Okay, nothing to say really, other than: Enjoy and, hopefully, review. This was inspired by this picture on DeviantART: 89ravenclaw. deviantart art/ Sketch-of-the-Day -10-10-04-181589496 I just couldn't get this out of my head, so I wrote it down to get it out of my system, and thought it worthy enough of Fanfiction! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who... Yet. Just joking, but I hope I might be able to write for it one day because, with Whovians like us, Doctor Who ain't going noooowheeere! :D

Summary- Imagine this setting: A ten year-old girl is on the run from bullies. Just as she is about to lose hope, she sees a blue Police Box. When she runs into it to hide, she finds out that not everything is what it seems. The Mad Man that owns it proves this to her.

The man is kind and attentive of her... Until he learns her name. After that, he seems to want to push himself away and get away from her as soon and quickly as he possibly can. But, alas, when the two get trapped on the TARDIS and flung into Space and Time, yeah... Avoiding her isn't exactly the easiest thing to do... Oh yes! Almost forgetting: His name? The Doctor. Her name...? The only way to find out is to read on :D

(Not the greatest summary, but it's not ABSOLUTELY crap! 8D)

Enjoy!

The Improbable Encounter...

Chapter 1- Imagine This and Meetings...

Imagine this setting. A clear blue sky; not a single cloud in the sky, which happens to be a rare sight in the country that is England, but we are in a specific part of the country, London, in the year of 1996.

Now, the setting we are beginning to see includes a primary school-Jericho Street Junior School, to be exact. And it happens to coincide with the clock striking three o'clock in the afternoon and the school bell ringing, parents already waiting outside the gate, children running out towards them.

All, except six children, all are around ten years old.

Five of them are having fun-a blast, even-chasing one young, chocolate brown-haired girl, laughing at her, sneering at her misfortunes. Bullying and traumatising, that is what they are doing. That is what they are.

The brown-haired girl, luckily, is known to be naturally a fairly good runner, and makes good distance. But that's not what you want to know, right? You want to know her name, I'm guessing. Well, I'll tell you.

Rose Marion Tyler.

She runs as fast as she can, regretting telling anyone that her mum couldn't pick her up today and that she would have to walk home and that Mickey wasn't there today because he was ill, whereas the bullies (made up of three girls and two boys) thank her out loud for giving them that information-that chance to strike and with no-one to protect her, like Mickey usually would. Tears sting her eyes and she holds back a sob at the insults they shout, like, 'Why are you running home? If I was you, I would never go to the piece to crap!' any worse but the one that makes the tears fall and her breath grow ragged from being held to stop the sobs escaping her mouth and her slowdown is this, 'It's a good job your dad's dead, he would only be ashamed of you! You can't even stand up for yourself!' she wants to give it back to them-she knows what their lives are like outside of school, she knows she could without effort. But that is below her and she knows she couldn't take on all five of them, so running was her only option.

But they were now gaining on her. She looks around, but there are no shops to hide in, they have 'cornered' (so to speak) her on a secluded street, empty because of parents going to collect their children, and she is coming to a corner that she knows only leads to a back alley, so going that way is not going to happen. She racks her brain for a plan then… That's it! She thinks and mentally praises herself for thinking of the plan. She slows down, ever-so slightly and continues towards the corner and… just as she reaches it, she quickly turns to the left and sprints to the other side of the street.

But it isn't enough, only enough to throw them off for a few seconds. But it enough to help her gain back some distance, not much but enough to give her some leeway. When…When did they get so fast? Young Rose thinks as she looks back for one second and sees them catching up to her once again but soon realizes it's because she is getting slower. She is losing speed and momentum, whilst those bullies are gaining it. She is also being to get lightheaded. She needs somewhere safe to hide. She concentrates for even the slightest place that could offer hiding and her safety.

And that is when she sees it.

They learnt about them in History in school today, so she knew what it was.

A 1960's-style Police Box placed in a back alley, a little bit further up the street than where she was, on the opposite side of the road she was on, with the door was opened slightly, so she wouldn't be wasting her time trying to get it to open and giving the bullies a chance to strike her from behind. It was perfect-she looked around again-and it was her only hope.

She swerved to the right just as she came into line with the back alley and bolted for the Police Box, the Fearsome Five still hot on her trail, but they weren't close enough, thankfully. She summoned the last of her energy to create that last bit of speed and distance she needed to reach the door of the Police Box, run inside, and slam the door. Closing her eyes, she slid down the door and curling into a ball and catching her breath slowly, wiping the sweat off of her face. She tried to listen for the Fearsome Five, but all she heard was them running past and shouting, "Where has she gone?" and "Where could she have gone? There is nowhere to hide!" How hadn't they seen it? It was pretty easy to spot-scratch that, it was immensely easy to spot. She opened her eyes ever-so slightly, just to get used to the surroundings and the darkness the Police Box was sure to have, then she realized that there was a light around her. But Miss Kerr said that these didn't have lights…

Then she opened her eyes fully and was greeted by the sight of a man no more than… twenty-six, maybe? He wore a plain brown tweed jacket with elbow patch, a pale blue shirt, and Bumblebee-print bowtie and black trousers. She looked more closely at his face and saw he had warm chocolate-brown eyes. She also decided he needed a haircut.

But then she saw how far away he was… And what he was standing at. She looked all around her and her eyes must have been giving a saucepan a run for its money with how wide they were and a small scream escaped her lips. She looked to her direct left and right and saw to metal banisters, she grabs hold of both of them to help her rise up and keep her stable so she can run away, but it isn't enough, her legs are too weak and buckle. The man, who must have been walking towards her, reaches her just in time and catches her just before she falls. He picks her up and sits her down a stair without a word.

He goes through a door and doesn't come back for three minutes, when he does; he has a tray filled with biscuits and two mugs.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?" he offers, smiling fondly at her and takes one mug and cradles it in his hand, Rose picks the other mug up and cradles it as well, smiling back. "Now!" he exclaims, making her jump and squeak slightly. "You must have been concentrating very hard on somewhere to go to find this, y'know?"

"Really?" Rose questioned the man "But it's easy to spot…" she trailed off, remembering what happened to the Fearsome Five, "Yet those five bullies ran straight passed it! How come?" Rose enquired.

"Ah, yes! Well then, aren't you a bright girl? " The man now smiled fondly around him, "Now that is because, you see, there is this thing called the Chameleon Circuit in the TARDIS and what that does is it component of a TARDIS which changed its outer plasmic shell to assume a shape which blended in with its surroundings." He looked at the blank look on Rose's face and laughed as he shook his head. "Sorry, got a bit carried away there. What that means is that it will blend in with its surroundings so well, that no-one can see it-or find it, a better way to put it-unless they are concentrating as hard as they possibly can or they have been in it before. You are the first one" Rose let this settle in her, whilst the man raises the mug to his lips and sips it…

Only to spit it back out, making Rose both wrinkle her nose and giggle at the same time, as he exclaims "Ouch-ouchie-ouch-ouch! That hurt! Thanks a lot TARDIS!" he glares at the console as Rose nibbles politely on a Jammie Dodger. She knows it is stupid to trust a man so quickly, he mum has warned about Bad Men… But she somehow knows that this man isn't one. She raises her eyebrow quizzically at him as he continues to glare like five year-old that can't get their way.

"Excuse me, Mr…" she realizes that she doesn't know his name, but carries on. " Mr… Bowtie Man? By any chance is this TARDIS…Alive? Or are you just bonkers?" he looks at her, with a happy-no, ecstatic- grin on his face, he grabs a Jammie Dodger and dunks it in his hot chocolate and swallows it in five bites, making Rose wrinkle her nose again.

"Why, yes, little…Err…Girl!" his grin widens. "She is! This is the TARDIS, and that stand for Time and Relative Dimension in Space!" His grin widens even more, however impossible it seems, "y'see? This is why kids are simply brilliant! They see things adults couldn't even dream of in a million years!" Rose blew on her hot chocolate and takes a cautious sip of it as what the man, whom she is slowly deciding is bonkers, said settles in.

"So…So, it's a time machine?" she asks.

"Correctamundo! It is also my spaceship! Wouldn't you say that is just…Cool… my dear… What's your name?"

"What's yours?" Rose challenged, she wasn't giving her name away that easily, although something in her told her nothing bad would come of it if she did. What was this part of her telling her that she could trust this man so well? Had he drugged her hot chocolate? Then again, her mum's tasted more as if it had been drugged than this. It was heavenly.

The man laughed, "You remind me of someone I used to know! Right down to the brown eye, if I am honest. Except she had blonde hair. Her name was…" he trailed off, his eyes beginning to cloud over with certain sadness, but it was erased as he began talking again. "Bu-but never mind that! My name is the Doctor!" he beamed at her as she felt her face adopt a look that said 'Are you serious? Is this some kind of joke?' the man-Doctor-just laughed. "Yes, that is the name I go by, at least" that same something inside of Rose told her he was telling the truth, so she just nodded, "Now, to have a fair trade, what is yours?"

Rose smiles at him as the words leave her mouth. "My-my name is Rose, Mr Doctor!" she beams, and a look of dread slowly comes across the Doctor's face, but goes unnoticed by Rose. "Rose Marion Tyler!"

And for the second time that night, the smile is wiped right of the Doctor's face, and he goes dangerously pale.

And his mug of hot chocolate ends up smashing against the TARDIS's glass flooring.

... Question: does that count as a cliffhanger? I can't decide :-/

Favourite and review! :D

~Ciára :D