I had this Christmas chapter all planned out, and I had thought that by the time of Christmas I would have the parts leading up to it already written, but I'm a waste when it comes to managing time and I didn't write to that part yet. Not even close. So the Christmas chapter will have to come later in the year when it's not even Christmas! (oh the horror!) Anyway... this chapter is a bit longer than the others, I was thinking about splitting it into two chapters but decided not to. So here you guys go! The next chapter!

disclaimer: The Doctor and other characters are not mine. They belong to the BBC and Steven Moffat, the man who fed off of all our tears at the end of the Christmas Special Sunday. And if our tears do keep him youthful, well, at the rate he's going, he is going to be forever young. :P


The two didn't wait for me, not that I had expected them to. According to Rory, Amelia is very Scottish, which means she's got a short temper and hardly any patience. She can wait all night for a fake man in a funny blue box but there's no way she'd wait an extra minute for anyone or anything else. Rory blushed a lot after he'd told me that, said that he didn't want me to tell her what he'd said or she'd hit him. The truth was that she probably would have.

It didn't bother me too much. They'd given me directions to the school, and as long as I could recognize the landmarks along the way I'd find it just fine. It was boring walking alone, but I had told them to go on without me.

While taking the path that Amelia had said to take I couldn't help but think about Madame Kovarian. Before I had regenerated I thought that she was the only good person I'd ever known. Dr. Renfrew was always crazy, so I couldn't count on him to understand a thing, but for a while I had been convinced that Kovarian really understood me at times.

Now was different. I could remember more and more of her visits and she always seemed so focused on teaching me how to defend myself from the 'most evil man in the universe'. I never thought that she was any fun, but she was beginning to push over to boring. I didn't really want to learn these things, even if they did seem to help when hiding from stupid Mr. Abernathy. She'd also taken my watch, something that made me like her even less then what I used to.

That's what I was really worried about. What did she want with the watch? Could she read the symbols on it? I was almost positive that they were letters or a language of some sort, and it seemed like Madame Kovarian knew. If that were true, then was she going to teach me how to read those letters? Or was there something else about the watch that made it so important that she had to teach it to me. I could almost guarantee that it had something to do with my "training" whether I was willing to participate or not.

I was so lost in thought on the way that I almost didn't recognize the crazy man in a bow tie leaning up against one of the houses. I started to walk right past him but then stopped and turned around. He was grinning.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

He held out his hands like he was shocked by my question. "What? A simple hello couldn't work. You're so nosy you know?"

I smiled. "Hello...what are you doing here?"

For a split second his grin faded, but he quickly recovered. I don't think he thought I saw. He pointed back behind him where I saw a blue box with Police Public Call Box written at the top. I took a step towards it as he continued on. "My...the old girl brought me here. Funny how she'll do that."

"This is like the space ship the Doctor has!" I noted, coming up to its sides and running a finger against the door. "Same color and everything!" I looked back at him, eyebrows raised. Was this man the Doctor? He had mentioned bringing me back to my parents, how else could he know them if he wasn't?

The mans face momentarily filled with panic before something seemed to cross his mind. "Doctor? Who's this Doctor fellow? Never heard of him before." He held out a hand and looked down at me expectantly. I grasped his hand and was suddenly being moved all about by his energetic handshake. "I'm John Smith, definitely not some Doctor. I wouldn't even let a doctor get near my ship. Now, where did you say we are?

I laughed and turned to open the doors. "I didn't John. Is there a library in here?"

"Of course there's a ... wait! No, no, no. Nobody opens these doors but me. No one can!" he placed a protective hand against the doors, blocking my entrance.

I crossed my arms. "That's rubbish! What do you mean? No one can come in? Or you don't let them in?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but then decided against that and moved his hand out of the way. "Just hold on a moment. I've got the key..."

I pulled on one of the doors and it opened without any difficulties. John was back to staring open mouthed outside. "What?" I asked.

"How did you do that?" he asked. "She always needs a key to get in. It's the rules, rule number..."

"the instructions are on the door aren't they?" I smiled at his bewildered look. "I just followed the instructions."

He once again seemed speechless but then let a half smile creep across his face. "Now I see a little bit why she's nice to you." he said skipping into the bigger-on-the-inside blue box.

"Whoa," I managed, spinning around in circles so that I might be able to see everything at once.

"I know!" he hopped up to the middle of the ship where the controls seemed to be. "So, Melody, where'd you like to go?"

I sat down on a chair with some bounce in it by the console. "Go? What do you mean go?"

"This is a time machine!" he raised his hands up high and twisted around to give proof. "We can go anywhere!"

"Just like the Doctor!" I jumped up and stood next to him.

"yeah, just like him!" he laughed "Although I'm much more cooler-er."

"Cooler-er isn't a word." I stood on my tiptoes to see all the different controls. They looked a bit like a child's play thing if you asked me, but the box was so big on the inside that they had to actually work somehow. "What does this one do?" I asked pulling a lever towards me.

"Ahhh, let's leave the driving to me for now. Okay?" he quickly put the lever back in it's place and then smiled down at me. "Oh, I know the perfect planet. Tons of people... fish people really, visit it all the time!"

"Fish people?" I sat back down and watched as he began to run around the console pulling random levers and pushing big red buttons. "Fish people." he affirmed pushing one last button and then the space ship shook and we were traveling through time and space. It was the greatest feeling in the world.


As John's ship tumbled through space it became clear to me that I had let Amelia down once again. She only ever wanted for me to go to school with her so that she could prove to everyone that she wasn't crazy. I wasn't even going to see her ever again to tell her how sorry I was because John's driving was going to kill me.

"How do you steer this thing?" I tried to reach the console but John jumped in my way, letting go of the levers and things that he was pulling. "That'll stop us from reaching our destination. Don't push that one!"

My eyes widened. "but we want to stop don't we? You're going to kill us if we don't!"

He turned to stare at me, his hair bouncing as the ship seemed to smash around. "Who said I was going to kill anything?"

"We're crashing!" I tried reaching for the button he said wold stop it all again but he picked me up and sat me on the chair. The ship made another lurch and he went tumbling to the side.

"We aren't crashing!" he exclaimed "I know my TARDIS and this is not crashing!"

I glared for a moment when John said the word TARDIS. Something about the word just struck a nerve to me, it reminded me of something that Madame Kovarian had told me once, but I couldn't remember what it was she'd said. I guess the monsters I sometimes have nightmares about were there when it happened.

He seemed to notice my glare and gulped as the ship, TARDIS I guess, finally came to a calm stop. "That's amazing." He finally said, eyes flitting around a bit before resting back on me. "You're only eight and already can tell when I'm lying." he popped me on the nose and then skipped to the doors, pulling me behind by the hand. "I thought it'd taken you years to figure out. Wibbly wobbly time lines and all, but you're just clever from the start aren't you?"

"What are you talking about?" I pulled my hand away so that I could cross my arms and look threatening. He laughed. "The truth is, it takes six people, Time Lords really, to fly the TARDIS. She's always banging about because I've got to do everything, so technically she is crashing a bit every time."

"I bet I could fly her." I grinned, waiting to see how much he'd overreact at that statement.

"Maybe when you're older." he patted me on the head and looked down at me. "Are you ready for this planet?"

"The fish people planet." I giggled.

"yeah, fish people." He opened the doors and looked at me with a goofy grin on his face, waiting for my reaction.

"Um..." I looked to him and back to the 'planet' but was definitely not convinced that we had traveled through space to get here. There was grass on the ground and trees randomly placed here and there. Nothing too special about that, it looked like any other place you could visit on earth. I was not impressed. "Where are?"

He was still grinning from ear to ear when he finally answered. "Well, names don't matter. Especially when they're long boring ones like this planet! Tourist call it Planet Five!"

I looked back out again, still trying to pick things that would make the area any different from a regular place. "Planet Five? Where are the fish people?"

John peered outside of the doors and then glanced down at me. "Hmm, I don't know. Want to take a look?"

I sighed but nodded. He motioned for me to walk out first. After giving him one last look that showed how disappointed I was, I took a step out of the blue space ship.

What came as a shock was that the moment I stepped out of the TARDIS I couldn't get my feet on the ground. I began floating up higher and higher until John grabbed my ankle and pulled me down to his level. "does this place have zero gravity?" I asked, looking around amazed now.

"Yeah!" he did a quick somersault in the air to show off. "that's why fish people love it. No air, which they don't need, they've got those tank...things, and zero gravity! It's easier than swimming!"

I laughed as I "swam" around the TARDIS. "This is so cool!" I shouted.

"I know!" he called back.

When John decided that it was time to go back to the time machine I sat on his chair again, wiped out. "That was so much fun!" I said beaming. "There's no way you could be the Doctor now!" I placed my hands over my mouth in a hurry.

John stopped whatever he was doing and kneeled down in front of me. "Melody, what... what do you mean by that?"

I let my hand slide and shook my head. "Just that the Doctor hurts everyone he meets eventually somehow. Madame Kovarian tells me that my mom is a perfect example, she waited thirteen years for him to return, and when he did, she had me..." I swallowed then, "I thought today when I saw the TARDIS that you were the Doctor, but I think that you're a lot nicer than the Doctor ever could be. That's all." Then I jumped away from the seat, unable to stand the way John seemed to keep staring off into the distance . He seemed so sad and I didn't like him like that, he wasn't funny when he was sad. "Will you let me drive her now? I know I can!" I headed towards the console, wishing that I hadn't let those things about the Doctor stumble out of my mouth.


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