She saw him, and her heart ached way too much for it to be okay. Leather jacket, dark shirt, black pants, big ears, shaved head, tough guy look. She ran up to him, gripping his jacket tightly. Christopher was too old to look this young, so reasonably she was either insane or in the past. She hoped for one, but she probably got both. Figures. The man looked back at her and she silently clutched his leather jacket. Her head was bowed, she couldn't look at him just yet, but gripping his leather jacket was enough.
"Oh, fantastic! I was just looking for someone! Can you tell me what year it is?" He asked, and she knew it wasn't Chris speaking. Her grip tightened, and she scowled up at him. He looked shocked.
"Damn, you don't know either? What the hell," She muttered, releasing him after a moment's hesitation. She didn't intend to scowl at him. It was just… Pain and hurt and hatred. Hatred filling her entire body, and she shoved it aside.
"What human doesn't know the year?" The Doctor asked, and she froze. She just mentally referred to him as the Doctor. He was Chris, and she was insane. Stop hallucinating.
"One who travels in time, one who has been touched by a Weeping Angel, one who's been pulled through the Time Vortex, one who's drunk off their ass, someone tired on New Year's, the list goes on," She muttered to herself, walking away to ask another person. She knew the Doctor - her hallucination - would not say the correct year. She just needed anyone to tell her the year, and she'd stop hallucinating. It was 2019, or 2020? Maybe 2018, but either way, it would snap her out of the stupid hallucination. Her scowl returned when her hallucination walked beside her. Couldn't it have been someone she didn't care for? The ninth Doctor was her favorite, followed closely by the actual ninth canonically revealed during the fiftieth anniversary.
"How do you know about Weeping Angels? Or the Time Vortex?" He asked, and she sighed heavily. She walked up to a random man that she didn't recognize. Perfect.
"Excuse me, I'm a bit off my arse, but what year is it?" She asked, waiting for the perfectly reasonable answer.
"Is your mate looking for the year too? It's 2005," the man replied and her world broke. Her eyes closed and she nodded.
"Right, yeah. Sorry, thanks bro." She muttered, walking away. She slowly walked towards another person, asking the same question. Her walking sped up as she went to the next person, and the next, and the next. Finally she stopped, looking towards the curious man next to her.
"Please tell me your name is Christopher Eccleston and that I'm just hallucinating," She asked, voice giving out and her whispering the last bit.
"Okay! My name is Christopher Eccleston and you're hallucinating. Better?" He asked, and she scowled at him.
"Damn it, just once would you STOP FUCKING ME OVER!" She yelled to the air above the street, sighing as she looked back at the Doctor. No way that that man was Chris.
"Now I am. Thanks. I'm going to go kill myself now. Enjoy your year! It'll be excellent, I promise." She muttered, walking towards the London Eye. She knew there was a lake somewhere around there… She saw it in an episode of Doctor Who.
An hour has passed, and she was still walking. Still attempting to just wake up. She loved the Doctor, and all of his adventures, yeah, but she didn't want to have adventures with the Doctor! She just wanted to cry in her room full of clothes parts of boxes and Doctor Who merchandise while rewatching the cringe-fest that the 2005 reboot first season was, with bad quality, okay acting until the fourth episode where it got better, and plenty of just pausing the episode to just stare creepily at the Doctor. The Ninth Doctor. The best and the better. The most human Doctor there's been.
In her opinion, anyways. She knew that there were some intoxicated on David's sexy lover-boy Doctor who couldn't hold himself back without a person there, and others in love with Matt's quirky adorableness, a few enchanted by the older Doctors - like the Fourth - and a few enamoured with the Twelfth. She never got to watch the thirteenth Doctor's season, having gained her obsession with the Ninth just before the chick aired her first episode. Sad, she was looking forward to it. Now she was in a coma having a great dream that she hated.
She finally made it, and just didn't stop walking, about to fall straight into the water when she was stopped. She didn't bother trying to stop whoever tried. When they left she'd try again.
"Look, you obviously aren't in your time. I can take you back home, I promise, just come with me." A heavy northern accent said, and she sighed heavily. Sure. She'd try. She hated her house almost as much as she hated this dream, so maybe visiting her home - never the correct sight in her dreams - would wake her up. Or make her realize that it wasn't a dream.
"2018, 19, or 20. United States of America." She muttered, walking with him to a familiar blue box. She gave him her address, and he took her there in October, as was her request. She gripped onto his leather jacket, and sighed as she made her decision.
"This isn't my dimension, I don't think. Come with me? I just want to check something before you leave me at a stranger's house," She uttered, and the Doctor looked at her confused. He asked questions, but her head was full of smoke and cotton. She couldn't hear or think of anything except what she was doing. She knocked, coming face to face with a familiar face. They didn't recognize her.
"Hey, I'm here to check out the house- I heard it was going up for sale? If you let me check it out, I can buy it off your hands immediately, no matter the wear and tear of it." She muttered, and her mother let her in excitedly. Her mum didn't know her, she thought dully. Hadn't she wished for that quite often? Why did it hurt so much, then? She was showed around. She met her sister's, and was told their life story as her mum told all strangers. The only one missing, was her. She stared blankly at what once was her room. At what was her room, in another universe.
"Hm, it's a nice house, and I'd love to buy it, but there's a few problems. Maybe fix up the doors a bit? It just seems off to me. Sorry, mu-ma'am. I'll come back in say, a week? Maybe I'm just having a bad day. Thanks, bye." She muttered, walking out, the Doctor behind her.
"Why'd you go and do that? I thought that was your address?" The Doctor asked as they walked the few blocks to his TARDIS.
"The woman that was showing us around looked so happy, Doctor. She looked so young," she whispered in awe, "And the tall black one- the one with acne- she was successful! She had her life all planned! She was a singer and a model! The woman looked so proud," she finished, voice breaking.
"That woman hadn't met me, Doctor. That woman was my mum, and she was so happy and she hadn't met me." She whispered, noting the Doctor's grim face. He understood her, she knew. She understood him, too.
"I haven't told you my name," He finally asked, looking at me.
"TV show- I was obsessed with it in my universe. It was about this man, the Doctor, who went on adventures, usually with a companion by his side. He was a Time Lord, and he was just having fun while trying to save people whenever he ran into trouble- which was always. He had this blue box, a police box from the 50's, called the TARDIS. It was bigger on the inside. It was glimpses from another universe brushing past ours, ideas, events, and a few people made them into a show." She explained weakly, just waiting to be left behind as a nutter.
"Was the actor who played my character Christopher Eccleston, then?" The Doctor asked, and she nodded. She grinned at him.
"Way nicer man, he was. Charming, nice, easygoing. He was fantastic, too. He made the show better, in the end. Oh, I'll miss being able to stare creepily at you for hours on end, letting myself pretend that I could stop your pain," She muttered, near-silent at the end. She was insane, obsessed, and hadn't snogged the living hell out of him. She counted that as a plus, since it was better than River or Amy Pond could say. Of course, the Doctor hadn't met them yet.
"Oh, sounds like you like him more than you do me," The Doctor said, partially joking.
"Never," she spat, "He was nice, but he was an actor. Who knows how he really was, away from the cameras and reporters? I've never met him personally. I know you, though. Good and bad, really. Oh, but you'll hate me for that, ouch. My childhood crush, burned at the pyre," She finished sarcastically. She was saying too much, she knew. But she couldn't stop, she needed him to hate her and throw her away, because if he didn't, she knew she'd end up messing with the Doctor's timeline.
"What's your name? You look familiar," he commented, and she stopped. Oh, last time he said that. Two words. Prime. Minister. He stopped too, looking back at her pained face.
"I swear if I'm famous here- oh! Oh, if I'm famous here." She muttered angrily. Just once, for everything to either stay bad or never go bad in the first place. The thing she hated most was the Doctor's luck she had. She liked that term, she just named it that then. It was true, though. Things went bad, and they were fixed, with one more person hurt and lost, one more crack on the multitude of hidden not there cracks. She hated it. She just wanted to have all bad or all good, she didn't mind the darkness, but what the hell, just stop being so passive-aggressive, life.
"Why would you be famous here?" The Doctor asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. She answered without thinking.
"Because last time you asked someone if you knew them they were the Prime Minister of Great Britain." She muttered. She immediately winced. Ooh, that wasn't good.
"Last time? I don't recall ever…" He trailed off, an idea popping up, "Oh. A TV show. You know the future, my future, don't you?" He said flatly.
"Yes. And I could save millions if I just…" She trailed off, shaking her head.
"No but seriously, what's your name?" He asked, and she hesitated. If she was famous, her name would have changed.
"Ruby Rose," she lied easily. She knew that if her famous self met her, that they'd try killing each other. Not because of any "I'm the only one" stuff, but more because… Because we'd hate the other. Hoping that we'd end up dead as well. That's just how her mindset worked.
"Hm, must've been mistaken. Wouldn't your mother be the same, though?" The Doctor asked, confused. Newly dubbed not-the-anime-character Ruby Rose shook her head.
"No. Name, family, blood. None of it matters to me, because the only family I knew was adopted. White parents black children." She genuinely stopped at his confused gaze. She gaped at him.
"Woah. You really don't care for domestics. Um, it doesn't matter. None of it does, just go back to London and er, enjoy finding out your next adventure." She muttered, stopping a ways away when they finally reached the TARDIS. The Doctor stopped, looking confused at her.
"You aren't going to come with?" He asked, assuming that she wanted to after all she told him. Ruby grinned at him.
"There's no place for me with you, Doctor. You have such great adventures, just… When the Bad Wolf runs, just know that you aren't alone." She muttered, grin fading. The Doctor accepted it, and looked away.
"Right," He replied, and she stared at him. His gaze found hers, and he walked into his TARDIS. Right before he closed the doors, she ran up.
"Doctor," she said, breathless. She couldn't believe she was about to do this. He looked up at her, confused.
"I fucking love you, so so much. Don't think you're alone, all you have to do is visit me, okay?" She said, and he stared for a moment before nodding. She stepped back, watching as the TARDIS wheezed away. She didn't bother walking away. She knew that David's Doctor would return, pissed at her. She grinned when the TARDIS wheezed into view, grin fading when it wasn't the 10th doctor.
"Oh, wow. I thought I knew you. Why did you come back?" She asked, and he blinked at her.
"You didn't expect me to return?" He asked, and she shook her head.
"I did, but… Not you, really. You should be with Rose, having the time of your life and healing from the war, not… Not coming back to me," Ruby said, heart clenching. Did she already mess up? Without Rose… Everyone would die.
"Rose? Who's that? I haven't met Rose yet. I've just been travelling these past few years, alone… Without you." He stated, and she knew then and there what she should have seen coming.
"You aren't going back to London without me, are you?" She deadpanned. He grinned at her, shaking his head. She scowled up at the sky.
"You did this on purpose, I just know it. Fine. I'll play your game, and I'll freaking beat it." She muttered at the author that was probably writing her in a fanfiction. She was determined, she'd beat the system. No she won't. She really, really won't. She didn't let that stop her, though. She turned back to the Doctor.
"Don't mind me, I'm just cursing probability and my own memory. Let's go, Doctor. To London." She muttered, regretting the fact that she just assumed that telling the Doctor that she'd always be there for him wasn't a big deal to him. He had just lost everything! What did she expect, him to just forget about her until Rose "died"? … She grinned sheepishly. Yeah, she did. Wow, she was thick.
"Not yet born in thickania, yet, but close," She muttered, and the Doctor grinned at her.
"London's a bit dull. Sounds like you think you'll be put on the backburner for some "Rose" chick. How about a trip? Anywhere, anywhen, just the two of us, you decide" The Doctor suggested, and Ruby hesitated. There was no way she could deny that request.
"You, Doctor, are impossible." She muttered, and pulled out her phone. The Doctor grinned before looking confused.
"What are you doing with that for?" He asked, sounding insulted. She had no service. She grinned, yeah, she didn't expect to. She pulled up a timer, having it warn her when 24 hours passed. She also made it so that it added to a counter. She wouldn't lose track of time, not with her time always ticking down.
"Just seeing if I could look up anything from my past world. Don't want to suggest a time, that's too cliche. But a planet." She lied, and the Doctor stared at her a moment.
"You want to be different." He stated, looking… sad? She couldn't tell, she was too busy looking away.
"Barcelona!" She changed the subject as smoothly as ever, which is to say, not at all. "You never got to go, not on-screen, but I've heard that the puppies have no noses…" She trailed off, looking at his stare. It wasn't sad, like she first assumed. No. It was piercing. She blew air into her cheeks, shrugging. Seemed to work, as next thing she knew the TARDIS was wheezing and shaking and the Doctor was grinning at her.
"Barcelona it is!" And the TARDIS lands, the Doctor grinning at her. She grinned back.
"Barcelona? Outside those doors? The planet?" Ruby asked, the Doctor nodding excitedly. Ruby glanced at the doors.
"You must think you're so impressive, Doctor." Ruby muttered, unable to resist. She grinned when she heard his comeback.
"I am so impressive!" He said, highly offended.
"Says the man who relies on his sonic screwdriver and his TARDIS too much," Ruby pulled out her replica of the 9th and 10th's sonic, shaking it about as she grinned and dragged him to the doors.
"I do not rely on my sonic too much!" The Doctor claimed, and Ruby snickered.
"If you say so, buddy." She replied with a soft grin, like one would when entertaining a child. The Doctor pouted at her, stopping.
"Fine then," he muttered, shoving his sonic screwdriver into her hands and taking the replica, "On this adventure, I won't use my sonic, and any time I try," he shakes the fake at her, "Won't work."
Ruby shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Just know that that replica has a chance of magically turning real if anyone is in grave danger," she agreed amicably. The Doctor frowned at her.
"Oi, I can save people without my sonic!" He claimed. Ruby looked at him, unamused.
"Yes, you can. But, see, how many times have you done that? Once? Twice? Maybe three if you're pushing it? Without the sonic and the TARDIS both? Like, once? In the future?" She replied, grinning at him while they walked. All of a sudden many weapons were pointed their way. Ruby took out her trans-temporal Sonic. Wasn't going without it, whether it actually worked or not.
"I think, maybe, don't quote me on this now, but I think there might have been a reason you never went to Barcelona the planet," Ruby said calmly, both the Doctor and Ruby pointing fake sonic's at the weaponry.
"Whatever the reason, it hasn't happened yet," he muttered, only to glance over at a wanted sign, "Ha! It wasn't me, this time! You're the one who's wanted here!" He said, feeling elated. Ruby glanced over and saw a wanted sign with her face on it.
"Does that mean I can lead the adventure, or are we still both going to try resonating concrete?" Ruby snarked, in a good mood. So far nothing has gone right, so that was a plus.
"Resonating concrete? When do I do that?" The Doctor asked, giving Ruby a glance as they both relaxed and put up their hands.
"Oh, yeah, you forgot about that. Huh. Quite a bit, actually. You're so used to relying on your sonic that one time you didn't even check to see if the door was unlocked." Ruby casually replied as they were lead away. They were put in a cell, told that they'd be talking to the queen soon.
"..." The Doctor stopped as Ruby tried stifling her laughter. He had just used the fake sonic on the door. He had been talking about how it was deadbolted or something while Ruby had casually flipped his sonic around in her hands.
"Doctor?" Ruby finally got out.
"Yeah?" He replied sullenly. Ruby grinned fondly at him. I love you so much.
"I don't blame you. If I knew how to use and make sonic's I would rely heavily on them too. But, there's one slight problem." The Doctor looked at Ruby, confused.
"What? What is it?" He asked, and Ruby held up her trans-temporal sonic and two others besides his.
"Fake sonic screwdrivers don't exist in this universe. The universe compensated. Too much, I'd say. I now have a vortex manipulator, a confession dial, and four sonic screwdrivers." Ruby muttered, feeling overpowered. The Doctor stared at her.
"So you mean that this sonic that I'm holding actually works?" He asked, and she grinned as they traded sonics.
"Maybe. It's heavier, more metal, and feels more realistic than any plastic sonic ever could." Ruby muttered, dropping everything besides the trans-temporal sonic into her pocket. She ignored the black FOB watch already in her pocket. She was not going to be part of that troupe. Nuh-uh.
"So, uh. Now that we know that the door is deadbolted or whatever, want to watch as I resonate wood?" Ruby said, grinning sheepishly. The Doctor stared at her, unamused. Neither of them were amused.
"You mean to tell me that you now have four of my sonics just lying in your pockets?" The Doctor stated, and Ruby shrugged.
"I don't think the one you carried worked. They're the exact same sonic- I made sure of it, since David's was just a tiny bit no. So, technically. I have three that are working." Ruby said, as if that helped. It didn't. They both stood there impatiently.
"Well, we have time," Ruby broke the silence a few hours later, causing the Doctor to look up, "Why don't you tell me the rules of the universe? Or maybe how to use a sonic device? The actual history of the universe as you know it so far?" Ruby suggested. The Doctor shrugged.
It had been two days. Ruby got irritated and stood up.
"Fine! Fine, I give in! What did you want from me, again?" Ruby called, and many aliens flooded the room, guiding the Doctor and her into a throne room.
"Hello again." The queen of Barcelona the planet said cooly.
"Whatever I did, I didn't do it yet. Anyway, what did my future-self do in the past?" Ruby asked. The Queen smirked as a man glided into the room.
"You denied my prince the right of marrying you. That is a high offence on Barcelona."
Ruby didn't even have to think before she replied, "I have this rule of marrying one man, and I'm already married to this sexy leather-clad man. Sorry, I physically can't." Ruby apologized, and the Doctor glanced at her. Them? Married?
"Why didn't you tell us that? We have been terribly rude, but may we see the proof of your bond?" The Queen asked, and Ruby edged towards the Doctor.
"What does that mean? The proof of our bond?" Ruby whispered, and the Doctor scrunched his nose.
"It means that we need to have a mental connection- it leaves this mark, it's how most psychic species marry," The Doctor explained. Ruby nodded, smiling sweetly.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to mentally bond with a human you've been with a few days?" Ruby asked, not bothering to hope.
"No. I wouldn't." The Doctor muttered, and Ruby nodded once again.
"Right, we can do that. In a moment. After we run!" Ruby gripped the Doctor's hand and dragged him the hell out of there. She soniced the doors open and bolted towards where the Doctor and her left the TARDIS. She, obviously, was going the wrong way. The Doctor took the lead, and eventually they both collapsed into the TARDIS.
"I'm never going to step on a planet until you tell me their basic rules ever again, Doctor," Ruby gasped out, collapsing in the pilot's seat. The Doctor nodded, bounding around the TARDIS as he wheezed them into the Vortex. He then stopped and looked at her. Truly looked.
"A mental bond is permanent. There's no divorcing like you humans do, and you can only ever mentally bond with one person. Forever." The Doctor said, and Ruby listened. She knew all of this, having read the fanfictions. She wondered if, like in the stories, her life would be extended to match his or vise versa.