Sometimes in life, changes are obvious. Entering or leaving relationships, college graduations, riding your bike into a british police box, the list goes on. I'm not joking, about that last one. That actually happened and it broke my heart.

The day it happened was pretty normal. It was a warm May day and I was on my way home from the dentist. I was mildly irritated because I'd shredded my earbuds but otherwise was in a pleasant mood. At least I was almost home, then I could relax and play video games. Luck was decidedly against me today, though, as I slowly rode down a hill. Instead of straightening out like I needed to, the bike decided to turn the other direction and run me into a blue wall. I flew headfirst into the wall then fell sideways.

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself as I rubbed my head. There was a creak near me and I heard a girl's voice call out, "Doctor, I think we hit someone!" The creak came again, then footsteps toward me.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked from above me. I looked up and saw a pretty blonde girl looking worriedly at me. She held out her hand to help me up.

"Uh, yeah, just a bump. No problem." I touched my forehead and flinched when my fingers made contact. That was going to bruise like a bitch. I took her hand and started to stand up, but suddenly there was an intense pounding in my head. I gasped and started to fall, but the blonde girl caught me. As the pounding grew worse, the girl called out to the doctor she'd spoken to earlier. A tall, slender man came into view then darkness consumed me.

I woke up what felt like seconds later, though my surroundings had completely changed. I was lying on a small row of cushioned benches. I moved to sit up and pain flashed through my head.

"Careful. The Doctor says you have a concussion." The pretty blonde girl from before said, rushing over the help me sit up. I looked around the room we were in and stared in shock and awe. It was the strangest room I'd ever been in and it took a moment to fully process.

"Where are we?" I whispered so quietly I'm sure the girl had trouble hearing me.

"We're in the TARDIS. It's a time machine." She explained gently. I stared at her in surprise before looking around again.

"Like Back to the Future?" I asked, frowning.

"Kind of? I never saw that movie."

"Me neither. Never had the chance…" I trailed off, "Where's that doctor guy?"

"Probably reading up on human stuff. I think it's been awhile since he's dealt with concussions."

"This would have been avoided had you been wearing a helmet." A gruff voice came from behind the girl.

"Dude, it's hot as fuck out. My hair's gonna look like shit without it being soaked through with sweat." I said with a snort. I leaned past the girl and finally got a good look at him. Strangely enough, he reminded me a bit of my dad, though with darker hair and better teeth. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by my phone chirping.

"Oh, sorry, I thought I had that on vibrate." I said, pulling my phone out of my back pocket. Just an email. Lame.

"Okay, so time machine, yeah? That's cool. Can we go somewhere?" I asked, shoving my phone into my pocket.

"Nope, I've got to take Rose home." The man said, moving to the console near me. I pouted and looked at the girl (Rose?) who turned to the man.

"Oh come on, Doctor, it couldn't hurt. Besides, we owe her." Rose pleaded.

"Pleeeeease, Doctor?" I begged, pulling my best puppy dog eyes. The Doctor glanced at me and sighed, "Just the one trip."

"Yay!" I cheered, hopping off the bench and almost falling over. Rose grabbed my arm and helped me steady myself.

"Sorry, I'm-" I started to apologize before the floor under me suddenly shifted and I fell.

"What the hell?" I yelled out, glaring at the Doctor. With a final jolt, everything stopped moving.

"What was that?" I asked in surprise.

"The TARDIS." Rose said with a cheeky grin. She popped up and ran out the doors, the Doctor and I trailing after her. The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS (holy shit it's a box what the fuck is a police box) and I marvelled at our surroundings.

"How long have I been gone?" I vaguely heard Rose ask the Doctor.

"About twelve hours." He said and they both laughed a little. Rose mentioned something about her mum and she and the Doctor joked a bit as I slowly walked around the machine.

"Don't you disappear." Rose was saying as I stood in front of the doors. The Doctor chuckled and focused on me.

"Holy fuck. That big room is inside this tiny box?" I said incredulously.

"Yep."

"Holy fuck." I breathed. I opened the TARDIS door and poked my head in just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I shut the door and turned back to where the Doctor was, only to see that he'd walked over to a nearby post and was looking at a paper taped to it.

"What's that?" I asked, reaching over to smooth a corner so I could read it. CAN YOU HELP? Was emblazed across the top, above a picture of Rose. To the left of the picture was information about her and when she'd gone missing and at the bottom was a phone number.

"Oh my god." I exclaimed. The Doctor shot off toward where Rose went, with me right on his trail. We ran up countless steps and into an apartment. I lingered in the doorway, desperately trying to catch my breath as the Doctor ran up to Rose and a crying woman, who was holding tightly onto her.

"It's not twelve hours, it's, uh, twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry." The Doctor said to Rose with a nervous laugh.

"The hours I've sat here! Days and weeks and months, all on my own! And where were you? Travelling! What the hell does that mean, travelling? That's no sort of answer!" Rose's mom, Jackie, raved, "You ask her, she won't tell me. That's all she says, travelling." She said, turning to the police officer sitting on the couch. The Doctor and I leaned against the table and watched as she paced around. That is a very animated woman.

"Well that's what I've been doing." Rose tried to explain.

"Well your passport's still in the drawer. It's just been one lie after another." Jackie accused.

"I meant to phone, I really did, I just… forgot." Rose said, avoiding eye contact with her mother.

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here? I just don't believe you." She moved to the couch then turned around, "Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Actually, that's my fault," The Doctor finally spoke up, "I sort of employed Rose as my companion."

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The officer jumped in.

"No." Rose and the Doctor said in unison as I stared in the officer in shock. Rose was my age according to her flyers and I was surprised that he'd say that.

"Then what is it?" Jackie exclaimed angrily as she got in the Doctor's face, "Cuz you, you waltz in here, all charm and smiles, and the next thing that I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! And you've got another girl who's parents are probably worried sick about her. How old are you? 40? 45? What, did you find them on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?" She accused.

"Well, I am a doctor!" He defended himself.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate." Jackie said before winding up and slapping the Doctor across the face. My hands flew over my mouth. The officer jumped up in case Jackie swung again but Rose just rolled her eyes. Eventually they managed to calm Jackie down and the officer left. As the door shut behind him Rose wrapped her mother in another hug.

"Did you think about me at all?" Jackie tearfully asked Rose. Rose pulled away and looked her mother in the face.

"I did, all the time, but…" Rose said, equally tearful.

"One phone call. Just to know that you're alive." Jackie said almost pleadingly. Rose sniffled and said, "I'm sorry, I really am."

"But do you know what terrifies me, is that you still can't say. Where were you, Rose? What can be so bad that you can't tell me, sweetheart? Where were you?" Jackie sobbed. Rose just sniffed and smiled sadly.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked from beside me, "You've been wheezing."

"Oh. Yeah, just asthma. I forgot to grab my inhaler before we came dashing in here." I said jokingly. The Doctor sighed but moved on to a different topic.

"Mum wondered where you went." Rose said behind me. I jumped and almost dropped my phone.

"Just wanted to check out the view. I've never been to London before." I said, sitting on the rooftop. Rose sat next to me and stared curiously at my phone.

"What's that?" She asked, gesturing to it.

"My phone. Not the most recent model, but it works and it was free." I said, handing it to her. She turned it over in her hands and inspected the black screen and blue plastic back.

"It's a smartphone. The screen responds when you touch it." I explained. I leaned over and unlocked my phone for her

"Those are apps-" I started to say before being cut off by the door to the stairs opening and the Doctor strolling toward us.

"Hey." I greeted him.

"How's your head?" He asked.

"Fine. Mild pounding, but it'll go away. I can handle a small headache." I said with a small smile.

"You haven't introduced yourself yet." The Doctor pointed out.

"Huh, I haven't. To be fair, what with the concussion and Rose's mom, I haven't been able to. I'm Angela."

"I can't believe my mum slapped you." Rose suddenly spoke up, handing my phone back to me.

"900 years of time and space and I've never been slapped by someone's mother." The Doctor said and the three of us laughed.

"Your face." Rose said, giggling.

"It hurt!" The Doctor said, looking a bit hurt. I laughed more at his expression.

"You're so gay." Rose laughed. My mood immediately dropped.

"Hey now, that's not cool." I said with a frown.

"Sorry." Rose said to me before looking at the Doctor again, "When you say 900 years…"

"That's my age."

"Really?" I asked, shocked.

"You're 900 years." Rose seemed like she almost didn't believe him.

"Yeah." The Doctor affirmed.

"My mum was right, that is one hell of an age gap." Rose said with a heavy exhale before sighing, "I can't do that to her again."

"Well she can't come with us. I don't do families." The Doctor said. I opened my mouth to make a joke about being slapped when all of a sudden something roared overhead. We all dropped into a crouch on the roof beneath where Rose and I had been sitting and stared at the spaceship that flew overhead, letting out a sound like a foghorn. We watched as it flew over London, ripping through two of the faces of Big Ben and crashing into the Thames.

"What the actual fuck." I deadpanned.

"Oh that's not fair." Rose said. The Doctor turned to us and laughed before grabbing Rose's hand. Rose grabbed my hand and the three of us sprinted down the stairs and toward the crash. (I say we sprinted. When we reached the ground I had to stop to catch my breath again and the Doctor had me climb on his back so I didn't slow us down.)

"It's blocked off." The Doctor said disappointingly as I slid off his back and moved to stand on his left.

"We're miles from the center. The city is gridlocked, the whole of London must be closing down." Rose said, panting and looking around.

"I know, I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic." The Doctor said excitedly. Rose and I stared at him in disbelief.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" She asked.

"Nope." He said cheerfully.

"Do you recognize the ship?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?" She said

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you." Rose said, turning back toward the blockade.

"I bet you are. This is what I travel for. To see history happening right in front of us." He said, still rather cheerful. It was starting to annoy me, to be honest. The running had only made my headache worse and I was getting rather irritable.

"Well, let's go a see it then," Rose said with a sigh, "Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

"Sure, let's just go see the alien spaceship in our alien spaceship. That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all." I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, but it looks like a big, blue box. No one's going to notice." Rose said a bit deflated.

"You'd be surprised, an emergency like this. There'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me, the TARDIS stays where it is." He said. Rose seemed disappointed but accepted it.

"Speaking of TARDIS, you wouldn't happen to have a magical pill that cures concussions, would you?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"Oh, here." He said turning to me pulling something out of his jacket. He pointed the small metallic thing at me and the end facing me lit up and buzzed. After a few seconds I noticed my headache disappeared. The Doctor turned it off and put it back in his inside pocket and grinned at me.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Sonic Screwdriver. Good for everything except wood. It doesn't do wood." He explained. I aahed and nodded as if that made sense to me, which it didn't.

"So history is happening and we're stuck here." Rose sighed.

"Yes, we are." The Doctor said, craning his neck.

"Well, we could do what everyone else does." Rose said, looking at the Doctor. He looked at her with a confused expression.

"We could watch it on TV." She suggested.

"As long as we don't run there, I'm fine with that." I said. The Doctor looked at the blockade again, looked at Rose, and agreed. We managed to get a cab back to where Rose lived, Powell Estate, and we were all silent on the ride there. Jackie had been pacing around the apartment and visible relaxed when we came in. She started chattering away about some friend of her to Rose as the Doctor and I made a beeline to the living room and the TV. The Doctor took the chair Rose sat in earlier. I perched on the arm and we watched the news intently. Rose sat on the far end of the couch and her mom bustled around the kitchen making tea. At one point a friend of Jackie's came in and sat at the table behind us. I heard her scolding Rose as Jackie left the kitchen, talking about the Doctor and Rose. I vaguely heard the doorbell ring as the reporters on the television talked about pulling a body from the wreckage. The Doctor raised his eyebrows and we leaned closer to the television, hoping to get a good look at the alien. Unfortunately, all we could see was a white sheet in the form of a body on a stretcher. I leaned back, disappointed, and looked around and the suddenly fuller apartment. I sighed and focused on the TV again, where the reporter was talking about the body being extraterrestrial and going to some mortuary.

The TV channel changed and I felt the Doctor move next to me. I looked over at him and saw him playfully fighting with a young kid over the remote. He managed to successfully get it away from the kid and turned the TV to the news station again.

"-Albion Hospital. We still don't know if it's alive or dead." The reporter was saying.

"It's face was covered, I think it's dead." I muttered, leaning back. The Doctor shooed the little boy away and focused on the news.

"They took the alien to Albion Hospital because the roads are closed." I told him. He nodded absentmindedly. I zoned out after a while, listening more to the conversations behind me than the news. I didn't notice the news talking about the Prime Minister disappearing, though I did notice when the Doctor got up. I immediately followed him out of the apartment.

"And where do you think you're going?" I heard Rose say behind me. We both turned around in surprise.

"Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where they can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price." The Doctor said. Rose didn't look like she believed him. I leaned against the wall and just watched them.

"I'm off on a wander, that's all." He said innocently.

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames, and you're just wandering." Rose said, still not buying it.

"Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That's a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, color of smoke, it was perfect." He explained.

"Usually whenever people say that, it ends up being faked." I said with a frown.

"Don't be ridiculous. It's fine." The Doctor said dismissively. I rolled my eyes and walked toward the stairs, needing some air. I could hear the Doctor talk about first contact and such to Rose as I walked away.

In case you couldn't tell, this is a self insert story. Angela isn't my real name, just one I decided to use. I don't own Doctor Who or it's characters, obviously, and I would greatly appreciate all reviews and criticisms, just don't insult me or my work. Thank you!