The first thing I see when I open my eyes is coral struts. Meaning I've jumped to the Doctor with the big hair and the flirty attitude. As I'm taking in the console room, the Tardis doors open and the Doctor staggers in.

"Doctor!" I cry out, running over and supporting him before he falls.

"Mabel." The Doctor breaths out. "You're here."

"Yeah hun, I'm here." His eyes seem unfocused and there is a sheen of sweat on his face. "What's wrong. How can I help?"

The Doctor shakes his head. "Help me to the console?"

I pull one of his arms over my shoulder and help him stumble his way over to the central console. He removes his arm from me, and uses his hands to brace himself on the coral. Taking a deep breath, he presses a few buttons, then pulls the lever that sends us into flight down.

"Doctor. What's going on, what happened?" I ask him.

He grimaces, then tries to smile for me. "You promised me that you would be here when I came into the Tardis. You always know don't you?" He looks down at his hand, which starts glowing with an orange light similar to the fire that makes me jump.

I open my mouth to figure out what's going on, but the look on his face stops me. His chin trembles, eyes filling with tears. "I don't want to go." The Doctor confesses.

I take a step forward, but the Doctor explodes in orange flames. I hit the ground for my own safety. The coral struts are creaking around me. There is fire everywhere. The Doctor is screaming.

Suddenly, it stops. I look up and instead of the Doctor with the great hear, it's the bow tie Doctor.

He gasps, grabbing onto his leg. "Legs. I've still got legs. Good. Arms. Hands. Ooo, fingers. Lots of fingers. Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, I've had worse. Chin, blimey." He reaches up and touches his hair. "Hair. I'm a girl!" His voice hits a high register, aghast. But he reaches down and feels at his neck until he registers his adams apple. "No. No. I'm not a girl. And still not ginger. And something else. Something important. I'm, I'm, I'm-" Suddenly the Tardis lurches, making a god awful screeching noise.

The Doctor laughs. "HA! Crashing!" He runs around the console, frantically pushing buttons. "Ha, ha! Whoo hoo hoo! Ah! Geronimo!"

Oh my god. I knew, intellectually, that he changes bodies when he is severely hurt. But I had no idea this was how it happened. The Doctor had been screaming. I stumble my way over to the console. "Doctor."

The Doctor beams at me, manic, before he registers the look on my face. "Mabel?" He asks me, concern in his voice. I reach out with shaking fingers to touch his cheek. He leans into the touch. "What's wrong?"

"You never told me it hurt you." I say, having to swallow before I continue. "I knew you changed, but I didn't know it hurt like that."

"Oh Mabel. Braveheart Mabel." He ignores the sparking console and brings his mouth to mine. It's a gentle kiss, more for comfort then passion. "I'm okay now, it doesn't hurt anymore."

The tears in my eyes spill over, but I giggle in relief. I lean in to give him a hug but the Tardis suddenly pitches to the side. I slide towards the doors. The suddenly open doors. Shrieking, I manage to stop myself from falling all the way out by spreading my arms open. My legs are dangling out, and I chance a look. I instantly regret my decision. We are thousands of feet above London, spiraling and pitching uncontrollably.

"Mabel!" I hear the Doctor's voice call for me.

"I'm here!" I yell back, trying to leverage my way back into the Tardis. I manage to swing one of my legs up and hook it around the door frame. With an impressive display of core strength, I pull myself into the doors, closing and locking them behind me.

I run over to the console. "What can I do?" I ask, shouting to be heard.

The Doctor looks up at me, eyes wide. "Nothing! There's too much damage, we're crashing!"

The Tardis pitches violently again, and the Doctor is thrown into me. Gravity inverts itself and we are falling. Falling down the corridor, past bookshelves and into a swimming pool. I feel the Doctors hands grip under my arms and pull. We breach the top of the water with a gasp.

I kick my feet to keep treading the water and look up. The Tardis is clearly on it's side. The corridor to enter the library is now on the roof. I don't know how the swimming pool ended up in the library, but I'm grateful for it. It saved us from splatting on the wall.

Laughing breathlessly, I lean my head against the Doctors shoulder. "Would you look at that?" He exclaims. "The old girl is looking out for us, even when she is damaged."

"Yeah, she's amazing." I agree. "Let's get out of the swimming pool and find our way back up there."

We swim to the side of the pool and get out. Then we start to look for anything to help us get back into the corridor. My search is somewhat hindered by the fact that the Doctor won't let me go. I wiggle my fingers, but he just tightens his grip.

The Doctor ends up finding a grappling hook of all things, and whoops in victory. He aims and manages to get one of the round wall holes in the corridor high above us. Pulling on it to make sure it's secure, he gestures for me to go up. I grimace at him, but grip the rope.

I'm really bad at this stuff. I always hated this when we did it in gym. I make my way up slowly, the Doctor right underneath me. We finally make it to the corridor, and from there it gets easy. There are indents in the wall, probably for decoration. They are only two or so feet away from each other, so it makes it easy to climb. After a few minutes of climbing, we make it to the console room. It's still on fire, and the smoke is starting to build up. The console sparks sporadically.

I pull myself the rest of the way up, then reach down and help the Doctor up. As soon as he gets his knees on the ground, he scoots the rest of his body onto mine. Every inch, from our shoulders to our hips are touching. "Doctor!" I gasp out. "I don't think now is the best time."

He shakes his head, breath moving over my collarbone. "Not that, not now. I need the contact. Regeneration is rough on-" He cuts himself off, visibly biting his tongue.

"Doctor?" I ask him, trying to get him to look at me in the eye. "Doctor, you need to tell me how I can help you."

"I can't," He gasps out, pain in his voice.

I reach out and cup his chin, not failing to notice the way he leans into the touch. "It has to do with your telepathy doesn't it." I look around the room. We can't stay here. The fires are spreading and there are groaning noises coming from the bowels of the ship. "Look, I get spoilers and all that jazz. But at this point I couldn't give a flying crap about them. Now you are going to tell me how the fuck I can help you, then we are going to get out of here. Understood?"

The Doctor squeezes his eyes shut and starts speaking slowly "There is a type of contact. My species, they can open channels with others. Telepathic channels between people. You've always had that type of open channel with me. Regeneration is difficult." He swallows harshly. "I'm trying to reconnect with you, but this you hasn't made that kind of connection with me."

"You idiot!" I yell at him. "Make the connection then!"

The Doctor's eyes pop open, and he gapes at me. "What?"

"You say that for as long as you've known me, I've always had that connection with you right?" I push his hair out of his eyes, trying to get him to understand. "Who's to say that you don't make that connection with me now?"

"But-But you don't understand what you're saying." He stammers at me.

"No I probably don't." I scowl at him. "I know you just gave me a pg version to try and keep me from spoilers. I'm also pretty sure that this connection has a bigger impact then you made it out to have. Am I right?"

Gaping seems to be this Doctor's default expression, considering the amount of it he's been doing in my direction. "You-You" He seems to give up, letting his head fall back to my neck and laughing. "You're right." He sighs. "I can forge a shallow connection. It won't be the full connection, that will be something that might come later if you decide you want it. The shallow connection will allow us to feel each other's emotions, even when we aren't touching. It should be enough."

He grabs my hands and brings them up so they are touching the sides of his head. He does the same to me. I feel something shift in my mind, then it snaps into place. I can feel the Doctor's pain, lessening now because of the contact we have. He sighs, I can feel his relief.

The Doctor leans in, bringing his mouth to mine. His hand travels from the side of my head down my throat, and I shiver. Moving my hand to his hair, I thread my fingers through it and tug. He groans, I can feel his pleasure.

Suddenly the console sparks, some of the embers landing on us. I jerk my mouth back from his, breathing heavily. I can see how dilated his pupils are. "Wow." I breath out.

"Yeah." He echoes.

"Better now?" I ask, even though I can feel that it is. He nods. "Let's get out of here then."

He stands up, hesitantly letting go of me. He waits a beat, but when his pain doesn't come back he grabs for the grappling hook at his feet. Snapping his fingers causes the Tardis doors to open. He throws the hook up and out of the doors, yanking on the remaining rope to secure it.

Looking back at me, he bows over the rope, gesturing me to go first. I roll my eyes at him, but start climbing up. It's not as big of a climb as it was to get from the swimming pool to the corridor, so I guess that's a blessing in disguise. I can feel the Doctor silently laugh at me.

I make it to the open doors and grab onto the frame to help leverage myself up. What I wasn't expecting was see a young girl looking at me as soon as I poke my head out over the opening. The Doctor sends me a feeling of curiosity in response to my spike of surprise. I don't respond, but I climb up enough so I can hook my legs over the top and sit.

"Hello!" I say to the girl.

"Hello." She responds suspiciously. I smile. Smart girl.

"Who are you talking to?" The Doctor asks me, confused. His head clears the doorway, and he too seems startled to see a little girl standing there. "Oh."

He leverages himself up to sit on the side as well. Looking back down towards the interior of the Tardis, he starts talking. "Whoa. Look at that!"

The little girl narrows her eyes. "Are you two okay?"

The Doctor focuses on her, shifting so that both of his legs are hanging out the front of the box. "We've just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

She looks confused. "You're soaking wet."

"We were in the swimming pool." I inform her.

"He said you were in the library." She responds, voice full of disbelief. I look at the Doctor, trying not to smile. Precocious kids are the best.

"So was the swimming pool." He confirms, his amusement trickling to me.

The little girl shakes her head. "Are you two policemen?"

The Doctor turns serious, leaning in closer to the little girl. "Why? Did you call a policeman?"

The girl tilts her head to the side and answers his question with a question. "Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

The Doctor and I share a look. "What crack?" We ask in unison. His body convulses, I can feel that it's more uncomfortable for him than painful. It's enough for him to fall off the Tardis onto the ground. "Argh!"

"Doctor!" I jump down, kneeling behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright mister?" The little girl asks him.

"No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" He cuts off and breaths gold dust out of his mouth.

Yeah, cause people normally breath out golden dust. He's such a dork.

The girl looks nonplussed. "Who are you?"

Leaning back, the Doctor smiles at her as his hands glow faintly. "I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

She scrunches her face up. "No." The girl says. "It just looks a bit weird."

My face tries to twitch up into a smile, but I bite my cheek to stop it. She's just too cute.

Laughing faintly, the Doctor continues. "No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"

For the first time since I've seen her, the girl looks scared. "Yes." She responds seriously.

Well then. Girl can talk to strangers who came out of a sideways smoking box. Strangers who talk about strange things and glow. But a crack in her wall is scary. I immediately make a decision to help this little girl.

The Doctor jumps to his feet rapidly, causing the little girl to take a step back. "Well then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor, this is Mabel. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." He turns around and starts walking straight for a tree, but I lunge for his arm managing to stop him. "Early days. Steering's a bit off."

"C'mon you dork. Let's get inside." I adjust my grip on his arm, making it so that our arms are linked rather than me restraining him. I refocus on the girl. "What's your name sweetheart?"

She squints a bit suspiciously, but I can see that she's starting to warm up to us. "Amelia Pond."

"Amelia Pond!" I beam at her. "That's an amazing name."

The Doctor chimes in. "Like a name in a fairy tale!"

"Well then Amelia Pond, would we be able to get some towels?" I ask, ruffling my wet hair ruefully. "Also, could we get some food. I can practically feel his stomach growling from over here." Leaving out the part where I actually can feel that he is hungry. Like incredibly hungry.

She nods, and runs for the inside of the house. We follow behind, a little slower. The Doctor's feet are still a little unsteady. I glance over at him. "I'm concerned about this crack in her wall."

He nods. "Yes, me too." He briefly stops for another spasm. Breathing out before continuing. "I want to take a look at it before we leave."

Concerned, I purse my lips. "Is there anything I need to be aware of?" I ask him. "You keep having aftershocks. I can tell they aren't painful, but I want to know if there is anything I can do to help."

He smiles at me fondly. "You're already helping Mabel. Just keep doing what you always do."

What kind of answer is that? I send him a look. "You are such a sap."

He laughs lightly. "Yeah. I guess I am."

We make it to the front door, and little Amelia comes running back with towels. I take them with a murmur of thanks. Handing the Doctor one, I start drying off. He does a brief run through over his hair, but then rests the towel on his shoulders.

"Can I have an apple? All I can think about right now is apples." He asks Amelia.

She shrugs, but goes and brings him back one. He takes a bite out of it, and immediately spits it out all over the floor.

"Hey!" I scold him, but he ignores me.

Focusing on Amelia, his face intense. "That's disgusting. What is that?"

"An apple." She responds, confused.

He grimaces. "Apples are rubbish. I hate apples. I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favorite. Give me yoghurt."

Amelia runs off as I smack him in the chest. "Hey caveman. You have manners, you need to use them."

He continues to ignore me, and grabs the container of yogurt that Amelia hands to him. Tipping it into his mouth, he has the same reaction that he had with the apple. It flies out of his mouth and smacks on the ground with a splatting noise. "I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in."

Face disgusted, Amelia argues with him. "You said it was your favorite."

He wipes at the yogurt around his mouth. "New mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" His body convulses, and he brings his hand up to smack at his forehead.

Amelia hesitates for a second before asking. "What is it? What's wrong with you?"

The Doctor stares down at her. "Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something!"

I raise my hand, and shove it into his face. "No." I say to both of them. Pointing at the flailing Doctor I start with him. "You! You are going to clean up this mess on the floor, then you are going to sit down at the table and wait for me to fry you up something. You are not having a 6 year old girl work a stove by herself."

Amelia looks unimpressed. "I'm seven." She tells me.

I nod at her. "Seven then, you still aren't going to use the stove while there's a perfectly capable adult around to do it for you. Why don't you grab your favorite food and join that sap when he's finished cleaning up after himself." I gesture at the Doctor, who's on his knees wiping at the floor with a towel. He's grumbling, but I can feel that's he's not really upset.

I busy myself at the stove. Considering the reaction he had to the other food, I was going to guess that he would go through a couple different types before he was satisfied. Keeping that in mind, I fried up some beans and bacon. I even buttered up a piece of toast.

I bring the items over for the Doctor, but before I place the plates in front of him I give him a stern look. "No more spitting things out into the floor. If you don't like I will finish it."

The Doctor has a look of incredible patience on his face. "Yes dear, can I eat now?"

Placing his plates in front of him, I nod, ignoring his sass. He makes a face at both the beans and the bacon, but the bread seems to have mortally offended him seeing as he decides to throw the plate, bread and all, outside.

"We got some carrots?" Amelia offers.

The Doctor looks at her like she just said the stupidest thing he's ever heard. "Carrots? Are you insane? No. Wait. Hang on. I know what I need." He runs over to the refrigerator and opens the freezer portion, rummaging around. "I need, I need, I need fish fingers and custard."

At this point I make a face. Fish fingers and custard? Ugh. I'm fine with leftover beans and bacon, thanks. He bakes the fish fingers and then comes to the table to eat with me and Amelia. He dips his fish fingers in the bowl of custard, enjoying the taste.

Amelia giggles at him. "Funny."

"Am I?" He asks. "Good. Funny's good." He stares at her for a second. "Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No." Amelia scoffs. "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."

I lean forward. Now that everyone is settled it's time to ask the question that's been bugging me for a bit now. "So what about your mom and dad? Are they upstairs? I'd have thought we would have woken them by now."

She shakes her head. "I don't have a mom and dad. Just an Aunt."

"Okay, so is your aunt upstairs?" The Doctor interjects.

"Nah," Amelia denies. "She's out."

The Doctor and I exchange another look. "And she's left you all alone?" He asks, upset.

She rolls her eyes. "I'm not scared."

"Course your not scared." I say to her. "You're not scared of anything. Box falls from sky. People fall out of box. Just look at you. You're sitting there, cool as can be. So you know what I think?"

Amelia narrows her eyes at me. "What?" She asks.

The Doctor leans forward a bit. "Must be one hell of a scary crack in your wall."

Her face falls. I can see that she is still upset about it.

I nod decisively. "Wanna show us this crack now, Amelia?"

She nods a little meekly. The Doctor finishes his last fish finger, then gets to his feet, stretching. We follow Amelia up the stairs and into what is very evidently her room. There is a long jagged crack in the wall.

Rushing over to it, the Doctor starts touching the wall around the crack. "You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen." He says.

Amelia comes into the room, looking down at the apple that she has in her hand. It has a smiley face carved into it. "I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." She reaches out and offers it to the Doctor.

He takes it, throwing it up into the air and catching it, then puts it in his pocket. "She sounds good, your mum. I'll keep it for later." He refocuses on the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing. Where's the draft coming from?" Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he scans it.

He finishes the scan, bringing the screwdriver up to his face. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"

"What?" Amelia asks.

Looking surprised, The Doctor continues. "It's a crack. But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."

Confused, Amelia looks up at him. "Where is it then?"

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom." The Doctor presses his ear up to the crack, before pulling back in surprise. "Sometimes, can you hear?"

"A voice? Yes." Amelia responds, voice low.

A low groaning noise comes through the wall. The Doctor grimaces. From the frustration blooming from his mind, I can tell he isn't able to hear as well as he wants. Looking around I notice a glass on Amelia's bedside table. I grab the cup, dumping the water, and hand it to the Doctor just as he whirls around for something. "Thanks dear." He tells me, taking the cup and pressing it against the wall. "Prisoner Zero-" The Doctor starts.

"Prisoner zero has escaped." Amelia finishes. "That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

He pulls back from the wall. "It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?"

"What?" Amelia asks.

"You need a better wall." The Doctor grabs the desk in front of the wall and drags it away so he has more room. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or-" He cuts himself off, looking over at her guiltily.

She swallows. "What?"

He pauses, staring at her. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

Rolling her eyes, Amelia lets out a longsuffering yes.

The Doctor holds out his hand for her, and widens his eyes. "Everything's going to be fine." She takes his hand. I come over and place a hand on both of their shoulders, feeling fond. The Doctor is rather good with children. He looks over his shoulder and smirks at me for a second before refocusing on the wall. He points his sonic screwdriver at the crack and activates it.

The crack widens. Light floods into the room. "Hello?" The Doctor calls out. Nothing happens for a couple of seconds but then a giant eye zips over and starts looking through the crack, startling us.

"What's that?" Amelia whispers. A bolt of blue light flies through the crack, hitting the doctor in the hip and making him fall over. The crack groans and then creaks shut.

The Doctor laughs breathlessly. "There, you see? Told you it would close. Good as new."

She shakes her head. "What's that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No." The Doctor refutes. "I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message." He pulls the psychic paper from his pocket and shakes it for a second. "Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message." Looking down, he finally reads what's on the paper. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us? Unless."

I look at him sharply. "Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here."

"But he couldn't have, we'd know." He tells me, stalking back into the landing. He makes a noise of frustration. "It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing." Slowly, he turns his head. "In the corner of my eye."

Before anything can happen, I hear the Tardis make a gong noise. Panic crosses the Doctor's face and he takes off down the stair case. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

He takes off through the garden where the Tardis is still on her side. Grabbing the grappling hook he starts threading it through the doors. "I've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"

"But it's just a box. How can a box have engines?" Amelia asks him.

Still busy, he responds. "It's not a box. It's a time machine."

She scoffs. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilized. Five minute hop into the future should do it." He tells her while throwing the extra rope in through the doors.

Amelia bites her lip. "Can I come?" She asks, voice shy. Oh sweetie.

He shakes his head, climbing up onto the side of the Tardis. "Not safe in here. Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."

Amelia's face falls. "People always say that." That seems to get his attention. He looks over to her properly for the first time since the Tardis gonged. Pulling his feet up and out of the interior, he climbs down and kneels in front of her.

"Am I people?" He asks her. "Do I even look like people? Trust me. I'm the Doctor." She smiles at him and he backs up towards the Tardis. Jumping up, he immediately grabs the rope and falls down into the depths of the interior. "Geronimo!"

"Hey! Doctor! Wait for me!" I cry, lunging for the side of the box. I hear a faint splash, and the doors slam closed. The Tardis starts to dematerialize. I gape at the disappearing box. He's just left me here.

I feel a tug on the bottom of my shirt. "Don't worry." Amelia says, smiling up at me. "He said he'd be back in five minutes." Easy for her to say, she doesn't know what a crappy driver he is.

Regardless, I follow her back into the house. She runs to her room to do something, but I clean up the kitchen from the mess we've made of it. Around ten minutes later, Amelia comes down with a little red suitcase, all ready to go. She runs out to the garden, sets her suitcase down and waits for the Doctor.

I frown. It's been more than five minutes. I also don't like the fact that prisoner zero might be somewhere in this house. I search around, trying to find any clues but nothing jumps out at me. Deciding to go check outside, I find Amelia asleep on her suitcase. Poor girl must have tuckered herself out with all the excitement.

I pick her up and bring her inside. Carrying her to her bed and tucking her in. I go back out and grab her suitcase, placing it under her bed. It's getting earlier, her aunt is probably going to come back home at some point, so I can't stay. I have no idea how I'd be able to explain everything without getting thrown in jail. I'm just about to leave, but I hesitate. I can't leave without letting Amelia know that this wasn't a dream. I find a sticky note pack on her desk. I grab a pen and write out, 'He'll be back at some point. 3 from space.', tacking it up on her mirror for her to find later.

Then I start the process of figuring out what the heck I'm going to do.

I hang around rather close for the first couple of days. I'm in the woods mostly, there's a stream and I find some berries that work for food. When it becomes clear that the Doctor isn't going to show up, and that I'm not going to jump away, I start trying to figure out living situations. I can't live in the woods forever. There are several issues with this though.

I only have the clothes on my back. I don't have my wallet, and falling into the pool had killed my phone. I managed to filch a newspaper from the trash and was dismayed to find that it was 1996. Even if I were to somehow find my way back to the United States I wouldn't be able to do anything. Time wise, I was three years old at the moment.

It was tough, and it took a lot of sleeping on park benches and washing dishes for meals, but I managed to find myself a steady job.

After a year of hanging around Leadworth, I finally saw Amelia again. We ended up having a very hushed conversation about what had happened. She gave me the silent treatment for months, but I think she eventually realized that the Doctor didn't just leave her here too. Once she started talking to me, I got roped into babysitting her and her friends more often than not. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to me.

Time passed and I stopped waiting for the Doctor to show up. I was angry with him at first. For lying, for leaving me here. But eventually, my anger cooled into resignation. There wasn't much I could do about it.

Eventually I was able to look on our adventures with fondness. I only traveled with him for around five months, but I had seen all kinds of wonders. It had been so easy to get swept up in the magic. Looking back on our interactions, I wondered if maybe I had just been looking to much into his actions. People see what they want to see after all. Maybe he knew he would be leaving me here, and had tried to make our adventures as fun as possible.

As Amelia grew up, I was struck by the resemblance between her and the Amy that I met in the Doctor's future. There was also the fact that she had a friend named Rory. The day she started demanding to be called Amy really sunk it home. She does get to travel with her fairytale man from the stars after all.

Six years after I got stuck in Leadworth, I made an investment. Bought a little newspaper shop in the heart of town. We sold little odds and ends, kind of like a convenience store. It wasn't much, but I worked hard and made enough to live comfortably.

Life continued, until one day the radio at work started repeating the same thing over and over again. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated." I frowned at the radio. Prisoner Zero was the creature that had escaped through Amelia's wall. Closing up the shop, I headed out into the main park square, making my way quickly towards Amy's house.

I was distracted by a flash of red, and looked over. Amy was walking down the lane wearing her kissagram police officer outfit, arguing with a raggedy looking man. Oh. Not just a raggedy man, the Doctor. It was the Doctor!

My chest clenched in pain. It's been a long while since I've seen him. Almost in reaction to that, he snaps his head up and focusses on me. There was a second where nobody moved, but then he was running towards me. Faster than I've ever seen him run.

The Doctor crashes into me, not even attempting to stop. His arms crush me to him, desperation in every line. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He breathes into my neck. "I promise it was just supposed to be five minutes." He pulls back to look at me, eyes pausing around my mouth and eyes. "Twelve years."

I shift uncomfortably. "Hello Doctor." He doesn't seem to hear me. Reaching up, he touches the lines I know that are around my eyes. I jerk my head back, starting to get angry. "Oi!"

"Twelve years." He repeats, sounding sad.

"Yes," I reply, annoyed. "I'm well aware of that." I shift in his arms again. "Can you let me go, Please?"

The Doctor slowly removes him arms from around me. He stares into my eyes in a way that reminds me that he's not human. Like he's seeing inside of me. Oh, Oh! I had actually forgotten about the connection he had formed all those years ago. He probably can see inside of me. I clamp down hard on my emotions, throwing them in a metaphorical box and closing the lid. He winces and opens his mouth to say something but he gets interrupted.

"Hem, Hem." Amy says from beside us. "I think we have bigger things to deal with right now, like oh I don't know, alien shapeshifters and giant eyes threatening to burn the Earth."

I nod, looking over to the Doctor. "Doctor? She has a point."

He purses his lips, face falling into frustrated lines. "I suppose she does."

Suddenly the sky above us goes dark. "What?" Amy says in disbelief. "What's happening? What's wrong with the sun?"

The Doctor's face is serious. "Nothing. You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet." He looks out at the people in the park. They're all pointing their phones up to the sky, taking pictures. "Oh, and here they come. The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."

Amy shakes her head. "This isn't real is it? This is some kind of big wind up."

I look over at her. "Oh Amy, you know better than that."

"Oh!" The Doctor exclaims, reaching up and smacking himself in the head. "No. Hang on. Shut up. Wait. I missed it. I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw-" He trails off, eyes going distant before he refocuses on us. "Twenty minutes. I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me."

Amy glares at him. "No."

The Doctor falters. "I'm sorry?"

I silently laugh at him. He's not used to people telling him no I guess. But that's Amy for you. Good on her. She's worked hard to get past what's happened.

Amy continues. "I know what I've heard about you. The Doctor. Healer and wise man. The man who saves civilizations." She pokes him in the chest violently. "But really, who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a time traveler. Everything I told you twelve years ago is true. What's happening to the sky is real, and I'm going to do my best to stop it." He tells her, but even I can see that's she's unconvinced. "Just twenty minutes. Just believe me for twenty minutes." The Doctor pulls the apple that little Amelia gave him twelve years ago. "Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes."

Amy spins away from him, rubbing her hands over her face. "Fine, okay. What do we do?"

The Doctor beams. "Follow that nurse!" He yells as he takes off into the park, us trailing after him.

He runs right up to Rory and grabs his phone. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"

Rory twitches. "Amy, Mabel?"

"Hello Rory." I smile at him.

Amy half grimaces in his direction. "Hi! Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend." She directs to the Doctor.

"Boyfriend." Rory clarifies.

"Kind of boyfriend." Amy is quick to correct. Oh Amy.

The Doctor ignores her. "Man and dog. Why?"

Rory gapes at him. Finally seeming to notice the clothes. "Oh my God, it's him."

Amy's impatience boils over. "Just answer him, please."

Pointing at the Doctor, Rory continues. "It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."

I nod. "Yep." Popping the p.

"But he was a story. He was a game." Rory looks so very confused.

The Doctor grabs Rory and shakes him a bit. "Man and dog. Why? Tell me now."

"Sorry." Rory stutters. "Because he can't be there. Because he's-" and the Doctor mouths the next words with him. "In a hospital. In a coma."

"Yeah." Rory finishes.

The Doctor releases Rory's shirt and leans back pleased with himself. "Knew it. Multiform, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind."

The sound of barking comes from behind us, making us all jump and turn. There's a man, holding a leash to a dog. Would be a pretty normal sight. But the barking noises are coming from the man as well as the dog.

"Prisoner Zero." The Doctor informs me. A ship with an eyeball in it flies in and starts scanning around. I hear Rory in the background asking about prisoner zero, but the Doctor starts talking and I miss out on Amy's reply. "See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He lifts his screwdriver up into the air and starts making everything go haywire. Car alarms go off, vehicles start driving on their own. Streetlights are exploding.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" He directs to Prisoner Zero before he points his screwdriver at a red telephone box closest to the multiform. It explodes, but so does the screwdriver in the Doctors hand. "No, no! No, don't do that!" He cries to the piece of ruined technology.

The eye spaceship zooms off. Rory comments on the fact that it's leaving and the Doctor looks up, panicked. "No, come back. He's here! Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is-"

Amy cuts him off. "Doctor! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain."

The Doctor scoffs, frustrated. "Well, of course it did."

I smack his arm and give him a warning glare. Just because he's upset doesn't mean that he gets to take it out on us.

"What do we do now?" Amy asks.

The Doctor grimaces, but makes his tone less snappish. "It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No Tardis, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!" He yells at himself.

Amy sighs. "So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?"

My head snaps over to look at her. "It was in your house?" I asked, voice shrill.

The Doctor winces briefly, then looks at me in confusion. "Multiforms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit-stop." Oh god. It was in her house the whole time and I never knew. It could have killed her at any point. My stomach feels like it drops to my feet.

Amy narrows her eyes at the Doctor. "So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"

The Doctor shakes his head at her accusations. "They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because I am."

"What's he on about?" Rory asks incredulously. I honestly don't blame him. I remember how I felt when I first met the Doctor and he started spouting off.

The Doctor focusses back on Rory. "Nurse boy, give me your phone." He holds a hand out in preparation.

Instead of giving him the phone Rory looks to me and Amy. "How can he be real? He was never real."

"Phone. Now. Give me." The Doctor interrupts, looking highly impatient.

Rory finally hands it over, but not before he starts grumbling. "He was just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him."

The Doctor scrolls through Rory's phone. Going into the gallery, he sees pictures of several different people. "These photos, they're are all coma patients?" He asks Rory.

"Yeah." Rory says.

The Doctor raises a finger in Rory's direction. "No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

Amy's face scrunches up in confusion. "He had a dog though. There's a dog in a coma?"

His head tilts a bit. "Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog." The Doctor's expression lightens. "Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good-looking one."

Deadpan, Rory responds. "Thanks."

Amy's eyes flicker to Rory before she focuses on the Doctor. "Jeff."

Looking contemplative, the Doctor starts rambling. "He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop." Pointing at Amy and Rory, he continues. "You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done." Then he takes off, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him.

"Hey!" I object, trying to free my hand. The Doctor is obstinate though, and refuses to release me.

"Doctor!" I start to say, but his head shake cuts me off. We sprint through a garden to a house and barge in through the door. The Doctor finally lets me go to run down a hallway. Mrs. Angelo comes out of the kitchen. "Oh Mabel dear, what are you doing here."

Not saying anything, emotionally exhausted from this day already, I just point towards her grandson's room. She moves down the hallway and I hear her ask the Doctor what he is doing.

I go to sit on the couch. Closing my eyes, I inhale deeply while scrubbing my hands over my face.

I stopped hoping for the Doctor to come back a long time ago. Now that he's here I don't know what I should do. I know that Amy, and eventually Rory are going to go traveling with the Doctor. Part of me wants to go back and travel with him too, but I've rebuilt my life here. What if something like this happens again?

Only the Doctor could make me go through this roller-coaster of emotions. I inhale, then exhale my emotion. I continue to do this until my simmering emotions feel dull in the back of my mind. Good. Now I can face this rationally.

The Doctor runs out of the back room, gesturing for me to follow him. I run with him until we come up to a fire truck. "Seriously?" I ask him.

The Doctor smirks at me, then climbs into the driver's side, me scrambling after him. He reaches into his pocket, before freezing. "Forgot you burnt out your sonic screwdriver, didn't you?" I tease him.

His face flushes, and he mutters for me to shut up. Rolling my eyes, I reach up and pull the visor down. The keys fall into his lap. "How did you know that was here?" He asks me.

I shrug. "It's a small town."

Grimacing, he turns on the truck and starts driving towards the hospital. I don't speak and neither does he. Rory's phone rings and he throws it over to me for me to answer.

"Hello!" I say into the phone.

'Mabel!' Amy's voice filters through to me. 'We're at the hospital, but we can't get through.'

I suppress the urge to facepalm. "Amy, look in the mirror." I hear Rory in the background asking her what I said.

'Look in the mirror.' There's a pause. 'Ha ha! Uniform. Are you on your way? You're going to need a car.'

I smile proudly, though she can't see. "Don't worry, we've commandeered a vehicle."

The Doctor sends a smug look my way, reaching up to turn the sirens on the fire truck on.

A couple minutes later, Amy calls again. "You got in yet?" I ask her.

'Yep.' Amy responds. 'But so's Prisoner Zero.'

Concern makes my voice sharp. "Amy you need to get out of there!" She doesn't respond, but there is a lot of background noise. "Amy? Amy, what's happening?" The Doctor glances over, concerned. "Amy, I'm serious, talk to me."

'We're in the coma ward, but it's here. It's getting in.'

I grit my teeth in frustration. "How close are we?" I direct to the Doctor.

"Almost there." He assures me. "Ask her which window she is."

I put the phone back up to my ear. "Amy which window are you?"

'What, sorry?' She responds.

"Which window?" I ask again.

There's a pause. 'First floor, on the left, fourth from the end.'

"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end." I tell the Doctor before focusing on the phone again. "Thank you, now I need you and Rory to stay far away from the windows." I hang up and press the button that elongates the ladder on the top of the truck.

It crashes through what I hope is the right window. We both scramble out of the vehicle and climb up the ladder, the Doctor first. He climbs in through the window and immediately starts doing what he's best at. Talking.

"Right! Hello. Am I late?" He looks towards the clock. "No, three minutes to go. So still time." Reaching over, he helps me climb off the ladder. There's a woman, holding hands with two little girls. The multiform, I would presume.

The mother tilts her head, staring at us unnervingly. "Time for what, Time Lord?"

He saunters closer to the multiform. "Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

The multiform looks unimpressed. "The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."

The Doctor laughs, but it isn't a happy laugh. "Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."

"I did not open the crack." The multiform states.

The Doctor narrows his eyes at her. "Somebody did."

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" The multiform tilts her head to the side, coming to a realization. "You don't, do you?" Her voice turns into the voice of a little girl. "The Doctor in the Tardis doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" Finishing with her taunting, the multiform changes back to her adult voice. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." For some reason the sound of that sends ice down my spine.

"And we're off!" The Doctor exclaims, pointing at the clock. It reads 0:00. "Look at that."

"Yeah, I know, just a clock. Whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is? The word is Zero." The Doctor smirks at the multiform. "Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here." He finishes, holding up Rory's phone. I hadn't even realized that he grabbed it when we left the fire truck.

A light shines in through the windows. "Oh! And I think they just found us!" He says, voice bright.

The multiform rolls it's eyes. "The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

Nodding, the Doctor agrees with her. "Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooo, and being uploaded about now." He presses a button on the phone. "And the final score is, no Tardis, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" Seriously? I reach over and smack him in the chest. "Oh, I'm never saying that again. Fine."

The multiform doesn't look scared. "Then I shall take a new form."

Scoffing, The Doctor argues. "Oh, stop it. You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

The multiform twists the woman's face it's wearing into a cruel smirk. "And I've had years."

Oh god. I understand right before Amy collapses on the floor. "Amy!" I cry out.

Scrambling over to us, the Doctor puts his hand on the side of Amy's face. "No! Amy? You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."

Rory stands up slowly. "Doctor."

The Doctor turns around and sees himself. "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"

I look up from Amy's body. "That's you."

Looking confused, the Doctor looks from me to the multiform again. "Me? Is that what I look like?"

"You don't know?" Rory asks incredulously.

Jumping to his feet, The Doctor shrugs. "Busy day. Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"

Little Amelia Pond comes out from behind the Multiforms version of the Doctor, clutching his hand. "I'm not. Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."

Pausing, The Doctor takes in the scene. "No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me." He lunges for Amy again. This time placing both of his hands on the side of her face. "Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."

I stand up. The multiform is demanding he stops, but then starts to glow like it is changing again. It takes the form of an eel like creature, hanging from the ceiling.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself." The Doctor says to it.

A booming voice comes in from outside the windows. "Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained."

Prisoner Zero hisses. "Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall." Then it disappears in a rush of light. Hopefully the Atraxi takes care of it properly this time.

The Doctor goes over to the window, but he doesn't look pleased. He takes out Rory's phone again and starts typing on it.

Rory looks up at him. "The sun. It's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over." The Doctor walks by him, patting him on the head as he goes.

Amy shifts, starting to wake up. "Amy!" I call out, relieved. I stroke her hair. "You're awake."

"What happened?" She asks, voice thick and slow.

Rory leans in. "He did it. The Doctor did it."

"No, I didn't." He says to us, continuing to type on Rory's phone.

Rory finally notices what the Doctor is doing. "What are you doing?" He asks.

"Tracking the signal back." He tells Rory, concentrating. "Sorry in advance."

"For what?" I ask the Doctor.

"The bill." The Doctor responds, distracted. He presses one final button and then brings the phone up to his ear. "Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article fifty seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here, now." He throws the phone back to Rory. "Okay, now I've done it."

The Doctor walks over and grabs my hand, leading me from the room. I've given up on making him stop. I can vaguely hear Rory protesting in the background but we're to far away for me to hear him properly.

"Where are we going?" I ask him.

"The roof. No wait, hang on." He responds before changing direction suddenly and pulling me into a changing room. Amy, then Rory, stumble in after us.

"What's in here?" Amy asks him.

The Doctor starts rummaging around in people's lockers. Grabbing articles of clothing and examining them. "I'm saving the world - I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."

Rory starts protesting again, but I can tell it's just to try and impress Amy, so I don't pay it any mind.

I spot a familiar shirt and go over to grab it, offering it to him. He takes it from me, pressing it up against his body so he can see it in the mirror. Humming thoughtfully, he pats me on the shoulder before continuing his search. He pulls a pair of trousers and shoes out of one locker. In the next locker he comes away with a pair of suspenders.

He drops the clothes in a pile next to him on the floor and starts stripping.

"-And now you're taking off your clothes. Amy he's taking his clothes off." Rory stammers.

I can't see The Doctor's face, but I'm assuming he's scoffing as he responds. "Turn your back if it embarrasses you."

At this I direct a sharp look to Amy, twirling my finger in a circle. She sends me a dirty look, but my glare is stronger than hers. She turns around, grumbling the whole time and Rory mouths a thank you in my direction. The sound of shuffling comes from behind us.

"Hmm." I hear him say. "What do you think?" I turn. He is clothed, thankfully, and holding up two jackets.

The one on the right is a green trench coat. The one on the left is the familiar tweed that I am used to. "The tweed, definitely the tweed." I say to him.

He smirks at me, throwing the tweed at me to hold as he goes over and grabs several different fabric strips for bow ties and laying them around his neck. I mean they don't look anything like bow ties now, but I kind of know that's what he is going to end up wearing in the future so I can guess.

The Doctor starts walking towards the roof, wearing his confidence like a cloak. It's amazing what a new outfit can do for a man.

He slams the door to the roof open, and saunters over to the waiting Atraxi.

"So this was a good idea, was it? They were leaving." Amy asks, tone worried.

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." The Doctor tells her. Directing his full attention to the Atraxi, he raises his voice to be heard. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now."

The eye drops out of the spaceship, scanning the Doctor. "You are not of this world." It tells him.

"No." The Doctor responds, pulling his suspenders up into place. "But I've put a lot of work into it." Looking down at his selection of ties, he holds them up to the Atraxi. "Oh, hmm, I don't know. What do you think?"

The Atraxi ignores him. "Is this world important?"

"Important?" The Doctor scoffs. He throws one of the ties behind him and hits Rory with it. "What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here. Is that important?" He throws another tie. "Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

A 3D model of the Earth pops up. Several scenes from around the world flash by. "No." The Atraxi responds.

The Doctor takes the last remaining tie he has around his neck and starts to tie it. "Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

More scenes flash. "No." The Atraxi says again.

Nodding, The Doctor continues. "Okkaay. One more. Just one. Is this world protected?" The projection starts showing images of robot looking creatures and things that look like pepper pots. "Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many. And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?"

The projection starts showing the Doctor's other faces, as well as several different women. He reaches back and takes the jacket out of my arms, putting it on. He takes my hand and encourages me to step forward. I have just enough time to recognize my own face in the projection before the Doctor has us walk through it. "Hello. I'm the Doctor, and this is Mabel. Basically, run."

The eye ball seems to shake for a second, before it zips back up into it's ship. The ships starts spinning frantically and it takes off into the sky. We watch it leave, but then I hear a sound like the Tardis is materializing, and the Doctor jumps. He takes a glowing Tardis key out of his pocket, and beams down at me. Tugging on my hand, he runs towards the doors to the roof.

I roll my eyes, but let myself get pulled. We make our way back to the Tardis, and find her looking brand new on the outside. "Okay," The Doctor breaths out, squeezing my hand. "What have you got for me this time?"

He presses his key into the lock, and I get to see the look of wonder on his face as he opens the doors. "Look at you, oh you sexy thing!" The Doctor looks over at me, and I shoo him into the interior with a wave of my hands. I've already seen her like this before after all. He shoots off, all gangly limbs. Laughing softly, I walk in and the doors close automatically. I lean on them and watch as the Doctor spins around in delight.

My amusement quickly fades though, as he starts pressing buttons and initiating the sequence to take off. "Doctor!"

He ignores me, and I dart over to him grabbing his hands to stop him. He breaks my hold, and grips me around the stomach with one arm to pull me away from the console. With the other he finishes the sequence and pulls the dematerialization lever, sending us off into the vortex.

I struggle out of his hold and spin away. "What the hell are you doing?" I question him, hands balling into fists at my sides.

He looks at me, face serious. "We need to talk."

I involuntarily take a step back. "No, I don't particularly think we have anything to discuss."

The Doctor makes a noise of frustration, and stalks forward towards me. I take a step back for every step forward he takes, until I'm backed up against a railing. He grabs my wrists with his hands. "Twelve years Mabel. Twelve years."

Glaring up at him, I struggle against his hold. "Like I said earlier, I'm well fucking aware of that." I pause my struggles, narrowing my eyes at him. He's been grabbing me and pulling me around all day, and I'm not going to let it happen anymore. "You need to let me go, or I'm going to make you let me go."

The Doctor's face is set in stubborn lines. "Not until you talk to me."

Well, I did warn him. He's so close to me that it's easy to slip my leg between his and bring my knee up. "Oph!" The Doctor starts to curl up, collapsing towards the floor. I twist my wrists breaking his hold and slipping around him. Darting around to the other side of the console, I watch him closely. Waiting to see what he is going to do next.

He stays curled up for a second, before blowing out a large breath of air. Turning so that he is sitting on the floor, he raises his hands. "Guess I deserved that. I'll stay right here, okay Mabel?"

I frown at him. "I'm not a wounded animal Doctor." I move so there is about ten feet between us and sit down as well. "So what do you want to talk about so badly that you took off without Amy?"

The Doctor sighs, resting his hands on his knees. "I didn't mean to leave you for that long. It was only supposed to be a five minute jump. With all the damage and disarray in the console room, I thought it best to just do it by myself." His jaw clenches. "It was a minute for me, at most."

I tilt my head to the side, confused. "Yeah, I figured that part out already. I stopped being angry about this a long time ago Doctor." I smile at him softly. "After I got over myself, it was kinda fun to remember the trouble we got into."

He shakes his head sharply. "What do you mean, got over yourself?"

Flushing, I'm a little embarrassed. "Well, y'know." I say, hoping that he will let me keep it at that. He just stares at me. Guess not. "I was young, and all this was really exciting. You were kind, and I took that out of proportion." Laughing lightly, I shake my head. "I was angry, and hurt when you left me here. It didn't make it any better that I was starting to catch feelings for you. But, like I said, I got over it."

The Doctor puts his head in his hands, shaking it slightly. "Twelve years, good job Doctor." He mutters. Looking up at me, I can feel his resolve press through the connection we share. "I'm tired of the rules."

"What are you talking about?" I ask him.

"I'm talking about our rules." He tells me. "The rules that we put into place. With how often we meet out of order it's necessary. But right now, everything is balancing on the end of a pin. It can so easily tip one way or another." His eyes catch mine, almost hypnotic. "I know you Mabel Falkov. I hurt you. I didn't mean to, but it happened. And it's so much easier to tell yourself that you just imagined everything, to say that it didn't happen, then it is to actually let yourself believe. Because that hurts. That someone you cared for basically abandoned you. I'm telling you, you didn't imagine anything."

I bite my cheek harshly, feeling the skin split and tasting blood. It helps me focus. Makes the tears recede. "You can't say those kinds of things to me Doctor. Not now." The Doctor inhales from across the room, then leans forward urgently. "No, don't move. I had nothing when you took off. It took a long time, but I built myself a life here. I won't-I can't-" I clamp my mouth shut before something comes out that I will regret.

The Doctor is basically vibrating where he's sitting. His hands are clenched, knuckles white against the glass floor. "Mabel." His voice is strained.

"I don't think I could do something like that again." I admit to him. This seems to break his restraint, as he darts to his feet and is at my side in what seems like a second.

"Mabel, please." He kneels down, looking at me in the eye. "Please, one more chance. Just one."

I look at him. His emotions are all over the place, but desperation is the strongest. "Why?" I ask him plaintively. "Why does it matter so much to you?"

"Because you matter, and I'm going to make you see that." The Doctor tells me, voice insistent.

My face scrunches up. "What kind of bogus, campy answer was that?"

His face clears, expression lightening. "My kind of answer!" Jumping to his feet, he starts twirling around the console and rambling.

I tune him out, looking down at the glass floor. I have a feeling this is going to end in tears, my tears. But I can't say no. I could never say no to him when he got all insistent in the past, and it looks like I can't do it now either.

I stand up, watching the Doctor flip switches and generally look like Christmas has come early. Smiling unconsciously, I feel a faint tendril of fondness for the man in front of me.

The Doctor's head snaps in my direction, beaming. "There you are!"

Whoops, I must have projected that. I hunch in, clamping up again.

"C'mon Mabel." He teases me, coming closer. "That wasn't so bad was it?"

"Meh." I grumble at him.

The first couple of weeks are difficult. I miss the people I got to know back in Leadworth. I wonder what people think happened, if my shop has been closed.

I miss Amy, Rory, and Mels. I care for them a great deal. With the amount of time I spent over at her house babysitting, I was far more of a caretaker to Amy than her aunt was. And Mels keeps getting into more trouble than I can get her out of, but at least I had been there to help her when I could.

I ask the Doctor several times to go back to Leadworth, but he keeps refusing. Citing the fact that he has a time machine and can go back at any time. Yeah, cause we all know how his track record with ending up in the right place is. Unfortunately, it's not like I can fly the Tardis back on my own.

I even bring up Amy. He had promised her when she was a child that she could come with him in the Tardis, at least for one trip. The Doctor promises that he is going to go back for her, but right now his primary focus was me.

The Doctor waits. He waits, until even I am itching to go out and do something. Then he whisks me away. Candle lit dinners at expensive restaurants, then more impressive hole in the wall eateries. And dancing, there always seems to be dancing. Also, the occasional overthrowing of empires and the general running for your life that comes with traveling with the Doctor. I know what he's trying to do, the sap. Trying to woo me. I resist, but everyday there is a new place or a new gesture of kindness, and my resolve starts chipping away.

I start to open up more. Actually explore what the connection between us can do. It's kind of like a tv show on in the background. I can tune it out if I want to focus on something else, but I can always check on it when I want to. Loud bursts of emotions always filter through. Found that out during a Yrenthian ball. First time I ever got kidnapped. I woke up in a strange room strapped to a table. Turns out there were slave traders mingling, and I caught their interest.

It was a panic fueled 4 hours, but it probably would have been worse without the Doctor. I could feel his determination to find me, and the black rage that someone had taken me in the first place.

So we traveled. Got into trouble, and into fun. Eventually I stopped asking to go back to Leadworth. I no longer wanted to anymore. It was around the one year mark that I lost my self imposed battle. The latest adventure had us running from some sort of space pirates. The Doctor had accidentally, on purpose, insulted the captain of the crew, and now we were dodging gun fire and frantically trying to get back to the Tardis. We managed to just barely get inside the doors, but it was a close call. Pretty sure hair got singed there.

I look over at him, and he looks over at me. "That was ridiculous!" I burst out, starting to laugh.

The Doctor laughs with me and as I look at him, I come to a sudden realization that despite my best efforts, I've gone and fallen in love with this man.

Laughter fading, I reach out and put my arms around his neck. Guiding him down, I pull him into a kiss. At the first touch of our lips the Doctor moans and grips at my hips like I'm the water he needs to survive. He turns us so that I am pressed against the door. Nipping at my lower lip, he pulls back to rest his forehead against mine.

Both of our breathing is harsh. The connection we share is wide open, reflecting his growing desire to me and mine to him.

"Wow." I breath out.

The Doctor giggles, a high happy sound. He uses his grip on my hips to twirl me around into an improvised waltz. The connection practically sings with his exaltation. I rest my head on his shoulder, reveling in the feeling.

"Thank you." He whispers, placing a kiss on the top of my head.

"Sap." I tease him, fond.

"Always." He promises.

We sway there, enjoying each other's warmth, until I feel a long forgotten feeling.

Closing my eyes in resignation, I curse this ability. The Doctor pulls back, taking in the glow that's flowing down my skin. His eyes are sad.

"I don't want to go." I tell him, lip trembling. Not now.

"Braveheart Mabel." He says to me, and my world burns bright.