I took a sip out of my cup as I strolled. The warm apple juice was scalding hot, but considering that it was 2 degrees out it wasn't all that unreasonable. I glanced around and found an unoccupied bench. Well, I say unoccupied except for the ton or so of snow that had fallen in the span of a single night. I proceeded to clear a small space, I ended up carving an armchair out of the fresh powder. I sat down and relaxed enjoying the heat of my drink and the fact that I didn't have classes due to the unexpected snow.

I thought about the snow for a moment. It was weird, it was only October and we already had a full three feet of snow. In a single night! Meteorologist all over the world were confused, preppies were gloating and preaching the end of humanity. I thought it was pretty cool, I loved snow. The cold didn't please me too much but at least I had a warm flat and a good parka.

I sat there, in my own thoughts, the styrofoam cup radiating heat into my hand, reminding me to take a sip every so often. I was deep in thought when I heard an odd sound coming from a bit further along the path. I peeked over the snow covering the rest of the bench to see what was going on.

I could've sworn that box wasn't there before, the fact it wasn't covered in snow only reinforced that thought. I watched as a man who clearly wasn't dressed for the weather stepped out, muttered something I couldn't hear and marched off.

Curious, I lifted myself out of my little fortress of snow and approached the box. The blue finish stood out starkly in the expanse of white that was the park. A luminous sign on the top read "Police Public Call Box", I remembered seeing a picture of one in an old 1960's album in the library. That didn't explain what this one was doing here.

I looked around at the base of the box, there were no tracks except mine and those of the man who walked out. Even behind it. The box hadn't been driven in, a crane would've been too noisy. Unless it had spontaneously appeared there, there was no way it could've gotten there.

"Whatever remains must be the truth..." I muttered to myself as I placed my hand on the door. I hadn't the man locked it and unsurprisingly the door yielded to my light push. Realising something, I took a step backwards and read the sign on the other door. "Pull to open" it said. I chuckled and both cursed and blessed my inability to register the meaning of door signs. I shook my head at my own stupidity as I stepped inside the box. When I looked up I was tearing at an immense space. At the centre of which stood at large column. The bluish light emanating from it was actually rather soothing. I wandered inside, admiring the impossibility of the space inside. I didn't bother going outside to recheck, I knew what I saw. This thing was tiny outside, but inside... Inside it was a whole new world. I brushed my fingers against the edge of the console. The static shock I got felt like I was being scolded for touching something in a museum or something. I made note of the implied "Do not touch" sign and resumed exploring. I walked across the metal grid floor, feeling it dip slightly under my heavy footfalls. I stepped, with great relief onto firmer ground. The corridor was dark, I scanned the wall for a light switch.

"Come on there's got to be a light around here somewhere." Then I remembered my best friend's latest feat of tinkering with his apartment. I clapped my hands, the light blazed into life, I grinned. This was the best thing ever. I could see a set of stairs at the end of the corridor and a door halfway between me and it. I waltzed over to the door and peeked my head into the room. Seeing nothing but filing cabinets, shelves and stray boxes, I moved on, assuming I'd just found the archive room. I reached the stairs and stood for a moment, admiring the handiwork. The design of the short flight of steps was rather opulent, with a carved wooden banister in what looked like a light oak or birch, the door itself intricately inlaid with brass. Above the door was a seal. It looked like a stylised eight, or an hourglass. It was very pretty nonetheless. I strode up the polished stone stairs, this room must be very important. I pushed the handle down, a click, the door opened with an awful groan. The owner really should oil the doors, already the one to the outside was a bit squeaky... I turned my attention to the contents of the high vaulted space before me, and my jaw dropped. It was a library. This guy certainly had his priorities straight. I couldn't see the end of it, it was just shelves after shelves after shelves, on two levels! I marvelled at the closest bookcase, each shelf was labeled with a little brass circle each one with a different pattern inside it. I suspected it to be a language of some kind, I mean they were labels after all. I strolled amidst the books, enjoying the smell of paper and leather that filled the immense space. I noticed some shelves had little objects on them, probably little mementos that were too important or meant too much to be shoved into the archive room. I was about to scale a set of spiral iron stairs with a flower patterned banister when the entire room shook, sending me sprawling onto the cold metal of the staircase.

"What the hell was that for?" I scolded the empty air. A draft responded, I shivered.

Unfazed I resumed my climb to the upper level. Up here the shelves were newer, the little brass labels were shinier and not as worn as the ones below. This was the new information section. I pulled out a random book, I couldn't read the curvy writing on the cover, but I opened it anyway, enjoying the feel of paper under my fingers. Smiling I put it back as I found it. I turned around and a familiar symbol caught my eye. I went over to inspect the shelf in question and was surprised to see that the books on this shelf were in English. I read the titles on the leather bound books and was surprised to spot some of my favourites, there was the integral works of John Green plus a few I didn't know, there was the entire Hunger Games series, plus a few books by the same author that I didn't know but was dying to read. On a lower shelves I found all seven Harry Potter books. I marvelled at this man's collection of book and wondered if he'd read them all. If he had... That was impossible, I looked from the back of the room to the front and assessing the number of book, tens of thousands, and the time needs to read one, a day based on my own reading speed, a calculated how much time was needed to read all of them, centuries. Unless that man was over a hundred years old, there was no way he'd read all of them. I looked back at the careful labelling and the leather bound books. I knew some of those books as paperbacks, they'd been rebound. With extreme care, you could see the careful minutiae, the time spent. Despite the impossibility of the assertion, I concluded that that man, that impossible man, he read and rebound every single book in here. With the exception perhaps of the original dwellers of this magnificent library. Suddenly I found myself liking him. I had never met him, didn't even know what his face looked like, but I instantly felt for him, sharing his love for the written word.

I propelled myself away from the banister I'd been leaning against when I heard footsteps echoing in the high vaulted ceiling.

"Uncaïr, Uncaïr... " I heard him say to himself, his voice betraying a slight frustration. I didn't understand what the word meant but to be honest I didn't really care. I watched him navigate the book lined alleys, scanning the titles of the thick volumes. I peered over the edge watching him fervently look for whatever book he was looking for. "Aha!" He suddenly exclaimed, the barest hint of Scottish accent making itself known. I watched him exit the library his nose in a large volume with bits of paper sticking out of the edges, I suspected they were notes he'd taken while reading it. One of the pages fell out and fluttered behind him. I waited a moment, making sure I could safely come down unnoticed. I tiptoed to the loose page and picked it up, ducking behind a narrow bookcase beside the wall to read it. Or try to anyway. The man had a doctor's handwriting, I could barely make out the shape of the barely circular scribbles. It was clearly not written using and alphabet I knew, actually I seriously doubted it even was from this planet. I entertained the notion that the impossible man with the love of book was an alien. I shook my head, and yet... Well he'd looked human when I saw him... I put the thought train on the back burner for later inspection. When I had more information to go on. I turned my attention back to the scribbled notes. I recognised one of the better shaped circles to be of the same type as the little brass labels on the shelves. It was the same language I was sure of it. A language written in a circle, now that was interesting! I turned the page around to reveal more dreadful handwriting, and a drawing. A sketch of some kind of horned creature. Only the head had been depicted, but the detail was exquisite. The man was a brilliant artist as well, I stared at the drawing in awe. A slightly neater little circle lay in the corner of the drawing, most probably letting the reader know what it was.

Suddenly I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to talk with him about all the wonderful things he'd seen. I wanted to get to know the impossible bookbinder with awful handwriting, wanted him to teach me things, things that my first year university professors would never have guessed or deemed impossible. I looked out at the rest of the library, remembering my earlier calculations. Hundreds of years... If that were true. I stood there in my day dream, not noticing the muffled footsteps behind me, or the moment they suddenly stopped.

I jumped when I hear a cough behind me, and froze when I saw the source. There he was right in front of me, for the first time I saw his face, his dark brown eyes glaring at me like the intruder I was. My mind raced as I tried to save the situation, I remembered the paper I was holding.

"You dropped this." I said simply, my voice wavering a little, he took the page but maintained his cold stare. I found it funny how his eyes were so cold, when they could, and had, contained such warmth and kindness.

"Who are you?" He asked, his voice impassive and cold as ice.

"Alisha. Alisha Parks... Sir."

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" The second question had a hint of bewilderment, despite being hidden well, very well.

"The door was open." I lowered my head between my shoulders, feeling very small despite our being of similar heights. His furrowed brow seemed very threatening all of a sudden "I was curious." I admitted, that was the truth. I was curious, and now I had gotten into trouble for it. As usual.

He stared me down, I could tell he was thinking. Hard. Only about thirty second went by, but it felt like an hour. Then he smiled.

"Come." He jerked his head to the side, motioning me to follow. Nervously, I trotted behind him. His slim figure silhouetted in the dimly lit corridor. He'd looked about thirty-five or so, but I could tell that that his handsome face of his was nothing but a facade. The utterly ordinary, and well designed, front of a building that held oh so many secrets.

We reached the first room, the one with the column, he beckoned me over. He pulled a monitor over and showed me a map detailing cloud movement.

"You had quite a lot of snow lately, correct?" He asked pointing to the clouds.

"Yes." I answered, unsure of his meaning

"When did it start?"

"Last night, three feet in less than twenty-four hours. Which is odd, especially for the middle of October" I dared try a slightly longer sentence. I watched his reaction carefully, he didn't seem to react negatively to it, so I relaxed a little.

"Did anything happen before that?" He said returning his attention to the monitor, fiddling with a few buttons "A storm, meteor shower?"

"There was that meteor that fell."I said remembering the news over the last few weeks "They tracked it to the middle of Northumberland but when they got there there was absolutely nothing." If that wasn't odd, she didn't know what was.

"Huh..." He pressed a couple of buttons and glided to the other end of the console. "Northumberland you said?"

"Yeah..." I watched him press seemingly random button, and fiddle with a few levers and sliders.

"Well, that narrows it down." He grabbed the monitor and pulled it over to himself. "Aha!"

"What?" I asked, as I moved out of the way so he could press a button.

"I found it."

"Found wh-" I started but I was thrown to the floor by another jolt.

The entire room was shaking, I got up in time to see him bring down a lever and it all stopped.

He jumped over to the door in what seemed like a single stride. Picking up his coat up from one of the branched columns on his way. I just stood three, frozen in confusion.

"Coming?" He asked, jovial. I timidly stepped over to him, taken aback by his sudden change in mood. A few minute ago he looked ready toll I me up in the deepest dungeon for breaking in, and now he acts like every is perfectly alright.

"Why?" I asked "Why me?" I didn't know what else to ask

"You're the one that came in." He stated simply "You tell me."

He opened the door and we both steppe out, not onto the snow covered pavement of the park, but on frosty grass dotted with heather bushes.

My eyes widened for a moment as I tried to understand how we moved, then the explanation dawned on me. The box wasn't just a box with more space inside than outside, it was a ship. A brilliant and wonderful mode of transportation, for the most confusing man I'd ever met.

"Who are you?" I asked staring into the distance.

"I'm the Doctor." He looked at me, I looked back at him. It was almost as if he expected me to say something.

"Nice to meet you, Doctor." For some reason the name just fit. It most certainly corresponded to his handwriting. I could see how people could be uncomfortable calling him something that was basically just an anonymous title, but it fit and from now on, that was his name, not some word my history or science professors put before their name to show they got their degree.

He smiled "And you Alisha Parks." Now I could see the warmth in his eyes.

"What are we looking for?" I asked, my heart soaring. The Doctor stepped out into the snow, only now did I notice that he was wearing Converse. I raised my eyebrows at his clear defiance of any kind of fashion.

"A cloaked or camouflaged ship, if it's cloaked you'll see a dip in the snow. But if it's camouflaged, the only way to find it is to, well... Run into it."

I nodded and started in the other direction, keeping my eyes on the snow, looking for any usual tracks in the snow. I thought I spotted some unusual tracks, but upon closer inspection they were just those of a hare. I walked in a straight line. Every so often I would glance back and see the Doctor holding out something, but I was too far to see what it was. I turned back to my own little line of searching, took two steps and ran right into a wall. Dazed I looked to see what I'd run into, and saw nothing.

"Doctor!" I called, getting up while rubbing my forehead "I think I found it." I glared at the offending bit of air as the Doctor came running.

"Good job!" He praised

"Yeah..." I mumbled, we looked at each other, he was trying no to laugh "No! It's not funny!" At that he lost it, doubling over with laughter as I stood there, slightly insulted. I made an effort to comprehend him, and failed. We have now gone from throw-down-a-well anger, to hey-I-just-met-you friendliness, and now to best-friends-for-years. That man was decidedly completely impossible.

When he recovered from laughing he was completely out of of breath. "Let's see what we're dealing with." He pulled out a little silver device from his right breast pocket. Holding it in both hands, it made a light whirring sound and emitted a blue light. At first nothing happened, the tone of the whirring went up and then where only air had been, stood a large ship. I stepped back to look at it. It was vaguely pill shaped, with two cylinders on the sides which I assumed to be the engines, and front that reminded me of a dolphin's head.

"Alisha, meet the Uncaïr." He sated matter-of-factly.

"Who are the Uncaïr?" I asked, although I could guess most of the basic information

"Aliens. From Pantar." He said "They're planet is one of the coldest you'll ever find life on." he stopped, thinking "But what are they doing here?"

"Conquering the planet?" I suggested

"Why do you say that?" He seemed to welcome my input, so I continued

"Well, the entirety of Europe is covered in snow earlier than it should be, and the temperatures have been dropping for the past two weeks." I shifted my gaze slightly to read the expression on his face, he seemed interested, so I continued "If their planet is cold, it would make sense if they turned another planet cold as part of terraforming to live on it. I doubt they can stand heat very long if they're used to negative temperatures in summer."

He nodded slowly, "Why the planet if only Europe is covered three feet of snow?" He asked, I could tell he was testing me.

"Have you ever heard of aliens invading that wanted less than the entire planet?" I said, shrugging.

He nodded again, accepting the information. "You're good." He said, I blushed and looked away. I wasn't used to compliments.

"Now we need to find a door." He ran off, his trench coat flying out behind him. I jogged behind him, cursing the fact I was so unfit.

When I caught up with him, he was paying very close attention to a small hatch. His little tool whirring furiously. The pitch changed several times, finally there was a loud clang and the hatch opened a little.

"In we go!" He flung it open.

"You couldn't find a proper airlock could you?"

"It' s as good a way in as any other." He stated before hopping down the narrow opening. Of course he didn't have any problem, his thin frame allowed him to do such things. Me on the other hand... I wasn't exactly fat, but I wasn't the thinnest person out here either.

Sighing I squeezed through the opening. I didn't get stuck, and it wasn't a tight fit, but there was no way I would been able to jump down like the Doctor did. Especially since the hatch was a full eight feet above the ground.

I tumbled to the ground and landed in a heap. I groaned as I picked myself off the floor.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked looking slightly worried.

"Fine, not everyone is as nimble as a cat." I grumbled at him. Slightly upset that he didn't tell me it was that big a drop. After all he wasn't all that much taller than me, it should've been a sizeable jump for him as well.

"Alrighty then..." He stopped and frowned at what he'd just said. "Alisha?"

"Yeah..."

"Remind me not to say that again."

Now it was my turn to laugh, that man was just the weirdest person I'd met. And I knew I had a lot to learn from him as well.

We walked down the corridor. I pulled my collar up a bit more, it was freezing in here. The Doctor had pulled out the little device again and was following it's bleeping.

"What is that?" I asked, I'd already determined it was a tool, but I wanted to know the specific name for it.

"Sonic screwdriver." He didn't add anything else, which was fine, I didn't anymore information than that.

Soon enough we stepped into a room, and quickly backed out of it. In it were standing three large cat-like creature. The ceilings were obviously that high because their heads almost reached it. I listened to them talking, the language was purred and growled. Very guttural, but strangely melodic.

"Ooh, that's bad." The Doctor said.

"What?" I focused my attention on his voice rather than the cat's.

"Looks like you're going to get a hell of a cold spell." He said. "They're increasing the power to the atmospheric regulators."

"Oh..."I said simply. Apparently cold wasn't cold enough for our furry friends.

Suddenly one of them turned right towards us, and we slipped behind the wall as fast as we could. I heard the low growl, it was onto us. I held my breath. But it was useless, the large cat rounded corner and it's bright yellow us bore into ours.

"Now I know what you're thinking..." The Doctor started but the Uncaïr just grabbed us by our collar as if we were kittens and carried us into the main room. He growled something to the other two as we just hung there, helpless against the alien's grip. The other two looked at each other, one of them, with a plated sash, growled something back and our jailor carried us off. I guessed the captain had given the order.

I sat across from the Doctor on the cold metal floor of the cell. The Uncaïr had thrown us in here twenty minutes ago. We were still stuck. The door was unlocked, that was the easy part, the sonic did a marvellous little bit of work there. The only problem was that it was too heavy for even the both of us to push. We'd been at it for the past fifteen minutes and the door had barely moved an inch.

"Well this is useless." I said into the silence

The Doctor nodded, I could tell he was trying to come up with some clever plan, but judging from his silence, he'd come up with nothing.

"How did you understand, what they were saying." I asked, curious as ever.

At that the Doctor looked up, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"You didn't understand them?" He seemed genuinely baffled

"No... Was I supposed to?" Now we were both confused.

"Yes..." He read my puzzled expression and elaborated "the TARDIS, my ship, is supposed to translate every thing into a language you can understand." He got up and sat next to me, pulling out his screwdriver with his left hand, switching it to his right and running a scan on me. "Why didn't it do it for you?" He listened to the light bleeping "You're human, 23, perfectly normal, average..." He raised the screwdriver little by little. He frowned a little when he reached my head but didn't say anything. "I'll have to run a deeper scan back in the TARDIS, but..." He trailed the sentence.

"What exactly did you hear?" He asked

"Mostly growls and purrs. Their language is very guttural, and focused on the "r" sound." I said putting my language course to use.

"And in the library?" This question he seemed more eager to have answered

"The shelves were labeled with little circles. Like in your notes." I answered " by the way you have terrible handwriting."

He didn't take notice of my little attempt at humour. He sat back and stared at the wall.

"When we get back we're going to have to get that solved." He said suddenly very serious. We sat in silence for a bit longer, I didn't like it.

"Why do you keep your screwdriver in your right pocket if you're right handed?"

"I'm not right handed." He answered

"But you use it with your right..."

"I'm ambidextrous. I prefer my right to write, but the left'll do just as well."

The question was answered, silence returned. We both indulged in our own train of thought until the guard opened the door. He growled something at us, the Doctor got up, I follows his lead, since he was the only one here that could understand them. The Uncaïr led us back to the front room, and sat us down on a pair of chair, although from our perspective they were more like tables. The captain glared at us, his bright yellow eyes squinting at us trying to understand the little people in front of him. I didn't feel reassured, I edge across my table closer to the Doctor, he saw my fear and grabbed my hand.

"Who are you and how did you get on board our ship?" The captain asked simply, going straight to the point

I was shocked to hear him in English, so shocked I almost let go of the Doctor's hand. It was odd to hear a giant snow panther speak in a Russian accent, but to be honest it was fitting.

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Alisha Parks." He gestured to me, thankfully not letting go of my hand. "We got in through the window."

I could tell the Doctor was being facetious, the rabbit hole we'd entered through was most certainly not a window.

"Now I have a question for you." The Doctor didn't give time for the captain to speak. "Who are you and why are you freezing this planet?"

The Uncaïr looked a little miffed that his interrogation had been told to take a hike, but he answered.

"We are Uncaïr scout ship Remor, we crashed here and our engines are useless." The captain looked genuinely pained, or at least I thought so, a cat's face isn't the easiest to pick out emotions on. "and we aren't freezing the entire planet, it's just that we need to fix our engines, but it was too hot outside the ship for us to get the parts. We've sent a distress signal, but we haven't gotten a response." At that point the captain hung his head a little and his little round ears felt horizontal. He had faith in his people, but he hadn't gotten a response...

"You still froze an entire continent!" The Doctor snapped

"It was necessary!" The captain responded just as harshly "We need to complete our mission, and we need to repair our ship. A minor change in the weather will not affect your people. The effects will disappear when we leave. If the change in climate bothers you, then it is in your best interest to help us."

Oh, that was clever. I admired the intelligence of the humanoid snow-leopard. He'd backed us in a corner: Help us, or we will help ourselves.

"Very well." The Doctor got up, he let go of my hand, I followed him, but didn't dare take his hand again. "I'll help you, but I need my ship. I need to go out and bring it here, will you let me do that?"

"We keep your friend." The captain said, in tone that nulled all objections.

The Doctor looked to me, I nodded. It was okay, as long as he was coming back. He walked down the hall back to the hatch, followed by one the two lesser ranked scouts. The great panther like being stared at her, and she stared right back. On the whole they were quite beautiful. Their grey fur lightly striped and dotted with intricate patterns in white. One of them had the natural white pattern down his arm dyed black so it stood out more. Their eyes bore into her soul, she tried to the same, but looking up at someone and judging them just wasn't working. A familiar sound saved her from their intent stars. The TARDIS materialised in a corner, and the Doctor stepped, out.

"There." He was followed by the rather bewildered Uncaïr guard. "Now shall we see about those engines."

The engine room was enormous. Larger than I would've expected. The Doctor was busy looking over the spaghetti of pipes that was the main reactor.

"Well, there's one thing you're right about..." He stated after tapping a conduit "You can't make orbit like this."

A growl from the captain.

"Well technically yes... I can patch you up enough so you can get to a space dock and get yourselves properly fixed." He looked mournfully at the engine. "I don't know what happened, but it certainly wasn't accidental."

An undignified gurgled hiss from the captain.

"I wouldn't say that..." He thought a moment "Actually, yes I would..."

The sound that came from the captain as he whirled around to his two guards was most certainly not a word. The modulated growls were furious as he glared at the two guard. I watched in awe as his anger drove him to bare his formidable teeth and raise his hackles. The guards cowered, their tails immediately went between their legs and their ears fell back. The captain continued shouting at them, neither guard made a sound.

"Captain..." The Doctor placed his hand as close to the captain's shoulder as he could reach, which was quite a comical sight since he basically reached the middle of his chest. "I think there is a more sensible way to go about this."

The captain whirled around, glared at the Doctor for a moment. Then he said something, half growl half purr.

A few minutes later, they were all seated in the galley, well at lest the Uncaïr were, our positions were slightly more uncomfortable seated on piles of ship safety, diplomacy and law manuals as we were.

"So..." The Doctor started "This ship was sabotaged, and their are only three suspects. Karr, Mirg, and Remre."he said gesturing to each of them in turn. He spoke the names with surprising fluidity not stumbling on the guttural pronunciation at all, even managing the purr on the captain's name.

"Yes." All three Uncaïr agree, each one looking nastily at the other two.

The Doctor then proceeded to gather information about the ship, how it was built on so on. All the while I thought there was something missing. I pioneered hard about it, creasing my brow as I searched. Then it hit me. They were scouts, which I knew was no more than a euphemism for spies. And they were on a mission. I tapped the Doctor's shoulder, he stopped his sentence and looked at me, I whispered my findings in his ear.

"Oh." He breathed "Oh yes! Alisha you are brilliant!" I basked in the praise.

"What was your mission?" He asked simply, abandoning all previous leads.

The Uncaïr looked to each other and grumbled something simultaneously

"I don't care if it's classified! Do you want to find the saboteur or not?"

The scouts looked pained and the captain explained. I edged over to the Doctor, so close our shoulders touched, he gave me a confused glance, but concentrated on the captain again.

"...the Vellus now had our military information, and it was our job to retrieve it and plant a virus in their system that would cripple their advances enough for us to establish a proper defence."

So it was war out there.

"When was the last time you made space dock?" I asked, hoping the translating thing worked both ways. The words "space dock" felt weird on my tongue, especially when used seriously.

"Last cycle, why?"

"Any Vellus there?" I kept going, the Doctor kept quiet and let me talk. "Or anyone that could have been a Vellus operative."

All three Uncaïr gasped and uttered as single name "Eritrain!". Apparently it had just dawned on them.

"He has the technology." Said Karr, the one with the tattoo.

"He has the power." Said Mirg.

"And he has the means." Captain Remre growled.

"Well then." The Doctor piped up "You've found your culprit, now let's get you patched up and in orbit so Europe can stop freezing to death." He said with a smile despite the very serious matter.

The Uncaïr and the Doctor worked furiously on the engines, the little screwdriver working miracles in the scouts' eyes. I watched them work, being neither strong enough or experienced enough in mechanics to be of any useful help. My eyes strayed to the Doctor. His coat was currently draped over a pipe and he'd put a pair of dark rimmed glasses on. There he was, my beautiful, impossible bookbinder. Helping out. I wondered how many times he'd done this, how many times he saved worlds without anyone knowing, how many times he'd saved us. I remembered last Christmas, where rumours of a giant flying replica of the Titanic had crashed into Buckingham palace. And the Christmas before that, when I watched my cousin, who came over for the holidays, just sit up and march on to the roof. Along with half the building. I'd been so scared, seeing him on the edge. And so glad when he came to and ran into my arms. Poor little boy, only six years old. I wondered if it was him, the Doctor, who'd saved us.

Back in the TARDIS, we watched the Uncaïr ship fly off into space, first slowly then engaging their FTL drive and zooming off. I closed the doors. Earth was beautiful from here, but vertigo was still a thing in space apparently.

"There, now Europe should unfreeze a bit, you should have normal weather by November." The Doctor leaned against the console. His gaze was unreadable.

"Doctor?" I was burning to ask "The labels in the library. What language are they?"

He took a deep breath, I could see the pain veil his eyes "Gallifreyan." The sadness in his voice was barely audible, but I knew it pained him.

"That's..." I trailed the sentence trying to find the words. "That's your native language?" I skipped delicate wordings, and went straight to the point.

"Yes."

"You're not human." I said.

"No."

I felt a pang of sadness, I didn't know why. "So you are...?" I was past being delicate here, I really didn't have the words for this type of conversation.

"I am a Timelord."

I smiled a little at the name. "Lord", I mentally chuckled, no ego involved. Not at all.

"How come I can understand you..." this had puzzled me "if the translator isn't working for me..."

"I'm speaking English." He said, a slight smile on his face. I looked up at him, awe-stricken.

"Really?" He nodded "You must really like us." I laughed

"Oh, of course I do." His smile broadened, not a trace of the sadness that had been there earlier could be seen. "Humans...You are absolutely brilliant." He sauntered over to give me a hug, I returned it. "And you!" He held me at arms length, "You figured out the culprit all by yourself!"

"Oh it was nothing really..." I really wasn't used to being praised so much.

"Nothing!" He exclaimed "Nothing!" Now it was his turn to be awe-stricken "Alisha Parks you are impossible."

"I could say the same of you, Doctor." I remembered one last question. "Oh by the way..." He turned to face me from the console. "The books in the library... have you read all of them?"

He smiled "What do you think?"

My jaw dropped "Read and rebound every single book in that library? There are over a hundred thousand of them!" He nodded "But would've taken years! No centuries."

"There are about 360 000 books in that library."

I made a quick approximation calculation, ,You mean to tell me you're 900 years old." I shot him a look of disbelief.

"902 to be exact." He smirked

"But, but,... " I stuttered, still not quite believing "You look thirty!"

"Why thank you." He chuckled.

"No, no, no..." I started pacing. "The box I get, the translator I get, the aliens that look like snow-leopards I get, aliens that look human I get, but you being 902, I don't."

He laughed "Come on." He took my shoulder land led me to a corridor "Let's find you a room. It's almost eleven o'clock."

"How do you know what time it is?" I kept walking, I was true I was getting tired "We're in space."

"I always know what time it is." He stated with no little pride "Here." He gave me a light shove into a rather spacious room. "Can stay here the night. I'll take you home tomorrow."

I noticed the bed and suddenly my brain just gave in to exhaustion. "Okay." I remember muttering, then i fell into bed.

I woke up with a start, not knowing where I was. I looked around, the plain whitewashed walls had nothing special about them except a small painting of a tree against a sunset. I squirmed out of the thick red covers, and rolled lazily to the edge of the queen sized bed. Then I remembered the day before, this was the TARDIS. I noticed a neat pile of clothes on a chair against the wall, on it was a note. I half-recognised the awful handwriting, the cursive script had been elongated and flattened.

"I think these should fit you." i managed to read, it was like reading a medieval manuscript. I squinted to read the rest. "The kitchen is down the hall if you want breakfast."

I looked to the neat stack of cloth. All rather plain, no particular style. I picked up the pile and plodded to the bathroom, hoping a shower would wake me up.

It did, soaking wet, I grabbed the towel I'd used the day before and dry myself off. I ended up staring a myself in the full length mirror next to the sink. I let the towel drop, and examine myself. I wasn't what your average 20 year old boy would call "attractive", I had a thick bone structure, which automatically increased my dress size. And my laziness and unwillingness to exercise just made the few curves I had disappear. I raised my gaze to meet my own eyes. Grey, green, blue, brown,... They were of no particular colour really. Depended on the light. My hair was also on the forgettable side, my dark brown curls usually reached the middle of my shoulder blades. Currently wet as they were, they were completely straight and stretched all the way down to the middle of my back. Quickly drying off, the excess water that continually streamed from my hair, I held up the first item of clothing on the pile. A red sweater, my size exactly, with little white chevrons across the chest. It was very festive. I rummaged through the pile and was slightly embarrassed to find a set of underwear. With them was another note.

"Don't blush, I had a daughter, and a granddaughter, I know what you ladies wear." Said the cryptic scribbles.

I blushed even redder.

I ignored my embarrassment and resumed clothing myself. I looked in the mirror again to see how the outfit looked, and nodded. Not bad at all, while he had no dress sense for himself, he certainly knew about others. Mad, impossible Doctor.

My need for sustenance made itself known, loudly. I remembered about breakfast, and set out to find the kitchen. The corridor was lit, this side of the side was,in the same organic, coral-y style then the main control room, the forked columns supporting the slightly lower ceiling. I found the kitchen, mainly from the smell of pancakes, and those pancakes weren't doing too well. I followed my nose to the simple, beige tiled kitchen.

"Morning." I said distracting the Doctor from his cookbook.

"Morning Alisha." He smiled, he was wearing the same suit as the day before, minus the jacket, but I spotted it on the back of one of the chairs at the table. His coat was probably still draped on the first column in the main chamber.

I looked at the stack of pancakes, they all ranged from not cooked at all, to I-got distracted-and-forgot-I-was-making-pancakes. "You've no idea how to make pancakes do you?"

"No..." He sighed "Not really."

"Here." I took the spoon and spatula away from him, I heard a sigh of relief as he passed the utensils to someone clearly more qualified in cooking matters.

I dipped the spoon in the batter and poured it into the pan. Seconds later I plopped a perfectly golden pancake onto the pile of failed ones.

"I was never good at this." He watched me work "Nine hundred years, and I still can't handle anything requiring a pan, or a pot."

"Don't worry about it." I joked "I can't draw a damn thing! You on the other hand..."

"Oh that was a doodle, some notes I took at the Academy."

"But it was a beautiful doodle!"

"Not even sure I can do that anymore..." His gaze grew distant "That was, ooh, lifetimes ago."

I stared at him "You are the weirdest guy." I shook my head in amazement at his terminology. A few minutes later, I finished the bowl of batter and we had a sizeable stack of edible pancake to enjoy.

"So I guess you'll want to go home?" He said, slightly pained.

"I have to, I have class at one o'clock." Strangely enough, I didn't want to go either.

"Actually..." He put down his silverware "I never told you want TARDIS stands for." I titled my head as a way of telling him to elaborate. "Time And Relative Dimension In Space." My eyes widened

"You've got a time machine?" My jaw dropped, again

"Oh yes."

"I could travel with you for months and still come back and take my class on time." My grin stretched from ear to ear, so did his, his brown eyes glinting in the white light.

"You got it." Somehow his smile got even wider, "So... Want to come?"

How could I refuse? "Yes." I laughed with joy "Oh god yes!"