Alice swung her legs over the railing of Serpentine Bridge. It was quite early in the morning, mist rising from the water, and very much quiet, save the one or two random joggers, but they never bothered her. They probably didn't even see her. She kept swinging her legs, lips mouthing the same words over and over. London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down. My fair lady.

Big Ben rang seven.

She knew why she was here. She knew why she had to fall, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Even though there was nothing left for her, nothing waiting for her.

"That looks dangerous."

The unfamiliar male voice was almost enough to startle her into the river. Almost, but not quite. Psychologically, what did that say? Something in her subconscious didn't want her to die. Out of common courtesy, Alice turned to look at the man before addressing him, though not out of contempt or annoyance, just innocent curiosity complete with a tilt of her head.

"Sorry? What looks dangerous?" Her voice was soft, almost wispy, dripping with grey lethargy, and laced with a very obvious Californian accent. Why was he talking to her? No one talked to her, not this morning. It was confusing. Normally, the world left her to her own devices. Who was this man to talk to her?

"Sitting on that edge there. Looks dangerous. Like you might fall." The man talked so simplistically but not in a patronizing way, just pointing out the facts.

Alice sighed and stared straight ahead again. "I might." She didn't sound too convinced. She wasn't being a petulant child either, though her words carried an air of a shrug. Tired, that's what she was. Just plain tired of living.

The man stood next to her, leaned on his elbows on the railing. He didn't look at her but stared off in the same direction she did. When he spoke, he didn't address her, talked like he was talking to himself. "Do you want to fall?"

Again, his words startled her. She remembered when her therapist used to ask her that question except, this time, the question was spoken with the same innocence she gave him not too long ago. Adults didn't have innocence; they had intentions, always with the end game on their mind. "I don't know. I thought I did."

"Why?"

"I ran out of places to go. My Farewell tour is over, so I have to leave. Permanently. That was the deal I made with myself." That she did. Visited people she'd never met before, been to Paris, Italy, Germany, ate food, saw art. It was a good last few months. Once she ran out of places, there was no reason to stay.

That struck a chord in the man. If Alice was looking, she'd have seen his empathetic look. He knew something, but she didn't know he knew. It was all very familiar to the man, traveling before meeting up with Death. Running away. "Ah. Visited all the places on Earth you wanted to?"

Earth? That word puzzled her. Why would he use the word 'Earth'? Where else would she go? "Yes. Now there's no more. No place for me." Those words fell from her lips, weighed down on her soul. Familiar words.

The man smiled and tweaked his bow tie before asking, nonchalantly, "Do you want to see more places?"

Blink. What? Surely, he was joking. Alice spoke slowly, not even trying to hide her confusion. "There is no more."

"There's the whole universe." He grinned and held his arms out wide.

She blinked again. He seemed to take that as an invitation to continue. Without waiting for her to say anything, he turned around and started walking back toward the park. "Come along. My gal is never wrong about these things," he said, raising an arm to beckon her.

"Your girl?" Even though she knew to be afraid of strangers, she had nothing to lose. So, why not see what this man was saying about the universe. Something about seeing the universe. Him and his girl. Whoever that was. So, Alice spun around and hopped off the bridge railing, trailed after the man. Never once did he turn back to make sure she was following him. He seemed very confident that she would trail after.

It wasn't long before Alice noticed something rather out of place. "What is that?" A very old style, British, blue Police Box by the looks of it. In the middle of Hyde Park. How peculiar.

"This is my TARDIS." The man sounded so proud, looked proud, propping his elbow on the structure, leaning on his hand. Proud and smug, like a father gloating over his child's greatness. Or something of the like.

"Tardis?" A what? What's a Tardis? She'd never heard of such a thing before. It wouldn't have surprised her if it was some top secret government thing.

"A time traveling machine."

Oh, that made much more sense. Kind of. Not what she was thinking, but it made a smidgen of sense. TARDIS must have been an acronym, not necessarily a name. He did seem to have stressed the word differently than she had. "She's beautiful," she said, walking around the box, trailing her fingers over the worn wood. Such a gorgeous blue.

The man startled, almost slipping out of his pose. "How'd you know the TARDIS is a she?" Most companions didn't give the TARDIS a gender until he told them, didn't know she was a living being.

She stuck her hands on her hips, the first show of spark in the meeting. "All transportation devices are female. Don't you know that?" It was all very common sense to her. An ex-boyfriend was a mechanic, so all cars were named after females. So were airplanes, ships, trains. They were all female.

The man looked embarrassed, out of sorts, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Ah, well. No. You'd think I'd have picked up a thing or two from you humans by now." They never ceased to amaze him.

"Sorry?"

"Never mind. So? What do you say? Endless wonder? Or do you want to go back to sitting on the bridge? Literally a bridge, not a ship bridge. Like a space ship. Oh, Enterprise. No, that would rip a hole in the universe. Best not."

She didn't have a clue what he was talking about. For a moment, she was ready to decline, old doubts and hammered in warnings pulling her back. Then it hit her. Really hit her. No one would miss her. She'd been gone for months and no one was looking for her. She was free to do whatever she wanted, even get in a large Police Call Box with this stranger. He seemed harmless enough to travel with. A madman with a box. Well, it'd give her more places to go, people to meet, things to see. If he was right.

Alice nodded slowly. "Okay."

Her answer didn't seem to faze him, like he knew she was going to say yes all along. He grinned and pushed the right side of the door. Despite the sign saying "Pull to Open". Before he let her in, he turned around, holding a finger in the air like he forgot to mention something.

"What's your name?"

She tilted her head and smiled a Cheshire smile. About time he asked. "I'm Alice Parker. What's yours?"

He liked that. Spunk, hidden under that shy exterior. It'd take a while to crack it, but he would. He would. The man opened the door and stepped back, waving her inside. "Well, Parker. Just call me the Doctor.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

This has been weighing heavily on my mind the last few days. I don't plan on doing their adventures, that would require a whole lot of thinking and planning from me, despite the fact that almost all the rules are thrown out the window with Who. I may write her goodbye, if I ever get around to fully thinking it through, but don't take that as a promise.

Read and review, please.