The Doctor inspected the object in his hand carefully, before taking a large bite out of it.
"Cream doughnuts and tea," Ian said with satisfaction, sipping from his cup and watching the Doctor devour his sweet.
Barbara nodded. "Never thought I'd see a tearoom again," she commented. "Just the sort of thing that could brighten up a planet like Marinus or Vortis."
Vicki, their other travelling companion, was sipping her tea carefully. "It's all very retro," she said, looking about her at the small tables with their lace tablecloths and the people say around them.
"Retro?" Ian queried. "I'll have you know, young lady, that this is our future. Well, mine and Barbara's anyway."
The Doctor was wiping his mouth with a red spotted handkerchief, smiling. "And very tasty it is too, Chesterman," he said. "I think I'll have another of those."
"I could have gone to University in York," Ian said, looking out of the window at the city passing by.
"Why didn't you?" asked Vicki.
"Birmingham was closer to home," he told her. "But I did visit once before. I have cousins in Yorkshire."
"If only we were closer to our own time," Barbara sighed.
"Oh, thirty five years isn't far for the TARDIS," Ian said, mimicking the Doctor's comment when they had landed.
"Well, it's the closest we've come so far," the Doctor protested as his second doughnut arrived. "Except for that unfortunate experience with our reduced circumstances."
Barbara shuddered at the memory. "I'm glad I'm my height," she said with feeling.
"Hey, look at this," said Vicki. She had found a leaflet on a nearby empty table.
Ian read the leaflet with interest. "What did you say the date was, Doctor?"
"September 4th 1999," he replied around a mouthful of doughnut. "Why?"
Ian handed him the leaflet. "There's an archaeology dig in the city this weekend. And it's live on the television."
"On television?" Barbara echoed. "Not the sort of thing I would have expected the people of the future to be interested in."
"Never underestimate human curiosity, especially about it's own past," the Doctor told them, swallowing the last of the doughnut. "I see it's open to the public," he continued.
"And I suppose that includes us," Ian commented. "Shall we take a look?"
The Doctor smiled indulgently. "Why not, my boy? Why not?" So saying, he asked the teenage waitress for directions.
***
Within the hour they stood on a raised walkway behind the main library, watching young people digging inside an old walled compound, which had been turned into a garden. An American woman in a white t-shirt and baseball hat was explaining what was happening.
"You can see here the exposed base of a pillar. Over there, we're exposing the base of the next pillar in line. These will give us an idea of the scale of the hospital complex."
"So, this was once a hospital," Ian mused, looking around the dig site. He wiped perspiration from his brow.
"Medieval, I would guess," Barbara told him, taking in the architecture.
The Doctor nodded. "It was one of the largest hospital sites in Britain," he confirmed as they moved along the walkway towards the exit.
"Never thought we'd get a look at the future and the past in the same day," Ian said. They passed two young men on the walkway, one of whom was wearing a baseball cap and taking photographs. Ian wished he had brought headwear against the heat of the day.
"That's the good thing about time travel," the Doctor said as they crossed the main road, carefully avoiding a female cyclist, on the way back to the TARDIS. "You never know where you will go next!"
***
Ian supported the half dazed man and looked over at the Doctor.
"Why can't we give him antibiotics from the TARDIS?" he pleaded.
"Impossible!" the Doctor retorted. "Do you have any idea what damage that could do to the future? He could develop immunities to diseases that he could pass on to his children. People who were supposed to die at an early age could live long lives instead. The damage to the timeline could be catastrophic!"
"Well, you've made your point," said Barbara. "So what do we do about him?" She indicated the ill traveller Ian was helping to stand.
The Doctor mused for a moment. "This road must lead somewhere. I suggest we take his cart and our sick friend here to the nearest settlement and let them care for him."
Ian nodded. "Good enough for me," he said, lurching towards the back of the cart under his burden. With the help of Barbara and Vicki, he got the nearly unconscious man into the back, while the Doctor climbed into the drivers seat.
"All set?" he called back.
Ian scrambled into the cart after the women. "Ready when you are, Doctor," he called back.
The Doctor got the oxen underway and the cart lurched off along the track. Ian watched the TARDIS, which stood beside the crude roadway, disappear from sight.
"A bit of a change from tearooms and doughnuts," Barbara said, mopping the fevered brow of their new charge.
Ian smiled grimly. "It certainly is. The Doctor was right about never knowing where you'll go next, but I think that's more down to the TARDIS than time travel itself."
"Are you saying the Doctor can't control the TARDIS?" asked Vicki in a mock horrified tone.
"Only if he can't hear us," Ian replied and they all suppressed smiles.
***
Half a bone crunching hour later, the Doctor called back from the front of the cart.
"There's some sort of civilisation ahead," he told his companions.
Ian stood up carefully and peered forward. "It's a large town, by the look of it."
"Let's hope they have some sort of medical facility," Barbara said.
"Well, it's no city," Ian commented, sitting down again, "but it's probably as close as you'll get in this time."
The Doctor guided the cart towards the gateway in the outer wall of the settlement. He was stopped by a guard.
"We have a sick man on board," the Doctor told him. "Do you have local medical care?"
The guard said nothing, looking over the time travellers and their strange clothes.
"We have come a long way," the Doctor told him truthfully. "Our friend needs urgent medical help!"
The guard grunted and gave the Doctor directions. The Doctor thanked him and the cart rumbled off over the cobblestones.
Minutes later they pulled up in a large courtyard. Barbara helped Ian unload the owner of the cart, who was still in a dazed state. Vicki looked about with curiosity.
"This looks familiar," she said, gazing at the stone building before them.
"Never mind that, child," the Doctor said. "Go and get help." He helped Ian support the man and they led him towards possible salvation.
***
"Will he be alright?" Ian asked as the monk looked up from his new patient.
The monk smiled. "Yes, it's a strain of fever we have treated before. But it is good that you got him here quickly. It might have saved his life."
Ian returned to his companions with the good news.
"Excellent, my boy, excellent," the Doctor commented.
Barbara tugged his sleeve. "Does that look familiar?" she asked him, pointing to the base of a nearby column.
The travellers looked, then stared. "Well I never," the Doctor breathed.
"I told you it all looked familiar," said Vicki.
A question from Ian to the monk he spoke with earlier confirmed it. They were standing inside St Leonard's Hospital in the medieval city of York.
