Chapter 3- Wrong
"Her name was Donna Noble."
The girl stares at him intently as if she expects him to recognize the name, but it doesn't sound familiar. Not at all.
"Were you close to her then?" He asks awkwardly, wondering what he can do to ease the girl's pain.
"Sort of," replies the girl, looking away. "She was like both mother and sister to me, in a way. But, this Christmas, whatever happened, she got caught up in the middle of it. And it killed her." She shakes her head in frustration. "It shouldn't have happened!"
"I'm sorry," he says, and for once he can't think of anything else to say. He wonders if he should go off and leave this girl to her grief, too, but she turns and looks at him desperately.
"No, you don't understand! This is wrong, this is so wrong! I can feel it…" She's staring at him again, as if she expects him to have the answers for something when he doesn't even know the question. "Why don't you see it too? I thought you were a Time Lord!"
He frowns at her. "I do know you in the future, don't I? Who are you?"
"Never mind that. I just can't figure out why…" Something catches her eye and she looks at him more intently. "Hold on…" She's looking behind him, so he turns to look too, but there's nothing.
"What?" He asks, turning back to her.
"There's… I can't quite see it, but there's something on your back…" She motions to him. "Turn round."
"Where?" he asks, doing as she says. He turns to look, but there's nothing on his back, just his coat, and she can't mean that. "I don't see anything."
The girl looks frightened now; her eyes dart about, searching for escape. "I shouldn't be here, I really shouldn't. I'm probably making things worse… I'm sorry, I have to go."
She turns to leave, but he grabs her arm. "Wait, wait, just a minute. Who are you?"
"No one. Just… no one. I've gotta go." She wrenches her arm out of his grip with more strength than he would have thought possible for an 18 year old girl, and dashes away down the street. She's a good runner, and though he has had quite a lot of practice at this exercise he finds himself falling behind. So that when he finally rounds the corner, the girl is no longer there. He can sense an energy in the atmosphere, a slight distortion in the space-time continuum, and quickly realizes what has happened.
The girl has time-traveled.
And yet, according to the TARDIS scanners, there's been no other distortion of the space-time continuum within the month they've landed in except, of course, for their arrival. No other time-travelers. But he clearly sensed it, the type of energy used in Vortex-manipulators worn by Time Agents. Frustrated, he slaps the edge of the scanner. "What's wrong with you?"
"What?" asks a voice from the other side of the room. Turning, he notices Rose, just closing the doors behind her.
"Nothing. Something wrong with the scanners, that's all." He pushes the mystery of the strange girl to the back of his mind and focuses on Rose. "You alright?"
She gives him a bright smile that fails to be convincing, and says, "Always."
He's used the same line himself too many times not to know she's lying. He sighs. "Rose, I'm sorry. This is all my fault."
"What is?" She moves closer to him, sounding concerned… about him, when she's the one who has lost so much.
"Everything. I mean, your mother is gone, the world thinks you're dead, you haven't got a home anymore…"
"Hey." She sidles up next to him, lacing her fingers through his. "I chose this. Remember? Everyone leaves their parents when they grow up," she says, sounded assured if a bit sad. "And as for home, well I've still got one. That is, unless you're planning on kicking me out anytime soon?" This last sentence is said jokingly, but with a trace of questioning fear, as if she's not too sure that it is a joke.
He pulls her closer, into an embrace. "Never," he assures her, hopefully assuaging any fears and doubts. After some brief moments of closeness they pull away, grinning.
"Right then. Where to next?"