*Hello one and all! This story is an epic super prompt, that i owe entirely to whouffletothemax. It's fairly obvious, it's an Oswin Oswald AU. I'm not 100% sure if she's still a Clara echo and where this story is in fact going yet, so that leaves open a lot of options. Nevertheless, she's not a Dalek, she survives AotD and she will travel with the Doctor. And I wanted to write a very different dynamic between Oswin and 11 to Clara and 11, partially because that's what the prompt dictates but also because Oswin is a completely different character and I want that to show. I'm going to post chapters as soon as I write them, so expect weekly or maybe bi-weekly updates, but I won't post as religiously as I do with Healing. I also have no idea how long this is going to be and chapter length will probably vary. Could be 5 chapters, could be 20, let's find out. In any case, I hope you enjoy it! Please review and let me know your thoughts. TPD*

"Come and meet the girl who can!" Oswin smirked as the doors to her little hidey hole opened. The Doctor stepped inside and Oswin grabbed all of her things and hurled them into a small bag. He was staring at her like he couldn't believe she existed. "Nice bow tie!" Oswin winked at him and tapped his bow tie. Oswin's lair was small and more like a cubby hole than anything else. It was an escape pod, not a home. There was an oven, a bed, a lot of computers, which Oswin loved and not a lot else besides. Storage for food, some spare clothes. She was wearing her favourite red dress, with sneakers and her tool belt. Her hair was all over the place, but she didn't care. She was getting out of here. The Doctor was still looking around in amazement.

"How did you do all this?" he asked. "None of this should be possible."

"I'm a genius!" Oswin replied, throwing out her hands to indicate the point. The Doctor was still staring. "Oh for God's sake Chin-Boy, I didn't manage to get my shields up in time and some of the nano genes infected me. They raised my intelligence, made me angry and I was converted slightly. The Daleks didn't realise that I could use that intelligence against them, rather than use it to defend the asylum. Luckily, I managed to halt the process. Well," she winced and her face fell. "Pause the process. They're still in me. When we leave I'll…"

"Hmm," he sounded apprehensive. "I'll have to fix that. Can't have you running around with Dalek nano genes. Don't worry Oswin, I'll get you right as reign. But, before we lower the force field and get out of here, where did you get the milk for the soufflés?"

"Still banging on about that?" Oswin laughed, before indicating the corner where she had a giant tub of powdered milk. "Couldn't make as many soufflés as I'd like with it but there you go. Anyway, let's get out of here. I'll lower the force field."

"No," the Doctor was already on top of it. He was hammering away at the keyboard with a speed that Oswin could only admire. "I'm doing it; just make sure you have everything you need. And get ready to run."

"Running with a clever boy with a big chin who's going to show me the stars?" Oswin couldn't keep the glee out of her voice. "It's all I've ever dreamed about."

The Doctor shot her a wicked grin as he looked up from the keyboard. "Geronimo." Oswin was already moving, running for the door. The Doctor caught up with her and she grabbed his hand, pulling him along behind her as he shouted something about hand-holding being his thing. She flicked a look over her shoulder and caught him staring at her arse. She threw him a flirtatious wink and carried on running. He pulled up alongside her and they shared a grin. It was a grin of exhilaration, as they were running literally for their lives and they could be blown up at any moment. They hammered on their way down the corridors, laughing as they did so. They reached the teleport and the Doctor, out of breath, did some quick introductions.

"Oswin, this is Pond and Nina."

"Rory."

"Hush Nina. Teleport."

Rory pressed the teleport button and they dematerialised, reappearing inside the TARDIS. The Doctor laughed wickedly as Amy and Rory shut their eyes, as if preparing for extermination. Oswin grabbed him and pulled him into a snog that lasted for a few seconds, her tongue dancing with his as he flailed and waved his hands around and Rory and Amy burst into laughter, before kissing as well.

"Oi!" the Doctor snapped when she finished. "No kissing in my TARDIS."

"Look who's talking!" Amy shot back as Oswin laughed and the Doctor straightened his bow tie furiously. He glared at Oswin, who shrugged playfully. The Doctor ran over to the door to tease the Daleks and whilst he was outside, Oswin found herself being looked up and down by Amy and Rory.

"Sorry," Oswin smiled at them. "Didn't get too much time to chat, what with all the exploding and the Daleks and the teleporting. Oswin Oswald. I was the Junior Entertainment Manager on the Alaska. I left everything behind, all my family and friends. My mum died a few years back, so I don't really have anyone that I care about back on earth. There's my dad, but he was never around much by the time I left."

"I spent my life thinking that I didn't have parents," Amy replied. "And at the same time, I didn't. Time travel, it plays with your head."

"You guys are time travellers as well as space travellers?" Oswin sounded impressive. "Wicked."

At this point, the Doctor crashed back into the TARDIS, cackling like a maniac. He ran up to Oswin and snogged her again, taking her aback as she responded.

"Down boy!" Oswin breathed. "One might think this would become a regular thing."

"You made them forget me!" he laughed. "All of them. All of the Daleks. The entirety of the Dalek race cannot remember that I exist. My greatest foes in the universe, my oldest enemies. They forced me to destroy my own people. And they can't remember who I am. Doctor Who? Doctor Who? HA!"

"Doctor Who?" Oswin asked, with a raised eyebrow and Amy and Rory both groaned.

"Exactly!" the Doctor replied, flicking Amy's nose with his finger as he passed and earning a look off her. "Right then, let's get the Ponds home, let's get Oswin de-nanogened and then I can go for drinks with Obama; he owes me a carrot, will owe me a carrot. Time travel eh?"

Rory and Amy exchanged a look. They didn't say anything as Oswin hung about awkwardly, examining the TARDIS console and gasping at every little thing. The Doctor dropped Amy and Rory off and they exchanged a few words as Oswin stayed in the TARDIS. When he came back inside, he shot her a warm smile and started tinkering with the controls.

"Your ship is a very odd shape," she informed him. "It's like the opposite of your chin." He frowned at this. "How do you fit it in places? I mean, Dalek ships aren't that big, I assume it just kind of teleports, but how do you know when you teleport it into a place that it will fit?"

The Doctor was laughing and grinning now and Oswin sensed that she had missed a trick. He shook his head and chuckled to himself. She heard the ship take off again and squealed and clung to a railing as it hurtled and scuttled about.

"It's a bit rubbish," she informed him over the rattling. "Your ship. Doesn't it have stabilisers?"

"Yes!" the Doctor replied, sounding defensive. "But I choose not to use them, much more fun, don't you think?"

Oswin had to agree with him on that front and suddenly they'd landed. She slipped and hit the floor with an unceremonious bump and he was offering out a hand to pick her up. Oswin refused the hand, propping herself up to a standing situation using the railing and winking at him before striding past him. The Doctor frowned and followed her as she walked over to the doors. She threw them open and stepped out into a hospital wing, with ten chambers lining the walls. She turned around to call the Doctor and that was when she realised. His ship. It was a blue box. And it was tiny. She touched the front doors, frowning, and the Doctor had the biggest smirk on his face. She ran all the way around, tapping every side of the box until she was back at the entrance. She stepped inside again and stared angrily at him.

"Go on," he grinned. "Say it."

She didn't give him the satisfaction. She could tell by the look on his face that people always said it and she wasn't going to let the smug prick get what he wanted. The Doctor may have saved her life, but he wasn't the boss of her and she wasn't going to let him think that he was. Instead, she strode out the ship and the Doctor followed her like a puppy.

"The TARDIS," he explained. "That's what it's called."

"I didn't ask," she responded stubbornly.

"You were wondering though."

"Nope," Oswin smiled politely at him and enjoyed the frustration on his face. "Not even a little bit. We're in some sort of space hospital right? So these will be decontamination chambers. How long do I have to stay in them for? Standard decons back on Earth tended to take twenty minutes but these nano genes are nasty blighters so I reckon two hours?"

"Well," the Doctor examined the nearest chamber, opening it with his screwdriver thing. He then ran the device over Oswin and frowned. "Judging by your level of exposure, plus the fact that it's been dormant, coupled with your height, weight, atom distribution, the power setting that is both safe and most effective and let me do the maths…two hours and three minutes."

"Told you!" Oswin winked and the Doctor grumbled. "Two hours."

"No!" he replied like a spoilt child. "Two hours and three minutes. The three minutes are critical."

"I doubt that."

"Highly critical."

"Still doubting it."

"The difference between your life and your death."

"Now you're just making things up."

The Doctor pouted. "Get in the chamber."

Oswin stumbled out of the chamber, shivering slightly. She looked around but the Doctor as nowhere to be seen and his box was gone. He had left her behind. He'd gone. All of his talk, all of his words. He had promised to show her the stars, take her anywhere and everywhere. But he'd been lying and he'd dropped her off somewhere and he wasn't coming back for her. Oswin walked towards the door and stepped out. She was about to shut the door behind her when she heard it. The whining, groaning and she turned around to see the blue box materialising in front of her eyes. She squealed in delight and ran towards it and then remembered that the Doctor was inside and decided not to be too keen. She leaned against one of the chambers and when he exited the TARDIS, she took great care to examine the back of her hand in great detail.

"You took your time!" she accused and he looked incredibly flustered as he stumbled when walking towards her, panic evident on his face.

"Just be thankful that I made it back in time!" he laughed. "The Old Girl was being most unhelpful. Part of me suspects that she wanted to leave you behind."

"Eugh, you're one of those blokes!" Oswin rolled her eyes and he frowned. "The ones that think their machine is a woman and anthropomorphise their car. You're completely and utterly ridiculous, you realise that right?"

"The TARDIS is alive," the Doctor replied with a look of confusion. "She's got a matrix, a heart if you will. It's all very complicated and if I'd bothered to read the manual properly then maybe I'd be able to explain it better but I have a thing about instructions as they're usually wrong. The point is, the TARDIS has a mind of her own and if she doesn't want me to go somewhere, then chances are I won't be able to get her there."

"But you came back for me anyway," Oswin pointed out and he smiled at this.

"Of course I did, Oswin Oswald. I've left people behind before. Never again. I've seen what losing me does to people and I hate it."

"Arrogant much?" she snorted and the Doctor's face fell. "Oh my stars, Chin-Boy, I don't really care if you leave me behind but I'm not even on my own planet or in my own time zone. I'm sure I'd make do, but it's not exactly ideal is it?"

"I just meant…I mean people…but…shut up!"

The fact that he was so flustered made Oswin want to kiss him again. She liked this Doctor, this eccentric madman who was almost as smart as her and could show her all of time and space. Plus, he was kind of cute, the way he awkwardly stood, the way his hair flicked and the crazy style of clothes he wore. Oswin smoothed out her red dress and ran a hand through her tangled hair in what she hoped was an alluring manner. The more she flirted, the more uncomfortable the Doctor had got and she loved testing him. He was way too easy and way too much fun to wind up.

"So Chin-Boy," she said almost lazily, walking past him and into the box. "You promised me some stars."

"That I did Oswin Oswald," he replied casually. "Where would you like to start?"