The next morning, at around 5 or 6 a.m., Serena woke up to the sounds of noise. It practically startled her awake, until she was able to gauge where it was coming from and who was making the noise. The sound of a vacuum worked its way back and forth somewhere down the hall from her room, probably the living room itself. It was matched along with a voice that she knew all too well, Ash. She couldn't quite tell what he was singing at the moment, but she was more than half tempted to find out.

Getting up, she stretched out her tiredness and made her way to the door still in pajamas. Opening the door she made her way down the hall to see what her brother was up to. She noted as she reached the living room, that her brother's back was to her as he was vacuuming the floor. Now that she was out there, she could distinctly smell food cooking as well. That seemed dangerous, her brother cooking, but then again she had almost forgotten her brothers cooking capabilities. Hearing the song he was singing, she snickered at him. Especially when his voice went high a couple times on some notes. Her brother could sing, but not with headphones on, clearly.

The way he was shaking his butt like he just didn't care because he believed no one was there to watch him, just made Serena almost die inside. Her brother was a royal dork. Oh if only she had grabbed her phone to video the whole shenanigans that would have been priceless. Grinning she crept up behind her brother, hoping to be a brat and spook him just a little. Spook him she did. He was so engrossed into his singing that when she poked him in the sides he didn't just yelp, he sang slash screamed a note of a song as he dropped the vacuum and ripped off his headphones to whirl around at her.

"What the hell….oooo." he exclaimed before realizing that her sister was giggling so loudly at him that it made him blush. "Uh, hi. Morning. Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't wake me. Okay well maybe sort of did but eh." Serena stated through the fit of giggles she was throwing. She even tried covering her mouth to try and stifle it as well as stifle a waking yawn. "I would have had to be up soon anyway."

"I was just ….yeah. Um, trying to ya know, do my part and all." Ash rambled. "Just though I'd do it as a thank you. For letting me stay."

"Oh Ash…." she still snickered and hugged him. "You didn't have to do that. You're such a dork, but thanks anyway."

"Your welcome." he said bemused, he could tell she must have been feeling better after a night's sleep.

"You still are silly though," she couldn't stop giggling. "I swear, you sounded like a five year old school girl ripping off a band aid."

"Shut up, I did not." he pouted.

"Sure you did." Serena retorted.

"Did not." Ash pouted more and gave her a pathetic stare.

"Okayyy, fine. I was only teasing." she mused. "What are you cooking?"

"Eggs, bacon, the usual morning foods." Ash shrugged. "I was just about to go check on the bacon before you spoopified the hell out of me."

"Spoopified? What the heck does that even mean?" she scoffed.

"I don't know, I just….made it up okay!" Ash said hastily.

"What, did I spook you so bad you almost pooed yourself is that it?" Serena smirked.

"Oh hush you." Ash returned. "Why don't you go pretty yourself or something. Go do whatever it is normal girls do. All that frilly foo foo crap or whatever. So I can get breakfast done."

"I don't frilly foo foo." she said wrinkling her nose. "I'm not one of those sorts of girls."

"Okay well," he thought. "Go take a shower then. At least do that. By the time you done getting your sleepy looking face ready, food should be done."

"Yeah, sure, okay." she stated, dragging out the word a bit dramatically. "I'll go get ready so I can leave you with your girly singing so you don't feel all embarrassed."

"Shut up!" Ash reddened.

"It's true and you know it." Serena smirked. "I promise, I won't tell anyone."

"Right." Ash huffed. "Whatever."

"Oh don't be a grumpy goose. I'm going. Just don't burn the house down because of me distracting you. Go on." she said and then walked off down the hall.

A shower and a steamy bathroom later, Serena was more awake and ready for the day. By the time she came back out from the warm room, the food was ready and the vacuuming was done. Her brother making food and doing the vacuuming made her heart all warm and fuzzy. She joined him at the table and stared at the food. It looked better than she had expected. Especially the fact that not everything was labeled in the kitchen.

"You're lucky I'm clever and can figure out some of the stuff without labeling." he stated smugly.

"Right." she said rolling her eyes just a bit. "It does look good though. I will admit. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks."

"Well if not I can make it up to you with maybe a cup of coffee or something and a sandwich at some fast food place, okay." Ash said in a cocky response. He could have made a mistake on his own, but he'd never admit. He then reached out towards her plate to try and grab it, "Orrrr, I could just eat it?"

"Hands off Daredevil!" she slapped his hand. He recoiled trying to escape her attack.

"Ow!" he yelped failing to escape.

"Well, that's what you get for trying to steal my breakfast! But, about the coffee and food elsewhere if this doesn't work, fair." she said in approval, then took a bite of food. Luckily the food itself was good, but the coffee that had been brewed, was something left to be desired. Serena wrinkled her nose at how weak it was. "Bleh, the coffee could use a power up."

"Yeah, sorry about that. My partner before coming here only had a simple machine. Basically a pop and go sort of deal. You though, yours is super complicated, so I had to figure something else out."

"You used the microwave?" she asked.

"No." he stated. "Tea Kettle, and before you start, I know it's really redneck or whatever. I did it as carefully as I could. Wasn't easy though. I could still try and make another batch?"

"I could have said that was very British, but…" she shrugged then took another drink, finding the grain of the coffee hitting her lips. She cringed again, "Nah I'm good."

"Suit yourself." he shrugged and continued to eat his food.

The two of them finished their food more in silence. Just because they were siblings, did not mean moments could become slightly awkward. Afterwards, Serena got her things ready to go to classes while her brother cleaned up the mess that breakfast had made. Just before she was about to head out the door though, her brother went and grabbed his own things, like his jacket and cane.

"What are you doing?" Serena inquired.

"I figured I could walk with you." he stated, tugging his jacket a bit to straighten it out.

"I'm going to classes. You do realize that right." she said with justification.

"So?" Ash pushed.

"I'm not five you know, I can walk to the bus myself." Serena scoffed.

Ash gave a teasing taken aback stare, "Well then I don't have to go with you, and I don't have to possibly get you a better cup of coffee. Besides what if I want to walk just because I want fresh air hmm."

"Fine, but I was only teasing." she pouted.

"So was I." Ash nudged and then laughed. "Seriously I could use the fresh air though."

"Alright." she huffed. "Just don't let me be late."

"You won't be late, I promise." he assured doing a cross his heart motion over his chest. "Don't be so paranoid."

She swatted him before going out the door with her things. Ash only laughed at her in response and followed her out closing the locked door behind him.

"So," he asked. "Any cute guys in your class?"

"What?!" her head whipped around to look at him. "No! Not for you! Besides what part of terrible horrible icky vampire warding type of establishment do you not understand. It has anti Ash written all over it. Or, have we turned a new leaf since."

"Maybe." Ash said with a dreamy grin.

"Oh lord. Come on." Serena grabbed her brother and yanked him along.

They began to walk down the sidewalk at a gentle pace. She supposed that she could miss the first bus if she had to seeing as they ran on the half hour. She'd just be cutting it close to class. They were a good couple blocks away by the time Ash decided to speak up.

"Such a great morning." he said breathing in the fresh air deeply.

"Yeah, it kinda is isn't it?" Serena more mused to herself than asking a question.

"Well my day might be at least looking a bit up then." he said with a smile.

"Why is that?" she said giving a confused face.

"Oh I don't know, just…feels like it will." he shrugged, his cane sliding across the ground a gliding scrape fashion. He then looked in Serena's direction and tilted his head a moment before looking back straight forward, "Huh?"

"What?" she asked.

"Oh nothing." he said dismissively, he clearly didn't want to get into a debate over what he was thinking.

"Come on, it's not just nothing, it's something." Serena pressed on.

"Well, I just, I couldn't help but notice you weren't using yours." Ash stated nonchalantly.

"Using what?" she stated just a tad blond.

"Your cane," he offered. "I heard you were supposed to have one by now from mom and dad. I'm surprised you're not."

"Well, I, um," she began. "I don't need to use it right now."

"Again all I am hearing is blah blah blah internalized ableism." he scoffed. "You may or may not need it, but overall wouldn't it be better to be safe than sorry? Besides, once you start, you can eventually deck out yours."

He held up the cane he had, "Like mine."

His cane was a sort of smoky black with bright red reflective on it. It looked a bit like something straight out of Tron to be honest in design and at night the red would light up for cars to see easily. It was clear Ash was at least more comfortable with his position in life than his sister was. However, he had more years to perfect that in any case.

"To be honest," he continued. "This actually I think is handier in a place like this, than probably the standard white one you got. Especially in the winter. Mine at least won't blend in with snow like yours will."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Serena grumped. "It's just, I don't know. I'm not used to it. I don't like how it takes up one of my hands. Or how it makes me feel self-consciously. And yeah it doesn't look appeasing or fashionable. No one looks at a cane and says this could be fifty percent cooler. Or the person wielding it is still even human. It's like…it's like they equate cane to dumb or….gods forbid…alien. It's like you practically live in a whole different dimension from the rest of the world the moment you pick up one of them things."

"I know, I was there once too myself you know. It's just, the only way you're going to face it, is if you do it head on. You can't run from it forever. Sometimes the only way out is through. Besides, what's so wrong with being alien? Normality is over rated a boring. Anyway, once you stop running from your disability," he did air quotes to emphasize disability, "Or even thinking about it as such. You can learn to turn it into a strength and even make it work for you. Observe."

At that moment he looked vaguely around trying to find a way to prove a point, "The light ahead of us is still red, we are literally twenty paces from the last curb, someone across the street just gave a pan handling dude on the street corner forty five….no wait…..sixty eight cents. I smell deli chicken and deasil, so I'm sure were near a gas station. Need I go…"

He stopped, his gaze became distant as he finished his last word, "…on."

Serena was about to speak but Ash stopped her with a gesture as he cocked his head again to the side, listening.

"Do you hear that?" he said almost as if he were trying to whisper.

"Hear what? I hear traffic, and the wind. Maybe a chime from a house." she offered.

"No, not that." he stated vaguely. "Something….something else. Something more…rhythmic?"

"Nope, sorry." Serena shrugged.

"What is that noise?" Ash really wanted to know.

"I don't know, maybe the rocks finally coming loose in your head?" she teased.

"Oh hah, hah. No, this is too rhythmical. More like, an uneven washer….or drum beat, or something else that can keep a steady rhythm. Like very steady, not even the slightest variation."

He began to tap out the rhythm with the tip of his cane, the beat of it going ratta, tat, tat, tat in a one, two, three, four motion with only the slightest pause in between four and one. Serena gave him a weird stare.

"It's getting closer." he breathed. "Louder."

"Come on, never mind. Don't worry about it. I still have a bus to catch you know." she stated trying to drag him off towards the bus.

"No, wait, it'll only take a minute. I think it's over that way ish." he pointed towards the gas station.

"You don't have to prove to me your Daredevil okay. You made your point." Serena insisted.

"No, seriously!" he urged, really wanting to know what that sound was, practically OCD level of curiosity, He then bolted without her. "I mean it, it'll only be just a moment! Haven't you ever just wanted to know something! Had to know the answer!"

Exasperated, Serena shrugged a full armed "okay", before trailing after her brother who was already way ahead of her, trying to get to the gas station itself. Why her brother insisted on finding the source of a sound she wasn't quite certain. However, the sound seemed vaguely familiar, and if she hadn't been so stressed out, she was sure she would have been able to put a placement on the rhythm her brother had drummed out. Eventually she caught up to him just as he was at the door to the café part of the gas station. Ash just stood there, trying to find the source of the sound.

"I swear, it was just right there!" he exclaimed, more to himself than to Serena or anyone else. "Right there, like plain in my face there! And now….ugh! Fine, let's go catch your stupid bus."

"Ahhh, no." she stated wearily. "You managed to drag me all the way over here, so no, now we are going to go inside and you are going to get me that coffee mister."

"Fine." he mopped and gave a dramatic look as he was pulled inside by his sister. The scent of coffee beans filled the air, a very much welcomed scent in Serena's case.

"Oh stop mopping." she said as she looked back at him to make sure he got through the door, but when she did, she hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and ended up tripping on the yellow CAUTION sign that was left in the middle of the walkway, which made her not only squeak out as she began to fall, but also made her let go of her brother all at the same time. Her blood rushed as she was certain she was going to go full plant the floor, possibly face and all, until she didn't.

Before she could even get fully to her knees something stopped her decent. A pair of arms had grabbed her practically under her own arms and held her there long enough for her to register that she was no longer descending. Those same arms helped her stand back up. Heat flushed to her face as she felt super embarrassed. Of course her brother had heard the ruckus and was halfway between wanting to laugh at her sister's demise and be worried all at once.

"You should be more careful." a voice aged, foreign, and male in tone said briskly. "You alright though?"

"Yeah, um, thanks." Serena stated as the man let her go. She then stared with a glare down at the toppled over sign, "Stupid wet floor sign."

Serena's brother then couldn't help but bust out laughing a little in a snicker fit. Serena shot him a dirty look, which if he wasn't so sensitive to the world around him, wouldn't have reacted with a "shutting up" face as her eyes pierce right through him like lasers.

"You alright Serena?" Ash genuine asked this time.

"Yeah fine, thanks to this kind gentleman." she stated.

"Oh, cool. Yeah thanks dude." he stated with a nod in the older man's direction.

"Not a problem." the man stated, his accent sort of thick.

"Yes thank you, again. Anyway, Ash come on, you and I still got coffee to get, and me a bus to catch. It's not like I can just teleport to class." she urged not wanting to take up anymore of the man's time that she had run into.

"Oh come on! Can't I just-" he was cut off.

"No." she stated.

"But-" he insisted.

"No!" she stated with exasperation as she tried so hard to get him to follow her to get in line to get coffee, he wasn't quite budging though.

"Dude! Can't I just take five second to thank the man who just saved you from eating tile? Besides, the dudes got a killer accent! Very classy for Great Falls." he pouted, then held out a hand for the other man to take. "Nice to meet you."

The older gentleman raised a brow at them, but put his own hand out anyway to clasp Ash's in a quick but firm handshake. The moment Ash made contact with the other man's hand, he found the same rhythm he had before, but this time he felt it too. That same ratta, tat, tat, tat beat. It made Ash tilt his head with curiosity as well as slight concern. To him it didn't seem normal. Lips pressed into a frown he looked up in the general direction of the other man's face, "You should get that checked."

The other man's gaze was one of confusion. Again he raised a silvered brow at the younger gentleman, "What?"

"Your heart." he stated in that same sort of distant vague tone he got when he was laser focused on something faint or distant.

"What about it?" the older man stated his accent flittering in and out with ease.

"It's….murmuring." he gave with careless thought of the fact that the man before him was a stranger as far as he was concerned. "Kinda like this."

He tapped his cane again, the same rhythm as before. This somehow made the other man's face go white as a sheet and he put a free hand on top of Ash's to stop him from tapping his cane like that. The gentleman gave a look of stop doing that, but when Ash didn't respond to the stare, he could only assume he couldn't see it probably and said instead, "I'll….look into it."

"Okay time to go!" Serena stated grabbing Ash by the shoulders this time and dragging him away. "Sorry about my brother, he's had a rough week. It was lovely meeting you!"

"Serena!" he proclaimed and fussed until they were in line to order. "What was that for!?"

"To keep you from further embarrassing yourself!" she hissed and then looked over at the man who was still standing there, apparently waiting for his own coffee, and was looking at them. Her cheeks burned again and she looked back at her brother.

"More like embarrass you. I was perfectly fine!" he grumped.

"Right, and you didn't sound two bananas away from a blended shake. Nope not at all." her gaze was hard and piercing.

"Dude, easy on the lasers, I think you might be burning a hole through my clothes." he scoffed, trying to make the mood lighter. It wasn't working though and he hung his head in defeat. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."

She tried so hard to keep a stoic face, but seeing her brother with such pathetic eyes at her made her power of rawr turn into power of meh in less than sixty seconds, "I'm not mad, dork."

Serena put an arm around her brother as they waited to get their orders. The other gentleman who had saved her from eating floor must have gotten his in the time it had took for them to get theirs ordered, because by the time Serena looked again, he was gone.

"So coffee?" Ash asked going back to being happy again, knowing his puppy face had worked.

"Yeah coffee." Serena shook her head and laughed as they ordered. She look over towards the door in thought. Maybe her brother was right, maybe the day was going to look up, even if it was only just a little. All she knew was she had this strange gut feeling this was at least going to be an unusual day. She didn't know how, but she had a feeling it was going to be something different.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.

A/N: I'm sure its easy to guess who the gentleman is that Ash and Serena ran into. However, I'm giving away no spoilers meh heh heh, so if you haven't guessed yet, you'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, loved writing this chapter, one of my roommates who's been doing Ash head canon for me has been a really great help at getting Ash and Serena's dynamic down. In any case, hope you enjoyed! Please read and review!