Prologue

My father's last words rang in my ears. "Find the Doctor. He'll help you. You must promise me one thing: never tell him about me... or who you really are. He needs to have his own view of you. Without it being dampened by who I am." He sighed. The sounds of the battle were getting closer. He grabbed me by my shoulders. "Nikko... I love you. And one day I will find you. I promise." He hugged me.

"Dad, please!" My eyes filled with tears. "I can fight. I can help you! Please!"

The doors behind my father shook. Something was banging on them. "Open!" Cried the unmistakable sound of a Dalek. "OPEN!"

Dad pulled something out of his rucksack. It was a ring of black fabric with a large blue botton on one side. His teleporter.

He put the teleporter on my wrist. "Dad, please-" He hit the botton. And I was gone.

I reappeared in a dark alley behind two tall buildings. "Dad!" I screamed. "No!"

I pounded on the side of one of the buildings with my fist. "NO!"
I hit the teleporter again, but nothing happend. Dad had set it so that I

could never return.

I turned and leaned against the building. "No..." I sunk to the ground, curled up, and sobbed.

I made a promise to myself then and there. I would find the Doctor. No matter how long it took. I fingered the silver key my father had given me, that the Doctor had given him. What I didn't know was that it would be a long while before I met the Doctor. And even longer before I saw my father again.

Chapter I

I was just turning onto Main Street when I ran into someone, dropping my groceries.

"Oh, sorry!" the man said. He stooped to help me gather my belongings.

"That's ok," I replied. I tucked my curly brown hair behind my ear. As soon as all my groceries were safely stored back in my ruck sack, we stood.

The man looked vaguely familiar. He had gorgeous brown hair that seemed to completley ignore the laws of gravity. But it was his outlandish clothing that caught my eye. He wore a brown pinstriped suit over a blue dress shirt, and a swirly multicoloured tie that reminded me of outer space. Not that that was all that uncommon for an office worker, but this man did not seem to be heading to work. His hair and clothing were dishelveled, as if he had just lost a fight with a mountain of dirt and mud.

He smiled at me and held out his hand. "Hello! I'm the Doctor!"

My mouth was hanging open. I quickly shut it. Was this really the man I had been waiting three years for?

"Your.. your the Doctor?" I tried to keep my cool, but my voice shook. I was completely gobsmacked.

"Yeah..." He raised an eyebrow. "You know me?"

I was about to answer, when the streetlamps began to flicker. Even though it was night, the streets of London were still busy. But for some reason, every time the lights flickered off, the sound of the cars and late-night shoppers ceased to exist.

"Um, let's talk about this later. Come on!" he grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the street. "Hurry up! We need to scarper!"

"I'm going," I grumbled.

He pulled me through crowds of angry pedestrians without even looking back. I did my best to try and apologize to them, espicially the ones that had toppled over, but that's hard to do when your being dragged at a gazzilion miles per hour. Man, I thought, this guy can run fast!

After a few blocks or so, when I thought my lungs were finally going to burst, we stopped. The Doctor pulled us into another alley. He grabbed my shoulders.

"Who are you?" he asked. "I know you recognized me. At least after you heard my name. But I don't recognize you." He paused and rubbed his hand along the back up his neck. "Weeeeell, at first I thought I did, because you look an awful lot like an old friend of mine. But you can't be him, because he's, well, a he. Unless..." he stared at me.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, um, no. We've never met before."

"Good! That would have been very weird." The Doctor paused. "Well, I'll be going now. Bye!" he ran out onto the crosswalk.

"Wait!" I ran after him. I wasn't going to let him get away this easily. The Doctor kept on going.
"Wait!"

Either his curiosity got the best of him, or he thought I'd just keep running after him until he stopped (which was probably true), he stopped and turned around.

"You can't just leave me here!" I called.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked. "I've never even met you before today! Why should I help you?"

I thought for a moment. Why should he help me? I had a perfectly good reason, but my father had forbidden me to speak of it. So instead I just stated the obvious. "Because I want to know what your doing. What's a man like you doing running around the on streets of London at night ?"

That wasn't going to cut it. I saw the Doctor start to turn away. "And I may not know you," I blurted out, "But I know who you are. I know what you do. And I want to help you."

I hadn't meant to say it. But I couldn't just watch him walk away.

The Doctor slowly turned around. "How do you know who I am?" he whispered.

I shook my head. "That, I can't tell you."

"Then how can I trust you?" he glared at me.

I couldn't believe the look he was giving me. Even though I had never met the Doctor before that night, my father had told me enough about him to know that he shouldn't be so... angry. Dad had always described him as kind, fun, and seemingly carefree. But that was not the man that stood before me. As I looked into his eyes, all I saw was guilt. And loss. And frustration. But most of all, grief.

"Doctor," I began slowly. "You may not know who I am, but I know who you are. And I understand why you can't trust me. And I can't tell you why you should. Just please, please trust me on this!" I pleaded.

The Doctor stared at me with doubt. But slowly, his expression softened. After a moment, he signed. "I'm sorry. I just can't."

I closed my eyes. Slowly my hands went to the cord on my neck.

"What are you doing?'' he asked warily. "What do you ha-"

The Doctor stopped midsentence. His eyes grew wide. A flicker of emotions crossed his face; shock, curiosity, hope. "How..."

In my hand was a silver TARDIS key.