A/N So, done... nothing more to say at this point. Enjoy!

Chapter Seven: Escaping

Nicole unlocked the door and dragged herself into her apartment. She didn't quite realize that she was home, everything on her mind was the strange day she had just gone through. She flung her bag on the chair and walked into her bedroom, and changed into sweats and a T-shirt. No point in making an impression - she was just going to watch telly now.

Was that really it? This day, that had been so full of weird acquaintances, aliens, and stuff you only read in books and watch in Hollywood horror movies, was just supposed to end, and she would go back to her everyday life. Go back to work, wherever that might be next, and maybe shag Erron, maybe find a new boyfriend, have family-dinners with her parents and sisters, wait in the hospital room the next time her little sister, Emma's, lungs would fail her. Was that it?

Nicole would get by, of course, she always did. And who knows, it might not even have happened, this might just be a dream, and she would wake up with Erron not being there, she would be late for work, her boss would bitch about it, and she would watch Kelly wander around in front of her desk.

But she secretly hoped that it wasn't.

She turned on the telly, switched to the news, and went into her kitchen to make some tea. She would drink some of her herbal tea, and she would fall asleep on the couch, and be woken up to Mum's daily phone call, which she secretly loved.

And it would be nice to go back to normal.

She made her tea, and placed herself on her couch in front of the TV, when her phone rang. Who would call at such a time?

"Great," she muttered, rose, and went her answer it. "... hello?" she said.

"Hi honey." She heard her mother's voice on the line.

"Hey Mum," she said, looking at her watch. "Mum, it's late, you should be in bed."

"Oh, I can't sleep." Nicole could practically hear her mother's smile. "Parker got in."

Nicole gaped. "No way," she smiled. She laughed silently. "How is she, can I talk to her?"

"Sure," Isolde, Nicole's mother, said, taking the phone away from her ear, yelling to Parker. "Parker! It's Nicky!" Nicole heard scratching on the line when the phone was passed to her little sister.

"Did ya hear?" Parker asked excitedly.

"Yea', that's awesome. Congrats." Nicole smiled. "So, business-school?" she joked, as she'd done for the past year.

"Oh, shut up... " Parker said. "Anyway, I've gotta go study. See ya Sunday." The phoned was passed back to her mother. Nicole could hear a scream of excitement in the background.

"So... what about you, what's going on with you?"

Geez Mum, I don't know: Alien prisoners, rhinos in spacesuits, strange men dropping out of nowhere, and leaving as if nothing had happened. What about you?
"Nothing." Nicole answered instead, knowing her mother's reply. What about that education...

"So, Nicky, what about that education." Nicole huffed. "I know you haven't decided yet, but you aren't getting any younger."

"Mum! I'm 23!"

"And an education takes time. What about nursing, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Nicole smiled at her mother's suggestion.

"Mum, I don't want to talk about that." Nicole replied.

"All right, all right!" she said, and Nicole could also guess the next topic. Are you seeing anyone? "Are you seeing anyone?"

Nicole sighed. She rose from the couch, where she'd been sitting, and walked toward the kitchen to look through the fridge. "Yes Mum, he's in my bedroom right now, and any minute now, I'm going to go in there and make passionate love to him."

"Really?" Isolde asked, hope in her voice.

"... no!" She closed the fridge, finding nothing. She walked back to the living room, when she started hearing a strange whooshing sound. Had she left the window open?

She hurried towards the living room, not really listening to her mother's words. Entering the room, she saw something strange.

A blue box was materialising in her living room. She realized that that was the source of the whooshing, though that didn't really make it any less strange.

"... and you should be out right now meeting you-... "

"Yea, that's great Mum, I'll call you later." Nicole said, and then hung up. She stared at the wonder happening right in her apartment. After a few seconds, the sound stopped, and a door opened.

And there was the sign that today had not been a dream.

"Hi. Missed me?" the Doctor smiled, fixing his bowtie.

"Hi... " Nicole said nervously. "What's that?" she asked, pointing to the box. He looked behind himself, where it was parked.

"Ah, that's my TARDIS. She's beautiful, right?"

"Your wha'?"

"TARDIS!" he said loudly and quickly. He looked around. "Very nice room. A bit small... just a bit. Have you got any Jammie Dodgers?"

"Wha'?"

"Could you please stop asking so many questions?" he said loudly, while looking at her stuff. He found an object of curious shape and picked it up, weighting it up.

Nicole lunged out for the object and took it from the Doctor, looking sternly at him.
"I'm sorry, but there's a blue box... IN MY APARTMENT!" She looked at the TARDIS. "How does it fit in here?" she said, her voice full of amazement.

"She," he said, placing himself on her couch.

"Sorry?"

"The TARDIS is a she." He took the remote control and zapped through the channels. "You're going to have to learn that, if you want to go with me."

She did a double take. "Wha' are you talking about?"

"I mean... if you'd want to... you could, maybe, travel with me?"

"Travel?" she asked. He nodded. "Travel where... and how?" She looked at him dumbfounded. He smirked at her.

"I told you as was an alien, right? ... Well, I'm a time traveller too." She gaped wide. "I travel through time and space. Sometimes I bring a friend, maybe two." He walked towards her, and she closed her mouth. "I show them the entire universe. I only observe ... but sometimes I help. Actually, that the observing part is just something I say, it never ends like that. But there's one condition though." She nodded. "You listen to me, and don't wander of." He smirked. "So... what do you say?"

Nicole was processing all this. "Time, you say?" He nodded. "And" she gulped, "... space." He nodded again. "Ah... I'm... I've got to... yeah, sure, beautiful." She looked around her. "I've... I've got to go pack. Pack... " She kept muttering, walking into her bedroom, finding her suitcase, throwing clothes and stuff into it. "What do I pack!" she yelled, mostly to herself.

"Just some clothes will do, the TARDIS will take care of the rest," she heard the Doctor yell from the living room.

"Clothes... " she muttered, packing her favourite clothes and shoes, taking in that she was going to leave. Then something hit her. She walked towards the door, and leaned with both hands to the doorframe. "How long will I be gone?" she asked. She looked at the Doctor. He'd picked up the object again. Who gave me that anyway, she thought, not bothering to take it back again.

"Might be a while," he answered. "What is this anyway?" he asked.

"No idea," she smiled, rushing to her room. She went back to packing. She somehow managed to pack almost all of her clothes in one suitcase (might have something to do with not needing anything else). She put it down on the floor, at looked at her empty closet. She sighed, just realizing what she was about to do. She then heard the Doctor yell to her throughout the apartment:

"Eh, Nicole? You haven't got a fez in there, have you?"

A/N – and done with the first story (episode?) of our Doctor Who Series 6.5!

We'll be back... and writing more of these episode-like stories featuring Nicole James as the new companion. AND there will be guest appearances! So stay tuned!