Chapter Two
Not a Hero
Allie watched as the Doctor stared into the mirror with a frown. It was starting to worry her that the now-female alien had been standing there for minutes without doing anything other than staring, occasionally blinking, and obviously breathing. She didn't know if this was even normal. No, she was absolutely certain that having an alien crash into her attic and then turning into a girl in front of her was definitely not normal. She heard her oven beep, signaling that the food in the oven was done.
"Are you okay?" Allie asked as she turned off the oven and grabbed the oven mitts.
"Physically, yes. For a while at least," the Doctor stated, moving her face closer to the mirror with a slight hum.
"I was more worried about emotionally," Allie stated, slipping on the oven mitts and opening the oven.
"I'm afraid that the jury's still out a bit on that," the Doctor said before lifting some of her new, red hair before stating, "I'm finally ginger. I've always wanted to be ginger. But I never wanted to be a girl! This is just a dream. That's what this is. A really bad dream. A nightmare, really. A hallucination? If this is a virtual reality, the resolution is better than anything I know of. Anything could cause a nightmare of epic proportions. Must be sleeping off a really bad combination of drinks. Or worse things. Probably the worse things. Must be. Because this. Is. Not. Happening."
"Hate to burst your bubble, little miss negative," Allie said as she pulled out a pan with freshly baked meatloaf in it, "but that hole in my attic disagrees with your assessment about this not being reality."
"This just can't be real," the Doctor muttered with frustration in her voice, "it can't be happening. This just can't be my last life. My last body just can't be female. Really. I've been a bloke all my life and now, wham! No, this is just not real."
"Is denial a common side effect of the process?" Allie asked, taking off the oven mitts, "the meatloaf's gonna be done in a few minutes after it's had a chance to cool a bit."
"You live alone," the Doctor stated, turning around to look at Allie.
"Yeah," she replied, "ever since I was twenty, actually."
"But what about parents? Siblings? Aunts? Uncles? No one that young should live alone in such a big house. Five rooms. You have five rooms that are empty. What's with human girls and empty houses? Honestly? Do you enjoy feeling so alone or something?"
"If you can give me the chance to speak, I'd tell you!" Allie exclaimed.
"Sorry. I tend to be a bit manic while there's so much energy zapping around while everything's still adjusting," she apologized.
"I live alone because I have no one, okay?" Allie said, snapping at the Doctor.
"No family?"
"They either are dead or burned that bridge a long, long time ago," she said, "and I don't want to talk about it."
"I don't have a family, either," the alien said with a frown and a sigh.
"I didn't mean to bring up painful memories," Allie said defensively.
"It's okay," the Doctor said with a sad smile as Allie started to cut the meatloaf, "it comes with being the last of my kind."
"I'm sorry," Allie said quietly as she set some of the meatloaf on a plate.
"It wasn't your fault," she replied with the same sad smile as Allie handed her the plate and a fork, "thank you."
"Just remember. You owe me," Allie said lightly with a grin as the Doctor headed to the kitchen table.
The kitchen table had newspapers littered over it, most of them were from the last week and a half with only a corner of the roundish rectangular table clear of the newspapers. The Doctor sat down, curious about the newspapers, spotting some of the headlines. "Crater from collision found", "two more hikers missing", "local boy missing", "three found shot, dead – gang violence suspected", "two people found dead, drug overdose suspected".
"With headlines like that, I'd have thought we're in a big city. But we're not," the Doctor stated before taking a bite of the meatloaf and struggled to swallow the food.
"My meatloaf's never that bad," Allie said between bites as she sat on the kitchen counter, "it's an old family recipe. But yeah, no real big cities for miles. We're pretty much right in the middle of where three different towns will merge if they keep growing."
"When do you think that will be?" the Doctor asked, swallowing another bite of meatloaf.
"A decade or two. Sooner if the overall economy actually starts growing again," Allie stated lightly, "the local economy's pretty strong. But that's mostly because of so many ranches and farms nearby. Well, outside of Meridian Bar and Grill. Which also has a casino. It's pretty much where everyone within a three block radius works."
"Even you?"
"I've got two days off," Allie stated, "I'm one of two full-time bartenders there. And if you don't like it, why are you still eating it?"
"Don't want to seem rude. I'm tired of that old hat," the Doctor stated, "and I know it's got nothing to do with your cooking and everything to do with the fact that I've got a new mouth. It's going to take a while to get used to how everything tastes. I've already gotten used to how everything looks. I think. Can't be too sure. And I'm never going to get used to this body. Everything's wrong with it. Well, apart from the hair. I love the hair."
"So you're an actual alien," Allie stated flatly, staring at the Doctor from her perch on top of her kitchen counter.
"Again, yes. Still trying to cope? What good are you if you're going to be hung up on it?"
"Excuse me? I'm just surprised," Allie stated, "excited really. I mean, I grew up on Star Trek and stuff. Next thing I know, you're going to say that that box of yours is actually your space ship in disguise. Actually, it is, isn't it? How else would a box crash into my attic? I mean it makes no sense how a wooden box can remain intact when it collides with an equally wooden roof."
"Your brain's just now booting up, I see," the Doctor stated.
"Well, excuse me for being mostly asleep when you up and crashed into my attic in the middle of the night!" Allie exclaimed, "I'm nowhere near a morning person, especially after tonight!"
"Does it really count as 'tonight' when it's already a quarter past two?" the Doctor asked, staring at the clock on the wall which hung in the kitchen.
"Are you always this frustrating?"
"I've been told I was on several occasions, but they were all regenerations ago," the Doctor stated lightly before frowning and groaning, "and I'll never get to do that again. But is that really so bad when it hurts so much? Yes, it is because it means that I'd die for realy-reals," she said before looking off, pondering before shaking her head and frowning at herself, "Okay, never saying that again. Where did that even come from. 'Realy-reals'? What? Wait," she said before taking on a horrified look, "I'm speaking like a girl!"
"Newsflash: You're a chick," Allie stated before scoffing, "and you attack me for being stuck on you being an alien. You're quite hung up on being a girl."
"That's because-!" the Doctor started to say, building up a shouting tirade before stopping as she looked shocked and surprised, obviously deflating before mumbling to herself as she turned back to her plate of food and started to eat in silence.
"What is that? I don't think I caught what you said," Allie stated with a smug grin, knowing that she got the Doctor right where she wanted her to be.
The newly minted girl looked at Allie with wide eyes of being startled and alarmed, fork still in her mouth from shoveling the meatloaf into her mouth. She slowly removed the fork from her mouth and chewed just as slowly, obviously nervous and uneasy. Allie merely grinned wider, smug over the fact that she put the alien right in her place.
"I said," she said before mumbling again.
"Not good enough. C'mon. Spill it," Allie said, goading the uncomfortable alien into speaking.
"But I'd make a mess," the Doctor stated with a frown.
"What? No. Not that. Spill it. Spill the beans. Translation: talk. Tell the truth. Speak."
"Woof," the Doctor stated with a deadpan before chuckling to herself.
"For an alien, you seem to know a lot about Earth culture," Allie stated.
"Comes with seeing Earth as a second home of a sort," the Doctor stated, "I've saved Earth and humanity more times than you even know. Remember when the Cybermen and the Daleks fought each other in the streets before suddenly disappearing? That was me. Or the time when Earth was moved? I put the Earth back right where it should be. You're welcome. My being an alien shouldn't be that surprising."
"Just surprising that you're not trying to kill me or anything."
"Not this time around," the Doctor stated, "but that can happen immediately after regeneration. The mood swings, I mean. I strangled a friend once right after regenerating. I was rather out of it. Explains the outfit I wound up wearing during that time. Which reminds me, I need to get back to my TARDIS and get a proper outfit. And I really should get to fixing your roof and then I should be on my way."
"But what about the strange things you picked out of the newspaper?"
"When I was younger, I'd be all over trying to fix it and clean up the mess. But I'm old now. I've got other, more important things to worry about," the Doctor said, getting up from the table and setting the empty plate in the sink next to where Allie was sitting, "like self preservation. That's fairly important to me. Possibly more important than a planet full of apes. I knew when I started saving humanity that there'd come a time when you have to clean up your own planet and your own messes. I won't always be alive or around to help you all. If this all bothers you and makes you think it's all a conspiracy or that there's something wrong with it, deal with it yourself. This is hardly a time for me to remain involved now that I'm almost as mortal as you are."
"What does that mean?" Allie asked as she jumped down and set her plate on the counter.
"That means that if I stay out of trouble instead of recklessly charging in without a plan, weapons, or backup – or all three of them- I could live for about five hundred years or so, maybe even nine hundred years. Or more. I could have plenty of life left if I can just avoid all those nasty things that could up and kill me all because they don't like me," the Doctor stated before walking out of the kitchen, heading to the stairs.
"But you said that you've done so much for us! For Earth!" Allie exclaimed, following the Doctor.
"Used to. Consider me retired from the whole saving Earth bit. Well, not just 'saving Earth'. More like 'saving all of time and space'," the Doctor remarked.
"So your spaceship is also a time machine," Allie stated before asking, "so that's it? You up and changed your face and gender and who knows what else and because you can't do that, a bug's crawling up your rear and you don't want to keep saving people and stuff. All cause now the stakes are even higher than ever. Is that it?"
"If you're asking me that I'm scared of dying, who wouldn't be? Show me anyone who isn't scared of dying and I'll call them an idiot or a liar. Or an idiotic liar," the Doctor asked back as they got to the attic door.
"I'm not afraid of dying. It's gonna up and happen to me one day. So what?" Allie remarked, trying to keep up with the Doctor.
Allie ran into the Doctor as the alien suddenly stopped in front of her before said alien turned to face her.
"You're not afraid of death? Honestly?" the Doctor asked, fascinated by Allie.
"Never found it at all sane to fear the inevitable," Allie stated before adding off-handedly, "besides, I've lived through things which would make death look like a permanent vacation from life."
"What?" Allie asked suddenly as she suddenly felt a tight hug, "what's that for?"
"Honestly, because you sounded like you needed one," the Doctor said lightly with a smile as she let go, "besides, I'm pretty sure I needed a hug too. It's been a hug-worthy day so far. So, do you want to take a look at my TARDIS?"
"Of course I would. Not every day an alien invites me to poke around their time traveling spaceship," Allie stated before she could feel the Doctor grab her by the wrist and drag her to the blue box.
"Oh, you'd love this then," the Doctor stated excitedly as she snapped, "I've heard everything. Literally everything. Don't worry about surprising me. Just react to it as you will."
"Was that supposed to happen?" Allie asked as the doors failed to open.
"You're still rebuilding your interior, aren't you, old girl?" the Doctor stated, pulling out a key from a pocket and slid it into the lock and tried to turn the key.
"So much for leaving, huh?" Allie asked lightly, "or is this just a case of blue box blues?"
"You can stop laughing at me at my expense," the Doctor muttered, "I can't exactly go around looking like this."
Allie turned to the Doctor with a smile. Of everything she'd encountered as a guy: Daleks, Cybermen, death, Sontarans, and lots of other things she didn't even want to think about; all of that suddenly didn't scare her so much as Allie's grin. She suddenly didn't want to be involved anymore. She was still mentally cursing at the TARDIS for taking so long to rebuild her interior when Allie grabbed her wrist and started to drag her towards the door to the attic and then down the stairs.
Author's Note 3/3/13
So we get more of Allie's and the Doctor's forming friendship. Since 13 is going to be the last iteration, she's convinced that she's retiring from the hero business. Since she is still the Doctor, you know that once she sees more clues, she will involve herself regardless of her fear of death. Besides, Allie is so not going to let the Doctor run away from the chance to be a hero now that she knows that the alien had done so much to save everyone. So that's really what Allie is going to do a lot of times, try and awaken 13's inner hero.
Don't worry, I will make sure that Allie will get plenty of development and that she won't overstay her welcome on the TARDIS. In fact, once I get reviews to the point that most of them are begging for Allie to leave, I will start the bit where she does leave the TARDIS. And I already know how that will happen. No spoilers other than I'm plotting evil things.
Also, I am still working on And I Die and the associated stuff for it. Just hitting a writer's block and 13 is not leaving my head until I let her out. I've realized that I haven't really given much detail to Allie or her appearance. I've been more focused on the action and dialogue. I'll fix that in the next chapter.
~Gregora
