A/N: Hello! Welcome to my story. I'm dabooton, and I'll try to update as fast as I can. I hope you enjoy the fic. If you don't, that's fine, too. Either way, be sure to review so I can get better! Happy reading!
To some, the city can be a wondrous place, full of excitement and opportunities. To others, at least to people who know what's good for them, it is the bottom of a pit. Such as in the case of eighteen year old Josephine Isabella Reginald - Joey for short.
Nicholas Reginald is a British immigrant and Joey's father. He lives off of alcohol, and he always has a couple of pints of whiskey or vodka on his person. Joey sneaks in and out of the house, hoping not to invoke his drunken wrath.
Joey seeks shelter from her father in one place: the local theater. She also managed to get a job at the concert hall aiding the sound technicians. On stage, there's a grand piano they use for orchestras. Joey stays after work until she's sure everyone's gone. She then sits down at the piano and plays alone. The music emanates throughout the hall, heard only by the piano's player. At least, that's what she thinks.
There's this boy that has a crush on her, his name is Derek. He also works in the concert hall as an assistant to the sound techs. He's a pre-med student at the local university, about nineteen to twenty years old. He doesn't live here. He doesn't know what it's like to fear for your life every day. He's secure on campus. In a way, Joey kind of envies him. He's always so bright, happy, and funny. Cute, too. He's got light brown hair, blue eyes, a bit of stubble, and freckles on his face. Oh, but he's too naive. Derek's been sheltered his entire life; Joey hasn't. They're foils to each other. She doesn't know what he sees in her. Frankly, it weirds her out. But Joey doesn't know that when she plays piano at work, Derek sits outside the stage door, listening to her play.
One night, as she's playing the piano as usual, she hears this warping, wooshing sound - it almost sounds like it comes from another world. The damn speakers are malfunctioning again, aren't they?, she figures. She resumes playing, until she hears the footsteps of three people approaching, abruptly stopping her music and hiding behind a curtain.
"She's usually here at night, playing piano. She was just here." Joey hears Derek say to someone. He listens to me. Derek, you creepy bastard, she gripes.
"Where is she?" She hears an older man ask. About thirty years old. British, too, she deduces from his accent.
"Doctor, we need to find her. We have to talk to her." A younger woman says. Also British. Oh great, they've sent in the therapists again. Better confront them. "Your wife sent us."
"For the last time, I don't need your help. I'm fine." Joey steps out from behind the curtain. The man his assistant had called "Doctor" steps forward and sticks out his hand.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor! Just the Doctor. And you're Joey Oswald!" He enthusiastically exclaims, shaking Joey's hand a little bit too animatedly. Oh God, he's like Derek. Excited about every goddamn thing. Why would he be excited about me? I'm no one special.
"How the hell do you know my name?" Joey asks, pulling away.
"Wibbly wobbly timey wimey." The strange man replies.
"Huh." He's nuts.
"No time to explain, I need you and your little friend here to come with my companion and me. Quickly, now!"
"Why should I trust you?" Joey questions harshly. The Doctor's companion grabs her by the shoulders and pulls Joey down to her level. She's much shorter than Joey, by about six inches.
"Listen, Joey. You need to trust us on this. We've been sent on a mission to get you." She says.
"Who sent you? I'm not going to run away with two lunatics that I just met."
"My, my, my. Persistent, are we? We're going to have to earn your trust, right?"
"I don't trust anyone. Period."
"Not even me? You can trust me. I'm a Doctor." The Doctor asks.
"I am highly doubtful you have a degree of any sort, sir." Joey replies, folding her arms.
"Well. Someone's sassy." The Doctor humphs and adjusts his bowtie. Bowties went out of style decades ago. Someone's awkward, Joey retorts in her head. "Anyway, it is imperative that you come with us. A friend of mine, who knows you very, very well, sent my companion Clara and I to fetch you and your boyfriend here."
"One, he's not my boyfriend," Joey replies, hearing Derek sadly sigh in the background. "Two, fine. I'll go with you. If you try and hurt me, good luck. I'll hurt you more than you'll ever know."
"Alright, tough girl. We'll see how tough you really are." The short girl, Clara, snaps irritably. Got you mad now, haven't I? Good. Then you'll leave me alone. There's a long, tense moment of silence until the Doctor awkwardly coughs and leads the three of them out the stage door into a nearby alleyway. Joey clenches her fists, Clara glares at her, and Derek and the Doctor are, to their dismay, caught in the middle. The Doctor leads them to a slightly worn, out of place blue box in the middle of the alleyway.
"Now, this blue police box is my TARDIS. It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It's my time machine." He explains, gesturing to the strange box. Time machine? What kind of drugs are you on?, Joey wonders as she eyes the strange Doctor warily. The Doctor opens the door, lets them in, and amazingly, it's bigger on the inside.
"It's a tiny box on the outside, but it's bigger on the inside. How-?" Derek wonders aloud. He touches the wall of the room to make sure it's real and not an optical illusion of some sort.
"It's dimensionally transcendental. It exists on two different dimensions." The Doctor replies. Derek opens his mouth to talk, but the Doctor places his hand over the young man's mouth. "Don't dwell upon it too much. Gallifreyan technology. If I told you the exact mechanics of it, you might blow your brains out."
It's like a whole world inside of the TARDIS. Joey and Derek can see doors that lead to deep corridors and strange circular markings above the control panel. The two of them walk around the control panel in awe, wondering what each button and knob and valve does. They can't see to wrap their minds around it.
"Hey, Joey." Derek nudges the younger girl's shoulder.
"What?" She replies, though not with her usual bitter tone. To his surprise, she was being gentler. She was too busy dwelling upon this wonderful box.
"You have a nice smile." He smirks, like he always does when he attempts to flirt with her. "It's the first time I've ever seen you smile." He could barely see it, but he could see on Joey's face the subtlest little smile. Her dimples were a dead giveaway.
"Shut up, loverboy." The girl replies.
"Not a chance."
"I'm glad you're happy for once."
"I'm kind of glad, too."
"Enough with the flirting, you two." The Doctor rolls his eyes in disgust, even though these two young adults, just barely past their childhood in his mind, reminded him just a little bit of his himself and his wife. He could see a little bit of himself in both the boy and girl, and he could say the same for River. An Clara, too, he supposes. For some reason, he sees a lot on Clara in this girl, Joey. He pulls himself out of his thoughts and claps his hands. "Now, off to our first destination!"
"Where? Are you going to take us away?" Joey asks with excitement. Her enthusiasm surprises everyone; she's not the grumpy, irritable girl they had met a few minutes ago. For once, Joey's excited for something. "I want to get out of here. Take us anywhere but here."
"Well, then, Joey," The Doctor ruffles the girl's hair. "You're in luck. Our first destination – Paris, France, the year 1832. Geronimo!"