Chapter 3: Talking

When Chloe opened her eyes she first saw a rather large celling. Where am I? she thought as she sat up in bed. Oh! She was in a bed! He closed her eyes and flopped back down into the large soft bed, savoring how comfortable she was. She had never been in a bed quite so soft and she really did not want to get up but she should really find out where she was. I wonder if that man is still around.

She got up out of the bed and realized she was in a large shirt. Where are my clothes? Who changed me?! Chloe for a moment was upset, but then decided that whoever had changed her didn't mean any harm, especially if they took her out of her dirty clothes and into a soft clean bed like this one.

Suddenly the dim lights turned all the way off in the room and Chloe bolted to the door where there was light. That was so strange. Chloe stood out in the hallway not knowing where to go. There was a gentle humming that started and stopped a few times. She did nothing but listen, confused, curious. Then the hallway lights to her right started to turn out one by one. She started walking quickly to the left, following the hallway and looking back to see the lights behind her stay lit and she relaxed a bit. Within a few minutes she reached another doorway but stopped short.

Inside she could see same the man who found her in the abandoned house, walking about and what looked like…cooking? The smell of food enveloped her and she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, her stomach growling. When she opened her eyes, they met with the mans. He was staring right at her!

Startled, Chloe jumped back out of view and turned to run back to her room, but all of the lights in the hallway that she walked through were out. It's only a little dark, the dark never hurt anyone. But Chloe couldn't find the courage to walk down the impossibly dark hallway and instead pressed her back up against the wall.

"HE-LLO!" Chloe jumped and looked over at the man who was now standing in the doorway.

"h-hi" She replied, softly. She didn't realize how dry her throat had been until just now.

The man grinned suddenly from ear to ear.

"Well now, why don't you go sit down over there." He said, gesturing for her to enter the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked.

"I'm making you some soup, you seemed pretty hungry and this soup I'm making is pretty easy for you humans to digest."

Chloe scrunched up her nose, soup was never really her favorite thing to eat but at the moment she was a little too hungry to care. She sat up on a stool and leaned on a counter that went around the stove area where the man was cooking. He looked up at her over his glasses for a second before pouring soup into a bowl and setting it on the counter for her to eat.

"Right then, I'm The Doctor, what's your name?" The Doctor asked light heartedly as he leaned on the counter across from her.

"My name is Chloe" She whispered, feeling shy in front of this man. "Your name is The Doctor? Are you a real doctor?"

"Of course I'm a real doctor! I'm a doctor in nearly everything, Engineering, Psychology, cheese making…" He drabbled on.

"But, should I really just call you doctor?" Chloe asked while simultaneously trying to blow on her spoonful of hot soup. It smelled so good!

"Yes, exactly, precisely that! Just Doctor, because that is what I wished to be called." Said The Doctor.

Chloe couldn't argue with that, if the man really wanted to be called Doctor then who was she to argue. She closed her eyes for just two seconds, catching glimpses in time of when other people had called this man 'doctor' but she found it suddenly very difficult to even see his timeline. Strange…

…

The Doctor was staring at Chloe with a small frown on his face. He could sense her mind reaching his, touching his thoughts, quite amazing actually. Even he needed a physical connection to complete a psychic bridge but this girl was very messy, not precise, just draining. This feeling… quickly he put up a mental block to keep her from sensing anything too deep. This was worrying to him, if she could get into others heads without touching then she was very strong, and her un controlled wandering could cause trouble. He wondered if she knew what she was doing, if she was aware of her psychic nature or did she see it as just daydreaming perhaps. Maybe she was doing this unconsciously. "about this psychic ability of yours…" he said gently, just above a whisper.

Chloe met his eyes, startled. "I…' her shoulders slumped "I thought you weren't from the lab."

"What lab?" The Doctor questioned. This was definitely getting somewhere. Perhaps if he knew more he would be able to help her better.

Chloe took another slurp of soup and swallowed, "You mean you're not from the lab? I didn't know that anyone outside knew about me."

The Doctor leaned farther onto the counter, getting closer to Chloe. "Where is this lab? Are there others that…live…in this lab?"

Chloe brought the bowl of hot soup up to her mouth as he was talking and began drinking it even though it burnt her tongue. After a moment she finished the soup and set the bowl back on the counter with a clink.

"No, I don't know, I don't think so." She finally replied after as she wiped her mouth with the back of her knuckles.

The Doctors serious nature of his questions made Chloe uneasy. Like she was in trouble for something and she suddenly didn't feel too keen on being in the spotlight. She decided to turn the questioning around. She forced her way back into his mind, digging for information but it all was just a confusing jumble. She saw The earth burning and old glaciers and aliens. "And what about you and this space box? What are you? Are you a time traveler?"

"How did you know about that?" The Doctor was angry suddenly. Despite his efforts to put up a block, she had pierced through it like a pin through cloth. The realization of her being so powerful hit him hard and he suddenly felt the weight of his responsibility. She was dangerous and had to be stopped, or controlled, before she hurt someone.

Chloe immediately recoiled from The Doctor. Did she do something wrong? She sensed that he didn't like her going into his mind. It wasn't something Chloe had ever really worried about. She started to sense that she was not only on the receiving end of The Doctors anger, but that she was in danger as well, but in danger from what she was not sure. Suddenly frightening ideas were shifting through her head. Ideas that were originating from The Doctor.

She realized her mistake. She just HAD to open up to this man. Why did she though? It was very un like her to trust anyone, except he was not just anyone, he was so different from any other human she had met. Perhaps though, it would be better, and safer for her to play the weak link again.

She clutched her head in fake pain. "Oh…my head…" Chloe scrunched up her eyes and put a hand to her temple.

The Doctors face relaxed a bit, he sighed. If breaking past his barriers had caused her pain, then it was clearly her limit and she wasn't much of a danger. He walked around the table, reached out suddenly to pull her into an embrace. This startled Chloe for a second.

"There, there…" said The Doctor comfortingly, rubbing her back with his hand. "That's what happens when you stress your Psychic abilities. You need to be properly trained, don't you? That's why your so unstable."

Chloe was trying to process what he said. Was he still angry at her? Did her fake headache work in calming him? Why was he hugging her again? Chloe continued to massage the soft skin of her temple. Actually she really did feel a headache coming on.