Don't Blink.

Who knew those two words could mean the difference between life and death? Certainly not Zana.

"Alright," Zana nodded her head slowly, her fingers gripping the fabric of the Doctor's trench coat as her blue eyes bore into the statue. "What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor inhaled deeply as he pulled his glasses off, "It's called a Weeping Angel."

"Very fitting," she murmured, looking over the stone figure in front of her. A crying angel, that's exactly what it was. "Why can't I take my eyes off it? What will it do? It's not like it can move. It's made of stone."

He reached down and took her hand, taking a step back as he did so. "They're stone only when you're looking at them, Zan. They're quantum locked, meaning that they don't exist whenever another living being is watching it. But once you look away, once you blink...they send you back in time, away from your loved ones, away from everything you've ever known."

"Why? How would they benefit from that?" She asked, desperately trying to ignore the stinging of her eyes. They had dried out, and the wind blowing in their direction wasn't exactly helping her either.

"They feed off your potential time energy," he murmured before quickly pulling her behind a building, out of sight of the statue. He instantly starting blinking, signaling Zana that it was safe. She squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing them with her palms for a moment before looking back up at the Doctor.

"Perfect place for them to hide," Zana muttered as her eyes started to water. "Ancient Rome? This place is overflowing with statues. Of course, that also makes them easy to find, yeah?"

"How would that make them easy to find?" The Doctor asked in an almost patronizing tone, making her roll her eyes.

"Because Roman statues, Doctor, are typically made of marble. Or bronze. And that...Weeping Angel, it looked nothing like either, did it?"

A smile grew on his lips, "Oh, you're brilliant!"

"I try my best," she gave him a proud smirk, pride filling her. "So how do we get rid of them? Is there a special way to kill them or something?"

"Can't kill a stone, Zana," he murmured absently as he seemed to think. "Where did they come from, that's the question. How did they get here?"

"Why does it matter how they got here?" Zana frowned slightly.

He turned on his heels, taking in the surrounding area, "Because if we find the source, it'll be easier to stop the problem."

"Well like I said, different statues, right?"

The Doctor nodded and smiled, "Exactly."

"Why do I have the feeling that you're gonna make us meet the Emperor?" A feeling of dread filled the teen at the mere thought of having to go anywhere near the infamous Emperor. The things Caligula has done...there would be no way they'd make it out alive. But there was something...a nagging feeling that told her that the Doctor wouldn't dare get her hurt, which calmed her nerves more than she'd like to admit.

"Oh, where's your sense of adventure?" The Doctor grabbed her arm, pulling her through the crowded streets without a care in the world.

"So what do we do?" Zana asked in a last-ditch attempt to stay away from the palace. She was really dreading it.

"We go meet the emperor!"

"Great. Brilliant. For one split second, I thought your brain had started working!" She couldn't help but huff with frustration. This man was so unbelievably daft!

"Do you have to be mean all the time?" He gave her a look.

"Well no, it's just more fun that way," she muttered.

"For you, maybe."

"Of course for me. Especially me."

He shook his head as they came upon the large and beautiful palace. Caligula had taste, she'd give him that.

"We can't just walk in there," Zana murmured, her eyes tracing over every detail of the structure before her. It was enchanting, to say the least...

Without so much as taking his eyes off the palace, the Doctor pulled a leather wallet from his pocket and flipped it open to reveal a blank piece of paper. Zana tore her gaze from the building and looked at the Doctor, rolling her eyes. She still didn't really believe that 'psychic paper' actually worked. And the fact that nothing was showing up for her just furthered her point. Wasn't it suppose to show her what the Doctor wanted her to see?

"That'll really do some good," she scoffed, folding her arms. "They're just gonna let us in because of a blank piece of paper?"

That brought his eyes to her. "What?"

"There's nothing there. I told Rose that psychic paper was a load of rubbish."

"What, it-" He shook his head. "It's a mind trick, usually people aren't able to see it for what it is."

"Then why can't I see it?" She frowned slightly.

"Well, occasionally extremely perceptive people aren't so easily tricked by it. But that doesn't make sense, I mean you're-" He stopped, realizing what he was saying.

"I'm what?" She raised an eyebrow, challenging him. She wasn't even able to count how many times she had gotten on to him about referring to her as 'only human'.

As if there was anything only about being human.

"Er..." he rubbed the back of his neck. "A lovely and very intelligent woman?"

"Nice save," Zana smirked slightly.

"I thought so," he nodded.

"What was it suppose to say, anyway?" She asked after a moment.

"Doesn't matter," he waved her off swiftly as he hurried up the steps of the palace. She had no choice but to shake her head and follow after him.

The Doctor was definitely something else.

"I swear to god, Doctor, if you don't get us out of here-" Zana started, hitting her head against the stone wall of their 'cell'. It wasn't really a cell, if she was being completely honest, just a room in the palace guarded by several centurions, but it had the same effect.

"What, Zana? What could you possibly do?" He raised an eyebrow, watching her intently as she leaned against one of the four walls, her eyes closed and her arms crossed. "You don't have to worry, we'll get out."

"How? Last I checked, there's four of them, and two of us."

"Oh, I easily count as three people," the Doctor straightened his tie and inhaled deeply. "Well, intellectually, anyway."

"Like that'll help us against centurions who've been taught nothing but how to fight since the age of seven. Great thinking, Doctor. At that rate, we'll be back to the TARDIS in no time."

The Doctor didn't even have to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes behind her eyelids, which only made him roll his eyes. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas, Miss I'll Just Let The Doctor Solve Everything."

"We're only in here because you let Caligula in on the whole Weeping Angel thing! You should have left him out of this!"

"Without him, we wouldn't have stopped them!"

The teenager scoffed, "Yeah right. All he did was flirt with you the whole time."

"Caligula told us everything- wait a second. Flirt?"

"I've literally never seen someone flirt so much in their life, Doctor," Zana gave him a look as she pushed herself from the stone wall.

"Never met Captain Jack."

"Who?"

"There we are, then."

"What?" She frowned, confused, but he just waved her off.

"Doesn't matter. Right, well, look at it this way. At least we got rid of the Weeping Angels."

"By teleporting them to the bloody Sun. How did you even do that?"

"They got here by a transmat device, which was damaged when they arrived. All I had to do was find it, fix it, and reroute the coordinates to the center of the Solar System."

"And care to explain how you know they got here by a transmat thing?"

"That was a guess. They can't operate ships or spacecraft because then they'd risk looking at each other, which would freeze them permanently."

"So they can't even look at each other?" Zana frowned slightly, taking a few steps towards the Time Lord. "At all?"

The Doctor simply shook his head, "The Lonely Assassins, that's what they're commonly known as across the Universe."

Her frown deepened, looking up at him. "Where do they come from?"

"Nobody knows," he answered softly. "They're as old as the Universe itself, or very nearly."

"Ugh, I hate you," Zana huffed, breaking the somber mood that had fallen over them.

"What did I do?!" He exclaimed exasperatedly.

"You and your bloody tendency to make me feel bad for the bad guys!" She grumbled, looking up at him. "I'm supposed to hate them!"

"Says who?"

She gave him an annoyed look.

The TARDIS door opened with a rather loud thud and swung shut on its own behind the two as they rushed inside, but they hardly noticed. Zana was trying her best to catch her breath, but the fact that she couldn't stop laughing made things extremely difficult for the teen. The Doctor seemed to be having the same problem, though he handled it better, quickly changing from panting laughter to just laughter. "Oh, it's been ages since I've laughed that hard!"

"Really?" Zana breathed, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes as she tried to calm down.

"Ages," he repeated, a wide, somewhat intoxicating smile on his face.

"Surely you have," she waved him off as she joined him by the console. He was flipping a few levers, sending them away from their adventure. "You and Rose have a blast together."

"I suppose we do, yeah," he offered her a small smile as she leaned against the control panel.

Zana watched as he looked at the monitor in front of him and bit her lip slightly. The smile on his lips had disappeared almost immediately, something that she noticed happened quite often with the Time Lord. She was starting to think he was just one giant façade, and that the man she thought she knew wasn't really him at all, but merely the creation of someone who had suffered far too much. A sigh left her lips as her eyes fell to the floor. She'd been traveling with the Doctor and Rose for a good three and a half months, and yet he was just as much a mystery as the day they met. Every answer just brought forth new questions.

"You should be exhausted, Zan," the Doctor's voice made her look up. She looked over his face and quickly concluded that he needed sleep just as much as she did.

"You too, Doctor," she replied, folding her arms. "When was the last time you've slept?"

He shrugged his shoulder slightly, "I don't remember."

"You don't remember the last time you've slept?" She frowned. "That doesn't sound good. Maybe you need to rest for the day, Doctor."

"Rose is about to wake up," he argued weakly. "She'll want to go somewhere."

"Rose will understand. Well, she should," Zana reached out and took his hand into hers. It had become a reflex, in a way. "Come on. Let's go to bed, Doctor."

He raised an eyebrow and looked down at their joined hands, his cheeks had gone a light shade of pink. He wasn't sure if he completely understood what she was saying. "Um, Zan-"

Zana didn't bother to listen to him, having just figured he was going to say how he wasn't sleepy. "Where's your room? Do you even have a room? I imagine you just doze off wherever you can."

"Just down the corridor, first right, another right, and then the third door on your left," he murmured, his voice unusually low. She didn't seem to take notice. She was just focused on finding the Time Lord's bedroom.

"I can't believe you don't remember the last time you've slept," she muttered, glancing back at him. His eyes seemed to be locked on the floor below them, but somehow she still noticed the peculiar red tint of his cheeks. "Doctor? You alright?"

"I'm fine," he answered just a bit too quickly for Zana to believe him.

"Mhmm, I'm sure," she replied, her voice laced with sarcasm as his room came into sight. She beamed, picking up her pace as she practically dragged him towards the door. Once they were in front of it, she turned to face him, but his gaze was still fixed on the floor. "Doctor, we're at your room."

He cleared his throat as he looked up, the blush that had been on his cheeks now gone, "Right."

She gave him a small smile before releasing his hand, "Well, goodnight, Doctor. Sleep tight."

He seemed taken back by that, and just as he went to say something, his mouth snapped shut.

"Alri- Oh, what's the point in asking? You never answer," she waved him off. "Anyway, I'll be in my room if you need me. Which you hopefully won't. But if you do, hopefully, it's not until you wake up. Which hopefully won't be for a while," she chuckled softly. "Look at me, rambling, when you should be getting to bed."

He gave her a small, almost forced smile, "Goodnight, Zan."

With that, he stepped past her and hurried into his room. Zana stared at his door, confused, before turning and making her way to her room. Had she upset him? Surely not, she just wanted him to rest, but who knew what was running through his head. He was such a complex man, it wouldn't surprise her if even he didn't know what he was thinking about the majority of the time.

"Zana?" Rose's familiar cockney accent filled the empty corridor, making the brunette turn to see her friend stepping out of her room, looking as though she just woke up.

"Morning, Rose," Zana replied with a smile, her voice soft. "Sleep well?"

"Hardly slept," she muttered. "I just couldn't fall asleep."

"Neither could I," Zana chuckled, leaning against her door frame. "I've been awake a good portion of the night. The Doctor just went to bed as well, so it seems we've got to entertain ourselves."

"You need to get some sleep, Zana," she gave her a look. "How can you go all day and night without sleeping?"

Zana groaned and leaned her head back, "I'm not tired."

"You're such a liar!" Rose chuckled, shaking her head. "Go on to bed, Zana. I'll be fine."

"I don't doubt that..." she sighed, looking down at her shoes. She was extremely tired, but every time she laid down, she couldn't help but think of her dreams. They were alarming, to say the least. In the beginning, they didn't seem to faze her, but now? She had to tell someone. "It's just...every time I go to sleep, I have these dreams..."

Rose frowned slightly, stepping closer to her brunette friend. "What, like nightmares or something?"

"No, not nightmares," the teenager shook her head. "They're just...unnerving, is all."

"I'm sure they're nothing to worry about, Zana," Rose assured softly, resting a hand on her arm.

Zana gave the blonde a smile as she crossed her arms, holding them close to her chest. "Thanks, Rose...I suppose I'll go to bed. After all, I just made the Doctor go to bed as well. He told me he couldn't even remember the last time he slept."

The blonde sighed and shook her head, "What are we going to do with him, Zana?"

"What we can do," Zana murmured. "Be there for him."

"Yeah," she smiled a wide smile, her tongue poking through her teeth cheekily.

Zana chuckled, knowing exactly what her mind had wandered to. Rose's crush on the Time Lord seemed to grow every day, and she was surprised the Doctor hadn't picked up on it. It was blatantly obvious, after all. "Just snog him already, Rose."

"I'm working on it!" She defended before laughing along with the brunette, her cheeks flushed.

"Doesn't seem like it!"

"Oh, shut up!" Rose nudged her shoulder. "Anyway, you should be getting to bed. Goodnight, Zana."

"Yeah, yeah," Zana gave her a small smile before opening her bedroom door. "Night, Rose."

Rose waved before turning and making her way towards the kitchen. Zana stepped into her room, the lights instantly illuminating it as she closed the door behind her. She took her time changing into her pajamas, barely keeping her eyes open as she laid down on her bed. Once she was under the covers, her mind started wandering, but this time it was the Doctor that occupied her thoughts, not those blasted dreams that seemed to be haunting her, but she wasn't complaining.

The Doctor was so much better to think about, she decided, as she slowly fell asleep.

A/N: Guysss...School sucks so much (Like this chapter). Sorry for the slow updates. :/