Summary: An abused, crippled young girl is swept by an unknown force from her universe into the 10th Doctor's. There are a couple of major differences between Mary's universe and the 10th's: One, in Mary's he's a fictitious character and two...about 1/10% of humans in Mary's World are Telepathic...and Mary is in that 10%.

A/N: For the purpose of this story, Rose will not be separated from the Doctor.

A/N: For the purpose of this story, Rose will not be separated from the Doctor. There are a couple of major differences between Mary's World and the 10th's: One, in Mary's he's a fictitious character and two...about 1/10% of humans in Mary's World are Telepathic...and Mary is in that 10%.

WARNING #1: This is an ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. Do not attempt to shove canon into it since that will just prove you're an idiot in public. If you can review without pushing your narrow-minded views into it, good. Do so. If you are a canon fanatic who always insists everyone does fics YOUR way, you need to remember the very first person to break rules of that nature is always the Doctor. He wouldn't approve of you at all.

Warning #2: Swearing, Angst and possible Depression/Anger Triggers exist in this fic. If in doubt, don't read.

Lost Child, Found Child

by

Royslady51

1. U-Turns.

The unexpected turnabout was so abrupt it flung both Rose and the Doctor nearly to the wall of the console room, stunning Rose with a crack on the head that the Doctor didn't notice right off, as he was scrambling to find out why they'd not gone into the vortex as he'd intended. After a moment, he turned from the console and noticed her rubbing her head. He checked her, but there was no bump, just a sore spot.

For a first voyage in a new body, this wasn't starting out well at all. Rose had the sense to stay where she was but the Doctor was tossed on his tail a second time when the Timeship landed with an insistent thump.

"Why the bloody hell are you going straight back to London...and why Hyde Park?" He wanted to know of his timeship. She ignored him, merely opening her doors herself in response.

Rose got up, went over to the doors and poked her head out cautiously. There was a young girl sitting on a nearby bench, staring at her in disbelief that was rapidly changing to awe. "I must be dreaming again." She told Rose softly. "You're not real."

"Yes, I am, actually. Why would you say that anyway?"

"Where's all the cameras and stuff then, if you're real? And the rest of the set and th' cast? 'Cuz everyone knows Rose Tyler is just a character on television played by Billie Piper, so's the Doctor only sometimes he's played by Chris Eccleston and other times by David Tennant, at least the episodes with Rose in them...and that the TARDIS is a sometimes a prop or sometimes just an image on CGI. I'm not stupid you know. Just cuz I can't walk right doesn't mean I'm dumb, Billie." She looked up at a movement behind the actress and nodded. "Yeah. And he's David Tennant. You English are assholes, you know?"

"You're bit young to be using language like that, aren't you?" The man asked her.

"And you're a bit old to be playing pranks on kids, but you're doing it anyway." She retorted. "I'm not stupid enough to trust you, you know. I know how adults are, got that beat into me years ago...cripple girls can't run away so we take what we have to...an' it'd be lovely if the character you play was real, but he's not. If he was maybe I'd have a grown up I could trust because the character is an alien and he doesn't 'dance'...which means he'd let me alone that way...but that's never going to happen, you're not going to trick me into thinkin' that the Doctor is a real person, so just lay off. Prick." She glared at his expression of growing confusion. "And there weren't any episodes with 10th that was in set in Birmingham, Alabama, so I don't know what you're trying to pull, but can we say 'miserable, epic, cascading failure'?"

"You're in London." Rose said quietly.

The girl was giving away more about herself with every angry word and the young woman wanted to kill whoever had treated the child like that. The expression on the Doctor's face made her nervous.

He was outraged and horrified on the child's behalf, he had understood very well what the girl had meant...but talking wasn't going to convince her he was who he was. A more direct method was called for. Besides, she had very clearly run into some kind of anomaly...this had to be checked into.

"No, I'm not. You're not tricking me. I don't believe you."

The man she believed was Tennant approached her with a determined, if quite compassionate expression on his face and she drew back in panic, even taking a swing at him with one of her crutches. He caught it gently and handed both it and the other one to Rose, then the Doctor simply picked the struggling, sobbing, terrified girl up and hauled her into the TARDIS.

Dreams and Hallucinations

She stilled, her struggles stopping as her surroundings became clear. She shook her head in disbelief, reaching hesitantly for one of the supports...then drawing her hand back.

"You can touch her. I really am the Doctor, you know. I'm not going to hurt you and neither is Rose."

"I'm dreaming you, I guess. I don't dream about good people much. I wasn't expecting to have a nice dream. I've probably got another fever. All adults hurt kids, so a fever dream makes sense. Still, I can enjoy it while it lasts." And she simply laid her head on his shoulder and let tears drip down her face. "Kids like me, need dreams like you." She whispered.

He met Rose's eyes over the girl's head. "Close the doors, Rose. Let me get her to the infirmary and see what I can do about her feet." He nodded at the twisted, turned in on themselves messes at the ends of her legs. He recognized the disasters that were her limbs as a birth defect and knew he could easily fix it: A few moments with nanogenes would do the trick. "You'll still need the crutches for a bit, while you're learning to walk, but afterward, we can throw them away. And once we throw them away, Rose an' me will teach you to run. No more trying to move about on the top sides of your ankles."

"I hate it when I get a good dream." She told him, still crying.

"Why?"

"Because they don't last and when I wake up..." She turned her face into the chest of the dream-Doctor and sobbed. "Nightmares don't change as much when I wake up, cuz it's just a different nightmare, only I'm awake for that one. And I'm used it. I wish you were real, but you're not. But I'll take what I can get cuz I'm not gonna get hurt in this one."

The Doctor's face was a study in unhappiness. "And when I prove it's real? What then?"

"You're not."

"See, that's the thing, this isn't your universe of origin." He told her gently. "Right then, let's get your feet fixed, shall we? My nanogenes will fix that right up."

Rose followed them to the infirmary and helped get her on the exam table. "In dreams, you can't touch things, or you can, but you don't feel skin to skin contact. Think about it? If you get attacked, it's the horror you feel that makes it bad, because regular dreams can't actually touch you."

"So?"

Rose took the Doctor's cool hand and laid its palm in the girl's own. "What do you feel?"

:WHO:

Real

Mary's eyes went wide, staring at his hand gently holding her own. Her gaze flew to the gentle brown eyes and the soft smile on the Doctor's face, then to Rose's who held her other hand for a moment before returning her eyes to his, begging him to be real, for him not to be just another shattered dream.

"It's okay, I'm real, she's real, the TARDIS is very real...you're safe. Even if I knew where you'd come from, I'd never take you back to it. No way. I won't give you back to people who hurt you. And if I can let you stay with me and Rose, I will. The TARDIS is checking your Time Lines, okay? She can see so far, so much further than I can."

"I know." She turned her head to look at Rose, gripping the bottled blonde's hand tightly. "I told you, you're a TV show and I've seen all the episodes...all the way since First and it's on your 11th, just now." She told him quietly. "I know better than to say anything, any decent Whovian would know better. My foster home's parents had the whole set and we got to watch when we weren't contributing."

"All of it?"

"'Fraid so. One good thing about it."

"What's that?"

"Nothin' to hide...and I can explain why you're such a prick to her, to her, sometimes. Self-defense, really."

"That'd be nice. What's your name?" Rose spoke.

"Mary Allison Baker."

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"How could they?" The Doctor breathed in horror, finally understanding just how long she'd been used and tormented all because she couldn't run off or get out of harm's way. "You're a baby!"

"Not so young as all that, or so I was told. Said it was all I was good for. Couldn't work could I? Had to contribute."

"They lied." The Doctor's voice was harsh. "You are so much better than that."

"Yes, you are." Rose confirmed. "He'll show you how to be, the same way he showed me how to be a better person." Rose didn't see the startled glance he gave her. "Showed me how to be a good woman, didn't he, yeah? Took a chav from the estates and made me sommat decent, didn't he? Just cuz I trusted him. You have to learn to trust him."

"I don't think I know what that is anymore, if I ever did."

"Then you learn." The Tenth Doctor told her quietly. He cocked his head, "What's a 'Whovian'?"

"Your fanbase. You've got millions and millions of fans. Both of you. Some folks like one regeneration or another more than others but we all get it. And most of us have seen every episode...though a few people just watch enough to get a handle on individual personalities."

Rose quirked her lips, being human, she knew very well what a fangirl was. "Don't go overboard, Mary. This is real here."

Mary was getting sleepy-eyed from the medicines he'd given her along with the nanogenes and the feel of his hand combing through her hair gently. Nothing else, except holding her hand, though. "Some of it's online, Rose. Called Doctor Who...just look on Netflix or the BBC website."

"I don't know if they'll have it here, but I'll look." Rose promised the drowsy youngster.

He was being very, very gentle with her: Alien he might be, but he knew he still looked like an adult male human and she had a lifetime of nasty experiences with the very worst of them. He hated people messing with kids at any time, but this? That was just sick and for the first time in a very long time, not only did the Doctor sincerely want to kill someone, he knew beyond all doubt that such a killing would be utterly justified. The problem was that he couldn't reach the people that had done this to her.

"Are you sure I'm not dreaming?"

"Very sure."

Mary watched his eyes uncertainly for a moment, until Rose spoke. "Doctor, let her see you. Not your current self, not the body, you. She need to be sure. I don't think you understand what effect that has on those of us that stay with you, need you."

"Good or bad?"

"Good. Excellent, in fact. Most of your companion issues of the past could have been fixed with that one thing...just a glimpse of who you are."

"All right." He nervously returned his attention to the youngster, allowing what he was to shine out through his eyes because he trusted Rose. He immediately noted when she really saw him, watched as she stared in disbelief and then...she relaxed and rolled to her side, facing him.

"Doctor." She whispered, and he could hear sheer wonder in her young voice.

"Yes." He flushed a bit. Was this how Rose responded...only hid it better because she was older?

"For real." There was pure joy in the child's voice, manner and eyes.

"Yes." He couldn't stop himself, he had to smile back at her.

She was asleep a few moments later, trusting him because he was really the Doctor, who was not the dangerous kind of man, not a human one, anyway. He didn't do that with humans and wouldn't hurt her. She was asleep before the first crack in her shielding appeared and didn't notice.

The Doctor did, barely hearing the soft mental turbulence, but he did notice.

What in hell was that?

:TBC: