A/n. thank you to MissPadawan, Isadora, Katherine, and Geena. And also to the guest who reviewed the last chapter.

Im feeling a bit nervous about this one... Don't be shy, tell me what you think.

Chapter Seven

The Doctor was feeling quite smug as he approached the staircase that led to the Tardis. After all it wasn't every day that he outsmarted a group of vampires.

After the chase was starting to exhaust him, he ran by an empty warehouse. He managed to lure them all inside, and then locked the door behind them with the screwdriver. With no windows, and only one door, they were going to be there for quite a while.

He snapped his fingers as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and the Tardis door popped open. "Congratulate me Alice, I was victorious, and no one was hurt!" He held his arms up in triumph, as he entered, but his face fell when he saw she wasn't there to meet him.

"Alice?"

He looked around, "I know you're here Alice. Where are you hiding?" He started lifting items that were ridiculously small for her to be hiding under, but that was preferable to facing the truth.

"Alice?!" He shouted with more panic in his voice than he was hoping for. "You have to be here Alice, because if you're not..."

He didn't finish the statement, he just sank into his chair and listened. Silence. He couldn't deny it. She wasn't here, she was gone.

Alice was swimming in a sea of darkness. She could feel herself rising to the top, and fought to regain consciousness. She immediately regretted it when she felt pounding in her head that felt like a thousand sledgehammers beating on her brain at the same time.

"Shit, that hurts." She whispered. She kept her eyes closed, and took stock of the pain she had. Besides her pounding head, her ankle was still hurting and when she inhaled she winced. Probably a cracked rib, she'd had one before and recognized the feeling.

She tried to raise a hand, to her head, but found she couldn't. Confusion gave way to absolute terror when she remembered the situation she had been in before she passed out.

"Time to open your eyes Alice, even if you don't want to know." She muttered, and then finally opened her eyes.

The pain in her head skyrocketed for a moment, and she hissed and closed them again. She blinked a few times, and finally started getting a picture of her situation.

She was in some kind of abandoned building, it was dark, save for the light from the street lamps outside filtering in through the dusty windows. It was dirty, and smelled like mold and concrete. Oh, and best of all, she seemed to be tied to a chair.

"Awesome." She said, as she looked down and saw that her arms were bound in front of her, and she was lashed to the chair around her chest, and legs.

She took a chance, she knew it was probably futile, but she called out anyway. "Doctor?"

The voice came from directly behind her, "nope, guess again."

Alice closed her eyes and whispered the name with the reverence that her heart thought it deserved. "Dean."

She heard him hop down from whatever he was sitting on, and he walked around her with a flashlight in hand and pointed it at her face. "So you DO know who I am then?"

Alice squinted into the light at first, but then she just allowed her gaze to fall to the floor. "No," she whispered, "not like this."

"I'm sorry, what?". He moved closer to her, lowering the light so that she could look up at his face.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this." She said again softly, this time her eyes filled with tears.

"You weren't supposed to get caught? Is that what you're saying?"

Alice shook her head, and pulled herself together. "No, that's not what I meant."

"Why have you been following me?"

"I..." She stammered, she had no idea what to say. "I just wanted to help." She finally let a few words slip out.

He stood back about ten feet, pacing in front of her. "Why would you care, or want to help me?" He seemed to be asking himself more than her, so she opted to keep quiet.

"What are you?"

She was taken aback for a moment, "what do you mean, what am I?" She sounded more defensive then she meant to.

She utilized the light he shined at her to get a better look at her surroundings. She wasn't just tied to a chair, there was a circle of salt around her. And the chair was sitting in the middle of, what looked like a crude devils trap.

"Oh come on." She muttered. She jumped as cold water hit her face, and she glared up at him. "Really?"

He looked down at the empty bottle of holy water in his hand. "Not a demon then."

"Of course I'm not a demon, why would a demon want to help you?"

He chuckled, "it wouldn't be the first time lady."

"I already tried the borax," he motioned with his head to her right, and Alice glanced over to see the open bottle a few feet away. She couldn't help but chuckle, it was one of the bottles she had supplied him with.

"What exactly is so funny?"

"Nothing." She responded quickly. "None of this is funny, believe me."

For a moment the desperation in her eyes gave him pause. But only for a moment, "are you an angel?"

She shook her head.

"A witch then?"

She sighed.

"A succubus?"

"Of course not! I'm human Dean, just like you."

"Impossible."

"Why?"

He glared at her, he looked angry, and it frightened her. "Because you are doing something to me... And I don't know..." He trailed off, and glanced sideways to avoid her stare.

"I swear I'm not." She whispered.

"YES YOU ARE. Don't lie to me!" He yelled back at her.

His eyes were blazing, he looked rabid, and for the first time, Alice was terrified of the man she loved.

Well it took a crowd of hungry vampires, but for the first time Dean seemed to be the one following them, instead of them following him.

He of course recognized the pair immediately as he watched the vampires take off running after them. The couple from the park, and Dean was starting to think, that maybe this was also the helpful blond woman from the sheriff's station.

He needed to find out who they were and what they wanted, but they were a bit busy running for their lives at the moment. He followed behind the vampires at a safe distance, and was surprised a while later when the girl came out of the alley on her own.

He ducked behind a parked car, and watched her as she limped down the street with a terrified look on her face.

She was injured. The man that had been with her must have led the vampires away so she could escape.

For a moment he sat there, not moving a muscle. The debate in his brain was giving him a headache. "You need to get to the vampires, it's why your here in the first place. But the girl..."

He looked to his left, down the now empty alley, and to his right as the girl limped around the corner. He looked down at the stake he had been carrying, and turned toward the alley with a sigh.

He got halfway down, before he turned around and ran after the girl.

He hadn't meant to frighten her, he didn't even want her to know he was there. But he tripped over the curb, and his feet scuffled on the concrete. He saw her start to rush down the stairs, and when he ran across the empty street to follow her, he was too late.

He heard her cry out, and got to the stairs just in time to see her hit the bottom. He stopped and watched her, there was no movement, but it could have been a trick.

He cleared his throat, "hey, are you alright?"

Silence, she laid perfectly still, and for a moment, he was sure he had killed her.

He ran to her side without thinking, and for some reason felt huge relief when he saw that she was still breathing.

He rolled her over carefully, and brushed her hair back off of her face. That was when he felt it. It was a feeling that overwhelmed him, but he didn't understand it. He suddenly had a need to protect this girl, to keep her safe, to see her happy. He let his hand brush her cheek, and felt an overcoming NEED to pick her up into his arms.

He yanked his hand from her, like she was poison, and got to his feet. This was wrong, he didn't even know this woman. She was doing something to manipulate his emotions, he was sure of it.

Suddenly. He went from feeling the need to protect her, to feeling angry at her. Why would she do this to him? HOW was she doing this to him?

He had to get her somewhere quiet to question her, but in order to do that, he was going to have to carry her.

"Keep it together Dean." He whispered out loud to himself, as he re-approached her.

He lifted her carefully from the ground, holding her like a child in his arms. He took a chance, and looked down at her face. She looked small, and broken, and even more beautiful than he had realized.

He wanted to hold her, to run his hands through her hair. To kiss..."Stop." He shook his head, as if to shake her loose from his brain.

And then he turned and carried her back up the stairs, he was going to need a few things from his car.