Author's Note;

I do not own Doctor Who.

Chapter 2 - Dream vs. Reality

Main Foyer, Highgate School and Academy, London, England – January 25, 1995

The piercing sound of the bell ringing brought Rose out of the daze she had been in from the moment she had left home for school. Getting a mere three hours of fitful sleep followed by an almost feverish episode of planning had left her exhausted before the day had even begun. She had been on autopilot from the moment she had boarded the school bus. She was lucky that Shareen had taken the rest of the week off to visit her grandparents in the Lake District. Otherwise, she would be hard-pressed to explain her zombie-like state to her best friend.

She tried to shake off the exhausted stupor while walking into her first class of the day, Calculus. Oh, Mr. Gregory was going to have her hide today. She had skipped doing homework, again. She was strangely disconnected from the usual feeling of regret that came with having procrastinated in doing her homework. She barely reacted to Mr. Gregory's scolding and his assigning another detention after school. Luckily, her mum would be working at the time. She wouldn't have to explain anything to her at least.

The day passed at a snail's pace for Rose. Recess couldn't come quickly enough. As soon as the bell rang indicating a lunch break, Rose rushed off to the closest computer lab. She knew for a fact that none of her fellow students would be in a rush to reach the computers during lunch hour. She gave the excuse of project research to the lab assistant, Gracie, and made a beeline towards the computer in the farthest corner of the lab.

Making herself comfortable, she pushed the power button on the CPU and waited for the device to boot. As the machine hummed to life, Rose opened her bag and dug out her notebook and a pen to prepare herself for some research. She had made many notes during the night. She had written down many things she could recall from her dream. Keywords, concepts, places, people, and organizations she could research online. Thank God for World Wide Web and WebCrawler. It was so much easier to find things online now than it was a couple of years ago.

Once the computer was up and running, she opened the browser window and entered the first of many things she wished to search for today.

However, for some reason, she hesitated. Her insides shook as if whatever she was about to discover would change her life forever. She still had time to change her mind and completely ignore the dream from last night and go on with her life in ignorance. Ignorance is bliss, after all. But she remembered what could happen if she did nothing and it all turned out to be true. Trapped in a parallel world and fading from existence.

Honestly, what fourteen-year-old had to worry about something like that? She needed to be sure what was real and what was a dream. It could be nothing, but her wild imagination and she could simply laugh about it with her mother, Shireen, and Mickey once she got home. Or it could be real, and she needed to buckle up and prepare herself for a wild ride around the universe.

Taking a deep breath, she braced herself and typed into the search bar, "Doctor, blue box," and hit enter.

It took a while for the page to load. The first link stated, "Doctor Who? ...do you know this man contact Clive here." Heart racing, with bated breath, she clicked the link and waited for the page to load.

Her heart skipped a beat and her breath stuttered as she found a blurry, but familiar, face staring back at her from the screen. Short hair, sharp features, large ears, and heavy brows. It was the face from her dream. Her breathing quickened and her hands shook as she tried to come to terms with what was before her.

With trembling hands, she wrote down the contact information provided for future use, before closing the page. She took a deep breath once again before continuing her research. She typed in "UNIT" and hit enter. Plenty of articles turned up about the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. She wrote down all she found relevant for not, like the founding of the task force and its purpose. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was mentioned frequently in many of the articles, so she noted down his name for future research.

Closing out of the UNIT pages, she entered "Henry van Statten" into the search bar. That was one name that had stood out to her while recalling her dream. Maybe because according to her dream, van Statten had led to her getting introduced to her first Dalek. There were many search results about Henry van Statten on the World Wide Web. He was the CEO of GeoComTex, an American company formerly known as Van Statten Corporation. It dabbled in telecommunications and space exploration.

Rose went on searching the web for many other topics like Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith, Harriet Jones, and HC Clements. Every search result brought more proof that it was all real. Her dream had been a message from Bad Wolf.

The bell ringing made her jump. She looked around to realize that she had spent the entire hour surfing the web for answers and proof. Her notebook was filled with her research. She snapped herself out of her shocked daze and prepared to leave for her next class. She made sure to clear her search history before shutting the computer down.

Rose left the computer lab, promising to think about this in-depth after getting home. She had her proof. Everything she had seen last night was real. It was time to plan her next steps.

But for now, she had to suffer through the rest of the day at school. And of course, it went at a slower pace than that of a snail.

Thank you, readers!