Penny shot Jean-Marc a look of hate. How could he dump her like this? And just a few days before Christmas too? She felt like breathing in and out was too much too cope with right now and so she took to eating chocolates in the misery of her own room. It wasn’t as if she actually wanted to spend the rest of her life with him anyway, she lied to herself as she popped a strawberry fondant surprise into her mouth. She was just making do for now, he was her project. Why didn’t he want her? Was she fat? Was she ugly? Was she too easy? Why, why, why?


Jean-Marc picked up his picture of Penny and looked at her smiling face. It was for the best, they shouldn’t get too close. He didn’t want to end up loosing her like he had lost his parents. He didn’t think he could stand to loose her but what had he done? He’d thrown away true happiness because he was scared of loosing it. What kind of idiot was he? He held the picture to his heart and sighed. Could he tell her the real reason? He owed her that much at least didn’t he? She deserved more than the tissue of lies about commitment he had spouted before she ran away crying, in pain.


The Doctor walked around the TARDIS console, a sarong tied around her hips covered her leopard print bikini briefs. She felt that a good holiday would be the solution to Jean-Marc and Penny’s recent problems. There was nothing in the universe that could not be solved by the liberal absorption of sunshine, except the ones that needed chocolate and a really good cry. That was plan b however and plan b’s were no good without a plan a. The door that led to the internal rooms opened and a solemn looking French boy emerged. “Ah there one of you two is at last.” She threw him a bottle of factor 10 and a towel. “We’re almost there, time for some fun in the sun.”
“Great.” Jean-Marc muttered in the Doctor’s general direction. “I’m so looking forward to this. Can’t you cover me in petrol and set fire to me now?”
“Cheer up.” The Doctor hugged her companion. “Things will get better soon, you don’t need to be with someone to make your barren empty life have meaning.”
“Maybe I’ll take the Rani up on her offer of vivisection.” Jean-Marc turned to leave.
“Stay right there young man.” The Doctor commanded. “We are going to have a nice time, we are going to have fun and we are going to enjoy ourselves hmmm?”
“I’ll try.” Jean-Marc said quietly as he left to get changed into some beach clothes.
“One down, one to go.” The Doctor licked her fingertip and drew an imaginary 1 in the air. “Now to sort the other one out before she finishes off the whole box.” The Doctor headed towards Penny’s room.


Penny stuffed the half-eaten box of chocolates under her pillow when she heard the knock at the door. “Come in.” She called as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her jumper sleeve.
The Doctor walked into Penny’s room. “Ah there you are, get your bikini on Penny. There’s this beach, which is perfect for getting some serious tan time. We may even get rid of a few white lines if we’re lucky.”
“Can I have some rope instead?” Penny asked.
“No, you don’t get out of this.” The Time Lady gave Penny her stern but maternal look until the human girl gave in and sorted through the mess of her room for her swimwear. “I’ll see you in the console room in a few minutes.” The Doctor left Penny to get ready and whistled a merry tune to herself as she walked back to the console room.


Penny stepped out of the TARDIS, expecting a hot summer sky and golden sand but instead found a bleak grey and purple sky and grey dust between her toes. “This is just what it feels like to have your heart torn out of your chest and torn to pieces by wild animals.” She looked at Jean-Marc. “No, it’s worse, it’s like being dumped by a moron.”
“I don’t understand.” The Doctor looked at her companion’s puzzled faces and the landscape. “This should be a sizzling summer in Ibiza, I must have made a mistake with the co-ordinates. Why am I not having it large?”
A voice rumbled with the solemnity of a graveyard. “We brought you here Doctor.”
The Doctor looked around to see who was talking. “I think it’s best if from now on you provide a convenient point of visual reference.”
A figure of inky blackness faded into view. “We brought you here Doctor.” It looked at the blonde Time Lady and extended a greyish skeletal finger at her. “Three aspects will be revealed unto thee Lady of Time. Three terrible aspects, each one more damning than the last.”
“I see.” The Doctor wondered if she could really hear the sound of clinking chains or if it was just her imagination.
“The first shall make itself known to thee within the hour.” The figure started to vanish.
“Hey, excuse me, hi.” The Doctor waved at the figure. “I don’t suppose we can speed things up a bit hmmm? A whole hour standing around here freezing to death in just a bikini is not what I had planned for the rest of today.”
“Thy time grows less Doctor, you would rush your final minutes?” The figure vanished from view.
“Ok, holiday’s off.” The Doctor headed back inside the TARDIS. “I may as well put on something nice, I’ll still have a few minutes left to wait for this terrible aspect thing.”


“What the hell was that?” Penny asked as she held three of the Doctor’s favourite suits.
“Erm the beige I think.” The Doctor selected her chosen outfit. “It was just destiny Penny. Call it fate if you like or karma. There are things that exist outside of the normal spheres of being, dark and perilous entities that play with us like dolls for their own amusement. You learn after a while not to take it too personal.”
“You may want to consider running away.” Penny advised.
“Where would I run to? Time and Space are minor considerations to these beings Penny. They regard our realm of being as you would television, the difference is you can’t interact with the characters you see on TV.” She unbuttoned the top button of her blouse. “Still not quite used to not wearing a tie after all these years. I could get away with a cravat but I don’t want people thinking I work in a library.”
Penny handed her best friend a small posy of orchids. “So how can you defeat these entities?”
“Defeat?” The Doctor chuckled. “Penny, they have such poor imaginations I’m looking forward to seeing how creative they can be this time. All those powers beyond comprehension and they still need to write their jokes by committee.”


Jean-Marc waited for the Doctor in the console room. He watched the barren surface of the planet they had landed on but nothing was happening. Finally the Doctor put in appearance and he hugged her. “I know you’ll do well Doctor, you’re the best.”
“Thanks.” The Doctor patted her friend on the back. “Does this nail polish suit me? I liked the peach but Penny insisted on the apricot.”
“Yes.” Jean-Marc laughed. “Now go out there and bring their governments, cultures and religions down before tea time.”
Shouldering her handbag of tools the Doctor stepped back onto the surface of the planet and looked at the bleakness once more. “Ok, I’m here.” When nothing happened she started to tap her foot. “I’m getting impatient…” A blast of wind sliced across the otherwise still surface and carried the Time Lady off at great speed. Finally it ceased and it deposited her inside a forest of stone trees. “This seems familiar some how.” The Doctor took out a hairbrush from her handbag and brought the great mass back under control; then after checking her makeup she headed along an old trail through the stone trees.


Penny looked at Jean-Marc and glared evil poisoned daggers of doom at him. Why did she like him anyway? He was dumb and stupid and immature and why didn’t he want her? Maybe if she made him something to eat it would make him notice her and everything would be ok again.
Jean-Marc tried not to look at Penny, even though he knew how upset and devastated she must be. In the long run he was sparing her feelings even if it was due to his own stupidity and gutless cowardice. Why couldn’t he tell her the truth? Why was he so afraid of admitting just how much she meant to him? Why was he hurting her like this?


After a while the stone trees started to thin out and the Doctor found herself at the top of a very steep hill. Down below in a valley she could see a very modern looking city and she could sense what ever it was pulling her towards it. Somehow the dangerous route was walked along, even though she was wearing highly inappropriate footwear. Then she was there, on the outskirts of the city. “Hello.” She called out. “I’m here, although you know that since you’re the ones who brought me here.” There was a soft rolling sound and she turned around to see a Dalek behind her back.
“I AM THE FIRST.” The squat silver creature with blue coloured etheric beam locators shouted in it’s rasping mechanical tones. “I AM THE BEGINNING.”
Things clicked inside the Doctor’s head and she snapped her fingers. “This is Skaro! I was here with Susan and Barbara and Chesterfield, I mean Chesterton.” She looked around the abandoned city. “Yes, I remember now. Ha, ha I defeated you lot here didn’t I? Didn’t end you though did I? You still skulk about the Universe terrorising the odd defenceless planet from time to time.”
“YOU ARE STILL HERE.” The Dalek spoke.
The Doctor looked down at her feet as best she could. “Well I seem all here don’t I?”
“A FRAGMENT OF YOUR BEING ECHOES IN THE EMPTY PLACES BETWEEN LIFE AND THE STARS.”
Raising an inquisitive eyebrow the Time Lady looked more closely at the Dalek. “I’ve never seen a Dalek that can philosophise beyond exterminating all other life forms.”
The Dalek waved its gun arm and the image of an elderly man with long white hair appeared beside it. “THIS IS YOU.”
The Doctor nodded. “Some say I still retained my looks.”
“YOU DEFEATED THE DALEKS HERE.” The Dalek waved its arm again and the image of the Doctors first life dissipated into nothingness. “YOU BEGAN AT THIS MOMENT, YOUR LIFE WAS FORGED HERE. IN THIS PLACE YOU CAME INTO BEING.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.” The Doctor started to walk into the nearest building.
“THE SEED WAS SOWN AND IT TOOK ROOT HERE. UNTIL HERE YOU WERE JUST A POTENTIAL WAITING TO OCCUR. IF YOU HAD NOT COME HERE YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE BECOME YOU.”
They walked through the city. They should be mortal enemies but they talked as if they were friends. “If I hadn’t have come here I might have gotten Susan and Ian back home a lot quicker.”
“THIS IS WHERE YOU BEGAN, THIS IS WHERE YOU CAME INTO BEING.” The Dalek stopped moving. “THIS TIME IS ALMOST PAST, THE SECOND WILL BE ALONG SOON…” The Dalek melted away into the fabric of reality and was gone.
“You are the first?” The confused Time Lady pondered the Dalek’s words. “I was forged here? If I had never come here I would never become me?” She had to sit down.


Penny sipped her fresh cup of tea. It was too hot so she blew gently onto the surface of the light brown herbal infusion to cool it down a little. She sipped again, this time it was a little cooler. She didn’t need him she kept telling herself. She was better off without him. Why couldn’t she believe it though?


It was no good, he couldn’t do this to her anymore. She deserved the truth, he owed her that much at least. He felt lousy himself but he deserved it and more for being so stupid. This was it; he had to tell her just how much he really loved her and how much he was scared of loosing her. He stood up and sat back down again before kicking himself and standing up once more.
The cup was almost empty now; it looked like she felt. As if all her energy had been sucked out of her body and thrown away. The kitchen door opened and he walked in.
“Penny.” Jean-Marc managed to say. “I need to tell you something.”


“My dear Doctor, you were always the fool.”
A familiar voice called out and the Doctor looked around to see the sneering smile of the Master. “Oh it’s you.” The Doctor waved at her old friend turned insane criminal renegade.”
“I am the Second.” The Master sat down next to the Doctor. “I am what is, the familiar, the known. I am predicted and predictable and always around the next corner.”
“Well you’ve got me convinced, that’s the Master down to a tee.” The Doctor gave the thing that looked like her best enemy a tooth grin. “So let’s talk about me now hmmm?” She noticed the landscape had changed to a barren volcanic mountainside. “The planet Sarn? How dull, I much preferred Lanzarote.”
“My dear, you simply don’t get it do you? This is now, so to speak. You have become stale and repetitive. You don’t bother anymore, everything is reacting to the same old situation. Sontarans, Silurians, Ice Warriors and Master’s. You know them and are known to them, there is no challenge anymore.”
The Doctor nodded and then shook her head. “Are you coming onto me?”
“Doctor, you have not become that which you had the potential to be. The plant is too big for the pot, it is time to transplant you to a bigger canvas.”
“Now you’re mixing metaphors.” The Doctor noted. “Is there a purpose to all of this?”
The Master pointed at the Doctor. “You are the purpose. You are the sword. You are that which needs to be more, so much more.”
“Uh huh.” The Doctor nodded her head before shaking it again. “Can you please be a lot more precise? I can’t plan a casserole, consider which shoes to wear with my green suit tomorrow, remember which planets need saving and take in obtuse hints by a second rate apparition impersonating a former best friend of mine.”
“The ground has become fallow and the crop is dying. You are the crop that needs the rain of growth.” The Master replied.
“That’s it.” The Doctor shouted. “Please leave. Send the next one along, I’ve got better things to hear than anything else you can say.”
“The third is coming, fear it’s arrival Doctor, fear it…” The Master walked behind a Corinthian pillar and was gone.
“He was almost as bad as the real one.” The Doctor mused to herself. “At least the real one had some charm and wit to make up for all the times he tried to kill me.” A shadow passed in front of the Doctor’s eyes.


“You still love me?” Penny gasped. “You make me feel like this and then you turn around and have to gall to say that you still love me?”
“I…I…I’m afraid of loosing you Penny.” Jean-Marc finally admitted his feelings to her. “I thought that if we split up and something happened to one of us then it wouldn’t be so hard on the other person.” He poured himself a lukewarm cup of tea and forced himself to drink it.
“You really expect me to believe this rubbish?” Penny gasped sceptically. “It’s the biggest load of rubbish this side of whatever.”
“When Mama and Papa were taken by the Daleks my whole world was gone. It was as if everything I had cared for and loved was just a lie.” He put his hands down on the table and looked into her soft eyes. “I’m scared that if I love you then the same thing could happen to you. I don’t want to loose you Penny...I love you. I’m crazy about you, I couldn’t imagine a life without you in it.”
“Really?” Penny asked. “You mean it?”
“I love you so much it hurts to breathe in and out.”
“Good.” Penny snapped. “Now you know exactly how I feel. Welcome back to humanity you lovable idiot.” She playfully punched him on the arm before getting him to make her a fresh pot of tea.
“I wonder where the Doctor is?” Jean-Marc asked. “She’s been a long time now.”


“Hello Doctor.” The Third, an exact duplicate of the Doctor’s current self waved at the Doctor. Although she was dressed in the Doctor’s bright pink silk trouser suit and her eyes were orbs of solid gold. “I am the third.” The Third informed the scatterbrained Time Lady.
“Hey, you look familiar somehow.” The Doctor smiled. “Have you been on TV?”
“I have taken your appearance.” The Third announced.
“Well I just have that face that everyone thinks they remember.” The Doctor smiled at her identical self.
“I am the future, that which might be and that which could be. I am uncertain, I am unknowable, I am forever.” The Third threw her arms out and the landscape shifted back to the dust planet with the dull sky.
“You know what?” The Doctor said after carefully studying her duplicate. “My bum does look big in that.”
“Listen up Doctor.” The Third’s voice was amplified several times. “You could have been so much more that what you now are, a wanderer, a galactic hobo, a dumb clothes obsessed blonde bimbo who somehow manages to save the day without breaking a fingernail.”
“Everyone’s a critic.” The Doctor said under her breath.
“There is one thing in your future that is certain, a sickness, an entity that is known to us. This thing spreads even now from planet to planet, tainting and infecting as it travels. Those it infects adore it, they worship it and they slaughter millions for its glory. Bliss is the future, it is what is coming.” The Third looked at the Doctor. “Even we are capable of surprise sometimes.” The Doctor gasped as the copy of herself turned into a vast field of stars. One by one they flickered and died. “As we speak more and more are lost to Bliss, Bliss takes all and gives naught. It seems like a lover but it will never give you love. It can be subtle and very persuasive. It is relentless and must be stopped. It is outside of our influence to affect it but it is within yours.”
“Normally I don’t sub-contract.” The Doctor said casually. “However once I get back from my summer holiday with my two chums I’ll think about it and give you a call.”
“Do not take long to think, already it engulfs billions of souls every day.” Te blanket of stars vanished.”
The TARDIS appeared next to the Doctor and so she went back inside of it and within seconds it too was gone.


“Does she suspect anything?” The Third asked the Second.
“She does not suspect anything.” The Second replied.
“Bliss will triumph.” The First proclaimed. “We always do.”


“Ah there you two are.” The Doctor looked at her guilty looking friends. “I see you two have kissed and made up, I must say it’s a lot nicer to see you both getting along now.”
“Er yes.” Jean-Marc tried rubbing Penny’s pink lipstick off of his face without the Doctor noticing.
“We had a nice long chat and it turns out he’s just normal after all.” Penny explained. “Nothing we couldn’t sort out ourselves.”
“That’s good.” The Doctor smiled. “Who wants tea before we reach our destination?”
“Where are we going?” Jean-Marc asked the Doctor.
“Oh just this small out of the way place I know called Times Square.” The Doctor smiled when she saw Penny’s jaw drop wide open. “That’s right, ‘tis the season to go Christmas shopping.”
“Shopping? In New York?” Penny couldn’t breathe with excitement. “Shopping in New York?”
The Doctor pulled a paper bag out of her handbag and got Penny to breathe into it. “There you go, yes we’re going shopping in New York.” She looked at her less enthused companion Jean-Marc. “New York is the best place to go shopping for just about anything. You could buy a certain someone something special.” She winked at him and nodded at Penny.
“Oh I see.” Jean-Marc shook his head. “I can buy stuff, in New York.”
The Doctor took Jean-Marc to one side. “Look just buy her something really nice, some earrings or a necklace. If you can’t think what to get that certain Time Lady in your life I’d like to draw your attention towards a nice bracelet or ankle chain.”
“Ok, I get you Doctor.” Jean-Marc said. “It’s just that all this stuff reminds me of the Christmases with Mama and Papa.”
The Doctor hugged Jean-Marc for a few seconds. “I don’t mean to sound like a neurotic shopping obsessed person but I’ve learned something today, it’s ok dwelling in the past but after a while you have to get on with things and buy people Christmas presents.” She ruffled his hair and produced triple platinum credit cards. “Now lets shop this town dry, quick, take the paper bag off Penny now.”