You're falling asleep
I can feel you dreaming
Are you thinking of me
Are you feeling the love?
I'm caught in between
The way it is, how it could be
I'll never believe
You wanted me to go
- Future In the End by Evans Blue

So sleep love
Just dream love
And don't let it go
Just promise you won't
And I'll be home

I believe I'm falling apart again
Can't believe it's all my fault, and when
I fall; then you follow me in
I can see the future in the end
Can't believe it's finally come to this
I fall and you follow me in


"Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That's the difference between me and the rest of the world. Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!" – Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

Chapter Four:

Break Away

"Well this bites monkey balls."

Tessa favored Corey with an exasperated look as she watched the younger girl kick off her shoes before she set about removing her damaged jacket and flannel shirt and tossing them up onto her bed. She'd try to fix them later, once she no longer felt like she was about to pass out from exhaustion – both mental and physical. Both the jacket and the flannel shirt had belonged to her dad when he had been about her age, and she really didn't want to lose them.

"Dad's just trying to keep you safe," she began patiently, although the younger girl could easily detect the hint of disappointment in her voice. Corey gave Tessa a disbelieving look as she went over to the dresser in her corner of the room and pulled open the middle drawer before she started to rummage around inside. After a few moments, she let out a soft sound of satisfaction as she pulled out a black, green, white, and maroon long-sleeved hockey jersey before she promptly jerked it on over her head. Tessa rolled her eyes when she caught sight of the coyote emblem proudly emblazoned on the front of the jersey and sat down at the desk the two girls shared.

"Well, according to the Doctor, as long as I'm here, nothing's safe anymore," was Corey's somewhat muffled response before she finally pulled her head through the neck hole of the shirt, her long hair now sticking out slightly due to static. "Apparently I really pissed off someone I shouldn't have."

Tessa cocked an eyebrow as she gave her cousin an inquiring glance. "And this is different from what you normally do, how?"

Corey froze as she stared at Tessa with wide eyes before she let out a soft sigh and went over to where her laptop was currently resting on the desk. Wordlessly, she removed the device from the desk and slid it up onto her bed on the top bunk, quickly tossing up her headphones shortly after that. As Tessa watched intently, the younger girl scrambled up the wooden ladder connecting the top bunk with the floor and situated herself on her bed before she powered up her laptop. Once everything was up and running, Corey started up iTunes and put her newest song on a one-track loop.

The beginning chords to Three Days Grace's newest song, Break, started up, but they were quickly cut off by Corey plugging in her headphones. Tessa arched an eyebrow as she watched Corey move one of her pillows so that it was between her back and the wall before she leaned up against the support and started to do something on the laptop, which was now resting on her crossed legs.

"That bad, huh?" she asked softly. Corey ignored her as she started to mouth the song lyrics, the music coming from the headphones hooked around her ears blocking out all other noises.

Tessa sighed before she pulled out a book from the library that she had been reading and flipped it open to the page that she had last left off on as she sat down on her bed. Somehow, she had a feeling that it was going to be a long night.


Meanwhile, downstairs, a conversation was taking place that would defy the very laws of reality were anyone not involved in the incident to overhear it.

"Look you, I don't care if you're a doctor, a lawyer, or a damned cop. I want you out of my house, and take your troubles with you," James growled as he got right up in the Doctor's face, although the Time Lord did not even blink at the other man's threat. Instead, he merely stood there, with his hands stuffed nonchalantly in his pockets, before he took a step closer to the former hockey player.

"Do you honestly believe that this will all just go away?" he asked as he stared intently at James. "That if you just send me away, all will be well in your normal little world? I hate to break it to you, Jamie-boy, but when your niece looked into the stars, they looked right back at her." The Doctor's tone became more passionate as he paced back and forth in front of the man, his brown eyes practically boring right into James's own gray-blue ones as he spoke. "No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to protect her, that Quisforth will always come looking for Corey, will do his best to hurt her. And he knows just how to do that now. Because he knows her type."

Silence filled the room as James and Braden stared intently at the lanky man, their expressions grim, while Andrea looked nervously between the three men. Finally, Braden was the one to voice the question that everyone else was thinking.

"And just what is Corey's type?" he asked quietly, even though deep down inside, he already knew the answer. He had spent too many nights sitting up with a shaking, sobbing girl curled into a tiny ball at his side, her hands tightly fisted into his sleep shirt as she begged and pleaded for her parents to stay, for her brother to stay, to not leave her behind, all while trapped inside the throes of a nightmare. And he had been there that day, the first day after Corey had started taking judo, when she had softly made a promise that he knew she would rather die than break.

"Never again. Not if I can help it. Never again." The words were eerie, sounding so old, so passionate, and yet they tumbled from the mouth of a thirteen-year-old girl as she stood in front a large photograph placed on a bookshelf. Her eyes looked so lost as she gazed longingly at the frozen image before her before she gently reached up and brushed her fingers across the glass covering the image. Braden shuddered slightly as he watched the faint exchange from around the corner of the doorway to the kitchen.

This wasn't the first time that he had found Corey looking at the last picture that had been taken of her family when she should have been sleeping, and he knew that it wouldn't be the last. He waited until the girl made her way over to the couch and curled up under one of the blankets, quickly drifting off into a dreamless sleep due to exhaustion, before he made his way out of the kitchen. Easily scooping the smaller girl up into his arms, he carried her up the stairs and deposited her in the bed next to his sister's, gently pulling the covers up over her sleeping form as he tucked her in just as he had so many times before.

"She's got a hero complex, thinks that she has to save the world, and doesn't care what happens to her in the process," the Doctor stated succinctly, his tone weary as he glanced briefly over in the direction of the stairs before he returned his attention to James. "I've seen it before. She'll never just sit back and let you protect her. She'll stand up and fight, lash out at whatever's threatening what's precious to her. And if you don't let her do that, then she'll leave. All just to keep you lot safe."

Surprisingly, it was Andrea who spoke up this time. "And how can you say that when you don't even know Corey? She's just a little girl! You have no idea what she's been through, what she's had to deal with in her life! And then you just come waltzing right on in, telling us what to do to keep her safe! Tell me, have you even raised a child before, Doctor?" The dark-haired woman took a step forward and glared at him, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do you know what it's like to try and keep them fed and clothed, to tell them stories before bed, to watch them grow up and know that you can't protect them from everything that's out there? Corey may only be my niece, but you'll find that she is very much a part of this family, and I care for her just as much as my own daughter! So don't you dare come here and tell us what to do!!"

"I didn't mean it like that!" the lanky man protested indignantly as he looked at Andrea askance, a disbelieving frown on his face. "And for your information, I was a father, once. Not that that's any of your business. Humans! Always seeing something besides the point."

"You're changing the subject," James pointed out tersely as he took a step forward and crossed his arms over his chest. The Doctor looked over at him and cocked his head slightly to the side before he frowned intently.

"No I'm not, you are," he stated before he turned around and started to pace back and forth, frowning slightly. "And you, why do you say that Corey is only a child? She's old enough to make her own decisions, isn't she?"

"She's only seventeen!" Andrea protested as she glared at the Doctor.

"Why does that matter so much to you?" the Doctor asked quietly, and yet when he spoke it was in a way that made everyone in the room listen to him. "She fought against six Quisforth today –of her own free will, might I add – because she knew that they wouldn't leave her alone once they knew that she had seen them for what they really were."

"And that is exactly why she's still a child," James stated darkly as he glowered at the Doctor, his expression thunderous. "Corey is barely seventeen years old, and she's already in college. She tries to do things that adults should be taking care of, and she doesn't understand the consequences of what may happen to her as a result." The taller man straightened up and leveled an absolutely frigid look at the Time Lord, his blue eyes narrowed almost into slits. "And you, as her teacher, should have done whatever you could to keep her out of this."

"Oh, you're about twenty-four hours too late for that, Jaime-boy," the Doctor remarked flippantly as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked back slightly on his heels. "She stumbled upon one of the Quisforth that I was trying to speak to on accident last night. Bolted right out of the room like a scared rabbit as soon as she had the chance."

Braden winced slightly as his dad turned a very interesting shade of puce at the remark, and the offhanded tone that it had been delivered in. Things were about to get nasty, especially since one of the easiest ways to get his father to lose his temper was to show an apparent disregard for someone's safety.

"Why you…" James growled as he glared venomously at the Doctor, who continued to speak as though he hadn't heard the other man

"Your niece is a fantastic young woman, and I can honestly say that I'm happy to know her," he said as he leaned forward slightly and scratched Dirk's ears as the large dog leaned up against his leg, the very picture of nonchalance. "However, if she stays here she'll be in grave danger. Somehow I don't think that you pictured her ending up on the news as a recipient of a very violent murder."

There was an almost audible snap as the last shreds of James's limited patience finally shattered, and his hand snapped forward to grab the Doctor by the front of his jacket.

"How dare you!" he snarled as he dragged the other man close to his face. "I am talking to you!"

"And I'm not listening!!" the Doctor snapped back as he returned the glare with interest, the dark expression in his eyes making the former hockey player let go almost as though he had been burned as he hastily took a step back. "Now you, Mr. Matthews, are staring into a deep, dark pit of trouble if you do not let me help!"

Braden looked in between the two men, and then glanced over at his mother, who was watching the proceedings with an increasingly irritated look, and let out a weary sigh. Unlike his dad, he already knew that there was no way to make this whole fiasco just go away. He remembered all too well the words that Trey had hissed into his ear to describe just what he would do to Corey, how he would break her spirit, make her cry out in anguish for him to stop, right before she begged him to take her own life just to make the pain stop.

And all of that would only be after he slaughtered all of the people that she cared for.

"I can't believe that I'm even thinking about this. This is insane," Braden muttered under his breath before he shook his head and looked over at the Doctor. "You say that you want to help. How would you do that?"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow as he looked over at the twenty-year old speculatively before he gave the young man a wide grin as he straightened up. "Finally! Someone who asks the right questions!"

Braden just nodded as he reached up and raked his hand over his short brown hair, ignoring the shocked looks that he was receiving from both of his parents.

"You know, if I hadn't seen those things for myself, and run from them, I would have thought that you were crazy," he began hesitantly. "I mean, giant lizard things that eat people? Aliens from outer space? Seriously, how do you even begin to wrap your mind around this kind of stuff? It's… it's insane, but you're the one who knows that you're dealing with right? So, please, just please tell me what's going to happen."

The Doctor stared at Braden intently for several long moments before he gave a soft sigh, muttering something under his breath that sounded like 'humans', before he directed his attention over at James and Andrea.

"Well, at least you have more sense than those two," he pointed out, looking like he wanted to roll his eyes before he glanced over in James's direction. "Now will you lot actually listen to me this time?"

Andrea opened her mouth to protest, only to be cut off as James gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a weary look. Apparently, he had calmed down enough to realize that losing his temper wasn't going to get him anywhere. The Doctor glanced over at the two adults cautiously, and once he was satisfied that they weren't going to interrupt, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver from the depths of his coat pocket and started to fiddle around with it as he spoke.

"Quisforth are a very vengeful race," he began offhandedly, his tone somewhat distracted as he continued to fiddle about with his screwdriver. "Their survival on an alien planet depends on them being able to mesh in with the inhabitants, so if someone finds out what they are, even on accident, they'll stop at nothing to make sure that particular individual… disappears. However, Corey's involvement in this is far different than what usually occurs, because she actually fought back." The Doctor's expression turned grim as he looked up at the three people in front of him and frowned. "This Quisforth doesn't like that, at all. And, it didn't help her situation when she decided to accompany me to the science lab to help destroy the nest that was downstairs."

"There was a nest?" Braden asked incredulously as he gaped at the Doctor. "As in these things were breeding, and laying eggs?" There was a long stretch of heavy silence as everyone looked over at the Time Lord before Braden voiced what everyone else was thinking. "Please tell me that you killed them."

This time, the Doctor did roll his eyes as he let out a low huff of irritation and gave the younger man an insulted look. "What is it with humans and always killing things? Why is that always the first option?"

"But you just said that you destroyed the nest. And you're human too!" Braden retorted as he crossed his arms over his chest, his expression one of absolute belligerence as he stood stubbornly in front of the older man. The Doctor let out a long sigh as he looked upwards, his face a mask of resignation.

"No, I'm not," he said wearily as he ran a hand over his messy hair, sending some of the brown strands standing up on end. "I'm a Time Lord. There's a difference."

Braden visibly deflated at this bit of information as he looked at the Doctor apprehensively.

"But you look-" he began hesitantly, only to be quickly cut off by the other man.

"Appearances can be deceiving," the Doctor interjected as he looked at Braden, a brown eyebrow cocked almost all the way to his hairline. "Do you have any idea how common the humanoid stature is outside of this little ball of dirt? There are hundreds, no, thousands of species all throughout the universe that share the same basic bipedal form that you humans have. Some of them look just like you, only with a few differences. I'm one of those species." A thoughtful frown crossed his face as he apparently thought about something before he shook his head in an apparent dismissal of the thought and rubbed the back of his head somewhat agitatedly. "Now, will you please let me get to the point?"

The words had barely fallen from his lips when a voice rang out from the staircase, causing him to jerk slightly in surprise.

"When you leave, are you taking Corey with you?"

Everyone turned around to see Tessa standing at the foot of the stairs, her expression one of weary acceptance as she stared right at the Doctor. The Time Lord's only response was to gape at Tessa like she had asked him if he could drag the moon down to Earth, or she had sprouted another head. When no one said anything – except for the somewhat indignant wordless sputtering coming from Andrea – she pushed herself away from the banister and strode over to the Doctor.

"Well, are you?" she asked seriously as she crossed her arms over her chest, cocking an eyebrow upwards.

The Doctor seemed to recover from the unexpected question as he shifted in his spot, brown eyes focused on Tessa as he looked at her curiously.

"And what makes you ask that?"

Tessa rolled her eyes upwards before she favored the older man with a look that plainly told him that she was not nearly as stupid as he thought she was.

"I think that you know very well why I asked that," she retorted dryly. "I may be a 'stupid ape', as you once so eloquently put it, but I do know enough about what's going on to realize that there is no way that this is just going to go away." Tessa ignored the absolutely flabbergasted expression on the Doctor's face as she continued, her face set in a neutral mask. "People who get too close to you… they burn. Even if they never see you again, weird things keep happening to them, they encounter things that are not of this earth, even if only by accident, and sooner or later their luck runs out."

"How do you know that?" the Doctor whispered, a small bit of steel slipping into his voice as he stared at Tessa, his entire body stiff. She didn't look at him as she leaned up against the wall and looked out the living room window, a distant look in her eyes as she regarded the fat raindrops that were starting to fall down outside.

"I know that there's a big difference between reality and what's on TV," she finally said softly. "But here's the thing; we can't deal with whatever you followed here. I don't think that there's anyone here asides from the crazies who claim that they've been abducted who would even know where to begin, and even then they're pretty questionable."

Braden let out a short, harsh laugh as he looked over at his sister, who merely shrugged in response. The Doctor let out a soft, annoyed sigh as he observed the two siblings closely before he arched an eyebrow questioningly.

"So, you watch that show on the telly," he stated flatly, a faint hint of irritation in his voice before it dropped down to an indignant mutter. "I travel through the whole of time and space, the last of the Time Lords, and as soon as I go to another reality, I end up as a television show."

Tessa actually giggled at the man's remark before she gave the Doctor a teasing smile. "At least this isn't the world where everything tastes like shrimp."

The only response she received to that particular comment was a raised eyebrow from the Doctor as he stared at her in faint disbelief, and an exasperated groan from Braden. Her brother's frustration was further punctuated by him muttering a few choice phrases under his breath, both of which she was able to discern as 'I can't believe you just quoted that dumb show', and 'Just get on with it, will you?', as well as a few generic insults usually exchanged between siblings. Smiling enigmatically, Tessa not-so-subtly stepped on Braden's toes, eliciting a series of hissed curses as he quickly moved away from her.

Before their actions could escalate further, the Doctor got their attention by clearing his throat loudly, earning sheepish grins from both Tessa and Braden as they stopped their 'argument'.

"If you don't mind," he said pointedly. "Now, why is it that you want me to take Corey with me when I leave?"

"Because she'll be safer running around with you than she will be if she stays here," Tessa stated flatly as she let out a heavy sigh, pointedly ignoring the small noise of protest that her mother made before James cut her off with a look. "You're only one man. You can't come rushing in to save the day every time whenever something goes bad, no matter how good you are. And if Corey really did piss off this thing as badly as you say she did, well… somehow, I don't really see the fact that we're in another universe stopping this guy if he can rip through reality."

The Doctor stood there for several long moments, an indescribable expression on his face as he stared intently at Tessa. Slowly, he shifted his gaze to Braden, and then James, who seemed to have come to a decision of his own before he nodded silently in agreement. However, if the pained look on his face was anything to go by, it was definitely not an easy decision for him to make.

Finally, the Doctor spoke, his words lingering heavily in the still air as he shifted uneasily in his spot. This was definitely a new experience for him; he had never actually had someone's family ask him to take someone along with him on his travels. Usually they were the ones kicking up a fuss because he had dragged them along on one of his escapades.

"I got here on accident, through a crack in time, a hole in the universe," he said seriously. "Once I go back through, I can never come back."

Surprisingly, Tessa uttered two words that made him gape at her like she had lost her mind. "I know."

"Then you know that if she comes with me, then she can never come back, ever," the Doctor said seriously, his expression grim as he stared intently at Tessa, who looked slightly shocked at his words. "Already, this world is in very real danger from the Quisforth's actions. They punched a hole in the very fabric of reality to get here, not caring a bit about the consequences. As a result, the barriers between this reality and mine are starting to crumble; things are starting to slip through. I have to leave, and soon, otherwise everything will just mesh together and pow!" Everyone jumped as the Doctor loudly smacked his closed fist into his left hand. "Two universes will collapse, and massive chaos will ensue. Lots of people will probably die, and the earth as you know it will change dramatically. But, if I leave without finding the Quisforth and cutting off his method of entering this world, then the hole in reality will just keep getting bigger and bigger every time that he comes back through, even if I seal it up behind me."

"But, if you close the rift behind you, shouldn't it stay that way?" Braden pointed out curiously. The insulting look that he received from the Doctor indicated to the serious error in his manner of deduction.

"It's like stitching up a wound," the Time Lord told him with an exasperated sigh. "If you probe at it too soon before its healed up all the way, it will open back up and keep getting bigger and bigger every time that it's poked at."

Braden looked startled by this bit of information, while Tessa just nodded in agreement. James gave his daughter an odd look before he took a step forward and fixed the Doctor with a stern gaze.

"If you leave and the rift closes back up after you've gone, then why would you need to bring Corey along with you?" he asked softly, one of his eyebrows cocking upwards slightly in question as he crossed his heavily muscled arms over his chest. The Doctor favored the man with a weary look, one that plainly said 'do I have to spell it out for you?', before he let out a long sigh and ran a hand over his messy hair.

"Because if I leave, and the Quisforth comes back without me knowing, then he'll rip his way back into this reality. And as it is, the barriers around this world are already dangerously weak. One more good crack at it and it will probably shatter. And trust me, you don't want that."

There was dead silence in the room as everyone stared at him, and the Doctor allowed Dirk to lean back up against his leg before he started scratching behind the massive dog's ears again. Tessa was the first one to notice that her mother was visibly shaking, and for one moment she thought that it was from fear before she saw the furious gleam in the older woman's eyes. She opened her mouth to say something just as Andrea stalked across the gap that separated her from the Doctor and swung. Her open palm collided with his cheek with a resounding smack that made everyone else in the room flinch, and sent the Time Lord reeling backwards as he stared incredulously at the dark-haired woman.

"How dare you!" she snarled. "How dare you just go and tell us that if you don't take-"

"Mom!" Tessa yelped as she tried to go and restrain the irate woman, or at least keep her from slapping the Doctor again. "He's just trying to help."

The Doctor managed to sputter something in protest, his expression disbelieving, before he let out a weary sigh and shook his head, mentally coming to the decision that he probably didn't want to know. This was one of those situations where the less he knew, the happier he would be. Although, to be completely honest, he had never expected to emerge into a reality where his entire life happened to be a television show. It was rather disconcerting to know that a decent portion of the planet's population knew of him and his exploits, even if it was only as a work of fiction. He had watched a few of the episodes out of idle curiosity when he had first arrived, but quickly came to the conclusion that he didn't need to see someone do a replay of the majority of his life.

That didn't make it any less unnerving to know that this girl knew enough about him to make a judgment of his character though.

"Don't you dare defend him Tessa!" Andrea growled as she gave the Doctor a venomous glare, both of her delicate hands clenched tightly into fists. "If it hadn't been for this… this… pompous, overstuffed pinhead, we wouldn't even be having this discussion!"

The Doctor gave the woman a weary look before he let out a sigh, silently wondering why he allowed himself to get into these situations. For some strange reason, he always seemed to encounter the parents that would do anything to defend their children – biological and adopted – and these same parents always seemed to want to cause him physical harm. He was just glad that James hadn't decided to step into the fray yet. There was little doubt in his mind that the man could and would cause him some serious injury if he saw the need to do so.

When Andrea stepped forward to try and slap him again though, he decided that he'd had enough. The Doctor easily dodged her wild swing, and he promptly pinned her down with a fierce stare that made the woman falter, an uncertain expression crossing her face.

"So tell me, if you care about your niece as much as you say you do, then what's your plan?" he asked softly, the serious tone of his voice making Andrea hesitate as she looked at him warily. "Are you just going to hide her away from the world and hope that it keeps her safe? Just let her go on back to her old life of school and home, thinking that nothing's wrong? Because if you do that, she'll either end up dead, or worse than dead. Someday, something just may walk on through that door wearing the face of someone you love or trust and rip your entire family apart, all just for that one girl, all because she refused to just cower in fear like the rest of the world."

That seemed to finally get her attention, and the woman paled dramatically at his statement as she stared at him in incredulous horror. It looked like he was finally beginning to impress upon them the absolute severity of the situation.


Corey frowned slightly as she stared aimlessly at the glowing screen of her laptop, her mind wandering off into parts unknown. Tessa had disappeared downstairs a while ago, presumably to make sure that her mother didn't do something that she would regret, leaving Corey behind to entertain herself as she tried not to wonder if the Doctor would just leave once he was finished being grilled by her aunt and uncle.

The girl let out a long sigh as she powered down her computer and gently closed it, tucking the laptop under her arm before she descended from her bunk so she could plug the computer back in to the power cord still resting innocently on the desk next to Tessa's own laptop. She knew that if she kept thinking about what was going on, it would drive her absolutely nuts. From what Liz had said during one of her many frequent babbling fests over Doctor Who, the Doctor tended to just swoop in, save the day, and then disappear again. So given her luck, she'd probably never see the man again.

For some reason, that disappointed her a little bit. Sure, the Doctor was a little out there, but he was kind of funny – at least when they weren't running for their lives – and he had been a pretty good teacher. It was just a little disappointing that he would most likely just leave without saying goodbye once he was finished talking with her uncle.

"Okay, I'm sulking. I need to stop, now," Corey grumbled irritably under her breath as she shook her head, grabbing her MP3 player from its designated pocket in her backpack and plugging her headphones in before she turned it on. Sticking the device into the pocket of her jeans, she slipped the headphones back over her ears and waited for the music to start. Almost immediately, the opening chords to a song by Evans Blue started up, and she let out a weary sigh as she wandered over to the large bookcase that she shared with Tessa and pulled out the first novel of The Dresden Files before she clambered back up onto her bed. Flopping down on the thick navy comforter that covered her bed sheets, Corey flipped open her book and immersed herself within the story of Chicago's only wizard listed in the phone book.

She had been reading for a while when someone suddenly rapped on the closed bedroom door loudly, causing her to jump as she wrenched her headphones off and allowed them to hang around her neck.

"Permission to enter?" an annoyingly cheerful voice that she was quickly becoming familiar with asked, and Corey froze for a second in shock before her face split into a wide grin as she gave a short laugh. Apparently she had been wrong.

"Only if you don't fear death," she drawled sarcastically as she set her book down on her pillow and sat up from the somewhat awkward position she had been lying in. There was a snicker from the other side of the door, accompanied by a bewildered-sounding and slightly muffled "What?".

"That's our little code word," Tessa explained, the amusement in her voice obvious. "It's a joke."

"Oh."

And with that comment, the door opened and the Doctor stepped into the room, grinning widely at Corey. Tessa followed him in, and flashed her cousin a small smile as the younger girl gave her a curious look.

"No, Dad didn't take his head off too much," she said with a roll of her eyes. The Doctor cocked an eyebrow questioningly at her, and then frowned when he caught sight of the impish glint in the brunette's eyes.

"Not a word," he warned before he turned around to face Corey, who was currently giving him a flat look. "And how are you feeling?"

"Fine. What are you doing here?"

The Doctor grinned widely at her as he stuffed his hands into the pocket of his brown trench coat and slowly paced in front of the bookcase, where he started to study the covers of the various novels lining the shelves as he spoke.

"Oh, can't I just come up and check on you, make sure you're alright?" he asked innocently as he reached out and plucked out a book on Irish mythology, looking at the back cover intently. Corey arched an eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave the older man a skeptical look.

"Last time you 'just checked on me', I ended up running for my life," she told him flatly, although there was a faint hint of a smile twitching about her lips as she did so. The Doctor seemed to catch that as he replaced the book back in its spot and smiled at her. Corey rolled her eyes in response as she clambered down the ladder and placed her feet down on the wooden floor, reaching up to brush some of her hair out of her eyes as she looked up at the older man.

"Was that a smile?" the Doctor asked suddenly, and Corey gave him an odd look as she tried to keep any traces of amusement off of her face.

"No," she said almost automatically, and then realized that she had just made a big mistake as the Doctor gave her one of his maniac grins, which he seemed to be doing all too often lately.

"That was smile."

"No it wasn't."

"You smiled," he told her smugly, and Corey had to fight back the urge to let out a loud groan of aggravation as she bit down on her lower lip, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards as she gave the Time Lord a mock exasperated look.

"No I didn't," she insisted, although it didn't do her much good when the Doctor pointed at her and smiled triumphantly.

"Well you are now," he pointed out, and this time Corey did let out a groan as she covered her face with her hand, a small chuckle escaping from her mouth as she did so.

"You are such a dork," she muttered under her breath as she gave the older man an exasperated look, although she delivered the statement with a smile. The Doctor made an indignant noise in response while Tessa just chuckled, grinning widely at the scene playing out before her as she leaned up against the wall and watched in obvious interest. Once the Doctor had finished sputtering his many protests at her comment, he straightened up and gave Corey a friendly grin.

"All seriousness aside, I actually did want to talk to you," he told her before he frowned slightly. "Well, actually I wanted to ask you something."

Surprisingly, Tessa chose that moment to turn around and walk out into the hallway, leaving Corey and the Doctor standing in the room alone. The younger girl shot her cousin a confused look, her lips twisting into a slight frown, before she returned her attention to the Doctor. He glanced over at her, apparently looking for something, before he opened his mouth and spoke.

"Do you wanna come with me?" he asked suddenly, and Corey swore that the very world came to a stop as she gaped at the older man, her expression incredulous.

"What?" she asked softly, suddenly feeling lightheaded as she slowly sat down at the foot of Tessa's bed. She wasn't sure that her legs would support her as she gazed up at the Doctor in stunned disbelief. "Why?"

He gave her another one of those maniac grins that she was quickly becoming familiar with and stuffed his hands back into the pockets of his coat.

"Oh, I don't know," he drawled, but there was a slightly mischievous tone in his voice that made Corey give him an odd look. "You just seem like someone who wants to see more of the world than just where you're at. And the TARDIS is more than just a spaceship; it's a time machine too. I can show you all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past. Aliens from the future. The day the Earth died in a ball of flame. It won't be quiet, it won't be safe, and it won't be calm." The Doctor was practically vibrating with energy by this point as his grin stretched from ear to ear, his entire manner similar to that of an excited child. "But I'll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime!"

Corey blinked, not trusting her voice to work as she stared at the Doctor, before she let out a long sigh and ran a hand through her hair nervously. On one hand, it was practically everything that she had ever asked for since her family had died; action, adventure, encounters with things that people didn't think existed. But, the flip side of the equation was that she would have to leave her aunt and uncle behind. She'd have to abandon Braden and Tessa. She'd have to leave behind the people that she cared about.

"You should go."

Corey jumped slightly as she looked over at the door where Tessa was standing, a small smile on her face as she held one of Braden's khaki green military surplus duffle bags in her hands.

"Seriously, it's like he said," she told the younger girl as she tossed the sturdy canvas bag at her, smirking as Corey half-stood up and fumbled clumsily to catch it. "It'll be the trip of a lifetime. You'll get to see things that people on this planet have only dreamed of seeing. And I already went and got permission for you from the parental units. Mom and Dad said that it was okay for you to go."

"What?" she whispered incredulously, gray eyes wide as she gaped at Tessa before she returned her attention to the Doctor. "Are you serious?"

"Would I ask if I wasn't?"

Corey paused for a second as she fidgeted slightly in her seat, her thoughts racing along at what seemed like a million miles an hour. There were two sides to the equation. If she said no, she would never have a chance like this again, and she would probably regret it later on. But if she said yes…

The seventeen-year old stood up to her full height, gave the Doctor a brilliant, cocky smirk, and stuffed her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans.

"Just let me get packed."

The Doctor grinned enthusiastically as he reached over and ruffled her hair, and Corey stepped away before she immediately reached up and flattened the now-static strands, giving the older man a mock scowl as she raked her fingers through her hair.

"Sheesh, what is it with you and doing that?" she asked before she flapped her hands at him. "Now shoo. I need to get packed real quick, and then I'll be ready to go."

"And how quick is 'real quick'?" the Doctor queried as he arched an eyebrow. Corey gave him a flat look before she rolled her eyes upwards.

"Ten minutes tops," she finally said, and smirked at the shocked look that flickered across the Doctor's face at her words. Tessa just let out a soft sigh and shook her head before she glanced over at the Doctor, although it was apparent that she found her cousin's comment amusing as well. Corey was well-known for being able to be packed and ready to go somewhere in far less time than it took most people to get ready.

After a few moments of shuffling around nervously and giving Corey a thoughtful look, the Doctor finally exited the room, leaving Tessa behind to help pack. The two girls glanced over at each other, with Corey cocking a questioning eyebrow as she grabbed her backpack up off the floor and walked over to the dresser. Tessa didn't do anything for a moment before she realized that her cousin was only packing one change of clothes in the canvas bag – pretty much the equivalent of an overnight bag.

"Corey, you're going to be traveling all throughout time and space," she offered with a slight grin. The younger girl gave her a somewhat confused look and shrugged nonchalantly.

"So?"

"What may only be a day or two for us may be weeks for you," Tessa told her seriously. "Do you really want to wear the same clothes for that long? I brought out one of Braden's duffle bags for a reason."

Corey grimaced at the idea, and gave a slightly sheepish chuckle as she accepted the bag from Tessa, turning the large canvas duffle bag over in her hands thoughtfully for a few moments before she looked up at her cousin.

"Um, sorry?" she offered with a slight shrug and a wry grin. "So, how much should I pack?"

Tessa looked at her flatly for a few moments before she started to bustle around the room, pulling open drawers and removing various articles of clothing before setting them on her bed. Corey just stood there with a somewhat bewildered expression on her face as she watched her cousin move around in a determined manner, before she finally snapped out of her stunned daze and started to pack up the clothing that the older girl had picked out. All of her flannel shirts were pulled out, as well as her favorite t-shirts and non-holey jeans. Tessa scrutinized the pile of clothing thoughtfully for a second before she added in two sweaters, Corey's battered black leather hiking boots, her leather bomber jacket, a few pairs of shorts, and the damaged jean jacket that she had been wearing earlier.

"There, you should be good now," she said proudly as she gave the decent-sized stack of clothing a satisfied look. Corey arched an eyebrow as she looked over at the amount that she was now expected to pack, and opted not to say anything. Tessa got this way sometimes when she started to do her 'mother-hen' act, and it was best to just let her get on with it.

"Anything else I need to pack, oh wise one?" she asked sarcastically as she quickly set to the task of packing the folded clothes into Braden's massive duffle bag, getting up only to retrieve certain garments from the top drawer of her dresser, as well as a decent number of socks and a few sets of pajamas. "The kitchen sink, perhaps?"

Tessa glanced over at Corey and gave her a somewhat flat look. "Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of books."

The girl immediately flinched, something about that statement sending shudders of dread down her spine. Sometimes Tessa went a little overboard on things. It was starting to look like one of those times.

By the time that everything had been packed to her cousin's very precise specifications, Corey had two bags, plus her backpack. Her school textbooks were stuffed in the duffle with her clothes, along with a decent portion of the books on her half of the bookshelf. Muttering a series of rather unflattering comments under her breath about Tessa's enthusiasm in helping her pack, Corey slowly made her way down the stairs just in time to hear an angry outburst from the direction of the living room.

"What the hell?!! How the hell can they do that?!"

Recognizing the voice as Braden's, Corey immediately hurried down the stairs and into the room just in time to see her cousin stand in front of the TV, ranting up a storm as he gestured angrily at the news report that was displaying the aftermath of the lab fire. "You could tell right away that they weren't human, just by looking at the damn things!! I mean, I was there for Christ's sake! Hell, how can some dumbass mistake the corpses for being human when they had fucking three-foot long tails?!"

Corey forced herself to bite down on her hand so she wouldn't burst out laughing at the sight as she gently set down her load, not wanting to just stand around and wait until she was noticed.

"Well, that's the thing about you humans," the Doctor interjected suddenly, and Corey glanced over to see him seated comfortably in the armchair next to the couch. He noticed her standing in the doorway, and flashed her a brief grin before he returned his attention to Braden's comment. "You can always see something that's invisible, but if it's staring you right in the face – nope, can't see it!"

This time, Corey did start to snicker at the remark, and the rest of her family glanced over to look at her. Her aunt looked like she was slightly less than pleased with something, but the expression disappeared quickly as she walked over and enveloped the teenager in a warm hug.

"You stay safe," she whispered quietly as she ran a delicate hand over Corey's long hair, earning a soft sigh from the girl as she flashed Andrea a reassuring grin.

"Not a problem," she told her before their attention was drawn back to Braden and the Doctor's discussion.

"Honesty, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this is happening right now… but why can't people just see what's right in front of them?"

There was a gap of silence in the room as the Doctor let out a long sigh, running a hand over his hair reflectively. He glanced over at Braden and gave a small smile.

"There's a scientific explanation for that: You're thick!" he pointed out cheerfully. Braden stared at the Time Lord curiously for a few moments, cocking an eyebrow before he started to laugh.

"Oh thanks, I feel so much better now," he chuckled dryly. "A 900-year-old alien who sounds like he's from England thinks the entire human race is a bunch of idiots. Glad to know that someone else agrees with me."

The Doctor frowned slightly at the remark before he gave the younger man one of his trademark insane grins and shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. "Well, not all of you. It's just the vast majority of your race who wouldn't know which way was up without a map."

"Are those the same idiots who navigate via Circle K?" Corey asked innocently as she came up behind Braden and leaned up against the back of the couch, smirking widely. There was an indignant noise from Braden, and her uncle almost doubled over as he tried his hardest not to burst out laughing, especially when his son gave him an accusing glare. The Doctor shot her a questioning look, and she smirked before she pointed over in Braden's direction.

"This dork got lost one time because there were no Circle K's around for him to use as landmarks. And Tessa and I were both in the car trying to give him directions at the time too, but he wouldn't listen to us. Kept insisting that he knew where we were going," she explained in what appeared to be a resigned manner, as though she was embarrassed for her cousin. If the rather interesting shade of red her cousin was turning as he gave Corey a death glare was any indication, that was far from the truth. Before Corey could say anything else that the younger man could consider damning, Braden took that opportunity to come up behind her and give the teen the mother of all noogies.

As the Doctor watched the scene take place, only one thought came to mind as he slowly shook his head in wry exasperation. Humans.


Once Braden had finally decided to let go of Corey, the goodbyes started. The Doctor stood off to the side, watching curiously as the teenager was passed around from Andrea, James, and Braden, each one of them hugging her tightly before wishing her good luck and telling her to stay safe. Soon enough, Tessa came downstairs to say her own farewell too, furtively slipping a thick envelope into the Doctor's hand as she passed by him, which he merely glanced at before he stuck it into one of his pockets.

He didn't exactly approve of how Corey's aunt and uncle had decided to handle things, but he wasn't going to say anything about it to them. He had already asked too much of them, so it wasn't his business to tell them how to explain things to Corey when the time came. The Time Lord let out a long sigh as he ran a hand over his messy hair and shook his head. Somehow, he had a feeling that things would not end well once he told Corey what had been decided.

While Corey was still occupied with saying goodbye, Braden took the opportunity to edge over to the Doctor and stand next to him, watching his cousin intently.

"You'd better take care of her, otherwise I swear to God I'll find a way to beat the ever-living shit out of you, alternate dimension or no alternate dimension," he said suddenly, his tone soft as he continued to stare straight ahead. The Doctor glanced over at him before he nodded, leaning back against the wall behind him slightly.

"I know."

"Good."

It was at that moment that Corey was finally finished with her farewells, and she strode over towards them, an excited gleam entering her eyes as she grinned impishly at the Doctor.

"Ready to go?" he asked, and the girl nodded as she went and grabbed her bags, earning a wry look from the older man. Corey noticed the look, and promptly rolled her eyes as she shouldered her backpack.

"Hey, don't look at me," she muttered as she fidgeted slightly while adjusting her grip on the strap of the duffle bag. "If I'd had my way, I would have left with just what I put in my backpack."

"A light packer then?" the Doctor asked in a slightly teasing manner as they went through the back door and out into the yard. Corey chose not to respond as she gave him a look that plainly stated that the answer to his question was obvious, and kept her head down slightly as they hurried over to the TARDIS through the rain that was now starting to come down in sheets.

"Welcome to Wisconsin, where the weather changes at the drop of a hat," she mumbled sarcastically under her breath as she reached up to wipe the water out of her face. The Doctor shot her an amused look from over his shoulder as he pulled his key out of his pocket and unlocked the door to the TARDIS.

"You've never seen Halmania Five, have you?" he responded in an offhanded manner as he shoved the Police Box door open and made an 'after you' gesture. "The weather's never the same for more than two minutes. One second it'll be all bright and sunny out, and then it'll raining buckets the next. Or snowing."

Corey stared at him in amazement before she grinned and stepped inside the TARDIS, looking around her with blatant curiosity. She hadn't had time to really check things out earlier asides from her initial gaping after stepping inside what she had mistakenly deemed a 'phone booth'. Everything had been moving too fast, and she had been more concerned about her aunt and uncle than something that was bigger on the inside. "Sounds like fun."

The Doctor smiled at her before he bounded over to the console with an almost insane amount of enthusiasm, hands moving rapidly as he pressed down on various buttons, pulled levers, and at one point even started to rapidly turn something that looked like… a hand crank? And all the while, the greenish-colored pillar set in the middle of the console throbbed with an odd noise that sounded like the last wheezing breaths of a large animal about to die, some kind of pump moving up and down inside. Corey suddenly recalled her last experience inside the TARDIS, and paled slightly before she backed up and gripped the protrusion of one of the coral columns in a death grip.

Suddenly, she was very glad that she hadn't eaten dinner yet.

"Hold on tight," the Doctor suddenly said right before he started to use some kind of pump located on the side of the console. At first Corey thought that nothing had happened, and then the entire room decided to do a 180.

"Oh holy shit!" the girl yelped as she clung on to support strut like it was the last stable thing on the planet, gray eyes wide as she watched the Doctor somehow manage to stay by the control panel without falling. The entire ship started to shake, shuddering violently as though it was under assault by some unseen foe.

And throughout the entire process, the Doctor continued to dash about, flipping switches, pressing buttons, turning dials, pulling levers and muttering encouragements to the machine under his breath. Corey just chose to observe his actions with wide eyes, doing her level best not to distract the man. It was a widely accepted fact in her family that Braden drove like a rally car driver, but she never would have thought in a million years that she would meet someone who actually drove worse than her cousin. Further thoughts on the subject were disrupted when what sounded faintly similar to the bastard child of a church bell and a kettle drum started tolling somewhere within the room.

The Doctor looked up, said something reprovingly in the selfsame language that he had used earlier right before the lab had caught fire, and reached into a space under the console. When he pulled out what he had been looking for, Corey quickly came to the conclusion that her new friend was certifiably insane. Who in their right mind would pull out a freaking mallet while in flight on a spaceship?

Apparently the Doctor would, although it could easily be argued that he wasn't exactly in his right mind. Somehow, Corey began to get the sneaking suspicion that he hadn't been joking earlier when he had told her that he had been deemed certifiable on thirty-two planets.

"Behave!" the Doctor shouted to his ship as he grabbed the mallet and hit a panel. Corey just winced and held on for dear life as the TARDIS started to buck around like a deranged bronco that had been stung in the backside by a rabid wasp in retaliation to the blow. She knew that if she opened her mouth right now, something other than words would definitely be coming out. Having a penchant for tossing her cookies while in-flight was something that she really did not want or need to be known for, especially since she barely knew the man.

Why had she agreed to this again? Oh, yeah, she had wanted an adventure, that's why.

Suddenly, the bell stopped tolling, and the room stilled. Corey actually felt her legs give out as she sat down hard on the metal grating covering the floor of the control room, her back pressed up against the coral strut that she had been so desperately gripping earlier. The girl cautiously held up her hands and looked at them, letting out a short, humorless laugh as she realized that she was shaking visibly.

"Oh man, that was one hell of a ride," she cracked when she noticed that the Doctor was looking over at her, his expression one of faint concern. Corey offered him reassuring smile as she got to her feet and brushed off any imaginary dust that may have gotten on her in an attempt to appear nonchalant about the experience. The Doctor stared at her for just a bit longer before he was apparently satisfied that she wasn't hurt from the TARDIS's rather bumpy trip out of her reality.

"That's because we went through the Void," he explained as he stepped away from the control panel, leaving the column in the middle still pumping away as he approached Corey. The girl shot him a confused look as she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans, arching an eyebrow questioningly.

"What's the Void?" Corey asked hesitantly, bewilderment evident in her tone. The Doctor grinned at her, apparently pleased by her question, before he launched full-throttle into lecture mode.

"It's the space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other," he explained as he shifted from foot to foot in front of the teenager. "The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing."

Corey stared at the older man for a second, blinked as she attempted to process just what he had told her, and then let a little 'huh' as she accepted the statement. Upon seeing the flabbergasted expression that the Doctor was giving her at her response, she smirked widely at him.

"So, in short, this is a parallel universe?" she asked, effectively cutting off any form of shocked response from the Doctor. He shot her a somewhat offended look, apparently unhappy with the fact that she had just shut down his little 'What?' rant before it had even started, even if she had done it unintentionally.

"Well, it's not so much parallel as it is alternate, by yeah, the principle's the same," the Time Lord admitted as he ran a hand over his hair, making it look even more messed up than it already was. For some reason, he had looked somewhat nervous at the question for a moment before the expression disappeared. Corey frowned slightly, but chalked it up to the fact that they had just finished being tossed around like a couple of tennis balls in a dryer on the 'spin' cycle.

"Fun," she drawled, her tone only slightly sarcastic before she gave the Doctor a cheeky smile as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Is this a normal thing for you then? Popping in and out of realities like this?"

"Nah. I've only done it oh… two times before, and the first was completely on accident. With you, there was a pre-existing rift, so all I had to do was hop on in and, presto! You had a new history teacher."

How was it even remotely possible for someone to talk that fast without even passing out? Or at least taking a breath? Then again, Liz did it all the time, so maybe it was just because they were weird. And hyper. Corey still cringed every time Liz mentioned the words 'drinking contest' and 'Monster' in the same sentence, much less the same conversation. Although, at least Tessa'd had the decency to admit that she had been correct in her earlier predictions after they had finished peeling Liz off of the ceiling. She never wanted to see someone that hyper ever again.

An image sprang to mind, and the teen instantly grimaced. Somehow, she got the feeling that the Doctor and caffeine in any form should never ever be combined. And if that somehow did happen, then she wanted to be very very far away from the general path of destruction.

It was right about then that she realized that she was earning a very odd look from the Doctor. Apparently her spacing out and slight shudder had been noticed, and she wasn't exactly up to dealing with any potshots about her being easily distracted. So, instead of explaining her line of thought, the girl just decided to go with her usual method of changing the subject; sarcasm.

"Okaaay… you know, you could've warned me about the crashing part," Corey told the older man dryly as she crossed her arms over her chest. He gave her a look that was mixture of exasperation and amusement before he responded with a nonchalant shrug.

"Sorry. Slipped my mind."

The girl gave the Doctor an incredulous look, and her disbelief only increased when he gave her one of those maddening grins in return. She was definitely starting to get the feeling that those odd little smiles of his never meant anything good. That particular feeling only intensified as the Doctor walked back over to the control panel and placed a hand on one of the levers before he turned around slightly to look at her

"So," he began slowly, drawing the word out to make it sound like it was far longer than just two letters, "where do you want to go first?"


(Lets out massive sigh of relief and collapses on bed, groaning loudly)

Oh man, this chapter took forever for me to write. And you have no idea how hard it was for me to do either. Stuff just didn't seem to be coming together correctly, and my laptop also decided to be an idiot. (-cough- the power cord died on me – cough-) Add in the wonderfulness of school, and you get a great stinking pile of exhaustion.

Anyways, just in case you guys are wondering why Corey isn't freaking out over the fact that she's currently in another reality – with no way back to her original one – is simply because she has no clue about what she just agreed to do. She doesn't know that she can't go back home. She honestly believes that if the Doctor was able to come through, then she'll be able to go back home once she's had enough.

As for Trey, he is still very much alive, but his eggs are not. Sorry if I didn't make that one very clear in the last chapter.

Random Cheeses: Why yes, yes she is. But she's also a teenage girl who also happens to have a whole lot of problems as well. Most of the time, the cockiness is a mask to cover up just how very scared she is.

talapadme: Oh yes, the irony of the situation is almost sickening.

Lost child of Gallifrey: No, Corey's 'Professor Snape'-esque math teacher is not related to the Queen of England. He would probably have a conniption fit if he found out that he was. Sister, eh? Cool, I always wanted a sister. I only have an annoying brother. Wanna trade?