Sorry it's been so long! Enjoy this chapter and please R&R!
The next morning, Athena awoke in the Doctor's lap.
"Good morning, sleepyhead." The Doctor did his best to suppress a laugh.
"Did you stay up all night?"
"Yeah."
"Just sitting there?"
"Yeah." Athena stared up at him, incredulously. "I looked at your tattoos. I can see most of them."
"Oh yeah?" She let out a small smile. "See any more you like?"
"I like the feather on your foot."
"Yeah. I don't like that one very much."
That was confusing. What was with this girl? "Then why not get it removed?"
"No it's beautiful, but its another 'in memory' one."
"I'm sorry." What else could he say? Athena had had the worst dealt to her.
"My friend, her stage name was Feather. I don't know her real name. We all called each other by our stage names, actually. Safety reasons, you know?" Her gaze darkened. "Our boss had her killed, she refused part of the contract. I saw it happen too. That's what the skull near my shoulder blade is for. He had someone bash her head in."
The Doctor gulped. He found himself tracing his finger along a tattoo on her arm that read 'love yourself' in cursive. "Yeah, I do need to love myself." She sighed and then smiled, trying to hold back the tears forming in her eyes. "One day maybe. And maybe one day you will too. Not me, yourself." She pushed herself off the Doctor and sat up, facing him. His eyes were expressionless. She hoped he hadn't offended him.
"One day, maybe." He let out a small sigh and stood up. He extended his hand towards Athena, "You ready to go?"
She grabbed it and pulled herself up. "To go where?"
"There's this one planet I want to take you to. I think you'll like it."
"What's it called?"
"Odelf. It's a relatively small planet in the Crostipan Galaxy. Other side of the universe. It'll take some time to get there so get dressed and take it easy. Or take it easy and get dressed, your preference."
Athena nodded. A smile started to grow on her face. The Doctor loved seeing her smile. "Can't wait! I'll get dressed then. I know you've seen it all but…"
"Right, I'll go. I'll come get you when we've landed."
Athena nodded and watched the Doctor leave. He smiled at her right before he closed the door and she returned the smile. The smile stayed on her lips even after the Doctor had shut the door. For the first time that she could remember, she was happy. Truly happy. Then she looked down at her hands, she was trembling. This wasn't what she needed right now. She reached into her backpack's hidden pocket again. She heard the TARDIS hum in disapproval. "Please don't tell." The TARDIS stopped making noises, she figured she would get away with it. She prepared the powder with her lighter and loaded up a new syringe. She tied off her vein and injected the drug into her system. She laid back on her bed until she calmed down. The TARDIS disposed the syringe for her. Athena opened up her backpack's hidden pocket again, she only had enough for one more hit. She needed to stop. She was going to stop cold turkey. She had to. If the Doctor had been able to get her off her smoking habit in a couple days then he could do the same with her heroin habit. She laid back down and let the room spin around her.
After a couple hours she felt herself return to quasi-normal. She grabbed Frankenstein off of her bookshelf, curled up on her couch, and started reading.
She was almost finished with the book when the Doctor knocked on her door. How long had it taken them? "Hold on! Tying my shoes!" She could hear the Doctor laughing on the other side of the door. "Well hurry up! The market is about to close! Got here later than I meant…"
She opened the door and smiled. "What kind of market? Like a farmer's market?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Something seemed a little off about her. Maybe she was just tired since she was still recovering. But she smelled a little bit different. Maybe it was all the junk food in her system…yeah, that was probably it.
"You flew me across the universe for a farmer's market? Well there are a few things the galley needs."
"Different foods, Athena. I flew you all the way across the universe for different foods." Athena smiled. "Humans…you're so strange." The Doctor sighed.
"Is that why you kidnap us? Entertainment?"
"You voluntarily come with me."
"I didn't." She was right, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He hadn't given her an option. He dragged her onto the TARDIS. "True…but there was no way I was going to let you live on the streets." He admitted. The sadness he was trying to hold back reached his face and Athena noticed.
"I appreciate you kidnapping me." She smiled to reassure him. "I'm glad you did. My life was shit. Still is, once you drop me back. But that's worry for another day, yeah?"
"Don't go." His eyes widened and he blushed, he didn't mean to say that out loud.
Athena blushed in response. "I don't have to. Unless you kick me out." The Doctor stared at her, not saying anything. "I know you're lonely," she started, "Lonely people know when others are lonely." He directed his gaze down towards the floor, still not responding. "I won't leave until you're sick of me." He nodded without looking at her. He felt so vulnerable, but he had a feeling she knew exactly how he felt. She rubbed his arm and his head shot back up, "Right!" He was back to his chipper self, "Odelf!"
The two of them stepped out of the TARDIS, the Doctor walked off and Athena was left, gazing at the new planet. This was her first new planet. There were cobbled stone streets and neutral colored buildings, greys and browns and tans mostly. It looked a lot like any old European city. But the grass was a teal color and the trees had black bark with purple leaves. The sky was a light red color with yellow tinted clouds and there was a warm breeze in the air that smelled slightly of roasting nuts. She looked after the Doctor, who was already walking towards the market. People surrounded him, well, creatures and only the tall ones went up to about his shoulder. They had bright, lime green skin with orange stripes and swirls and piercing blue eyes. They wore very bright colors as well, making them stick out from the buildings.
"Athena?" The Doctor had stopped making his way towards the market and turned back around. He had been talking about the planet's history and then realized that she wasn't making any snide remarks. He saw Athena, standing by the TARDIS. 'Oh I hope she's not scared…' he walked back towards her and lowered himself to her eye level, "You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just, my first new planet. It's exciting."
"Oh, right." He straightened up and smelled the air. "I think we got here in the spring. Oh, they have some lovely fruits in the spring." He offered her his hand, which she gladly took. "Nice relaxing day for you. You can't really run with that leg of your's. But a bit of stretching and exercise is good for you." She laughed. "So, Doctor, what's here at this market?"
"Oh, the typical. You have the fruits and vegetables that you find, or counterparts, that you find on most planets like apples and lettuce and carrots. But in the Crostipan Galaxy there are a hundred more different fruits and vegetables. I'm not a big veggie person but fruits, oh Athena, fruits are amazing! And here, I always come here when I'm running out. My favorite cuisine is actually Earth's so the TARDIS keeps the galley stocked with that and I'm responsible for getting stuff that isn't from Earth. So I'm at this market pretty often. I actually have a list." He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and Athena glanced at it. She didn't recognize a single word on the list, but what did she expect? "Come with me!" The Doctor pulled a canvas bag out of his pocket and Athena promptly took it from him. "You lead us and do the talking, I'll carry the goods. Nice trade off, yeah?" The Doctor winked at her and led them to a nearby stall.
The table was covered in what she guessed were different fruits and vegetables. There was something that looked like blue lemons and some orange beets maybe and then regular looking lettuce. She was very confused. The Doctor was talking to the vendor and Athena started looking around and stopped paying attention. "Open the bag." Athena snapped out of her haze and looked at the Doctor. He had a bag full of the blue looking lemons. He took one out and cut it in half with a pocket knife he pulled from his pockets. He took a bite, "come on, open the bag." Athena obliged and the Doctor laughed at her. He handed her the other half, "go on, try it." He continued to eat his half and Athena just stared at the alien fruit. "What is it?"
"A rutigal."
"That doesn't help."
"Just try it." He was trying very hard to keep from cracking up. She bit into it and it tasted like cinnamon and lemons. "That's weird, this is weird. This is a weird thing."
The Doctor's smile lessened a little bit, "you don't like it?"
"It's fine. Just weird." She smiled and took another bite. "Different. New."
The Doctor's smile widened again and he hooked his arm with her's and led them to a few more stalls. The bag was soon filled with very colorful fruits that were giving off a rather pleasing aroma.
"Just one more." The Doctor led Athena to a stall that was run by a couple. Half of the table had fruits and the other half had jewelry and trinkets. The Doctor was looking at some dark red things that looked somewhat like a cross between eggplants and pumpkins and Athena was looking at the carved trinkets. There was one that looked like a wolf, but instead it had three tails and six legs. It was a pale green stone with gold flecks and it had one red eye and one blue eye. The Doctor was just about to finalize his purchase when he saw Athena. "And that xylein figurine she's looking at. I'll take that too." The Doctor handed over the money and walked around the table to Athena. He picked up the figurine and handed it to her, "come on, let's go." Athena moved to put it back down. "No, it's for you." She smiled, "Doctor, you didn't have to."
"I know. But you liked it. You need to start your souvenir collection with me. And also…" he pulled her camera out of his pocket. "work on your photo album." He raised his eyebrow and she smiled in response. The Doctor took the bag from her and handed her the camera. She turned around and took a picture of the market stalls, the trees, the clouds in the sky, anything that she wanted to make sure she could remember forever. She even took a few of the Doctor while he was eating some of the bizarre fruits they had just bought.
"Quick, I want you to see something." The Doctor made his way back to the TARDIS with Athena following. He opened the door and set the bag down just inside, and turned back to Athena with a big smile. He took the figurine out of Athena's hand, "this is called a xylein. Six legs, pale green fur with streaks of gold running through it, like highlights almost. One red eye and one blue eye, said to be hypnotic. They're very revered here only because they're very dangerous. Like a vengeful god almost. They come through villages and towns like this and destroy everything and anything left on the streets, killing anyone too. Little towns will shut down when the pack comes through, as a safety precaution. But they're absolutely amazing to watch, if you're a safe distance enough away. So what do you say?"
"What do I say to what?"
"Want to go find the pack? This time of year, they should be close. I heard someone saying today was the last day."
Athena stared at him in disbelief. He kept on smiling and he wiggled his eyebrows. "Oh come on Athena." Athena laughed and nodded her head. The Doctor beamed and took her by the hand and started running. Athena yanked him back to her, "Bandaged up the side, remember?" The Doctor blushed a bit from embarrassment and the two of them continued at a much slower pace. "All we need to do is go back through town and on the other side there is a cliff where we can look over the Oskelic tul Labotula, which translates as the Valley of Clouds."
After about an hour of walking, and frequent breaks so Athena could rest her leg, they finally reached the overlooking cliff. Valley of Clouds was quite accurate. The floor of the valley was covered in the same yellow-tinted clouds that dotted the sky, making the teal grass look like an ocean on a foggy day, well, if the fog was yellow.
"This is so amazing." Athena sighed, out of breath from the journey. She took a couple of pictures and turned to the Doctor. "One question." He nodded. "Why was everyone speaking English? They're aliens."
He laughed, "You're the alien. They aren't speaking English. They were speaking Eastern Odelf. The TARDIS translates every language for you."
"Oh every language! I thought it was just Earth languages."
"Nope. Every language. Except Gallifreyan."
"What's Gallifreyan?"
"It's the language I speak."
"But I can understand you."
"Well I speak every language. I know English, so I'm not speaking Gallifreyan right now."
"Where are you from?"
"Gallifrey."
She stopped in her tracks and looked at him. "You sound sad."
"It's gone." He sniffed, "that's why I travel."
"I'm sorry." The Doctor exhaled sharply, "it's okay! Keep going." He smiled down at her. "There was a war. The Time Lords and the Daleks. Gallifrey was lost in the battles. It burned. Long story. I'll tell you one day."
"You're a Time Lord, yeah? That's what you said, back in London."
"Yeah…Time Lord. Last of the Time Lords."
"Very poetic."
"I guess." His face hardened and he turned away and looked back towards the valley, "Oh, Athena, look!" He pointed down into the valley. The clouds were clearing and she could see the pack running through the valley. "How many are there?" She wondered aloud.
"About three hundred, give or take." The gold in their fur caught the sun and shone back, accentuating their movements. "They'll reach the village by nightfall probably."
"Do we need to warn them?"
The Doctor smiled at her. She had a good heart. "Nah, their news channel reports about the location of the xylein pack every fifteen minutes. Sort of like you humans and the weather report."
Athena took a couple of pictures as the pack ran by.
"Wait a minute." The Doctor stared down into the valley. The pack had changed course and were going up an extremely steep slope about two hundred meters from them. "They're supposed to run to the end of the valley."
"What do you mean?"
"They're taking a short cut!" The Doctor grabbed Athena's hand and started running. Athena let out a grunt from the pain, "I'm sorry Athena, but you need to run!" They ran as fast as Athena's leg would let them.
They reached a small grove of trees. The Doctor stared back from where they came and saw a cloud of dust growing quickly. The Doctor looked around for a solution, looking extremely frazzled.
"Doctor?" The Doctor spun around and faced Athena, panic written on his face. She pointed up the tree they were standing under, "can they climb?"
The Doctor grinned, "no they can't! Brilliant! Come on, you first!" Athena struggled to climb up the tree. The Doctor pushed her up until she was a couple of branches high. The Doctor nimbly jumped up and climbed to catch up with Athena. The two of them continued climbing until they were near the top of the tree, about thirty feet above the ground.
The pack was under the tree in a matter of seconds. They looked down and laughed at how they narrowly escaped getting ripped apart. Although they stopped laughing once a few of the xylein pawed at the tree, trying to climb up. Both the Doctor and Athena held their breath.
