Bananas - a Doctor Who fic
The Doctor landed the TARDIS as softly as he could. It hit the ground with a jarring thump.
"Ow," said Amy, pulling herself up.
"Sorry... But that was actually a pretty good landing seeing as we materialized six miles above the ground," the Doctor said. "...If you don't count the accidental four miles of free-falling."
"What happened to it?" Amy asked.
"The TARDIS really shouldn't 'fly' as much as it did," the Doctor said, referring to their last adventure, which had involved a lot of flying. "It'll be fine in an hour."
"Where did we land?" Amy asked.
The Doctor swung open the doors. "London," he said. "Early 21st century."
Amy followed him outside.
"I know a great place for tea," the Doctor said suddenly.
After walking a couple of blocks, they came to a crowded street where the café was. He made his way through the busy London crowd, scanning the buildings on his right for the café. Not looking where he was going, he accidentally collided with one of the crowd.
"Sorr-" he began, stopping mid-sentence.
"No problem, mate. My bad," Rose Tyler said in response, flashing him a smile.
She gave him a nod of goodbye and headed in the direction he knew her flat to be. He watched her leave, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape in shock.
"Doctor?" Amy questioned from beside him.
"Huh? Wha-?" he responded, not taking his eyes off the crowd Rose had vanished into.
"Are you alright?" she asked, worriedly.
He nodded, giving a fake smile.
"Absolutely fine, why? Let's get tea," he said, clasping his hands together.
Scanning for the shops after one last glance at the crowd, he spotted the café Rose had shown him back when he wore a leather jacket.
"There it is, this way." He led the way to the café, lost in thought about the chanced encounter.
The Doctor walked inside, Amy in tow.
He took a quick look at the newspaper a man had sitting on the table.
2006.
Incarnation number nine.
Rose knew him already, but she knew the blue eyed, leather jacket-wearing doctor, and wasn't even aware that TimeLords regenerated, yet.
He took a deep breath, trying to clear the flood of memories of a certain young blonde that came to him.
Swinging from a chain, huddled in a closet with him in an attempt to survive the missile headed towards them, blocking his way from the 'last' Dalek, dancing with him in the TARDIS, glowing with the power of the time vortex on the Bad Wolf game station, cautiously taking the hand of his new form, staring up at the black hole on the planet that shouldn't have existed, flying towards the void only to be caught by parallel Pete Tyler, telling him she loved him on Bad Wolf Bay, giving the human him a kiss that broke both his hearts, and the last time they'd met, on January the first, 2005. She hadn't recognized him then, either, but that had actually been before she'd met him.
"Doctor?" Amy grabbed his arm. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"...Fine. I was just wondering if they had banana muffins," he said. "A banana muffin sounds fantastic right about now..."