Edited: 5/7/2020

Warnings: Mild Language

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Chapter Five: Into the TARDIS

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I was jerked from my thoughts by the sound of the door closing. The Doctor breezed by on his way to the console and remained silent as he set the TARDIS into motion.

After a few moments of trying to not fall into the floor or vomit, the room stopped stilled. The Doctor turned around to face me, leaning his back against the console with his arms crossed.

He got straight to the point. "Start from the beginning. All of it."

I was happy to comply. I told him everything, from waking up on the side of the road, to being in the wrong body, to the medallion and the vision with the Mirror Girl. It all came out in a bit of a rush. I hadn't had anyone to talk to about what had happened over the last year, and it felt amazing to get it off my chest. I may have glossed over the pain and turmoil I had suffered through. I mentioned visiting Clive, but left out the part where I hinted at the Autons. The Doctor hadn't met Jack yet, so I didn't mention him at all.

The Doctor stayed silent throughout the story, staring at me unblinkingly with those piercing blue eyes of his.

"So… yeah…" I trailed off, mentally begging him to say something.

He continued to stare at me for a moment, thinking.

"So, this Mirror Girl," he started slowly, "you talk about her like she's someone else, even though you saw her in a mirror."

I nodded.

"And you're sure she wasn't you? You weren't just leaving yourself a message and forgotten?"

I furrowed my brow thoughtfully. "I don't know. She just always seemed like someone else. Like, it never really occurred to me that we were the same person." I drummed my fingers on my knee distractedly. "I mean… I thought about it. The idea… you know… occurred to me. But, it just… it never felt right, like…"

I twirled my hair in my fingers, trying to figure out how to explain. "Like… it was like I was looking in a mirror and thinking to myself… except it wasn't my mind that was doing the thinking. Like someone else was in there too, cause I was thinking something completely different at the same time. I don't know, she just… she didn't feel like me." I narrowed my eyes and stared at the floor grating, trying to draw back up the sensation of the vision. "I didn't like her."

"What makes you say that?" The Doctor asked seriously, his brow furrowed.

I popped my knuckles absently. "I don't know. Just a… bad feeling, I guess. She just didn't seem nice. Like…" I glanced up from the floor back into the Doctor's face. "Like when you meet someone for the first time, and they give you this sort of bad feeling, a… vibe. And you just want to stay away. She was just… unsettling and… and cold."

The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "What's the last thing you remember, back in your universe?"

"Umm... I was at my dorm, I think. On my laptop, writing a paper." It was a foggy memory, but the last thing I could consciously remember doing. "I was in a Theater class, and we had to go to a few of the plays that my University was putting on. I had just got back from one of those, so it was probably around 10:30 or 11:00 at night. I wanted to go ahead and finish the critique I had to do on it."

"What play?"

"Othello."

The Doctor nodded again. "Do you remember anythin' else? Anything that might've suggested that somethin' was off?"

I shook my head. "No. I mean, I had a headache, but that's not unusual. I used to have bad allergies and it was the middle of March, so everything was blooming."

"Anything else you can tell me about Mirror Girl?"

"Uh… she was skinny. Like, really skinny." I patted my stomach to demonstrate. "Super thin. Thinner than I am now. In the vision and when I woke up, she was basically emancipated. Literally skin and bones." I had made an effort to gain some weight in the last year, so I at least kind of looked healthy. "Is that important?'

"Everything's important," the Doctor answered, voice distant. He straightened up and wandered around the console, lost in thought. He stopped and fiddled with a few switches, not looking at me. "Ever owned a pocket watch?"

He asked the question so nonchalantly, so casually that it nearly broke my heart.

"I know what you're asking," I answered. "And no, I don't think so. No pocket watches. Just the medallion thing I gave you." I watched him quietly for a second. He was staring at his reflection in the console glass. "I'm sorry," I added quietly.

"Why should you be sorry?" He responded, snapping out of it, suddenly too cheerful for it to be how he actually felt. "Tell me more about this tv show. If what happened today with the Nestene Consciousness was on this… Doctor Who … how did it compare to the real thing?"

"Pretty accurately," I admitted. "Most of it, anyway. Like, parts of it were scary accurate… same sentences, same movements… down to the facial expressions… but…"

"But what about the other parts?"

"Well, I mean, I'm here. So basically everything that was said or done to… accommodate… me was different. Like me telling Rose to get in the TARDIS, or the questions she asked me… when you grabbed my hand on the bridge… that was different. Then you have background stuff that just wasn't happening on screen. And then, like, the Nestene Consciousness was different…"

"Different how?"

"You know, real. Because when they did it in my universe, it was fake. CGI from 2005. It looked fake. Same goes for the TARDIS." I gestured around the room. "The basic idea is the same, but there's a huge difference between there and here."

"What about us, the people, I mean?" He patted his cheeks. "You had to have actors playing us. Do we look the same?"

"Yeah. Exact." I thought for a second. "I think you might be a little taller… but then again… I'm shorter than I used to be."

The Doctor smirked. "What's my actor's name?"

"Christopher Eccleston."

"Is he any good?"

"Kinda have to be to pull you off."

"Shame," he said, a playful twinkle in his eyes, "I would've liked to see him work."

I had to bite my tongue to avoid saying 'you can' out loud. I had the episodes, so it would be the work of a moment to show him Rose, the one we had already done. Really, that's probably what I should've done, but for some reason the idea was extremely unappealing. Maybe it was because we'd already had a rough start; the idea of being on a tv show had been tough enough for him to swallow. And if I were in his position, would I feel better if I actually saw the footage? No, I would not. Not to mention if he knew I had them, he might straight up make me show him all of them despite his no foreknowledge warning. What if he thought they were too dangerous and deleted them?

I swallowed the lump that had risen in my throat. I really needed those episodes.

The Doctor sighed and rubbed his eyes. The facade was wiped away like a layer of makeup. I watched him pace slowly around the console, plainly lost in thought. He retrieved the medallion from the inside of his jacket and toyed with it absently, caressing and polishing the already shiny metal until it positively glowed.

Was he going to explain it? I bit my tongue to keep from asking.

After several minutes ticked by in silence, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the console, staring at the object in his hands as he addressed me.

"I need to think this through. You should probably get some rest. I know humans need a lot of it." He jerked his head to one of the dark corridors that branched off from the room we were in now. "Down that hall, second right, down a bit, third left. That'll take you to the bedroom area. The TARDIS'll pick you out a room. Go on, I'll be in here when you wake up."

"Thank you," I said politely as I stuffed my laptop back in my bag and shouldered it quickly before scurrying off in the direction he had indicated.

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My heart skipped a beat, or several, as I ventured deeper into the place that had, before now, only existed in my imagination. I had seen bits and pieces of the TARDIS in various episodes, primarily in 'Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS', but that limited image of this wondrous place wouldn't be accurate for another few centuries.

The corridors themselves were… well, corridors. Smooth and metal, just like you'd expect in an alien ship, but the scifi aura almost bordered horror. The once shiny steel was dusty, stained, and seemed to stretch forever into a dark abyss. An eerie feeling creeped up my spine as I trudged along, only able to see about ten feet in front of me at any given moment, guided only by the occasional emergency light.

I was safe on the TARDIS. Not in some horror game. What were his instructions again? Second right, third left? Or was it second left, third right? Then again, it could be third left, second right.

Crap. I paused at the second corridor that branched off from the right of the one I was on. I REALLY didn't want to get lost. I had never had a great sense of direction, so if I got lost, there was no going back. I could tell that the Doctor already had a relatively low opinion of me, so I really did not need to add 'got hopelessly lost in the TARDIS' and 'can't follow simple instructions' to the list of reasons why I should not be allowed as a travelling companion.

My heart pounded anxiously in my ears as I followed my first instinct and scrambled down the new corridor that branched off to right. I counted the following three left corridors as I jogged along the seemingly endless maze of rusted steel.

Finally, I came to a door. Like everything else in this metallic wasteland, it was cold, dingy, and worn. Much to my dismay, it was also closed. There wasn't a handle. I ran my hands frantically along the rough material, trying to ignore the fear creeping up my spine. Three doors to the left, right? I had counted three. And this was the left. Hopefully I could retrace my steps and find my way back to the console room… but I didn't want to have to ask him again.

I started back the way I came, hands shoved in my jacket pockets. This was so fucking embarrassing. He had said second right, third left, hadn't he? I was sure of it. Almost sure, anyway. I stopped at the end of the corridor. I couldn't ask again.

I spun around and marched back down the creepy hall. Maybe I had just miscounted doors.

Unfortunately, I hadn't miscounted the first time. I found myself standing in front of the same god damn door, staring at it with my hand on my hips, annoyed and starting to panic.

Still not going to ask. This had to be the right door. Maybe I just wasn't doing it right. I ran my hands along the metal again. This wasn't just some random ship, now was it? This was the TARDIS, a sentient, impossibly complex machine. Maybe she was just…

"Please?" I whined piteously, leaning forward to rest my forehead against the door.

…Dicking with me.

My hand came into contact with a large round button on he thick metal door frame that had definitely not been there before. I pressed it and the metal sheet in front of me slid away to reveal a slightly better lit hall.

I glared up at the top of the door frame and sighed. Definitely dicking with me. I wasn't sure if that meant she liked me, or really didn't.

"Thank you," I directed wearily at the top of the door frame, hoping I wouldn't piss her off.

The newly opened hallway was significantly different to the corridors I had been in. It was reminiscent of an old hotel that had once been worthy of five stars - fifty years ago - and had gone downhill since then. The floor was covered with faded red carpet. The walls had once been a regal gold color, but the wallpaper was starting to peel. The pale, dirty looking light came from a elegant golden chandelier that hung from the high arching ceiling, draped with cobwebs. The place smelled as old as it looked; a heavy musk clouded the stale air and made breathing undesirable.

I chewed my lip and toyed with the straps of my bag, glancing at the variety of doors that flanked the walls. Even though I didn't know what the TARDIS interior had been like in the past, I could guess that she had seen better days. Everything was old, worn, and clearly hadn't been occupied in a while.

Which room was mine? I reached out and jiggled the ornate doorknob of the room closest to me.

Locked.

I tried the next one down. Locked again.

A whine bubbled in my throat. I really didn't want to have to go through this again.

I gave the third doorknob a jiggle and turned at the sound of a door creaking. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled at the sight of the door directly behind me slowly opening, revealing a seemingly impenetrable wall of darkness beyond.

I swallowed in a fruitless attempt to replace some of the moisture that had left my suddenly-dry mouth. There was nothing dangerous in the TARDIS. Well, nothing dangerous that wasn't supposed to be there. And even if the TARDIS didn't like me, it wasn't like her to intentionally put passengers in danger.

One step, then another, and another, and I was across the hall, peering into the dark room. Once I was out of the harsh light of the hall, I could tell that the room wasn't really dark at all. From my vantage point in the doorway, I could see an open space that seemed to be drenched in evening light, which streamed in from a large set of windows on the opposite side of the room and illuminate the shiny hardwood floors.

I stepped in the rest of the way so I could see the rest of what appeared to be a very large, spacious studio apartment. To the right of the room was a couch, coffee table, and what appeared to be a gigantic bean-bag nest/chair/thing that was as tall as I was, all surrounding a flat screen tv set. To the left was a large four poster bed with squashy looking purple blankets and pillows, flanked on either side by bookcases. Straight ahead, on the other side of the room were large, rounded windows, through which I could see dark green leaves and even a few tree branches. To the right of the windows was a screen door, which I assumed led to the outside-inside-the-TARDIS.

I hurried over to the door to investigate and stumbled, having not seen the step up that seperated the living room area from the bed and window section. I regained my balance, happened to glance up, and gasped.

The ceiling wasn't a ceiling. The walls stretched up and up and seemed to fade out into an evening sky in a very Hogwarts-y fashion. Clouds, bleeding red from a sunset I couldn't see, inched slowly from one side of the room to the other before seamlessly fading away into the distance.

I must've stood there for ages, just watching the extremely realistic sky and trying to remind myself that it wasn't really the sky above my head. It was an illusion. I was inside. Inside a spaceship.

My heart fluttered until I thought it would burst.

I was in the TARDIS.

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Responses to comments:

That's Balderdash: Thanks fam :D I always look forward to your comments.

H : Excited screaming is a great writing motivator :D I'm so so glad you're enjoying it :)

scarlet rose white : It's good to hear that Buffy is easy to relate to. And you'll probably get to see bits and pieces of the Doctor's POV whenever it's beneficial to the story, but that probably won't be till later on :)

time-twilight : Buffy gave him the medallion that she woke up with, I'll go more into detail about what it is later on. The story is going to sort of follow the time line with stuff added in because Buffy is there. I'm not going to go into detail on the chapters that follow the canon because I know what's happening, you know what's happening, and Buffy knows what's happening; so I'll skip around a bit on those chapters unless Buffy has anything to add to the plot, like I did for the episode Rose. I'll g ahead and tell you that this will eventually be a pairing but it'll be a while before that really starts going anywhere *wink wink* ;)

skye-speedy : Kind of spoiler, but since it's going to be a while before I lay out all the answers, I'll go ahead and tell you that it's much more complicated than her being a Time Lady.