Chapter Text
Grace has lived in Erid for nearly two years, he has got into the routine now. Wake up, brush teeth, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to teach his class, come home, eat lunch, see Rocky and Adrian and sleep. It wasn't much but it was home. It was peaceful and he was alive, he was settled, he was learning as much as he can about Eridians, how they socialise, their language they have and how they eat and in turn he was about to teach about how humans work, even though he is just a “leaky space blob” to them.
So when he woke he expected everything to be fine, but something was off today. He didn't know what yet, but something changed.
He ignored that feeling, he's fine. It's peaceful here, is what he told himself.
Despite this lingering feeling that something is wrong, Grace pulled himself up out of bed to start his normal routine but as soon as he woke he realized the first flaw, Rocky wasn't there, the brown gravel alien that always insisted on watching Grace sleep to protect him, was gone.
Grace immediately jumped up to find him, he now couldn't deny something was wrong or continue his normal routine without his best friend. He rushes around the cottage looking for him and calls for the robot that lives with them from Mary .
“Armando, where's Rocky?! Have you seen Rocky”
She replied in her normal unemotional robot tone.
“Rockys last known location was outside”
“Thank you, Armando”
He says as he rushed out the door not caring that he was still in his pajamas, he needed to find Rocky because he was missing, he throws on his glasses as he runs outside to find him and immediately he runs into something on the Eridain made beach.
One thing on the beach, and he managed to physically run into it enough to knock him down and knock his glasses off. He suddenly hears some familiar bird-like chips, it's rocky, he's okay and he's laughing at him.After getting all his laughs out rocky walked up to the fallen scientist in his xenonite suit.
“Is friend Grace okay, question?”
Asked Rocky, Grace no longer needed the translator that he had made for them as he had learnt the language by now though he wasn't able to speak in it, however it was lucky they understood Grace's average english.
“I'm okay Rock- but what's this?”
“Do not know, does grace know?”
Grace takes a look at the big blue box, it's large enough to keep a person in.. its a police box? No it couldn't be, how could a police box be 16.3 light years away from earth? They're not even used anymore! They were used in the UK in the 1920s to 1960s for police to contact each other and contain first aid kits as well as hold criminals. So how did one get on Erid!? Is someone in there!? Is this the space police? Have they done something illegal?!
Just as grace goes to answer the question for Rocky, a man appears from the box. He wore a blue suit with a brown trench coat over top, he was just half an inch taller then grace, he looked human. He seemed human. He was wearing human clothes, he was even wearing a red pair of converse! He definitely had a human face, he had a definite geek charm, he was slim and lanky, his face seemed expressive like you never knew what emotion he was going to show, his hair was a dark brown, messy like he never experienced a comb but grace wasn't one to talk really.
“Hello” the strange man said he had an accent, British? Maybe Scottish? Somewhere in between “.. I'm sorry about this, you see my Tardis has seemed to run out of fuel- wait you're a human?”
Grace had so many questions immediately but he could only mutter one due to the utter shock he was experiencing when seeing another human for the first time in years.
“So are you?”
“Nah”
Nah? This man just shows up out of the blue in a police box, everything about him seems human but he's insisting he isnt?? Why?
“You look human?”
“No you look like us?”
“Who’s us?’
“Time lords- am I on earth?”
“No.. this is Erid”
“..oh.. Then you're very lost mister-”
“Doctor- dr ryland grace”
The strange man's eyes widen and he immediately picks grace right out of the sand like something just clicked in his brain, though he’s insisting he's not human he's amazed like a human would be seeing the man (and alien) who saved the stars.
“Doctor Ryland Grace..wow..i saw your vlogs- that eridian with you must be rocky! You're inscribable the earth that thinks you’re dead.”
“AH HA you are from earth!”
Grace says though his face is in this strange man's hands, clearly the idea of boundaries isn't something he's used to, though he might just believe he's an alien due to the fact rocky was also like that at the start.
“No- i visit from time to time. I'm the doctor”
“The doctor?”
“Yes.”
“....doctor who?”
“Just the doctor”
“Okay , the doctor, how come you're traveling in a police box?! How is that possible! It shouldn't be! It's wood!”
“Oh the tardis is way more than wood! It's bigger on the inside! It's only fair I show the saviors of the stars my ship!”
Grace and Rocky share a sorta look at each other though Rocky couldn't glance back due to him not having eyes, but it says one thing: we're going to take a look.. For science.