Doctor Who

A New Dawn for Her

By JJ Andrews

AN: Hi, thanks for deciding to read this story. Now, this is a rewrite of a story I posted last year and with any luck it should be a better read.

The streets of Paris were dark and empty. No one was out on a night when war had engulfed the city. The only noise was the constant pattering of the rain on the dirty cobbled roads mixed with the occasional volley of gunfire and the ringing of swords. Then, in one ordinary street, the serene silence was broken by the sounds of running feet slapping against the soaked road. Then there was the sound of crying followed by a person entering the street. At first glance the person seemed to be a small man or a boy in their early teenage years. They wore a dirty mud coloured overcoat, a brown cap, a dirty shirt with old battered shoes. Their sobs echoed through the street and then the figure ran into an alley and then leaned against a wall before sliding to the ground, clutching the wound in her side. Eponine took off her cap and let her hair fall down past her shoulders. She closed her eyes and turned her head up to the sky, letting the rain fall against her dirty face, and thought back to what happened.

Marius was fighting up on the barricade but he didn't notice the soldier about to shoot him at point blank range. Eponine quickly climbed up the barricade and yanked the gun away from him and it hit her instead. The wound didn't kill her but she was injured. While she was being treated for her wounds she gave Marius Cosset's letter which she found at the gate of the "Old cons house". Later she found out that Marius had sent Cosset a letter. That was when she broke. When no one was watching she slipped away from the barricades and started running.

Now, leaning against a building, she felt her blood trickle out of her and saw it running away into a sewer grate. She had no more tears to cry. Her vision was so blurry that she didn't notice the strangely dressed man walking towards her.

...

Eponine felt stiff all over and very weak. Groaning a little she wrapped her bed sheets around her body and-wait-bed sheets? She hadn't had bed sheets in years.

Her eyes suddenly opened and she found herself in a strange room. All of the walls were white and covered in large circles. On one of the walls was a book shelf and there was a vanity desk with a large mirror and a chair. She herself was sitting in a bed with white sheets on it and she was wearing a white nightdress. Hanging on the room's door was a white dressing gown and resting on her chair was a brown shirt and a long black skirt.

Odd hospital, she thought to herself and got out of bed, feeling a slight stinging in her side.

She lifted up her nightdress and looked at the source of the pain where a round scar resided. Eponine just climbed out of bed and saw a pair of slippers on the floor. She put them on quickly and then put on the dressing gown before leaving her room and going into the corridor. She was, of course, expecting it to be extremely busy and crammed full of doctors leading patients to wards. However, it was empty. There was not a single person in the corridor.

'Hello?' she asked nervously, a million ideas going through her head.

When no one answered she started to work down the corridor, the pain in her side quickly vanishing with every step. There was a strange humming sound going through the entire place and so far she had found no windows. With no idea where she was she knew she needed to find some help. Then she noticed something. A new sound different from the endless hum which seemed to echo from every surface. This sound was a gentle groaning and a different hum.

'Hello?' she said again and this time she got a response.

'You awake? Good. Come through here.'

She followed the voice and found a door. Stepping through it she almost gasped at what she saw. It was a massive domed room, like being on the inside of an egg. The walls were a sandy colour with pillars holding the roof up. In the centre of the room was a glowing blue-green column made from glass surrounded by a circular bench which was glowing the same colour. Sitting in a chair next to the bench was a man dressed in a dark blue suit with slightly spiky hair and had a pair of glasses perched on his nose. Eponine herself was standing on a metal platform with a ladder leading down to the floor of the domed room.

'Feeling well?' the man asked her.

'Oh, erm, yes I am. Thank you,' she answered as she tried to take in the whole room.

'Well come down here then,' he said after getting up and started pressing buttons and pulling leavers on the bench.

Eponine did so and climbed down the ladder and then slowly walked up to the man.

'What's your name then?'

'Eponine,' she answered. 'Eponine Thernardier.'

'Nice to meet you Eponine Thernardier. I'm the Doctor.'

'Doctor who?' she asked.

The man smiled when she asked him one of the simplest questions in history.

'I love it when people say that.'

'You said you're a doctor. Is this a hospital?'

'Firstly I'm not a doctor I'm The Doctor and this isn't a hospital. It's the TARDIS, my home.'

'TARDIS?'

'T.A.R.D.I.S, that's short for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.'

The words were completely lost on Eponine and she guessed that was evident on her face.

'I found you in the street,' the Doctor explained what had happened to her. 'You'd been shot so I took you here and removed the bullet, gave you some medicine which increased your blood levels, patched up the wound and here you are, alive and well on my ship.'

'Thank you,' Eponine smiled at this stranger's kindness. Then she remembered that very few people did kind things for no reason. 'Why did you help me?'

'Because that was the right thing to do,' he answered as he pressed a few more buttons.

'No one does good things for no reason-wait. Did you say this was a ship?'

'That's right. A unique ship that doesn't travel on the seas.'

'Then what does it travel on?'

The man then smiled and looked at her.

'Eponine, open those doors and you will find out. Just don't step outside.'

Curiously she walked to the doors and saw that one appeared to have a metal box with wires on it. She then pushed the doors open, gasped and staggered back at what she saw. Ahead of her was a massive cloud of red light, rocks suspended in the air and a sea of stars beyond that.

'What, how, what?' she then fell to the floor and sat watching the strange cloud for what felt like hours.

'What do you think?' the Doctor asked her.

'This ship,' she said before pausing to collect her thoughts, 'sails across the stars?' she asked.

'That's right.'

'A star ship?'

'Got it.'

'Good God.'

'Tell me Eponine, do you want to come with me?'

I could go home. Would he take me back? Why should I go back? Marius loves Cosette, my parents couldn't care less if I don't come back.

'Will it be dangerous?' Eponine asked her.

'It usually is.'

'If I say no will you take me home?'

'Of course I will.'

What have I got to lose?

'Yes,' she said slowly. 'Yes.'

'Great. First, you go get dressed. The TARDIS would have put clothes for you in your wardrobe and then come back here and we'll think of a place to go.'

The Doctor watched Eponine leave the console room and then he tried to think of a place to go. The entire universe was open to him and Eponine. He sat back in his chair and waited. After half an hour she came back in wearing a long blue skirt, a white T shirt and a blue jacket. She walked up to the Doctor and looked at the console.

'I've thought of the perfect place,' the Doctor told her and then pointed at a button on the console. 'Press that and then we'll be travelling through time and space.'

Nervously, and with a slight smile, combined with a feeling of adrenaline, she stepped up to the console and held her hand above the button. Slowly she lowered her hand down onto the button and the entire machine shook and roared. A groaning whooshing sound filled the room and a shudder from the machine threw her into the chair next to the console. The Doctor ran around the console flicking switches and hitting it with a mallet. After a few minutes the device stopped and Eponine was frozen with fear.

'We've arrived,' the Doctor announced.

'Where are we?' Eponine asked and then stood up.

Instead of answering her, the Doctor ran towards the doors and pulled a long brown coat off of a coat stand, put it on and then stood by the doors.

'Eponine Thernardier, welcome to 1922, New York city.'

He then threw the doors open and stepped out followed by Eponine. When she stepped out of the TARDIS and into New York a new chapter of her life began. A life of running and saving lives. The life of an adventurer. The life of a Time Traveller.