Chapter 2 – Lord of Time

My hands came away from my face and balled into fists. I'd never met this man but the idea then came to me and I believed that he most certainly was partly if not fully responsible for what was happening to me. I hated him. I hated everything in that moment. My face felt hot and my teeth clenched until it hurt my head as I looked up at him.
Without a thought in my head I reached out and slapped him across the face as hard as I could. "Who the hell are you?" I said in a choked whisper, pushing him away from me.
He staggered a little but didn't look the least bit surprised at my hostility towards him.

"What have you been doing to me?" I demanded as he stood upright in front of me again, the left side of his face turning a lovely shade of hot pink.
But he didn't look angry or frustrated. He looked at me with sympathy, even pity and it only made me more furious. I only saw red through my eyes and it began to fog up my brain with the one emotion. Before I could lash out at him again he placed his hands gently on both sides of my face, not holding me or using any kind of force at all. He only rested his fingers in my hair and around my ears, his palms cupping my jaw. The anger and ferocity ceased. My stomach clenched as a shudder of panic moved through me.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said softly as he closed his eyes. "Be still – just be still."
I wanted to snap back at him but I had forgotten why I'd been so angry or why I had even slapped him. A wave of comfortable sleepiness came over me and I became vaguely aware of the twinge of guilt I felt at slapping him.
"Better?" he said but didn't move his hands.
"No," I said stubbornly, my voice thick and sluggish. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."
I laughed loudly, "'The'" Doctor? You're a doctor of everything then?" I blinked but his face continued to blur in and out of focus in front of me.
He opened his eyes and took his hands away from my face. The corners of his mouth twitched but he managed to keep his face serious for the most part, "Pretty much, yeah."
My head was clear but I was so groggy. My legs felt rubbery but I could think.

"How did you do that?" I said in a small voice.
"I didn't fix anything if that's what you're asking and that usually is the thing that people tend to ask," he scratched his head and looked at me thoughtfully. "Well, there goes trying to be discrete," he said with a sigh but shrugged it off and smiled kindly.
The churning in my stomach seemed to echo in my ears along with my heartbeat. I moaned and reached out as I felt myself fall.
"Woah!" he said as he lifted me back to my feet. "Take it easy."

"What have you done to me?" I whispered. For the first time I saw his dark brown eyes close to me. Still, they were deeper than I could see.
"I've protected your mind for a little while at least – dulling the processes and sensory inputs, outputs and all that fun stuff."
"So you've drugged me." I said.
"That could be a way of putting it, yes."

There were two dead weights at my sides, pulling my body down. It took me more than a few minutes to realize that they were my arms. Though I thought I hated him at the moment – I frankly couldn't remember – the more I looked at him the more I realized how not bad looking he was. That all could have been the drugging, though.

I'm going to pause in my story to inform any reader who happens to come across these stories that at this point I was not exactly fully aware of what was going on. My memory seems to have been affected by his drugging as well. So what happens next is a lot of what the Doctor told me happened. I cannot guarantee the accuracy.

I started to slide down the wall, my legs giving in underneath me but he grabbed hold of my arms and pulled me back up.
"No," I moaned. "Let me go to sleep."
"I might have over done it," he muttered to himself as he lifted my arm around his neck and wrapped his arm along my back to keep me upright. "But no use whining about that now." He tightened his hold on me as I was unable to hold on to anything at the moment.

"You can sleep in a minute. We should get you back home first."
"…car is over there." I muttered into his shoulder and pointed lazily in a random direction.
"I'm sure it's very nice but not at the efficiency we need, I'm afraid. Come on. Try and walk with me."

We staggered together back into the building and through the bank office doors. Teddy confronted us.
"What have you done to her?" he demanded.

The man who called himself 'The Doctor' quickly extracted a small pocket fold and flipped it open. "I'm Doctor Smith, I've been checking on Miss…Miss – "
"Miss Crown." Teddy said.
"Yes, of course – Miss Crown since she was taken ill about four weeks ago. It seems she's having a relapse of symptoms. I came to check on her and I nearly was too late. I'm taking her into care immediately."
"But that hand thing. What were you doing to her? And don't you think I didn't see." Teddy argued.
"I was trying to calm her. It seemed to work, don't you think?"

"Hi Teddy." I said with a silly smile and a limp flap of my hand.
"I would also appreciate it if you didn't expect her back to work until you've heard from me. Thanks so much!" He started out the door with me in tow.
"But Doctor – " Teddy protested as he held the door open for us.
"Thanks again for your cooperation." The Doctor said quickly and heaved us out the door. "Bye now!"

I couldn't feel exactly where my feet were by that time, "I'm sick?"
"In a way, yes. Very sick actually," the Doctor answered calmly.

I lifted my head, as difficult as it was to see where we were headed, "I thought I was going home – and you do know that this is the ladies toilet right?" I pointed vaguely at the stalls in case he hadn't noticed them before.
"I'm perfectly aware of that, thanks."

We moved past the stalls and he pushed the door to the powder room open. The presence of the large blue box didn't seem to interest him at all. Instead he walked right up to it and propped me up against him as he searched in his pockets for something.

My cheek rested against his neck and my nose tickled against his hair as my arms dangled like limp pasta at my sides.
"Smells good." I said stupidly.
"Thanks much, but you'll get nowhere with flattery. Well, maybe a little bit but not very far." He said sternly. "How odd is that really? A girl as young as you incessantly flirting with someone like me so early in the relationship. It's ghastly to think about."
I giggled, "Incessantly. You think you're just …allofthat, don't you?"
"All what?"

There was a jingling and a click.
"Ah, in we go. Good time too. I think your boyfriend called the police on me anyway."
The door to the box opened and I felt him heft me inside. So many points of light and colors blurred and blended in my vision until I let the fatigue take me over. I wasn't afraid of what my dreams would hold for me then. For a reason I didn't understand at the time I felt safe.

--

Another pause just for a tick. The Doctor has argued that I should continue on from that point because it technically was the first time I set foot into his incredibly impressive space ship. But as I have no memory of it and I'm the one telling the story, he'll have to forgive me. Honestly, it's like your parents claiming that you've been to Paris simply because you happened to be with them as a baby when they went.
It doesn't count if you don't remember it.

So, following what I do remember. I woke up in my bed, at home. I blinked several times before realizing where I was but I was home – still wearing my blouse and skirt but the jacket I was wearing had been taken off and was draped neatly over the desk chair on the other side of the room. I felt warm and heavy – almost like I'd made an actual permanent dent in the mattress.

Odd, though. I didn't remember getting home. It must have been a dream. The man in the coat, my yelling at Teddy – all of it somehow must have been a dream. But that still didn't explain how I'd gotten to where I was. The thought that I should probably get up and figure out what day it was passed quickly through my head but I was so relaxed that I didn't want to move. I began to drift of again which I didn't mind at all when I was jolted awake by a noise coming from the downstairs. It was music, a loud sort of march that I was too disoriented to identify.

I rolled out of bed nearly crashing onto the floor and stumbled, bleary-eyed out of the room. After I negotiated the stairs with some success I followed the music, which wasn't nearly as loud then, into the front room. The telly was on and I groaned in comprehension of the noise. Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca were walking down to Princess Leia to receive their medallions from the Rebel Alliance for destroying the Death Star – all of this to the loud Star Wars march.
The back of the sofa faced me but just above it I could see a mess of dark brown hair. Another groan of comprehension.

"Oh dear Lord, it wasn't a dream," I moaned.
The tuft of brown hair moved as he turned in his seat and sure enough it was the Doctor's face that peered over the back of the couch at me through rectangular framed spectacles. "Are you feeling better?" he said as he got to his feet, the ending credits of the film started scrolling up the screen.
"Depends on what you mean by 'better'."
The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the ceiling as he thought for a moment, "Well, what I mean by the word is do you feel less poorly than before?"
"I suppose so," I brushed my hair from my face. "How'd you get me here?"

He walked up to me, his expression still apprehensive as though he were waiting for another outburst from me. But as far as that went I couldn't feel much of anything at all.
"At least you're a little more awake," he said and put his hands to my face as he'd done before.
"What are you doing?" I said though his touch was warm and comforting like the feel of that blue box.
"Just checking. You're still alright," he said but didn't pull away immediately. "You live here alone?"

I nodded my head between his hands, "Yeah, after Dad died."

I kept my eyes closed as images flashed past them, too quickly for me to see. I set on one and saw myself looking at the inside of my house but I was looking through different eyes. My vision was set a little higher and I walked about the rooms with longer more confident strides. The house was dark but it didn't seem to affect me. I opened a door, the door to the cellar and went down the steps finding the blue box waiting for me as it always had. I pushed the door open and stepped into an enormous and beautiful room, only my footsteps could be heard inside of it.
"You're alone too," I whispered without thinking.

My eyes opened and I was met with his dark brown ones studying me as they seemed to have a habit of doing.
"What's your name?" he asked, his hands slipping from my face.
"Alice,"

A grin spread slowly across his face, "Alice. That's brilliant. Alice has met a bit of Wonderland, eh? Well, that's one thing we have in common."
"We both have names associated with children's fairy tales?"
"No, we're both alone."
"Oh."
We stared at each other for a long minute. A complete stranger stood in front of me in my own home but from the way he looked at me then I knew that this man, this stranger knew me better than anyone I'd ever known or would ever know.

The film credits ended and he looked to the screen.
"Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope," he laughed. "Though technically not originally number four in the lineup but every writer has his prerogative I suppose. It's been ages since I've seen the film though it is such a different feel when you're sitting by yourself in a house as opposed to the Los Angeles premier in 1977. Now that was a brilliant summer."
I guffawed in disbelief, "You've seen the original release of the first Star Wars?"
"A few times, yeah."
"You were what, five years old maybe?"

He led me over to the couch and we sat down. He didn't answer but the longer no one spoke the more questions entered my head.
"Hold on," I said as I sat down. "Did you bring me home?"
He pulled a quilt off of the back of the couch and draped it over my legs. He still didn't answer.
"If you did you must have already known where I live and if that's true," I pointed a finger at him. "You have been stalking me!" I concluded.

He raised his eyebrows in innocent surprise but couldn't keep the little smirk off of his face, "Your imagination is top notch, Alice. That's one of the first things I noticed though 'stalking' is kind of a harsh word to use."
"You have!" I nearly yelled and got to my feet. "That day in the rain, in the garden, on street corners, car parks, shops, and even here – you were really there in all of those places. I thought I was going mad. I've been seeing you everywhere. It's your fault this is happening to me." I glared at him but made no move against him.

"That's where imagination gets you sometimes. Now you're only being presumptuous." He spoke calmly as though he were a professor addressing an aggressive teenage student. "I know you have questions, Alice." He stood causing me to realize how tall he was and placed his hands on my shoulders. "I will answer any and all questions you'd ever want to shout at me but you've got to trust me."
I stood stubbornly where I was and didn't answer but he didn't let me go.

"I know what's been happening to you," he spoke seriously. "The shadows – the darkness in your dreams; the most horrible memories coming to the surface and staying there, tormenting your conscious mind."
I lifted my eyes to him and wiped them dry. Finally, someone who knew – someone who could perhaps tell me what was going on. Whether he was the cause or not I wanted to trust him then. "It's getting worse," I spoke helplessly, allowing my guard to fall.
"I know. Even now it's there, in your eyes."

I moved back to the sofa and sat down, wrapping myself in the quilt as he sat next to me.
"So, any questions to help you trust me?" he took off the specs and slipped them into his outside jacket pocket.
"Who are you?" I said having decided to sty with the most obvious of curiosities.
"I'm the Doctor as I told you earlier."

"It makes as much sense now as it did then," I said, rolling my eyes. "'The Doctor'. You're a doctor of medicine?"
"One could say so, yeah."
"Archeology?"
"Most definitely."
"Astronomy?"
"You have to be when you do what I do."
"Philosophy?"
"Yep."
"Psychology?"
"Mmhmm," he nodded lazily. "Although that isn't an exact science. I do my best to avoid it most of the time."
"Music?"
"Music History is my forte, but yes."

I glared at the pompous weirdo sitting on my couch. "You'd have to be two-hundred years old to have accomplished all that."
He nodded his head in agreement but leaned closer to me, "Who says I'm not older than that?"
"What?" I said sharply. My head was starting to ache what with trying to make sense of what he was saying. He couldn't be older than thirty-five if that.

"You have a brilliant imagination, Alice. I've seen it. I know for a fact that you can take more into consideration than what you're doing now."
I stared at him. Imagination? What could he possibly mean by imagination? He wasn't a figment, he was physically sitting next to me in my home. But for a moment – for a single second I didn't believe it. I quickly touched his hand that rested on the couch cushion and looked into his eyes. "You are real, aren't you? I'm not sitting here talking to myself, am I?"

He flipped his hand over and held mine.
"That's what being alone does, doesn't it? You begin taking it for granted and when it's not there, when you're not alone, you become even more frightened of the prospect."
He squeezed my hand in his own to reassure me, "I am very real, Alice. You're not going mad." He smiled as I nodded.

"Okay," I said, arranging myself comfortably on the couch and facing him. "Let's keep this simple."
"Do we have to? I'm a rather complex individual – "
"For my sake, Doctor Whoever You Are. Just answer with a 'yes' or 'no' as honestly as you can."

"Fair enough," he straightened up in his seat and folded his hands in his lap as he fixed me with a stare that seemed like it could pierce through my very brain which could only mean that I had his undivided attention.
"Alright," I said, feeling a little nervous under his gaze. "You have been following me all this time?"
"Yes, but it's not – "
"Now," I pointed a finger at him. "Yes or no only. You can explain in a minute."

I waited until he'd fully closed his mouth and stared at me again.
"You said it wasn't stalking. So you've been following me because you know what's been happening to me. You know about the shadows. Your following me is for my own good then?"
"Hopefully, yes."
"Do you know what it is?" I said softly, trying to keep the hope out of my voice.
"Not exactly, but I have an idea."
"Is that a yes or no?"
"I'm afraid it's an 'I don't know.'"

I shook my head as I continued to confuse myself. Everything was still so vague.
"Are you older than two hundred years?" I hesitated with every word as ridiculous as they sounded.
He folded his arms across his chest and pursed his lips in an attempt to hide a smile I guessed. "A different angle now? Yes, I am."
"Three hundred?"
His eyes sparkled, "Yes."
I don't know why – any rational human being would have stopped right there or even before then and had him committed – but I kept going. "Six hundred?"
"Yes."
"One thousand?"
"No."

The answer caught me off guard. If he was mad why not keep going? There would be nothing to lose after all.
"You're younger than one thousand years?"
"Looks can be deceiving," he said with a small smirk on his lips.
I didn't speak. I believed my brain had jammed at that juncture.
"Are you alright?"

I realized I had been gaping at him like a stupid looking fish. "Yeah, sorry. Er, eight hundred?"
"It would be much easier if I just told you. If this were Twenty Questions you would have already used up five just to decipher my age."
"Go on then." I said with a shrug.
"I am nine hundred and five years old."
"You're mad." I blurted out.
"That may be true but it's entirely beside the point," he said casually as though we were discussing a favorite book of his.
"No, I mean you're out of your mind. I've let a mental case inside my house and I'm still sitting here talking to him.

A small smile played across his lips, "Yes you are. That all on its own should tell you something, shouldn't it Alice Crown? You're seeing what you only believe is a human being sit in front of you and say he's nearly a millennium in age. He looked away from me and stared at the wall in thought for a second, "Oh, that's a little depressing. After we're finished here I have a little list I need to consult – but back to my original point," he turned his eyes back to me. " – nearly a thousand years in age which is impossible to you only because of how you think."

What I believe is a human being… I mulled over his words in my head but it didn't help much.
"Are you human?"
"Nope."
"What are you then?" I had a feeling I was going to regret the question.
"I'm a Time Lord."
I grinned stupidly at him, "Sounds important."
"It is that."

All I had to do was leap off of the couch and make a run for the nearest telephone. I could grab it and lock myself in the bathroom so I could call for help. At least he wasn't a very violent psychopath. But he was most definitely bonkers.
"What makes it so hard to believe? Consider the past events that the world has seen. Think of what's been going on in your head. It hasn't always been there, has it? You remember being happy, don't you?" his eyes were warm but I was afraid of them still. How could he know such things? "I saw all of that – the little girl in the red dress with the lovely dark hair – "

I ripped my hands from his, "How can you know about that?"
"Comes with protecting your mind. I've got some of your memories in here now," he tapped his temple.
My eyes lost focus as I searched for the memory he spoke of. I saw beams of sunlight filtering in through the windows of the house that day. The sky was clear and beautiful. "That was the day of the very first birthday party I ever had."

"How old were you?"
"Eight. That red dress with the white trim was my very favorite dress, my best dress. Mum didn't want me to wear it because of that but I wanted to look my best."
"That little girl is still in there somewhere," he said.

I realized he'd been studying me as I spoke and all I could see in his face was the look of understanding.
"Now tell me, what's impossible?" he said softly, his lips curled into a soft smile.
I mouthed some nonsense but no sound came out anyway.
"Nothing," I said, barely believing it.
"Exactly," he leaned back, a satisfied grin on his face.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I attempted to wrap my brain around what he was asking me to believe. In all honesty, I wanted to believe it. I wanted with all of my soul to believe that there was something more to this world, that there was the darkness but also a matching light and wonder that most humans have not had the chance to glimpse yet.
"So, Time Lord," I said to confirm and he nodded as another question struck me. "Does that mean what I think it means?"
"What do you think it means?" he asked, looking thoroughly interested in what I had to say.

"Normally when you think of aliens you think of traveling through space, galaxies and all that. But as the word 'time' is part of the name of your species, and going off of this idea that nothing is impossible…" my voice drifted off. I couldn't finish the sentence. It may not have been impossible but it certainly was unfathomable.
"Yes," he said.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, I'm a time traveler. You couldn't bring yourself to ask the question directly but you'll learn. Again, that imagination of yours Alice is something else. I admit that not very many have put that together even after they hear the name of my race."

"That means that when you saw Star Wars you actually were there. You could have gone to see it just yesterday or you could have been thirty years younger and seen it," I spoke slowly, calculatively, and truly believing I was losing my mind.
"Well done."
"But how is it you don't look it? You only look like you're around my brother's age."

"How old is he?" he said curiously.
"Thirty-four."
"Oh, I'm flattered!" he laughed heartily.

"So you're an alien on Earth because…?"

"No, there is not an entire fleet of me waiting behind the magnetic field of the moon to avoid detection as we prepare for an invasion. As I told you before, I'm alone just like you. I was only passing through when I spotted you."
My eyes widened and the memory of that day leaped to mind; his face wet with the rain but his eyes still looking, still searching as they gazed at me. "That day on the street." I said.
"You passed me on the other side of the street and something stopped me. I thought it had come from you but I couldn't be sure until you looked at me. The eyes truly are windows to the very soul and I saw the darkness overshadowing yours when I looked in your eyes that day. It's been with you for a long time, Alice. Even now, I can see it."

I didn't dare mention what I saw in return. The endless depth – the bottomless memory and thought that frightened me. I could sense it in his voice when he spoke. At least the reasoning behind it was now explained.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I couldn't be sure what it was. At the moment it was contained and with my help, you were still able to live your life up to a point. I thought that I would maybe be able to fix it before you realized what was going on."
"So what you've done to my head, it's not permanent?"
"I'm afraid not."

"What happens now?"
He hesitated, looking away from me back to the television. The DVD menu had been playing over and over as we were talking. "Now, you need to rest and I…need to watch The Empire Strikes Back. It's too soon yet," he said before I could protest. "The best thing to do now is for me to keep an eye on you and for the both of us to figure out exactly what we're dealing with before whatever it is causes you substantial harm."
The Doctor waited until I nodded in agreement then leaped up to the DVD player to switch films.

I looked to my lap and found that I was still in my work clothes. My skirt and blouse both wrinkled messes as I had slept in them for a few hours. I left the room, doing my best to ignore that small little blink of hope that had begun to glow after hearing what he'd said. No, he didn't know what it was but he could figure it out and help me. I was not going mad.

I got to my bedroom and looked in the mirror. My hair had become a great disaster. I quickly pulled it back in as smooth of a pony tail as I could manage and found a dressing gown, an old t-shirt and some sweats with no holes in them. Feeling much more comfortable, I went back into the front room to find the opening story line scrolling up the screen.

The Doctor – that would take me a while to get used to – was reclining in his seat, his arms behind his head. I smiled at how easily he made himself comfortable and moved round to the sofa.
He glanced up at me and immediately sat up, "Are you alright? Is it happening again?" I shook my head, "No, I –" I looked at the television. Luke and Han were riding Taun-Tauns across the frozen tundra of Hoth. An entire planet covered in snow. My eyes went back to the Doctor - the time traveler, the explorer of the galaxies – who looked worried for me. "I'm fine, really. I just – I don't want to be alone." I felt my cheeks go pink with embarrassment but he smiled at me and patted the cushion next to him.

"Plenty of room for one more."
I sat next to him and curled up under the quilt, "There are really worlds like that out there?" I said nodding at the screen.
The Doctor shrugged, "I have yet to see a planet made entirely of ice and snow but there's still quite a variety I'm sure I haven't seen.
"Oh, there was one once where the planet was all ocean. The entire thing was a big ball of water floating through space! Every creature lived beneath the enormous sea in huge cities. Water and air breathing species both coexisting together – some living in their bubbles the others in the ocean itself. It has several moons, everything working together keeping the water in its own magnetic field instead of breaking apart and floating through space."
"What's it called?" I said, craving more.
"Lemerae," he said with a vague smile on his face.

I smiled as well. "Sounds like something from a story book."
"Nah," he said. "The most exciting things ever experienced never come from books. Take The Lord of the Rings for example."
"That's a story isn't it? And very exciting if I remember correctly." I read the book about once a year.

"Well where do you think Mister Tolkien got all that information from in the first place? You have to admit Middle Earth is incredibly detailed in that book although he did miss some of the finer points, I think – "
"Hold on," I said, my eyes bugging out at him. "Are you telling me that it actually happened? The Dark Lord Sauron, the 'my precious', short little people with large hairy feet, and all of that?"
"Still going on, actually," he muttered as he thought and rubbed his eyes. "The Elves for example, much finer senses of humor. They're really quite a riot once you get to know them…"
I gaped at him in stunned silence as the Empire was invading the hidden Rebel base.