A shorter chapter where Charls wanders around.
Once we had started drifting in space at a speed that wouldn't make me throw up, I started to walk around. The TARDIS seemed to be filled with endless hallways, most ending up at an area I'd already been to - like a giant loop. The Doctor had told me some directions that I'd forgotten by the time I took the first right. I came across all sorts of rooms, one of them was a closet - filled top to bottom in different kinds of clothes - it looked like the Doctor barely went in there. Clothes were strewn about and dust gathered on the mirror by the door.
I continued to walk in circles, looking for the bathroom. I ended up at the closet again, I frowned, there was a bathroom on the TARDIS. Right? I sighed and went into the room with the clothes, there was probably a changing room somewhere in there and that's all I really needed at the moment. I worked my way around the racks of clothes, the air was somehow clean so I assumed the TARDIS had air constantly running through all the rooms. I dragged my hand across some of the clothes, leather, felt, silk, cotton, all sorts of fabrics - some I didn't recognize so maybe they were from the future. I ended up walking in circles again, looking through the clothes the Doctor had collected throughout his life.
At one point I remembered why I was even in that room, I wondered how much time had passed since I had gotten lost. I looked at my wrist, no watch. I needed to get a watch, time was so much easier to figure out when you had a watch. I walked into a corner of the room and slipped off my shirt, taking off my binder and realized I would need a baggier hoodie. I frantically searched the area around me and found a heavy, black hoodie. It wasn't much but it would do better than the green jacket I was wearing. I slipped on the hoodie, hoping that the Doctor wasn't going to mind me borrowing it for a while. I walked back to the door and took a glance in the mirror. The hoodie I had found was successful in hiding the - achm - stuff...but it was very plain. I looked around a bit more for something with color and found a very long scarf with some color on it. I hung it around my neck and left some to wrap around my arm so I would have something to fiddle with. I nodded at myself and left to wander my way back to the console room.
I frowned, I had had no success in getting my way back to the console room. There were no arrows pointing the way back and there was no way anyone was going to find me anytime soon. I sighed and kept walking. I wonder if the Doctor had a map for this place. He certainly needed one. I dragged my feet on the floor, I had left my book at the console room because I didn't want to lose it. I didn't think I would need it. I let my mind wander as I walked. I thought about the memories that the Doctor had shown me, the way Shakespeare seemed to stitch words together like it was nothing, how space and time had no rule seemed meaningless now. I thought about the words that the Carrionite had said to me before flying off. Burn my soul to ash, huh? That sounds like I should burst into flames at any moment. Well, she said straightaway so I should have burst into flames at the second she said my name. I guess that means I'm immune - like Doctor.
I must have gotten so lost in my thoughts that I stopped walking and sat down because the next thing I could remember seeing was Doctor's face. He looked worried, like I was injured or dying. I felt someone's hand on my forehead, a hand that felt cool against my skin. I opened my eyes again and saw pages of white paper in front of me. I saw words scrawled on the pages but I didn't really see them. I blinked, it was too dark to read anything and my head was too cloudy to think. I closed my eyes again and leaned into the hand on my head.
3rd Person P.O.V.
"Charls!" The Doctor waved his hand in front of their face. It didn't seem to register, "Charls! Come on!"
"Doctor, what's going on?" Martha asked, feeling Charls for a pulse and checking their temperature again.
The Doctor frowned, "I don't know." He opened the blue notebook again, reading quickly - looking for any notes that could be similar to an event like this. Anything. Something to help them wake up. "There's nothing in here about them being like this!"
"Are you sure?" Martha asked, "There's nothing?"
The Doctor flipped to the very last page, "I mean there could have been something - this is only two-thirds of the book."
Martha looked at the book again, "There! On the back of the book!" The Doctor closed the book and turned over to the back. In small, white ink was written 'Book #4: for the adventures.'
The Doctor's eyes widened slightly, "This is the fourth book. Charls probably has other notebooks dedicated to just themselves. They're probably all stored at her place!" The Doctor hopped up and ran as quickly as he could to the console to change destinations. Meanwhile, Martha hoisted Charls to their feet and slowly walked back to the console room.
Martha and the Doctor didn't know but Charls was actually just tired. Sure, the word tired didn't fully cover the condition of Charls at that moment but it was the simplest way to describe it. Charlie Grey was tired. Their brain was tired of needing to remember so many things, their body was tired of running and wandering, and their soul was tired of the embers that fluttered past. Small embers that had entered Charls' mind through a few words they'd listened to. Embers that threatened to burn everything that Charls' had worked for into ashes.
The TARDIS had successfully parked in the lounge of Charlie Grey's apartment, now it was just a matter of finding all the notebooks and having Charls wake up.
The Doctor nearly destroyed Charls' room while finding the other three notebooks. He thought that Charls was hiding them, under the bed or behind a bookshelf. Of course, Charls was a forgetful person so they put the notebooks - their life - somewhere easy to find, on the desk next to the bed. Out in the open for anyone to read. The Doctor snatched up the three books and dashed back to the TARDIS where Martha had laid Charls on the yellow-ish seats. He was in a rush to save Charls, he didn't know why. Maybe it was because this was a mystery that could die before it was solved. Maybe it was because Charls was a species he'd never seen before and he wanted them to live. Maybe it was just because Charlie Grey was his companion and he couldn't lose another.