The Doctor's eyes flickered open. As soon as they did, he asked himself three things. One, why were they shut in the first place? He certainly didn't sleep much. Two, where was he? This certainly was not the TARDIS. It was a big white room, and he was apparently lying on a similarly coloured bed, beside which sat a chair. Which led to question number three – who was the girl sitting on the chair, staring at him?

"Nice to see you awake." The girl said calmly as the Doctor met her gaze.

"…Thanks. Err…where am I?" The Doctor asked.

"Wales." The woman replied unhelpfully.

"Oh."

"You took a fall." The woman explained. "Banged your head pretty hard. You've been out since yesterday."

"Oh."

"I'm Carys by the way. And you are?"

The Doctor refrained from saying 'Oh' again, and decided it was time to look for some answers. "I'm John Smith." He replied. "Dr. John Smith. My ID is in my coat pocket, actually…"

"Your coat's in the wash. The stuff that was in it is on that table." Carys replied indicating a small beside table next to the Doctor's head. The Doctor reached out and picked up his trusty psychic paper and showed it to her. Carys took it and looked it over.

"Oh, Dr. John Smith of London, are we?" Carys asked, politely enough. "A medical doctor?"

"Ah…no. Actually, it's just a PhD, you know. So, tell me again, where am I?"

Carys smiled. "I told you. Wales. Cardiff to be exact. In my house. In a bed. On planet Earth. In the Milky Way galaxy. It that area generally known as the Universe. Does that help any?" she asked.

"Loads, thanks"

"So now that I've told you that, why don't you tell me who you are?" Carys asked.

The Doctor stared. "I told you, I'm…"

"Don't lie." Carys sighed. "The piece of paper you showed me, it's blank."

The Doctor looked at Carys warily. "Have you had psychic training at all, by any chance?"

"No. I've already seen the paper, Doctor, last night. I was looking for ID, to see who you were. It's not every day a fairly good looking guy falls from a considerable height and lands right in front of you. Especially in Wales." Carys replied. "And another thing, I'm not an expert, but I'm fairly sure the Londoners don't have two heartbeats."

"Ah." The Doctor didn't exactly know how to respond to this.

"Now, who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Oh, come on…"

"It's true!" The Doctor replied indignantly.

"Doctor who?"

The Doctor mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, "If I hear that line one more time…" Then he looked back at Carys. "Just the Doctor. That's my name."

"Funny sort of name." Carys replied.

"Funny sort of way to treat a guest." The Doctor retorted.

"Touché." Carys replied. "So, Doctor, explain why you have those two hearts beating away merrily, will you?"

"I'm a 900-and-something year old Timelord from the planet Gallifrey, which was destroyed in the last great Time War. I travel through space and time in a machine called the TARDIS and I'm the last of my kind."

"You can travel in time?"

"Yes."

"That sounds nice." Carys said. "Are you hungry? I'm not going to cook – the kitchen'll explode if I try - but I'll go get some chips. From the chippie down the road. Nice, greasy chips, perfect for an invalid. Do aliens eat chips?"

"I love a good bag of chips." The Doctor replied. "Love them. Jelly babies too, can't get enough. You humans aren't bad at food. So you aren't cynical at all about the fact I just told you I was an alien? Most girls your age wouldn't believe me."

"Most twenty five year old women haven't met an oddball with two hearts." Carys replied. "Especially one running for his life…or maybe looking for something?"
The Doctor looked at her for a minute. "I only landed in Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS. No idea what I'd be running from."

"Perhaps it was another big scary alien." Carys suggested indifferently. "You look the kind who attracts trouble.

"Oi!" The Doctor said, and then stopped. "Well, I guess I do. Haven't seen a big blue box anywhere, have you?"

"What? You mean like a '50's police public call box?" Carys asked.

"That's the one."

"Nope." Carys replied, but, seeing the expression on the Doctor's face, added "Yes, actually. I ignored it, though. We humans have an amazing capacity for self deception. We don't notice odd things like your machine, err, the TARDIS."

The Doctor started, hearing his own words reflected back at him. Carys grinned at him. "I'm only kidding you; it's in an alleyway not far from here."

"Who're you?" the Doctor asked abruptly.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that, Doctor." Carys replied. "Okay, I'll introduce myself then. My name's Carys Jones. My Dad's from England. His brother, my Uncle Clive and his ex-wife Francine have three kids, Leo, Tish and Martha. That explain it a bit more?"

"You're Martha's cousin."

"Yes, and shame on you for leading her on, Doctor. That poor girl took months to get over you." Carys replied, mock-sternly. "Still, she's got her nice new job now…"

"I didn't lead her on." The Doctor stated, not whiningly, just calmly.

"I was joking. Relax, Doctor, I'm not going to attack you for breaking my cousin's innocent young heart." Carys laughed.

Now that the Doctor looked at her, Carys did look a lot like Martha. She was black –a light tone, like Martha – with the same black hair. She was a little taller than Martha, her eyes were green and her nose was a bit longer, but the family resemblance was startling – when you knew what you were looking for.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew who I was in the first place?" The Doctor demanded.

"I didn't. I didn't know what you looked like, and then when you told me, I had to make sure." Carys replied. "I've wanted to meet you for ages, Doctor, the man with many faces who saves the world on a regular basis. Always travel with a girl, don't you? Martha, and then that blonde before her-"

"Rose." The Doctor interrupted.

"Yes, Rose. And then last Christmas there was that ginger in the wedding dress."

"How do you know about Donna?" The Doctor asked.

"There are like a million conspiracy websites following you, Doctor." Carys replied. "As soon as Martha told me about you, I had to check them out. Now, how about those chips?"

"I'll come with you." The Doctor offered, making to stand up, then realising to his horror that he couldn't move his leg.

"Sorry, Doctor." Carys replied, taking a coat from the rack near the door. "You aren't going anywhere."