Chapter Two: Seeing Him Again

It had been a year. A year and her hair was finally returning. She was in a hospital, one of the best hospitals-in Britain of course. She moved across the pond months before. Sitting in one of the lobby chairs, a woman across her was praying, mumbling over and over a name of a boy. Jo would have felt bad for the woman after deducing she was praying for her son, but Jo knew the kid's chances were low. She herself was a rare chance, but no one else had done what she'd done.

"Psst," someone said next to her. Looking over, Josephine found a young woman staring at her with blonde hair and green eyes. She was skinny, probably from the fatigue. "Are you that girl?"

"Which one?"

"You know, the Prime Minister's niece, the one who had cancer and experimented on herself?"

"Uh, yes, that's, um, me, you are correct Miss…"

"Stewart, Lisa Stewart. Dear god, I'm talking to the Prime Minister's niece."

"Ex-Prime Minister's adoptive niece," she clarified.

"I read your books. It really made me rethink the way I should handle my diagnosis. How did you ever come up with such an insane idea?" Lisa asked.

"I study some 'out of this world' technology. Using some of their blueprints, I just meshed certain ideas with others to get that device."

"What?—actually, that's really interesting. Why don't they have that procedure for other patients?"

"Well it caused some damage to my nerves, increasing the paralysis in my hand. Some inspectors also concluded that the pain would be too severe for the patient and too dangerous to test widely," Jo explained as simply as possible.

"Did ya not feel it when you were using the procedure? Or was the pain too immense for you to re-describe it in your books?"

"I didn't know what the pain felt like, still don't know what it felt like."

"Whadya mean?"

"You read the newspapers from last year, correct?" The girl nodded. "Then you must know that I had amnesia."

"But you wrote those books before ya disappeared, which me and me mum still want to know about."

"I'm sorry, I don't know anything about it. But as for the emotions bit, I was told by one of my friends that before, I wasn't very good with emotions. I still don't have a full grasp on them."

The girl nodded. "So are you here today to get checked out?"

"Ummm, well, I am scheduled for an examination but I actually came this time to get my file."

"What for?"

"Need to look at something, it's personal."

"Well good luck to ya."

"Thank you, I'll see you around one day."

"Are you just trying to make the situation better?" the girl asked. Josephine closed her eyes. She knew she couldn't lie, it just wasn't in her.

"The odds are slim, do you really want me to answer that question?" The girl looked down, understanding. Jo didn't know what to do, so she awkwardly patted the girl's shoulder before staring at the white walls. Staring at the walls reminded Jo of her time in that hospital bed. Then it reminded her of the Doctor who she still flinched at the title. She never did understand how she ended up in that place. The cancer free woman had spent months pondering and trying to figure out what had happened the night of her twentieth birthday. But some secrets were best left alone. She realized this after recording her sleeping patterns one night.

The next morning she had listen to screams, wails, pleas of mercy, and shouts for help. That tape laid on her desk at home with dust collecting on it. Who needed a tape when she had perfect memory?-except for the whole amnesia tidbit. Still had to guess and analyze her actions and emotions at the time. It was easy to guess what she'd done after she was ten, that was when she-

Crack!

It had been raining for several minutes now, with cracks and booms of lightening echoing in the hospital. It was an anomaly, the rain, to Jo; she predicted no rain for today. Another crack echoed, then another, and another until one final boom resonated from the halls and through her bones. And then the entire building began to shake and sway, trembling like the cold. Josephine was lurched from her chair and thrown across the hallway, landing against one of the walls as she slid down to the shaking floor.

Screams traveled down the halls at the movements, and crashes appeared in the silence for what felt like years until it stopped. There was a pause in time as the minds of hundreds, maybe a thousand, cleared. And then wails, screams, and tears were shed in the next moment. Jo didn't understand what had happened; all she knew was that something had terribly gone wrong for this many people to become upset. Lisa ran to Jo and helped the 'royalty' up from her spot. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, and you?" Lisa looked down at herself. Her clothes were rumpled but she appeared to have suffered no damage until she lightly touched the back of her head. Showing her hand to Jo, the older woman recognized the substance immediately. Blood. Jo grabbed Lisa's arm and quickly led her to the closest room. Inside, people crowded the windows. Jo ignored them, inspecting the damage to the girl's head. Placing a band aid on the cut, Jo turned her focus to Lisa herself. Tears streamed down her face. "What's wrong?"

"The window," she whispered. Jo turned around and looked out the window for the first time. People clung to one another for unknown reasons, tears falling down their faces as wails of agony-or was it dread filled the building? Outside, Earth hung, suspended by an invisible string. They were…on the moon, Jo realized. Lisa dropped to her knees, clinging onto Jo's leg for support. "My mum…I was supposed to visit her today. She needed someone to babysit Abbey. I never got to say…goodbye."

Josephine Lewis looked down at Lisa Stewart. The girl was crying, thinking she was going to die at this moment. Even with the knowledge of her cancer destroying her systems one by one slowly, giving her maybe a year left to live, she still cried at dying at random. "You're sad," Josephine stated, the blonde released a sob that was lodged in her throat. The girl nodded and Jo stood there for a moment more before releasing herself from Lisa's grip, leaving her to cry about the inevitable-if not now she would die, then later.

Jo left the room to venture down the halls of the hospital. They were still alive, they were still breathing, and those windows were definitely not air tight, which meant there's some sort of barrier keeping the air inside, keeping them alive. Jo pondered all the ideas that could have caused this. It was definitely alien technology, but it was unclear as to which aliens and the means behind the situation.

The girl needed to find a whiteboard.

Walking down each hallway, she checked each room she passed. It had only been ten minutes before the other noises came in like a hurricane hurdling for Florida. They were deep, gruff voices followed by boots marching on tile floors. And every few moments there'd be another noise, like a scanner of sorts before one of them resumed their march. Jo was just passing a veranda when she was pushed to the ground by an unexpected source.

"Oops! Sorry! Got to go! Come on Martha!" a very familiar voice called out after Jo fell. She didn't see his face from the floor; she didn't need to when she saw the blue pants and red converse that flew across the floor as he dragged another person with him. It was the Doctor. But she only saw him for another second before he disappeared down a corridor. Jo slowly got up. Her shoulder had a dull throb from the building moving, but it now hummed in pain when she was hit by the Doctor.

Josephine got up from the ground and continued her search for a white board.

-/JEL/-

She'd been down countless halls, checked many rooms, and was still not catalogued or found a room with the things she needed. She growled at her most recent room. It was completely empty! Nothing in there at all except for two cabinets! All she wanted was a white surface to write down her ideas, but noooo she just haaaaaaaad to be off her game (whatever that meant).

She was in an empty hall, probably one of the labs, when she saw a girl run into one of the rooms. After checking three more rooms, Jo heard her leave the same room in a rush. "Screw this. Next room I find, if there's a pen or marker, I'm just writing on the walls," she growled after checking two more stupid rooms.

She entered the same room that that woman had just left and stilled in her tracks. There, working on the computer and having a fuss, was the Doctor. He kept growling and pointing the device at a computer while he muttered to himself something along the lines of, "Jadoon platoon on the moon. This is bloody rubbish!" She stood there, completely frozen as she watched him. He wore the same clothes she saw him last in-straight down to the mess of his hair.

"Why are you just standing there Mar-oh hello," he greeted once he noticed her, looking straight at her.

"Doctor," her voice was curt.

"Do I know you?"

"I'd be surprised if you did recognize me, have you seen any markers around, maybe a whiteboard perhaps?"

"No I can't say I have. Now hold on a minute," he said as he got up from his seat. He stood close to her, trying to place her face in his mind, staring directly at her dilated eyes. "You're-you're-"

"Doctor, you said we wouldn't meet again," she told him seriously.

"But you're in America," he stated, confused.

"Had to move back, do you know my name?"

"Of course I know you're name, I saw you…what, was it a few days ago?"

"More like a year, Doctor."

"Explains the hair," he shook his head, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be trying to figure out who you are, not locked up in another hospital, god forbid I have to save you from another one of those."

"Personal reasons as to why I'm here. The better question is why haven't you looked me up on the Internet or whatever database you use?"

"What?"

"Just look me up; it'll clear some things up. Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be finding a whiteboard and or markers, Doctor," she saluted with her right hand before turning away, heading for the door.

"Wait!-Don't salute-What's that on your hand?" he called after seeing some sort of device on the skin of her right hand.

"Just search Josephine Lewis that way we won't run into each other again, Doctor," Jo called back as she ran down the hall. Turning left, she found herself in a new section of the hospital, waiting to be explored.

-/JEL/-

After leaving the Doctor, Jo found herself a nice large, white room with no whiteboard, but markers for her to draw with. Instantly, she picked up the markers and wrote down equations and formulas along the board. First she calculated the amount of time left she had to function at her usual pace before the air got to thin. After that, she guessed the number of oxygen tanks that would be used immediately and the number that'd be left out in the hospital.

She calculated that 99.2% of the population would survive this occurrence if they returned to the planet in time if they revolted against the aliens and got the patients that were delicate to safety. There'd be no chance for them to survive if they weren't returned to the planet, with or without all the oxygen tanks in the world to keep one person alive. By now one of the creatures (probably called Judoon) had stopped by, so, she could now calculate the workings of their armor, its purpose, and the purpose of their scanners.

The Judoon that scanned her was highly confused on what she was doing, but quickly ignored her after deeming it stupid and leaving her to her equations. She learned earlier that in less than a half hour she'd have to start functioning with lower levels of air—but by now, twenty five minutes passed. Growling at the time on her watch, Jo found an oxygen tank and set it up for the lowest air release so she could last longer. After doing such, Jo returned to the walls but went to a blank space. Quickly, she wrote one last message,

Sorry Will, it seems as though you lose another. I do admire you on some level and I believe that your ideas in politics will get you re-elected, I calculated an 85% chance of you winning at the moment. Tell Jack I said bye.

~Jo

After writing a note, Josephine resumed writing out equations, but this time, the design to her most recent invention along with its uses. Four minutes passed. Grabbing her oxygen tank, Josephine Lewis slowly walked down the halls. By now, she heard the rumbling of the ships that the creatures came from leaving the moon's surface. Jo didn't know the specific workings of those creatures and why they were there, but she did think that they would return the building to Earth if they found what they were looking for.

Five minutes passed and everyone was on the floor, unconscious from the lack of oxygen but Jo continued forward. Finding another empty room with a window, Jo sat on the hospital bed and increased her oxygen intake. She stared outside the window, finding Earth to be calm and serene, but knowing deeply that it was not in any way calm. She heard another crack. Looking out from the window, rain fell from the sky.

"Impossible," she whispered as she stared at the heavy descending rain. It was strictly impossible for this to happen and she found herself staring harder and longer, trying to understand what was really happening. And then the rain began to move upwards, that's when the building began to shake once more. Another large and loud crack resonated in the silent hospital and a blinding white flash surrounded the entire window's view. When it was gone, so were they from the moon. Gasps and coughs of air filled the building as ambulances and police sirens surrounded the area. The police and paramedics entered the building immediately to do their jobs.

Jo followed down the halls, finding herself back in the cancer section of the hospital. Her doctor wasn't inside the office, but she decided to write a note for her and take her file. File in hand; Jo retraced her steps to the white room that she scribbled on. Quickly, she wiped down the work about her invention. Just when she began to erase the message to her friends and family, she heard the door open from behind her.

A second passed and then he spoke, "Really Jo? All you have to say to me is goodbye? You didn't regret anything you hadn't done with this fabulous face? At all?"

The girl turned around to face the anomaly. He was smiling at her in a way that others would deem flirtatiously but she knew this just as how Jack greeted people. "I saw the Doctor again."

"No wonder all of you lived. But seriously Jo, all you had to say to me was 'bye'? Will was getting all frantic over you and was about to launch missiles into space," he told her.

Jo rolled her eyes, "Tell Will I'm an adult and I find his protectiveness idiotic."

"You can tell him yourself," the ex-Prime Minister spoke once entering the room.

"Yes, well, I'm correct and still don't understand your actions. You don't exactly have parental feelings towards me so-"

"Ouch, Jo, that really hurt," he said as he clutched his 'heart', "How was the appointment?"

"It didn't occur due to the alien event. But I did get my file," she held up the file.

"And the hand?" Jack asked, noticing more wiring added to the device on her right hand.

"More functional after the most recent updates to the technology." Both men nodded. Then they both let out their arms.

"Shall we?" they suggested. The girl looped her arms into the immortal man and older gentleman's' arms.

"I guess so, but I do need to talk to you about something Jack," Josephine told him.

"Join Torchwood and I'll tell you everything."

"Nice try, I prefer my little lab with my little bits and pieces of technology."

"Yes, we've all seen how well you do with those toys." She nodded as they continued down the halls. People reported to having hallucinations of the Prime Minister and his niece roaming the halls of the hospital later that day. When asked about it, both parties denied it and the third party was left a mystery.