A/N Inspiration for this chapter came from Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-15.

It seemed as though Hope wasn't the only one eager to see the "prophet". It seemed as though Benjamin brought a few friends with him…a few hundred friends. Hope and the Doctor quickly fell into an even pace with the crowd, the perception filters allowing them to go unnoticed.

Within a few hours, the crowd reached a grassy area of the desert where a small boat just landed. Thirteen men had recently disembarked from the boat. These are the people that seemed to draw the crowd in. Most of the group seemed a little surprised, but the man who seemed the wisest and kindest was not surprised at all.

The crowd pushed themselves closer to the man, leaving Hope and the Doctor in the back. Hope longed to reach the man, but couldn't make it past the crowd. In a bit of a huff, Hope asked the Doctor, "Just how many people are there here?!"

The Doctor got on his tiptoes to scan the crowd, squinting a bit. When he was finished, he leveled his feet and whispered to Hope, "If you are counting just men, as people during this time do, I'd say five thousand. If you counted woman and children, that number is closer to seven thousand."

Hope stood agape. If the Doctor's counting is correct, which usually is given his superior Time Lord brainpower, then Hope knew exactly what was going to happen! The sides of Hope's mouth turned upwards into a huge smile, and she began jumping up and down in excitement. "I don't believe it! Any minute now, Jesus is going to feed the whole crowd using just a few loaves of bread and a little fish! And we get to be a part of it!"

The Doctor looked at Hope and rebuked her. "That part is not for a few hours, so calm down and don't draw attention to yourself!"

Hope stopped jumping and wondered aloud, "What are we going to do until then?"

"Oi! I wasn't the one who dragged us out here! You think of something since you're the eager beaver. Just don't draw attention to us or these perception filters will be useless."

Hope let out a sigh and looked around. After the initial arrival, the crowd began to loosen and form groups of people that stood and chatted. Some of them even sat down to rest their weary feet. Indeed, it had been a long walk for some. As Hope listened, she learned that some of these even came from Beersheba. If Hope remembered correctly, Beersheba is south of Jerusalem. Everyone came on foot, too, since Hope didn't see any animals around.

Hope then got a hopeful look in her eye. "Maybe we can go see Jesus now." She looked at the Doctor pleadingly.

The Doctor considered it. "Why not? Let's meet the man of the hour."

Hope and the Doctor pushed their way through the crowd a bit more easily this time towards the boat where they last saw Jesus. When they made it to the shore, Jesus and His apostles were no longer there. Confused, Hope looked back toward the crowd, but couldn't find Him.

Hope started to panic. "Where is He?"

The Doctor scanned the crowd, too, and then pointed, "There He is. Looks like He's talking to some of the members of this little welcoming committee, so we best not get too close."

Hope and the Doctor wandered over to where Jesus was standing. The untrained eye would think this was a normal man because He shared many physical characteristics as the crowd did. Even so, it would be hard not to notice that this particular man had an aura about Him that made most people feel safe and draw nearer.

That's just what Hope did. Despite the Doctor's warnings, Hope drew closer than she intended. His back was to her, so Hope felt confident in not being noticed. She got to overhear the conversation He was having.

"What is it you want?" Jesus asked a man who was laying on the ground with what looked to be a twisted ankle.

"My Lord, I twisted my ankle halfway coming here, but continued when I heard others tell of Your healing power," the man winced in pain. "I ask that you please heal me!"

Hope couldn't see His face, but she could guess that He was smiling. Jesus lifted up His head and began to speak to the crowd beyond the crippled man, teaching, "This man has some of the greatest faith for he has not seen My signs, yet believes. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The crowd murmured. Jesus looked back down at the man and told him, "Your faith has made you well. Stand up." Immediately, the man got to his feet, his ankle looking much better.

Jesus continued in this manner for several hours with Hope and the Doctor following at a now safe distance behind.

—

The sun was low in the sky when Hope's stomach started to make its discomfort known. She hadn't eaten since before she left the TARDIS. "It must be time to eat soon!" she cried. The crowd, although they didn't hear her, voiced basically the same complaint. Some of them even started to walk back north to Bethsaida.

Presently, the apostles approached Jesus and said, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."

Jesus, with a gleam in His eye, told one, "You give them something to eat. Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"

Another apostle said, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?"

The one He spoke to replied, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little."

But Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see."

The little group looked at each other as if silently asking if they brought any loaves. When it was obvious that none of them had bread, they dispersed to search the crowd for food. Hope looked too. She knew that somewhere in the crowd was a little boy with a meal just large enough for one family. In fact, she spotted him about fifty paces to her left, right before one of the apostles called out to him. The little boy followed the apostle back to Jesus.

The rest of the group noticed and came back to Jesus, too. The apostle that brought the boy (why can't they wear name tags?) said, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"

Jesus still had a gleam in His eye when He said, "Bring them to me, and make the people sit in groups of fifty."

The apostles looked at each other and shrugged as they began to carry out their instructions. It took awhile, considering there was a lot of complaining about rank, but eventually about one hundred and forty groups were made.

Hope and the Doctor sat in a nearby group and watched as Jesus looked up to heaven and gave the blessing, "My dear Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name! Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as is in Heaven. We thank You for this food You have provided. Please allow this food to nourish all of our bodies for Your service. We ask this in Your Holy Name. Amen"

Jesus broke the bread. A few of the apostles went back to the boat to grab some baskets in which Jesus put the broken bread into. Jesus then blessed and distributed the fish to the baskets, too.

The apostles went in separate directions to distribute the food. When one of them reached Hope and the Doctor's group, the apostle stuck his hand in the basket he was carrying and drew out a piece of barley bread to give to one of the group members to pass around. He reached in and grabbed more and more pieces of bread than Hope noticed Jesus put in there.

Hope marveled at this, but joined the others in passing around the bread. Then Hope eventually took a piece for herself. She took a bite of the barley bread and grimaced. She looked at the Doctor and said, "Barley does not taste like I hoped it would. Maybe I'm just spoiled to buttered rolls in the TARDIS kitchen."

The Doctor quietly chuckled while digging through his coat pockets. He pulled out a yo-yo, some playing cards, what looked to be the Bill of Rights, and some other random stuff before finding what he was looking for: a small covered dish of butter with a butter knife.

"Seriously?" Hope bewildered at the Doctor while taking the dish and using the butter knife to smear butter over her next bite of barley bread. Her next bite caused her to moan with pleasure. "Now that is good bread!"

Then came a basket of fish. The same process occurred as the with the bread, but Hope declined a bite. "I don't eat sushi," she said as she watched people eat it raw. "What kind of fish is that anyway?"

The Doctor took a bite of his fish, thought a moment, then swallowed. "That is an Oreochromis aureus, but you would probably recognize it as blue tilapia. The people here call it musht which, translated from Arabic, means 'comb'. Funnily enough, this blue tilapia will eventually become known as 'Jordan St. Peter's fish'." The Doctor offered Hope a bite of his fish.

Hope looked at the Doctor's fish and said thoughtfully, "If it's tilapia, it can't be that bad." She shook her head, "But I still won't eat it raw."

The Doctor sighed and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the fish in his hand and it began to smoke in a few seconds. "There. I sped up the molecules to heat it up. It should be cooked now."

Hope gingerly pulled a piece of fish off the bone before dropping it. She did her best not to cry out in pain and draw attention to herself.

The Doctor scoffed, "Well of course it's hot! I just cooked it!"

After shaking the pain out of her hand, Hope blew on the fish to cool it, then tore off another piece using her shirt. She brought it to her mouth and took a bite. Hope nodded in approval. The Doctor smiled.

While they ate, they listened to the rumors circulating in the group. The most interesting one to Hope revolved around John the Baptist.

"I can't believe I get to meet him! John the Baptist! I am in the presence of John the Baptist!" said an excited woman.

"No you aren't! John the Baptist was beheaded a few weeks ago. I was there! King Herod ordered it himself!" said an indignant man.

"Oh," pondered the excited woman, "then he must be back from the dead! That can be the only explanation!"

"Foolish woman!" the indignant man cried. "It's not possible for a man to rise from the grave! There's just no way!"

Hope chuckled. She knew they were both wrong. She knew what would happen, and she planned to witness it.

Then she paused. John's beheading was recent? That means that Jesus recently heard about it. Hope looked toward Jesus who was near. He was kind and compassionate all day. Not once did she hear Him weep. Jesus' eyes were focused on the crowd but Hope's eyes were focused on His. She could see that behind the kindness was sorrow on multiple levels: sorrow for the sheep without a shepherd and sorrow for His own loss. Hope remembered that John the Baptist and Jesus were distantly related, but exact relation, she didn't know.

Hope still wore a look of sorrow when Jesus commanded His apostles, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost."

The baskets came around again to pick up the scraps of food. Hope quickly recovered her frown, picked up the bit of fish she dropped, which was cold by now, and put it in the basket. She looked back at Jesus who was overseeing the collection. Presently, the apostles brought back twelve baskets filled above the brim with scraps.

The crowd around her began to murmur, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." The murmurs grew louder and louder until people began pushing and shoving towards Him to forcibly make Him king.

Jesus shook His head and walked off. Hope begged the Doctor to follow Him, but when she looked back to where He was, He was gone.

A/N Sorry for the long wait. Every chapter requires research so I can be as historically accurate as possible. If you have questions or spot an inaccuracy, please let me know!

As you probably have guessed, Hope represents a Bible student who has been to Sunday School and knows most of the Bible stories, but hasn't done much outside research. The Doctor, on the other hand, represents someone who not only attends Sunday School, but also does extensive, in-depth, independent research. Remember, this is from Hope's POV so she may forget some things.

Guest: I'm glad you loved it!

kevin: I hope you think this chapter is even more epic than the last, if that's even possible!

Please read and review!

P.S. I'm still waiting on more submissions for my SYOT. I tend to update a day or two after each submission!