The Friday 56: Doctor Who: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

These are the rules:
1. Grab a book, any book.
2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.
3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.
4. Post it.
5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

This week I'm spotlighting Doctor Who: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories, a book of twelve short stories featuring the twelve incarnations of The Doctor written by twelve different authors, including Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Ness, and Eoin Colfer.  I'm focusing on the 10th Doctor's (David Tennant is my favorite, by the way) story which is called "The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage" by Derek Landy, so this is 56% of the way through it at page 437.  I've just finished this story and I can definitely say that Landy really captures the Doctor's and Martha's voices!  I loved all of the literary references it features.   

"Precisely. We reached the edge and kept pushing.  You'd be surprised how many people reckon I'm far more trouble than I'm worth."

Martha gave a non-committal shrug, then got back to business.  "So what are we going to do?  The smart thing would be get back to the TARDIS and get away from here, but I know you're not going to do that."

He raised his eyebrow at her.  "You think you know me so well, don't you?  I happen to think that's a wonderful idea.  We don't know what we're dealing with here, and it's like I always say: it's better to be safe than sorry."

Martha frowned again.  "I know I've only been travelling with you for a few months, but I have literally, never heard you say that." 

"Nonsense.  I say it all the time."

She shook her head.  "Never once."

"You might have been in the other room when I've said it," said the Doctor, "but I've said it, and I've said it a lot."

"When was the last time you said it?"

"Last week.  At the ... ooh, I remember.  It was with the thing.  Well, four things.  Well, four things and a lizard.  I said it then.  It's not my fault if you -- Oi."

Martha looked round and saw Fatty hiding in the bushes.  The little fat boy's eyes widened when he realised he'd been spotted, and he squealed and ran off.