Prolog

Cassie stumbled over the crack in the sidewalk. It wasn't unusual. She picked herself back up and felt her way more carefully down the street. She could hear people everywhere, none of them looking at her too long because blind girls made them uncomfortable. She could hear the wind, smell the flowers that were blossoming, and still she could feel the chill of winter lingering just a little longer.

"Hello Cassie"

"Hello Doctor. Are you ready to take me on one of your adventures?" She smiled, he told her stories of far off places where there were planets of diamond and a people called the Ood. She loved his stories.

"Well, if you'd like. Today might be just the perfect day to take you with me." She stopped and turned in his direction.

"Doctor, you never take me with. Where will we go?" She simply expected him to tell her a new story, one she'd never heard before.

"Come with me," he took her hand and started running.

"DOCTOR! I can't see!" She laughed and kept running. She wouldn't miss this for the world. Whatever his plans, they were sure to be better than heading home where her mother would brood and mumble over what to do with her daughter and where she would go. It was a melancholy place, home was. But out here, outside with the Doctor, it was like nothing she'd ever felt.

She heard the creak of a door and mumbled "hello" from the man guiding her and suddenly engines. She started to get nervous.

"Doctor? Where are we? Where are we going?"

"Cassie feel your way around. This is my ship, the TARDIS. He sounded excited, exhilarated.

"Where are we?" She stumbled over some cords, felt her way around in a circle following a metal railing. And found stairs where the railing broke. "What else is in here?"

"Oh, just depends on the day. Don't go stumbling into the pool now. Ah, here we are."

"Where?" Excitedly she stumbled over her toes and fell into the Doctor. He caught her and stood her up kindly. She heard the door swing open.

"We're here, can you see it?! It's beautiful, don't you think? Positively brilliant!"

"Doctor...I can't see." She was sad, brokenhearted. He filled with guilt. Of course she couldn't see it.

"Let me try to explain it then." He put a hand on one shoulder and guided the other hand. Pointing her fingers he spoke. "There, that's where the galaxy starts, and it twists like this," he wiggled her hand into a spiral. "And there are stars everywhere. You'd never be able to count them. And over there," he pointed her fingers again. "That's a black hole, we'll avoid that though. Not to worry!"

"Doctor!" She laughed and let him continue pointing and speaking. Where were they really? Why was he so kind to her?