After the Doctor forced him out of the TARDIS, the first thing John noticed was that he was definitely not in the late 1800s. He jumped out of the way of the oncoming traffic onto the pavement. The noises and smells were different from when he was last in London. The 11-year-old was disoriented as he scrambled to his feet. People were shoving past him roughly, so he managed his way into an alley and sat against the wall.

Where was he? He looked around. It still looked a bit like London. He'd seen pictures of London throughout different centuries. The buildings were similar. Now he just had to figure out when was he.

John made his way back out into the bustling crowd and wandered until he found a newsstand. He looked at the date. 9 February 2003. The Doctor left him in London 2003! John felt a slight panic but then remembered that the Doctor was supposed to come back for him soon. Maybe he would figure out his mistake sooner than later? John could only hope.

He pushed his way back to where the Doctor had dropped him off. It was getting late, and the crowds were dwindling. Where could he go? He then saw people shuffling in and out of a building with "Cinema" written on it in big, bold letters. Maybe he could watch a film while he waited for the Doctor? He frowned when he realised he had no money. His frown turned into a wide grin when he remembered he had nicked the Doctor's psychic paper. John took the psychic paper out and flashed it to the man behind the booth.

The man looked at the boy curiously.

"You here by yourself?" He asked as he printed off a ticket. Thinking quick on his feet, John responded confidently.

"Oh, no. My parents are already in there." The man gave the boy another suspicious look, then handed him the ticket.

"First theatre on your left," said the man.

John smiled and thanked the grumpy gentleman as he walked into the building. He immediately felt better getting out of the cold. John looked at the ticket. Catch Me If You Can.

"Hmm," he thought as he entered the darkened room. John took a seat as the film began to play. "Maybe I can learn a few things from this," he spoke quietly to himself.

As the end credits rolled, John realised he'd fallen asleep right at the end. He wondered if the guy ever got caught. He sure was clever, even without a psychic paper. Maybe John could figure his way through life like the young man in the film had if the Doctor never came back for him? First, he felt sad, but then he just felt anger.

"Not like he cares about me anyway."

John walked out of the theatre and saw the concessions. His stomach rumbled with hunger. He again used the psychic paper to purchase all kinds of sweets, popcorn, and a soft drink. The boy then saw that there was another movie playing. He looked at his ticket and realised it was a "two for one." The film wasn't new for the time he was in by any means, but it sounded interesting. John made his way into the theatre. He awkwardly carried his bounty and took another seat, where he spent the next two hours watching "Die Hard."

After the film, John exited the cinema only to be hit in the face with the bitter cold. It was February, after all. Where should he go now? Although he had the psychic paper, being a child on his own might raise some eyebrows. He knew he needed to proceed carefully, so he didn't end up getting thrown in some horrible orphanage or something. Were there even still orphanages in 2003?

John then had an idea. He could go to a library and read up on current events and things to get a good grasp on what was proper for the time. He looked at his watch and saw it was getting late. So John began his trek to find a library.

"NO!" John exclaimed as he was pushing and pulling on the doors. "Closed." He then looked around and spotted a small shop that read "open". He made his way inside the tiny space. It looked like some kind of café, but computers were all around.

"Oh! This is one of those cybercafes!"

John made his way to the counter. The young man managing the shop looked down at him.

"Can I help you?"

"Umm, yes. I'd like to use a computer." The man eyed him up and down. "Please." He added.

The man just shrugged and told him how much it would cost per hour. John flashed the psychic paper, and the man led him to one of the available computers.

"You've paid for an hour. It will shut off when your times up." Said the man flatly. "Oh. And I know you lot like to come in here to try and look at porn, but it's blocked. You'll have to do that on your mummy and daddy's computer." The young man chuckled as he walked away.

John didn't know what "porn" was, so he shrugged and began to click the buttons on the keyboard. He'd seen the Doctor use the TARDIS computing systems enough to understand how to operate most technology. After a few minutes of trial and error, John found himself opening up a page called a 'search engine'. He started typing in any and every question he could think of to help him manoeuvre through London 2003. Starting with "what happens to abandoned children?" He definitely wanted to maintain the façade of having a place to live with proper guardians.

Slowly his searches started to become more juvenile. He wanted to know what were some common swears and insults were during this era.

He looked at the time and saw his hour was almost up. The brown-haired boy felt satisfied with the information he'd gathered as he yawned with a stretch. He was about to click "off" when he was struck with another question.

"Hmm." He thought as he typed into the search bar, "what is porn?"

He read over the definition and found it only caused him to have more questions. So he quickly typed in, "what is sexual intercourse?" The young boy's eyes went wide as he read over everything.

"So that's why the Doctor never wanted to talk to about this stuff!"

He giggled as he read more and more about the birds and the bees. Every so often, his search would turn up "blocked", and he would move onto something else. Suddenly, the machine shut off, indicating his time was up.

John stood up and made his way back out into the cold air. He hunched his shoulders. The Doctor didn't leave him with a coat. Although the boy was a Time Lord, he was beginning to shiver. Fortunately, he'd come up with a game plan. John made his way to the building he had mapped out in his mind after a quick internet search. It was easy to travel by tube with the psychic paper, and he eventually found himself standing in front of an all-boys school. John knew no child would willingly put themselves into school, but it was the only way for him to find a place to stay. He had the psychic paper and the cleverness to forge all his own documents anyway. John made his way to the front door.

"Well," he said quietly to himself just before knocking. "Geronimo."

…

The gangly young man was sitting at a bar next to his two best friends and flatmates, Andrew and Kayla.

"Come on, mate. Smile! You only turn 21 once!" Andrew shoved a shot in John's hand, to which he drank with a wince.

"Oh, God. What was that?" He said, making a disgusted face.

Andrew just chuckled as he passed him another.

John may have started experimenting with alcohol at the tender age of eleven, but the taste still made him nearly gag.

"I'm trying to loosen you up! You're turning 21 tomorrow, and you still haven't gotten laid!" Andrew was now laughing at him.

"Fuck off." Said John, embarrassed, as he shoved the young man.

Kayla piped in.

"Oh, come on, Andrew! Just because you lost your virginity at fourteen doesn't mean everyone is a sex maniac like you." She laughed as she leaned in to sloppily kiss Andrew on the lips.

John may not have had any issues making friends. He had loads of them. Well, more like friendly acquaintances, but friends nonetheless. People generally seemed to like him because he was always cheerful and had a reputation for making people laugh. The problem was that when it came to romance, his silliness and humour landed him more often than not in the friend zone. He attributed his awkwardness to his unfortunate genetic heritage of one daft old alien whom he never spoke of.

"Ahh, come now. I'm just taking the piss. Besides, I think your luck may change tonight. Look over there."

John casually looked to his left and saw a group of women around his age giggling while looking towards him. He could feel himself starting to sweat.

"I don't know. I think they're laughing at me."

"Maybe so, but at least they're noticing you," Andrew said as he wiggled his eyebrows. "Come on! At least try to get a number!"

"And if they turn out to be complete bitches, tell them Kayla would like a few words!" Yelled the intoxicated girl over the loud music.

"Always got my back," chuckled John.

John took a deep breath and downed the second shot without wincing quite as much.

"And I'll be a proper wingman tonight! Promise!" added Andrew.

John rolled his eyes. It was always like this. Andrew would drag him around the city to pick up girls, and inevitably they'd go home with one or two. Still, regardless of the number of women that came to the flat, they'd always end up in Andrews room with John left alone in his own, trying to drown out the noises coming from the room over.

But now, Andrew was dating Kayla, their third flatmate. John had met her in one of his classes his first year at uni. He thought she was cute with her adorably short stature, raven black hair and blue eyes, but they were both too similar and often got into ridiculous arguments about who was right. Nevertheless, he was happy his two best friends had found each other.

Of course, now that two flatmates were sleeping together, he had to drown out the awkward noises nearly every night.

John got off the barstool and made his way over to the table where three gorgeous women were sipping on their fruity drinks. He tried to control his nerves as he approached. He looked back just in time to see Andrew and Kayla raise their glasses to urge him on.

John coughed nervously to get the girls attention.

"Umm, hello." He said shyly.

"Hello!" they all said with giggles. John then realised he had absolutely no idea what to say next. Luckily one of the girls spoke first.

"You look familiar!" she said with a warm smile.

"Oh. Yeah, have one of those faces." John rubbed his chin.

"Do you go to St. George's?" Another asked.

"Ah, yeah, actually. I'm in my last year."

Great, so maybe he'd seen them before? Perhaps that would give him something to talk about.

"I thought so!" said the first girl. "Jill here noticed you right away." The girl was smirking at the blond sitting next to her.

"You're in the pre-med programme, right? A proper genius, I bet," the blond slurred.

"Er, I…I wouldn't say genius."

All three women were now giggling and whispering to each other, clearly intoxicated. The young Time Lord wasn't stupid and could tell they were most likely leading him on, so he began to turn around and exit the situation before embarrassing himself any further.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Jill called out. John turned in time to see her awkward smile. She was clearly not going to remember this in the morning.

"Ahh, just going somewhere…else," he said dumbly.

"Well, tonight's your lucky night!" added the third girl seductively.

John sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew he should leave at that moment, but his curiosity and possibly a smidge of horniness got the better of him, and he indulged them.

"How so?" He flashed a false smile.

"If you write Jill here's essay, she said she'd suck your cock."

John's brow shot up as his mouth gaped open. He was stunned and was NOT expecting that.

"Uhhh."

All three girls were now audibly laughing.

"Your face, ha!" cackled Jill.

'Fuck.' He thought as a much larger man came over to the table.

"Is he bothering you, ladies?" the bloke asked.

"Oh, no! We were just having a laugh. You should have seen his face when Jill offered to go down on him if he wrote her paper!"

They were all laughing at him. And not in the 'haha, you're so funny and cute' kind of way. More like the 'haha, look at this complete wanker.'

All John wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die. Would he regenerate? He hoped not.

Another girl spoke up.

"I thought he was about to piss himself. He looked so scared!"

"Okay, I'm leaving now." John started to turn around but stopped mid-turn. They were all clearly drunk and stupid. He couldn't just let them make fun of them like that. He was facing them once again.

"You know, the only reason I came over here was that my friends over there and I had a bet going." He waved over to his flatmates, who waved back, thinking John was having success. The man standing behind them was intimidating, but John didn't care.

"Turns out I won." He said flatly. The girls all looked at each other.

"What was the bet?" asked Jill. Before he could stop himself, the words just spilt out.

"Oh, that you all were a bunch of dumb bitches with no tits or arse who spend their nights getting pissed so they can forget about the fact that no one sober would ever want to fuck you."

His eyes went wide, realising what he'd just said. John quickly saluted them, spun on his heels, and walked quickly to Andrew and Kayla. But, before he reached his friends, he felt someone grab onto his shoulder and turn him around. It was the big scary bloke that had been hovering around the three girls. The man pulled his fist back, obviously about to punch John in the face. Luckily for John, he was much stronger and faster than he looked. He ducked out of the way then put his own fist right into the larger man's jaw. There was a terrible cracking noise as the man fell to the floor unconscious. The girls were all screaming, and John could see some of the bouncers making their way over.

Once his brain finally caught up to what had just transpired, he dipped back into the crowd and ran towards Andrew, grabbing his friend's arm as he pulled him out of the bar. Kayla followed. His friends hadn't seen what happened and were confused.

"Oi! John!" called Andrew.

John continued to power walk down the pavement in the direction of their flat.

"John!" yelled Andrew again. "What the fuck? What happened?"

"I may have knockedamanunconscious."

Andrew could see the panic in John's eyes.

"You what? Why?" asked Kayla in shock.

John composed himself and spoke as they walked back to their shared flat.

"Those girls. They were just taking the piss with me, and I may have…overreacted."

"Jesus, you knocked some poor bloke out because some girls were teasing you?" laughed Andrew.

Kayla shoved him in his side for laughing at John's violent outburst.

John sighed and ran his hands through his hair before pulling his flat key out.

"Well, no, not exactly. I said some things to the girls. To get back at them for leading me on, of course. Then the poor sod was about to deck me." John opened a door as he smirked. "I just happened to be quicker." He was laughing now.

"Jesus, John." Andrew tried not to laugh but seeing that Kayla had a "proud sister" look on her face, he chuckled as they entered the flat.

"I didn't think a scrawny guy like you could knock a bloke out in one hit. That's impressive. It must be because that arm of yours is always getting a good workout."

John looked at his friend, confused, as Andrew opened the fridge to get some drinks.

"What do you mean?" John sat on the sofa, and Andrew handed him a beer as Kayla followed. She was giggling now. Without saying a word, Andrew made a crude gesture with his own arm (and fist), to which John just rolled his eyes while Kayla snorted before covering her mouth in surprise. They were all a bit drunk, and the adrenaline of the moment sent them all into a fit of giggles.

"Oh, piss off," said John, then paused to take a sip of beer, but not before adding, "although, you're probably right." He laughed.

Kayla was now sitting on Andrew's lap, which was John's cue to leave the room as they began to snog.

"Ah, I'm gonna…." John gestured towards the hall, but the two weren't paying attention. He sighed and made his way to his bedroom.

John flopped onto his bed and looked up at the ceiling. He'd been able to successfully live on his own for 10 years. He even managed to get into medical school with high marks. After having such an odd start to life, he felt compelled to become a proper doctor, unlike he who shall not be named, who pranced around with the self-proclaimed title.

While on his own, the young man managed to make a good life for himself. John met Andrew when he first began at the boarding school. It was just his luck that it was close enough to the beginning of the term that the headmaster accepted John and his false documents. Andrew had been John's roommate ever since. He was also the only person who knew the truth. Well, the somewhat truth. John sort of left the aliens and time travel bit out of his abandonment story.

Most of the time, John was pretty happy-go-lucky. Even though he was biologically one and the same as the Doctor, he had a vastly different life experience, leading to the Time Lord behaving like a typical university student. Rather than the complex nature of his counterpart. He also was technically only 20 (almost 21) years old. Not over 1000. Whatever memories he'd shared with the Doctor had also evaporated along with his original body when he turned into a pile of goo. Although the scientists could bring him back physically, his mind had become a clean slate. Well, mostly.

John turned over to his side as he lay on his bed. He rarely let himself dwell on his past life. Not just his time in Victorian London or in the monastery but the time before. It was only three years ago when the nightmares began. Nightmares he knew were most likely some of the Doctor's memories. Or were they his memories? Since he technically was a copy of the Doctor. It was so confusing.

Everything was so vivid while he slept, but as soon as he began to wake, the images of strange aliens and odd scenarios would fade away. All he could remember from the terrible dreams was feeling sad or scared.

After waking, the only nightmare he could remember was seeing the face of a pretty ginger girl. She was always frightened too. And then he'd have an overwhelming sense of dread that he was about to die. The worst part wasn't the horrible creature that exploded before his eyes. It was the feeling of nothingness that came shortly after. The feeling that he had actually died. John would wake up in a terrible sweat. Sometimes he'd even found himself crying when he awoke, not really knowing why.

As the incognito alien "matured", he threw himself into his studies at uni whilst he did what the typical 20 something-year-old male would do on his off time. Free time mainly consisted of video gaming, alcohol, crude language and inappropriate humour.

But every so often, there would be a crack in his façade. He couldn't always keep how lonely and rejected he truly felt at bay. On holiday, when the other boys went to their own homes, own families, John had to sneak around the school building. Alone. Waiting for the others to come back. Eventually, Andrew's family took him in, and the boys grew very close. John considered his best friend's parents to be like his own.

Over the years, John began to understand what the Doctor had been trying to tell him about how he wasn't his father. He kept using the odd moniker, "flesh ganger," when referring to the boy. It finally dawned on him that he was a clone of the old Time Lord. He really didn't have a family. He was just a copy of the obtuse man who abandoned him.

…

The following day, John woke to the sound of music blaring from somewhere in the flat. He groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes. It was 10 in the morning. Had he really slept that long? He made his way into the kitchen and found the source of the loud Beatles' song, Birthday, coming through a portable speaker. John smiled as Andrew and Kayla jumped out.

"Welcome to the party, pal!" exclaimed Andrew as he brought John in for a hug. He knew how much John loved Die Hard and couldn't resist the quote. The wanker shared the main character's name, for Christ's sake.

"Happy Birthday!" shouted Kayla as she gave him a hug. They both had party hats on and noisemakers.

John just laughed as they placed the cone-shaped hat on his head. Kayla turned the music down and set some birthday cake on three separate plates.

"Cake for breakfast?" questioned John.

"Yes, cake for breakfast," said Kayla in a mock annoyed tone.

"It's your birthday. No rules," she added with a smile setting the plate in front of him.

"Besides. You have plans tonight, so we won't be able to celebrate with you later…." Kayla stopped talking when she noticed Andrew making wild motions indicating she needed to "shut the fuck up" as he stood behind John.

"Plans? What plans?" asked John as he dug into the cake.

"Umm. Uhh." Kayla was trying to recover her flub.

John was confused and then looked at Andrew. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, god. You set me up with someone, didn't you?"

"Sorry! It was like a week ago! I forgot to tell Kayla to cancel it because you made me promise not to do it anymore! It's just, you had a match on that profile we made as a joke a few months back, and this girl actually seems cool." He winced as he sat down next to John.

"It's fine. Really," said John as he brought his dish to the sink. "I think I'll pass, though. Don't really feel up to going out tonight. Maybe just a film and pizza?"

Andrew and Kayla looked at each other then back at John with identical faces of sympathy.

"What?"

"Well, we sort of. Have plans," said Kayla guiltily. "I thought you were going to be on a date tonight, so I bought tickets for Andrew and me to see a local band tonight."

"Ahh," said John in understanding. "No, it's fine. I mean. It's just a day. We can celebrate another time." He smiled, trying to mask his disappointment.

"John, " began Andrew, but John had already retreated to the shared loo as they heard the shower start.

…

John spent most of the day editing his papers and reading over his textbooks. Then he played some video games for a few hours. It wasn't like it was his actual birthday. He didn't even know what day he was "born." He just picked a random day when he arrived at the boarding school, and it sort of stuck. So what did it really matter?

With eyes growing tired from staring at a screen, John realised it was already approaching evening. He was tempted to watch some porn but found he really wasn't in the mood, so he closed his laptop. Taking out his mobile, John was struck with curiosity. He went to the dumb dating app that Kayla and Andrew had set up for him on one drunken night and opened it up.

He cringed at the photo they used of him. Not that it really mattered. John was certain that no angle could hide his prominent chin. He then looked to see who this mysterious girl was that Andrew had mentioned. Before seeing her photo, he saw that she was 24. He rolled his eyes. Three years wasn't much of an age difference, really. John just knew that if he had trouble getting a girl his own age or slightly younger, he highly doubted a girl older than him would even entertain the idea of going out with his pathetic, inexperienced self.

His hearts nearly stopped when he finally read the name attached to the profile.

"Clara Oswald," he whispered.

He clicked on the profile and was in shock to see her picture. John slowly stood up from the bed with his mouth hanging open.

"What the hell? It… it's not possible."

The flabbergasted young man remembered the Doctor spending years trying to "find Clara" again. Claiming that she lived multiple lives, but…could it be? John's hearts were pounding so fast he thought could audibly hear them. He opened up his laptop, and after just a few google searches, managed to find an address.

"Well, that's a bit scary," he mumbled. "Wouldn't want some crazy psycho to find her address and show up at her door."

He slammed the computer shut then threw on some trousers and the old jumper he got when he was a fresher. They were supposed to meet up at a coffee shop in an hour anyway, so he figured, "what the hell?" as he ran out the door.