Doctor

A sudden desire to go to Alicia's room gripped the Doctor. As soon as Martha stopped hitting him with the even more dishevelled cushion he ran down the stairs and straight to the open door. Martha followed him. Alicia was asleep.

She was asleep but she was crying. At first the Doctor didn't move. Would it be wrong to go to her after the argument they'd had? Except he didn't like her crying. Did she do this at home? Every night? No wonder she was so tired when he went to visit her.

Still, he silently pulled a chair to the end of her bed and sat down. It was like a miracle, Alicia soon stopped crying and she didn't even wake up. Martha moved away quietly thinking on everything that happened today.

The next day Alicia woke to see him still staring at her. He hadn't moved all night.

Alicia

Living with the Doctor and Martha wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I missed my family and I missed my friends but I also knew that none of them would understand if I tried to tell them what was going on. I couldn't imagine how they must be feeling, I was probably on the missing persons list by now.

My burn was almost gone now that we weren't so far apart all the time. Martha seemed quite interested in that, it was probably some kind of miracle to her. If this was the real world I would have scars covering my arm but this wasn't real life, not for anyone else and this wasn't a normal burn. Even the way it healed wasn't normal. It faded into separate rings around my wrist and then one or two of them would disappear overnight.

I was beginning to have insomnia. It was probably because of the nightmares. Sometimes I would know them as my own, other times I questioned whether they were or not. It came to the point where every night I would wake up to find the Doctor by my bed.

"Nightmares again?" I nodded. I was exhausted.

"Do you ever sleep?"

He didn't answer straight away. "No."

"Why?"

"Nightmares."

It was times like these that I was glad I wasn't alone in life. I didn't have to explain myself because he already knew. On Earth there were only counsellors and pills. I didn't need pills, I needed him. Even if it was his fault we were here I kind of liked it. He walked over to the bed and climbed on. Some things may have changed but whenever he was with me I could sleep without nightmares, he probably felt a little better to.

I knew Martha watched us sometimes. The way we were around each other, it was something no one but us would ever experience. Having Martha there was good for both of us I think.

Martha found me in the library but I wasn't reading. I was feeling depressed and she could tell. She walked over to me and sat down.

"It's my birthday today. I'm fourteen." I stared at the wall in front of me. Normally on my birthday I would go out with my family.

This time my family didn't even know if I was alive. "I'm fourteen and I'm basically married to someone who's over nine hundred years older than me. Some life I've got."

"He really cares about you you know."

I sighed. Of course I knew, it's how this whole allegiance thing worked. Martha didn't know that though so I just nodded.

"I saw you both last night. I think it's the first time I've seen him sleep."

"I didn't think he ever slept."

"I think he does, when he's with you." I didn't know. He was always awake when I woke up. I smiled at the thought that I was in some small way a help to him.

"I guess he's the only family I've got now."

Not long after that Martha left. She left a hole behind her as well.