Author's Note: This is my first Supernatural fanfic, so if it sucks, don't hate me. Oh, and I've been forced to take some creative liberties with characters worst fears, so feel free to correct me if these characters aren't actually afraid of these things.
Chapter One: The Doctor Is In
She spun around, struggling to see through the never-ending darkness. She knew something was there, something was always there, but it was taunting her, playing with her. She could feel it moving in the darkness, circling her, waiting for her to crack. She was trembling all over with terror, terror of what she couldn't see. From time to time, there would be a glimpse, a growl, a snarl, not much, just enough to let her know that she was being hunted. No, not hunted. Played with. No matter where she went, how far she ran, she could never escape it or this place, this place where the dark was so thick, she couldn't see her hands. Her heart pounded in her chest, eyes wide with fear, teeth chattering. She wished that whatever was playing with her would just kill her already instead of playing this insane game.
She heard a deep, menacing growl and turned behind her to see her mom on the ground being eaten alive by a werewolf. She could smell the blood and see the terror in her mother's eyes and she launched herself at the werewolf only to have it disappear into mist along with her mother. She spun around again and saw her mom, standing but covered in blood, chunks of flesh missing from her shoulder and stomach.
"You left me," she said accusingly to her daughter, all the love in her blue eyes transformed into hatred. "You left me and this is what happened. It wouldn't have happened if you had been there. You let it happen."
"No, Mum, please," she said desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks at her mother's vicious tone.
"You left with him and didn't care about me," she spat, advancing on her daughter. "You selfish, arrogant little bitch!"
She raised her hand to slap her daughter and disappeared into mist.
The girl sank to her knees and began to sob. She knew it wasn't real, but that didn't change the fact that it was dark, she was alone, and she was terrified.
"Doctor!" Rose called desperately into the darkness. "DOCTOR!"
Topeka, Iowa
February 12, 2009
Between the episodes 'Sex and Violence' and 'Death Takes A Holiday'. After the season two Doctor Who episode 'Tooth and Claw'.
Sam and Dean walked into the McDonald's, Sam going to get a table while Dean got food.
"Rabbit food for you, actual food for me," Dean quipped when he finally got to the table.
"When are you gonna stop making fun of what I eat?" Sam asked tiredly while Dean took a massive bite of his burger.
"When are you gonna stop eating like a chick?" Dean countered through a full mouth.
Sam just sighed and ate his salad.
"Dude, is that your phone?" Dean asked when they had finished their food and were about to leave.
"What?" Sam asked, confusion knitting his brow.
"That buzzing," Dean clarified.
Sam looked at his phone, saw that it was silent, and brought his backpack up onto the chair next to him. He rummaged through it until he pulled out a completely lit up, buzzing EMF meter.
"Wait, since when does this thing buzz?" Sam asked, examining the meter.
"Oh, I did some work on it," Dean replied. "So now, instead of beeping and maybe drawing the attention of anything, it buzzes like a phone."
"But why's it buzzing now?" Sam asked, looking questioningly at his brother. "This is a McDonald's. Why would there be a malevolent spirit here?"
"It might not be a spirit," Dean replied. "I also made it so that the thing detects anything supernatural."
"Okay, so…" Sam slowly waved the device around the place, watching the lights and level of buzzing until it reached a crescendo when he leveled it at the couple sitting at the booth across from the brothers.
"What do you think? The girl or the guy?" Dean asked, examining the tall, skinny guy in a trench coat and the petite blonde sitting across from him.
"The guy, definitely," Sam said confidently after a few moments of moving the EMF back and forth. "What do you think? Demon, ghoul, shifter?"
"Either way, we've gotta get that girl away from him," Dean said, pulling out his FBI badge.
Sam put away the EMF and pulled out his own badge. They both got up and approached the couple, who were sharing an order of fries.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," Dean said authoritatively to the blonde, him and Sam both flashing their badges. "My name's Special Agent Hetfield and this is Special Agent Ulrich. Would you mind coming with us for a moment?"
"Why?" the blonde asked suspiciously in a lilting London accent, her big brown eyes wary.
"We're working on a case, and we're just asking around to see if anyone knows anything that might be helpful," Sam said, his voice calming and comforting.
"I don't know anything," she said, her accent turning 'anything' into 'anyfing'.
"You might've heard something or seen something that seemed inconsequential at the time, but could be beneficial to our case," Dean said, trying hard to sound convincing.
"Those don't exactly look like the outfits of FBI agents," the man said in a British accent, his wise voice and brown eyes guarded and suspicious.
"Trying not to arouse suspicion," Dean replied dismissively, turning back to the girl and holding a hand out to her. "Now, if you'll come with us, ma'am, we just have a few questions for you."
"Why can't you ask me here?" the girl said, almost imperceptibly recoiling from Dean's hand.
"We're trained to treat everyone as a suspect and question people one at a time," Sam said, smooth and comforting. "Now, if you'll just come with us, this won't take long."
The girl looked from Dean's hand to Sam and back a couple of times before looking at the man. She looked back at Sam and Dean before disappearing under the table and reappearing in between the man and the wall, holding onto the man's arm.
"Ma'am, we have reason to believe that this man is extremely dangerous and it would be wise, for your own safety, if you came with us," Dean said seriously, leaning on the table.
"And what reason would that be?" the man asked, eyes tight with distrust.
"Look, asswipe, we know what you are, so give it up," Dean said threateningly.
"What'd you do to them?" the blonde asked, curiously, still holding onto the man's arm, her chin on his shoulder.
"I don't know," the man said," the man said, turning to look at her, confusion coloring his voice. "I've never seen them before in my life. Well, not yet, anyway."
"Don't act like you don't know what we're talking about," Sam said fearsomely. "We know you're not human."
A look of suspicion and fear instantly appeared in the couple's eyes. They looked at each other in alarm before looking back at the hunters.
"So, if I'm not human, then what am I?" the man asked cautiously.
"Demon," Sam said, hazarding a guess.
The two looked back at each other, the girl raising a thin eyebrow. The man shrugged and the girl tilted her head curiously, silently asking the man a question. The man shrugged again and turned back to the boys.
"And what exactly makes you think I'm a demon?" he asked curiously, eyebrows raised, all traces of wariness and suspicion gone.
"Fine, you're not a demon," Dean said, still suspicious. "Vampire? Ghoul? Shifter?"
"Black dog? Ghost possessing a human?" Sam guessed.
The man just shook his head slowly, his expression saying he had no idea what they were talking about.
"Then what are you?" Dean demanded.
The man gestured for Sam and Dean to sit opposite him and the blonde.
The brothers looked at each other and Sam shrugged and sat down, sliding his backpack to the floor. Dean stared at Sam in disbelief and looked around the McDonald's before finally giving an exclamation of frustration and sitting down beside his brother.
"There we are now," the man said, smiling, the blonde still holding onto his arm. "All calm and not threatening."
"Yeah, well, that's not exactly gonna last if you don't tell us who and what you are," Dean said aggressively.
"I'm The Doctor, this is Rose," the man said, nodding to the blonde, who smiled and gave a finger-wave.
"Doctor who?" Sam asked curiously.
The man just smiled happily and looked at Rose.
"I love it when they ask that," he said with the tone and expression of a child being given a new toy.
"Anyway," he continued, his voice serious again. "Just The Doctor. Nothing but The Doctor."
"So, you don't have a name?" Sam asked.
"My name's The Doctor," The Doctor said simply.
"Okay, The Doctor, so what are you?" Dean asked skeptically.
"Time Lord," The Doctor said, the words carrying a weight and significance that were lost on the boys.
"What's a Time Lord?" Sam asked, confused.
The Doctor gave them a slightly offended look before saying, "You don't know what a Time Lord is? Seriously? Blimey, there are some blinding gaps in your education."
"So, are you gonna tell us what a Time Lord is, or are you gonna go on about how we're morons for not knowing what a Time Lord is?" Dean demanded.
"I don't know," The Doctor said consideringly.
"And you're not morons," Rose said hurriedly. "Not a lot of people know what a Time Lord is."
"But, Rose, if they know about demons, vampires, and shape shifters, then they should've heard of Time Lords," The Doctor countered, looking at his friend.
"Time Lords are aliens," Rose told the boys, ignoring The Doctor.
"There's no such thing," Dean said immediately.
"So, you believe in demons, but not in aliens?" The Doctor asked.
"We've met demons."
"And now you've met an alien."
"Prove it."
The Doctor pulled out his stethoscope and handed the earpieces to Sam, who inspected them carefully before warily putting them in his ears. The Doctor placed the cool disk on the left side of his chest and Sam heard the rhythmic thump-thump of The Doctor's heart. The Doctor moved the disk to the right side of his chest and Sam's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he heard the thumping of a second heart.
Sam took the stethoscope from The Doctor and listened carefully while moving the disk from one side of the man's chest to the other.
"What is it?" Dean asked cautiously, beginning to get worried by his brother's reaction. "Sam, what is it?"
"He's got two heartbeats," Sam said, still in shock.
"What?" Dean asked in bafflement.
"Dean, he's got two heartbeats," Sam repeated.
"That's impossible."
"That's a Time Lord," The Doctor said intently, allowing all of his age and power and wisdom to enter his voice, supernovas and black holes and the collapse of galaxies all burning in his eyes.
"Who are you?" Sam asked quietly in wonder, his eyes wide and mystified.
"It's like when you were a kid, the first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because it looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, all of us, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go…that's who I am," The Doctor said, his eyes a million miles away, his ancient and powerful voice casting a spell over everyone at the table.
"Now forget me, Rose Tyler," Rose said after a moment, smiling at The Doctor, obviously remembering his words.
"You know, I'm really glad you didn't," The Doctor said warmly, gazing affectionately into Rose's eyes.
"So am I," Rose replied intently, her eyes and voice conveying a deeper emotion that neither of them needed to acknowledge with words.
"So, why are you guys here?" Sam asked awkwardly after a moment.
"Something strange has been happening here," The Doctor answered, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Rose. "We're here to see what it is and fix it."
"That's why we're here," Dean said, still mentally shaking off The Doctor's spell.
"Well, as long as we're both here working on the same thing, we might as well work together," Rose said, looking between the two boys. "I mean, since you guys seem like you know what you're doing."
"You okay with that?" Sam asked The Doctor.
"Yeah, sure," The Doctor replied easily. "Why not?"
"What about you?" Sam asked his brother.
"Fine," Dean said after a moment. "We'll give it a try."
And that, dear readers, is the end of Chapter One. I hope you enjoyed. Please comment and tell me what you liked or didn't like or suggestions for stuff that I should do. Oh, and if you should like to see some of my other writing, you can go to . . Adios for now.