Disclaimer: "OMG, lyk did yoo HERE wat happend too Doktor Hoo?" - "Erm... no." - "Azure lyk totaly ownz it now!1!!1" - "...No I don't." - "... O.o"
A/N: Yay! Holidays! Have a celebratory chapter.
Cardiff! Yay...
So, just one day later, and just less than a month since I was "lost" in this time, there I was, standing outside 13 Bannerman Road, with Sarah Jane hugging me (reluctant to let go) and Luke, Maria and Clyde wishing me luck and saying goodbye. It was hard to believe that when Sarah Jane met me next, I'd be six, maybe seven years old, and Maria, Luke and Clyde would have gone off to university...
"But why do you have to go now?" Maria asked yet again. "I mean, you've got to wait until July either way!"
"But I've got to go now." I insisted. "It's just something I need to do. Don't worry about it!"
Truthfully, there were a number of reasons I didn't want to stay with Sarah Jane.
First, there was the fact that, as fun as "investigative journalism" sounds, the defending-the-Earth side of the job doesn't come around too often, and I just can't stand the boredom.
Second was Torchwood; if you know where to look (and I was pretty good with computers) you can find out anything you need to know, and this Torchwood group definitely sounded interesting. If anyone knew where the Doctor was, they were sure to, since - from what I'd worked out - "What's alien is theirs" or something. They seem to think they're experts on aliens. Ha! Wait 'til they meet me. Then again, I don't want to get dissected. Maybe I should just study them from a distance...
And third, well, it wasn't that I didn't like Luke and Maria, but I'd only really met them twice, and they were both much more grown up. Seeing them so young and... well, a bit naive and thick, to be honest, was pretty hard. Plus, I didn't want to mess with history too much.
"One thing," I began uneasily, switching my single small drawstring bag (bigger on the inside, of course) from hand to hand with nervousness and excitement. "You're going to meet me - the younger me - a few more times yet." I told Sarah Jane. "You can't tell me any of this. Ever. I can never know."
Sarah Jane nodded. "Of course." I smiled, and turned around to the taxi.
"Wait, what about us?" Maria asked, tapping my arm. "Don't we meet you again?"
I hitched my bag of possessions up onto my shoulder and turned back to see her. "Not a lot." I said carefully, and decided to leave it at that.
So we all said our goodbyes again, and I stepped nervously into the taxi, waving happily to Sarah Jane, Luke and Maria as they disappeared around the corner.
- - - - - - -
Roughly three hours later, I stepped out of the taxi, paid the driver (a very sizable fee, even through the money was from the Doctor's much more sizable stash on-board the TARDIS) then looked around at my surroundings and sighed happily. After three hours of being sat in that stuffy, boiling taxi, with a driver who - although pleasant to talk to - quite obviously needed a shower, I was relieved just to be able to breathe again.
I had asked to be driven to the Millennium centre, since that's the only thing I can remember from our numerous refueling visits. Waving distantly to the taxi driver as he drove off, I turned around several times, taking in the dazzling sights of... Cardiff.
And then I stopped. And I looked around at where I was. And I realised that, even though Sarah Jane had made me wait two whole days whilst she prepared me - and herself - for my trip, with when to start looking for them, how to handle it, where I could stay, what to do for help, and all that sort of stuff, she had failed to mention what I was supposed to do.
23rd of July, I had said. The right Doctor would be here on the 23rd of July. So all I had to do was check into the hotel Sarah Jane had booked me a room in, maybe go sightseeing, explore for a bit, find out a bit about Torchwood, then find him, right? Yeah, totally. 'Doctor, Rose, TARDIS: here I come!' In July!
...
It was April.
A/N: Sorry about the short chapter. Review?