Chapter One: Who Am I?

The girl woke up to more tubes, wires, and bandages on her body. She always wondered when this happened, probably sometime in the night. She stared at the ceiling for the millionth time already, but she didn't know that. Her pupils were as usual blown wide but she never realized, mostly because she couldn't see her own eyes, much less her face. She wondered what she looked like and who she was. Who was doing this, along with her usual questions of how she ended up here and why, filtered through her mind as well.

Her body was slowly shutting down and she knew it. Her strength was deteriorating and was never given enough food. Luckily, there was always water for her to drink while she was awake during those random passages of time. Her arms shook as she reached for the glass, bringing it to her chapped lips. Taking only small sips, she returned the water to the table and started her climax of the day: trying to sit up.

It was a struggle.

It was a completely cruel struggle to see her trying to will her body in a sitting position. All of her focus narrowed on getting her weak, sore, and delicate bones to move. She couldn't do anything else. All she had to do was sitting up and going back to sleep every day, sometimes, to get water. Thankfully, she was able to sit up, but she panted in the end. Her blurry eyes wavered as they looked down at her slender fingers. The consequences for staying here for days cost her fingers the ability of twitching and wiggling-movement.

She didn't notice the new aspect of her stay until she looked up at the blank wall. In the corner of her eye, though, she saw him. He watched her with calculative eyes that mirrored her own. He was tall; she could tell even with him sitting down, and wore a dark blue suit with glasses and a red tie. His brown hair was ruffled and strange to her eyes, but she didn't know why. His eyes were also brown. They stared at her like she was anomaly.

Looking down at her arms, she inspected the number of things in them: three wires on both sides of her arms, two tubes on her left arm, four on her right, one finger had another wire connected, and three different wrappings covered each of her arms. Shakily, the girl unveiled her legs from under the blanket. Two wrapping covered her upper thighs and a long bandage on one of her calves. Nothing new ever happened to her legs. Slowly she touched her neck and then moved to her scalp. One bandage covered half of her neck and there was a wrapping across her forehead, covering part of her scalp.

She would have checked her chest and torso too, but she could feel the bandages there specifically so there was no need to pull up her gown in front of a stranger. She turned her body slowly to the counter next to the bed and grabbed for the water again as fast as she could with her trembling arms. Instead of grabbing it, the glass shattered to the floor with a loud noise, but neither of them flinched as a response. She tried to lean over to grab on of the shards, but the wires and tubes and her pain filled bandages kept her from being able to move too far. Her fingers barely touched one of the shards, much less picked one up.

It was long and jagged and upon touching it, she sliced her thin skin. But she didn't feel the pain for she was numb in her fingertips and instead stared in wonder as the blood dripped slowly little by little down the digit. Bringing the blade up to one of the wires, she hacked and sawed them off her arms before moving to the other making the machines turn off. "What are you going to do now?" the man asked, a British accent clear in his voice, after she finished cutting the wires.

She opened her mouth for the first time in a long time and said in a raspy voice, "What do you think I should do?"

"Ask for my help?"

"No thank you."

"Why not? I could easily disconnect the tubes and help you out of that bed and we could get out of here. It would be harder for you to disable everything with your poor health, that doctor of yours is not as good as she says she is."

"Yes, well, I should really fire her. But again, no thank you." the girl chuckled.

"Again, why not?"

"I do not know you and I'm unwilling to have a strange man help me out when I have no idea why they are here."

"I don't know why I'm here either," he replied as he shifted in his seat, revealing his red converse shoes. He took off his glasses and leaned forward.

"So why come?" she asked, quietly.

"Who are you?"

"I don't know, who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he introduced. She immediately flinched at the word. Her body shook and not from weakness. She was receiving bad vibes from that name, but the person in front of her didn't make her feel the way the name did. She turned to stare at him with cautiously curious eyes. He stared back. His eyes widened when he took notice of her extremely large pupils. He flashed a light in them, making her flinch, but her pupils only shrank a bit.

The Doctor stood up from the chair and moved closer to the bed. She wanted to move away from him, but her body couldn't function the way she wanted it to. Her eyes followed him as he tilted her head back to look closer at her eyes. "That…should not be possible."

"What should not be possible?" she asked, alarmed that there was someone so close to her.

"Well your eyes are purple, well more violet like, but they should not be purple. Purple isn't even one of the colors for a human to-" he quickly fished out some kind of device and pointed it at her face, directly into the eyes, causing some sort of noise to ring out. He stared back down at the base. "Hmm, well you're perfectly human, I still don't understand how you have such an eye color. We should probably get you out of those tubes. Dancing around the situation is pointless anyway," he talked as he began to remove the tubes gently. She stood perfectly still as he removed them, trying to feel as little pain as possible.

"How did you come across me?" the girl asked.

"How did you end up here?" he countered.

"I don't know. I believe I have a condition called amnesia. I wouldn't know my name or where I came from, much less the people I knew. Do we know each other?"

"I don't think so. What should I call you then?"

"That makes it sound like I'm your pet."

"Maybe you are," he joked, but she didn't laugh or smile. She stared at him, then the wall behind him, and then her hands. "I was joking. I didn't really mean-"

"Josephine."

"Excuse me?"

"Call me Josephine, Josephine Lewis."

"Nice to meet you Josephine Lewis, I'm the Doctor," he held out a hand after removing all the tubes. She flinched again at the name, but she shakily grabbed his hand. The girl then looked back up at him as they shook slightly.

Then she punched him.

The Doctor fell instantly to the floor at the impact to his nose. Josephine felt extremely tired after punching the man, but she needed to escape. She didn't know or trust or have any knowledge of her past to know whether or not to accept anything from him. So she quickly scrambled to her feet and off of the bed. Her bare feet touched the solid, cold tiled floor for the first time. One foot, and then the other touched the smooth surface. Her head felt a rush as she moved quickly in the new position for the first time in what felt like years. She felt alive as she left that bed after punching that man. But as quickly as she stood up, she fell to the ground.

Thankfully the Doctor caught her before her head hit the ground. She went out like a dying star.

-/JEL/-

Josephine's eyes opened and found the lighting burn. It hadn't been like that since she first woke up in that hospital bed. Flinching, she remembered what happened, realizing she was not in the same bed as before. It was softer and the sheets were of different texture than before. Her pillow was more plush and comfortable to her head. The walls weren't pale white, but a creamy yellow. The lighting was much softer and less bright, making her eyes hurt at the non-intensity. Odd. There was only one noise in the entire room and it was the slight hum of an unknown machine, vibrating everything slightly. Slowing getting up, she felt less weak than she usually did and could see her skin not clinging to her bones like before. And as she stood up, she could balance on her feet and move forward (even if they were baby penguin steps).

Slowly, but eventually, Josephine reached the door knob to the outside. Except, as soon as she touched said door knob it opened. Stumbling back, Josephine almost fell back onto the ground until two hands grabbed her sides, preventing her from hitting another solid floor. "Josephine!" the Doctor exclaimed. Her eyes jerked up to him. He was staring down at her and it freaked her out how close they were to each other.

"Umm…sorry about the nose." He nodded before picking her up completely and placing her against one of the walls so she could lean against something.

"No problem, I'm fine. I'm sure you'll want to leave this room as soon as possible. Being in here for eight days can be-"

"Eight days?"

"Yes, amazing really, like you were in a coma, but you weren't because…well you still did that thing."

"Thing?"

"You know, that thing you do when you're asleep."

"Breathe? Snore?"

"No, you don't snore in your sleep. You…well you…" he was stalling.

"Spit it out!" she shouted at the rambling man.

"Scream! And shout, along with, along with the wailing...and crying." She stared at him with confusion.

"What?"

"You must know that you do that at night! Don't you have nightmares or something?"

"No. I don't even know what you're talking about." He was about to respond, but she decided that it was time to leave the crazy man behind. She opened the door and stumbled into a strange hallway. The lights couldn't be located and the walls themselves were…coral like. That was the closest she got to explaining the pattern, shade, and texture of the walls she leaned against for support, trying to leave the Doctor behind. Except, he kept following her, watching the still weak girl walk away from him. No one ever walked away from the Doctor; people were generally following him for attention and answers. No, this girl seemed to rather ignore the facts to keep herself oblivious.

"Oi! I'm talking to you!" he shouted down the hall that she had somehow already crossed. She paused for a moment, trying to catch her breath before returning her advancement down the hall. "You broke my nose, now can you-"

"I already apologized for that!" she called back. "I need to get home."

"And where is that exactly? Do you have amnesia or not?" That comment made her stop. He let out a sigh before jogging up to the resting girl.

"I just…know where I should be going," she told him, looking away from his eyes.

"And that is?"

"Washington D.C."

"Anywhere more specific?" he inquired.

"Near the Washington Monument," Josephine suggested and the Doctor nodded, grabbing her arm and pulling her through a door to the main room. She wanted to protest but decided against it considering he was giving her a lift to…well she wasn't really sure where yet.

Inside the main room, there was a giant machine in the center. The Doctor was next to what she assumed to be the control system, beginning to flip a series of switches, levers, and buttons until another noise echoed through the room. It was rhythmic and calming to the girl as she held onto one of the railings in a tight white grip. The room itself began to shake, she realized that the place was some form of ship or teleportation device. She wasn't surprised though at the movements of the ship or the noises or even the Doctor mumbling nonsense to himself-which made him look up and at her in confusion. "Why aren't you asking questions?" he snapped.

"What's her name?"

"Her? How would you know it's a her?"

"The way you're cooing at her. It suggests that it's female, unless you're gay, but you'd still have more affection towards a female machine. So what's her name?"

"She's the TARDIS and I'm not homosexual," he grumbled; she nodded.

"But you are sassy," she noticed.

"I am not-" the girl nodded towards his stance, his hand-on-hip pose that was so definitely sassy. Soon the Doctor was glaring at her and returned to the controls to distract himself. "What year?"

"I'm thinking…2007. Yes, 2007 near an apartment building with apple trees in the front of it and a café nearby."

"So the amnesia's clearing up, what's your name?"

"I still think its Josephine Lewis, although I'm not entirely sure."

"Age?"

"Based on my appearance, I'd say between twenty and twenty-one, I believe you can deduct these things yourself."

"Okay, harder questions then. Twenty-two thousand three hundred eleven times sixteen?"

"Thirty-five hundred six thousand nine hundred seventy six."

"Left or right handed?"

"Left handed judging by the paralysis of the right hand would keep me from writing."

"Parents' names?"

"I…don't know."

"So close!" he shouted in disappointment. Josephine stared at the man in front of her.

"I apologize if I can't answer personal things due to my amnesia."

"Okay, how did you guess your name?"

"One day I woke up to paper and pen on the table and I signed my name. Analyzing the name and handwriting, I decoded it to Josephine Lewis."

"So you don't really know who you are…at all?"

"I have as much knowledge of my identity as you do," she agreed. "Now may I leave this transportation device and try to find myself?"

The Doctor didn't say anything. He just watched the bald girl in the hospital gown walk across the room to the doors. They opened for her in an instant. She was just about to leave when she paused at the door, "Will I be running into you again sir?"

"Probably not Josephine Lewis."

"Good," she replied. And then she walked out of the entrance into the bustling city. The door shut softly behind her and the girl only sighed when she turned around to find that it was just a small blue box. "Interesting…there must be a separate dimension in there entirely." She backed away from it and onto the sidewalk. Then a noise rang out, one just like the earlier noise, and the box disappeared in front of her. No one noticed the noise of the box as it disappeared or the girl without any hair wearing a hospital gown nowhere near a hospital.

She turned around and looked up at the building in front of her. It was large, decent, and appeared comfortable. Her legs were moving better now but she couldn't take strides or exert herself too much. Slow was the word to describe her entrance into the building. Her eyes wandered the somewhat familiar building, her legs leading her up the stairs and across the halls to door 5C. Her mind was still questioning the building when her hand pulled out a key from above the doorway.

Surprisingly, the room inside seemed extremely familiar to her. Unsurprisingly, her legs began to give out from the climb of steps. She quickly flopped down on one of the two dark red couches. The apartment was large with five rooms: a kitchen, a bathroom, two bedrooms, and the living room that she sat in now. Each room was quite spacious and all but the bathroom had hardwood, polished floors.

Light streamed through the long windows, the ones with white curtains framing the panes. The walls were a calming cream and the carpet was a black and striped red. Paintings were stacked against one another against one of the walls. There was an assortment of biographies and science books on the coffee table with a TIME magazine about the ex-Prime Minister of England. Josephine picked up the magazine and stared at the man on the front. William Curtis looked familiar to the amnesiac girl but that could be because he's the ex-Prime Minister, but the man…

There was a knock on the door.

Josephine shot up from her chair, which she regretted immediately from the dizziness it caused, looking at the door with wide eyes. This could always not be her home. But if it wasn't her home and the person outside lived here, then why didn't they have their key? She cautiously approached the door, stopping short as she debated whether or not to answer it. There was another knock, a more urgent sounding one and Josephine decided she might as well open it. She grabbed the knob and turned.

Standing in front of her was a very, very handsome man. His hair was short and black and his eyes were a heart melting brown. If he smiled, almost every female and male in the population would faint and swoon. Almost. He wore a long coat that a captain of a boat would wear. Josephine looked at this man in confusion but she could sense slight familiarity. "Jo!" he said happily before grabbing her face and pulling her in for a kiss on the lips. She stared at him in shock and backed away from him when he let go of her. "Jo?"

"I ask for you to leave my apartment immediately," in a calm voice she spoke.

"Jo, it's me, Jack. You act like you don't know me," the man told her.

"Sir, I don't know you so I please ask you to exit from this building." He stared at her and she stared back at him. They were both confused, but Jack's confusion ended quicker when he began to mumble,

"No…NO...No, no, no, no!" he backed her into the apartment and reached for her face again. She tried to free herself from his grasp but she was really weak. He stared deeply into her eyes, searching for something unknown to her. "Jo, what do you remember?"

"Remember? I don't know who you are, much less who I am!" she hissed. His shoulders dropped instantly.

"Oh god, you have…"

"Amnesia, yes, I know. Do I know you? Based on your greeting, are we in some sort of relationship? Marriage, boyfriend and girlfriend, what was that term people use nowadays…oh yes, friends with benefits?" she pondered. He had let go of her face by then. Jack stared at her before letting a small smile appear on his face.

"That's my Jo, always analyzing me. Never could fully understand me but you…you always were spot on, except for right now."

"How so?"

"Well we aren't dating or married or having sex if you were wondering. The Prime Minister would have my head fifteen times if he ever found out."

"Prime Minister? What's she got to do with this? Oh my god…am I dating the Prime Minister now? Oh god! I'm half her age! She's a woman! I…" the girl stuttered, "I'm not attracted to women!"

Jack chuckled. She had never shown so much…emotion. She was always calculating, thinking, staring at the specimen in front of her. He hadn't even seen Jo show confusion since she first saw him die and come back. And the closest thing to happiness with her was her uncle making a goof out of himself.

"Jack, do you know who I am? Do we know each other? Please say yes. Oh lord. First I wake up one morning to some madman with a blue teleportation box calling himself the Doctor and then I'm-"

"Wait! You met the Doctor?"

"Yeah, do you know him? Is he important?"

"You really don't know who you are do you, Jo?"

"I don't know, do you?"

"Some of it."