Stupid bloody shoes. Stupid bloody skirt. I was swinging the former by their straps in my right hand, while rubbing at a beer stain on the latter with my left. My feet were killing me, I had a raging headache and I wasn't entirely sure where I was.

Gary and his friends had shown up twenty minutes late. We'd gone into the club and I'd been all set to have a good time. It was a while since I'd done this kind of thing; a while since I'd hung around with people my own age. I was looking forward to just forgetting things for a bit. I loved being with the Doctor, I loved travelling with him, but sometimes, just sometimes, it all got a bit intense. I'd seen so much since I'd known him and I'd learnt so much. It was nice to do normal things just occasionally.

And yes, this was normal. I totally recognised this situation. It hadn't taken Gary long to set his sights on someone else. He'd wandered off over an hour ago, and his mates had followed suit. After only three hours in the club, I'd stumbled out alone.

I just knew what the Doctor would say if I went back now. Well, he wouldn't say anything, he never did. But I'd be able to feel his criticisms in the air. So I'd have to kill some time, wandering around. Anyway, it wasn't like I was entirely sure where I even was. The roads all looked so different once the sun had gone down properly and there were so many other people around, all milling in different directions. It had been a fair old walk from the where the TARDIS was parked, I could remember that much. And vaguely the direction. But apart from that I was lost. The best idea I could come up with was heading towards the beach and following it round.

A sharp pain in my right foot made me look down. I lifted my foot up and looked at the bottom. There was a long cut running lengthways down my foot that turned red as I looked at it. Scarlet blood trickled down my foot. It started throbbing. I looked down at the ground. There was a smashed bottle on the floor. Bloody great.

I hobbled over to a wall and sat down. My foot was almost covered in blood by now. I hadn't known my foot could bleed so much. It was hurting too, and for the first time in quite a while I felt like crying. It had been a horrid night, even before Gary had abandoned me. I'd felt so exposed without the Doctor by my side, and I felt daunted by all the crowds in the club. He'd become my safety net, my support. I felt so lost without him there.

"What have you done?" He looked down at me, his hands shoved in his pockets, his hair ruffled, a big oil stain on his cheek. His voice was slightly patronizing, slightly amused but his face said it all.

"I cut myself." I shrugged nonchalantly. "It's fine."

He produced a handkerchief from his trouser pocket. "It looks deep. How did you do that?"

I accepted the cloth grudgingly. "I trod in some glass. You better not have used this to wipe your oily hands on."

"Why aren't you wearing your shoes?" he asked, frowning, then his grin overtook his face again and his eyes shone. "You can't walk in them, can you? Yet another pair of shoes you can't walk in!"

"It's not funny."

"So where's your friend then? This Barry or whatever his name is."

"Gary." I glowered at him. "And he's inside, I… I was tired, I decided to leave early." I wasn't giving him the satisfaction of knowing I'd been ditched. He'd tease me about it for weeks.

"Oh right." He nodded. "Well. Can you walk?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It hurts."

He nodded. "Right. Well, the TARDIS has locked me out anyway."

I looked up from inspecting my foot. "You serious? What's she done that for?" She'd only done that a few times in the past, when he'd annoyed her too much. "Have you been messing her up again?"

"No! I never 'mess her up'!" He was extremely defensive about this. "I repair her! She's just being a typical female, irrational, emotional. I should have asked Mickey on this trip, at least he'd even it all up a bit."

"Nah, that would be all we'd need," I said without even thinking. I bit my tongue.

The Doctor luckily had either not heard or chose not to comment. "Right, how shall we get you back home then? You sure you can't walk?"

I nodded. Much as I hated admitting it, I was in a lot of pain at the moment.

"Okay. Only one thing for it then." Before I could protest he'd scooped me up and was carrying me. He pulled a face. "I'm definitely not getting any younger."