Doctor Who REMEMBER

"Well, Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherazade had a thousand tales..." Five was humming lazily (despite the quick tempo of the song), moving his small finger over multi-colored book backs. Actually, he was looking not for a book, but for an album, but the problem was that he had seen it only once and slightly, and in the TARDIS library there were thousands of samples. Who knew if there were more albums here?..

The search on the bottom shelves didn't give any result. Five frowned - he didn't like the perspective of climbing up the ladders, partly because he was deadly afraid of heights - but nevertheless collected himself and started his improvised rock climbing which threatened to be finished in a blink.

"Hullo! Are you there, Fivey?"

"Over here", Five replied, desperately attempting to reach the required ladder step with his feet - he could stand on it only on his toe tips, while the next step was too high. Practically he was almost hanging on the ladder.

"Let me help". Two large hands got hold of his middle (they dwarfed Five's little and thin body even more) and lowered him onto the floor, and Five looked up at the man in bowtie and braces beaming at him. "What were you looking for?"

"Emm... a pic", Five admitted, blushing against his will.

"What pic?"

"There were... two people... young... hugging... dark hair and not matching clothes..." Five mumbled, feeling ashamed for two things - being unable to describe what he wanted and peeking in probably prohibited things. But the Doctor didn't mind the last and understood the first.

"Listen up, Five, don't feel ashamed. I know that this is the consequence of your early life, but here it's different. If you need anything, you may ask me instead of sneaking behind my back... And, after all, TARDIS may always tell me what is going on".

After brief wandering along the shelves the Doctor reached out and pulled a huge book in worn-out leather cover out. Or not a book, but an album.

"Was that what you were looking for?" he asked, opening it and showing to Five. The boy nodded, having seen the photo attached to the page: a dark-topped lad in a kilt embracing a girl in sparkly silver catsuit. "Why?"

"I saw you looking through pics on TARDIS monitors, and this was the only one I memorized", Five replied. "Rhodie told me that it could be a photo in the album, and... got curious".

"Come here, Fivey". The duet occupied a cushion in the middle of the huge couch in the center of the bookshelf labyrinth. "You mind if I call the rest? Because it'll be unfair if I tell this only to you". Five hummed in agreement, and the Doctor continued with a cunning smile: "We're not going to tell about this to anyone. Except, perhaps, Rhodes, Kas, Steamer and JJ. And Old Girl".

As if by magic, soon enough eight feet stepped over the parquet floor, and four heads - two blond, one auburn and one dark-haired - popped from behind the shelves. While all gang was coming together, Five opened the album on its first page, and the first thing that attracted his attention were words written on the album cover's back, their first letters drawn in red ink.

_**R**elevant  
**E**verlasting  
**M**agnificent  
**E**xciting  
**M**any-voiced  
**B**est  
**E**mphasized  
**R**evisited_

"What's this, Doctor?" Rhodie Smith wondered, climbing onto the couch.

"You've never told us about photos and everything", Kaster Tyler added. Yes, despite those two being children of Rose Tyler and John Smith, aka Metacrisis Doctor, or Handy, or Human Doctor, or whoever, they were from different Universes and had different characters. But they had things in common, like curiosity, which was revealed now.

"Those are not just photos", the Doctor replied. "Of course, you know about Not Just Numbers, and these are Not Just Photos".

"You mean... they are alive or something, like in those Harry Potter movies?" Paul Steamer asked. This was a different talk. Unlike Rhodie and Kaster, this girl (yes, that was a girl with "boring" real name Pauline) was a pure-blood human and the oldest in the gang after the Doctor - she was nineteen.

"This is better, Steamer. Much better". The Doctor turned the page over, showing black-and-white photos at the beginning - the first one captured the moment of two people in 1960s' style clothing next to the TARDIS, and their expressions were of purest glee. Then he took hold of Paul's forefinger and led it to the picture, until its tip touched the paper and ink.

_Right, now smile, you two!  
_

_It's not going to work!  
_

_Yes, it is. You didn't believe that the TARDIS could fly, hmmm?_

On the back there was lively chattering about something funny which ceased as soon as Paul's finger lost contact with the photo.

"See?" The Doctor raised his brows. "I mean... hear?"

"May I try, Doctor-daddy?" Johnny-Jimmy asked. This boy grew up in the TARDIS since being one year old, so this was surprising (at least for Paul) that he didn't know about this effect. As soon as he experienced it too (his eyes became like glass balls after touching the photograph), he stared at the Doctor, waiting for explanations.

"That was made with a thought camera. Useful thingy, I must say. I mean, when you release it, it becomes unnoticeable and takes photos whenever you want it, because it's connected with your thoughts. For example, you get into a funny situation - I mean, in a good sense - and think 'I wish I had a camera!', and - tadaa! The photo's made without any trouble!"

"With all the words inside?" Five asked.

"Isn't that good? And you can make it visible for 'purpose' photos as well". The Doctor turned some more pages over, revealing a photo of a girl with a large mop of ginger curls and a dark-topped man in a panama hat (goodness, he did look like a leprechaun or some other fairy tale creature) glancing from behind the TARDIS doors. "Like this".

"Is that you?" Rhodie asked, pointing at the "leprechaun", and chuckled. Yeah, I had a funny voice then, the Doctor thought and nodded.

"And all those people", Five caught up, rustling through the album's pages. "Who are they? Your friends?"

"They are", the Doctor approved, having stopped on a photo of a quartet in old-fashioned fancy-dress clothes. "They are... You know what is precious? When I look at these photos, I feel that someone's still waiting for me. Out there, in a wide Universe... If any time you feel really lonely, find a photo and say a spell".

"Which spell?" Kaster asked.

The Doctor showed the last page of the album decorated with hand-written words:

_There is no place to run, to hide or to escape,  
But you cannot delay your own life.  
There is no place to run, but know that somewhere there  
Someone's looking for you among the rain._

"And recall", he finished, rustling back through the pages. "Such little moments of joy and glee are the most important things. Among so-called inevitable matters there's still place for smiles".

"Really?" Five wondered.

"Really-really", the Doctor nodded, tapping the boy's button nose.

For a few minutes all gang was sitting, listening to voices coming from the Not Just Photos. Then Kaster dared to break the silence:

"Can you tell us about... well, when it all was taken? For instance, when was this taken?" He pointed at the photo of a ginger-topped youngster hugged by a round-faced girl from his back.

"Yes. But you gotta promise that you won't run off... Yes? Then I'll start. After the encounter with the fools who wanted to make themselves Timelords, I decided to get away from trouble and set my feet to the checked point in history..."

* * *

**A/N: There are bitter and angst-y things, but the most precious are moments of peace and joy, and wouldn't it be grand to be able to revive them?**

**Notes:**

**1) At the beginning Five hums lines of Friend Like Me song from Aladdin.**

**2) Noticed photos feature:**

** Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot (the one for which Five was looking); **

**Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton (the black-and-white one); **

**Seventh Doctor and Mel Bush ("peeking from behind TARDIS doors"); **

**Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa and Adric ("fancy-dressed"); **

**Nyssa and Turlough (the last one).**

**OC explanations:**

**Rhodie Smith and Kaster Tyler (the latter's not mine) - as noticed, the kids of Rose and Metacrisis Doctor, but from different Universes, and totally different despite their being "so-to-say siblings"**  
**Five - the child from antiutopian future where emotions are forbidden, this is why he's so shy**  
**Johnny-Jimmy - the Doctor's foster child who knows about their not being relatives, but loves his "Doctor-daddy"**  
**Paul Steamer - "a normal thing in up-to-date world: a girl in unisex clothes and with a male name".**


End file.

Doctor Who, Friendship