Might be a while before my next post, just a heads up!

Grace is walking down the hallway, the clock sounds once again following her. She suddenly stops in mid-step as a voice cuts into the clock noises.

Now…Now is the time…Awaken…Now is the time for awakening…Near, so near…

Grace looks around, spinning in the hallway. She settles on one direction, and breaks into a run, sprinting down the corridor and stopping briefly at an exit, before slamming the door open. An alarm sounds, but she continues out onto a grassy lawn. She follows the voice, determined to find the source.

Now…the time is NOW….he is close….open it NOW….

Grace stops in front of the tall stone wall the surrounds the hospital. She runs her hands over the surface, feeling for purchase. She looks behind her and sees several frantic looking nurses and security people sprinting after her. She begins to scale the stone wall and eventually reaches the top. She looks down and the people below her shout for her to come back, but she just shakes her head and lowers herself down on the other side. It has been a long time since she has left the confines of the hospital, years maybe. The sidewalk and road are empty as she looks around. The nurses begin to run around to the main exit to avoid having to scale the high wall.

Several flats line the street opposite Grace, with narrow alleyways separating them. The voice had stopped and so had the clocks. It was very quiet. Grace walked cautiously to one of the alleys. She would have to hide from the nurses if she wanted to find the source of the voice. A large dumpster filled up most of the space, broken glass, paper, and metal parts of machinery covered the ground. It was dark except for a faint white light radiating from something behind the dumpster. A very faint whisper spilled from the light.

Now, open it NOW…..Before he is gone…..The last…The lasts…

Grace frowned, puzzled, and slowly stepped around the overflowing dumpster. With every step, the light grew stronger and sharper, the voice louder and more direct. What she saw amazed her. It was a huge, blue, police call box. It towers over Grace as she peers at it, listening to the voice… but she doesn't understand. She steps toward it until she is only an arms distance away. She slowly, carefully, reaches out a hand. Just her fingertips touch it, and a defining stream of shouts, random sounds, voices, (all of the adventures the TARDIS has witnessed) pour out. Grace recoils suddenly with a gasp, falling against the opposite wall of the alley. The voices are silenced. Grace slides down the brick wall into a crouched position, never taking her eyes off the massive blue box.

With a sudden creak, the wooden door begins to slowly open. A shadowed figure blocks the inside from view. They close the door behind them, lock it, and turn around. The Doctor is revealed, dressed in his usual bowtie and suit. He looks around in apparent disappointment and abruptly realized he is not alone in the alley.

"Oh! Hello there. I'm the Doctor, and you are?"

Grace stands slowly, than says quietly,

"Grace." The Doctor smiles and puts out a hand which Grace shakes cautiously.

"Nice to meet you Grace." He dashes off and pulls out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the alley, now ignoring Grace. Grace approaches the TARDIS once again, but does not touch it.

"Does it do that often?" She asks the Doctor, who answers over his shoulder,

"Do what?"

"Talk." He freezes in mid-scan, clearly shocked, but he attempts to cover it.

"Talk? It's just a silly old box, it can't talk." Grace takes a step toward him, protesting,

"Yes it can, I heard it. It has a woman's voice. It kept telling me to open something..." The Doctor turns to face her, expression now tense. He looks her up and down and notices her dress.

"You're from that hospital." He says.

"Yes."

"That's a mental hospital."

"Yes." He leans down to her level, looking into her eyes. He asks gently,

"Are you a patient there?" After a brief pause, Grace answers, matter-of-factly,

"Yes. Apparently I'm crazy." She looks back at the blue box. "And now I'm hearing voices." The shouts of the nurses calling her name echo in the street. Grace looks up sharply and throws a side-glance at the Doctor. He looks down at her, and then back at the street. Finally appearing to make up his mind, he kneels down in front of her. He holds her shoulders and says,

"You aren't crazy, Grace." The shouts draw nearer. "But you are different." Grace laughs grimly.

"Aren't we all."

"Come on." The Doctor says, abruptly pulling Grace to the box and fumbling with the key.

"Hey!" She shouts, trying to pull away. "Let me go! I have to hide!"

"We'll hide in here."

"This is yours?" He pulls her inside. He closes the door behind them and runs to the center council. He starts throwing dials and switches smiling to himself, but when he looks back at Grace he is confused. This isn't the stunned silence or gaping, "Bigger on the inside" he had been expecting. Grace appears mildly interested, but not overwhelmed. He frowns and walks over to her. Trying to catch her uninterested attitude, he says,

"So, Grace… What do you think?"

"Huh? Oh, cool. Bigger on the inside…" She answers, like someone who has been shown a rather common painting.

"We haven't met before, have we?"

"No, I'm pretty sure we haven't."

"Right."

They stand in awkward silence for a while, and then the faint whisper heard by Grace in the hospital floats through the air, apparently heard only by her. She frowns, looking for the source of the sound.

"You alright?" The Doctor asks, seeing this.

"Yah, I'm fine. You said I wasn't crazy, that this thing can talk… What is it?" The Doctor seems pleased by her interest.

"It's a time machine called a TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."

"TARDIS." She repeats thoughtfully, as if trying to remember something. The Doctor notices there is something heavy in Grace's dress pocket, but he doesn't ask.

"Yes, TARDIS. In here you can travel to any time, any place. Not a bad life I suppose."

"Suppose?" Asks Grace with some surprise. "What could be the downside?" The Doctor shakes his head and goes back to the controls.

"Oh, you know. Always worrying about running into yourself. Makes for awkward conversations." It is clear Grace doesn't buy this response, but she doesn't pursue the question.

"It's weird," she says quietly. "You ever get déjà vu?"

"Occasionally…" The Doctor answers, still at the controls.

"Well, I feel like I'm having déjà vu. It's almost like I've been in this place before; only, it's a little bit different. The Doctor glances at her, frowning. "You mean, you've been in a TARDIS, before?" Grace shakes her head dismissingly.

"No, no of course, no. I would've remembered that…" But she didn't seem convinced by herself. Without consciously thinking about it, her hand reached to her bulging pocket. This moment passed quickly however and she looked up at the Doctor.

"Do you have a clock here?"

"A what?" He said, taken aback by this sudden question.

"Do you have a clock," she repeated, "In this, TARDIS thing?" The Doctor chuckled to himself. "Well, no, actually. This being a time machine I never really had a need for a clock…" Seeing her odd expression, he continued, "I'm, sorry... Are you ok?" She looked much put out, as though Christmas had been canceled. Slowly, however, her face changed. Her mouth slowly crept into a smile, and her downcast eyes rose with a happy glint.

"So…" she began, hiding her glee. "You don't have a clock with you, but you're still watching over time, right?"

"Well, yes, I suppose…" The Doctor said, somewhat confused. "I've saved time every so often. Especially for your planet, always in trouble, your timeline…"

"So you, watch the clocks?" The Doctor smiles.

"That's one way of putting it."