HAPPY HILLBILLY THANKSGIVING!

Chapter Twenty Three

The TARDIS powered down and the Doctor smiled at the children. They had been laughing at the wild ride and hanging on to the railing while the timeship zoomed through the vortex.

"Care to guess where we landed?" the Doctor said to the children.

"Turducken Land!" Michelle squealed.

"No!" the Doctor squealed back while everyone laughed. "We landed nowhere near a turducken."

"We're on Venus," Brittany said.

"No, ick. Why would we go there for Thanksgiving?" the Doctor said, making a face.

Mandy hopped off the chair. The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and watched while she walked down the steps towards the front door.

"Hey! Wait, there are things out there," the Doctor said melodramatically while Mandy went to the front door. "You mustn't! You'll get eaten by Floofahs if you step outside."

Mandy ignored him and walked to the door.

"Doesn't listen, does she?" the Doctor said before he took a running leap off the platform.

Mandy turned when he landed loudly on the floor near her.

"I believe I mentioned the Floofahs, yeah?" the Doctor said, strolling the rest of the way towards her. "They're giant purple lint balls that love children. You'd do well to listen to me and…"

The children laughed when Mandy reached up and opened the door, watching him while she opened it a tiny bit.

"Floofahs are out there," the Doctor said, pointing to the door.

Mandy smiled and impishly opened the door a bit more.

"Okay, you wanna get eaten for lunch, go right ahead," the Doctor said, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Mandy, listen to him," Michelle said as she and everyone else came down the steps. "There might be danger out there."

"Nah, there isn't any," the Doctor said.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Amy muttered.

The Doctor took Mandy's hand and he finished opening the door. Mandy looked out and saw a park. There were trees scattered around the park area and a little path several feet away. People were walking down the path or sitting on a few wooden benches, chatting and laughing.

"Come, my family and friends," he said as they stepped outside. "This…everyone is London, England. This is Hyde Park on the very same day we left your house. As you can tell it's a bit chilly today but as you can also see, there is NOTHING happening in London on Thanksgiving. In London, Thanksgiving is known as Thursday and here we are!"

"What we gonna do here?" Mandy asked him.

"Stare at the scenery and think to ourselves "We're in London while our parents are in Indiana," the Doctor said to her.

"I wanna see horsies," Mandy said, turning and heading back inside.

Everyone laughed when the Doctor feigned shock while Mandy walked back inside the TARDIS.

"It's London," the Doctor said to Mandy while he pointed out at the park. "You can see horsies any day."

They looked in the open door and watched while Mandy climbed the stairs, walked over to the chair by the monitor, sat down and waited for them to come back inside.

"Horsies!" Mandy squealed to them when they didn't move.

"Um, yeah…this is London," the Doctor said weakly while everyone laughed. "So now on to horsies, I suppose."

He was about to go back inside when he froze. Michelle saw the stunned expression on his face and looked where he was looking. She saw a tall thin man coming down the path. He had on a brown pinstriped suit and brown trenchcoat and had brown spiky hair. He was talking to a red haired woman beside him while they leisurely walked the path.

"What's wrong?" Michelle said, glancing at the Doctor.

"Um…remember when I told you about regeneration and how I had different bodies. That's the body I had before this one. That man in the brown suit is me."

Everyone did a double take and looked at the tenth Doctor. The ginger haired woman caught sight of the TARDIS and stopped the man, pointing to it.

"Hey, what's that doing here and who is that in front of it?" the woman said as she pointed.

"Hey, I wanna see horsies now!" Mandy said from the interior while the Tenth Doctor studied the Eleventh.

Michelle glanced at her Doctor before she walked toward the other Doctor. Ten smiled warmly and knelt down to her.

"Hello there," he said when Michelle walked up to him.

"Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm traveling with the Doctor and his family and my sisters and brother and we came here cause my stupid family back home was arguing at Thanksgiving so the Doctor back there took us here and he said you were him so I wanted to say hello."

"Did you get all that, Donna?" Ten said, winking at his companion.

"I think so, except the part about him being you," Donna said, pointing to Eleven.

"You're more knowledgeable about me than my friend, Donna, is," Ten said to Michelle. "She doesn't know about regeneration. I keep forgetting to tell my friends about it. So…your family is arguing then?"

"Yeah, they came to my house to eat dinner with us," Michelle said, pointing to the Doctor. "And my uncle and cousins said mean things about him and we got mad so Mommy told the Doctor he could take us somewhere else for a bit."

"I see," Ten said, straightening up.

He took Michelle's hand and beckoned to Donna before they walked to the TARDIS.

"The wee bairn here says you're having a spot of bother with her family members?" Ten said to Eleven when they reached him.

"To put it mildly," Eleven said.

He quickly introduced his family and Michelle's family and pointed to Mandy who was now standing by the console.

"And this is Mandy who wants us to go see horsies and doesn't like the delay," Eleven said to his counterpart.

He stepped aside and let Ten go inside with Donna.

"Wow, this is different," Donna said, looking around at the interior. "Looks more like a spaceship than yours does."

"Hello, small one," Ten said to Mandy while he and Michelle walked towards her. "I'm the Doctor. My future self says you want to see horsies?"

"Yes," Mandy said when he walked up the steps to her.

"Well, I don't think there are horsies around here but you found another Doctor which is just as good," the Doctor said, leaning over and getting eyelevel with her.

"Will you come and tell my cousins to shut up?" Mandy asked him.

"Tell your cousins to shut up?" Ten said. "You mean the ones that are arguing?"

Mandy nodded and the Doctor leaned back up and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Hear that, Noble? We're needed somewhere. A small child has just asked for our assistance. Think my other self will let us assist the child?" he said to her.

"Does this happen often? You finding your other selves?" Donna said.

"Oh, it happens on occasion," the Doctor said. "So…what about it, my other self? Shall we go and sort out the kerfuffle back at Michelle's house?"

"Can I help with that?" River said as everyone else stepped inside.

The Doctor glanced at his past self but he didn't register any recognition at seeing River so he figured it was early days in his travels with Donna.

"I welcome any and all help," Ten said. "After all, I need my friends to back me up. So…shall we go and see what's what and clear the mess up then?"

The Doctor glanced at his family and he snickered.

"Just…let me fill you in on her family and their peculiar interests," Eleven said, closing his TARDIS door.

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