Author's note: Updated 07/09/15

Episode Six: Abandoned

Chapter One

Bella stopped in her tracks, her arm still reaching out to the door handle that was now dematerialising right in front of her. A great wind pushed her backward a few steps before the TARDIS disappeared completely and no sound of the klaxon could be heard.

She felt a tear fall down her cheek as she realised what the Doctor had done to her, feeling a devastation that she had never felt before.

He'd left her behind.

The expression that Bella had seen on the Doctor's face before he disappeared into the TARDIS made her realise that this wasn't a mistake that he wouldn't be back in a moments time apologising profusely because he had thought that Bella had entered the TARDIS with Jack. The Doctor had left her on her own on this new, strange planet with absolutely nothing.

Bella felt her grandfather stand behind her and place his hand on her shoulder as she looked down, allowing herself to let out an unwilling sob.

- O -

Bella rolled over onto her left side, keeping her eyes shut. She had, yet again, dreamt of the day that the man that she had come to think of as her best friend had abandoned her on Planet Nealon. She sighed deeply. That had been a year ago today. She opened her eyes and looked around her little, one-roomed hut. So much had happened in that time.

Bella felt pretty proud of herself, seeing as she had practically built the whole hut on her own. The only things she did not make were the table, the two chairs and her bed, everything else was her own craftsmanship, which thankfully had improved with each thing that she had built.

Bella sat up in her bed and leant against the wall, deep in thought. She couldn't quite believe that she'd been here a whole year. Three hundred and sixty-five days. She wondered what the Doctor had done in all that time; wondered who he'd saved, where he'd gone and what he'd seen. She wondered if Captain Jack was with him still or if the Doctor had found someone else to travel with. She always tried not to think of that last thought, because no matter what angle she looked at it from, it still hurt like hell.

She thought back to the day it had happened and gave a slight grimace. She should have seen it coming. Since he had found out what Bella really was, the Doctor had gone uncharacteristically quiet. Apart from defending the Time Lords, he didn't really say anything; he wasn't normally one to pass up a free tour either, opting instead to go and wait moodily by the TARDIS. At the time she had thought he had done that because of what her grandfather had had said about the Time Lords, which she wouldn't have blamed him had it been the case. She wondered if the Doctor had left her here because of the fact that the Time Lords and the Nealonians never got along or because it was the opportune moment to get rid of her. With that thought, she wondered painfully if Jack had known that the Doctor was going to do it.

Bella shook her head as she got out of bed and opened the curtains beside her bed, directly opposite the front door. Jack had not had anything to do with it, she told herself firmly, looking out across the empty fields behind her hut. She turned around and picked up her white cloth shirt before she pulled off her night dress, her thoughts drifting deep into her mind, where she rarely allowed herself to look.

Her grandfather had sat her down a few days after Bella had arrived, to explain to her what it meant to be a Nealonian; what her strengths and weaknesses were, and boy did they have a weakness. Poisons were super bad. Like more than they already were normally. From their conversation, Bella basically assumed that she wouldn't be able to over indulge in anything, just on the off chance that her body wouldn't be able to handle it. Manuel had chuckled, saying that too much chocolate shouldn't kill her, but he did remind her not to eat anything that she suspected to be poison. Bella had assured him that poisonous plants and food were things that had never been on the menu, but she would be careful not to pick any wild fruits. He had told her that the Nealonians were a race that grew to very impressive ages, something of which Bella had already gathered considering they remembered the Time Lords, but her grandfather was adamant that Bella too would inherit the ability to age at a slow rate. This felt strange for Bella, having grown up on Earth expecting to get eighty years if she was lucky, but she tried to not think that far ahead in the future.

Still, the year hadn't gone by slowly, and there certainly hadn't been any dull moments. Her grandfather had wasted no time in trying to get her fully established as an active member in the community. What he couldn't have possibly known was how the group of Nealonian Elders would have reacted to her, and even Bella had been surprised. For some reason unbeknownst to her at the time, the Elders had basically rejected her due to the fact that she was only half Nealonian. It didn't discourage Bella's grandfather for long; he had gotten Bella involved in all manner of things to try and convince the Elders and the rest of the small planet's population that Bella was rightfully one of them, despite having a human father. There had been weeks of Bella having to endure rigorous testing to prove that her anatomy and physiology was not that different to the Nealonians, and that she could indeed heal as they could. But that hadn't been enough, and Bella tried to convince her grandfather to let it go, that they would never accept her, but he was adamant that she would sit on the thrown beside him. This was something which her grandfather was still pushing for, and Bella could feel the hate and contempt from all the Elders, and therefore most of those who lived in the capital.

She did have one small hope that she clung onto; the fact that maybe, just maybe, it had all been a misunderstanding, that maybe the Doctor had thought that she had entered the TARDIS when Jack had, that maybe something was wrong the TARDIS and they couldn't land again. She could never stop hoping, it was the only thing that was keeping her going.

After pulling on her long pants, she sat down on her bed and put on her black Converse All-Stars. She refused to wear a dress like all the other women, but she had reached an agreement to wear what she was now with her grandfather as long as she could keep wearing her Converses. She even kept her phone on her at all times, regardless of the fact that the battery had gone flat after only a single day, but she couldn't bring herself to part with it.

Bella moved to the table as she pulled on a leather vest and tied it up, making her feel like some kind of pirate and poured the last of the water into a glass and cut herself a piece of fresh bread and took a bite. She had no idea what she was going to do for the day apart from avoiding her grandfather, who had lately taken to insisting that she should be crowned at a far more frequent rate.

She took one last bite of the bread and picked up the water jug and carried it out into the warm morning sunlight, heading towards the centre of the capital (Bella's hut being right on the very edge, near a deep forest) towards the main water well. The people she passed glanced at her, but generally paid no attention to her, which she didn't mind overly much.

As she sat the stone jug on the ground beside the well and grabbed the rope to pull the bucket up, she glanced upwards at the sky, forgetting as usual that it was a soft green, not blue.

"Hello,"

Bella gave a start and looked to her left. "Samuel," she said stiffly, putting more effort into pulling the rope now that a normal height man who (had he of been human) would have been in his mid-to-late twenties, was standing beside her, a hungry expression on her face. He had been the guard that Bella had first met with the Doctor and Jack. "Aren't you meant to be following my grandfather around?"

"I have the day off," he smiled, speaking in English so that Bella could understand him, seeing as the TARDIS was no longer here to translate for her. Her grandfather had begun to teach her the native language, but there was no way, even with her accelerated learning rate that she was going to master an entire language in a year.

Great, she said to herself. "Well, don't you have to go shoot things?" she asked him darkly as she reached out and grabbed the bucket and poured water into her jug.

"Don't you have sword practice to go to?" he asked her with a smirk.

"No actually," she told him stiffly. "I perfected that months ago."

Samuel chuckled, reminding Bella of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, thinking that that would have to be the best description for him.

"I thought I could spend the day with you." He said, watching her closely.

"I don't think so," Bella said, throwing the bucket noisily back down the well. "I would rather spend the entire day sorting through a dung pile for a needle."

Samuel frowned as Bella picked up her jug and walked away. He quickly caught up to her smiling.

"You shouldn't play hard to get," he grinned down at her.

She stopped and turned to him, being reminded painfully of her best friend's brother who had a bit of a soft spot for her.

"Look, I am not playing anything. I am not interested in you in the slightest and if I am completely honest with you, there is nothing even remotely good about you. You are sleazy, creepy and frankly I cannot stand you, so please, just leave me alone!"

Bella left him standing with his face contorted with rage. She felt better that she had told him how she felt, so now he might finally get the hint and back off. She re-entered her hut and put the water jug on the table before moving over to the fireplace to get the wood basket. She turned around and let out a startled cry.

Samuel had obviously followed her into her hut for he now stood in front of her, glaring furiously.

"I didn't say you could come in here," Bella managed to say before glancing down to her right where she saw a metal fire poker.

"You need to be very careful about what you say to me, Bella Lumic." He said dangerously as he moved forward and pushed her into the wall behind her (which was really the cold fireplace), grabbing hold of her arms. "You're lucky you grandfather likes you so much, otherwise the rest of us, especially Elder Fode, might've taken matters into our own hands, filthy half-breed!" he spat.

Bella scowled as she struggled to free herself.

"Now, you are going to do everything I want you too –"

Bella kicked him in the groin and he let her go and doubled over in pain. He made to grab her again but she clenched her fist and punched him on the side of his face. As Samuel fell to the ground, Bella grabbed her right hand and gave a cry of pain; it felt like she had broken some of the bones in her hand.

Still grasping her hand as Bella could feel the broken bones starting to join painfully back together, she left the hut and turned left, heading towards the forest and not looking back.