And so it Began…
When Grace was four, a man came into her life and changed everything. Fire had chased her, had burned her, had fought her. The fire almost had her when she fell into the blackness. When she woke, he was carrying her and was taking her to the country home of the people who would soon raise her as their own. But she could never forget that man, the one who saved her life. If it wasn't for him, the fire would have taken her, and she would have died. Without him, her world would have seized to exist. So Grace could never forget that man. Nor could she ever forget his name.
The Doctor.
Chapter 1: Brains over Brawns
Don't save others
Don't get close
Don't stop running
The Doctor stumbled out of the TARDIS and stared wearily at the smoke-filled sky and the foreboding feel of this new city. Glancing back at his faithful ship, keeping itself in an alley, he gave a frustrated look. "I plot the course for the pleasure moons of Pakros and you take me to this bloody place? Why can't you listen to me for once?" He paused a moment and fumed, letting out some anger. He had a lot of that lately. "I know you only do this when I 'need' it, but right now what I need is to forget." He placed his head in his hands and exhaled slowly. He couldn't let the faces of Rose, Donna, or any of his former family plague him. He was the last of the Time Lords, and it was his job to always be strong and always be alright, for the sake of the galaxy.
He shook away the worries and was ready to explore when he noticed a car moving precariously quickly towards his side of a bridge. It took a second for the Doctor to realize it wasn't just moving to this side; it was moving towards him. Readied to dive away, he flinched when the car came to a skidding halt right in front of him. The passenger side door crashed open as a shock of brunette, pulled back tight in a ponytail, peeked out. Bright, active blue eyes meet his as she projected with much seriousness, "Come with me if you want to live." A smirk envelops her face as she says it. "God I've always wanted to say that." Then she glances at the bridge. "But seriously, c'mon. Doubt those dumb blokes will be too kind to an alien." The Doctor, even in his state of stupor, glanced up to see a pair of huge, blue-uniformed men barreling towards the car. His eyes widen and travel to the girl. "Don't look at me like that! Just get your blooming arse in the car!"
Opting for the possibly ill woman against the monster men, The Doctor ducks into the car, and they speed off. Driving fearlessly, the girl throws a hand at him, which he shook slowly before pulling back. Her eyes never left the road. "The Doctor, I presume? Grace Sander, professional alien investigator and trouble-maker. Call myself a PAT, I mean technically its PAITM but that's not half as sensible, nor much fun. Great face blokes make when I make jokes that I'm going Patting. Treat me like a general nutter, they do, quite funny-" She paused and laughed a little. "Sorry, I ramble. Been told it's a brain thing I do." She took another sharp turn and sped on. "Probably got a few questions for me, right?"
The Doctor stared dumbly at him savoir/kidnapper. She had to be crackers. Maybe choosing a madwoman driving a car erratically was not the smarter choice. Just because someone knew he was different never was a good reason to jump into their car. How was he going to get himself out of this one?
Slowly, he nodded. "Uh, right." Sitting up straight, he inquired, "How do you know I'm an alien?"
The girl gave a smile. "Well, you didn't seem to argue when I called you an alien. Pretty good indicator right there." He conceded her logic as she flipped back a lock of her hair. "Okay, hold on tight. Planning on dumping these-" There was a large crunch and the car slowed down extremely. The Doctor's stomach lurched as his kidnapper cursed. "Bloody hell."
His followed hers as she looked back to watch the arms of the officers latch onto the car. "Damn robots always learning new tricks." The Doctor reached for his pockets to grab his sonic screwdriver, but his driver seemed to have other plans. He felt a gush of rushing wind as she kicked open the door.
"Are you mad?"
She glanced back. "Just enough. Now kick yours out!" He stared at her and found a deep intelligence, a deep age in her eyes that he had seldom seen before. One of knowledge, understanding, and pain that few people possessed. She may have been mad, but those kind of eyes were the ones that he chose for his companions and for his deepest of friends. "Do it, unless you want to be Brawn food!" There were no arguments there. Kicking hard, the door flew open. "Now… JUMP!" Both of them launched themselves out of the car and rolled away as it found itself traveling towards the 'police'.
There was a crash and the Doctor lay upon the ground, staring backwards at the fallen monsters. On closer inspection, they looked more monkey than man, more engineered than born. What the bloody hell was going on around here? The inciting fiasco may have shocked him, but he was The Doctor and things like this were his business.
He took a look at the Sander girl, who was standing by now and brushing her hands of dirt. Advancing on him, she gave a weak, shallow smile and extended a hand. "C'mon, Doctor, can't have you sleeping on the job."
Standing, he followed her to the curb. "Just a second, how do you know who I am, Miss Sander?" She swiveled and stopped. But as she opened her mouth and looked at him, she blushed a little and stepped back, leaving the Doctor more than a little confused. Sometimes humans were so odd. Smoothing down her pants and button down shirt, she avoided his eyes.
Her voice was muffled by her direction, but still clear. "I met you when I was a little girl, when you saved me from the fire and gave me to my foster parents." When she finally looked up, The Doctor had a dazed and lost look on his face, as if he was going through files trying to find her with no avail. She shook her head and sighed, of course a legend like him would never remember her. "I was on the side of the road outside of Essex. I was only four. You made sure I was safe and then left in your TARDIS, never to show yourself again." Something clicked.
"The abandoned country girl!" The way he recognized her hurt a little, but she nodded. "Still, I gave only my name. How did you manage to know of the TARDIS?"
Grace sighed. Her life story was one she didn't enjoy sharing, mainly because most people thought she was insane. But more it was because of her own disappointment that every major alien organization had denied her acceptance into their ranks. She wasn't even good enough to be one of them, yet she was the one talking to the Doctor. Fat chance of luck he got. He ran into the weakling girl.
"After you, I became intrigued with space travel and the stars and aliens. There was something… galactic about the fire you saved me from. I started investigating aliens the second I hit sixteen, and it stuck." He stared down into the alert, alarming blue eyes of this young woman, barely over twenty two, and yet so old about her. What more bothered him was that for the life of him, he could not remember any fire from the night he brought this young girl to her foster parents. "And, well, you figure out a bit when you meet an alien and they announce that they can 'smell time lord' on you. Had to do at least a bit of digging after that mishap, eh? Can't blame me for hacking into Torchwood and learning some for myself." He was now distracted.
"You hacked into Torchwood?"
"Wasn't too hard, just past a few firewalls, crumble a few blocks, put in a virus or two, pass myself off for prime minister and BAM in you go."
"You could have gotten yourself locked away for the rest of your life pulling something like that!"
Grace shrugged. "What's life without a few little risks?"
"Little?" The Doctor stopped letting his thoughts wander about her fire and her life following him for a second and stared incredulously at the girl. "Blimey, there's something crazy about you Grace Sander."
She gave a cheeky, crooked grin. "Thank you, Doctor." Her eyes darted behind him and she started to move once more. "Banter's great and all but we really should dash. I'm good, but can't keep a Brawn down forever." He flashed his eyes back and saw the brawny, stoic policemen bounding up from behind them, strong as machines and as determined as bloodhounds. Nothing like a mad dog woken from his nap.
"Right." He followed after her diligently. Catching up, the Doctor tried to intrigue lightly, "So what's the plan?"
Grace didn't twitch. "I dunno, I've sort of just been making it up as I go." She made a sharp turn into an alley and the Doctor stumbled to follow. Knowing where the bloody hell they were heading would have been nice, but Grace didn't seem to be one for pleasantries. He wasn't sure if he liked this woman yet.
"Making it up? You're the expert, you should have plans!"
Vaulting herself over a wire fence, she turned and growled, "You're the Doctor, you shouldn't need me to hold your hand!"He opened his mouth to utter a witty quip, but she had him there. Since arrival, he had been pretty useless. In his own defense though, it wasn't as if she had needed him in any of it. She was doing brilliant on her own. So why did she pick him up? Oh yeah. Life long ideal, meeting an idol, whatnot. He wasn't doing a very good job of impressing her. "Exactly." He warily followed her lead and got himself over the fence.
"So any way to beat these things?"
She groaned. "Yet again, the old as time Time Lord is asking the mere twenty something human what to do." Grace rolled her eyes and led them into an abandoned building. It appeared to be an electronic repair shop. "They obviously put you far too much hype into your reports."
He grumbled, feeling his ego hurt a little. "Well if i knew bloody anything I would be able to solve it all by myself." Grace stiffened.
On her heel she pivoted and sat herself on a counter. With a snobbish and slightly insulted look, Sander crossed her arms. "Alright then, almighty Doctor. Get us out of this." He blinked widely, his mouth falling open. But he knew absolutely nothing about these strange creatures... "They're robot-based lifeforms, with human brains used as their controlling device. Go."
Shaking his head, the Doctor glared at Sander and focused. "Large robots, aka many parts, electronics tick-tocking all around..." He started, to pace. Now this felt like him, not the blubbering idiot following a brunette know-it-all around. Stupid girl throwing him off. "Tick tock, tick tock, not enough time, slow! You took those sharp turns often, they're fast but not too mobile, agility over maneuverability, manufactured, there's obviously a headquarters. No doubt you just came from trying to infiltrate it or something, sending these things after you." He ran a hand through his hair and looked around him. He jumped up as it all clicked. "You called it a Brawn! Brains over brawns, you were going to use smarts to outwit the pure strength. In an electric shop... Robots! Oh bloody smart, use an electric pulse to short circuit the thing." The Doctor stalked over and grabbed two broken toasters. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he grinned. "A little tweak there and..."
Just as Grace was finding awe in watching his mind work so quickly with a plan she had coordinated for days, a crash sent the wall toppling down and two Brawns scrambling through. Before she could comprehend one was over her and giving a furious face. "By order of the High Emperor, we order that you, Grace Sander, be taken into immediate-" And just as she was losing all hope in making it through this capture, that trusting the Doctor to figure it out would fail her, there was an electric tinge of a sound and the Brawns froze and shook violently before falling harmlessly to each side of her.
Awestruck, Sander looked up to meet the cocky grin of the Doctor. He was swinging the cord of one toaster and blew on it like a smoking gun. "I still got it, Miss Doubtful." Getting up, Grace was furious. Brilliant, yeah, that he fixed it all, but furious that by letting him gain control of the situation he became so damn smug. "And this is why I am the Doctor, the Last of the Time Lords, most-"
She cut him off. "Important being in the universe. I bloody know." Rolling up her sleeves, Grace got to work on the Brawn. There had to be some way to get into its central nervous system, to find out how it ticked and use that against the self-appointed dictator. If only-
"Its that little doodad right above the red light on the back of its neck." Grace flippantly hit the button and the central cortex of the robot's 'mind' opened up. "I told you." She glowered and got to work on the contraption. Maybe it could even be a ride back to base. Finally all her hunting was to good use, and maybe now... "All those files were right you know, I am quite brilliant. I saved the Earth countless times since the time war, I've defeated the Daleks and the Cybermen and-"
"Oh will you shut up already."