Because there's a lot going on this chapter, it will be my longest yet, going above 5,000 words. I hope you enjoy it while not getting too scared or confused, especially as we get into Rose's long awaited appointment.

For a while, the two girls only looked at each other in awe. For Rose, who had only met one other psychic person in her life, being able to have a connection of the mind with another girl felt reassuring once she'd gotten over her shock, since she now had the feeling that she was once again among someone who could understand what she was going through, perhaps even more than Sarah Jane did. However, the questions she had were now increasing, and because she couldn't get a response, her usual impatience was being triggered.

For Christine, who'd never known another psychic before, it was all amazing. She'd been right about her guesses regarding Jackie Tyler's daughter, and had gotten the chance to have another person hear her thoughts and be able to directly respond to her through her mind for the first time ever. Going on with their interaction was something she really wanted to do, but for some reason, it seemed difficult to continue. Although she could tell her who they were without much issue, how much was it possible to reveal to her at the moment? If she were to try to explain certain things to Rose, would she be able to understand? Could some of this scare her?

I'm not scared. I just want to know who you are.

All right, let's start with the introductions. I'm Christine Mariana Green. I live with my mom, Patricia Flores Green, in Longview, Florida. The doctor you're going to see is Harry Sullivan. He was born in England, just like you, but he's been working in many places around the world for eleven years now, trying to learn as much as he can about people like us. And that girl over there, she was now pointing towards Clara, who was seated in the bed in her favorite red dress, looking over a National Geographic book containing pictures of animals from all over the world, is Clara Oswald. She's another one of Dr. Sullivan's patients. We met her a week after we came here to London for Dr. Sullivan to turn in research papers for an organization. She'll have to go back home soon, but we really liked having her here with us.

And I'm Rose Tyler, Rose responded. I'm here with my mum Jackie, and we live in a flat here in London, Rose managed to respond. Yes, it really was great being able to have this connection of the mind with another girl. Perhaps she really did have nothing to be afraid of.

As the girls went on with this conversation, Jackie was looking around the room. It was quite large, with one queen-sized bed, in which Clara was now seated, and a regular- sized one to the right. Everything seemed very comfortable and unusually tidy, with the beds already having been made, several books and supplies being neatly stacked at the top of a set of drawers and a large desk. As Christine had said, breakfast had already been brought in, with several plates of hot cakes, scrambled eggs, and toast, as well as a teapot and cups, set up around the large desk with supplies.

"Go ahead and have some breakfast, Mrs. Tyler," Christine said to her, having finished her connection of the mind with Rose. "You can have anything you want except for that bacon sandwich, because that's Dr. Sullivan's."

"Sure, dear," Jackie said, and she grabbed a plate with scrambled eggs and buttered toast, while Rose immediately grabbed the hot cakes. They were about to sit on the bed to eat until Clara shouted out, "You can't eat in here! If you do, you'll leave a big mess on the carpet, and then a lot of bugs will come in at night and try biting us as we sleep."

Jackie just laughed. "Hello to you too, Clara. Don't worry too much about us soiling up your neat little hotel room, since I eat in bed all the time and always leave the floor spotless."

"Actually, Clara's right," Christine acknowledged. "We used to eat so much around the beds and floor that Clara ended up finding a spider on her chest as she was waking up one night, and Dr. Sullivan found a ton of bugs on the floor. Now, we always eat around that big desk over there."

"Oh dear," Jackie said. "Come on, Rose. Let's move to the desk." When they were both seated there, she said, "And I was wondering why this room was so clean in the morning. Where is Dr. Sullivan, by the way?"

"He's still taking a shower," Christine answered. "But he's probably going to be coming out real soon. He always likes being well-prepared for everything we do, even if it's just here in the hotel room."

The three girls sat together, with Rose finishing all the pancakes within five minutes, and Christine helping herself to a bit too much bacon and toast. Only Clara was taking her time as she ate, but this was mainly because she couldn't stop talking about the kangaroos and koala bears which took eight pages of her book. From the way she spoke, you'd think she'd been to Australia a dozen times before instead of just having read too much on the country. Rose couldn't help but giggle as she spoke, mainly because she now remembered how John Smith once talked about having an Australian friend who was a "mouth on legs" and who would have been extremely annoyed if she'd heard her home country being referred to as the "land of kangaroos", which was what seemed to fascinate Clara the most about Australia.

Meanwhile, Jackie was looking at the items stacked around the desk as she ate. There was the white First Aid kit which doctors were always carrying around, and next to it, she noticed the bottle of blue liquid which Christine had placed in her bag. There was also a stack of papers with a post-it note at the top saying "From UNIT", as well as several books. Some were simple children's books like Alice in Wonderland and Where the Sidewalk Ends, others were for adults, including The Lottery and Other Stories (one of her personal favorites), The Handmaid's Tale, and The Bonfire of the Vanities. But the title that most caught her attention was a large text the size of an encyclopedia, titled Beyond a Sixth Sense: Reports on Extra Sensory Perception Research.

Extra Sensory Perception? She wondered. That's odd. Why would a reasonable doctor be interested in reading something like that?

"Hello there," she heard someone calling over her shoulder, and with a start, Jackie noticed Harry Sullivan standing right next to her, giving her that same friendly, courteous expression from their first meeting, despite seeming fully aware of what she was doing.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry! I know I have no business looking over your things, but I just get so curious sometimes…"

"Don't worry," he interrupted. "There's no need to make a fuss over small things like this. You're here on time with your daughter, ready before I was, and that's all that matters."

But why wouldn't it matter to him? Here I was, looking over reports that seemed very important in addition to books no competent physician would probably want patients finding on their shelves, and he acts as if it's just a simple little mishap? But despite all her questions, she just smiled and said, "I suppose you're right. It's good to see you again, Dr. Sullivan."

Dr. Sullivan shook her hand and said, "Great to see you again too, Mrs. Tyler." Then, turning to Rose, he gave her a friendly smile and said, "And how are you, little girl? Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Rose Tyler," Rose answered simply, shaking his hand. And as she took a good look at him, with his good-natured smile, his recently washed brown hair, and the long-sleeved white shirt and black trousers he was wearing, she started thinking that he looked familiar. She'd been learning the names of many people whom she'd never seen before in the past couple of months, but in this case, she felt that this was someone whose name she'd either forgotten or had never learned, but whose appearance she'd somehow encountered before, like in a vision or a photograph.

Dr. Sullivan, however, didn't seem to take notice of her thoughtful expression as she looked at him. Instead, he once again turned to Jackie and said, "So, did you two manage to get breakfast, or did Christine eat everything up already?"

Jackie smiled. "She was generous enough to tell us about it as soon as we got in, but I do have to say that Christine has as big an appetite as Rose, since they were both able to finish a whole plate of food in only a couple of minutes."

He laughed just before taking a small bite of the bacon sandwich they'd left for him. "Just as I thought. But many healthy children have such eating habits and are still okay. Luckily, Christine loves playing as much as she does eating, although it would do her some good to think about all those snacks she likes having every two hours."

Christine sighed. "Shouldn't we be talking about the reason for Rose's appointment, Doc? This is, unless they just came here for nutritional advice."

"We're getting there, Christine," Dr. Sullivan told her. He then looked at Jackie with a more composed expression and said, "For this appointment, I'm going to start by examining Rose alone, and afterwards, I'll tell you about the results. How does that sound?"

"Okay, but could you give me some idea of what you'll be doing?"

"I won't be performing any major medical examinations, if that's what you mean. From the symptoms you told me about last night, I'm going to give her tests that measure her state of mind. There will be some questions and activities that may feel like a game to her, just like those which are performed by some psychologists. I might do some minor physical examinations as well, like checking her heartbeat. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

"I think that's enough for now," Jackie assured him. "Should I get going now?"

"Just sign this form, and then you can go. Take Christine and Clara along with you as well."

Even though she was a reader, like many people, Jackie couldn't be bothered to read through a whole document. She only took notice of phrases like "I give my consent" and "I will follow through the advice of the physician upon the end of the appointment", while failing to notice that the top of the form included the name of the University of Florida research center, along with some of the actions which she was consenting to (among them included having the information of the patient included among the research center's records). In only a couple of seconds, the form was signed without any further questions.

"Here it is," Jackie said. "May I go now?"

"Go ahead," Dr. Sullivan responded. Then, looking at Christine and Clara, he said, "Run along, girls. Go show Mrs. Tyler all those games in the rec room which you two seem so good at while I'm never able to win."

"We sure will, Doc," Christine said, and she got a hold of Clara's hand.

"But Dr. Sullivan, are we still going shopping when this is over?" Clara asked.

"Like I already told you, we'll see about it, depending on how long the appointment takes."

"Can we invite Rose and Mrs. Tyler to come with us if we do?"

He smiled. "Maybe we will. How does that sound, Mrs. Tyler?"

"Lovely," Jackie responded. "We always like having company, especially during hard times like these. Now let's get going, love. We don't want to waste any more of their time."

And with that, the three of them left, leaving Rose alone with Harry Sullivan.

Before they got started, Harry set up a pile of three pillows on the floor, arranging them to form a comfortable seat for Rose. He then took one of the chairs from the desk and set it up next to the pillows, so that the two of them would be seated together just as a psychiatrist and patient would. This was how Harry's first sessions with Christine had been arranged, since he figured that making their meetings feel more the way some child therapies were would make her more comfortable with opening up to him than it would be if they were to meet up in the infirmaries and laboratories where he'd previously met up with adult psychic patients, having gone so far as to reject the University of Florida's offering of their health center for his appointments.

"Okay Rose," Harry started when they were both seated. "I'm going to start by asking you some simple questions."

"All right," Rose responded.

"First of all, have you been generally healthy lately?"

"I think so. I haven't been getting colds, fever, or the flu, if that's what you mean."

"Exactly. But you haven't been getting any serious headaches, tummy aches, or any other pain?"

"No." There were the occasional headaches she got after moving objects around, but they were usually gone very quickly, so she assumed that it didn't count as the serious pain which Dr. Sullivan seemed to be referring to. And then, of course, there were the blackouts, but since they were even less common than the headaches, she figured she could tell him about them when they started talking about her powers.

"Good," he responded, and stopped to scrawl something down on a sheet of paper. Then he looked up at her again and said, "Now, do you mind telling me about your feelings? Like if you've been either very happy or sad for some reason, or if you ever get nervous while you're in school."

At this, Rose looked confused. "I thought doctors only wanted to know whether you're feeling sick or not. Why should it matter if I'm feeling happy or sad?" she asked, sounding much like a child questioning why they had to clean their rooms or learn some difficult concept.

Seeming unbothered by Rose's tone, Harry responded patiently, "Because believe it or not, your feelings can influence your health in many ways. Some adults with a serious sickness find themselves feeling at least a little better if they have something they can feel happy about, like having their family by their side. There are some doctors that focus mainly on examining feelings and thoughts, especially when they seem to be hurting patients in some way. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I think so," Rose answered.

"Okay, so would you like to tell how you've been feeling lately?"

"Well, I'm a little unhappy because my mummy lost her job a few weeks ago. She doesn't seem interested in doing much because of it, and even though she says she's okay, I think she actually seems really sad."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Are things any better in school?"

"Not always. I have a friend there who cares a lot about me, but everyone else stays away from me. When school started, many kids would make fun of me, but now they seem to be scared of me."

"Why did they make fun of you?" Harry asked with genuine concern.

Rose realized that now would be the moment when she'd have to come forward with what Dr. Sullivan was waiting for her to admit all along. So far, he was doing his best to make her feel comfortable while not forcing her to reveal too much at once. Ms. Willington had been right about him being a good person, but was he really a good doctor? When she finally opened up about her ESP, was he really going to be able to help her? Would he find a good way to tell her mother about all this without scaring her?

"Rose?" she heard him ask somewhat anxiously, interrupting her from her thoughts. So she sighed and then started:

"On my first day of school, some boys heard me talking to myself. They thought I was doing it because I was crazy, so they came up to me and started calling me names in front of everyone. After that, they started chasing me, and as they did, some of them fell down for what looked like no reason. My friend Mickey stopped some of them, but everyone who saw us now thought I was a freak. So after that, some of my schoolmates started making fun of me all the time, calling me a loony and doing all sorts of mean things to upset me."

"Your mum told me that you have an imaginary friend that only seems to show up when you're scared or unhappy. Were you talking with this friend on the first day of school?"

He's not imaginary, Rose wanted to say, but she stopped herself before she could make this sudden confession. "Yes, that's what I was doing."

"Is that the reason why you think the kids at school started making fun of you?"

"Yes. I know for sure that it's the reason why."

Harry nodded and wrote more information down. Then, sounding more serious than he had before, he asked, "Now Rose, could you explain how real this friend seems to you?"

Rose stared at the floor, suddenly feeling more nervous than she'd been before. More than anything else, she wanted to detect Dr. Sullivan's thoughts and see how much he already knew, if perhaps Christine had been able to tell him about any visions she'd had of her. But she couldn't detect anything at all, and perhaps this was the time when she found her incapacity to read someone's mind the most frustrating of all, even more so than when she'd tried to figure out the truth about what happened to her mother the night after school started.

But she knew that sooner or later, she would have to speak up, and so she began with this:

"I can feel him talking to me at certain moments."

"And when he does, does he seem friendly or threatening?"

"It depends. Sometimes he's really nice to me, and just talks as if he were any other friend. And other times, when he's trying to warn me about something, he sounds more angry and scary."

"What does he warn you about?"

"He warns me when he knows something bad is going to happen to me. Like on the first day of school, he tried to get me to convince my mummy to walk me up to the school because he knew that some kids were about to start bullying me. Because she made me go up by myself, everything went badly for me, just like John Smith said."

Rose then noticed that Harry was the one who was now nervous. For a while, he just looked away with a startled expression. Then, he shook his head, trying to clear up the confusion going through his mind. And, for the first time, Rose started detecting his thoughts: John Smith? No, I probably didn't hear her correctly. There's no way she could be referring to the John Smith, could she? After all, it is a common alias. She could have heard it anywhere.

Then he asked, "Rose, did you say your imaginary friend's name is John Smith?"

"Yes," Rose replied honestly. "Yes, it is."

He then grew pale, and Rose started to worry that she might cause him to get so nervous that he could pass out due to panic. "Where…" he stuttered, "Where have you heard that name before?"

And then, Rose started to remember something she had almost forgotten from her first visit with Sarah Jane Smith. She remembered the photo in the hallway that had been next to the one with Sarah and her sisters, in which Sarah was alongside a young man, with the two of them dressed comfortably and looking very happy.

That's me and an old friend of mine, Sarah Jane had explained in a rather sad tone. "His name was Harry Sullivan."

And then, when she had explained the danger behind her powers when she had traveled with John Smith, she had brought him up again, this time saying that he had been a doctor send by some organization in order to make sure she was safe.

So yes, that was why this man seemed so familiar to her. At one point, he had been one of John Smith's traveling friends, going alongside Sarah Jane. It must have been at that point in which he learned about extra sensory perception, the point in which he started working on the important research Christine and Allison had brought up, and going on to become the expert which Christine said he was.

"I think you know who he is," Rose said upon finally speaking up.

"And who would that be?" Harry asked, trying to sound calm, but actually thinking, So it probably isn't just the voice of any old person's thoughts that she's been hearing. Perhaps she really has been hearing the Doctor…

"Yes," Rose said out loud. "I have been hearing the Doctor all along. He just likes calling himself John Smith when he's speaking to me."

When she said this, Harry was silent for a long time, trying to take in everything Rose had been saying. After thinking it all out, he looked at the little girl with astonishment. "Rose, are you trying to say that…"

"That I know an alien from a planet called Gallifrey who has traveled through time and space with many people from Earth? Yes, I do."

"And do you know when I first…"

"You met him when you were called up to look after him after he had regenerated. When he started getting better, you wanted to take him into the sick room, but he didn't want to. He said that you may have been a doctor but that he was the doctor. After that, he started jumping rope with you, singing a funny song, and then he used that rope to tie you up and put you in a closet like an old pair of boots."

Upon hearing this, Harry couldn't help but laugh, as he often did when recalling that bizarre first meeting with the Doctor, but also because he couldn't believe what was going on. Not only had Rose Tyler met the Doctor, but she was also twice as powerful as he'd thought she be. Was there really a point in saying anything to her? She seemed to know what he was about to say before he even opened his mouth. Even with Christine, it would often take her a while to fully grasp his thoughts before she could repeat them to him. But Rose seemed to be capable of taking it all in within seconds. For someone so young, this was truly astonishing.

"You've got it all right so far, Rose," he said cheerfully to the little girl. "Wow. I never could have predicted that something like this would happen. All I can say is that we really were destined to meet up together, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah. It really is cool," Rose replied with a smile. This really was exciting, being able to meet both another psychic girl and another friend of John Smith's on the same day. Coming to this appointment turned out being a lot better than what she'd been expecting.

Then, just as she was thinking about this, she heard a loud crack.

One of the tea glasses had fallen unto the ground, with the glass breaking into dozens of small pieces and cold tea causing a heavy leak on the carpet.

"Oh no!" Rose exclaimed. "I'm…"

"Don't worry, Rose," Harry said, not understanding the reason behind her panic. "It's just a small leak and a broken dish. Accidents happen, and compared to some of the ones I've had, this is nothing." And with a piece of cloth and sweeper from one of the drawers, he started wiping the leak and picking up a couple pieces of glass at a time. When all the glass was picked up and thrown away, he said, "And that's it. Little things like that are easy to take care of."

"But won't the hotel owners get mad if something gets broken?"

"If you saw the state some of the items they love so much, you could say that they don't mind much at all."

Rose remembered the china dolls and nodded. It certainly was crazy how they seemed to like them so much as to still keep them on display.

"So, back to the Doctor. Do you know when he started calling himself John Smith?"

"When he regenerated for the second time, he started to work for some organization. I think it was called Union or…"

"You mean UNIT."

"Yeah, UNIT. He was going to be a scientific advisor there, and to do that he had to have a name. So he chose the name John Smith."

"Good job. And do you know what TARDIS…"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space," Rose answered without any hesitation.

"Right-o. Can you name any of the Doctor's…"

Companions, Rose heard him thinking. And now that she had been able to remember who Harry was, she had little trouble recalling the other names whom she heard from Sarah Jane, John Smith, or some of the visions she'd had of John Smith's adventures:

"Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Dodo, Sara Kingdom, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield, Zoe Heriot, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, and of course, Sarah Jane Smith."

And once again, Rose was correct. UNIT had records of every companion the Doctor had ever had, and the list kept growing on those other occasions when he had checked it.

And then Rose said something he wasn't expecting at all:

"And I happen to know Sarah Jane Smith."

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. She knows my friend Mickey, and when she came to pick him up on the first day of school, she managed to talk to me through her thoughts. We met up later at her house, where she found out about how powerful I am and how John Smith is now living inside my head. She told me a lot of the things I now know about him, and offered to help me out whenever I need it."

Well, who could have been a better person to help Rose Tyler than Sarah Jane Smith? Sometimes Harry found himself questioning whether she really wasn't a Time Lord (or rather, Time Lady) herself because of how powerful she had been. In half of the dangerous situations they were in, Sarah had been able to detect trouble ahead of time, often having to convince the Doctor to take action during what seemed like comfortable trips. Early on, Harry had sometimes liked teasing her about this, saying things like, "I'm about to step into the shower. Am I by any chance in danger of slipping and cracking my head open, old girl?" only to have her respond by saying, "No, but go on with this and I'll make sure not to warn you if you're about to be attacked by aliens or have another careless accident that nearly kills you." (Ironically, when Harry did suffer from a head injury around the end of his travels with them, Sarah had not been able to foretell it, and ended up regretting it).

But as time went on, he gained a lot more respect for her. If she predicted something would go wrong, she always wanted to do whatever it took to prevent a disaster, even if it meant putting her own life at risk. She not only managed to save their own lives, but also those of hundreds of people and creatures whom they encountered throughout their travels. Harry couldn't recall how many times he'd tried to talk her out of intervening in some dangerous situation only to have her say, "But if I don't stop it, Harry, who will? You can only provide medical and practical assistance, and as brilliant as the Doctor is, he does have his limits. He can't read minds or predict the future. If I were to just let things happen, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, so that's my role here: to foresee danger and do my best to help out." That usually was enough to settle matters and have him go along with whatever she had planned. Pretty soon, the two became more willing to work together and accept each other's ideas, going on to become good friends by the time he had to leave her and the Doctor behind.

But there was something else Rose had said which caught his attention, something about where the Doctor was now.

"Rose, what did you say about where John Smith is again?"

"John Smith has been living inside my head."

Harry now looked shocked once again. "What do you mean? How could he be able to do that, and for how long has he been doing it?"

"I've been seeing him since I started nursery school two years ago. He had to escape from Gallifrey and ended up becoming invisible when he arrived on Earth. A psychic French gypsy ended up saving him by allowing him to live inside her head, and when their time was up, she send him to live in the mind of child because then he'd be able to survive much longer. That's why I'm only able to see him as an imaginary friend. I've never seen him the way I see a regular person."

"But what happened with the TARDIS, his time machine?"

"The French gypsy ended up keeping it. John Smith says it was left behind in an abandoned building somewhere in Paris, where no one else would find it."

Harry sighed, putting a hand around his head. Here he had been, getting all excited about hearing this little girl say that she'd seen the Doctor and knew so much about him that he'd forgotten to fully examine the situation. If the Doctor was living inside of Rose's head, was it not the equivalent of a parasite living in a person's body? Wouldn't this result in a lot of complications for someone so young? Rose had said that she wasn't experiencing any serious pain, but perhaps she hadn't been explaining everything which was going on with her.

"Rose, when you said you never go through any serious pain, did you really mean it?"

Rose looked at him nervously. "I… I don't have it every day, but sometimes, these weird things happen to me. It's… I think…"

"Don't be scared. Just tell me what is that happens to you."

"Sometimes, I seem to make things move without even touching them. All I have to do is look at something, and then…"

But before Rose could go on, the lamp containing the only light in the room suddenly switched off. Seconds later, all the items in the table where they had all been seated earlier, from the books to the remaining dishes, fell to the ground at the same time with a loud crash.

As this went on, Rose remained frozen to the spot, incapable of even moving her hands, yet remaining fully conscious. Harry Sullivan, however, collapsed from the chair after it had split in half. As he was about to land on the ground, one of the chair's wooden bars hit him in the head, resulting in him becoming unconscious as soon as he came down.

But the scariest thing of all occurred when the red crayon which Clara had used for her bad wolf drawings started flowing out of its box, aiming for the walls, onto which it started scribbling around the very bottom. Over time, however, what looked like scribbling on a children's coloring book using a faded red crayon started looking more like an eerie painting, with the scribbling resembling a long river of blood which seemed to be flowing through the walls of the hotel room.

Then, around the middle of the wall, the crayon started writing something in capital letters. As it was with the bloody river, the writing started out looking faded and incomprehensible, but when it started turning into that same red liquid once again, what was written was very clear:

DAB FLOW

And there you have it! It may have seemed like the same telekinetic breakdown from chapter 7, but given the fact that Rose is now in a rather unusual hotel, there's a lot more haunting stuff going on now than there was the first time around, especially with that final message on the wall. Can it get any worse? We'll find out in the next chapter.

I happen to be very busy lately due to the second semester of college, not to mention the fact that I become one of the marketing editors for my college's literary journal. A major achievement for an aspiring writer! However, this does mean that it will take more time for me to continue on with the story, but no worries, it will go on and I'll committee myself to writing at least three times a week in order to get to chapter 20 by June, if not further.

I'm also trying to come up with ideas for another story in this series. The first story I have in mind is a prequel featuring Sarah Jane Smith, and the other will be one featuring another companion from the new series. So this is what I'd like to know: would you prefer reading a story featuring Victorian Clara or Amy Pond? For Victorian Clara, it will be a shorter story which will give some explanations behind the versions of her echos which we hear a little about in this story, while featuring some prominent characters from the new series. For Amy Pond, it will be a lot more like this story, with a lot of scary scenes and very powerful beings, and it will require me to read a certain book before starting. Let me know which story you'd prefer reading in your reviews or through a PM.

Till next time, readers! :)