Author's note: I really don't have much to say at the moment, so I hope y'all enjoy

Disclaimer: Neither Supernatural or Doctor Who is mine

Chapter 13: Great. Just Beautiful

When the world rematerialized around me, I was sitting on the floor in the aisle of a grocery store. Alone. Terrific.

I climbed to m feet, looking around. I was on the frozen dessert aisle, from the looks of things, though why frozen desserts would get this whole long aisle, I didn't know. They must've just had a whole bunch of ice cream and popsicles around here, I guess. At least I was in a modern time. That was nice. I opened one of the clear glass doors, stole a popsicle out of a package, popped it in my mouth, and headed off to explore the place. Time to figure out where and when I was.

I turned a corner and froze, staring. "What the shit?"

It was so… weird. There was a wall directly across from me that was covered in screens. They looked like what would happen if someone were to take a TV and make it flat and way bigger than normal, and they were all playing part of what looked like a cartoon about a fork with googly eyes and pipe-cleaner arms, but the animation was different from anything I'd ever seen. It was so much more… three dimensional.

And that wasn't the only crazy thing I saw as I started to wander slowly through that section of the store, staring around me in wide-eyed, child-like wonder. There were all these thin cases with pictures on them, and when I busted one out of its plastic wrapping to get a better look, I found this small metal disc-type thing inside. Some of the cases were labeled as a DVD, some said Blu-Ray, some said PS4, some said Digital HD, and tons of other things. Whatever any of that meant.

And what was up with all these racks of teeny little cords? There were some headphones around, and that made sense, I guess, but there were so many other things. Some of them had these teeny little circle-y things on the end, and some of them didn't have anything on them at all, just little metal things. Why have cords with nothing attached? It didn't make any sense.

For the most part, there was some really cool stuff, though. Like the teeniest speakers I'd ever seen, small enough that you could put them in your pocket, and damn, wouldn't that be nice? Obviously this was the future. But how far? I turned to leave the tech behind, telling myself that I wouldn't get so distracted from figuring out where I was anymore.

And promptly got distracted again.

"What the hell even is this?" I muttered, picking up a thin rectangular thing, just the right size for me to hold in my hand. One entire side of it was a screen, encased in… something. It seemed a little tougher than plastic, but I didn't know what else it could be. I squeezed it experimentally, curious if it would bend or break, and felt a small bumpy thing on the side press inward under my palm. With no warning, the screen lit up.

"Holy shit!" I yelped, dropping it.

"Hey, kid, be careful!" an angry voice snapped, and an anxious looking middle-aged man in a blue employee-type vest bustled up to me, picking the thing up off the floor. "These are expensive! You got the money to pay for it?" I could tell by the look on his face that he highly doubted that.

I folded my arms defensively. "Well, so-rry."

"Drop the attitude. You're lucky this didn't break, or you'd be in real trouble." The man placed the thing back on the display. "If you want a new phone, go find something a little cheaper."

"A phone?"

The man rolled his eyes and walked away, clearly absolutely done with everything about me.

I turned back to the display, looking at the little black rectangles in a whole new light. Phones? These were phones? If they were phones, then why did they have a screen? Screens didn't have jackshit to do with phones.

"See anything you like?" another voice intruded on my thoughts, this one by far more friendly. It was a woman, about twenty years older than me, and I could tell right away that she wasn't an employee. She didn't have a goofy blue vest like the first guy. But then, why was she talking to me? It automatically made me suspicious, but I didn't want her to know that.

I shrugged. "I don't know what's good. My parents haven't let me have one of my own till now."

"You have those kinds of parents, huh?" The woman came over to stand a little closer to me than I was particularly comfortable with, but at least my lie was plausible. I'd been a little worried it wouldn't make sense. "Don't worry, I'll help you."

I nodded with a smile. "Thanks."

She smiled back at me, offering her hand. "I'm Jessica, by the way."

"Dean." Jessica held onto my hand a little longer than I felt was strictly necessary, but maybe that was just me and my serious issues with the vast majority of physical contact.

"So, I would stay away from Apple, personally: they're pretentious bastards with overpriced stuff. I prefer Samsung." She led me around the bed to another display of phones. "Here's a bunch of Galaxies. You should get one of these." She grabbed one of them and placed it in my hand.

"I mean, if you say so…"

"Well, I mean, seriously. This will last so much longer than those stupid I-phones, I promise." Jessica placed her hand on the back of mine so that she was 'holding' the phone too and turned it on. She shifted so that our hips were touching. "And besides, there are subtle differences between every kind of phone, and this is the one I'm most familiar with, so I can teach you how to use it."

Man, this chick was pushy. See? Weird shit like this is what happens when you let yourself get distracted.

"Well, thanks for the advice and all, but I really oughta go…" I started to edge away, but her arm darted out and snaked around my waist, pulling me back towards her.

"No, stay." She leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I'll make it worth your while."

"Okay." I pushed her away from me and took a couple steps back. "That's enough of that. I have standards, and you're a creep. And don't think I didn't notice your wedding ring."

Jessica flushed slightly and hid her left hand behind her back.

"If you wanna go out and bang boys young enough to be your son, I suggest you ditch that."

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "If I did, would you -"

"Oh, shut up." I shook my head and walked away, dropping the phone - a Galaxy? - in a $5 bin of those little disc cases. I was sick of those things and I was sick of that lady and I was sick of this store. I needed to get out of here, go somewhere else. Anywhere else.

It took me a minute, since the place was so friggin huge, but I eventually managed to find the exit and walked out into the parking lot. The cold, dark, rainy parking lot.

"Great." I muttered, wrapping my arms around myself and cursing my decision to only wear a t-shirt. "Just beautiful."

I glanced back at the store. Walmart. Really? Shaking my head, I turned and started off down the street.

It was late. I wasn't sure how late, but everything was very empty and very quiet. I was looking for a way to get arrested, since that was how the Doctor found us before, but it was kinda hard to get arrested when there wasn't anybody around to see me break the law. I should've just robbed the Walmart, but I'd been too distracted by how uncomfortable Jessica had made me feel and how much I'd just wanted to get out. Something about that place had felt all wrong to me, and there was no way I was going back now.

It was another hour or so before I gave up and found a small tree to hide under. I was soaked to the bone and shivering so violently that it hurt, and I just couldn't keep this up. I didn't have much choice but to hide out until morning. It was still wet under the tree, but I didn't much care at this point.

Trying to conserve body heat and stop shaking, I curled up in the mud to wait for dawn.

XxXxX

"Sweetheart? Are you alright?" A hand was on my shoulder, gently trying to wake me.

It was hard - I was so damn tired, and so cold - but I managed to force my eyes open to look at whoever it was that was bothering me.

A middle-aged woman was crouched down next to me, concern painted all over her features.

"Who - who are you?" I mumbled, still shivering a bit, even though I was more numb at this point than anything.

"It's alright. I'm here to help you." the woman said soothingly, helping me sit up. "You're freezing. How long have you been out here?"

I gave her a half-hearted shrug. It wasn't like I had any idea.

"Here." The woman took off her black jacket and wrapped it around me. "Let's see if we can't get you warmed up a bit. I'm Elizabeth, by the way. What's your name?"

"D-Dean."

She smiled at me kindly. "It's nice to meet you, Dean. Can I give you a ride home? Or do you need to go to the hospital?"

I shook my head, pulling away from her slightly. No way was I getting in a car with a complete stranger when I was in this kind of condition.

"Okay." she said quickly, holding her hands up and away from me reassuringly. "It's alright. I didn't mean to scare you. Is there anyone I can call to come get you?"

I shook my head again.

"Well, sweetie, I can't just leave you out here. What do you want me to do for you?"

"Nothing. Th-thanks, but I'm okay." I shoved her jacket back towards her, focusing hard on not shivering so much.

Her hand reached out and caught my wrist, a suspicious gleam in her eyes as she looked more closely at my forearm. I winced slightly, realizing what she saw. There was a perfect bracelet of purple bruises where the gladiator had grabbed me to pull me down.

I jerked out of her grip and folded my arms protectively, hiding them from sight.

"Darling, why are you out here?" Elizabeth asked.

"No re-reason." I said defensively, now painfully aware of the blue bruise splashed across my cheekbone from when the gladiator punched me and supremely grateful my jeans hid the bruising on my knees from when his first blow had forced me to the ground.

"Sweetheart…"

She reached out to touch my cheek, trying to get a better look at the bruise there, and I quickly turned my head to the side so she couldn't get to it, unintentionally baring the side of my throat.

"Oh, my goodness." she breathed. Shit. When I was getting changed in the Tardis earlier, I'd seen that there were black, finger-shaped bruises littering my throat from the gladiator strangling me, and I could tell by the look on her face that they were the final nail in my coffin. "Who did this to you?"

"No one." I insisted, keeping my gaze on the ground.

"Somebody in your family?"

"No."

"Was it your father?"

"No!" I snapped quickly. A little too quickly for her.

"Honey, it's alright." Her voice was gentle and calming, but I could detect a steely undertone of anger in it. "I work with CPS. I can help you."

I was about to retort when an idea popped into my head. The Doctor had been able to find us before because being arrested put us on some kind of official record. Wouldn't winding up in the system have the same effect? Seemed worth a shot.

I kicked my puppy dog eyes up to eleven, looking uncertainly up at Elizabeth through my eyelashes. "Promise?"

"Yes, sweetie, I promise. Nobody's going to hurt you anymore." She offered me her hand.

I bit my lip for a second, pretending to be scared, then took it. "Okay. If you promise."

Author's afterthought: Please review, guys: it makes me happier than it really has any right to. It always makes my day.