Chapter Ten

She blinked in confusion for a moment. "Are you...asking if I would like to stay? Why would you want to travel with something like me?"

"Some-one like you, I would." the time lord leaned back. "You catch on fast. You certainly can handle yourself well. It be fun!"

"Perhaps," she considered. "Would we be in my universe or go to yours?"

"Well, not sounding vain, but there is a whole lot more in mine I am sure you'd find quite interesting."

"And could you bring me back to mine if I chose to return?" she studied his eyes. "You don't know if you can. You admitted an accident knocked you off course into mine. If you can prove we can return to mine with ease, I would consider it."

"I honestly don't know. I would have to go back and try."

"And if the try would fail, I would be cut off." she sighed. Her fate was playing its usual tricks again with her continued existence. "What little I still love and care about is here. If I did leave, there would be things I simply could not leave behind. Besides, I think I'd be a hard 'pet' for you to keep."

"I never said..."the time lord grew defensive now.

"I know you didn't or even implied it, but let us be honest here. I don't do well in sunlight. Can you expect to explore the universe only at night time? Plus, my diet. Can you assure me I would always be fed properly? You cannot and trust me, something like me being hungry can be a dangerous thing to have at your back."

"You would bite me? Feed from me?"

"If I was hungry enough," she admitted sadly. Gently she took the Doctor's hand in hers and smelled it. "Old attics, secret treasures. You smell like I think the stars would if they could be smelled." she sighs softly. "I would be in fear once I started, that I could not stop. In your case, you would regenerate I guess. But still."

"But still," he smiled.

"Also, consider this." Zodiac began. "Imagine someone who has lived all their life on hamburger. Nothing special, just hamburger. Then one day someone puts the finest prime rib in front of them. Cooked to perfection. They eat and realize what they have been missing, only eventually they have to return to just hamburger to survive. That's the way your blood smells to me, Doctor, and I would become addicted very fast."

He turned his hand and offered it to her to shake."I am glad to have met you, Zodiac. Is nice to me someone who defies the stereotypes of what they are."

"Then this is good bye," she smiled sadly. Every fiber of her was screaming to go with him, but she knew she could not.

"Not exactly. Let me see your phone."

"Nooo." she clutched her purse tightly. "Please don't erase my pictures."

"I won't erase anything. Promise, now let me see it."

Reluctantly, she handed the iPhone to the Doctor. He opened the back and took the strange pen shaped device she saw before and began to make it buzz. He worked about for a few moments and then handed it back to her. "There you go. When you get back, cancel your service. You won't need it anymore. This phone will now work anywhere, and I do mean anywhere now." Zodiac looked it over. It didn't seem any different to her. "Check your saved contacts."

She did and found an new entry titled 'The Doctor'.

"So, just call you if I miss you or something?" she giggled.

"Well, that too. Seriously, if you see any signs of our cyber friends or anything else that does not look like it belongs here? Hit the button." he instructed her.

"That I can do." she slipped the phone into her purse and then stroked to control center gently. "And goodbye for now to you as well."

"Hold on. You said earlier the TARDIS sings. You actually talk to it?"

"Yes she does. She sings for you. I am not sure we actually talk. I think it is trying to give me impressions I can actually understand."

"Then why can't I hear it?" In the past, the time lord had gotten vague impressions in his mind, but nothing as solid as a song or a voice.

"Perhaps you just don't know how to listen?" Zodiac placed her hand against the control panel and offered her other to the Doctor. "Will you trust me in your mind, Doctor?"

The Doctor eyed the girl for a moment before putting his hand in hers. "Just open your mind to mine," she sighed as a uplift of sounds began to creep into the time lord's thoughts. He stood stunned as the rising and falling tones began to take on a type of melody.

"I never..." he tried to speak. He turned to Zodiac, who stood with her eyes closed as red tinged tears crept down her cheeks.

"Imagine a symphony, but only a percentage of the orchestra is in place. They play their parts, but the tune is incomplete, yet you can tell from what you hear the music in its entirety would be a thing of beauty." her thoughts sighed. "This is all I can perceive of her 'song' and it still moves me."

"It's beautiful," he admitted. Eventually he let go of her hand and stood there as if shaken to the core. "I never knew."

"That is what attracted me to her when I found her in the alley. The TARDIS gives off a unique aura like a living thing does. I had to see and when her 'thoughts' first touched mine I passed out and that's how you found me."

"Well, you made a friend. When I thought you was elsewhere in the TARDIS and tried to leave, she refused to move." he smiled. "You sure you don't want to come along?"

"You find out if you can bring me back to my Earth first and then I will consider it." she gathered her things and tucked Ginny under her arm.

"It was lovely having you aboard." The Doctor rubbed behind the Ginny's ears, drawing a deep purring sound from the black cat.

"It was a pleasure and a blessing," the mystic raised up on her toes and put a soft kiss to his cheek. "Be careful out there."

"I do my best." The Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS, allowing her to step back out into the night mists. Zodiac took several steps and turned in time to see the doors close. A moment later, a sound she become quite familiar with began as the TARDIS powered up and began to fade from view. A wooshing sound she could never confuse with anything else again.

"Goddess keep him safe," she smiled before letting Ginny back down to the ground. "Now dear one, should we tell anyone about all of this?"

The cat meowed as if saying 'Are you crazy?' as she rubbed around the girl's ankles.

"Hmm, you are right, of course." Most in Harper Rock of the night crowd already thought she was crazy. Add to that a claim she traveled time and space and helped save the world as well? They would have her committed to Winterbrook Asylum in a heartbeat. "As always, our little secret, my love." she smiled down at her familiar before the pair walked off into the mist and began the trek to home.