"I've never met anybody who wasn't important."

This dull, old field. It angered Belle, even if it was her escape. She came here everyday with a book in hand, and a moody disposition thanks to that brat, Gaston. As much as this place was her safe haven, it felt like she was...stuck. Stuck in this provincial town, with these judgmental people, so shallow and greedy. Gaston was the worst of all. The only other person she could stand was her father, the inventor, Maurice.

She sat in the grass, opening a book she had read a thousand times, flipping through the pages. Belle sighed. It wasn't even a proper story anymore, just words she had memorized and many years ago, she had even loved.

An odd noise, some sort of technology, filled her ears, and she furrowed her brow in confusion. Was her imagination acting up again? She glanced in the direction of the sound, and her brown eyes widened. A blue box, fading and coming back. Soon the box settled, and she hesitantly got up to inspect it. She touched it. Solid, wooden, definitely not a hallucination...

"Hello!" a chipper man said cheerfully, making Belle jump and let out a tiny yelp. "Oh, did I frighten you? Greatest apologies." He held out his hand with a grin on his face. "I'm the Doctor."

Belle watched him with fascinated, though greatly confused and skeptical, eyes. She hesitantly shook his hand, being the polite French girl she was. "Doctor what?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Oh. People don't usually ask that, it's always-" his voice went to a higher, sassier pitch, as if impersonating a woman, "'Doctor Who?' Anyway, what does it matter? I'm the Doctor, just the Doctor. And you are?"

"I...I'm Belle," the woman replied, obviously a bit suspicious of this "doctor." What doctor didn't have a name? That only convinced her even more that this was some sort of dream, this wasn't logical! But then Belle scolded herself, when had she ever liked something logical? She liked books about princesses and magic and wizards! And now she was like the people in those books who don't believe in it, then get turned into frogs. She looked at the metallic gadget in his hand, wondering if it was a wand.

The lanky man noticed her looking at his Sonic, and he held it up, waving it a little. That only made Belle shield her face, as if worried he would cast an ugliness spell. "No, don't worry! Just a screwdriver. It's Sonic!" He smiled and tapped her on the shoulder with it. "Most harmless gadget in the world."

Belle looked at it for a moment, as if it might move, and she timidly took it into her own hands. She turned it this way and that, and it didn't hurt her. She supposed that did make it harmless. For now. "What's the box for?" she asked, her voice surprisingly strong and confident.

"TARDIS! Time and Relative Dimension in Space. This, Belle, is my time machine!" the Doctor said, his arms going up to make a pose that presented the box, like a woman on a game show showing someone a new horse and carriage. Of course, Belle had absolutely no idea what any of this meant. Time machines weren't written about in the classic novels of her era. There were tales of dragons, and princes, but nothing of such advanced magic...Magic? Was that what this man was?

He ran a hand through his spiky, uncontrolled hair, sighing. She didn't understand. See, that was the problem with humans, especially humans who didn't have exposure to such modern ideas. The Doctor gave her a smile, though, and motioned for her to go in. "Go on. It's safe." His voice was soft, as if he was speaking to a small child.

Belle stepped into the doorway the man had come out of, and her eyes widened. What?! Just...WHAT?! All this technology, all the buttons and levers, oh, her father would have a fit! She took a few more steps inside to get a closer look, then she realized. How could all of this fit in a box as small as that? She quickly stepped out, looking around the box again, ignoring the Doctor's amused smirk, then ran back in, him following after her.

"It's...It's bigger on the inside!" she exclaimed, just walking around quickly, examining every little thing in the main control room.

The man in the blue suit chuckled. "Yes. Yes, it is. It's another dimension." He felt like he was repeating himself, it was always this sort of explanation, but he liked it. He enjoyed habit, repetition. He wasn't quite used to it, so he savored it when he got it.

"It can travel anywhere you like. Anywhere in the whole of creation, Belle, any planet, any star, any time...Would you like to see?"

There was no hesitation in the girl's bright eyes, a childlike excitement filling her up now. She nodded quickly, even if she couldn't quite understand what he meant. The only way to figure it out was to learn, to study.

And finally, after all these years, she had a chance to break free from that provincial life.