A/N: After Clara dies in an accident the Doctor is heartbroken and decides to live his life as a "human". He becomes John Smith, teaches science at a Liverpool University, and mostly keeps to himself. Then he meets Aria Carter, a 23 year old American photojournalist who works for the Liverpool Echo. While he tries to not let anyone into his hearts for fear of hurting anyone, she manages to worm her way into them and after 6 months into the relationship a Moserian crashes into their apartment looking for the Doctor. His cover is blown and suddenly Aria is pulled into a world that her lover had kept hidden from her.
Aria wakes up on a Sunday morning to a combination of noises; an alarm blaring, pots clanging, a dog barking and the kettle whistling. She looks at the clock and groans as it reads 8:30, she had stayed up late the night before researching, editing photos, and writing her article that was due on Monday. 'Why does John have to be such a morning person' she thinks to herself as she rolls over to go back to sleep. She's just dozing off again when the smell of coffee reaches her nose and she knows that he's purposely doing it to get her out of bed. Trying to ignore him, she pulls the blankets up over her head and smashes her face into the pillow.
It doesn't work, however, and a few minutes later she's following the bittersweet aroma to the kitchen where John is at the stove top cooking bacon, or trying to at least. She yawns and pads over to the coffee pot, pouring herself a cup before leaning against the counter next to the stove. "Morning" she says groggily, taking a sip of her coffee.
He turns and smiles at her, "Good morning, I figured I'd surprise you and cook breakfast." She smiles back at him and reaches up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek; 'Damn height difference' she thinks with an internal roll of her eyes. Putting her coffee mug down she jumps up onto the counter and lets her legs dangle down. She yawns again and he gives her a concerned look, "You shouldn't stay up that late."
"Yeah well, I had work that needed to be done. Plus I would get more rest of you didn't wake me up at 8:30 in the damn morning on a Sunday." she retorts giving him a glare.
Knowing she wasn't actually angry with him he simply replies, "Well you knew my sleeping habits when you decided to get an apartment with me." and before she could say another word he sticks a piece of slightly burnt bacon in her mouth.
She really glares this time and mumbles a curse word that's garbled by the bacon so it comes out sounding like "Mhmfumsh!"
In response, he laughs and waggles a finger in her face, "Tsk tsk Ms. Aria, don't talk with your mouth-mfshmhm!" His reproach was cut off by a piece of toast being unceremoniously shoved into his open mouth.
Aria sits there with a pleased look on her face, chewing on the bacon while he looks slightly in shock at what just happened. She giggles and then looks around him to the pan on the stove, "Oh by the way, your bacon's burning." With that she hops off the counter and heads towards the table to set up when a bang sounds from downstairs. "What the hell?" she frowns, looking at the floor as if she could see through it to find out what's happening.
Another bang sounds, and then another, and another, and another until the banging is right at their door and then silence. Toast forgotten, John quickly pulls her behind him and pulls out an oddly shaped wand mechanical thing with a green tip. Confusion is apparent on her face as she peeks around her boyfriend's outstretched arm, "John, what the hell is going on?"
He opens his mouth to reply when the door is ripped off its hinges and thrown across the apartment. She's too shocked to even scream because she's busy gaping at the thing that crashed in to their apartment. It was a big, blue, shirtless thing with a face that resembled a bull but the thing that scared her the most was the huge, sharp looking horns that rested atop it's head.
Her grip on the back of John's shirt tightens as she lets out a frightened squeak. In response he pushes her more behind him and raises the strange wand towards the creature. In a low voice which chills her core and sends shivers down her spine he says, "You are not welcome here. Leave now before I change my mind."
The thing lets out what seems to be a laugh and says in a gravelly voice, "I'm here to kill the Doctor, I've traced his time energy back to this place," tilting his horns at them he continues, "I've traced it back to you."
With wide eyes, Aria peeks out from behind John, "No, you must uh, have, the wrong place, there-there's no doctor here. Please just go." It doesn't respond to her demand, only fixes her with an awful smile that curdles her blood and makes her hair stand up on end. "Please?" she whispers again, hoping that it'll just go.
It starts advancing on them, slowly, knowing that they're cornered. John glances at the hallway, then quickly back at the beast, mechanical wand still raised at it. In a split second he throws his arm up and points the strange tool at their ceiling light, directly over the creatures head. A strange sound emits from it and the light explodes, sending sparks and glass showering down onto the creature's head.
It lets out a roar and claws at it's face and the next thing Aria knows is that shes being pulled down the hallway towards the storage closet with the jammed door lock, 'John keeps forgetting to fix that' she thinks, panic starting to seep into her mind. The strange sounds happens again and the door swings open.
A moment later she is in what is most definitely not a spare storage closet. Her hand is let go of and she is left alone standing at doorway staring at a huge, no, ginormous room with a weird glass column in the middle attached to a console with a multitude of knobs and levers. At a loss for words she turns and runs towards the open doors, out back into the storage closet. There's only about 5 inches of space between storage closet door and the doors to the huge room, so she only has room to whirl around and stare at...a blue police box?
Really starting to panic now she stumbles backwards until her back is against the storage closet door. What seems like hours must have only been a few seconds because the banging starts again and a hand is reaching out and pulling her back towards the strange box and the only thing she manages to say before she faints is: "Its bigger on the inside!"