Time Stands Still

by azaadin

Two fanfiction authors find themselves living the same nightmare as their characters. What will they do to find a way home against a Doctor who is determined to keep them with him forever?

1. The Rabbit Hole

Chapter 1: The Rabbit Hole

AUTHORS' NOTE:

Yes, I know I put the apostrophe after the 's' in 'authors'. That's because this story is cowritten by emptyvoices and myself. This is another 'Fanfiction authors fall into the whoniverse' story. All personal details have been changed, but we've tried to stay as true to ourselves as possible. It's not specifically tied to any other stories, but as other works are referred to, it might do you well to read those others as well. We hope you enjoy!

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Time stands still. At least for a little while. Cancer seems a tremendous word, especially that in the brain. In one foul swoop, it strikes a person of common reason. Makes them befuddled as they sit there attempting to contrive your name. Sometimes, the name of the nurse reaches Cathryn's father's before hers even crossed his lips. Too many syllables. Was she so selfish? Each day visiting? The lingering hospital smell. She couldn't even tell what clothes she put on each day. She ran errands. Had to teach her mother to pump gas into her own gar, check fluids, the oil. Things were still missing. Grief saps a person as readily as any amount of fatigue.

But it was on the Mother's Day, she was driving to the hospital, balancing two lunches neither one of them would be able to eat. True, Cathryn kept a standard of eating one meal a day but even there she was faltering. It took so much strength to put food in her mouth. Hardly seeming worth the effort this time.

Walking into the courtyard just outside the building, she sat down on the grass, leaning against a tree and rested her purse in her lap. She was mentally drained, utterly taxed so found herself yielding to sleep as a respite from the nightmare occurring all around her.

It didn't occur to her that she would wake up in another. Sharp blades of grass. She felt sun permeate on her face. Had she fallen asleep at the park? Outside the hospital? That was generally such a bad idea. All one's possessions were apt to get stolen that way. It was a bit of a miracle she still had them entirely in her control. The sun was shining directly in front of her but she was just underneath a shadow. What was it? She squinted only to look incredulously at the phone booth looming over here. That looks like the….. She shook her head frantically. It couldn't be.

Two voices seemed to resonate towards her.

"Right, yes, sorry. I didn't get a chance to ask. You haven't?" It was a distinctly familiar male voice. "There hasn't been anyone? You know…?" His voice trailed in suggestion.

Cathryn started to gasp in panic. She was frozen, incapable of moving. The two were just directly in front of her. She knew them, she….

"Well, there was this one guy." The brunette spoke in front of her. Sarah Jane. Cathryn recognized her. None of this could be real. "I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow." She paused. "Goodbye Doctor."

"Oh, it's not goodbye," he corrected.

Doctor. Panic stifling her chest, Cathryn pushed herself to her feet, her purse with all its contents falling from her chest. She must have fallen asleep with it on as habit in case of emergencies. Still the ruckus it made…

They both turned to look at her.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She squinted in the bright light. "Must have gotten lost." Or was in a living nightmare. She certainly wasn't home. What was going on?

"Are you alright?" He was scrutinizing her. There was a smell about her that was distinctly familiar.

"Yeah….yes, sure."

He was looking at her strangely. American. Though she could be a tourist or simply visiting the area, he was perplexed. This location wasn't a hotspot for tourism and she was apparently alone. "I'm just…."

"Lost?" He filled in the blanks, running a surreptitious scan of the girl in front of him. Suddenly, he was filled with a sense of impending alarm but nevertheless, he kept his tone even. His distaste for the impending goodbye he had to pay to Sarah Jane, which she seemed to desire, was forgotten.

"Why don't I lend you a hand? I can help you…"

Cathryn's throat stiffened. Distinctly, she heard the voice of another woman. The accent was similar to that of the English but not quite. What made the woman stand out was the way she took her hand and gently began pulling them away from the pair. "Come on, Sweetie. Let the two of them be."

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Bec had stumbled. The world had exploded with light around her, and when it faded the school ground had disappeared and random street had taken its place.

She wandered the streets feeling dazed, when she stumbled on a familiar, impossible, sight. An everyday looking school with delivery trucks parked in front of it. A perfectly ordinary and unassuming scene, except that she'd seen it before... on a fictional show on the telly.

Two familiar faces met each other in the park across from her; the familiar brunette attempting to say goodbye that Bec knew all too well. The dialogue was replaying directly before her.

"No!" she whispered to herself in denial. This wasn't real. She couldn't be here.

She watched the scene begin to play out in front of her, reciting the words to herself as she distantly saw their lips moving, knowing this couldn't be real, when there was a change, and it all went wrong. Another bewildered woman seemingly stepped out of nowhere and stumbled straight into the duo's path.

After a moment of hesitation, Bec rushed forward to pull the woman away. She knew how this scene was supposed to go, and she knew it couldn't be interrupted. She knew nothing she saw was real, and yet she knew it wasn't a dream. Her mind felt too clear and aware for it to be a dream, but whether this was really happening or all in her head, she needed to make sure that everything continued the way it was supposed to. That, and, not only did she need to stop the woman interrupting the conversation between the man and his companion, but the woman looked as lost as she felt. Was it possible they'd fallen into this mad world together?

"Come on, Sweetie," she said to the woman once she reached her side. "Let the two of them be." She gently pulled on the woman's hand to encourage her away, deliberately avoiding looking at the familiar faces before her.

"They're…." Cathryn tried to speak as Bec nodded in agreement.

"I know. I watch it too." She hoped the woman would pick up on the emphasis as the girl looked at her blearily before a sudden alertness came to her expression.

This woman knew what she talking about, Cathryn realised. Knew about her confusion and was aware of the dilemma. Could they be dreaming the same dream or were they…..she shook her head. Her thoughts shifting. They needed to get away from him. She had written and researched enough about the Doctor to know he was very dangerous. If he found out…found out what? She gritted her teeth. That his life was a TV show? That it….it was all so ridiculous. She had written enough of this to know but she nodded.

"Right. Sorry," Cathryn said quickly following the other girl's lead. "Must have been tired and lost track of time." Nothing truer could have ever been said….well, in certain respects.

"Waaait," the Doctor said, stretching the word as the two girls started to walk off. Now he was only doubly alarmed. "How did you two get here? Where are you from?"

Cathryn said nothing as she hurried after the other woman. Maybe he would just disappear. If she or they ran far enough, the dream would dissipate but instead let out a brief gasp as his hand touched her arm.

"Your friend is waiting for you," Bec offered as a means of distraction looking at Sarah Jane. At that moment, the former companion was following directly after the Doctor in curiosity. She was a reporter after all.

"Doctor?" She called out.

Concentration broken momentarily, the Doctor turned to glance back at Sarah Jane. It was all Cathryn needed. She started to run.

Bec hesitated for a moment, until she heard the Doctor give a shout in alarm, then she took off after the other woman.

She knew she wasn't a dream. She knew dreams. In dreams, things didn't happen as history said they did. In dreams a single person could morph between a variety of different characters. In dreams, if you could focus on someone's face or some specific detail it would be blurry and ever changing. This was no dream.

Yet she still hoped that it was.

She sprinted after the retreating woman, but a hand quickly took her by the wrist.

"Just hold it. Just hold on a minute," he said pulling her to a stop.

Bec complied, hoping that if she played along he would lose interest in her as being unremarkable, and also hoping that if she stalled him it would give the other woman more of a chance to flee. She nervously turned towards him, trying to keep her own panic carefully hidden away. She resisted the urge to instinctively look up at his face, remembering all she'd learned about Time Lord hypnosis. "Excuse me?" she asked, looking at his hand on her wrist.

"Sorry, sorry." He let her go and took a step back, but she could still feel his gaze.

"Doctor!" came a voice from just behind him, and the blonde glanced up to see the older brunette joining them.

"Sorry. Yes," he said glancing back briefly. "I'm the Doctor and this is Sarah Jane."

"Rebecca," she supplied politely when he left a pause.

"Nice to meet you Rebecca. And what's your friend's name?"

A small smile played at her lips as she anticipated how her answer would frustrate him. She guessed that he'd hoped that by catching up with her it would give him an advantage in reaching the other woman whom had first drawn his attention. "I don't know. I never met her before."

The Doctor's head shot up and he started scanning the area again.

"If you never met her, what were you doing together?" Sarah Jane asked almost sharply.

"I thought she needed help," she replied with a shrug.

"Right, right. Well, she still might," the Doctor said almost absentmindedly. "So how about you two wait here, and I'll go find her."

"Of course," Sarah-Jane agreed, while Bec simply nodded her head, momentarily pressing her lips together and biting them between her teeth.

He sprinted off again, and Bec hoped the other girl had gotten far enough away.

The two stood together in silence as they watched the Doctor disappear from sight. She didn't know how Sarah Jane felt, but to her the moment was simply awkward. "Is it okay if we walk a bit while we wait?" Bec asked. "It's a bit chilly to just stand around." She was hoping that she might find an opportunity to slip away from the reporter before the Doctor returned, hopefully empty handed.

Sarah Jane offered her a wide generous smile before gesturing back in the direction she'd come from. "Where are you from? I can't quite place your accent."

"Australia," Bec answered with a smile. "Don't worry, no one else can ever pick it either. That and most Australian's don't sound like the fake Aussies on the telly."

The older woman laughed with her before continuing her informal interrogation. "So what brought you to our fair land?"

"I'm trying to work that out myself. It's freezing here." And it was. She was wearing open heeled sandals, jeans and her Superman jacket, but the air still felt uncomfortably nippy. She knew that England had a far cooler climate than she was used to, but knowing and feeling the chill of the air were two different things. Sarah Jane, on the other hand, seemed perfectly comfortable in the bitey breeze.

"I'm sorry. You don't know if there's a loo around here, do you?"

Sarah Jane smiled brilliantly again and linked her arm with the Bec's. "Right this way." Rather than leading her to the dingy public toilets, she took her to a coffee shop across from the park.

"What about your friend?" Bec asked, not really minding moving further from where he expected them to be waiting.

"Oh, don't worry, he always shows up," the woman promised.

Bec laughed, hoping he wouldn't, and gratefully thanked Sarah Jane for her help, but when she went through to the back of the cafe, she stepped through the rear staff exit rather than into the ladies, all the while feeling guilty of her deception. She just hoped that she too would be able to slip away and find her way into anonymity.

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Cathryn felt guilt work its way through her. The other woman didn't make it. She wasn't with her. She didn't even know her name but even in this…..whatever this was, she tried to help. Still Cathryn couldn't give up. She was known to have exceptionally vivid dreams but this…she jogged through an alley making her way into another residential park. There was a circle or grove of trees right in front of her. She couldn't run forever. Even here, she was starting to feel fatigue. A cramp was forming. She might do Pilates at home and run through her university to catch the shuttle. That didn't make her a runner, per se. There was her diet to contend with. In the strain of what happened, she hadn't eaten since…well, she couldn't really remember. She certainly drank a fair amount of instant latte's at the hospital vending machine. The aftertaste was still in her mouth. Briefly, she felt dizzy.

Deep breaths. She was hiding in the grove she found beneath a thick layer of bushes. She just had to make sure if….

A swift intake of air. She saw him appear in front of her in the outskirts of the park. He was scanning the area and looking around. Looking for her. She placed her hand over her mouth, shaking her head, thinking quickly. She used to climb trees with her brother years ago back at home. She also been a few times to a gym that had a climbing wall. It was fun at the time but now….now she was pushed by sheer motivation. Necessity. The tree in the back had lower branches. She was able to push her body onto the limb, testing her weight on the branch before moving upwards to the next one. She wasn't fast but her ascent was steady. She was twenty feet up, hopefully partially hidden by the dense foliage when the Doctor appeared below. She froze in position even trying to still her own breath while he examined the area. She again clasped a scraped hand to her mouth. In dreams the perpetrator always knew where you were. It felt like she was trapped inside a horror movie.

"Noooow where are you?" he said aloud. "I know you're here." He was looking at his sonic as if in confirmation. A signal? Is that what happened? In her nightmare, she made herself a beacon, like Sara?

He heard the faint rustle of leaves overhead that seemed inconsistent with the regular ambient noise and glanced up spotting her just up in the tree line. He gave her a wave as she stifled a horrified cry of surprise, while holding up his hands nonthreateningly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Yeah, heard that before. Cathryn thought, instantly standing to make further progression upwards.

"Now wait….wait just a moment," he protested. "Hear me out."

"I'm really not interested." A tone of derision. Stubbornness.

"You could be," he never knew what to anticipate from humans. This one was no exception. "I think you're lost. You're from nowhere near around here, are you?" She was silent. "I could help you."

She felt a surge of anger go through her. How was he helping? Oh, she knew what he would offer in terms of help. It would be the last thing she needed.

"You know what I think?" She posed quietly as he looked at her. Maybe he was starting to make headway. Her voice had taken on a calm tone and-

"That you're full of shit." The same measured voice but a fury had ignited in her eyes. She was angry and adamantly distrustful of him. Humans. He shook his head. Pulling out his TARDIS key, he summoned the time machine to just near his location. The hard way it was. It wouldn't be the most delightful task rematerializing around the tree the girl was in but there seemed to be no other choice. It was a good thing that Rebecca agreed to stay and Sarah Jane was watching over her. It would be the last thing he needed if-

"Doctor!" It was Sarah Jane. She was back inside the TARDIS. When she had lost sight of Bec, she returned there, not knowing the Doctor's present location. She knew he would return and it would be the most expeditious way of telling him. Of course, she didn't expect that he would summon the TARDIS to his position but that was the Doctor. Expect the unexpected. She had been with him for long enough to know that. Her travels with the third and forth regeneration had given her sufficient enough expertise. Seeing his new face had been a startling experience for her. After all this time….more then twenty years. Her memories were starting to flood back. In one sense it was invigorating but Sarah Jane knew she needed closure. That she would achieve a goodbye out of that man, for herself more then anything else. But she focused on the task present at hand. "Rebecca. She's gone." She shook her head. "I thought she was fine but…." Her instincts must have been rusty. Or after getting K-9 back, she was too contented to think about what she committed to do. She hadn't read Rebecca very well at all and the girl gave her the slip at the very first moment. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor simply clenched his jaw. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. Still, there was the girl to contend with in the tree. "It's alright…." he muttered. "Humans. So unpredictable."

"I suppose we are," Sarah Jane said, thinking of Rose who was still in the console room. "But you pick up an awful lot of them." She paused. "Is the other one here?" She glanced around the area.

"Ohhh, of course she is." The Doctor gestured at the tree he had seen her in. "Right up there."

Sarah Jane raised her eyebrows, releasing a smile. She might have laughed had she not seen the Doctor's frustration at the moment. "At least she's determined."

The Doctor only sighed, turning to enter the TARDIS. He had a delicate task ahead of him.

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It was in those moments following Cathryn's remark that he almost seemed to have given up on his quarry. She heard his voice talking to his companion but couldn't quite grasp the words with the wind in her ears. Maybe this was a victory. Perhaps in her discussions with other authors, all this time, she had been wrong about what he would do with someone taken out of their reality and set into his. Maybe I just am dreaming this option because I prefer it. Perhaps that is what it was. In lucid dreaming, once someone fully became aware of the dream, they could grasp control of the dream world. Manipulate it to their standard. She couldn't make the Doctor disappear or wake up just yet but he had turned around and left. She took a deep breath. Maybe getting herself to wake up or alter other aspects would come next…

Suddenly, she gasped when she heard a familiar grinding sound. One she only heard on the show. It seemed to echo all around her. She was starting to see the outline of walls beginning to form….

No! Immediately, she relinquished her grasp on the branch and made the jump down. A longer jump then she was ever used to. Letting out a cry of pain as her ankle twisted on the ground, she stumbled hurriedly as best she could out of the tree line. She knew what he was attempting to do, having written something like it once before. Should have known he would attempt it but….tears were in her eyes. How could this….any of this be a dream? Sure, she felt some degree of pain but not like this…..her ankle was surely sprained if not worse….she made it to the sidewalk before crashing headlong into someone. Cathryn started to panic feeling only a faint grasp on her shoulders.

"It's alright! It's just me. We met before. Remember?"

It was the other woman. The one she abandoned. At this moment, now a source of hope.

After shaking Sarah Jane, Bec had considered heading deeper into the city, taking the most expedient straight line away from where she had seen the impossible man and his TARDIS, but her thoughts had kept returning to the other woman the Doctor had chased after. She wasn't supposed to be in this episode, neither of them were, and if the world was as real as it seemed to be, then could she really walk away without learning first if the woman escaped safely? After much inner debating, Bec circled back through the streets until she came at the park again from a new direction. She shuffled nervously for a moment, wondering if she was simply tempting fate. Perhaps the girl had already fled the park, or perhaps she had already been caught. In either scenario, there was nothing more Bec could do, without risking herself, even though she secretly hoped she had gone relatively unnoticed compared to the other woman. Just as she was about to turn back into the city, though, she recognized the girl again, limping heavily as she fled from a copse of trees. She raced up to her, determined that this time they would both escape to safety.

"We have to g-go." Cathryn's voice came out as a near stutter. The pain was throwing her off guard. "The Doctor, he's back there. He tried to…..the TARDIS….I was in a tree and he tried to…."

Distantly a voice behind them. "You two! Just wait!"

For that, Cathryn refused. She only hoped the other woman would join her. "Please, I'm sorry about before," she said to her with insistence. "My name is Cathryn. I need your help."

Bec's mind immediately flung to her friend in California, another Cathryn from America with whom they'd shared their stories and faith after meeting on fanfiction. She pushed the memory from her mind however, needing to concentrate fully on the moment. Time was fleeting. She had to make a decision.

"Come on." Bec held her around Cathryn's waist and encouraged her to put her arm over her shoulder. Together, they began limping in the opposite direction from the Time Lord. Bec knew they couldn't run, not like this, but if they made it to the road they might be able to catch a taxi or something.

"This can't be real," Cathryn was muttering, as though trying to convince herself as much as Bec. "I used to write this. It wasn't real."

"Cathryn?" The woman's voice repeated in astonishment, pausing their stumbling gait momentarily. Her eyes widened in seeming recognition.

It couldn't be… Bec thought to herself. She'd read stories, a few of them written by her friend Cathryn, where two whovians whom had never met but knew each other fell into the universe together, but, even if it were possible, which Bec was still inclined to dispute, the chance that they would randomly fall together into this preposterous world was so remote that it was hardly worth considering. However, now the idea had firmly taken hold, Bec had to follow it up, just in case.

"Not Cathryn Stuart?"

Cathryn frowned at the other woman. How could she know that? she wondered. "Yeees," she answered slowly.

"Not the 'Sara Thomas', Lost in Time, Cathryn Stuart?" Bec pressed, both hoping this woman was and wasn't her friend.

Cathryn gasped. "How did you know that?" she asked in surprise.

"Rebecca Edwards. Shae," she told the woman, as she began looking ahead and pulling her friend along a little faster again.

Cathryn gasped. "Bec?"

"Yep, that's me," she confirmed. Normally she'd feel amused at herself, quoting the show in everyday conversation, but this time..? "Remember, don't say anything. We'll just be uninteresting. Maybe he'll leave."

"He found me with the sonic," Cathryn corrected her.

"Bother!"

They reached the road, but so did he. "Would you two just stop and listen to me!"

"She got hurt because of you," Bec accused him in her strongest 'angry Mummy' voice. "No wonder she ran away. Just leave us alone or we'll call the police." She knew the police couldn't help, not really, but not only did she hope to sound perfectly ordinary, but, if it came down to it, she hoped the police would cause enough of a hindrance for them to slip away.

Cathryn desperately examined her immediate environment. He nearly had them cornered against a wall. The idea of police didn't seem to faze him. Subtly, she felt for her car keys in her purse, looking for the familiar metal canister.

"I know," the Doctor said, glancing down at Cathryn's ankle. "I'm sorry about that. Maybe came on a bit fast. I do things without thinking. A bit thick sometimes. But right now, I honestly just want to help."

"You do?" Cathryn said, keeping her tone low. A hint of curiosity. This might be their only way.

"Definitely," the Doctor said. "There's a place we can go. The three of us can talk. I can try to figure out just what is going on."

Cathryn knew he was talking about the TARDIS but she wouldn't admit that knowledge. She had to be careful. Didn't Bec as well as herself know what would happen once he got them inside? But in order for her plan to work, he had to get closer. It was risky. If she could keep him off guard.

"I…" Cathryn paused. "I'm just really tired." True enough. "And confused."

Bec was looking at her. Was her fanfiction friend up to something? A plan in mind? It sounded like she was saying what the Doctor wanted to hear.

"Just come with me." The Doctor's voice was soothing as he addressed them both. "I have a great place where you can just rest. Get a bite to eat…" Things were starting to look favorable again. He just had to appear as nonthreatening as possible. He took a careful step towards the two girls.

"But…." Cathryn allowed tears to form in her eyes. "My ankle. It really hurts. I don't think I can walk."

The Doctor gave her a smile. This was indeed improvement. "I just might be able to help with that." His sonic was capable of healing small wounds and muscle tears. A sprain was simple on the right setting. "May I…?" He gestured to her ankle and Cathryn nodded as he bent down. She closed her eyes feeling his fingers examine the injury. A startled gasp escaped her as she felt a pulse resonate through her foot.

"It's alright." The Doctor assured her. "It feels a bit strange but in two ticks…" He grinned as the work was finished. "There, all done." He started to stand. "That wasn't-"

He suddenly gave a shout of pain. Cathryn, in his moment of distraction, had gotten a hold of the pepper spray on her key chain and sprayed the contents directly in his eyes. Briefly, he fell down to the ground as Cathryn steadily plucked the sonic that had fallen by his side.

"Like I said…." Cathryn started. "Full of shit. We're NOT going with you!" Her ankle healed now, she took hold of Bec's hand, running down the street just as the Doctor's companions came to his side.

Bec was already puffing. Yes, she could run in short bursts, a perk of chasing two little boys around everyday, but she couldn't keep up the sustained effort they needed to escape. "We need to find somewhere crowded," she gasped out. "Then we can always make a scene. Do you know anywhere?" She'd never been to England, but she knew Cathryn had. It was a long shot that she would even recognise where they were enough to find her way, but it was worth a try. Worst come to worst, they could always follow important looking street signs. Those often led to somewhere special and populated.

"Yes, I think..." She seized Bec's hand, pulling her into a small alley recognizing the parallel street across from them. "The Strand," she said with some resolve. "It's a major street. Should be filled with people."

Indeed it was. Tourists passing by. Cathryn recognized the wax museum that was a draw to considerable crowds. Twining's Tea Shoppe. This many people milling about, the Doctor couldn't snatch them without likely causing a riot. It would give them a little leeway. "Money." She said. "We need money." Dollars would be useless. The currency here was pounds. There was a reason she grabbed the sonic. Multiple settings. This could take a while. Heading to the crosswalk, she spoke aloud...mostly to coach herself. "Look both ways." Cars driving down the wrong way of the street. The wrong way for her... she was only used to looking in one direction. In London, she adapted to look in both regardless of the pedestrian light.

They headed to the nearest ATM. Barclays Bank. It would have to do. Discreetly, Cathryn started pressing one button after another hoping they would just get lucky.

"Point and think. That's what Amy always said," Bec suggested. "Not that I remember that from this early." She glanced around nervously, but this was the drawback of a crowded place. While it offered them some degree of protection, he likewise could potentially hide in the crowd to get close.

"Point and think." Cathryn repeated. She was getting frustrated but she took a deep breath to calm herself. Closing her eyes briefly, she cleared her mind. Her hand by instinct landed on a setting at random. She pressed the button. Cathryn heard an exclamation beside her as the machine responded, dispensing a plentiful amount of pounds. Immediately, she grabbed the cash and looked at Bec. "Good advice." She nodded.

"You know we can't run forever, he'll just keep chasing us," Bec commented warily as she continued to scan their surroundings. "How about we grab a cuppa in a busy cafe and be as boring as possible. Maybe he'll leave. If that doesn't work, we can go with the running again."

"Well, there's two Starbucks on every corner." She frowned, shaking her head. "If we really want tea, we have to go to Covent Gardens or Kensington Park with the Orangery. There are pubs but this time of day, they tend to be kind of quiet but surprisingly they offer high tea." It was a strange culture shift. She had expected tea places to be on every corner but that just wasn't the way London was. Starbucks invaded and well... Cathryn rolled her eyes. But Starbucks was common, supported by the frequent tourist and seating was plentiful. "This one will be just as good as any." She pointed to one of the chain stores in front of them. "I'm sorry." She shrugged apologetically to Bec. "Not very British, is it?" She asked as she put forth an order for her customary Chai Tea Latte to the sales person in front of her.

"May I please have a cup of tap water?" Bec requested the barista. "Ah, no, may I have two cups?" She shrugged at the other's quizzical glance. "If I drink anything with flavor or sugar now, I'll probably throw up," she explained. For her, physical exertion, food and drinks made for a very bad combination. If she wanted to keep her stomach where it belonged, less was best.

They took seats at a round table inside the busy cafe, nervously waiting for the inevitable confrontation. "Do you have any idea how we got here?" Bec murmured as she unceasingly watched the entrance to the store.

"You mean if it isn't a dream?" Cathryn asked, sipping her beverage. It was very sweet but she needed the caffeine as a stimulant. The little sugar it offered would keep her blood sugar just where she wanted it to be. "No, I'm sorry. I fell asleep at the park just outside the….." She pressed her lips together as her voice trailed. "I woke up here. I thought..." Her hand trembled. Momentarily she had hoped her nightmare would be ending. Not a new one taking its place. "My father's in the hospital right now. Has cancer and I'm stuck here! My mother..." She shook her head, her throat dry. "She doesn't have anyone." She paused. "I'm sorry. I don't know...I write this stuff. It's fiction. I thought it was." She threw her hands up in the air. "It could be a dimensional crack or the Rift that brought us here. If he can scan for us, at least short range, we have some energy on us. Hopefully just void energy..." She took a breath, sipping her drink in consternation.

"I was at school, picking up Matty." Bec shook her head, setting aside thoughts of her son. "There was a light, but I didn't see where it came from. Sorry." She still couldn't see him, but that didn't mean he wasn't close. She'd never had any sense of tact and she worried about how much he may or may not have heard. After all, out of sight didn't necessarily mean he wasn't nearby and eavesdropping. If they wanted to appear as perfectly ordinary people, who just happened to have reacted badly to a stranger they knew nothing about, best not to talk to each other in detail about matters they probably shouldn't understand. She decided it was safest to avoid any revealing conversation whatsoever and so totally changed the subject. "How's your niece?"

Cathryn actually smiled for the first time it what felt like...she didn't remember. "She's fine. Still in Spain. Speaks almost entirely in Spanish. Half in English, half in Spanish but..." She paused. "I talk to her on Skype." She hesitated. She pulled out her iPhone. The network might not be working but she could still access her pictures. "This is Anna," she said referring to the picture of the little three year old with two barrettes in her brown hair, staring at the camera with a sense of wonder. "She's just about four now."

"Ohhhh, she's beautiful." A familiar voice just behind her. Cathryn let out a gasp and turned. The Doctor had found them.

Bec raised her chin but said nothing, though she did push her second untouched glass of water towards the empty seat at their table in an amicable gesture. Again, she deliberately didn't look at the Time Lord, fearful of being hypnotized into the TARDIS, instead looking around for his companions. Unfortunately, she found them all evenly spaced around the café, guarding each exit, watching them closely. She bit the inside of her lip. She hadn't considered that. Hopefully they would still be able to weasel a way out of this mess.

The Doctor took the proffered seat and drink, leaning back casually as he nursed his glass. "Now," he began agreeably. "Where are you two from?"

Cathryn sighed rubbing her forehead. Still, there were other people milling in and out of the coffee place. Don't panic. She told herself. She held onto her drink firmly, glancing first at Sarah Jane and Mickey, both parked near the entrance where the whole wall opened up into the street and then at Rose, near where the restrooms were located. It was no wonder the Doctor fell for her. Rose appeared even more attractive in person then she did on the show. In another place and time, she would have loved to have talked to 'the Doctor's one true love'. Maybe get an autograph...but now was not the time. Rose struck her as an adrenaline junkie living for the thrill of the adventures. Cathryn, in this instance, was not like this companion at all.

"California," Cathryn told him, seeing no point in lying about her hometown. Sometimes blatant honesty set people off guard. "The San Francisco Bay Area. More specifically, I fell asleep at the hospital where my father is staying with a brain tumor." She paused. "Hmm, I think I have pictures of the staples attached to his skull. My brother...he's the photographer. Sent them to me. Want to see?" She shoved her phone directly in front of the Doctor. "Gosh, aren't they beautiful too. Certainly, you must think so."

In this gesture, she wanted to create unease. Even if alien/human culture differences, he had spent enough time to be struck momentarily silent by Cathryn's sudden display.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. No wonder the girl reacted the way she did. No wonder she was so upset. "I'm so-"

"Oh please," Cathryn cut him off. "Wait...let me guess. You're so sorry? Maybe you should have that phrase copyrighted. Sell a bunch of Hallmark giftcards. It's the same, meaningless apology. What are you going to say next? Allons-y?"

"Cathryn," Bec hissed as quietly as possible.

He looked at her with introspection but she dared not meet his eyes. She knew far better then that.

"I just want to talk," he attempted.

"By materializing your TARDIS around me. Strange way of talking." Cathryn replied.

He narrowed his eyes. She already knew the name of his time machine. She had finished a sentence and utilized a word he had started to taken a fancy too. This was already getting more serious then he realised. He reached forward in the effort to take her hand, pretending it was a gesture of comfort. Immediately, she reacted putting them into her lap.

Bec had seen the danger playing out before her eyes but, in the moment Cathryn reacted, she wasn't quite as swift as the Doctor's hand shot up to grab hers. Immediately she gasped. Distantly, she heard Cathryn protest adamantly. "Let her go! Let her go right now!"

Bec couldn't move, feeling a presence just outside her mind, a heavy, ominous something around her like she'd never felt before. She inwardly quailed away from it, but her body didn't move, somehow detached from her thoughts and unable to respond.

Cathryn stood up. If it was a scene he wanted, it was one he would get. She called on a bluff Sara used in one of her stories thinking it the one thing that might extract them from trouble here. "So help me, if you don't get let her go, I'll say your name right here in front of everyone." Cathryn's voice was a hiss. "And believe me, I know what it is."

The weight that fell upon Bec's mind was impossible. She'd never realized how alone she was in her thoughts until this moment when the terrifying presence of another intruded on them. The heavy other surrounded and suffocated her, but she could feel the distinction between them, she could feel that, whatever it was, it wasn't in her head, but it was a near thing. She tried to gather her thoughts, to fight back, to throw off the dizzying weight, but under the unfamiliar (and impossible) pressure of the Doctor's mind, she found it hard to focus, and, compared to him, she had no strength. She could hear Cathryn yelling a great distance away but her words were senseless and indistinct.

DON'T RUN! DO WHAT I SAY!

The voice ripped through her head, echoing loudly as if he'd shouted directly in her ear, and she felt herself acquiescing with a nod. As the pressure suddenly disappeared, her mind felt light headed and airy, almost as though there was nothing to hold it in place anymore, like she might just float away. She glanced up at Cathryn who was on her feet, livid with the alien. She frowned, feeling like she'd missed something important. The Doctor, likewise, frowned slightly at Bec before turning his full attention back to the American.

Cathryn knew something was wrong. Bec was frozen at the table. She had to do...something. In this, it was a long shot. In her stories, it always broke the telepathic link. Quickly, she approached Bec, saying a word directly into the girl's ear. Well, a name...a math formula was more like it. But hopefully it would...

"Say that name over again in your mind." Cathryn advised and after following instructions, Bec was suddenly able to break free. No longer a prisoner at the table. She pushed back from it and stumbled away from him.

"No..." Bec bemoaned as the name cleared her head. She couldn't believe he'd done that too her! She was grateful for Cathryn's actions, but she never wanted to learn his name, especially like this!

"One down." Cathryn told him bluntly. "Want to try for another? Why not the whole cafe?"

He looked at Cathryn recognising how dangerous she was. He needed to act quickly. Before Cathryn could respond, he whipped out his psychic paper. "I regret to inform you that this establishment had been shut down for today by the Health and Safety Department."

People were shocked and irritated. Grumbling they looked at his badge but promptly dispersed the premises.

"Nooow." He exhaled through his nose. "Just the three of us."

"Who are you?" the Oncoming Storm demanded, still primarily glaring at Cathryn.

Bec sidled over to the other girl, reaching out to hold her hand tightly. "Sorry, no one really," she mumbled, still trying to defuse the situation despite knowing it was a wasted effort. "This was all a bit of an accident, really."

"No, no, I don't think so." Bec flinched at his tone. As much as she'd enjoyed the show - and from this moment, her liking of the show was firmly past tense - having the Doctor's wrath focused on her was terrifying. "Because you know my name, and I don't see how that could be an accident."

Bec whispered to the woman beside her. "I'm sorry. You were right. We should have run."

"Doctor?" Rose's voice interrupted. "What do you mean they know your name?"

"I warned you!" Cathryn said, shaking her head. "And what did you do? Try to hijack my friend's mind! We did nothing whatsoever to you to have you chase us down. We're trying to get home and well, where we happen to live, your name is commonplace for anyone who puts forth a few minutes to look it up online!"

Now that fact was a huge concern of the Doctor as he started to get to his feet, advancing on them. He was angry and filled with consternation. Whatever the truth was, he needed to secure them onboard his TARDIS to determine it. "I need you to come with me." He regained a sense of calm but it was an order.

"No…you don't," Cathryn said as she instantly turned around, starting to run with Bec. It was then, quick as lightening, hands seized onto her arms pulling her back as his grip became firm, locking her against his chest.

"Just relax," the Doctor intoned as Cathryn struggled against him, looking at Bec in those pivotal moments.

"Just run! Bec, you have to! Just go!" Cathryn protested, her terror renewed.

Bec considered Cathryn's words, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't, she wouldn't, just abandon her like that. Besides, where could she run?

Her jaw tightened, her face set, and her body clenched, preparing to go on the attack.

"Let her go," she demanded lowly, infusing her voice with as much venom as she could - the effect may have been better if she met his eyes, but that was a risk she was still unwilling to take. Her anger was nothing compared to the Oncoming Storm, but at this point, she didn't care. She quickly prayed for strength and wisdom and that she was as terrifying as she hoped to be in that moment.

Dozens of possibilities ran through her head of ways to escape their predicament, but while they might have worked in fiction, when faced with the reality of the Doctor, each idea fell short. She could threaten Rose, or threaten to tell Rose his name... No, she couldn't bring herself to even threaten the girl, let alone actually harm her. But could she threaten him? She considered it for a moment and decided she could. She thought she could even follow through... Although, she doubted she'd ever win, in no way did that mean she wouldn't fight.

She glanced around her at the nearby tables, looking for some sort of weapon she was willing to use, quickly setting on grabbing half a dozen sachets of sugar and holding the tightly in her fist. She thought of the nerve ganglion that Honor had punched once upon a story, but that vulnerability was inaccessible with the way he was holding Cathryn.

"Just listen to me!" the Doctor's frustrated voice growled, but Bec paid him no mind as she stepped forward and aimed her swing at the point two inches behind his nose, her fist flying for the dead centre of his face.

His reflexes were too fast, catching her wrist in one hand. Bec cried out in surprise as she dropped the sugar but the Time Lord was quick. He held the two of them and, as a touch telepath, he now had physical contact with each girl. A hard coded command that gave them no time for retaliation. Sleep. He managed to guide them both gently to the floor but his expression was stern. Unrelenting as he looked at each one.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, looking at the women unconscious on the ground. "You alright?" This was something new and sorely unexpected. He told her that the girls were in trouble. They needed help and were displaced. He spoke of their irrational fear of him. But a lot of what they said...the threat to use his name? Isn't the Doctor his name? Rose wondered. But then, why was the Doctor so disturbed by it? Still, they had looked so scared..."You can help them, yeah?"

The Doctor glanced at his companion and back at the women. It was time to clean up. Get them out of the Starbucks and back onto the TARDIS. They weren't safe, the universe wasn't safe until they were safely secured onboard.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Thank you," the Doctor said quietly, feeling a bit grim as to what he was forced to do and now he had to take custody over two very reluctant charges. But the universe was at stake and they needed protection whether they agreed to it or not. He needed to find out who they were, what they were, what they knew. Because he was positive those little snippets of information he'd heard were barely scratching the surface. He needed to learn how much they knew and how they had gained their knowledge. He couldn't leave that information accessible to anyone, the damage it could cause…

"How are they?" Sarah Jane inquired, feeling more than a little concerned. She was one of the Doctor's longest companions however, she had not ever seen him imprison anyone onboard the TARDIS. But then, she knew the Doctor would never do anything on a whim and if it weren't absolutely necessary. She remembered him talking about his companions from his first regeneration and how he had to hold them inside the immense time machine. Still, it was only temporary and once he knew they could be trusted to keep what they had seen in confidence, he eventually offered their release. But by that time, they acclimated as passengers and didn't want to go. Maybe the girls will feel the same way. Her reporter instincts that she nurtured somehow seemed to state it wouldn't be that simple.

"The TARDIS picked out two rooms and they're just asleep," he answered. "She'll inform me when they are awake." He didn't anticipate that conversation with Bec and Cathryn at all.

"Doctor, this is going to be hard on them." The brunette glanced at the TARDIS. "They'll consider it kidnapping."

"I know." The Time Lord frowned. "Believe me, Sarah Jane, if I thought for a moment there was another solution, I would have used it."

"Alright, then." The reporter paused. "Promise me if you happen to find an alternative, you won't keep them on the TARDIS against their wishes. Free will is very important to us little humans." She had grown more determined since she last travelled with the Doctor in his seventh regeneration. Usually their relationship was him giving orders and she obeying them. But when he left her back on Earth and had been deserted, time eventually sharpened her and she wasn't so intimidated as she had been previously.

"You have my word," the Doctor said solemnly before glancing back at the blue police box while inhaling through his nose. "Weeell, I should be off about now. I'll see you again when-"

"No." Sarah Jane's voice was adamant. "You hate goodbyes but after all the time we spent together, I think I deserve it."

He sighed, looked pained. "You're sure?"

"Yes. Never said it the last time but we will now." She took a step forward, looking at his newly regenerated face. "Goodbye Doctor and good luck."

A momentary pause before he finally answered her. "Goodbye….Sarah Jane." Whew. He actually said the words, painful as they were. Suddenly, he swept her into his arms with a tight embrace. "Thank you," he repeated. "For being there with me."

"I should be the one thanking you and there's not a single moment or adventure I regret." Her arms tightened around him briefly. "There never will be."

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Bec woke up groggily, her eyes slowly drifting around her room. Something felt off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She rolled over, glancing at the clock, and her heart stumbled in its steady path. 4:33!

'No, no, no, No, NO!' she internally screamed at herself. She'd forgotten Matty! Was he still waiting at school? Or had the office run her brother, the emergency contact, to pick him up? And about Micah? She should be arriving at daycare right now!

She fumbled with her pocket, shakily pulling out her phone. No network coverage. Of course the phones wouldn't be working when she desperately needed them to be!

She leapt from her bed (Where were her shoes? She always left her sandals at the foot of her bed! No matter, she'd just have to borrow her husband's from the shoe box by the front door) and she raced through the doorway -

She froze instantly in the unfamiliar hall. She simply stared at the long metallic corridor and her memory slowly yielded the details of the last hour before she slept. Was it really that quick? Barely an hour in the Whoniverse and she was already trapped on the TARDIS. She thought of the chase her characters always put the Doctor through and felt woefully naive.

What should she do now? She considered marching back into her room and ignoring anything to do with him, but surely Cathryn was somewhere here too. She set her jaw and marched barefoot down the hallway, certain that he would have configured the TARDIS to lead to him. Finding him was the fastest way to find Cathryn, and the other girl was the only one she cared about helping at this point. She set aside thoughts of her boys; she was the one in danger, they might be sad when she didn't arrive to pick them up, but they were perfectly safe.

Eventually her footsteps lead her to the console room, where he stood watching the doorway as she walked through it. Of course, she thought. Even barefoot, he probably heard me a mile away. She crossed her arms over her chest as she returned his glare.

"I think it's time we talked, don't you?" he asked coolly.

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AUTHORS' NOTE:

We would like to offer a special thanks to Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for their insights, technical help and contributions to this story. We greatly appreciate your help.

And please review to tell us whether we're hitting or missing the mark. We'd love to hear from you!