You only lose what you cling to.
- Budha
I sighed and shoved my hands into my pockets as I stared out at the scene in front of me. My brother and Samantha held each other as they cried, with my grandfather standing next to them with tears in his own eyes. I had never seen him cry before.
People stood around the long, black coffin as the preacher spoke in front of the large picture that sat next to the coffin. Mostly everyone looked sad, some were even crying while others gave my stepmother pitying looks. It wasn't easy losing a daughter who was so young- not that I'd know.
"We have to go now." The Doctor said coming up beside me and I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket.
"I know." I sighed. "But it's not everyday that you get to go to your own funeral."
L-I-N-N-I-E
She was just another adventure to them, but when the Doctor and Rose set out to protect a family from a hungry alien, they must deal with the consequences. Linnie Willows just so happened to be that consequence.
A WEEK EARLIER
"Maybe I shouldn't go." I said as I felt Leo's head. He was still a little warm and I just knew that Fiona wouldn't be able to handle it herself if Leo got worse.
"We'll be fine." Fiona assured me and I gave her a look. "I'm serious."
"You do realize that if he vomits, you have to clean it up, right?" I crossed my arms and her face fell at the realization. "No calling me at work- or Samantha. She can't afford to miss another shift because you don't want to get vomit on your hands." If I was being honest, I was actually trying to talk Fiona into chickening out. My boss, John, was pretty understanding when it came to me skipping work to stay home with Leo whenever I needed. He had kids, so he knew that kids got sick and hurt a lot- plus, John new that my stepmother, Samantha, couldn't stay home since she had a pretty strict boss as the hospital. "And you can't just leave it here until one of us gets home."
Despite her lapse, Fiona shook her head. "We'll be fine."
After getting a couple more reassurances, I finally grabbed my bag and left the house.
"Where have you been?" My co-worker, Angela, asked as soon as I came into view. "My shift was over ten minutes ago." I didn't resist the urge to roll my eyes when she flipped back her long red hair and studied her freshly manicured nails. I couldn't stand Angela; she hated working here at the shack and tried to make everyone's lives as miserable as she thought hers was. In reality, Angela Riniman was the spoiled teenage daughter of a tech mogul. She only worked at the Shack because she drove her car into it last year and John told her parents he'd keep it quiet if they paid to have the Shack fixed and had Angela work as a form of community service- which, of course, she wouldn't be paid for.
"I'm sure the angels are weeping for you" I mocked as I moved behind the counter and she glared at me. "And considering you once came in drunk and broke the soda machine- which I had to stay late and clean up, by the way," I said pointedly as I dropped my bag and began unbuttoning my button down. "You can handle not driving away in your Malibu Barbie convertible for a few extra minutes."
Angela rolled her eyes as she grabbed her overpriced purse and left the Shack. Deciding not to waste anymore of my time on her attitude, I pulled off my button up and got to work.
It wasn't long after I started my shift that things started to get busier; I worked from noon until closing- a pretty long shift to be honest, but I took whatever hours John could give me considering that Stephanie and I were still paying off my hospital bills from when I had an appendectomy a couple of year ago. Surgery had not been cheap- plus, John knew I could handle it; I had been working at the Shack since I was fifteen.
After a couple of hours, things still hadn't slowed down since all the surfers, tanners and families were all done with their beach activities and crowded onto the patio for snacks or dinner. I had just finished making a little girl an ice cream cone and decided to make one for myself since there was no one else waiting for orders. It wouldn't be long before someone else turned up, or some mess had to be cleaned up, but- for now- I had a break.
"Hello," A voice said from behind me. A very British sounding voice.
Turning around, I came face to face with a girl; she was around my age with blonde hair, brown eyes, and a wide smile. She had a bit of a wild look to her with messy hair and the dingy tank top she wore. The man next to her had buzzed brown hair, matching eyes and very big ears. For a reason I couldn't think of, he was wearing a black shirt underneath a leather jacket. With the weather in Florida, I was surprised he hadn't passed out yet. They were both covered in sand, but we were on a beach; I was guessing that they fell.
"Hi," I straightened up. for some reason they looked familiar. "You two want something?" I asked, nodding back at the painted, wooden menu board above my head.
The man sat up and shook his head. "No, we'll just be going." He was British, too. Why did his voice sound so familiar? I'd never met a British person in my life. Maybe I saw him on TV...but that wouldn't explain why they both looked familiar.
Standing up, the man made to leave, but the girl grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket. "We tried it your way," She told him as he allowed himself to be pulled back onto the stool. "Now, it's my turn." It was a bit hard to understand her with her accent. "I'm Rose." She introduced. "Rose Tyler. This is the Doctor." Doctor who?
"Doctor..." I trailed off, but she just shook her head.
"Just the Doctor." She said. "He refuses to tell me his real name." Okay...
"I'm Linnie." I replied. "So, if you're not here to eat or drink-"
Rose interrupted me. "We're looking for someone." She said. "Red hair, nearly six feet, lots of piercings?"
I scoffed. "Try meeting someone without some kind of piercing at this job;I have nine." But then I shook my head. "I've never seen anyone like that around here. Sorry."
The man- Doctor whatever-his-name-was, looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "Why're you half dressed?" Looking down at the high-waisted fraying cut-off shorts and pink rainbow halter top I wore, I didn't even hesitate to give my answer.
"Well, it's ninety-five degrees and there are two different restaurants on this beach," I informed him. "Which one are you gonna go to? The one with the half-dressed hot girl or the one with the the wannabe surfer who wears a red speedo, ends every sentence with 'know what I'm sayin'?' and smells exclusively like low tide?" Feeling that the ice cream was melting onto my hand, I turned around to get a napkin. That's when I heard Rose speak again.
"Doctor," She began quietly, thinking I couldn't hear. "Didn't you say this thing could change what it looks like?"
"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, turning around to face them, but they were already headed away from the Shack. Shaking my head, I made myself another ice cream cone and picked up the magazine that Angela had left. I didn't have time to humor crazy tourists
Because a few midnight surfers got hungry, I was at the Shack for at hour after closing, but I didn't mind.
By the time I put the money from the register into the safe in John's office, my feet were killing me, so I pulled off my wedges, hoping the sidewalks were clean enough for me to walk barefooted on.
Normally, on my walk to and from the bus stop, I felt safe and secure; there were usually one or two restaurants that still had lights on and a few people still hung around on the streets. However, that was at midnight; it was one in the morning now, which changed everything.
There were no businesses or apartments above with lights on and anyone still left on the street were either homeless or put me on edge. Because of this, I was walking fast that normal which made me paranoid- so paranoid that I was imagining things; I could swear that there was someone walking behind me. I was hearing a dragging sound and- what was that?...Clicking?
The further I got down the street, the louder the clicking got and my heart was beating wildly in my chest. Afraid, I sped up, only to hear that the dragging sound did too. This was not how I wanted to die.
I was just about to start running, hoping that whatever was following me couldn't catch me, but before I could even take another step, a hand shout out from the alley. It grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into a hard chest- silencing me with a hand over my mouth before I could even think of screaming.
"Don't scream." An accented voice whispered and I immediately recognized it as the man from the Shack. My hands immediately grabbed at the one on my mouth, trying to pull it away, but that was when I heard the ticking sound get louder. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.
My eyes widened as a very skinny body walked past the alleyway. It's skin was a nasty gray color and looked like it was wet and droopy. It had long legs, arms and fingers that skimmed the ground from where the shoulders started at least five feet above the ground. Whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Suddenly, the thing stopped and lifted its head, giving a better view of it's ugly face with the light coming down from the lamppost. It slowly turned around and my eyes widened as I saw the large white ovals that were its eyes.
'I'm gonna die.' I thought. 'After nineteen years of life, this is how I die; in an alley with a stranger's hand over my mouth.'
But that didn't happen because the thing looked in my general direction for a few moments before turning back around and continuing down the street. I heard two people exhale; one from behind me and one from beside, but I was still rigid.
"Doctor..." A girls voice said from next to me. It must've been the girl from earlier- Rose.
"What?" Rose must've pointed out that the man, the Doctor, still had his hand over my mouth because he quickly removed his hand with an; "Oh."
I didn't move, still trying to process everything, but I felt the Doctor behind me and Rose come from beside me to stand in front of me, but I wasn't very focused on them. It was like I was seeing them, but wasn't at the same time.
"Doctor, I think she's in shock." The Rose said in a thick accent, making it slightly hard for me to understand her. A hand waved in front of my face until it was smacked away. "Stop that!"
"You're the one who said she was in shock!" The Doctor reminded her, but I didn't care about their bickering.
"Maybe we should get her out of here." Rose suggested. "Before that thing comes back."
That's what led us to the front window booth at Hossie's, a small cafe downtown at midnight. I sat on one side of the booth, staring at the light golden color of my coffee as I stirred it. Rose and the Doctor sat on the other side of the booth. None of us had said anything to each other.
"What was that thing?" I asked quietly. The guy looked surprised that I had spoken.
"A Screech." He answered. "They're nasty creatures from the planet Noveptalinium." I was terrified; partly because some alien had just tried to kill me, but mostly because I was being told it was an alien and I wasn't even surprised.
"Why did it come after me?" He looked to his friend. "Please," I said. "Just tell me."
He didn't look sure, but told me anyway. "Screeches consume family lines." He said. "They probably started long ago with one of your great grandparents. They normally don't eat a member of the line until they reach old age or until they're deathly ill, but..." He looked at the girl before looking back to me. "Your family's Screech probably hasn't had a meal in a while, since your grandmother."
I sucked in a breath. "My grandmother?" I asked before shaking my head and pushing back the hair that had fallen into my face. "No...My grandmother died from cancer when I was a little kid."
The man shook his head. "No," He disagreed. "Your grandmother was suffering from cancer. The Screech, more than likely, consumed her life force before the cancer killed her. They don't like rotting meat." Wait, he said that they didn't eat a family member until they were old or deathly ill. "Is anyone in your family sick?" The Doctor asked. "Screeches usually don't stray from specific family lines- even if they are starving.
"My brother." I told them. "But he's only got a fever and it's going away; Leo gets sick all the time."
The Doctor shook his head. "Your grandmother died when you were a little girl- five years old if I remember right." My eyes furrowed in confusion.
"H-How could you even know that?" I asked looking from him to Rose. Why did they look so familiar. Standing up as much as possible with the table between us, the Doctor leaned over and put two fingers from each of his hands on my temples. For some reason, my eyes immediately closed.
When I opened them, I was no longer sitting in a booth at Hossie's. Instead, I was standing in the hallway of my house- my old house; the one I had lived in with my first stepmother, Samantha, and my father before he left us. I immediately knew it was the hallway outside my bedroom because the beautiful painting that Samantha had painted of me was hanging on the wall. I loved that painting and, at sixteen years old, had cried when we were forced to sell it. Was this a dream?
"Samantha," A small voice said and I turned around to see that the door in front of the painting was cracked open, letting a glowing light spill out. Tentatively stepping forward, my hand raised up and slowly pushed open the door a bit so I could see inside.
There, under a orange floral comforter laid a girl in a bed that was too big for her Beside her, a woman with flaming red hair held a closed children's book in her lap. I remember wanting my hair to be as bright as a hers considering that I was convinced she was a Phoenix like in the Harry Potter books she used to read me.
"Samantha?" I whispered. What the hell was this?
"Yes, sweetie?" She replied, looking down at the little girl who I now realized was me.
"Is grandma gonna die?" Little me asked and Samantha shook her head.
"I don't know." She lifted her hand up and Little me snuggled into her side. Letting her hand fall down, Samantha began playing with her hair. "She's really sick and very old."
"Grandma is your mommy." Little me pointed out. "Are you gonna be sad if your mommy dies?"
Samantha nodded. "Yeah..." She said. "I would be very sad if my mommy died." Samantha got quiet and Little me broke the silence.
"I'd be sad if you died." Samantha didn't say anything, she just kissed Little me on the head before getting up from the bed.
"Alright," She said as Little me scooted to the middle of the bed and allowed herself to be tucked in. "Time to go to sleep; you've got school tomorrow and piano lessons after; your dad will not be happy if he gets another call from Ms. La Don because you fell asleep again."
"I don't like the piano." Little me said sleepily with a yawn. "I like my violin, though." Turning off the bedside lamp, Samantha leaned down and kissed little me on the head before putting away the book and making her way towards the door. I moved away just as she opened it, but she didn't see me, despite walking right past me. Not knowing what else to do, I followed her down the hall. She turned two corners before she got to the door she was looking for and simply peaked inside before walking away. I didn't know what to do, so I made to follow her once again when I saw little me creeping down the hallway. She was coming towards me, but I could tell that she couldn't see me.
Not wanting to know whether or not she'd pass right through me, I stepped out of the way as she rushed past in some sad attempt at being a ninja and shot straight into the room. I heard a gasp and I quickly made my way into the room to see little me frozen in shock and fear as she stared at the figure leaning over my grandmother.
It was gangly and tall- maybe six or so feet- with long limbs which were covered in a slightly translucent gray slime. It's head- which was long and oval shaped with wide round bubbles over its eyes- was lowered only a few inches over my grandmother and its small, wide mouth was open. A white mist was flowing straight out of my grandmothers mouth and into the things.
"Grandma!' Little Me yelled and the alien snapped its head towards her. Before it could even take a step, little me let out a little yell as two arms wrapped around her body and lifted her up. I looked to see the blonde girl from the diner- Rose- holding her.
"Get her out of here!" The Doctor yelled, from beside her before pulling out a strange, electronic object and pointing it at the Screech.
I gasped as the Doctor dropped his hands down from my head and stared at him and then Rose and then him again.
"Why didn't I remember that?" I asked shakily. "And how the hell do you both look the same?"
"Time travel," The Doctor answered at the same time Rose said, "That's not important." They looked at each other accusingly before looking back to me.
"Time travel?!" I repeated, practically yelling. The Doctor nodded begrudgingly.
"The Screech was there to take the rest of your grandmothers life force before she died. We were there to stop it, but it got a lock on you and it's been after you ever since." I shook my head.
"I've never even seen it before today-"
"They can change their faces," Rose said. "It'd be impossible to tell if you weren't paying attention."
"But why?" I asked. "Why would it be coming after me? What did I do?"
"Nothing that you weren't supposed to." The Doctor assured. "Screeches don't feed to punish- they only feed to satisfy their hunger. You're family...it's small and generations are stretched out which is why it hasn't fed; it's much easier to suck the life force out sick and feeble prey, but I'm not sure about you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I'm not sure why the Screech targeted you in particular; you're no less human than your brother and mother-"
"Stepmother." I corrected immediately. I loved Samantha, I did, and she was my mother in every way except blood. I just didn't have it in me to call her mom.
"So I don't know why it's stayed around all these years."
My eyebrows furrowed. "Stayed around?" I repeated and he nodded. "Stayed around where? My house?"
"It would be the easiest place to watch you." Rose said.
"Well, it didn't get me, so does that mean it's going back to my house?" I asked. "My house where my weak and feeble brother is?" The result of my words were instantaneous.
The Doctor's eyes widened just a bit before he got out of the booth and rushed towards the door, leaving both Rose and I to follow him. The waitress would be pissed about us running out on the bill, but I'd come back and pay once my brother wasn't in danger of being eaten.
"Where's he going?!" I yelled to Rose as we ran down the streets after the Doctor.
"Time machine!" She answered as we followed the Doctor into a nearby alley, but the only thing there- other than a bunch of trash cans and a dumpster, was a blue police box. I remembered reading about one in an old book for English class, but I was pretty sure they were only a thing in Britain.
Not bothering to explain himself, the Doctor ran into the box and Rose went in right after him. I, however, being the only sane one decided to not run into the tiny box. Rose must've realized that I wasn't following her anymore because she poked her head out.
"What're you doing?" She asked. "Come on!"
"How?" I asked. "There's barely any space in those things for one person, let alone two and now you want me to go in too? No way!"
"Do you want your little bother to get the life sucked out of him by an alien?" She asked before disappearing into the box. I didn't have a good comeback.
"I'm coming in!" I told them. "Make room!" Deciding that doing it fast would make the process easier, I rushed into the box, only to find myself in a large room with a high ceiling. In the middle of the room was a console with the Doctor was rushing around and pressing random buttons. "How...?...What?!" I shouted. "How is this-"
"It's a time machine." Rose said. "It's called a TARDIS and yes; it's much bigger on the inside."
"Hold on!" The Doctor shouted suddenly and Rose grabbed onto the console as the entire room began to shake. I, however, wasn't so lucky and got thrown to the floor. I tried- unsuccessfully- to get up multiple times, only to fall back onto the ground when everything shook again. I finally managed to pull myself up on the railing and pull myself up the stairs just as the shaking stopped.
"What was that?" I asked as Rose and the Doctor went around the console to meet me.
"Time travel." The Doctor said with a grin before going past me.
"Don't mind him." Rose instructed. "He's a prat."
The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS before going out, Rose and I followed him and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw that we were right in front of the bungalow that I lived in. Rose turned back to me when she noticed I had stopped.
"You okay?" She asked and I nodded.
"Just...starting to accept that you were telling the truth about that time travel stuff." I said and continued walking. The Doctor was had been waiting for us at the gate and closed it after we went in.
"We have to be quiet." He informed us. "Screeches can't see, they're born with a casing over their eyes to protect them from sunlight. They mostly navigate through smell and hearing." I went to put my hand on the doorknob of the front door, but Rose quickly grabbed my hand to stop me.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I think the Screech is already here." She looked at the doorknob and I looked closer and realized that she had seen the gooey, gray substance on the doorknob. The same gooey stuff that was on the screech.
We both looked back at the Doctor who held his finger up to his mouth before moving past us so he was closest to the door. He looked around for a moment before taking my bag and pulled out my button down shirt. He wrapped it around his hand before using it to open the door. Once it was cracked, he dropped my shirt to the ground and I looked to see that the substance was eating right through it.
Motioning for us to keep quiet, the Doctor went into the house first with Rose and I following after him. Rose closed the door and the Doctor look at me.
"It'll be going after your brother." He whispered. "Where is he?"
"Last room at the end of the hall." I told him. "I painted birds on it a few years ago, you can't miss it." The Doctor wasted no time and quickly left the living room and went down the hall with Rose and I on his heels. When he got to my sisters' floral door he once again used my hat to slowly twist the knob and let himself in.
Inside the room, everything was the same; the movie and TV show posters still hang from her wall amidst the framed pictures of both of us growing up along with our parents. There was a basket of recently folded laundry sitting on the settee in front of his bed that I was supposed to put away and a bunch of toys littering the floor that he was supposed to have put away the day before he got sick, but there was one thing that didn't belong.
The tall, long fingered, gray dripping Screech had it's mouth open unnaturally wide and into it was going a golden hued mist that was coming out of Leo's mouth.
"Oh my God!" I whispered covering my mouth. "What is it doing to him?"
"It's draining his life force." The Doctor in formed me, no longer bothering to whisper so I could clearly hear the disgust in his voice.
"It's gold." Rose stated.
"It's in deep." The Doctor said. "The only part of a person's life force that feeds the diet of a Screech is the raw potential and desires of a person. The part of his life force that developed while he was dreaming of dragons and magic."
I turned to him. "Why are you just standing there?" I demanded. "I brought you here for a reason. Do something!"
"There's nothing I can do." He said, sounding resigned. "The Screech has gone too deep. If I pulled it off of her now, your brother's life force would just float into the air and dissolve. "
"And if you don't it off, my brother is going to die." I hissed at him and he shook his head as he looked at me apologetically.
"I'm sorry." He said. "There's nothing I can do for him." It wasn't a moment later that my hand reached up and slapped him across the face. Rose covered her mouth and I glared at the Doctor.
"I am not going to let Leo die! Not today!" I told him before turning away and sprinting into the room. Without even thinking about it I threw my hands out and pushed the Screech away from my brother and stood in between them, ignoring the burning on my hands, as it...well, screeched in my face.
"No!" I heard the Doctor yell, but it didn't change what happened next.
The Screech opened it's mouth wide and my mouth opened on it's own as I felt a tugging deep inside of my body. I felt as if I was going to throw up, but my body just bended to accommodate the path of the substance inside of me as it went rushing through my body and out of my mouth.
/
The Doctor yelled as the Screech began devouring the girls life force and Rose ran over Leo in the bed, whose golden life force was floating out of him as if it were air. Not knowing was to do, she put her hand over the boy's mouth to stop the flow, but it just sprayed out from between her fingers. She couldn't help but notice how hot it was.
"Doctor!" Rose yell, but he was busy searching around the room for something to help him with the plan he concocted in his mind.
He zipped around the room, looking anywhere and everywhere for something that could help him before he spotted a Swiss Army Knife. He rushed over to the teenage girl and the crouching Screech and sliced open the casing on the Screech's eyes. Since it was dark, slicing the casing alone would cause no damage to the Screech, but it only took a dim light to burn their eyes out.
The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver before putting it in front of the Screech's eyes. It did just the trick.
The Screech once again screeched and the girl fell to the ground as the Screech fell back against the desk a few feet away from the bed and onto the floor.
Rose lifted her hand from Leo's mouth, no longer able to keep the essence from leaving his body. "Doctor!" She rushed over to him, about to ask why he wasn't doing anything to help when she saw what he was staring at.
The Screech convulsed on the floor as it clutched at it's face, trying to shield it's eyes.
"What's happenin' to it?" Rose asked.
The Doctor held no emotion on his face. "Screeches have very big eyes and an intense sensitivity to light. The dullest light could disintegrate their eyes. Their eyes are directly connected to their brains so the heat from their eyes fries their brains."
"Light kills 'em." Rose said as the Screech stopped convulsing and it's long hands dropped from it's face. No long occupied with watching the Screech, Rose looked to the brunette who still lay on the floor and her eyes widened. "Doctor!" She said slapping his arm to get his attention. "What's happening to her?!"
The Screech hadn't taken enough of her life force to get to the golden part with Linnie as it had with her brother, but Leo's essence was no longer floating and dissipating into the air. It was going into the other unconscious person in the room.
"The essence is findin' a new host." The Doctor said in a disbelieving voice. "It's been forced out of one sibling...so it's going into the other.
"What's that gonna do to her?" The Doctor shook his head.
"I have no idea."
\
When I opened my eyes I felt strange.
I felt like a stranger in my own body, like there were parts of me I had only just found. I felt like there was something else, something familiar inside of me. My body felt like it weighed two tons, but felt as light as a feather at the same time. I immediately raised my hands to my face, remembering the burning from when I touched the Screech, but they were fine.
"Hey," A soft voice said and I looked over to see the blonde girl from earlier, Rose, sitting in a wheelchair next to the bed I lay in. She quickly got up. "How are you feelin'?"
I feel..." I started, but shook my head. "Different. What happened?" I asked sitting up.
"I think you'll be happy to hear that you saved your brother." I turned and saw the brown haired guy, the Doctor, lounging in the bed next to me. He quickly got up and made his way over.
"I thought you said he couldn't be saved?" He shook his head.
"He couldn't." He said. "And I don't know how your body is sustaining itself, but it is. It's..incredible."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that when you fell unconscious, your brother's life force went looking for a new host and found you." He explained. "Your mother told the doctors that your brother had a fever 100.4 degrees yesterday and now he's healthy as a horse."
"How can he still be living if his...life force is in me?" I wondered.
"Because you're incredibly strong." He said. "Your brother is living through you. His life force is burning inside of your body right along with yours, but it shouldn't be. Your body should've shut down and fell into a coma as soon as your brother's life force went into you, but it didn't."
Was he saying what I think he was saying? "Are you saying that Leo's soul is inside of me?"
He nodded. "Call it what you will, but yes. Your brother is going to live a normal life as long as you're alive. He'll live to go to college, get married have kids, grandkids and then he'll die like every other person in the world."
"Where is he?" I asked immediately. "I want to see him. Where is he?" The Doctor looked to Rose who looked away. "What?" I asked.
"You can't see your brother." The Doctor said.
"What do you mean I can't see him?" I scoffed. "You just said he was fine."
"But you're not." Rose said and I furrowed my eyebrows at her. "As long as Leo's life force is inside of you...you can't die."
I shook my head. "I don't understand."
"You can't die." The Doctor repeated. "It's physically impossible for your life force to burn at the same rate as your brother's while they're both inside of you, so your body slowed your aging process to a millionth of it's normal rate. In the simplest way possible; You can't age until your force begins burning at it's normal pace again. What's gonna happen when your brother dies at ninety years old and you still look like a seventeen year old?"
"I'm nineteen." I snapped.
"Doesn't matter." He said with a shrug. "Because you know what's going to happen when you turn fifty and you still look like you do now? The government is going to take you and put you in a lab to run tests because they'll think you're alien and it's going to last for a very long time because you'll have outlived every scientist testing on you."
I wiped my tears away. "So what am I supposed to do?" I asked. "Just runaway? Leave Samantha alone to pay for my hospital bills with her crappy nursing job? Everything I have ever done in my life was for them and now you're telling me that I can't ever see them ever again?"
"You can see them." Rose corrected. "They just can't see you." I looked to the Doctor who shook his head.
"I'm sorry."
"I don't have anywhere to go." I told him. "My stepmom and brother are the only family I have. I don't have any friends because I'm always working and I don't have any money because all of it went to the hospital. So what the hell am I supposed to do?"
"You could come with us." Rose said without hesitation and both the Doctor and I looked to her.
"What?" We chorused and Rose gave the doctor a look.
"We can't leave her here." She told him. "She's got nowhere to go and we're the reason this 'appened to her. That Screech wouldn't have gone after her sister if I had killed it when I had the chance." Rose gave the Doctor a pleading look. "Doctor, please."
/
That's how I ended up here, in the middle of a graveyard, thirty feet away from my own funeral with the Doctor right beside me. He had been kind enough to help me fake my death in a very convincing car crash. The cadaver he had stolen from the medical school not too far away looked a lot like me and since the body had been badly burned, no one said otherwise when multiple people came forward and told the police that it was me in the car.
I had decided to dress up for my own funeral. I borrowed something from the Doctor's giant closet of clothes; a black dress that went to my knees, a black cardigan and one of those small black net veils older women wore with a pair of sunglasses; just in case my stepmother or Leo saw me and recognized me. The Doctor was already dressed for the occasion with his leather jacket.
"I'm gonna miss them." I said, watching as Samantha kissed my brother on his dark head of hair. "Thank you for what you did." I said to the Doctor, but didn't look away from my funeral. "That money's gonna help them a lot."
"That was just a charitable donation to you family from their church." The Doctor lied. I had been there when he used his sonic screwdriver to take out all that money from the ATM.
"Is there anyway I can see if they'll be alright?" I asked and looked over at him and he looked down at me. "In the future I mean." He cocked his head back where the blue Police Box that Rose stood in the doorway of, sat behind a large oak tree, mostly out of the sight of the funeral party.
"C'mon."
\
"You can't catch me!" The little black haired girl squealed as she was chased through the large yard by brunette. We weren't super close, but we were just across the street, standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, so I was able to see that they were both the same size and had almost the exact same face. I was only able to tell them apart because one of them was dressed as Sleeping Beauty and the other was dressed as a fairy.
"Two-thousand thirty." The Doctor announced as he, Rose and I watched the girls through the open doors of the TARDIS. "April Seventh,"
"He's twenty-four now." I said as a large black SUV pulled into the driveway of the two-story suburban house. "He has kids."
"And a wife," Rose noted as a woman, maybe a few inches over five feet, with light skin and short black hair, walked around the SUV with a bag of groceries. When the blonde little girl dressed as a fairy spotted her, she forgot all about her game and ran to her. Her sister wasn't far behind.
"Mommy!" They squealed jumping at him. She barely had enough time to drop the bag and catch them before she fell to the ground with them giggling. She tickled them and played with them for a while before the front door of the house opened and a dark haired man, who I immediately knew was my brother, stepped out.
My first thought was that fatherhood suited her. Gone was the sickly little boy who used to cry because he couldn't go outside and play. In his place was a content man watching his wife and children. I wondered why he had dyed her hair darker, but then I remembered the time I accidentally dyed my hair blue and tried to play it off as if that's the color I had wanted when I was only trying to go for a lighter brown.
"Alright!" He called, clapping her hands. "Time for dinner. So get in the house you little monsters!" Leo's wige got up from the ground and picked up both little girls- which I found ridiculously impressive considering how small she was- before heading to the doorway where she gave Leo a quick kiss on the lips, inciting giggles from the girls, before going inside with Leo following after them.
"Leo and Nora Willows" The Doctor said and I looked up at him. "Right now, Nora is the mayor of Ohio and your brother is in the middle of writing his..." He thought for a moment. "Fourth book. Their daughters are Lynette and Blossom."
"He named them after me." I grinned. "How do you know all this?" I asked as he walked back into the TARDIS. Rose and I followed.
"I know lots of things and lots of people." He answered as he went to console and began pressing buttons. "Your sister-in-law becomes the youngest president in less than a decade." Way to marry up, Leo. "Young Leo becomes one of the best selling authors in the world after Agatha Christie and JK Rowling. I might just have a copy of his book somewhere in the TARDIS."
"Where are we going?" I asked as the Doctor turned back into the TARDIS and Rose went after him.
The Doctor pulled down a lever and then banged on some random piece of the console with a hammer. "To see President and First Gentleman Willows dance at her Inauguration." He suddenly stopped his movements and looked back at me. "Are you coming?"
I grinned. "Hell yeah."
"Go shut the door." I went to do as he said, but just as I got to the door, Leo, who had gone back to the car to get the forgotten groceries, looked up and when he saw me his eyes widened.
Inside, I was panicking, but I tried not to show it. Instead, I held my hand up to my lips and he stared at me in disbelief as I closed the door.
"Alright, Lynette Blossom Willows," I looked to the Doctor and Rose. "Are you ready to see the future?" I was ready to puke, to cry, to explode with happiness and the other three hundred conflicting emotions inside, but I just grinned at him.
"Bring it on," Turning back to his console, he pulled down a lever and I grabbed onto the railing as the TARDIS began shaking.
Next Chapter
The Empty Child
After stupidly following Rose, Linnie ends up stranded in 1941 and hanging from a barrage balloon. That wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the fact that she landed on the roof of a hospital filled top to bottom with gas mask wearing patients calling out for their mummies. To add insult to injury, the TARDIS refuses to let her sleep.
Disclaimer
I do not own Doctor Who