A/N: Hello, I think you'll be able to figure out what kind of story this is. Here's my spin on the idea. Read and review. Thank you. :)
The freezing brisk air tickles her checks, turning them pink from the cold. Miranda Hawke speeds up to get away from the dropping temperatures outside, hurrying up her pace so she doesn't miss first period. It's August and yet the cold and snow arrived early, just in time for school to start.
She manages to dodge a few ice patches on the way except for the last one on the corner of the sidewalk. Her boots fail her as she skids across the ice, smacking into the stop sign face first. With a cry of pain, she falls backwards expecting a hard landing only to find her backpack cushioned the fall.
"Wow," she mutters under her breath, rubbing the front of her face but she slowly stops when she realizes she's smearing her eyeliner. "You've got to be kidding-" A bright light emanating from the ground below her shuts her up mid-sentence. A cracking sound echoes around her and before she can scramble away, the crack swallows her whole.
It sends her through the time vortex, the turbulence spiraling her body around like a rag doll. The sight of it makes her eyes burn and tear up. It becomes too much for her so she throws her hands over her face. Her lungs and throat burn from her screaming as she's falling through the time vortex. She can feel it burn her up as the time winds chaotically toss her around before finally it all stops.
Her body jerks to a stop as it hits the ground. She sits up with a loud gasp for air, tears prickling the corners of her eyes. Miranda freezes in place, watching as the world around her comes into focus. Her eyebrows scrunch up in confusion when she sees she's into the same place as before. Nothing's changed. The small lake she was walking by was the same. The sidewalk below her was the same. The sky above her was the same. It was all the same. She must've been daydreaming, she concludes. But none of her daydreams have been that felt or looked that vivid or real before. She'll have to worry about it later because right now she needs to remember what she studied last night.
Miranda carefully stands back up, ignoring curious passerby's stares. She wobbles on her feet and reaches out for the stop sign to steady her. After she's sure she won't fall down again, she checks her phone only to see she has five minutes before school starts. With a quiet curse, Miranda continues down the sidewalk, opting to run on the side of the road so she doesn't have to worry about passing around slow people that were taking their leisurely morning walks.
Checking her phone for the time, she sees something in the reflection. It looks like a familiar blue box tumbling out of the sky and heading straight for her. Miranda slowly turns around and confirms what she saw. "What the-" The blue box soars overhead, barely missing her head by inches when she ducks. Things were getting weirder and weirder by the minute. She glances between the time on her phone and the box that was making a not so careful landing up ahead. Making her split-second decision, Miranda dashes for the box. She makes a left turn instead of a right turn to her high school.
The blue box which looks exactly the TARDIS opens its doors to reveal an old man in magician's clothes and a short girl in a skirt inside. Miranda says the only thing that comes to mind, "Hello."
"Hello," the magician replies happily.
"Hello," the short girl replies just as happily as the old man.
"Well come in already!" The magician grabs her hand and drags Miranda inside before shutting the door. "What are you doing here? Haven't seen you in awhile."
"I-" Miranda claps her hand over her mouth when she registers what she's seeing. It's the TARDIS. She runs back outside to look at it better. It's definitely the TARDIS. She circles around the blue box before running back inside. It's 100% the TARDIS. But it looks so different from what she remembers.
"What's gone wrong with your face? You're all eyes, just like Clara. Get them under control. Clara, help her control her eyes," the magician rambles on, pointing and waving a hand in her direction. "You're acting like you've never seen the TARDIS before." When she doesn't respond right away, he stops in his tracks. His voice sounds softer, less alarmed. "You haven't, have you?"
"Who are you?" Miranda manages to say as she's slowly backing away from the old man who was now walking towards her.
"I'm the Doctor," says the magician who looks to the short girl for help. The girl can only shrug but gives him a look that speaks volumes. The magician claiming to be the Doctor sighs once before grabbing Miranda's hand to make sure she doesn't run out of the TARDIS again. "This is Clara."
"Clara who?" Miranda stops staring at the old man to look at the girl he introduced. She doesn't recall seeing this girl in Doctor Who. She was pretty sure she hasn't seen this Doctor before either.
"Clara Oswald," the girl in the skirt answers, a small smile present. Clara looks to the Doctor for answers, her smile disappearing. The Doctor shakes his head, a lost look overtaking his face. He takes her other hand so she's now fully facing him.
"This must be her first time meeting us. I was wondering when this day would come," the Doctor says to Clara before focusing his attention on Miranda. He opens his mouth to speak but she beats him to the punch.
"No, no, this isn't possible," Miranda mumbles as she looks around the big room she's in. This can't be the TARDIS, it looks entirely different from what it's supposed to look like. "But it's bigger on the inside...but it can't be. This isn't real. You're not real."
"Listen. Miranda Hawke, I am real. Clara is real. The TARDIS is real," the magician tries his best to reassure her that everything is perfectly normal but she wasn't having any of it. It's all supposed to be fake, a TV show. A TV show that she spends hours upon hours of watching. Unless that weird trip through what was supposed to be the time vortex got her here. Or maybe that weird trip was just her dreaming after having been knocked out by a stop sign.
"You're not the Doctor. You can't be. The Doctor has a chin," Miranda gestures wildly to his face, making his hands move around rapidly with her. "Not unless-" Miranda shuts up, looking up at the magician with wide eyes. "Did you regenerate?"
"Yes," the Doctor replies, knowing what she means when she mentioned his chin. Clara seemed to get it too from the growing smile on her face, remembering what he looked like with that hazardous chin that could poke someone's eye out.
Miranda frowns, realizing she's getting real-time spoilers right now. She's waiting for series 7 of Doctor Who to air, having watched the trailer for it over and over again in anticipation. But now she's seeing this new Doctor with his new companion. That means Amy and Rory have left and the Doctor regenerated shortly after. Or did he? Maybe he meets this Clara shortly after Amy and Rory left. And then regenerated afterwards. Ugh, this was giving her a headache.
Upon seeing Miranda frown in response to him regenerating, he gently lets go of her hands and steps away a foot. "It's too early," the Doctor says quietly while Clara nods slowly in response.
"You're Scottish," Miranda states lamely, her voice starting to fail her. Words can't describe what she's feeling right now.
"And you're American," the Doctor replies swiftly, raising an eyebrow down at her.
Miranda wants to say the Doctor is supposed to sound 'English' or whatever but technically, the Doctor isn't really supposed to be anything. He just is. He can look like an old man or a person of youth. He can sound Northern or he can sound Scottish. So the new Doctor is Scottish. It must be because of Amy, Miranda guesses. This guess only makes her frown deepen. She finds herself drowning in her thoughts.
"Doctor-" Clara starts but doesn't continue when she sees his crestfallen face. It's not often she sees that expression on his face. When she finds that none of them were going to continue talking, Clara starts again. "Miranda, we're your friends. We're-"
"Did you just say Miranda?" A familiar voice asks from behind the console. The owner of the voice makes their way around until they're facing the group. Miranda's eyes widen again at who it is.
"Jack?" Miranda blurts out, confused as to why they were traveling with Captain Jack Harkness. The Doctor hasn't traveled with Jack in a long, long time. Now this was definite spoilers.
"Miranda!" Jack cheers when he sees her, running up to her to greet her with a tight hug, spinning her around laughing. When he notices she isn't hugging back, he lets go and steps away a foot just like the Doctor. "Miranda?"
"Jack. This is her first time meeting us," the Doctor explains softly, still looking dejected at what's going on. Miranda feels a twinge of guilt at how disappointed he sounds, but knows it can't be her fault. Not really.
"Doc, you're kidding right?" Jack spins around to face him but when he doesn't reply, he looks to Clara for answers. "Tell me he's kidding."
"He's not." Clara fumbles with her hands, unsure of what to say or do. She doesn't like the Doctor's or Miranda's or Jack's reaction so far.
"Miri, you know me right?" Jack turns to Miranda but one look at her wide eyes and gaping mouth, he knows they're right.
"I know of you. Okay, what's going on? What am I doing here? I'm supposed to be going to school and I think I'm going to be really, really late. Not that I care much. But I haven't gotten this far yet and you guys are acting like you know me or something," Miranda rambles on, finally having enough of this. Doctor Who isn't real, no matter how much she wishes it was. She wasn't in some story where she magically appears in the universe of Doctor Who. The Doctor and his companions wouldn't be friends with her, not by a long shot. It's got to be some big stupid dream that she's going to laugh about later when she wakes up after getting knocked out by that stupid stop sign.
"We do know you," the Doctor cuts in, placing his hands in his pockets.
"But you can't," Miranda argues, staring all around her in the TARDIS. She's not sure if she likes how he's redecorated the place.
"Don't be ridiculous, Miranda. We're your friends, just like what Clara said," the Doctor argues back, wishing she'd snap out of it.
Miranda blinks. She steps closer to him, ignoring Jack and how his face looked. It made her heart hurt but it shouldn't. She doesn't know him personally, just knows of him. All from watching Doctor Who and Torchwood but she hasn't seen the latter show in a long time. Once she was close enough to look into the magician's eyes, she stops. There's truth in his eyes. It's like what they've said on the show. He's got ancient, sad eyes. And here he is, with those big eyes and attack eyebrows. She can feel her breath stop at the revelation. "You're real."
The Doctor can only smile. She sees him. Jack only backs away further until he's standing next to Clara, who is smiling brightly at the pair.
"But how did I get here?" Miranda asks, looking around the TARDIS console room for the umpteenth time.
"What do you remember last?" The Doctor asks instead.
"I was on my way to school. I, uh, I fell and hit the stop sign. Then there was this light and I was in the time vortex. I woke up and I was in the same spot from before, like I haven't moved at all. Then I saw your box falling through the sky and...well here we are, I suppose," Miranda recalls swiftly, rubbing the back of her head absentmindedly.
"Her first time traveling then," the Doctor says aside to Clara and Jack, who both remained quiet throughout the exchange. "Okay...what do you know so far about me?"
"Well you haven't regenerated yet. You're still traveling with Amy and Rory last I checked." Miranda tries to remember what she can from the series 6 finale and the series 7 trailer. "You go back to travel with the Ponds after dropping them off at their new house with their new car. I heard a rumor that they're fighting...also I think you married River Song."
Clara and Jack swivel their heads in the Doctor's direction at the mention of River Song's name and marriage. The Doctor ignores them. "All of that was ages ago. You still have some catching up to do," the Doctor explains while stepping closer to her. "How old are you, exactly? What year is it for you?"
"I'm sixteen?" Miranda answers with a tilt of her head. "And it's 2012."
"Ah. Definitely too early," the Doctor mumbles quietly before turning to look at Jack. With a wave of his hand, he warns him, "Don't even think about it, Jack."
"I wasn't going to do anything!" Jack protests from where he stands slightly behind Clara, who's trying not to laugh.
The Doctor rolls his eyes at Jack. Turning to Miranda, he smiles and takes her hand as he starts walking out of the TARDIS. "Where are you taking my Sunshine?" Jack calls out before the doors close behind the two.
"Sunshine?" Miranda half-laughs, raising an eyebrow back behind them. "You guys really do know me...I travel with you then?"
"You do. But in your future, it appears. You're younger than I remember when I traveled with you in the past," the Doctor answers, not letting go of her hand. Miranda wonders at this, at what kind of relationship she has with him. Purely friendship, she figures. It can't be anything more than that. There's no way. "Looks like you're going to have to wait a bit longer before you travel with us." Miranda mulls this over, biting her fingernail on the hand he isn't holding. "Oh, not the nail biting! You've got to stop doing that. You're always doing that. Same with the big uncontrollable eyes."
"Well now I've got to bite my nails in the future, thanks to you," Miranda drops her hand from her face, a grin appearing. The Doctor grumbles at that. Miranda takes this time to inspect him. No bowtie, no suspenders (although they call it braces), no tweed jacket. Just an outfit that screamed no-nonsense magician. Lots of lines on this face. That's probably the biggest difference between the Eleventh Doctor and the Doctor now. Although it looks terribly familiar. She wonders where he got the face from.
"What?" The Doctor looks down at her after noticing her wandering gaze.
"You're just...you're so different," Miranda admits, liking that she's the first one to see the new Doctor with his face. Well, not in this universe. But back in her world, where they're still in the Eleventh Doctor's era and there's no mention of Matt Smith leaving yet. And she's the first to know.
"New new Doctor," the Doctor replies with a knowing grin, reminding her of the New Earth episode.
"Am I there?" Miranda asks suddenly, her hand starting to feel a little sweaty from the hand-holding.
"You're always there," the Doctor answers. Seeing the face she's giving him, he says quickly, "Not in a bad way. You've always been there in my life-"
"Spoilers," Jack warns him as he steps out of the TARDIS with Clara following close behind. The Doctor gives him a pointed look.
"Great, now I've got you saying that," the Doctor grumbles. "I wasn't going to tell her, Captain Idiot."
"Right, sure you weren't," Jack fires back, crossing his arms. Miranda doesn't like the tension in the air and where it's leading to. The Doctor and Jack are supposed to be close friends and yet they're fighting, sort of. After the awkwardness was growing to be too much for her, Miranda breaks the silence.
"So who are you to me, Jack? I mean, the Doctor and Clara are my friends, apparently. But who are you?"
With a wink that didn't go unnoticed by the Doctor, Jack replies smoothly, "Captain Jack Harkness. Friends with a certain Miranda Hawke. My Sunshine."
Miranda laughs, a little relieved it wasn't anything more. "Alright, so we're friends. I can deal with that."
"Are you sure you wouldn't want to deal with anything more than that?" Jack asks suggestively who receives a smack in the arm from both the Doctor and Clara.
"I don't think so," Miranda immediately rejects the notion. She knows of his track record with relationships and flings with past boyfriends and girlfriends. She also knows of her own track record which is zero boyfriends, zero girlfriends, zero relationships or flings. The exact opposite of him. It would never work out. Just like the Doctor. She shakes the feelings away she has for the people standing in front of her, the people who were only supposed to exist in a TV show until about ten minutes ago.
"A shame," Jack says with what sounded like genuine disappointment. The Doctor sputters at him, practically pushing Clara and Jack back inside the TARDIS. "Doc-" The doors slam in his face.
The Doctor takes her hand again, seemingly comfortable around her. Miranda tries not to dwell on it and what it could mean. "So what now?"
"Now," the Doctor pauses, now refusing to look her in the eyes, "now I think it's time you went home."
"Home?" Did home still exist? Does he mean whatever her home is here, in the world of Doctor Who? Or her home, her real actual home, back from wherever she came from?
"You're too early," the Doctor states matter-of-factly.
"What does that mean?" Miranda scrunches her eyebrows at him, confusion coloring her face. "This isn't like River Song, is it?" There was no way she was going to end up in a similar situation as her, that would be too hard. Meeting each other backwards, always in the wrong time or date, never in sync with the Doctor.
The Doctor doesn't reply but sighs deeply, finally meeting her gaze. "I can't tell you."
"Can't I travel with you for a little bit?" Miranda wasn't too keen on the idea of going back, not after seeing the real TARDIS. But she knew she had to. She has to go back and wait for series 7 to air and to catch up on what the Doctor is doing.
"You can't." The words remind her of Bad Wolf Bay and she wonders if she's there too.
"Ask me anyway." Miranda can't leave, not without him at least asking her to travel with him in his blue box.
"Come with me," the Doctor asks but already knowing the answer.
"I can't," Miranda rejects the offer, like she knew she would. "I've got to finish high school. I've got family. I've got..." She trails off, not liking the way his eyes averted hers when she mentioned family.
"I understand." The Doctor lets go of her hand and heads back to his ship. Before he enters, he smiles one last time before leaving. The TARDIS dematerializes before her eyes and it's more beautiful than anything she's seen before. It's so much more better than what it is on the show. But it was so much more sad.
Miranda doesn't hear the small conversation the Doctor, Jack, and Clara have on the TARDIS after it left her behind...
...
"She wasn't even remotely interested in you," Clara comments. "Is that the first time someone's turned you down?"
Jack waves the universal sign for 'whatever' at her as she laughs. He sighs and turns to the Doctor who was being strangely quiet ever since they left. "Doc."
"What do you want, Jack?" The Doctor flips a lever and turns a switch, taking them out of the time vortex and into deep space.
"What if it never happens? What if she doesn't-" Jack worries but the Doctor stops him in his tracks.
"Time can be rewritten," the Doctor says casually, looking up from the console to face Jack.
"How can you say that? You can't let that happen!" Jack yells, a hint of urgency behind his pleads for the Doctor to not say that awful saying.
"Of course not, but what she decides to do is her own choice. I can't force her to do anything-" The Doctor argues back until Clara cuts into the conversation.
"Really? What happened to 'do as you're told'? What happened to 'rule one: the Doctor lies'?" Clara interjects.
"People don't need to be lied to," the Doctor replies, repeating himself from a previous conversation he had with Clara. "And 'do as you're told' is just a safeguard for you pudding brains."
"Doctor, please don't let it happen." Jack ignores the pudding brains insult.
"I can't prevent what hasn't happened yet," the Doctor snaps his eyes at him, eyebrows narrowing.
"But it happened." Jack's voice falters.
"But it didn't happen," Clara says clearly, placing her hand on his shoulder for comfort.
"Enough, you two are making my head hurt," Jack complains as he leaves the console room.
"He'll be fine," the Doctor says after Jack left for his room.
"But will she?" Clara asks. The Doctor doesn't have an answer for that.
...
After standing there for what felt like forever, Miranda finally leaves. As she turns around to begin walking away, a bright light appears around her. The crack swallows her whole before she can move away and again she's thrown into the time vortex. She tumbles around, burning all over, before she's back in the same place as before. She should be dead. How is she not dead? Jack died when he jumped on the TARDIS when it traveled in the time vortex, leaving him exposed to its elements. He came back to life but still, he died. So how is she alive?
Miranda gasps awake, all these unanswered questions in the forefront of her mind. She's completely forgotten what she studied the night before for her Algebra test. Her mind was a blur as she got back up for the second time to start walking to school.
The crack looked like the same one on the show, like the one on Amy's wall. It was said the crack could act as a portal or it could erase you from existence. All of her thoughts stop, as she shakes her head, groaning as the pain overcame her. She wasn't sure if it was from traveling in the time vortex or from hitting the stop sign.
Miranda contemplates on who she should tell about meeting the new Doctor and his new companion along with his new desktop design. She stops in her tracks. Since when did she start believing what happened was real? Well it had to be real. She couldn't possibly make up seeing the Doctor with his new face and the short girl in the skirt along with Captain Jack Harkness. She wasn't that creative with her imagination.
By the time she made it to school, first period was halfway over and she got a detention for being late with no excuse. During detention, she starts to draw lazy sketches of the Doctor's face and Clara's smile and Jack's wink and new desktop for the TARDIS. Her mind wanders far away, wondering when she'll see the Doctor next. It sounded like she was a part of his past, maybe his future.
After detention, she made her way home and turns on her TV but not before confirming that her little brother, Max, made it home safely and was picked up by either her dad, Michael, or her mom, Marie. Miranda starts re-watching all of the previous seasons of Doctor Who and Torchwood to make sure she remembers everything as accurate as possible just in case she ends up traveling with the Doctor in the future.
Miranda does this for the next three years, re-watching and doing her research on everything Doctor Who related. She finds out that Oswin Oswald turns out to be Clara Oswin Oswald who turns out to be Clara Oswald. She finds out what happened to the Ponds and how devastated the Doctor was afterwards. She finds out how the Doctor ends up meeting Clara and going on adventures with her. She finds out the mystery behind Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl. She finds out that the War Doctor along with the Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor brought back Gallifrey. She finds out how the Eleventh Doctor regenerated. But when the Doctor she met a few years ago pops up on her screen after he regenerated, she pauses it, her face echoing Clara's face at that moment.
It was true. This is his new face. Clara is still his companion. But no Jack yet. Miranda keeps on watching up until after series 8 and the Christmas special. That was it. There was no more Doctor Who, at least not for awhile.
...
Too much happened these past three years for Miranda. Too much, Miranda thinks with a deep set frown that never leaves her face as she looks back from where she came from. The tall iron gates close behind her, cutting off her view from the cemetery. After she turns away from the graveyard, Miranda's mind is set. She runs to the car she borrowed from her mom and drives it to work. She hands the hostess on duty her server's apron and takes her last check to cash it in. After driving back home, Miranda begins packing her bags with clothes and shoes and the essentials. When her mom comes home, she hands her the money from her last check and what's left in her bank account.
"What's this for?" Marie, her mom, asks as she tugs her long brown hair behind her ear.
"For everything," Miranda answers with a weak smile. She follows her mom outside where she takes out a cigarette and lights it. Her lungs choke on the oppressive smoke in the air as she sits down on the steps. She glares at the cigarette in her mother's hand but softens her gaze when she sees the distant look in her mom's eyes. She has seen that look far too often. It was time to bring life back in those once cheery brown eyes.
"Why?" Her mom asks while she takes a drag, blowing the smoke away from her face.
"Because I know it's been hard. And this is me, trying to make it easier," Miranda admits, biting her fingernail in nervousness. Ever since they had to move to a reservation in a state below Canada because of her dad's job, her life and everything in it was falling apart and becoming harder and harder to put back together.
"What are you talking about?" Marie puts out her cigarette to give her daughter her full attention.
"I'm giving you this money to help make things better. I don't know how much longer I'll be here so I thought I'd help you guys out a bit," Miranda says, her smile now encouraging with no sign of a frown.
"Miranda I-" Marie turns to her daughter and after seeing the smile on her face, she forgets what she has to say and embraces her tightly, grateful for the money. After all was said and done with her mother, Miranda makes her way to her small little room down the hall. She puts on her backpack and grabs her suitcase. She figures it has to be time to see the Doctor again. She'd older now, at age 19. She at least deserves one trip through time and space. But Clara's words from a particularly painful episode echo in her mind.
"Nobody deserves anything. But I am owed better. I am owed."
"Please..." Miranda asks no one in particular. Minutes pass by and nothing happens. When she's sure that nothing was going to happen at all, the crack appears below her. It engulfs her and sends her into the time vortex. The burning pain feels familiar now, more familiar than it should be. Miranda's only done this twice, not counting this time but she feels like she'd done this before. Where did she go that time? Memories of a roof and a tall building are all she can remember. Before she can contemplate on the forgotten memory some more, Miranda finds herself on a glass surface with her bags lying beside her.
"Because she's the future. My future." There was talking, the voices familiar.
"Can you run away from that?" A Scottish voice asks.
"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me," a boyish voice says.
Miranda gasps loudly for air as she lies face down on the glass floor. She can only see a pair of blue converses and a pair of black boots. "What about her?"
"What about who?" The owner of the black boots swivel around to face the fallen figure. Miranda looks up and groans as she figures out where she's at. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. In the TARDIS. With River Song outside. Along with an army of weeping angels. Not exactly the first adventure she wanted to have. It was the time of angels.