon," he said, trying to cheer her up. "I promise."

She nodded fiercely. "You'd better," she warned. "Or I'll get Jacob to punch you too."

He grinned and stuck out a hand. "Shake on it?" She grabbed his hand and shook it firmly, then tried to get him to change grip as part of some complicated secret handshake.

"You're hopeless," she grumbled, after some failed attempts in which the Doctor completely failed to grasp the concept of it all and just waggled his fingers instead.

"That's me," he said, waving a goodbye, listening to the birds singing and the trees rustling and Sophie's swing creaking as he walked away over the grass. It was all very normal, but it was Sophie's world, and somehow he couldn't help enjoying it.

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Reviews are lovely and welcomed with open arms and big scary grins.