A/N: I do not own Doctor Who, but I love the Doctor and I hope you all enjoy my first fanfic!

Chapter One: Run!

Think you've seen it all? Think again. Outside those doors, we might see anything. We could find new worlds, terrifying monsters, impossible things. And if you come with me... nothing will ever be the same again! – The Doctor

The snow fells in small swirls and eddies on the small town of London, England. In the midst of the crowd, a tall, slim man wandered through, enjoying the Christmas Eve festivities. The snow dusted his brunette hair as he looked around in curiosity with wide, chocolate brown eyes behind square glasses, hands tucked into the pockets of his long, tan trench coat. The man was on a vacation, and, for once, everything was normal. No mysterious alien invasions, no strange happenings, no inexplicable disasters, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in London on December 24, 2011. It was a nice change, in his opinion, from the constant catastrophes that seemed to follow him every place and time he traveled. "Brilliant," he whispered, grinning widely in excitement.

"'Scuse me, pardon me, sorry!" A young woman quickly pushed her way through the throng, glancing behind her every once in a while nervously, long brown hair and dark blue coat flowing behind her as she dashed through, despite the numerous protests from various individuals. While distracted, she ran smack into the trench coated man, knocking him out of the mass of people and flat on his back.

"Whoa!" the man exclaimed as they landed in a heap off to the side. Fixing his glasses, he looked up, his eyes meeting her bright blue ones. She gazed back for a second before sliding off, embarrassed.

"Sorry 'bout that, didn't see you there," she apologized with a distinct American accent, helping the man get up. The young woman scanned the crowd quickly once he was on his feet.

"Oh, it's quite alright," he replied, brushing his coat off before noticing what the young woman was doing. "Say, you're not from around here, are you? American, if I'm not mistaken? And why," he asked, "Are you looking around so nervously?"

"Yes, well, it's kind of a long story... Sorry, what's your name, sir?" she asked.

"Smith," the man replied distractedly, looking at the crowd in interest suddenly. "John Smith."

"Really… well, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Smith. I'd be happy to explain the situation," the woman replied, "But I really need to get going." With that, she shot a quick smile off at John Smith and ran in the same direction as before, sturdy brown boots speeding her progress. "By the way, I'm Alex Rayne, and you should run!" she called out cheerfully behind her with a wave.

"Wait, what? Alex, hold up!" the man named 'John Smith' called out, startled out of his reverie by the sudden turn of events. "What do you mean I should run? Where are you going!" He gave the large crowd of people one more glance before taking off after Alex, his red Converse sneakers kicking up snow behind him. Well, this is an interesting turn of events, he thought to himself. Alex… she certainly seems interesting. Forget the vacation; I've got something more pressing to deal with now!

"Alex, wait up!" he called, finally catching up with the girl at least ten blocks from where they had run into each other. Smith grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop.

"Oh, fancy meeting you again, Mr. Smith," Alex panted out with a grin. "Glad to see you took my advice. However, I didn't expect you to run after me. You were just supposed to run away."

"Well, in my experience, running away from danger is never any fun!" he shot back with a smile. "I assume you are running from something dangerous, am I correct?"

"So you have experience with dangerous things then," she said skeptically, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"You could say that," he replied with a shrug. "It's a bad habit of mine to run towards danger and so forth, plus I just find you interesting."

"Fine, if you're so interested, then follow me, Mr. Smith!" Alex grabbed the man's wrist and took off again, dragging him around a shop corner and dashing down an alley. She put a finger to her lips and pulled him back into the shadows. A few minutes later, several men of varying heights wearing long, black coats, white suits with matching gloves, and black bowler hats ran- no, glided past the alleyway. Alex and the man waited for two more minutes before Alex let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, we were too exposed. That should give us a few more minutes before they realize we turned somewhere," she said, peeking around the corner to make sure the men were gone.

"Who are they and why are you running from them?" Smith asked, rubbing his wrist where she had roughly grabbed him. Brilliant, she's making me ask the questions. This is new, he thought.

"I'm not sure," Alex replied, coming back to where he was standing. "I was minding my own business, enjoying Christmas Evening here in London for my Christmas break when those 'men'," she explained, using air quotes, "If that's what they are, just appeared out of nowhere! No one else in the square I was in seemed to notice them. I looked up and there they were! The tallest one saw me staring at them and pointed a white gloved finger at me! Before I knew it, they all started chasing me, but I seemed to be the only who could see them, apart from you, Mr. Smith... What are you doing?"

"Hmmm…" Mr. Smith mumbled curiously. He had some strange device with a blue lighted tip out. It made an unusual noise as he moved it up and down, as if scanning Alex. "Hmmm…? Oh, this? It's my, uh, my penlight," he covered, looking at the readings before stowing it in his coat again.

"Doesn't look like any penlight I've ever seen," Alex replied defensively, crossing her arms and narrowing her blue eyes. "Come to think of it, I've never heard a penlight make that sound either, and your eyes seem much older than you look," she said. "Who are you, really, 'Mr. Smith'?"

The man looked at the willful girl. His old brown eyes met her young blue ones for a second time. He could see the determination and fright hidden behind them. The eyes truly are the windows to the soul, he thought tiredly.

"I'm the Doctor," he replied after a few terse moments of silence.

"The Doctor? Doctor who?" she asked, confusion and suspicion mounting in her eyes.

"Trust me, it's just the Doctor, and we need to RUN!" he yelled suddenly, grabbing her wrist this time and pulling her down the alley.

"Wha-" Alex turned her head to look back before doubling her speed. The black coated men were back, and they had brought more of their friends with them. "We're not done, Doctor," she hissed at him, even though her heart was pounding wildly. "Why do they call you the Doctor? How come you have experience dealing with danger? What in the world is going on?"

The Doctor looked at his companion in disbelief. "Really? Now's not the time to be interviewing me. I promise, I'll explain more once we've gotten somewhere safer, but for now, just KEEP RUNNING!"

A/N: I'll write when I can. If there's enough interest in this, I'll write more and we might even get to see Nine come back. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Anyway, please review and I hope you enjoy my delve into the Doctor's world.