A/N: This story is dedicated to Seiya's Star who is one of my best reviewers and specially wanted to know how Ella and the Doctor met - well, this is it!

This story contains my OC Ella Marlowe who is in a lot of my other stories - you don't necessarily have to read those to understand this I don't think, any confusion let me know.

I don't own Doctor Who.

Chapter One

Ella Marlowe had never been the sporty type. Not by any stretch of the word. She could throw and catch well enough, but had always preferred Rounders to Netball as it involved a lot more sitting round in the sun gossiping. Also, you were only ever called upon to run about every forty-five minutes or so and then it was more like a stroll around a couple of posts before going back to have a bit of a sit down. During school, when she was forced into compulsory Physical Education, her long legs had been the bane of her existence. Her teachers had always expected her to do well, sailing over high jumps or eating up the track when she ran, but she had never failed to disappoint on these occasions, likely to be found chatting to a friend will jogging the 1500 metres.

So, Ella wasn't that surprised by the sharp pain in her sides or the urge to throw up that almost overwhelmed her as she sprinted through the dark streets of London. She was running fast though, faster than she thought she'd ever done before which made her wonder if perhaps there hadn't been some truth in what her teachers used to say about her long legs, that it was possibly that she had never had the motivation to really leg it before.

Ella had that incentive now. And by the sounds of it, that incentive was gaining on her. Heavy footsteps grew closer and she hoped the sound of labored breathing originated from her own overactive imagination, or that it was her doing the breathing.

Mentally, she cursed herself, she knew she shouldn't have gone out that evening, just knew it. She hadn't even wanted to, not really, but had allowed herself to be persuaded and it ended like this. She was alone, decidedly over the limit, it was cold and pitch black and she was trying to outrun a monster she had cleverly irritated. Utter genius.

Actually, this probably wasn't how it was going to end. Her mind leapt forward a minute or two, she was tiring fast, and saw herself as nothing more than mangled, bloody remains. Left to be found by some unsuspecting member of the public, if not eaten.

No, she consciously checked her train of thought, it would do her no good to think like that. She glanced towards her feet, pounding hard against the pavement. To check that they were still working was it, the sarcastic part of her brain thought, the part she really had no control over. She was happy to see that they were but surprised that she was wearing heels. Ella remembered putting them on earlier on in the evening now but was amazed she'd made it this far, she should definitely broken her ankle, if not her neck, by now.

Trying to prevent her mind from taking yet another morbid turn, she looked up and ahead once more, straining her neck to stop her from looking back at whatever it was that was following her. Her feet took an abrupt turn into a blind alley, though she didn't realise it was a dead end when she first turned in. By the time she did she knew that turning back was not and option and the only way out was through a pair of doors. By the time these thoughts finished travelling through her mind she was standing in front of her one and only escape route and without another thought she pushed them open and ran in, slamming them shut behind her.

She didn't stop running though, barely even paused. Whatever was following her wasn't going to be stopped by the flimsy feeling wooden door. So intent was she one her escape, Ella didn't register the different sound her heels made on the now metal floor.

She jumped the set of three shallow steps and was running again as soon as her feet hit the ground. Her stitch was no longer just in her sides but seemed to consume all of her as her muscles screamed in protest against the unaccustomed exercise.

Suddenly a blinding pain above her right eye obliterated the others and she barely had time to think that her heels had finally done for her before she slipped into unconsciousness.