My name is Kathryn Janeway. I lead a crew of nearly 150 through an unknown region of the galaxy. We have been traveling for nearly four years in a 75-year attempt to reach Earth: our home. As a crew, we have grown together as a family. But as a captain, the highest ranking officer on the ship, I am alone.

Then I met the Doctor.

The first time I met him, he saved my ship. The second time, I died. After he rescued me from the jaws of death with his blue police box, he asked me to run away with him. After years of being the center of strength and order on my ship, I couldn't resist traveling through all of time and space with a madman in a box. He and I are both alone in our big ships, but together we finally are understood. I know I can never truly know who he is, yet he thinks he knows everything about me. But there is more to me than he can understand… or I yet.

My name is Kathryn Janeway, and these are my unique adventures with the Doctor.

It was the most beautiful thing that Kathryn Janeway had ever laid eyes on. After nearly four years, the big blue marble that she called home was spinning right in front of her. The foaming waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The lush green vegetation of the North American continent. A quickly growing thunderstorm raging over her farmland in Indiana. It was all there; except for the weather grid and the space stations. She was home.

But it was too good to be true. She was back in the Alpha Quadrant; back at Earth's doorstep, but she was in the wrong time. She was in the early 21st century. Her home would be over 360 years from now. This was her past, and…part of her past is now her future? She could already feel her headache growing in the attempt to grasp time travel. Why she decided to travel in a time machine with an unknown alien that calls himself the Doctor was beyond her.

Oh right! The Doctor. Kathryn looked to her left and realized she was still grasping the amused time traveler's arm. When the Doctor first opened the doors of his blue-boxed TARDIS to the vacuum of space, she had instinctively grabbed him before noticing that none of the air was escaping. Once her initial fear was over, she had become mesmerized by the shimmering blue waters floating before them. She blushed, and slowly released her grip while the Doctor chuckled at her ignorance of the ship's abilities and the awe she had for her elusive home.

"This is remarkable," she whispered.

"Nah," replied the smiling Doctor. "It's just the old girl's atmospheric bubble. I'm sure with a few tweaks your ship could do something similar. Well…I guess you have force fields as an equivalent. Well…I guess you just might not be used to people swinging doors open into space either…"

Kathryn grinned. "I'm sorry Doctor. Though your ship is still remarkable, I was talking about the view."

"Ah, well yes. Of course." He took a moment to stare at the massive globe. "She certainly is a beauty…" He said with complete adoration, reflecting on all the sacrifices he made to keep her safe. Losing Rose and Donna. Changing Martha into something he never thought he could be. So many companions with new lives because of him. How would he change this new one?

Kathryn interrupted his hidden thoughts with a question, one she was sure she knew the answer to. "I don't suppose my crew and I could…'see' our home in our own time period. Could we?"

The Doctor's false smile briefly faded and looked directly at her. He knew this question would come eventually, and he hated to give her such a disappointing answer. "I'm sorry. I wish I could. But there are some rules in this universe that even I have to follow."

Kathryn looked down at the space below her to hide her watering eyes. "Of course. I…I completely understand."

They stood in the doorway for several minutes, neither knowing what to say next. The Doctor truly regretted not being able to help her and her crew. After happening across the captain's ship and crew in an unknown part of the galaxy, he had the chance to spend some time with them, as well as battle a few of his own demons on their ship. They were a wonderful crew. They deserved so much more than to crawl across space, missing almost every opportunity to make it to their home. He could most certainly understand their loneliness, especially the crew's captain. She was truly like him. Very much alone in such a massive part of space, the only members of their kind in a sense, and unable to reach home. Oh, Gallifrey. If only it was her beautiful red globe he could be seeing now.

The telephone rang on the central console behind them. The Doctor bolted into the door and up the metal-grated ramp to answer it before the captain could figure out how an old Earth telephone could even be working anywhere other than on Earth. The young-looking man listened intently to the other end of the line, furrowed his bushy brows, gave a playful smile, and quickly hung up.

"Great news, Captain!" the Doctor exclaimed as he danced around the controls of his ship. "We have a distress call to assist!"

"Wait," Kathryn said with confusion clearly in her voice, "how is a distress call good news?"

"Because the call we have to answer, is right now in London!" The gadgets began to whir and buzz as he flicked each switch. "So get ready, Miss Kathryn Janeway. You are going to visit your home!"

The TARDIS grinded and groaned in protest to her owner's childish antics. Kathryn beamed as the horribly good news sank in. She turned back to the vacuum of space and leaned against the doors to watch the rapidly growing blue and green swirl. For the first time in too long, she would walk on the soil she missed the most. For once, she would breathe the air she was all too familiar with. For once, she'd be home.

"Johnny! Can you get the broom from downstairs?"

The young boy froze. He dropped his controller from the game he was playing in his living room. He gaped at his mother. Thinking that he didn't hear her, his annoyed mother repeated, "Johnny, please pause your game. Go down into the basement, and bring up the broom. Now! Don't make me tell you again."

Johnny blinked. He reluctantly stood up and dragged himself to the basement door. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He turned back to his mother in horror. She was bewildered at his ridiculous childhood fears. "What is the matter with you? It's just the basement. Nothing's going to get you, silly. Now go!"

Terrified, the child slowly turned the knob. He heard the door unlatch. In one movement, he swung the door open and slapped the light switch. The lightbulb above his head lit the stairs below him, leaving a wall of blackness at the landing. He looked behind him to see his mother snickering at his caution and walking away, leaving him completely alone.

The boy trembled as he moved one foot at a time down the dark staircase. His wild imagination gave him visions of growling monsters and haunting phantoms as he slowly dipped into the darkness. When he hit the wall of black, he took a moment, swung his arm through the blackness and flipped the next switch around the wall. After an eternity of anticipation, the second lightbulb above him flickered on.

His heart stuttered.

As the light expanded, Johnny thought he saw a small figure retreat further into the black. It was all in his head, he thought, as he stumbled further through the basement. At the edge of the safety of the light, the broom was resting on the concrete wall. There was no other light switch for the child to reach, unless he wanted to move farther into the darkness. He had no other choice. Johnny stood before the edge of the light for a moment, then he reached into the dark and snatched the broom into the light. The child sighed in relief. He turned back to the stairs when he heard something. A laugh. The boy screamed. He darted up the stairs, frantic with the fear of monsters grabbing his legs through the gaps of the stairs. He reached the top and slammed the door shut behind him.

He was panting as Johnny's mother approached him, snickering at the imagination of a child. "See? I told you nothing would get you." She took the broom from him and patted his head. She turned toward the room that needed sweeping.

"Hold on, honey," she stopped as she realized one thing. "Did you forget to turn the lights off?"

A dried leaf crunched under Kathryn's brown winter boot as she stepped onto the chilled asphalt road before a British brick house. The fall air had a hint of lingering warmth swept away by the cold wind. Dozens of dried leaves swirled around the TARDIS and its owner at the door frame. Kathryn had happily donned modern clothing for this occasion. A wool red sweater accented with a wool grey scarf, a brown leather bag strapped over her opposite shoulder, and denim jeans tucked into her tall brown boots. The Doctor was adorned with his usual attire: a dark brown-striped suit with a blood-red tie, a long tan trench coat, and his dirty white converse shoes.

The old traveler stared joyfully at Kathryn. He knew how much this moment meant to the weary captain. Her head was back, and her eyes were closed. She took everything in. She inhaled the lightly-frosted air, the scent of dying plants, and the smell of fossil-fueled engines. She listened to the wind whistling past her ear, leaves and trees following the breeze, birds calling to their partners, a dog howling at her presence, and children giggling at each other. She exhaled and opened her eyes to see the grey cloudy sky. It had been too long since she had seen it. It was almost better that she had returned out of her time, or she would have again burst into tears in front of her fellow traveler.

The moment was brief, for she knew that the two of them had a job to do. The Doctor snapped his fingers to close the TARDIS doors. From the outside, the infinitely large space-and time-ship looked like a blue police box once the doors were shut. The only oddity about it was that it was parked in the middle of a neighborhood street.

The couple approached the door of the closest house to the ship. Kathryn was "briefed" on how the Doctor liked to approach these situations – head-first with no knowledge of what was going on, but act like you know what you're doing so that no one will notice. It already was getting on her nerves as a captain who needs to know everything about a situation before acting on it. He had assured her that she would get the hang of it soon, because the door had just swung open to reveal a blonde-haired woman at about the same age as Kathryn, puzzled at the two strangers before her.

The Doctor flipped a blank white paper in front of her face. "My name is John Smith. This is my partner, Kathryn Janeway. Her first day on the job," he whispered, with Kathryn attempting to hide her irritation. "We got a call from this house by a young boy who seemed pretty upset. Do you mind if we have a word with him?"

"Oh, don't tell me he called the cops, Detective!" the woman sighed. It took a moment for Kathryn to figure out how she thought they were officers. Then she remembered the Doctor telling her earlier about the white psychic paper that allows him to show people whatever he wanted or needed for a situation. This time, it must have looked like a detective's badge. A remarkable idea, she thought. It could make some of my own traveling so much easier.

The mother allowed the two to come in and sit in the living room, constantly apologizing about her son wasting their time. She left for a moment and came back with her son, who seemed to be about 8 years old and half-dead with fear. She began to yell at the boy for "disturbing" the nice officers when the Doctor politely asked her to leave the three alone.

"What's your name?" asked the time lord once the mother was away.

"Johnny," the boy answered.

"Oh, Johnny!" exclaimed the smiling Doctor. "I love the name Johnny. Always wanted to know a Johnny. Nice to meet ya, J-j-johnny..." He took the kid's hand and shook it vigorously. The pale face giggled slightly. Kathryn cleared her throat.

"Right," the madman continued. "So, Johnny – ah, I love saying it – what made you call a policeman for help?'

The boy's smile vanished.

"Because there are monsters in my basement, and I want them to go away."

"Excuse me, young man," Kathryn leaned in toward the boy, "but you seem a bit old to believe in monsters."

"Well you guys seem too strange to be policemen," the boy retorted shakily. "Especially with your American accent."

"Well, I'll tell you a secret," the Doctor responded, "you are right. My partner is American." Johnny made a nervous laugh. "And we are also waaay too strange to be policemen. We are more like very special non-policemen of very weird…stuff!"

"Then how did you get my phone call if you aren't a policeman?"

"Because I get the calls that have very weird stuff! Weren't you listening?"

"Wait," interrupted Kathryn. "Are you saying Johnny's not imagining that there are monsters?"

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" The Doctor stood up. "This way to the basement, right?"

The group approached the basement door with Johnny trailing far behind. The time lord reached for the doorknob.

"Doctor!" Kathryn put her hand over his on the knob. "If you actually believe there is something down there, maybe you shouldn't just run on into potential danger."

"But that's what I do! I run…usually into danger."

"Well I'm usually in danger too, but I at least try to find out what the danger is first before being in the heart of it."

"Okay, good point, but where's the fun in that? Besides, I can't figure it out. Wooden doors. My sonic screwdriver can't scan through it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well, never really worked out the kinks of that."

Kathryn rolled her eyes, reached in her bag, and pulled out a rectangular device. She flipped it open to reveal flashing lights and ringing scanning sounds.

"Oh! How did you get your own sonic?" The Doctor exclaimed in surprise.

"I call it a tricorder," she smirked, "and this can actually scan through doors." He scoffed as she put her device up to the door. It buzzed with a report of the basement's contents. "There is definitely something moving down there. Possibly a life sign, but my tricorder can't identify its origin."

"Hmm, so your device can't scan through doors?" The Doctor said with his own pompous smirk. "Ah, don't fret, Madam. If there is something down there, it obviously doesn't want to be noticed by us. Alien lifeforms can get pretty crafty when they want to hide."

"Alien?!"

"Oh yeah, aliens are all over the planet in this era. In every era in fact. You just didn't notice them as a species until your 'First Contact' in 2063."

The confused captain was still trying to adjust to this reform of all she knew about history when the time lord proceeded to open the door of the basement. "Well, since we're getting no answers up here, I guess it's time to see it for ourselves."

Johnny latched onto Kathryn's arm, freezing in place. "Don't make me go with you, please."

The Doctor was already down part of the pre-lit stairs. He turned toward the boy, propped his right leg on the stair above him, and said in a sincere voice, "Johnny, listen. I know you're scared, and I will not tell you not to be, because there is a true reason for you and millions of other kids to be afraid of the dark. Now what normal adult tells a kid that? If you trust me, I won't let anything hurt you. Understand?"

The boy nodded, but refused to let go of Kathryn's arm. The three ventured slowly into the basement, the two lightbulbs still on from Johnny's earlier adventure. They approached the end of their light sanctuary. The child gasped.

"Johnny, what do you see?" Asked the Doctor.

The child said nothing. He only pointed a shaky finger at a figure just before the wall of black.

"Johnny," said Kathryn, "there's nothing there."

The boy just shook his head, trembling from head to toe, tears forming in his eyes.

"Johnny," the Doctor said hesitantly, not taking his eyes off of the object, "what do you see?"

He still said nothing. His breathing became heavy.

The lightbulb flickered above them.

"Upstairs. Now!" the Doctor shouted.

Up they scrambled, Kathryn almost shoving the child in front of her to the safety of the light. Four sets of feet scrambling through the basement and up to the door.

The door shut behind them. Three panting backs were against the door.

A girl laughed behind the door.

A burning pink was fading from the dark sky outside, but the inside of the house was glowing from every light source that could possibly be on. A confused mother paced the floor in the living room.

"I don't understand," she cried. "How can Johnny's fantasies be real?"

"They're not fantasies," answered the Doctor. "They are creatures without a name. The reason why you believe they are not real is because they want you to believe they aren't."

"But…what are they doing in my basement?"

The traveler tilted his head toward the child. "They want him."

"What?!" She snatched her son as tightly as she could.

"No, not in that sense," he quickly replied. "The creatures don't want to take your son. They want his fears. Children have the purest imaginations. Such raw emotions. Like many creatures you are not aware of, they feed off of very unique things you would think unnecessary. They like to torment children with their greatest fears and feed off of that. It just so happens that his fear is the simplest and most common: he is afraid of the dark. What better darkness than the basement? No one goes down there most of the time, it's dark, and it's easy to hide in. They really hate the light anyway."

"But why could Johnny see it, but we couldn't?" asked Kathryn.

"I told you that children have pure imaginations. Their brains aren't stuffed with useless…adult stuff. So their minds are open to seeing what we adults can't, such as a nameless monster that wants to exploit their fears. These creatures are the reasons why kids have such wild fears in the first place. They just keep it subtle as to not bring attention to themselves. This mechanic is also a good way to stay hidden from us meddling adults. The only problem is, now that they know that we know they're here, they'll be coming for us."

"Then how do we stop them?!"

"I'm really sorry. For once I don't know. They have never been a problem until now. Well, I'm sure they've been a problem before, but they probably extinguished the problem before I could hear about it."

"Then what do we do, Mr. Smith?" interrupted the woman, still clutching her son.

"Run."

"That's your plan?" said a bewildered Kathryn.

"We need to leave this house. Get as far away from it until the creatures decide to leave. If no one is home, then there are no children to scare. They'll just find another house. Oh, don't give me that look, Captain. A child being afraid of monsters is a natural part of growing up, like scraping your knee in order to learn how to walk. We adults just weren't supposed to know that the monsters were real."

"Alright, fine" huffed the captain. "But why haven't we left yet?"

"It's too dark outside. The creatures would just follow us out of the house. We need to wait until sunrise. It's alright, they won't come after us as long as the lights are on up here. They'll just hide in the darkness of the basement."

And then, of course, the lights in the house began to flick out one by one.

"The fuses," whispered the mother. "The fuses are in the basement."

The group shot out of their seats, but before they could make a run for the front door, the last light went out.

Pitch Black.

A door banged open.

The Doctor flashed his blue sonic in the air, it was just enough light for the huddled group. It was now their only light source.

The small footsteps of a child scurried across the floor, just out of their small pool of light. Johnny began to cry, looking at what appeared to be nothing to everyone else. Kathryn instinctively whipped out her phaser from her bag, and the time lord instantly snatched it from her.

"One thing you should already know about me is how much I despise guns," he growled.

"Even when it could save our lives?" she hissed.

"That weapon will not help us here."

"You wanna bet?" The captain retrieved her weapon, adjusted a setting, and fired an orange beam at a potted plant to her left. Instantly, the leaves burst into flames. A shriek retreated from the light. The flames didn't last long, but it allowed them to see their path to the front door. An impressed Doctor pulled the group up and dashed for the exit.

"Is there anything in this house that you'll miss?" asked Kathryn to the mother.

"All our heirlooms are in storage. Why?"

"Then I'm sorry, but this'll save our lives." Kathryn fired another orange beam at the rug they just passed. A new flame quickly spread across the threads and up the walls. It trailed behind them, clearing their way to the exit. Bangs and shrieks hid just past the fire.

"Faster!" she screamed.

They passed the threshold of the front door, flames licking the captain's boots. But she quickly realized they were not flames when she almost fell face-first on the asphalt before the house. Something had grabbed her leg in the darkness surrounding the house, blindly struggling to steal her phaser. The Doctor turned back for his new companion.

"Johnny, I need your help!" he shouted, pointing his sonic at Kathryn. "Where is it?"

The petrified boy hesitated.

"Tell me! Now!"

The child shook himself awake. He pointed. The time lord blindly fired at the captain, hoping it would hit the thing the boy was pointing at. The captain stopped struggling. The Doctor helped her up with a grateful smile at the boy. The four of them continued running in the dark with nothing but the light of the sonic and the glowing blue box in the distance. The sound of monsters surrounded them, but none dared to enter the light. The Doctor snapped his fingers, and the group ran into the TARDIS as the house behind them illuminated with growing flames.

"I'm sorry I had to burn your house, but there was nothing else I could think of at the time." A blushing captain shook the hand of the mother, who was surprisingly doing well considering she had just learned about real monsters, saw her house burn down, and went inside a blue box that was much larger on the inside.

"All I can say is thank you both," replied the mother. "You may have saved our lives, and that's all I can really hope for."

"It was quick thinking," the Doctor interrupted. "Who would have known a 'gun' is exactly what we needed at the time." He winked.

"So," started the captain, "do you think -?"

"No, they are not dead," the time lord already knew what she was going to ask. "They probably need to lick their wounds for a bit, but they'll just move on to another house and scare another child."

The party stifled a shudder at the thought, but there was nothing they could do.

The Doctor and Kathryn spent some time playing with Johnny in the nearby playground to lighten his spirits. Then they dropped the mother and child off to a nearby hospital, making sure that the local authorities could care for them and find them a new home. The Doctor assured them that no creature would come near Johnny after that night, since there was no point to scare a child that knew what they truly were and how to keep them at bay. The two travelers hugged the boy, shook the mother's hand, and left them to live their lives in peace.

The weary time lord couldn't help but smile at his companion. Kathryn had requested they find a park bench near her future home in Indiana, so they took a hop across the pond in the TARDIS. Her eyes were closed and her head was back as she savored the hazy fall air. Unsure about the next time she would see her home, she hoped to spend as much time as possible here. Then she opened her eyes to see her new friend.

"So…you have graciously showed me my home, Doctor." she said amusedly. "Now why don't you show me yours?"

The old man's smile vanished. "Because I can't."

"C'mon, Doctor," she continued to grin. "I'm sure it's a wonderful planet."

"It certainly is…"

"Then why won't you show me?"

The time lord hesitated. "Because It no longer exists."

Now the captain's smile faded. "Oh. I'm so sorry…"

"You shouldn't be. I killed it."

She was astounded. "What?"

"Just like you destroyed that family's home to save them, I destroyed my home to save others. The rest of the universe, as a matter of fact." The pain was clear in his voice.

"Then…it sounds like it was for a good reason," the captain said hesitantly. "Doctor, this may be hard for you to believe, but I completely understand. I practically sacrificed my people to potentially save the galaxy from a threat. Your sacrifice sounds like it was for the same reason."

He wanted to tell her that their situations were far different, but he soon realized that they weren't. They both felt the sacrifice they had made, their home, in order to stop a threat. The scope of their influence didn't matter. They had both given up something they valued the most to protect others.

He had never connected with anyone else like this before.

Sensing the change in the traveler's mood, the weary captain took the Doctor's hand. "What is your planet called?"

"Gallifrey." She could see his face brighten by just the name.

"Tell me about Gallifrey," she smiled, leaning in to listen.

The Doctor's smile returned. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He began to see it all clearly. The burning red globe that glowed like a hot coal. The double sunrise creeping up on the horizon. The citadel encased in glass that looked like a massive snow globe under a sky of fire. How long it had been since he had pictured that planet.

How long it had been since he felt like he was home.