Without thinking, he ran.

Austin sprinted towards the fading box, and at the last moment swung the doors open and launched himself inside.

He was standing inside a gigantic room, with walls made of metal and beams that held up the ceiling. Up a small flight of steps was a raised platform, with a gigantic circular console with hundreds of various buttons and levers, arranged in no particular order. It definitely wasn't the inside of a wooden box.

Rissa Marina was standing at the console, in jeans and a blue t-shirt, her long auburn hair falling behind her, and her face snapped into the perfect picture of shock. "Austin," she said, dumbfounded.

Suddenly, the floor gave a great jolt and both Austin and Rissa were knocked off their feet, Austin slamming into the side of a wall and Rissa sprawled across the huge, circular, center console of the room. There was a sickening sound of engines starting up, and then failing again, and it made Austin wince.

"Damnit!" Rissa cursed, running around and pushing and flipping various buttons and switches on the console. "Tess, what the hell?"

Austin wasn't sure if Rissa had just called him Tess or not, but it seemed plausible as it looked like she'd gone completely mad. Then again, maybe he was the one who'd gone round the bend, seeing as he was standing inside a gigantic metal room apparently contained inside a small wooden box.

There was another jolt, and he fell forward again, this time having the knowledge to steady himself on both feet and grip the console so as not to tumble off balance again.

"It looks like you're a bit busy but do you think you could tell me what's going on?" Austin shouted over the roar and sparks of electricity.

Rissa looked up, as if she'd completely forgotten he was there. "We're falling."

"Falling? Falling through what?" he screamed.

"Space!" she cried, jumping up to try and reach a lever just above her head.

"Oh wow, thanks for clearing that up. It would have been really confusing if you'd been really vague!"

"You're yelling at me? Why don't you tell me what the hell you're doing here?" She was trying to climb her way up to reach the lever.
"I don't even know where here is!"

"Shut up!"

"What!"

"Do as I say!" Her fingers were within painful centimeters of the desired lever.

Austin dashed around the console, reaching his arm up and pulling the lever down, locking it in place.

Instantly, the sound of the engines stopped, and so did the spinning and jolting. The floor seemed to level out, and everything was suddenly a hundred times quieter.

Rissa collapsed against the console, breathing heavily.

Austin stood back and watched her.

"You're welcome," he said, after a few moments where it seemed she wasn't going to say anything.

She turned her head to look at him from beneath her dark hair. Getting control of herself, she pushed herself into a standing position and fixed her A-plus posture into place.

Austin really, really loved the way she stood.

"Thank you," she said.

Austin just nodded, not knowing what to say. He wiped the sweat from his hands onto his jeans. "So," he said. "Where are we, exactly?"
Rissa looked like she was trying to decide whether to tell him a lie or the truth.

It seemed she'd decided on one because then she said, "We're in outer space. Just outside of Earth's orbit."

"Uh huh."

Rissa watched him carefully, gauging his reaction.

"And… we're in a… a… a what's it? A… police call thingy?"
"A police box. They were used in London in the 1960s. Though, this isn't really a police box. It's a time machine. It's just disguised as one."

"A police box. That travels in time."

"And space."

"And space, right, shouldn't forget that part."

"It's called a TARDIS."

Austin stared at her. "A TARDIS," he repeated.

"Yes."

"And it's bigger on the inside."

Rissa smiled for the first time. "Most people are, once you get to know them."

"The TARDIS is a person?"

"Sometimes."

"Okay."

"Are you alright?" Rissa asked worriedly, for Austin had begun to look slightly pale.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just in bloody space, that's all." He took a deep breath and looked around.

"It's a lot of information at one time, I know."

"You think?"
"I know."

"And this… I mean… Is this new for you, or what? Have you always been a… a time traveler?"

Rissa's face clouded over. "It's kind of a long story."

Austin just looked at her. She was right. It was a lot of information to take in. But the truth is that it wasn't the time and the space travel and the blue box that's bigger on the inside thing that was making him dizzy. All of that he could believe. All of that was easy to believe. What was such a shock to his system was her. He had forgotten how it felt to have her eyes on him.

Right now they were fixed on him, puzzlingly. "I do have a question of my own, though. How did you possibly get in here?"

"I… I was at your house. Talking to Nana. I came out to talk to you and I heard you talking to… someone. Tess, I think you said. And then I turn the corner and there's this bloody blue box and a yellow light and you just started fading away and I… I just jumped in at the last second."

"Hmm," Rissa said. "Dangerous. Boarding mid-flight like that."

"Yeah, well, sorry. Didn't know I was going to cause so much problems."

"Oh, I don't think that was you. It was just a test run. Probably won't happen next time."

"Next time? Oh God." Austin looked down at her. "God, you're so small," was the only thing he could think of to say. Rissa scowled, and he laughed. "Always knew your height would be the doom of you."

The corner of her mouth twitched in what might have been a smile.

"You were at my house," she said. "Why? I mean. We haven't talked in… a while."
Austin coughed nervously. "Oh, um. Yeah. I know. I'm not sure why I decided to come. I wouldn't have except for the whole thing you said at the library. Seize the day or whatnot."

She looked really confused all of a sudden. "I said what?"

"That stuff about taking chances. Outside the library."

"When was this?"
"Yesterday."

"Austin, I didn't even go to the library yesterday."

The room jolted again, knocking them both off their feet.

Rissa her head from her hands and knees position on the floor. "Seems we've landed," she said softly.

Austin rolled over to look at her. "And this is a space traveling time machine, you say?" he asked.

"Yes."

"So. One more question," Austin, asked. "Where are we?"

They both turned to look at the door.

Rissa grinned. "Why don't we go and have a look?"