Chapter One: Valerie Tomlinson

I'm Valerie Margot Tomlinson and this is the story of my life. Well, at least the interesting part of my life. The rest consists of school, attempting to write and giving tours at the Museum. But one particular day, everything changed.

My alarm clock rang at 8:00 am. Another day, more groups of tourists. I let out a long sigh and got ready for the morning. After I had my hair, makeup, and uniform on, I ate a slice of toast and left my lonely flat. I hope someone saw my ad that I needed a new flat mate, I thought as I left for work.

Another day, same tube, I thought when I entered the station. I got into my seat and took my notebook out of my bag. I was jotting down some notes for my book. Basically my book was a murder mystery mixed with romance. It's been one of my goals to write a book and well, I was trying but most days I had little to no inspiration. I was attempting to write one of the romantic parts which I was horrible at considering I have no romantic experience. I let out a frustrated sigh as I felt an abrupt stop. Great my only time to write today is gone…

I got out of the station and made my way to the British Museum, where I worked as a tour guide. My shift started at 9:30 and I kept doing the same tour over and over every half hour when I got to my lunch break. I went to the food court and bought a sandwich and some crisps. When I sat down and opened my sandwich to put in mustard, what I saw astonished me. It was the number 1121 written out in mustard. I was pretty freaked out considering that was my birthday numbers, November 21st. Is someone stalking me? I immediately jumped to that conclusion. I looked around the room to see if anyone was staring at me but everyone seemed too pre occupied with their families or food. I decided to not eat the sandwich just incase if there was weird poison in the sandwich. I looked down to my left wrist and my watch told me it was 1:30. Crap my tour is starting! I thought as I bolted down the hall, thankfully I got there in time before my boss could find out. By the time I was getting back into the swing of giving tours I completely forgot about the weird sandwich incident.

I was finally on the last tour of the day when I got a rude awakening by my stomach. I instantly remembered the events of lunchtime and felt even more sick. I started the tour and everything was fine when we were looking at all of the statues and carvings. I finally got to the last and main attraction, The Rosetta Stone.

"And here is the Rosetta Stone. It was a letter written on behalf of King Ptolemy written in three languages. Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Demotic Greek. It was discovered by French Soldiers in 1790..." I continued reciting the all too familiar words when I noticed a man in the back of the tour. I didn't think he was a part of my group because I hadn't seen him earlier. He sort of looked like the man who was serving food at the food court… He was eying the Rosetta Stone warily, almost as if it was about to explode. I finished talking about the stone and told the tourists about how the gift shop is open and all the stuff my boss wanted me to say.

My day was finally finished and I went into the employee room, where I collected my things from my locker.

"Valerie?" My boss's voice rang through the empty room. What does he want this time, I thought as I let out a sigh.

I went into my boss's office, expecting to see his fat lazy figure in the chair. What I saw was far from that. The first thing that came into mind was 'Alien.' It was a disgusting shade of brown that reminded me of sewage. It was skinny, so skinny you could see its ribs. It was humanoid with its walk and its face, but its devil horns were far from human. In the corner of the room, my boss's dead figure lied. He was so bloody I could barely see his face. There was only one thought going through my mind: Run. I ran as fast as I could. The creature was faster. By the time he caught up with me I was in the main exhibit. I saw the Rosetta Stone but the letters were glowing a faint green. Also, the strange man from my last tour was there.

The alien was entranced by the stone completely forgetting about me, and not noticing the man. A million thoughts were running through my mind. Who is the man? Who is the Alien? Is it an alien? What if I die? Why does it care about the stone? Why did this have to happen to ME? The alien approached the stone and was about to grab it. He didn't notice the glass and his hands bumped into the glass. The man took that as his cue to come out and confront the alien.

He was holding a weird object that looked like a mix of a light up pen and a screwdriver. He pointed the strange device towards the thing and it backed away.

"Leave this planet. It's a level 5 and you got rid of the tablet centuries ago." The strange man said. What is he talking about? My thoughts were interrupted when the alien attacked the man. The man sidestepped and the alien stumbled. He went again, this time successful. The alien and the man were wrestling and I was just watching, dumbfounded. I knew I had to do something. But what? I thought. And that was when it hit me.

I ran as fast as I could to the weapon exhibit and grabbed a sharp antique sword from the wall. The fact that the sword was ancient and was probably held by the best of warriors not even crossing my mind. Sword in hand, I ran back and saw a horrible sight. The alien was above the man, mouth wide open, about to bite into him. Before he could do that I stabbed the alien sharply in the back and it turned around. It was just about to attack me when it fell. It turned a light shade of pink and at that time I knew it was dead.

I stumbled a bit, in shock, and sat on the ground trying to process what happened. So first of all my boss is dead. Second of all I just saw an alien. Aliens exist, I kept repeating over and over in my mind. The man got up and reached his hand out to me. I accepted it and he helped me up.

"Who-are-you-what-was-that-do-aliens-exist-are-you-one-of-them-why-is-the stone-important" I quickly stammered out.

"Whoa whoa... slow down... First of all, I'm the Doctor," He stated proudly. I was incredibly confused.

"Doctor Who?"

"Just the Doctor" He said with a smile. "Who are you?"

"Valerie" I said "And what was that... that thing?"

"Oh just a droma from the delta 34 galaxy." He said as if it was no big deal.

"An alien?" I asked. All I could think of was the stories. Stories of madmen. Stories of spaceships and fat creatures and cyborgs.

"Yep. Haven't you been paying attention to the news? Any of the alien stuff?"

I never thought the stories were true. No body did. They were never on the news "They weren't on the news…" I quietly said.

"Ah… Time can be rewritten…. Of Course…" He mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Well… It's complicated… Bunch of timey wimey stuff…"

"Are you an alien?" I asked.

"Well… technically speaking I am not human…. But I am not an evil alien by any sorts. I'm the good guy." He confidently stated with a smile.

I wasn't buying any of it. I picked up the sword and pointed it to him and commanded "Take me to your leader." Which I remembered hearing from the alien movies.

He seemed alarmed by the sword. "I don't have a leader…" He claimed. I still wasn't buying it.

"A spaceship?" I questioned with an eyebrow raise.

"Ah, yes… Well…. You'll see" He grinned. How can someone be so cheerful with a sword pointed at them? He guided me to a supply closet and opened the door. Inside was a blue box that said "Police public call Box" on the top.

"And this is your spaceship?" I snorted. Must be a nutter… I thought.

All he did was open the door. I peered inside and was incredibly amazed, the sword dropped out of my hand. Words cannot describe how amazing it was. It was huge inside, How could something that big fit into such a small box? I went outside and looked at it again; touching the sides making sure it was real. I went back outside and laughed. All I could do was laugh because I thought that I was going mad.

"It's…. Bigger…. On… The… Inside…" I managed between giggles.

"Yes it is… I call it the TARDIS," He responded.

"So you can travel into space…. In just a box?" I practically whispered.

"And time" He boasted with a grin. He's a time traveler… I thought that only happened in stories. Amazing, crazy stories. Of course, I was skeptical.

"Prove it" I ordered.

"Fine." He said, glad to show off. He pressed some buttons on the spaceship and wound some dials and I knew we were moving. Through what, I have no clue but we were moving. The spaceship made a weird noise that was sort of cool. He opened the door and we were back in the closet. I was confused until he opened the door of the closet and I realized it was the closet in the food court. I was entering the food court, obviously bored.

"Whoa…" I said. My past self was in line for food. I got into the kitchen to observe myself better, The Doctor shortly following behind.

"What's your birthday?" He questioned.

"Why do you care?" I asked, feeling annoyed. Realizing that it doesn't matter I quickly stammered "November 21st…" and continued to watch myself. The Doctor disappeared into the kitchen. By the time I realized he was gone I saw him putting a sandwich on the section of finished sandwiches. It all made sense now. He gave me the mustard message. He came back, smile on his face and I slapped him.

"Oi! What was that for?" He complained

"You freaking scared me to death with that mustard!" I exclaimed, yet obviously relieved the message wasn't from some stalker.

"Sorry… You wanted to know that I was a time traveler… and it obviously worked…" He said.

"Sorry, I guess I over-reacted…" I admitted.

"Well ok… I need to get you back to the TARDIS and get you back to your own time." He grabbed my hand and led me back to the closet. He opened the closet door and the TARDIS door and we went inside. I was still amazed at how it all fit in such a small box… The Doctor fiddled with the buttons and dials again and when I got out of the TARDIS I was back in the museum, night again.

"Well, bye Val!" He quickly stated and practically ran back into the TARDIS.

"Wait Wait Wait!" I shouted.

He happily stepped out of the blue box, almost as if he knew this would happen. "Yes?" He asked.

"Do you do this type of stuff normally? Like, travel through time and defeat monsters?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes." He responded, knowing where I was getting.

"Does it get lonely…? Just you?"

"Yes…" He responded quietly. "Would you like to join me for a trip?" He grinned, knowing I couldn't turn him down.

"Um… Are you sure? I don't want to slow you down…" I shyly said.

"Are you kidding?" He said, putting his arm over my shoulder. "You saved my life! Very few people can do that… You are the great Valerie Tomlinson! You can do anything!" He exclaimed, giving me a reassuring squeeze.

"Well… If you insist…" I said with a grin. I went back into the TARDIS. He grinned back and I couldn't be more amazed about how my life could change so quickly.