I'm starting to introduce more of Charls' abilities. It's a bit confusing at first but I'm hoping to clear things up in the future.
Charlie Grey woke up to the sound of words, the story of their own life being told to them. Actually, the words 'woke up' don't portray the scene accurately. It's more like they were no longer unconscious like when someone's in a coma and can hear things around them but can't move.
"Apparently, you don't like celery." The Doctor read from one of the books, "Which is too bad because it does have some very beneficial effects. It can be good for your teeth, it can id-" He was cut off by a whack to the shoulder from Martha. She was worried too, although she had just met Charls, Martha still felt a need to make sure that they were back to their normal self.
"Maybe read from one of the pages about their childhood." Martha suggested.
The Doctor rubbed his face, he'd been reading the books aloud for nearly three hours. It didn't seem like anything was going to work. They were going to need a doctor, a real doctor, a doctor for a species that he didn't know. However, Charls was 33.32% human and they looked fully human. Maybe a human hospital would work just as well as an alien one. The Doctor stood and started to input a new location on the TARDIS console.
Martha looked at him, confused, "Where are you taking us?"
The Doctor continued to run around the console, "We need a doctor for them. A real doctor. One that can figure out what's wrong with them and is okay with a person being only 33.32% human."
"Where would you even find a doctor like that?" Martha scoffed, after all there probably wasn't anyone like that.
"The future." The Doctor sighed and flipped a lever, "Martha, I know I said just one trip. That's what I said. One trip in the Tardis, and then home." The Doctor looked at Martha then at Charls, "I don't think we have time for just one trip anymore. Just stretch the definition. Take one trip into past, one trip into future. For Charls' sake of course. Just get them fixed up."
Martha nodded, "No complaints from me."
"We'll need to go to a different planet." The Doctor added, "To get a doctor."
"Can we go to yours?" Martha asked, "Planet of Time Lords could surely fix them up."
The Doctor paused, "Ah, there's plenty of other places." He looked back down, at the console, avoiding Martha's face.
"Come on, though. I mean, planet of the Time Lords. There's got to be at least one person who would help. I would like to go anyways, what's it like?" Martha questioned curiously.
"Well, there are people that could help and it's beautiful, yeah." The Doctor shrugged.
Martha paced around and spread her arms open, "Is it like, you know, outer space cities, all spire and stuff?"
Charls groaned and turned over in the seats they were laying on, and whispered, "Gallifrey, right?"
The Doctor's head shot up, eyes wide, "How did you know that?"
"You're awake!" Martha exclaimed and bounced over to Charls, making sure they didn't try to sit up.
"Burnt orange sky with twin suns and a city in a bubble." Charls closed their eyes and rolled onto their back. They sighed, "I dreamt about it once, a long time ago."
"You dreamt about Gallifrey? You knew its name, you knew the sky, you knew the planet...even before you met me?" The Doctor asked with utter disbelief.
Charls opened their eyes again and glanced at Doctor, "I didn't really know what it was, it just clicked in my head when I saw you. That planet, this blue box, and you. Like pieces of a puzzle."
"Are you okay, though?" Martha asked, placing her hand on Charls' forehead again.
They sighed again, "I was just tired. Not enough sleep."
Martha hung her head, "You had us worried! We thought you were dying or something!"
Charls smirked, "I thought you were training to be a doctor. Can't tell the difference between sleep deprivation and death?"
Martha slapped Charls on the shoulder, "There could be a difference for you! Only two-thirds human!"
As the two of them were joking around, the Doctor couldn't believe what he'd heard. Gallifrey, his home, had been seen by someone who didn't even know what it was. Charls was definitely becoming more of a mystery by the second. An unknown species that could see places that no longer existed, that could know the unknowable, and could connect memories and events like pieces of a puzzle. A brilliant species. He could only stare at Charls with amazement and confusion.
The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and looked Charls over again, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Charls sat up, slowly, "Doctor, I'm fine. I promise."
"So we didn't need to reread your whole life story to you?" Martha grumbled.
"Mmmm, that part helped me wake up." Charls noted, "Someone talking in your ear would wake you up too. But I would have woken up once I was fully rested."
"We were going to take you to a hospital!" Martha cried out.
The TARDIS shook and wheezed. The Doctor ran over to the console, "We still could." He read the side of the sonic screwdriver, "You're still tired after all. No better place to get well rested than the future."
Charls hopped onto their feet, "Where are we?"
"Year five billion and fifty-three," The Doctor said excitedly, trying to get his mind off of Gallifrey, "planet New Earth. Second hope of mankind. Fifty thousand light years from your old world, and we're slap bang in the middle of New New York." He threw on his coat, and paused when they saw Charls standing fully, "Where'd you get that scarf?"
Charls looked at the colorful scarf wrapped around their arm and neck, "I found it in your big closet room. Sorry, I couldn't find the bathroom and I need a change of clothes."
The Doctor blinked, "Ah, it's fine you can keep it. Not like it's for me, anymore. Anyways, where was I?" He paused and rewinded the conversation in his head, "Oh right! New New York. Although, technically it's the fifteenth New York from the original, so it's New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. One of the most dazzling cities ever built."
"You were going to take me to a hospital in New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York." Charls repeated.
"Yes," Martha answered, "Probably the best place to take a new species like you."
Charls smiled, "Let's see this dazzling city then."
We stepped out of the TARDIS and into cold rain and air that tasted extremely disgusting. Course, the rain was a sudden, cold shock but that's nothing a human and a two-thirds human can't handle.
"Oh, that's nice." Martha shouted, "Time Lord version of dazzling."
"Nah, bit of rain never hurt anyone. Come on, let's get under cover!" The Doctor shut the door and we ran to a place that was a bit drier.
"Acid rain can hurt!" Charls commented.
We ran through the small alley and into a more open area.
"Well, it looks like the same old Earth to me," Martha looked around, "on a Wednesday afternoon."
"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look." The Doctor jogged over to a door and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the window. He hit it a couple times and it turned into a television screen with a woman that looked like she should be telling us the weather.
"And the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway." She said clearly and calmly.
"New New Jersey?" Charls raised an eyebrow, humans couldn't think of new names for new places?
The screen broadcasted a video of flying cars zooming past the camera with a city in the background.
The Doctor pointed at the screen, "Ah, that's more like it. That's the view we had last time." He glanced around at the dirty alley, "This must be the lower levels, down in the base of the tower. Some sort of under-city."
"You've brought me to the slums?" Martha kept her eyes on the video of the flying cars.
"I thought we were supposed to go to the hospital?" Charls commented.
"Well, we don't really need the hospital now. Seeing as you're doing better." Doctor looked around again, "Besides this is much more interesting! It's all cocktails and glitter up there. This is the real city."
Martha looked at Doctor, "You'd enjoy anything."
"That's me. Ah, the rain's stopping." The Doctor smiled and stepped out of our shelter, "Better and better."
Charls tossed their hair, shaking off as much water as they could, "So you've come here before? With Rose, I'm assuming."
The Doctor turned around and looked at them, "Um, yeah. Yeah, it was, yeah."
"What was here last time you came?" Martha looked up, the sky seemed nonexistent.
"Well, last time we'd gone to the hospital." The Doctor said in a short pace, like he didn't want to talk about it.
"Make sense that you'd try to take me here." Charls shrugged and kept walking, "Was it a good hospital?"
"Well, cat nurses that grew humans to live with disease forever," the Doctor recalled, "wasn't exactly the best ethics but I suppose they're better now."
A window propped open in front of them, kind of out of the blue. It seemed to be a small shop, the man who opened the window wore a smile, "Oh! You should have said! You want to be better? Happy. You want Happy." He dove under the counter and more windows opened behind us.
One lady said with excitement, "Customers. Customers! We've got customers!"
Another window opened, "We're in business. Mother, open up the Mellow, and the Read."
The Doctor, Charls, and Martha whirled around in circles as more windows opened and more people began to speak up. They were all shouting about some emotions that you could buy. Happy, Anger, Mellow.
The Doctor looked suspiciously at the man, "No thanks."
The three stood in place, surrounded by all the shops with the talking people. Charls looked at all of them, heard everything they were saying, "Doctor, are they selling emotions?"
"It might be drugs." Martha corrected.
"I think," the Doctor looked around once more, "they're selling moods."
"Same thing, isn't it?" Martha quipped.
Eventually people in rags began to pop up, a woman showed up who wanted a Forget. She asked to forget her mother and father because they went on the motorway. It was curious so the Doctor slowly walked up to her and asked.
"Sorry, but hold on a minute." He gently tapped her shoulder, "What happened to your parents?"
"They drove off," The woman said.
"Yeah, but they might drive back." The Doctor said or rather suggested.
The lady shook her head, "Everyone goes to the motorway in the end. I've lost them."
"But they can't have gone far. You could find them." The Doctor tried to convince her before she stuck a Forget onto her neck, "No. No, no, don't." But that didn't really help.
She looked back at Doctor with a smile, "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"Your parents." Charls placed a hand on her shoulder, "Your mother and father went on the motorway."
"Did they?" The woman continued to smile, "That's nice. I'm sorry, I won't keep you." And she wobbled away with a memory empty of her mother and father.
"So that's the human race five billion years in the future?" Martha didn't really ask, "Off their heads in chemicals."
Next thing they all knew, Martha had shrieked with a man behind her with a woman pointing a gun to Doctor's head. He was saying sorry, though, so maybe that made up for the fact that he was in the process of kidnapping Martha. Charls didn't really register the scream or the sorrys because they were too trapped in their own thoughts. Thinking about what they'd felt when they'd touched the woman. The Doctor, however, whirled around and slowly started towards the man and woman who were kidnapping Martha. He pointed and shouted at them to let her go. They could only reply with a sorry. The Doctor shouted more and demanded they let her go, that he could help them, just let go of Martha. That was of no use because they backed through a green door and it locked behind them.
Charls P.O.V.
I didn't expect any of the events. Not Martha being kidnapped, not the Doctor yelling, not the strange lady who wanted to forget. But when I had placed my hand on her shoulder, it was like something was broken. Not with her, but with something. Something was broken. Like she wasn't supposed to be there, like none of the shopkeepers were supposed to be there, like this wasn't supposed to be happening. I couldn't help but get lost in my own thoughts.
I blinked and saw the Doctor, waving a hand in my face and then the feeling of being pulled along. I took a breath, a breath of dusty and filthy air. I realized that we were running, running after Martha.
"What happened!" I shouted at Doctor.
"Martha!" The Doctor shouted at a vehicle that had just flown off.
"Doctor!" I shouted again. I grabbed his sleeve and pulled, "What happened?"
"They took her," He muttered, "I couldn't do anything."
"Martha's gone?" I echoed.
"What happened to you?" The Doctor asked, "You were standing there like you'd lost your mind."
"I just," I stuttered, "I just got lost. Like I felt something."
"What?" The Doctor looked into my eyes, "What?"
"I don't know," I sighed, the feeling had faded. It was there, but less urgent and less suffocating.
"We'll talk later," the Doctor said, "but first we need to get Martha back."
I nodded and we ran back to the area with the shops. The Doctor hammered the closed hatch of one of the shops. A red-haired woman opened up and smiled.
"Thought you'd come back. Do you want some happy Happy?" She smiled like she didn't just witness a kidnapping.
The Doctor looked furious, I wondered if he'd looked this way when I'd fallen asleep.
"Those people, who were they?" He demanded, "Where did they take her?"
A shop opened behind us, "They've taken her to the motorway."
The red-haired woman spoke again, "Looked like carjackers to me."
Another shopkeeper spoke, "I'd give up now, darling. You won't see her again."
"Used to be thriving, this place. You couldn't move. But they all go to the motorway in the end." The man sighed.
The Doctor looked at all of them, "He kept saying three, we need three. What did he mean, three?"
"It's the car-sharing policy, to save fuel. You get special access if you're carrying three adults." The lady informed us.
"Where's the motorway?" I asked, feeling the Doctor was getting a bit too overwhelmed with emotions to keep his head straight.
"Straight down the alley, keep going to the end. You canna miss it. Tell you what. How about some happy Happy? Then you'll be smiling, my loves." She smiled again, like a NPC when you were done talking to them.
"No thanks," I nodded and we began to run off.
The Doctor turned around and said in a very strict voice, "Word of advice, all of you. Cash up, close down and pack your bags."
"Why's that, then?" The lady asked.
"Because as soon as I've found her, alive and well - and I will find her alive and well - then I'm coming back, and this street is closing. Tonight!" The Doctor shouted and continued to walk to the motorway.
I couldn't really say anything, just follow in his footsteps as we walked. It was very tense. I guess the Doctor cared a lot about his companions. Well, if companions were like you're crew and crew were like family. I guess that meant, he was just acting normal. After all, it is normal to care about family.