Chapter 4: Mark

Randi was tired. She hadn't been getting tired all week, so she'd foolishly assumed that she no longer needed sleep. She was wrong. She now need far less sleep, but she still needed sleep all the same, and after one straight week of no sleep at all she felt like she was about to collapse. She could still do schoolwork. She wasn't even sure that her fatigue was slowing her down, but she was in a rubbish mood. Randi was going over an on-demand essay when she looked up, as if about to daydream. To her surprise, she saw a boy she hadn't seen before. She wasn't sure if he was new, or she had simply failed to notice him, but it seemed very difficult not to. His hair was the perfect shade of red, and his eyes were actually green. (Randi had never seen a ginger in real life with green eyes). His face was flawless in every other respect. She realized with some awkwardness that she was feeling an extraordinary attraction to a boy. But it was equally awkward to think about Harmony. She remembered harmony with a pang of... awkwardness? guilt? She still felt something for her, but Harmony probably wasn't attracted to girls anyway.

He seemed to notice her looking at him.

"Er, hello. I'm Mark."

"Hello..." The word came out of her mouth with a painfully obvious level of dreaminess. "I'm er... I'm Randi."

"Right..." he said cheerfully, and turned back to face the front of the class.

Mark's voice did nothing to allay Randi's attraction to him. His voice was smooth, like silk. Even his accent was attractive. His physical manner was endlessly charismatic. A very small voice, somewhere in the back of Randi's brain (it was saying something that the voice was so small, considering how large her brain was now, said But does he have a brain? Or personality? Something beyond basic charisma? The rest of the school day felt almost like the old days, before Randi had regenerated, because once again, Randi had trouble concentrating. Now however, it was far worse than before. If not for her new found extraordinary ability to multitask, Randi would probably fail every class if she continued to day dream about Mark every second of the day. When she got home, she tried her hardest to avoid letting her crush show on her face. She also tried her best to prevent her mind from being read. She wasn't sure that was truly possible, occlumency was only something she'd read in a Harry Potter book, so she could probably only hope that her father would respect her right to privacy. When she walked in the door to her house, her father took one look at her, and immediately looked vaguely annoyed. Randi's heart sank. "Randi if you're not too busy, could you meet us in the living room?" He had hardly emphasized the word "busy" but the fact that he had stung. "Right" she muttered, avoiding his eyes.

In the living room was the Doctor, Jenny's father, her father, River Song, Jenny, Harmony, and Dean. Jenny's father looked at Randi and raised one eyebrow. The Doctor also looked at Randi, but his expression did not change. "We have tracked down one of the Master's historical identity and location." the Doctor announced.

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"King Louis XIV of France." he explained.

"The boyfriend of that woman you used to date?" River asked, amused.

"No, that was King Louis XV, and those weren't dates." Randi's father replied in irritation.

Randi found this somewhat amusing, but it didn't do much to allay her anxiety. River grinned at her, but gave no sign of detecting that something might be bothering Randi. Then River turned her attention back to the Doctor.

"So our goal is to travel to that time period and..."

"Kill him?" Randi offered, trying to be helpful. It was only after the words had escaped her mouth that she remembered that Dean was in the room. She felt horrified, but Dean displayed no reaction to her words.

"If we have to." The Doctor replied.

"Allonsy." Randi's father announced.

Randi followed the rest of the group to the TARDIS. When they arrived at their destination, they all donned period costumes (with the exception of the Doctor) and walked out of the TARDIS.

"This is the Palace of Versailles." The Doctor hissed. "Act like you belong here. We are disguised as nobles."

Randi looked around. Not many nobles actually looked comfortable being there, so Randi didn't make much effort to keep up a pretense. Luckily the pretense of Randi's friends wasn't that convincing, but the adults looked confident. As they walked Randi felt a hand land firmly on her shoulder. She nearly jumped.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked.

Randi was startled by the question. "Yeah..." she replied.

"It's a lot to get used to isn't it..."

"Yeah." Randi started to feel herself fighting back tears. How would he know. He'd lived like this all his life.

"Well... if you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

Randi doubted that he would always be available, but she simply nodded.