A/N: The Doctor wakes up in a familiar 'All American' Diner, with a very haughty waitress as his hostess.
Distress Signal
The Doctor came to consciousness slowly. His skin felt tight against his cheeks - as though all of the air had been sucked clear out of him. He also felt hot, to hot even for his body type. Groaning and sitting up painfully, the man widened his eyes at his surroundings. Last he had checked, he had been in the farthest reaches of the galaxy exploring a red, desert planet infested with sand rabbits. Now, he was sitting at a booth in a small diner.
There were people around him, eating and talking. They didn't even seem to notice him, and despite the close proximity of other patrons, the voices were just a muted roar. Silverware clanked gently, and music played in the background as The Doctor turned. A figure with brunette hair was working behind the counter, wiping down her station with a towel, a mindless look on her face. Did she not notice him sitting unconscious at one of her tables?
Grunting, the Doctor moved to stand. His legs felt sore, as though he had run thousands of miles, and his clothes left a trail of red dust in his wake as he approached the young woman. Before he could even speak through, a glass of chill water was placed in front of his nose.
"Took you long enough to wake up,"
Blinking, The Doctor lunged for the water thirstily, greedily even as he moved to gulp it down. But a hand being placed over the rim of the glass stopped him, "sips, not gulps."
The waitress was staring right at him; her familiar doe eyes gleaming as he nodded. The hand was taken away, and The Doctor drank. He sipped the water, avoiding his urge to throw back the liquid like a shot of gin as the woman at the counter watched him. Her hands mindlessly cleaned the water glasses, as the chatter of the small diner remained a dull drone. When he was finished, The Doctor slid the cup away from him, gasped, and spoke thickly.
"Have we met?"
"Not even a thank you? Oi, rough greeting then," the waitress stated, though her smile betrayed her seriousness, "but actually yes, we have met."
"Really? And...you know who I am then?"
"Of course. You're The Doctor," the waitress smiled and set down her current glass, turning it slightly clockwise with her fingers so its positioning matched the rest, "though when you came in here you were babbling on about your name being John Smith,"
"John Smith?" The Doctor chuckled slightly at the humorous name, but shook it off as he turned instead to focus his glare on the waitress, "you know me, but I don't know you. Where did we meet before?"
"In Nevada, don't you recall? You told me all about your girl, Clara,"
"Clara." The Doctor slipped onto one of the barstools and rested an elbow against the counter. This caused red dust to fall down onto it as the waitress scowled,
"I just cleaned this counter…"
"Yes, yes I remember now. It was right before I came across my TARDIS...of course you don't know what that is-"
"It's a time machine, isn't it Doctor?"
The waitress looked almost hurt at the question as The Doctor lifted a furry brow,
"Yes. How...did you know that?"
"You told me so. You told me all about your adventures with that girl, Clara. Did you ever find her, by the way? You were looking for her."
The Doctor exhaled heavily and shook his head,
"No, no I didn't. And it's certainly none of your business, mush brained-"
"I have a name, you know," the waitress mumbled, the slight smile on her face remaing as she picked up another glass and inspected it, "it's Oswin."
"Oswin? What kind of name is that?"
"It's my name. What kind of a name is Doctor?" There was a twang of familiarity in the girls tone as she folded her arms, "you should be more grateful anyhow. Without me you would have died out there in the heat,"
"The heat? How did you…"
The Doctor turned wildly on his barstool as he looked at the windows. There was a perfectly sunny earth day outside. At least that's what it seemed.
"You shouldn't trust your eyes so much." Oswin stated mindlessly, not even glancing up from her work as The Doctor left his stool and opened the door of the diner. The heat from the desert planet Omega 6 hit his face like a solar storm. He looked down at a steaming pit of lava right outside, blinked and closed the door again. Oswin was still behind the counter, but everyone else was gone. The noises had stopped, and the Diner was quiet.
"What's going on here?"
"I caught onto your distress signal while I was passing through this system," Oswin stated, setting down her glass, her eyes teasing as the cheeky grin once again hopped onto her face, "didn't think I'd make it in time. To be honest,"
"Impossible. This...all of this, it's a diner. An earth diner,"
The Doctor motioned to the small room with his hands as Oswin laughed. It sounded pretty to his ears, like ringing bells. Watching her carefully, Oswin sauntered out from her perch, revealing the just-a-bit-to-short uniform she was wearing.
"You're not the only one who can travel through time and space, Doctor." she said, moving towards a door to the back freezer. Waving The Doctor forward, they entered together. Staring at the Gallifreyan engineering of the console in awe and confusion, Oswin leaned pridefully against the controls. She was bright against the white interior, drawing The Doctor's eye as she patted the dash with a hand, "you have your TARDIS, and I have mine. Doctor, meet TARDIS. TARDIS, this is the Doctor."