Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Unfortunately. I'm not English and this is my first Fan fiction, too, so please be kind. Helpful criticisms are very, very welcome, because I want to improve. Rudeness is not. That said, I hope you'll enjoy :)

The Doctor was fiddling with the controls of his beloved TARDIS. His touch was gentle and soft, as if he was stroking the most adorable puppy to have ever trod on the planet Earth. He knew perfectly well how strange the console of his blue tainted ship must seem: so overwhelming and so complex, with all its buttons and keys and weird things with no name. On the other hand, he knew it like the palm of his hand. It wouldn't be wise to say that he knew it like the inside of his pockets, because his pockets, unlike any human, ordinary pocket, are so much bigger on the inside - Time Lord science. He could fly from a part of the universe to any other while keeping his eyes closed and he usually embarrassed himself in front of his companions dancing, pirouetting happily around the console, because travelling through time and space with the TARDIS was the best thing ever. He enjoyed the familiar wheezing sound that announced that he had landed safely. He looked at the screen and he smiled so brightly the sun would have seemed pale in comparison. He had landed at the right coordinates.

"Good job, old girl", he said patting her gently, "You really do always take me where I need to go"

So he opened the doors with a snap of his fingers and walked out to face the Maitland's house. He stormed excitedly to the front door and rang the bell more times than necessary. He waited, fiddling with his hands impatiently. He rang again until, at last, he heard footsteps approaching the door. He fixed his bow tie. Bow ties are undeniably cool. The main entrance to the Maitland's residence opened and showed a very sleepy Clara in her nightgown. He was surprised to see her like that. He was used to her being always impeccable, from her hair to the shoes she wore. He couldn't stop himself thinking that she still looked very pretty, even with the messy hair and the deep circles under her eyes, which looked a little bit annoyed at the time. He wondered why she looked like he had just forced her out of bed. He wondered whether she was sick. That would have been a bit of an inconvenience to his desire to show her the wonders of the Universe.

"Doctor?" she asked, bewildered "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here?" he replied, with a shocked look on his face "Isn't it obvious? It's Wednesday aka awesome adventures' day. So get ready, off you pop. You wouldn't BELIEVE what I've got ready for you. I personally find it hard to believe, and that is something I can tell you".

"Doctor..." she tried to speak, but, too late, he had started bubbling on about his plans and how much she was going to like what it was he was going to show her.

"It's actually an opportunity of a lifetime, you know? People have to wait years and years, centuries too see it, but we are lucky because we have the Tardis. I don't know why I've never thought about this before. This is perfect". That said, he stormed into the house. Clara followed him inside, utterly speechless. She watched him bounce next to the stairs and into the living room, happily and enthusiastically as little children are when they go to Disneyland. She heard him open the tap of the sink in the kitchen and knew right away he was putting the kettle on for tea. Despite the fact of being an ancient alien from a galaxy far away, he could be extraordinarily English at times- she thought. She stood there, motionless, staring at the point he had just disappeared from. He then stuck his head back from the kitchen with an interrogative look on his eyes.

"What's the matter?", he asked, and then he ran forward with an expression which Clara immediately recognized as worry. "Are you OK? Are you ill?". He reached a hand to her face, as if too see if she had a temperature. She pushed it aside a little impatiently.

"No Doctor, I'm FINE", she sounded exasperated. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. He could see how tired she looked. "But what exactly are you doing here?"

"It's a Wednesday, like I told you" he replied "We always have adventures on Wednesday, don't you remember?"

Clara smiled at him the sort of smile that mothers give to their children when they are being silly. "Oh Doctor" and she put a hand on his shoulder sympathetically "Today is Thursday. And it isn't even six o'clock in the morning yet".

When he understood what she was saying - and it took a incredibly long time for a man with his IQ - his jaws dropped in astonishment and he just stared at Clara.

"Oh my god" he gasped "Am I a day late?"

"Actually", she said cautiously, "You're six days early"

He frowned at her. "Don't be silly. Don't ever try to make a fool out of a Time Lord. It could be the last thing you ever do".

As a response, she raised an eyebrow. "There's no need to be so melodramatic, Doctor". And then she laughed. Her laughter was contagious, so the Doctor had to repress a smile when he asked her why she was laughing. She shook her head and she sighed.

"It was just yesterday when you left us home from that planet..."

"Xafirum?"

"That's the one" she nodded "you left us home in the evening and here you are again, the next morning. You couldn't even wait for the sun to wake up properly too see me, couldn't you?" She had a cheeky look on her face, which meant that she was wide awake and that she was the same old Clara by then.

"Shut up" he snapped at her. And, after a slight pause, he said: "Sorry, Clara".

"It's OK". She smiled at him and he smiled back. She moved forward and hugged him. The Doctor accepted her into his arms and breathed her in, smiling into her shoulders so she couldn't see how happy her embraces made him. The hugging was a natural part of his relationship with the people who traveled with him, but he was sure that hers were the sweetest of all. She would wrap her arms around his neck and keep him incredibly close to her. He could feel her clinging to him as to dear life. That made him feel more protective towards her than ever. They broke apart when they heard someone coming down the stairs.

"When you two lovers have finished snogging, could any of you here explain to me why I was woken up so early?", they heard Angie's usually moaning voice say, "Really, isn't the usual time early enough already?"

She did look very tired, just like Clara, but now the Doctor could understand why.

"Sorry Angie" he beamed at her "but don't just stay there sulking. Look at the bright side".

"Why?" she frowned "Is there a bright side?"

"There's always a bright side",he said, "for instance, you could enjoy the sunrise, for the first time in your life"

She shrugged. "If it means waking up this early, I prefer watching it on TV, thank you very much". She yawned loudly. "What's so great about sunrises anyway? I can watch the sunset and it would be practically the same thing"

Clara and the Doctor laughed. "You're even worse early in the morning, you know?"

"Well what do you expect?". She started walking back up the stairs, when she stopped and fully realized what he had said to her. "Ehi" she cried out to him, "What does it mean that I'm EVEN worse in the morning? Worse than what?"

The Doctor chuckled and didn't reply, and Clara giggled. He swung his arms around his impossible girl's shoulders and they both just stared at Angie, trying hard to keep back further laughter. The teenager looked at them in bemusement and then gave up. She marched to the second floor with her nose stuck up in the air, probably thinking that they were just being stupid and they didn't deserve any other second of her attention. Clara smiled up at the Doctor and then freed herself from his hug.

"I'll finish preparing breakfast. Why don't you go and wake up Artie?" she said to him, "Seriously, sometimes not even bombs can wake him up" and she shook her head while heading for the kitchen.

The Time Lord didn't need to be told twice. He sprang up the staircase and with only a few long steps he was facing the door to the boy's room. Unlike Angie's door, it didn't have a big sign on which it was written in big red letters: KEEP OUT, so he felt free to knock. Actually, it wouldn't have stopped him anyway. He saw "keep out" signs as suggestions more than actual orders. Like "dry clean only". While thinking that he felt an umpleasent sensation at the pit of his stomach. A painful memory came to his mind, about Amy and Rory. He remembered that he had told them that in one of their last adventures together. He still missed them a lot, but he was slowly learning to cope. And not thanks to his strength alone. He would probably still be sulking on a cloud above Victorian London, if it wouldn't have been for a certain Souffle girl. This though made him smile again. He knocked one more time and, without expecting any answer, he opened the door.

He took a look around with the help of the dim light coming from the corridor from which he hadn't moved yet. The room was small and tidy. He could tell right away that it was Clara's doing. On the other hand, Artie's personality transpired through the Harry Potter posters on the walls and the chessboard in the middle of the carpet with all the pieces occupied in an unfinished game. He gazed at the bookshelves in the corner, full of books, half of which he knew coming, in a way or the other, from the boy's nanny. He loved that she was so enthusiastic about reading and that she made Artie love books too. People could even travel through the entire time and space and books were still the biggest adventures of all. And the ones read at Artie's age are the most important of all. On the bedside table he saw the big volume he had personally convinced him to read. The boy now sleeping profoundly next to it had been more than a little bit intimidated from the number of pages, but the devotion he had built in regards to the Doctor had convinced him to at least give it a try. A few hundred pages later, Artie was fully aware of why The Count of Monte Cristo was one of that more-than-a-thousand years old alien's all time favourites. The Doctor smiled at the figure fast asleep and realized how much he had grown fond of the Maitland's kids. Angie could be quite annoying at times, like any average teenager can be, but she was actually a very smart and independent girl and also quite funny, if she wanted to be. He could see now why Clara cared about them so much and why she didn't run out on them to go and stay full time with him on the TARDIS, like other people before her had done. Somehow, this unusual arrangement he had with her didn't make him feel uncomfortable at all.

"Artie?", he called at him. Still no reply. He then moved forward, towards the bed. He touched gently the blanket that covered him, and than shacked it to try and wake him up. No feedback whatsoever. The Doctor fround and realized he had underestimated Clara's last comment about the boy's deep sleep. While pondering on his next move, something caught the Time Lord's eye. Something shiny he hadn't noticed before because it was right behind Alexandre Dumas' novel. This distracted him from his duty and while he reached out his hand to pick it up a terrible feeling crawled into his mind. The small object was now in his hand, glittering almost magically in the dark. His hearts started to pound energetically in his chest and the fear to spread in his entire body.

"Oh God", he gasped, "Oh God, please don't..."

He started to shake vigorously Artie's small body. He cried out his name several times until, finally, the boy replied a very tired "What?" without opening his eyes.

"Please Artie wake up", the Doctor shouted, "I need to know. Where did you get this?"

The boy slowly and sleepily stood up in a sitting position and rubbed his eyes. With some difficulty he tried to adjust his eyes to the darkness of the room and to focus his sight on whatever the Doctor was showing to him. It was a small, perfectly oval, purple rock which shined beautifully in front of him like a diamond. He recognized it right away.

"Oh yes" he said to the anxious Time Lord leaning on top of him "I took it yesterday from that place we went to"

The Doctor looked like a man who had just realized that his worst nightmares had come true. He swore through his gritted teeth. "Why, Artie?" he bellowed "You knew perfectly well what the situation was, I told you what would happen if..."

"But I thought that it wouldn't do any harm something that small", the boy interrupted him with a teary voice. He tried to excuse himself, but he knew he had let his hero down. "I'm so sorry", he added, with a very low and trembling tone.

The Doctor felt guilty about shouting at him, so he apologized. "Don't worry Artie, I know you didn't mean this to happen. Maybe I can still fix everything" and he rushed out of the room. Clara, who must have heard the racket coming from the floor above, was standing at the foot of the stairs with an apron tide around her waist and an interrogative look on her face.

"Doctor" she asked "What is going on?"

He didn't reply and practically flew down the steps and miraculously managed to avoid a painful fall. He raced beside her while she repeated her question in a more urgent tone. He was sorry, but he didn't have time to give her an answer, not just yet. If only he could make it to the TARDIS in time... But he managed to run only a couple of steps when the earth beneath his feet shook violently, making him nearly fall. He heard the children's screams coming from the house behind him. He knew that Clara would stay calm and immediately try to reassure them and that they probably thought it was an earthquake, but he also knew that it was no earthquake and that it was to late for him to do anything. He saw a powerful force field being created in a flash of red light all around the house, from the ground to above the building, forming an invisible dome which, as his experience told him, had just sealed them off from the rest of the world.

Then he felt a loud sound reverberate in his mind that made him clasp his head with his hands and close his eyes in pain and surprise. It was a cold, professional and female voice which spoke to him:

"By the decrees of intergalactic security from epidemics and maladies, the human house and his inhabitants are set in quarantine until further notice".

And then everything fell incredibly and dangerously quiet.