A/N: This is my first Doctor Who fic! I really hope you enjoy it. It's AU, taking place after Journey's End but before the specials. I think the eleventh Doctor is cool, but I love the tenth Doctor too much and was way too upset when he regenerated. So, this. It's going to be part of long series. I know it's kind of long, but I'm treating each chapter like an episode. Hopefully the word count isn't too scary.
DISCLAIMER: This disclaimer is for the entire story. I will not do one every chapter. Let it be known that I, Immortalli, own no part of Doctor Who nor any of its affiliates. Not even a plushie Doctor 10. (Although I would love one.) I gain no profit from this story except the fun of writing it and hopefully the joy it brings my readers.
Dedication: To my friend Zak, who introduced me to Dr. Who in the first place. Thanks for giving me a key to the TARDIS.
"Elise!" The girl's head snapped up as the teacher's ruler hit the desk with a sharp smack. "If you would kindly tell us all what the answer to number four is?" The young girl's dark-haired head dropped again, moving her notebook to look at her workbook. She glanced at the fourth problem, then back up at the teacher.
The teacher was a severe looking woman with a thin, sharp, wrinkled face and her hair pulled up into a tight bun. She could always tell when someone wasn't paying attention and always called them out. Not that it was difficult to tell when Elise wasn't paying attention. She swallowed hard, then ventured a guess.
"Sixteen?" The teacher got a mingled look of disapproval and satisfaction on her face.
"No, you foolish child. Four times four is sixteen. Four times five is twenty." She shrank a little as the teacher marched towards her. "Drawing again?" The teacher snatched the notebook from the girl's desk. She tried to grab it, but she wasn't quick enough. "Perhaps I should confiscate such a distraction."
"No!" cried the girl, perhaps a little too loudly. What few classmates who hadn't been watching the scene turned around. She blushed and lowered her voice. "I promise I won't let it distract me anymore. Please?" The teacher looked through her glasses down her nose at the girl.
"Very well. But know that if I catch you not paying attention again I will take it permanently." The girl nodded and the teacher handed the book back. She clutched it tightly for a moment before setting it back on her desk and opened it to the page she'd been on. She didn't pick up her pencil, but instead looked at the last drawing she'd been working on.
She knew the box she'd been drawing was important. She just knew it.
The Doctor stood at the console of his TARDIS, supporting himself by some of the bars that didn't do anything important. He stared into space, his eyes looking like they'd seen a thousand tragedies. He'd just left the alternate universe where Rose and his double were. Lonely. Lonely wasn't the word for what he felt. A huge, gaping hole that grew every time someone left. And they always left. The little mortal things, well, more mortal than he was, running around for such a short time. He'd already lived ten of their lifetimes and had some more to go. And sometimes he lost them early. Like Donna, who was unable to remember anything without being put in extreme danger, like Rose…
"Stop moping," he told himself. He ran a hand over his face and hair. "You've still got Martha." He began walking around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons in what seemed like random order. "What you need is a distraction. We'll go on a little trip, eh? Where to, where to… Oh, we'll just make it random." His actions became slightly livelier, laced with whimsy and a carefree attitude he tried to perpetuate. He pulled one last lever and a grinding noise started up as his ship disappeared from its place, speeding through time and space. The grinding changed pitch as he arrived at his destination. When it stopped he opened the door and stuck his head out. He was in a large field, tall grass swaying at his feet. He stepped out, putting his hands in the pockets of the long brown trench coat he wore. He saw there were some woods nearby, and very far off in the distance he could see a road. He turned back to the TARDIS, gave it a pat, then closed the door.
"Well, time to find out when I am." he began walking off, vaguely towards the road. It wasn't long until he passed the trees and saw a town not far away. He strolled towards it, looking all around both to appreciate the beauty of the scenery and to try and figure out when and where he was. He could've just checked the TARDIS, but it was more fun this way. He reached the town and looked around. From the models of the houses and cars, he was probably in the… forties. Yes, it was definitely the forties. He stopped and leaned against a building, just looking around, watching the people. A group of children were playing across the street, hopscotch or some such. Another little girl approached and they called out to her.
"Elise, will you play with us?" There was a strange sarcastic note to the request.
"No, she's too busy drawing pictures of monsters."
"No, it's too light; she has to go find a dark cave to hide in." The Doctor frowned. He hated bullies, but didn't think he should interfere. He couldn't fix everything. The girl kept walking, hugging a small worn notebook to her chest. She kept her eyes on the sidewalk. When the taunts didn't stop, she turned her head away to the other side of the street. She locked eyes with the Doctor and stopped, staring. He shifted a bit, then smiled and waved, trying to be friendly. She just kept staring, then opened her book and began flipping madly. He frowned and straightened, walking off. Something about the way she'd been looking at him made him uncomfortable. It was as though she'd recognized him, but he was certain he'd never been to this town before. At least, not around this time.
The Doctor wandered around the town, admiring the buildings. He went into a general store, delighted with the little knickknacks for sale. Suddenly he grew uncomfortable, aware of something. Something was tickling his brain. He drew out his psychic paper and looked at it. He's here, was scribbled across it. It was messy and looked like handwriting. Possibly a child's handwriting. He frowned, and then looked around as though expecting to see the sender right there. Not many people could send messages to his psychic paper. The Face of Bo was one, but he'd seen him die. Besides, the Face of Bo's messages were neat, almost like typing. He stared at the message a while longer, then headed off to his TARDIS. This warranted some investigating.
Far off on the outskirts of town, the ship waited. It was large and bulky, not the prettiest cruiser in the sky. A figure stood at the helm.
"We're certain it's here?"
"Yes, captain. Our sensors are reading strong."
"Well, I guess it's time to see if the rumors are true, then."
The Doctor looked up from a small device, squinting in the afternoon sun. He would've started earlier, but it had taken him an hour to find his tracker, and then it was broken, and then he had to modify it to hone in on psychic frequencies only. As it was he'd had to stay up the whole night just to finish the thing. He followed it now through the town. It was an incredibly odd looking device with a small satellite-like think protruding from it. However it was very small, small enough that he could hide it in his pocket if need be.
The tracker led him to a boarding school on the edge of the town. It was a small collection of drab buildings with a slightly over-grown play yard. He wandered in, following the beeping of his tracker. He went into one of the dormitories and wandered down the hall. Finally he stopped in front of one room in particular. The indications were clear; strong psychic signals were being given off by this place. He stood there, looking at the door, wondering who might be inside.
"Excuse me, can I help you?" He whirled around, quickly tucking his device into his pocket. A young woman was approaching him with a very curious and confused look on her face.
"Ah, yes, hello."
"Who are you?" she asked, taking in his strange appearance.
"I'm the Doctor."
"The doc- oh!" Her eyes flitted from him to the door he was standing in front of. "Are you here for Elise? I knew we'd talked about sending for someone, but no one had told me…"
"Ah, yes," he said, quickly adapting to the situation. He pulled out his psychic paper and flashed it quickly at the woman. "I'm here for… uh, Elise."
"Well," the woman said, obviously unsure of what to do. "I'm afraid most of the children are in town right now. They get two hours every day to wander about. But she should be back in about half an hour, I could find you an office…?"
"Ah, yes. Yes, that'd be great." The woman nodded and led him to a different building. As they walked she talked about the little girl.
"It's not that there's anything highly wrong with her. She's respectful and quiet. But she hasn't got any friends, see. She doesn't pay any attention in class. And she…" the woman's voice dropped a bit, "she draws disturbing pictures. Creatures, things that no one's ever seen before. That her imagination could come up with such things… it frightens some of the other children, and to be honest some of the adults as well." He nodded, frowning. A psychic who drew… it was always possible. Of course, it was possible that she wasn't the psychic at all. The woman found an empty room with a couple of relatively comfortable chairs. "You can wait here. As soon as Elise gets in I'll send her to you." He nodded and sat, waiting. He did hope that the girl would be the psychic. Otherwise it would be awkward to hold a counseling session when he really wanted to be figuring out the message that had appeared.
It was about twenty minutes later when there came a knock at the door. It opened and the woman came in, leading a young girl.
"Elise, this is Dr…" she looked questioningly.
"Just the Doctor." he said with a smile. The woman raised an eyebrow, but said,
"The Doctor. He'll be counseling you, alright? You're not in trouble." The Doctor looked at the young girl with a smile, trying to put her at ease. It took a great deal of control not to give a start. It was the young girl from earlier! She looked to be about eleven or twelve. Her dark hair was brushed carefully and her school uniform, which consisted of a knee length pleated skirt and button down top, did nothing to make her look more cheerful. Her skin was incredibly pale, indicating that she probably liked to stay indoors whenever possible. Her eyes were dark, very dark, and they were staring deep into his, like they saw more than he wanted them to. The woman cleared her throat, then said, "I'll be off, then." As soon as she shut the door the little girl spoke.
"It's you!" She pointed sharply at the Doctor, although there was no one else in the room to confuse him with.
"It's me?" he said questioningly. "I'm here to help you." He showed her his psychic paper. She looked at it, then exclaimed.
"It is you!" She opened the little black notebook she was carrying with her. She flipped a few pages in and turned it around. The Doctor was startled to see his own face staring back at him, among a myriad of other sketches and drawings. It was a very good likeness, too, not like usual children's drawings. He slowly took the book from her. He looked at the drawing, then back up at her.
"How… why did you draw this? When did you draw this?"
"I saw you in my mind! In my dreams!" cried the little girl, Elise. She seemed so excited to finally meet the man in her mind that she could barely contain herself. "I drew it four months ago." He raised his eyebrows.
"Four months? That's a decent amount…" He glanced down again. Maybe she saw her own future. It wasn't uncommon for psychics. There was the one boy he'd met, in a school similar to this… He flipped to the next page, then stopped. "That's a… that's a…" His eyes were wide with fear. If she really saw her own future… "Dalek."
"Dalek…" she said, frowning. "That's the... Er… one of the monsters… I can't recall which one…" he turned the book and pointed at the drawing.
"That! That is a Dalek! When did you draw this one?"
"About the same time," she said, shrinking a little from his reaction. He had no more time to pretend or dance around, she was clearly the psychic, and if there were Daleks coming… he flipped to the next page, and his hearts nearly stopped. There was… Donna? He blinked, just staring at the page. How could…? But Donna wasn't here, there was absolutely no way Donna could be here. And not in the "there's-absolutely-no-way-oh-look-it-happened" way, but literally no way.
"When did you draw this?" he said quietly, turning the book around and pointing. The little girl looked closely.
"The same time as the others. The whole first section was around the same time." He frowned, then flipped some more. There was him again, and Donna… that was Martha! More Daleks… His TARDIS… the Earth. Wait. That was the TARDIS, pulling the Earth. That had been… no, no. There was no way… He flipped to the very beginning of the book. There was Donna again, with the beetle on her back. When the time stream had been affected! He looked up at the girl.
"How long have you been drawing me? In particular." She swallowed hard and looked embarrassed.
"Always. I've always drawn you. But sometimes…" she struggled to find the correct words. "You change. Your face changes." He tried to think. She knew about regenerations, so she'd been doing this a while. He held up the book.
"Is this all you've drawn?"
"No. That's just my newest one. All the others are full." All the others…
"Show me." She led him back to the dormitory, back to the room he'd been drawn to. She let him inside, then pulled out an entire stack of notebooks. He stared. There had to be at least ten, maybe more. He took the one from the top and opened it. He took a sharp breath. Rose was looking back at him from the page. And there was a picture of her running… and there was a man with her. Wait. That man. It was him! It was his last regeneration! He stared for a moment, his eyes wide. He ruffled his hair with one hand, making it stick up even wilder than before. He flipped through pages madly. More of him and Rose. Although they skipped several things, he could almost see their adventures progress. And she'd drawn the monsters too. Slitheens, Daleks, Cybermen. And other people, Jack, Cassandra, she'd even drawn the Face of Bo. The repetition in the notebooks seemed to follow the repetition in his life. He picked up the other notebooks and flipped through them. They were all there, all his past lives… As he went backwards, the drawings became cruder. He looked up at the girl.
"How long have you been drawing these things?" She shrugged.
"I've been dreaming about you since I can remember. I started the notebooks when I was five." No wonder she was so good now. Drawing for six or seven years, filling notebook after notebook… He picked the latest one up again and opened it. Again he stared at the TARDIS dragging the Earth. It had been so wonderful, having all his friends together in one place… one of the best moments he could remember.
He flipped to the next page. And the next one. He frowned. The images were beginning to confuse him. There was an alien. He recognized the species, but he hadn't encountered one recently. And there was a girl, a human girl, that he'd never seen before. Here was what looked like just a set of clothing, or an invisible person… he quickly flipped through the next few pages. His TARDIS, Daleks, and two people in particular, people he hadn't seen before. As he flipped the first girl appeared less and less, replaced by a woman with a braid… there were planets… there was a giant bloodshot eye, staring… He stopped when he realized what he was seeing. He was seeing his own future. He closed the book quickly, his face pale.
"Spoilers." he whispered to himself, thinking of River Song. He looked at the girl, feeling a little bit like running away. He was scared, and it was what he was good at. He didn't want to know his own future, to be honest. He'd always been terrified of knowing what mistakes he'd make next, and when he'd finally fail so much that he'd die, and leave the Earth to fend for itself. Finally he spoke. "Who were you trying to contact?" he asked. This was the other thing he'd been frightened of.
"What do you mean?" asked the girl, looking honestly confused. He frowned.
"Do you know what this is?" he said, showing his psychic paper.
"It's a blank piece of paper. You showed it to me earlier. It tricks people, but not me." He blinked. Not many people weren't fooled by psychic paper. He nodded.
"It's psychic paper. It's supposed to show people whatever I want them to see. But sometimes it can receive messages from people with psychic abilities. You sent out a message earlier. You said that he was here." The girl stared at him with huge eyes.
"You mean I'm psychic? I'm not crazy, or deranged, or a freak? They're real? They're all real?" Tears started forming in her eyes. He was a little caught off guard.
"Er, yes, you're psychic. I thought you already knew… you didn't seem surprised to meet me."
"I thought I was dreaming again! I wanted so badly not to be crazy, sometimes I'd pretend you were real." She gave herself a hard pinch. "I'm not! I'm not dreaming!" He gave her a moment to revel in the fact, then broached the subject again.
"But you sent a message. How could you do that if you didn't know you were psychic?" She looked as confused as he was.
"I didn't know I sent a message. I was so surprised when I saw you that I couldn't stop thinking about it, though." The Doctor sat back and thought. The girl was powerful, probably more powerful than she realized. She could derive the purpose of the psychic paper just by looking at it, she sent psychic messages without meaning to, and somehow she'd gotten connected with his time line strongly enough to receive his entire life and then some in a few years. Not to mention that her mere presence on a regular basis instilled this room with enough psychic energy to make his sensor think a real psychic was in there. He stood suddenly.
"I have to go." He said.
"Are you leaving? You do that a lot." The girl's voice was so sad he was caught off guard. He pity well up inside him. He had the feeling no one wanted to hang around this girl much.
"No. No, I won't leave. I just have to figure some things out. Time for me to go be clever." He said jokingly. She nodded. He got up and went for the door. His hand was on the handle when a small voice spoke up.
"Doctor?" he turned. "Thank you." He nodded, then left.
He was in his TARDIS later that night. He'd been going over it again and again in his head. He didn't know what to do. He'd been stupid enough to promise not to leave, but everything in him was screaming to get away from this time, this town, and this girl. What could he do for her? No one would believe she wasn't crazy. Unless he was willing to let her prove it. But he wasn't really. He rubbed his face. He'd been over the arguments dozens of times in his head. He leaned forward against the console. There had to be something he could do. Suddenly he got the feeling again, what he'd gotten the first time she sent him a message. It was stronger this time. He took out his psychic paper.
DOCTOR! HELP! HELP HELP HELP HELP! scrawled across the paper over and over, in the same childish handwriting as before. He flipped it shut and ran out of the TARDIS, slamming the door behind him. He went for the school, brown coat flying out behind him and blue suit straining at its button as he ran as fast as he could.
He reached the small cluster of buildings and what he saw made his eyes widen in shock. A very small group of figures were by the gates, one holding something that was wriggling wildly. A teacher, the woman who'd talked to him earlier that day, was shouting at them.
"Let her go! Let her go right now! I've phoned for the police! Let her go!" She made a dash and one of the figures let out a strange sound. Ke-ke-ke-ke. The Doctor recognized it. The laugh of a Rasha'ka. The figure who had laughed pulled out a small gun and shot it at the teacher. She fell to the ground, stiff as a board. The small wriggling thing in one of the Rasha'ka's arms screamed loudly. The captor quickly covered her mouth and the whole group turned and ran. The Doctor ran over to the teacher lying on the ground. He checked her pulse and breathing. She was fine, just stunned. Her eyes stared at him, open and frightened. He got up and raced after the aliens.
He quickly came upon them. He could see them clearly now in the moonlight. They were thin, muscled beings slightly taller than humans with grey skin that seemed to be tough, as though it were made of plastic or leather. Their faces were very similar to humans with a very slight reptilian air about them. One of them held Elise tightly in its arms. He knew immediately why they wanted her and that the only way to get her right now was the element of surprise. Rasha'ka had good senses, but as long as he was light on his feet they shouldn't distinguish his footsteps from their own.
He ran up behind them and tackled the one holding Elise. They all exclaimed, but by the time they'd gathered their senses he'd grabbed her and was running the other direction. They yelled to each other, soon following.
"Elise, where's a place we could hide?" He knew they couldn't outrun them all the way to the TARDIS.
"There's a shed, at the school. It's got a padlock. As long as we could get it open, we could lock it behind us." He nodded and headed towards the school. Once they were on the grounds the little girl lead him to the shed. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed at the lock, glancing nervously over his shoulder. He hoped they'd have time. He could hear the Rasha'ka searching for them. The large lock popped open. He pulled the door open and ushered the girl inside, then went in himself, locking the door behind them. They huddled in the dark together, listening intently. Eventually Elise whispered,
"Who were they?"
"They are the Rasha'ka. They're… sort of the black market vendors of the universe. If you need anything illegal, you go to the Rasha'ka. I'm assuming they're here on an acquiring run." He could just barely see the girl's frightened eyes grow wider.
"But why do they want me?" The Doctor hesitated, unsure of how to answer and slightly unwilling to reveal his suspicions. He was saved from this by her next question, which quickly followed the first. "How did they even find me?" A voice hissed from the side of the shed.
"We are very good at what we do." The Doctor stood up like springs were attached to his feet, looking around wildly. A section of the wall began smoking and blackening.
"They're burning their way in." he said, pulling the girl to her feet. They'd have to run for it, despite the fact that the shed was probably surrounded. He got right up to the door, took Elise's hand, and pointed his screwdriver. The second the lock popped he burst through the door. Sure enough two Rasha'ka were flanking the door. He flung Elise forward, urging her to run, and pointed the screwdriver at one of the weapons. But no sooner had it short circuited that he felt a little stick in his back. His whole body went rigid. He fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle. His eyes were wide and staring, but all he could see were their feet. He heard a muffled scream and thump not far from where he was lying.
"Let's get back to the ship." One of them hissed in their natural tongue. He heard them all leaving. He would have cried if he'd been able to.
The tromping of their feet had barely faded when he heard soft footsteps approaching him. A skirt and pair of feet appeared in his field of vision. Soon he could see the teacher crouching next to him.
"What is going on?" she demanded. "Those things… I don't think they're human. Their skin is grey!" She looked into his face. "They shot you too, didn't they? You were helping Elise, I saw you." She began running her hands over his chest. "I'm very sorry, I just… I'm looking for…" as they swept over his back, she stopped. "Here it is!" She plucked out a small barb. "When I regained movement I noticed something like this fell off of me." It took about fifteen seconds, but eventually the neurotoxin wore itself out of his system. That Time Lord immune system helped, too. He sat up.
"Thank you very much, now I have to go save her." The woman caught hold of his sleeve.
"What's going on? What are those things and what do they want with Elise?" He looked her straight in the eyes.
"Those are aliens. And I'm very afraid of what they want with Elise. Now, if you don't mind, time is of the essence." He stood, and she did with him.
"I'm coming."
"No." he said firmly. "You have no idea how dangerous this is." The woman put her hands on her hips.
"She is my student. Every child in this school is my responsibility. The only reason I'm not going for the others right now is you said time is of the essence. So perhaps we could stop discussing what's already decided and rescue that poor little girl?" The Doctor blinked, then gave a tiny nod.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Mary Gall. What's yours?"
"I already told you. I'm the Doctor." She gave a frustrated sigh, but didn't press the issue. He turned and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the small tracking device. "Let's see you hide a signal that strong." He murmured to himself, then set off.
About five minutes walking straight into the woods they stumbled across what was unquestionably what they were looking for. In the middle of a possibly unnatural clearing was a huge spaceship. The Doctor smiled grimly. As he'd guessed, the Rasha'ka had a very old ship. They favored those vehicles because they were very inconspicuous, but a bonus for him was that those ships had at least a five minute warm up before they could lift off, if he was lucky it would take half an hour or so. He turned to Miss Gall.
"Alright, Mary, now I need you to stay here. If everything goes right, I'll send Elise out in about ten minutes. I need you to get her and take her straight back to the school. Keep her safe. The Rasha'ka's greatest advantage against you right now is the guns they've shot you with already. As long as the barb doesn't pierce your skin they're useless, so cover yourselves with whatever you can find." The young woman nodded. He turned and headed to the ship, being as stealthy as possible. He snuck into the ship. There were no guards, a bad indication that they were almost ready to take off. He walked cautiously down the halls until he heard voices. He could hear them arguing in the bridge.
"Why didn't we take him? We'd get a better price for the actual item, instead of the guide."
"Idiot! How long do you think we could have held him for? Have you heard none of the stories about him? Let the Soltarons or whoever get themselves killed, but that's not our trade. It was pure luck we were able to stun him as is. If this hunk of junk will ever be ready to fly we might not be killed!"
"You're the one who specifically requested this ship. 'No one will think to search us.' That's what you said." Next there came an insult that didn't have a direct telepathic translation, which was rather impressive. But it was something along the lines of someone who wasn't careful about getting caught by the police, because of what they'd do to get out of it.
"Well, you're the one who said we'd only have to bring a small crew! 'It's one human child,' you said. 'They don't even know about aliens yet!' you said. And now we have to deal with the Time Lord!" The Doctor could hear some quiet sobs from behind the door as well. He decided that now was as good a time as ever. He peered in through the window on the door. There were four Rasha'kas. One was standing over Elise, one was at the controls, and the other two were clearly the arguers. They all seemed to be armed. That would make it exciting.
He set up his screwdriver for quick changing and pointed it at the door. The second the door whooshed open he sprang into the room, pointing it at them. It was set to wide dispersal, and by the time they'd thought to draw their weapons, they'd all sparked and short circuited.
"The thing about these old cruisers," he said, tapping the metal wall with the blue-tipped device, "No deadlocks. Also, thin walls." All eyes in the room were on him. He took a step forward and immediately the guard grabbed Elise, putting her in an easy position to snap her neck.
"Not a step closer, Time Lord." The Doctor froze, glaring at the Rasha'ka.
"If you harm her at all, I can make it so you were never born." He looked at the other two, who seemed to be the leaders of the outfit. "How dare you come here like this? How dare you hunt this little girl? Do you realize this is a class 5 planet? No interference!" The taller Rasha'ka chuckled.
"Time Lord, surely you know of us. Do you really think we care about laws? We have, of course, done our best to keep our presence here unknown. It is in our best interest. We haven't even killed anyone! But for such a valuable asset, we are willing to risk a few laws."
"Why do you even want her? It's not like she knows my weaknesses! She just knows my past, and half my enemies already have that!" The Doctor had suspicions, and now was the time to see if he was right. The leader let out a ke-ke-ke laugh.
"But she knows your future, too. When and where you will be. With enough persuasion, she'll be very specific with it, too. Now whoever wants to can avoid you completely. Do whatever they want, and as soon as you start coming they'll run. Or they can do the opposite. Leave a trap for you. You'll never go anywhere again without wondering if something's lying in wait."
"Well," he said, leveling his screwdriver at them. "I can't have that happening, now can I?" He swung it around and pointed it at the paneling behind the Rasha'ka holding Elise. It showered them in sparks. They shouted and dropped the girl. The others began converging on the Doctor. He darted to the side. He was looking around the room wildly for the shut down button. In talking he had used up about half his time, at least according to his estimations. He ran around a line of cables dangling from the ceiling. He grabbed them and swung them into one of his pursuers. He finally spotted the button. It was on the opposite side of the room, and the remaining three Rasha'ka were boxing him into a corner. He looked around desperately, then spotted Elise. She was quite close to the console, staring at him with frightened eyes. He shouted to her as he felt his back meet with the metal wall.
"Elise! Look at the console! Find the button that will stop them from leaving! I know you can do it, just do what you did with my psychic paper!" She looked uncertainly at the console for a minute, then ran over. His trappers turned to watch her. She stood for a moment, searching the buttons. Just as the Rasha'ka thought it would be a good time to stop her, she had started pressing a series of buttons as quickly as she could. The ship shuddered as red lights began flashing and alarms started going off. The Doctor was caught off guard. He had not meant for her to activate the self-destruct. He pushed the Rasha'ka out of the way and ran to Elise, grabbing her up. He ran back to the door as the aliens scrambled to their brethren. He slammed it behind them and ran as fast as he could as a countdown started up. They exited the ship at top speed and saw Miss Gall waiting.
"Elise? Elise, are you alright?"
"Run! Run, run, run, run!" yelled the Doctor, not pausing for a minute. They sped into the woods. It wasn't three seconds later that a massive explosion went off in the field behind them. They felt the concussive force hit them in the back. The Doctor looked back. "That class of ship was never the cleanest when it came to destructions. Some of the newer models will just implode. No fire, no mess. They even make their own little force field to contain stray debris. As it is, I feel like I'm in a bad action movie. You'll have to cover this up, of course. Perhaps a gas explosion? You lot do seem to like blaming things on gas explosions." Miss Gall was staring at him. Even Elise looked confused.
"You know, Doctor, you're making less sense than usual." He looked at them, almost surprised at her response.
"Oh. Well, yes. Sometimes I say things inappropriate to the time I'm in. Especially when I get excited. You know, babbling. It helps relieve stress for me. I had a friend who used to get on to me for it. You should hear me talk about New Earth. I feel the need to say all fifteen of the News in New New York. Er, perhaps I shouldn't have said that… well, must be off!" he turned, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Wait, Doctor!" Elise grabbed his sleeve, holding him back. "You're not leaving yet, are you?" He looked down at her.
"I'm afraid so."
"But what about me? What if they come back?"
"That lot won't be coming back." He commented, nodding towards the still smoking wreckage. However, it nagged at him that she was right. If it wasn't more Rasha'ka, someone would be after her. Rumors of someone who knew so much about him would be too good to pass up. Moreover, her psychic signal would be a plain beacon to anyone who cared to glance twice. He would need something to hide it, or at least dampen it down… that's when it hit him. "Of course!" he cried, hitting himself in the forehead. "Come with me!" he grabbed her hand, then looked up at the teacher, who had been quite silent this whole time. "Oh, alright, you can come to." He led them back to his TARDIS. Elise grew very excited when it came into view.
"That's it! That's it, that's the box!" she squealed. He looked down at her with a smile.
"Would you like to see the inside?" she nodded violently. He chuckled and opened the door, letting her in. She didn't say a word, just looked around in awe. He motioned for the teacher, inviting her in as well. She looked cynical, but stepped inside anyway. She gasped in shock, then stepped outside. Then back in. Then back out. Then back in.
"It's… it's…" she looked around in utter disbelief. "Bigger? How can it be bigger?" He walked in afterward.
"It's a long explanation involving dimensions and nonexistence; it'd be easier to not bother explaining. Also, I have a damper to find." He ran to the back, rummaging through some of the nooks. It wasn't too long until he'd found it. He pulled out the little ring, remembering trying it on Donna. It hadn't worked then, of course, but Huon energy was a completely different ballpark than hiding a psychic signal, even one as strong as Elise's. He took it back and showed it to her. "Wear this all the time. Even when you sleep. It'll hide you from all the monsters. They'll never find you so long as you never take it off, alright?" She nodded and he slipped it onto her finger.
"Thank you, Doctor." He smiled at her.
"No problem. But really, I have to go now. I'm sure you understand." She nodded then started out.
"It's too bad I scare you so much. Maybe I could go with you, like all the others." He blinked and didn't respond. He didn't know what to say. They exited the ship and he spoke to Miss Gall.
"You take care of her, alright? Now that you know she isn't crazy, maybe you can treat her the way a little girl is supposed to be treated." The young woman nodded, putting her hands on Elise's shoulders. He turned to go back inside his ship when a small voice spoke up.
"Doctor?" he turned again. Elise looked up at him intently. "Listen closely."
"What?" he asked confused. She didn't say anything else, just waved and then turned and walked away. He watched her for a moment, then went into his ship and stood, slightly worried, thinking about what she had said.
Listen closely.
A/N: I hoped you liked it! Like I said, I know it's kind of long. But just try and imagine it like an episode. Please leave a review, they help! And sorry if it got a little weird at the end. I took to writing it at like, 1 in the morning.