"Uh…hello…"
"You're late!" The Doctor gaped at the man who was pushing his way to the front of the crowd that had formed in the aisle. "Still, better late than never, I suppose…what's up? You look a bit dazed."
"What are you doing here?" Without waiting for a reply, the Doctor ran back into the TARDIS, poked a few screens, and ran back out, almost knocking the other man down. "What are you doing here?" he repeated.
"Rift. Stupid thing keeps spewing people up everywhere." He shrugged, as if it was obvious. "Throwing people from one side to the other. Usually they get back, I didn't. Not complaining, mind you…oh, no."
"What?"
"You just came through the Rift, yeah? From Earth."
The Doctor looked confused. "But this is Earth. Oh."
A commotion broke out suddenly at the front of the room, and a few heads turned. "You're in trouble," the man said simply, laughing.
As an explanation began to form in his mind, the Doctor found that this was all too much information to process, even for him. An abrupt sense of nausea washed over him and he found himself grabbing for the nearest support, which happened to be Martha's hurriedly outstretched arm. Sitting down on the floor and rubbing his head, another painfully familiar voice floated over to him.
"Leave the poor guy alone, Jack, he's just fallen through Hell."
The Doctor looked up, swearing to himself that this was all a dream (or possibly some kind of twisted nightmare), and checking that the voice really belonged to who he thought it did.
The grinning face looking down at him was definitely not what he expected.
"Okay, so that was a bit hypocritical. Tell Jack off, then stick this ugly mug in your face." The woman laughed out loud. She was bouncing on her heels, smiling like a maniac and acting like a kid at Christmas. Either hyper, compensating for something, or both, the Doctor thought.
"Compensating," the woman said, as if she'd read his mind. "I'm a bit annoyed, actually. See, when someone turns up on this side, from somewhere nearby a person tends to get sent over there. Bride's gone."
"Doctor, what's going on?" Martha piped up, finding her voice. The woman seemed to notice her for the first time, and the way that Martha was staring back at her.
"That's okay. At least you didn't come up with a bad clown joke." She looked pointedly at Jack.
The Doctor and Martha took in the woman's appearance properly. She was average height, with a shock of red hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in years. Covering her eyes was what looked like a white masquerade mask, except without eyeholes. It was fitted so closely to her face that it was almost a second skin. But, despite whatever was going on here, messing with his head, he still knew one thing for certain. He recognised that mouth, and the voice that came out of it.
The Doctor got to his feet, ignoring the impulse to try and work this out. It really didn't matter right now. Gently removing Martha's helping hand from his arm, he approached the masked woman, looked her up and down briefly, and threw his arms around her, surprised when she returned the gesture. He stood back and regarded her again, and said three words.
"I love you."