Drinking away the pain (Open, multiple threads welcome)

[meansfamily]

Lilo had taken to keeping a diary since she'd found out she couldn't leave the hotel. The entries were brief, and mostly written in crayon, but they all were about the same thing: what she missed back home, the faces she hoped to see again, what she wondered Nani and Stitch were up to

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[beige_doc]

The Doctor had been walking past the bar when he spied the small figure on a bar stool. Yes, walking past. He had no intention on going into the bar today. None what-so-ever. Well, maybe a little later on in the evening but right now? No where near.

"Lilo, are you alright?" The tone of his voice slightly worried about the little girl. He'd hate to think something might happen to her whilst she's here.

[meansfamily]

Lilo sighed and swirled the root beer around in her shot glass, like all the fancy women did in the movies. She sighed. "I'm okay. How are you, Doctor?"

She liked the Doctor. He wore fancy clothes and she thought the celery on his jacket was very festive, but that was mostly because she didn't really like celery as a food.

[beige_doc]

A relieved smile on the Doctor's when Lilo said she was fine, his grandfatherly impulses were in overdrive whenever he saw the little girl. He wanted nothing more than to help her get back home again. A place like this was not meant for children. "I'm good thank you Lilo." He walked closer to her stool, "do you mind if I join you?"

[meansfamily]

Lilo nodded. "Of course! I'm pretending to be Greta Garbo. You can be John Barrymore." She gestured with her glass. "Barkeep! Another round for my male friend, here!"

She leaned over and whispered to the Doctor. "I know you're not my boyfriend, but that's how she talks."

[beige_doc]

The Doctor chuckled, as he sat down on the stool next to Lilo. "I'll try shall I?" Elbows on the bar, he waited to see what the barkeeper would dispense for him. A root beer as it happened, and his grin brightened as she leant over and whispered, a grin on her face at her words.

"Of all the bars in the world, you just had to walk into mine-" the Doctor's brow furrowed. "Sorry, that's Bogart."

[meansfamily]

She giggled anyway. "You need a fedora! You'd look good in one." A thought occurred to Lilo as they laughed. If he had a granddaughter, he had a wife and kids. That meant that they were missing too, just like Susan. She reached out for his hand and squeezed it.

"Root beer helps make things better."

[beige_doc]

"Perhaps we could find one somewhere...in the meantime," a hand reached into his pocket and pulled out his rolled up panama hat. Unrolling it he put it on his head, "is that better?"

The Doctor did have a wife and kids...many many years ago. Back before he left Gallifrey originally, that was. He looked down at his hand in her tiny one holding his larger one, he gave hers a reassuring squeeze better. "I'm afraid Root beer is something I only discovered the joys to since I began to travel, we don't have that on Gallifrey."

[meansfamily]

She gasped and clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, that's perfect! I wish there was an airport here you could pretend to leave me at. But who'd be the Other Man?" She pouted her lips and cocked them to the side.

Gallifrey was a pretty word, and she tried to say it with his accent. "Have you decided what you want to see when I show you my island?"

[beige_doc]

"Well, perhaps we could use the lobby instead?" Ohhh the Doctor had rather missed playing games with children, granted not all of his incarnations would have been as predisposed to such a thing...at least not to the extent this one is. "I'm sure you'd be able to find someone Lilo."

He positively grinned when Lilo attempted to pronounce the name of his home planet and helped her achieve the subtleties of pronunciation. Giving her a pat on the back when she got it right. "I would rather like to meet your...what was it? The Experiements? Especially Stitch, he sounds interesting." He paused in though, "other than that, anywhere you wish to show me would be perfect I think."

[meansfamily]

"He'll have to be less handsome than you. Hmm." Lilo drummed her fingers in thought. "I haven't met that many people yet. I've been feeling anti-social. When I meet him, I'll let you know." Lilo was pleased; she'd been worried she wouldn't have anyone to play with in the hotel. Most adults pretended to play, then left when they lost interest.

"Stitch is the only experiment at my house, but Jumbaa can tell you about the other ones. The other ones are still with the Federation. And hmmm. I'll introduce you to Pudge, and my hula teacher, and take you to get a frozen ice, and we can go surfing!"

[beige_doc]

"You think?" Inside the Doctor was positively beaming at that comment, how could he not? "When you find him, I'm sure we could have quite a bit of fun together."

A small nod and a smile on his face as he listened to all the activities Lilo had planned. He really hoped now that they could find a way out if only for Lilo's sake. He brought the root beer to his mouth and drank, "I'm afraid I've never been surfing before."

[meansfamily]

"Oh, yes. I like your hair. It's floppy." She grinned and took another shot of root beer. The prospect of playing Casablanca cheered her up considerably.

"You've never been surfing?" She shook her head. "Have you been on a roller coaster?"

[beige_doc]

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, "I rather like my hair too, my last incarnation it was all curly. I think this is much nicer." The Doctor was glad that Lilo was cheering up now.

A small shake of the head, "well that's a lie, I have surfed the air currents of Haxenfaye Minor, but I'm yet to surf a wave. Yes, I've been on a roller coaster. Have you?"

[meansfamily]

"Curly looks okay, but poofy is good too!" She smiled at him with her teeth bared, the most cheerful of smiles in her repertoire.

"I haven't been on a roller coaster, but that's what the tourists say it's like. Surfing is just the most fun thing in the world. It's so fun. Whenever I'm sad, Nani's boyfriend David takes me out on the waves." She sighed a little bit, some of her sadness ebbing back. But if the Doctor said that they were going to go surfing together, she believed him.

[beige_doc]

The Doctor grinned in reply, "That one was all teeth and curls and scarf." A quick shake of the head, "a ten-foot long scarf infact. It's a wonder I never tripped over it."

One hand rest on Lilo's own, "I'm sure that until we get out of here, we can find something to do that will cheer you up." He tried to reasure her.

[meansfamily]

"I bet you got to use it as a rope at some point, though!" She grinned at the idea of the Doctor flying through the air like a monkey in the circus.

"I'm fine, until I think of Nani or David or Stitch or Jumbaa or Plinkley or Cobra Bubbles or even Myrtle, and she hates me." Lilo sighed, but patted the Doctor's hand in turn.