The Girl and the Doctor

by ShamelessOCcentricity

Some would be inspired, some would run away and some would go mad. And, I suppose, some of them tripped over their own two feet and were pitched headfirst into the Vortex.

Some would be inspired, some would run away and some would go mad.

And, I suppose, some of them tripped over their own two feet and pitched headfirst into the Vortex.

Part I: The Girl

Willow Household – Gallifrey – Before the Time Wars

"Gaia, darling, what's wrong?" Gaius de Willow asked his daughter, stepping up to stand behind her at the window.

She looked up at the orange sky, then turned to cling to him. "I don't want to go to the Academy, Daddy. Please don't make me go."

"All Time Tots have to go, darling."

"But I already know how to fly and grow a TARDIS, and I'm working on my planets, honest! I don't need to go, Daddy, I'll learn here."

"The Academy is mandatory." He said. He knelt beside her and took her by the upper arms, looking her in the eyes. "Is this because of the stories you've heard about the Untempered Schism?"

She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Yeah."

"Don't worry! It's never as bad as it sounds."

Gaia nodded, her eyes wide and trusting. She was too young to know any better.

x.x.x.x.x

Initiation – Gallifrey – Before the Time Wars

Gaia gulped as the doors opened. She'd felt fear before, of monsters, of making a mistake. But this... This was fear of something unknown, something she couldn't ever expect to fight. The Professor laid a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him.

"Go ahead."

Her footsteps echoed as she approached it. Whatever it was, it would change her life forever. And forever, well-forever is a long time for a Time Lady. This would affect her so completely, and she didn't even know how exactly.

The Untempered Schism was the reason Time Lords could see everything they could-constant exposure to pure, raw Time and Space has a steep effect on anything, and evolution was a delicate matter to begin with. Of course they ended up being radically different from any other life form in the Universe.

She didn't know how she kept walking when her legs felt like jelly, but she reached it. "It's beautiful," She murmured. The young Time Lady cocked her head to one side and took a hesitant step towards the Schism.

"Be careful."

Gaia took another step forward, and then got her feet tangled together and she stumbled forward, pitching headfirst into the gap in time and space.

X.x.X.x.X

Fox Island – Earth - 1952

The Girl's eyes fluttered open to a dark sky over her head and damp sand beneath her back. Lightning illuminated the scene for just a moment, and she recognised the area as marshland. Not far away, choppy waves were crashing against the shore. Rain was falling heavily, and she could hear thunder a bit too close for comfort.

Her two hearts were beating wildly in her chest, and she tried to remember where she was-or for that matter, who she was. When she realised she had no idea, and that was very not good, she began to panic.

She bolted up and ran into the thick grasses, stumbling over the sudden change in terrain and sprawling to the ground.

"Oof!"

Lightning flashed again. A person's silhouette was barely visible, and the Girl reached out desperately. The man gasped, then steeled himself. He flicked the torch on and shone it on her briefly.

"Chrissakes, a child-what're ya doin' here?"

"I don't remember," She said, half-speaking, half-whimpering.

"Are ya parents around?" He demanded gruffly. Under his breath, "Idiots from the mainland are always crashin' here."

"I don't remember that, either."

"Brit, are ya?"

She sat up slowly. "What's a Brit?"

"Summun from England."

"What's England?"

The wind threatened to pull the umbrella out of his hand, so the man offered her his hand. "Ya kin stay in the shelter for tonight. Just tonight, ya hear? And then I'm handin' ya over to the Coast Guard."

"Thank you," The Girl said.

X.x.X.x.X

The shelter was an old oil drum with an overturned skip leaned against it with a tarp stretched over it. Inside was a tarp flooring and a few stacks of military-issue metal boxes, relics of his navy days. There was a lantern sitting on one of the stacks.

The child sat down on a box and looked up at him with wide eyes. She looked uncannily like his daughter.

"Do ya have a name, then, girl?"

"Not that I can remember," She replied. "I'm just... the Girl, I guess. Girl. That suits me as well as any other name."

"I'm the lighthouse keeper."

"So, can I call you Keeper?"

"If ya like. Ya sound like a Brit, ya know. So if yer not from England, where are ya from?"

"I don't know. Where are we, if this isn't England?"

"Yer in America, ya are. Chesapeake Bay, between Maryland and Virginia. This is Fox Island-up there's the lodge."

She whimpered as thunder crackled overhead, and he rested a hand on her shoulder briefly. "That's just the storm. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"It's never as bad as it sounds." She whispered. "That's a lie, isn't it? It's never as bad as it sounds."

"How did you get here?"

"I fell."

Lightning struck alarmingly close, and Girl huddled up to him. Her heart was racing-he could feel it through her weird red clothes, against his shoulder. "Yer heartbeat is too fast. Do ya have some sort of illness, then?"

"No, my hearts are fine, I think."

He flipped her wrist around and checked her pulse, then looked up at her face. "Did ya say two hearts? Ya have two hearts?" Keeper demanded.

"Doesn't everyone?"

"No... No, humans have one heart. Yer not human then?"

"I suppose I'm not." Her eyes were wide and frightened as she looked up. "Is that a problem?"

"No," Keeper said firmly. "No, it's not a problem."

X.x.X.x.X

Fox Island - Earth - 1977

The Girl watched the boat get carried away by the waves.

"He was in his 50's, when he died. It's a hard life, on the marshes, sleeping in a skip and eating stale food, and the war wearied him. I don't know his exact age. We didn't talk about our pasts, or anything but the now, for twenty-five years. I didn't have anything to talk about, and his was too painful.

"It's my understanding he had a daughter, who died at a young age, along with his wife. He blamed himself.

"I don't know his name, or if he was religious. But I think he would've liked to have a traditional sailor's burial, and I have no use for the skip. Sorry about that, anyway."

Bob shrugged. "I've got my boat."

The Girl nodded solemnly and looked back out at the burning skip, floating away. She was silent.

"How old are you?" He asked suddenly. "You said twenty-five years."

"I age approximately one physical year's worth every five calender years, from what I can gather."

"So... not human?"

She turned to him with a faint smirk beginning, an expression that didn't fit the face of a ten year old. "Most definitely not. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Nah," He said, grinning.

"Up at the lodge," She said, turning to him. "They're baiting the ducks. That's illegal, is it not?"

Bob looked around at the lodge, then back at her. "I guess. It bothers you?"

"It's cheating," The Girl replied simply.

"That's a Coast Guard boat, that is." Bob said, pointing.

She remembered the stories of how the Coast guard took away the lighthouse that Keeper had loved, and she turned and ran.

X.x.X.x.X

UNIT Base - Earth - 2012

The Girl changed the frequency on the sonic stun gun and looked up at the CCTV camera. She waved at it and fired.

That would sufficiently scramble the security feed for at least an hour, and she knew for a fact it would take them fifteen minutes to get into the secure lab. All she had to do was get the laptop and the files, then trash the place and escape.

Another blast at a higher frequency broke the latch on the window, and she climbed in. The four UNIT archivists stared at her.

"Oh, this is awkward. You see, I was on my way to my mum's house the next town over, and I saw this high-security base, and you see, I'm an amateur cat-burglar, and I thought I'd pop in for a visit, test my skills. This is a big misunderstanding-I'll just go."

One of them reached for a comms system, and she stunned all three of them with one wide-beam blast. Once they hit the ground, she grabbed a laptop and threw open a filing cabinet drawer marked Time Lord - Doctor. Then, with a bit too much glee for a professional, she flipped one of the tables and started throwing random things around.

Fistfuls of files were thrown into the air and fluttered down around her like snow. She blasted another one of the filing cabinets and it fell down, spilling folders across the floor.

"Chaos and destruction with angry UNIT people on the way-my work here is done."

X.x.X.x.X

Abandoned Warehouse – Earth - 2012

"The man with two hearts," She murmured. "There's not much information on this Gallifrey place, though. That's sort of rubbish-I should tell UNIT to update these more often.

She tucked the files into her rucksack and turned back to the computer.

It was obscenely easy to use the laptop's secure connection and the UNIT information to buy plane tickets to London, and she simply had to leave a message on the laptop thanking them. She might've been raised in the marshland, but it didn't mean she didn't have manners.

Dear UNIT,

I've got a ten second lead, even with writing this note. You won't catch me.

Thanks for the information, though I think you'll find your data is rather lacking. And I appreciate the free tickets-it's hard to get a job working in a shop when you're Number 1 Most Wanted in over half the world's countries.

Cheers!

—The Girl

XOXO

A moment after she left, UNIT burst into the room.

"Follow her! I want her back here, and alive!" The leader of the squadron barked.

One of the lackeys looks up from the laptop screen and spun the computer around so he could read it. "It's the Girl again, sir. She's reached UNIT."

X.x.X.x.X

Part II: The Doctor

Cardiff – Earth - 2012

Jack was still waiting by the pay phone when the Doctor arrived. He waved him over energetically.

"I'm glad you came, Doctor."

"I might be glad too if I knew why you called me. You were rather vague."

"Well, you know, I've got to keep up the enigma," Jack grinned, and then held up his wrist for the Doctor to inspect. "But look!"

The Doctor looked at it somewhat cross-eyed, then back up at Jack. "It's just a wrist."

"What's missing?" Jack said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh! Your Vortex Manipulator! What happened to it?"

"It was stolen. I've been in contact with M15, UNIT, INTERPOL, CIA, FBI, you name the acronym, they've got files on this girl."

"Ooh... She's not blond, is she?"

"I don't think so. She wears her hair in a hat. But when I say girl, I mean a child. She looks fourteen."

"Who is she?"

"There's no file on her before she began travelling."

"Why would she steal your Vortex Manipulator? She can't even work it!"

"She's got a sonic stun gun, apparently. And from what I can tell, she was looking for you."

"But who is she?"

Jack shrugged. "She's disappeared. I think she went to the past, looking for you."

The Doctor straightened his bowtie. "Well, I'd better find her!"

"She also left you this," He added, handing him a piece of paper with hot pink biro writing.

It was coordinates.

X.x.X.x.X

Fox Island – Earth - 2012

The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS, half-expecting to be shot at with a sonic stun gun or whatever it was Jack said this girl had-for all he knew, someone else had found a way to cook up a psychopath. Instead he saw a young girl standing several metres away, looking off over the water.

She turned around and smirked. "What's up, Doc?"

"How do you know who I am?" He asked, crossing the TARDIS threshold.

"The bow-tie helps. Very cool, by the way."

"Who are you?"

"It's nice today," She said as she turned back, just loudly enough for him to hear. "It was storming when I first arrived, and the last time I was here it was foggy. And there was smoke. Still, it's always peaceful. The rest of the world just keeps going, but I'm safe here."

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"I'm the Girl, and you're the Doctor. We're the same."

"You're a thief! You stole Jack's Vortex Manipulator, and I'm guessing your intentions aren't exactly honourable, given your history."

"But I'm like you," She said, surprised by his anger.

The Doctor grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him, searching her face. "What are you talking about?" He demanded.

"You're angry," The Girl said, stumbling backwards with her eyes welling up. "Why are you angry?"

"I-"

Before he could apologise, she keyed something into the Vortex Manipulator and pressed the button. He leapt forward and found himself grasping at thin air.

The Girl was gone.

X-x-X-x-X

Old Lodge – Earth – 2012

The Girl materialised in the middle of the sitting room in the lodge and shook her head to clear it. This Vortex Manipulator was not a fun way to travel by any means. She looked around to see the three resident conservationists untangling nets, but there was no sign of the captain who'd brought her to the lodge when she first handed it over to the conservationists.

"Hey Clive, Joe, Pete. Where's Bob?"

Pete gaped at her, then looked around at Joe and Clive. "Have you ever seen her do that?"

"No, that's pretty new." Joe said.

"I think Bob's back at the mainland." Clive said coolly. "Would you like some hot chocolate, Girl? I was going to make some, and it looks like you could use a cup."

"I could use something stronger," She replied, sinking into the chair with the fox painted on it.

Clive shook his head. "Hey now, you're still 14 physically."

"I'm going to be older than all three of you put together by the time I'm physically old enough to drink in America," The Girl said tiredly.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"I don't know. He was just so angry. I thought he'd recognise me or something. The file says we're the only two—I was hoping we'd met at some point before my memories got wiped."

"You've still got us," Pete offered.

"I'm going to outlive all of you," She reminded him. "I could live to over 300, easily. Probably 400."

They all looked rather put out at that, until Clive returned with mugs of hot chocolate. "Here you are, Girl." He smiled, handing her a cup with the little marshmallows in it.

"I don't know what I'll do when you're too old and creaky to make me cocoa." She said honestly.

Clive shrugged. "You're clever, Girl. You'll always be clever, even if you live to be 1000."

"I'm so clever that I got all these governments to give me information so I could figure out who I was, and then when I found what appears to be my only surviving link to Gallifrey, he hated me."

"You know what?" Pete said. "You're a genius. You'll live for ages. And you've got that little teleport thing—I say you can go anywhere. Go back to your kind, this Gallifrey place."

"I tried. I get an error message. It tells me that Gallifrey is Time Locked. I'm just a fluke; I should've been trapped in there."

"Then find somewhere else," Joe said. "The whole Universe—somewhere out there, you might feel at home."

She beamed and set down the hot chocolate. "Did I mention it can travel in time? I bet I can learn about the Universe, bother the Doctor, and come back to finish my cocoa before it gets cold."

"Learn and bother all you'd like," Clive said. "Just come back."