When I woke up, I was outside. The sun was above me. No…That wasn't the sun…Was it …? My mind was struggling to recover from my unconsciousness. It wasn't the sun. It was a fluorescent light, and I was in a bedroom, a hot water bottle on my forehead.
My eyes blinked open and the figures of the man and the girl swam into view. The man was strangely dressed in suspenders, a tweed jacket, and a bowtie, and I had to suppress a laugh at the sight of that ridiculous hair. The girl was pretty, her hair tied up and wearing a red jumper.
"Look who's decided to join the party!" said the girl, her tone dangerously sarcastic.
"You okay?" asked the man. "I mean, that was a hell of a shock. Probably. I mean, I've seen them before, and I normally think of rampaging potatoes as an everyday sort of thing, but I do suppose it's a matter of perspective, and I'm rambling again, aren't I?"
"Like a mental patient" quipped the girl, who seemed to be more annoyed with the man every time I looked at her. "But I suppose you'll want to know what the hell's going on, won't you?"
I stared at the pair of them blankly. "I'd like someone to explain, yeah!" I exclaimed, my voice almost reaching the level of sarcasm of the girl.
The man came to the side of the bed and said "I'm going to have to transfer some information." After I stared at him confusedly for the fifteenth time, he said softly, "Mind your head!" He then head-butted my forehead and I fell back down on the bed.
My mind went blank, and then it flooded. A police box flew through my brain while I saw eleven men. No, eleven doctors… I saw overgrown lizards and metal dogs, angry spacemen and the destruction of planets. But there was one corner of this experience where my mind seemed afraid to go. It was a word. A brand-new, ancient, colossal, molecular word. But then it slipped away into the endless swirling mess of this man's life.
And then I was back. I took in a breath sharply and I looked to the man… no, the Doctor. "You're a…an… an alien, a…what?"
"Everything you just saw was true" he said. "And the Sontarans were attacking you tonight in order to find the Death Crystal, a super-powerful weapon, lost to the universe until tonight, when that all-powerful yet beautifully majestic universal icon was discovered. In a children's home. In Cardiff. It was probably attracted to the Rift… but I'm going to stop talking because I'm doing it again."
"Bottom line", said Clara. "We want someone who really knows the ins and outs of the place to help out. And go on some random absolutely unrelated adventures." She finished the thought with a grin.
"That's great!" I said, smiling for the first time in a while. "The three of us traveling through the time vortex in the TAR…" I stopped at the sight of the Doctor's straight face. "What?" I asked, concerned.
"The info I gave you did not include what the time vortex was called" muttered the Doctor. He frowned. "I like to pretend my life is a book, and if something seems like a plot point, I worry about it…" His tone lightened. "Unless I don't give a damn at the moment, then I stop caring! Besides, I think it's called that on telly sometimes…" He trailed off, and left presumably to the control room. Clara followed close behind him. Before following, I thought. How did I know what the time vortex was… I didn't watch much telly. I followed them , but that thought stayed on my mind for a while. The Doctor was wrong. I just didn't know it yet.