Author's Note: Whoo, I'm actually able to post today! I'm sitting in an airport with a long wait so I figured I might as well make good use of the time lol. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Chapter 5

Rey was on him in a moment, her staff inches from his face. "You're not the Doctor," she said, her voice low. "And you can't fool me, because I've met him. And you don't look a thing like him."

He stared her down, somehow managing to loosen her grip on her staff by his gaze alone. "I am the Doctor," he said, "and I'll thank you to believe it. Now if you could just—" He made a lowering motion with his hand. "Not a big fan of having weapons pointed directly at my face."

She lowered her staff slightly, but kept herself in the doorway, ready to attack if he tried to pass. "You want something with the TARDIS," she said, meeting his gaze steadily. "What is it?"

"I want to go inside, because it's my TARDIS." He raised an eyebrow. "And I don't seem to remember inviting you in."

She edged away, just slightly, still keeping her gaze fixed firmly on him and her staff at the ready. "If you really are the Doctor—which is completely impossible—you actually did. Now." She circled a little more, as if to let him pass. "You seem to know quite a bit about this ship, considering you got inside. You help me find the Doctor, and I'll let you in."

"And that's another thing." He crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe and facing her with disconcerting calm. "How did you get inside? The TARDIS doesn't just let people in."

"Stop with the questions!" She approached him, her staff pointed at his face once again. "Or I will use this! This ship is the Doctor's!"

He shrugged. "You do a lot of threatening for someone who seems to have a fondness for keeping that staff two inches away from my face and not doing anything with it. And for the record, the Doctor stole it from the Time Lords. And that's me. So if you just let me past, I can prove to you I can fly this thing."

She lowered her staff again, just a little. "Alright. If you can fly this, you can help me find the Doctor. But if you harm a single piece of it—"

"This coming from you?" He raised an eyebrow and nodded towards her staff. "You obviously took pieces off of the ship for that thing."

"For the record, I found them lying around," she retorted.

Wait—how had he known? It wasn't that obvious—

In a moment, he had pushed past her and was standing at the console. "She's restless—uncomfortable," he muttered, stroking the side of the console as if to subdue an anxious animal. "She's never uncomfortable." He turned back to Rey. "Alright, so you're from the future, that's clear enough. And obviously I've regenerated between now and….you. You need to leave. You're already messing with the timelines enough, just being here. That's not supposed to happen."

She faced him, moving her staff back to attack position. "And just leave you with the TARDIS?" she snapped.

"That's the expectation, yes."

"Then no." She met his calm, hard gaze with an equally calm, hard gaze of her own. "I'm not leaving until you prove to me that you can be trusted with this ship. If you'll help me find the Doctor—"

"I am the Doctor." And turned back to the console. "And no. So leave."

She sighed. "Alright. So we're stuck. I'm not leaving and you're not doing anything until I leave. So what now?"

"I can see why my future self likes you," he muttered, flicking a lever. "Always was one for the persistent ones."

"You act like you're speaking from experience." She narrowed her eyes. "Like you remember. Look, whoever you are, you're good. But can't expect me to fall for this. It's not as if you can just change your face—"

"Actually, I can. Regeneration. Time Lords' way of cheating death." He stared up at the center column, and his words were absent, as if he hardly realized he was speaking. "Something's wrong…."

And then he turned and was shoving past her, darting out into the foggy night. He whipped something from his pocket and she heard a familiar wobble—

She was on him in a moment, her staff pointed at his face. "What did you do to him?" she hissed. "No one gets a hold of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. No one."

He didn't answer. Instead, he held out the sonic screwdriver for a moment, pointing it at the tip of her staff. The tip of her staff clattered to the ground, along with the screws that held it in place.

She spluttered. "Did you just—"

"Sonic screwdriver," he said. "Does everything. Including unscrew things."

She blinked, looking between her half-disassembled staff and the stranger who stood before her. "Alright. You can't be the Doctor. But if you can just help me find him, maybe I'll trust you." She jabbed her tipless staff forward. "Maybe."

"Time energy." She turned at his voice to see that he was no longer looking at her, but was staring out through the darkness. "This whole town's soaked in it."

She blinked. "What?"

"Time energy. Pockets of it everywhere. That's why she's uncomfortable." He shot a glance back at the TARDIS. "Close those doors, will you? We're going to find the source."

She shook her head. "Look, I know ships. And I know that pilots know their ships like the backs of their hands. But I have never, ever seen a ship to be uncomfortable. It's a ship, it's not a—"

"I meant what I said. She's uncomfortable." He started forward, the sonic screwdriver pointed in front of him. "She's trying to get as far away as she possibly can. Which means it's this way."

She huffed, leaning down to pick up the end of her staff and shoving it in her pocket. "So we're going towards it," she said.

He turned towards her, and a grin broke across his face. "Yep!"

She sighed. "Maybe you are the Doctor," she muttered, before starting after him.