Prologue…
The TARDIS was groaning and wheezing, seeming to – not for the first time – fight the Doctor's every command. The Time Lord danced about the controls wildly, trying in vain to get the TARDIS to just stop flying about uncontrollably.
Cassie clung onto a railing for dear life, hoping with everything she had that this time, maybe just once, the Doctor actually knew what he was doing. Even though the notion that he didn't know how to fly this machine was absurd, one was always given room to wonder.
"Land!" the Doctor yelled, obviously frustrated. "Why won't you just land?"
The TARDIS wheezed some more.
"Oh, no, don't talk back to me, you do not talk back to me."
Cassie sighed. There he was… speaking with his box again…
She looked at the alien man prancing about, with his scraggy, dirty blond hair, and his blue-gold eyes, and the navy blue suit coat he was so insistent on wearing, even though it definitely didn't match his black jeans or his Volleys.
What a strange man she'd encountered and befriended…
The control console sparked, and the Doctor recoiled in shock before diving straight back to wrestle with the controls.
"Doctor, what's going on?!" Cassie demanded.
"Just a little… glitch… in the Jumper Matrix," he said as nonchalantly as he could, with the Irish accent he claimed hadn't been there until he regenerated.
"You call this a glitch? And what the hell is the Jumper Matrix?"
The Doctor looked confused. "Uh… are you sure you want me to answer that?"
"You don't know, do you?"
"Well of course I know, I just, y'know… can't exactly remember it right now."
Cassie rolled her eyes.
For what had to be the millionth time, she looked back on the events that had led her here, led her to be in such a dangerous and ridiculous situation. For what had to be the millionth time, she looked back on how she'd met him. How she'd met the Doctor…