As soon as the sea of patients and staff flooded through the doors of the hospital and into the streets of London, Martha followed suit. The Doctor called out to her, but she ran into the middle of the crowd. Today's events must have been too much for her to handle, the Doctor thought. After all, she had met three types of aliens, been nearly killed by two of them, was teleported to the moon, and almost suffocated to death. The Doctor felt a string of heartache. There went another potential companion, someone to fill that hole in his heart left by Rose.

Wally's face was downcast. In his timeline, Martha had become the Doctor's next companion. Perhaps the change in events here was his fault too. He slowly lifted his head and looked at the Doctor's face. His expression was one of heartbreak and loneliness. Wally stepped toward him and stretched out his arm to pat him on the shoulder. He shirked back as soon as the Doctor jerked his shoulder angrily out of the way.

"Wally, Eva." The Doctor said, gritting his teeth with fury.

Eva gulped.

"You two. TARDIS. Now."


The doors of the TARDIS creaked as the Doctor slowly opened the door, using all of his willpower to keep his composure. The lights slowly brightened as all three of them stepped inside and closed the door. The Doctor made his way slowly toward the console and turned around, leaning his back against it.

"Wally." He said sternly. "Come here."

Wally and Eva walked towards him, but then the Doctor held out his hand, making a stop motion. They complied.

"Wally, get up here." Said the Doctor, before glaring down at Eva.

"And you." He pointed at her. "Go to your room."

"But I'm not a child!" Eva protested.

"To your room!" he yelled.

Eva stomped off. Once she was out of sight, the Doctor turned around toward his console and pulled a lever. The TARDIS rumbled before taking off, and flew into the depths time and space.

Wally twiddled his thumbs and whistled, trying to pass the time and not appear so awkward in front of the Doctor. After a few minutes, he gave up and broke the silence.

"So what's on your mind-"

"Shh!" the Doctor shushed him.

Wally kept his mouth shut until the TARDIS landed only moments later.

The Doctor walked briskly toward the door and swung it open, motioning for Wally to follow. Wally immediately recognized his surroundings. There were bodies lying in the streets, fires and wreckage were everywhere. Directly in front of them was Eva's house, and it was on the same day that she joined the Doctor.

"Wait a minute." He said nervously. "Why are we back here?"

The Doctor said nothing as he walked into the street and motioned with his hand to come along. Wally also stepped out of the TARDIS and into the street. The door immediately closed behind him, and the ship flew up and out of sight.

"Wait!" Wally exclaimed. "What are you doing with her?!"

"Don't worry." The Doctor said. "She's in orbit, safe and sound."

Wally turned to him, upset. "What?!"

"Her hearing." He replied. "Eva may be able to hear me from the other side of the world, but how can she hear me if she's in space?"

"You don't want her hearing you. Don't you trust her?!"

Wally had not realized in some time that the Doctor could be so distrusting, and honestly kind of a jerk.

"No, I don't. In fact I'm dropping her off after I've finished with you. Now let's get started. First: how do you know who I am?"

Wally shook his head. "Look I'm not your enemy or anything like that. I'm just trying to help!"

"That doesn't answer my question."

"You can't just abandon her! She needs you!"

"She's too dangerous, Wally! I'm not taking her with me!"

Wally felt trapped. If he revealed everything, he worried that he could potentially damage the timestream even more than he already had. There was no way to escape back into his universe, since his dimension jumper device had been left on the TARDIS. To make his situation worse, now the Doctor was refusing to take Eva as his companion, endangering her life and the entire multiverse. Perhaps it would be best, at this point, to just spill it out. Maybe once he revealed everything, he could change the Doctor's mind.

"All right." Said Wally, sighing. "But please, before you leave her, can I tell you why I'm even here?"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh yes, please do."

Wally began to speak. "I'm your friend, but I guess before today you hadn't met me yet. I'm from another universe, and I've traveled here to protect you and Eva."

"From what?" asked the Doctor.

"Someone is tampering with her timeline. We don't know who just yet, but it was almost too late to save her. Not just her, but our entire universe."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, curious.

Wally continued. "One day, she came to visit me and my wife for lunch, and everything was normal until…"

"Go on,"

"-until she screamed in pain all of a sudden and just disappeared in a flash of light. It didn't take long for me to realize that she had been erased from existence. I didn't know if I would eventually start to forget her or not, but I wasted no time in running. I ran into the timestream and found the moment that erased her."

The Doctor gave a puzzled look at Wally. Did this guy just say that he ran through time? Did he just hear that this man in front of him could time travel by running?! That's not even possible!

Wally knew that the Doctor was probably skeptical of what he was saying, but he continued anyway. The Doctor sat on a nearby curb. He had a feeling that this would take a long time.


Wally ran furiously across the timestream, searching for the most vulnerable moment of his fallen friend's history. He knew exactly where to go: Coast City, only two years prior to Eva's sudden erase from existence. This was the time and place when Eva would set foot into his universe for the very first time.

A big blue box appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and crashed onto the top of a skyscraper. Wally ran to the top of said skyscraper, knowing which one to run to since Eva had told him a long time ago. It only took less than a second to reach the box, and yet even that was not enough time. He had arrived too late. He found Eva lying dead in front of the police box, and a young man wearing glasses, a pinstripe suit and a trench coat. It looked like her neck had been broken. The man was holding her in his arms, overcome with grief.

"Eva…" said the man.

Wally knelt beside him.

"I was too late." He lamented.

The man glared angrily into Wally's eyes.

"You again." He growled.

"What? Who are you?"

The man's eyes widened in surprise. His expression slowly changed from confusion, to one of understanding. He slowly laid his companion's body to the ground.

"I am the Doctor." Said the man. "You haven't met me yet, have you?"

Wally shook his head.

"I've met you. You-"

The Doctor paused a moment to contain his emotions.

"You helped us before."

Wally put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

"This wasn't supposed to happen."

The Doctor's attention immediately shot to Wally.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Wally answered him. "In the future, she is supposed to be still alive. She was my friend, and not just mine but she was friends with almost everybody. Then one day she just disappeared right in front of me. I've seen this before."

"Yes I know. You've told me." Said the Doctor, brooding with anger. The Doctor grew ever more suspicious about Wally. He never fully trusted him before.

Wally looked at him, confused. "I have? I- I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Well a fat lot of good you did." The Doctor growled as he picked up Eva's body and walked back into his police box. He laid Eva down in her room, and slowly walked his way toward the console. Before he could set his next destination, he felt a gust of wind blow right behind him.

"I hate it when you do that." Said the Doctor.

"Look, Doctor. I can save her. Gimme a chance." Said Wally.

The Doctor shook his head. He never trusted this tight-wearing speedster and after his failure to save Eva, he sure was not going to trust him now.

"Doctor." Wally said again. "Please."


Wally smiled at the Doctor, who was still sitting on the curb, never taking his eyes off of him.

"You don't trust easy do you?" he said. "Well, anyway, it's not like me to beg and plead like that, so that should tell you how important this is."

"So how did I help you?" asked the Doctor.

Wally answered him, "Long story short, you gave me some key information on your previous travels. Everything else I got from a friend. There's more to it but that's the short story."

The Doctor pondered everything he had just heard. It seemed that Wally came all this way just to protect a friend? There must be more to it than that.

"Why?"

Wally blinked. "Why what?"

"Why is she so important? Why must I be the one to carry her along?"

"Doctor," Wally began. "You may not believe this now, but trust me. One day, that girl you just sent into orbit is going to be among the greatest heroes in the universe."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. That last part sounded a little too dramatic.

"She's not from this world, Doctor, but I think you already knew that."

"What? Just because I know she's an alien I have to be the one to protect her?"

Wally sped himself right up to the Doctor's face, and stared him in the eyes with his brow furrowed. He then pointed his finger at him.

"You're not just going to protect her, Doctor. You're going to guide her. She knows nothing about herself, her powers or everything she can do, and will do. If she dies, none of that happens!

You're not just some guard or delivery man, you're her mentor! You're like a father to her! You're the one who taught her the principles she lives by! It's because of you that she will stop being the rampaging psychopath we saw earlier, and start saving entire worlds!"

Immediately after the words left Wally's mouth, the Doctor sprang up and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

"No!" he exclaimed as he pressed a button on his screwdriver. "Absolutely not!"

"Why not?!" shouted Wally, outraged at the Doctor's refusal.

"Because I am a time traveler, not a babysitter! I'm not a delivery man, I'm not an escort."

The Doctor turned away from Wally, his voice started to break, and his speech sped up.

"I'm not a trainer, I'm not a mentor, I'm not-"

"Not what?" asked Wally.

"I'm not a father." Said the Doctor, sullenly. "Wally, I-" he sighed. "I can't raise her. I can't teach her. I've been a father before and I can't."

Wally gave him a confident grin. "I think you can."

The TARDIS landed safely behind the Doctor, who gently opened the door. Wally sped in, while the Doctor stayed outside. Wally sped up and down the various corridors and rooms of the ship, probably checking on his friend. For that man to be able to run past him and make it inside the TARDIS before he even walks in and shuts the door… Something about that did not sit well with the Doctor. Also, he wasn't quite sure if he bought the whole "Eva is going to be a great hero" story just yet. The Doctor sensed without a doubt that there were still a lot of things that Wally wasn't telling him, and that was bothersome too.

His thoughts were interrupted by a gleeful Eva charging straight at him. Before the Doctor could even react, her arms were wrapped around him and he was being lifted into the air in a mighty bear hug. Wally ran back outside the TARDIS and stood by the two of them, smiling.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed happily.

"Ack! Eva!" said the Doctor, gasping for air. "You're in a good mood!"

She gently lowered him back to the floor and released him.

"Yeah, well. I uh, had some time to think. Anyway, where are we going next?"

"Well, actually Eva," he began, nervously.

Eva was on the verge of bouncing up and down in excitement. There was at least thirty seconds of pure silence as the Doctor was contemplating his next words carefully. Everything that Wally had told him started to overflow in his thoughts. This girl would definitely be a handful. He may have been a father in the past, but none of his children were like this. She would possibly be the greatest challenge he had ever faced.

Speaking of faces, Eva's smile was wide with happiness. Her eyes were so full of life and excitement, just like his were so long ago. She had clearly settled down into the notion that she would be with him long-term. Why disappoint?

"Actually," said the Doctor. "I was thinking. How would you like to visit the future?"

"I'd love that!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor walked toward the door of the TARDIS. It was still open.

"Well then, let's get going!" he exclaimed cheerfully.

Eva followed him, but suddenly skidded to a stop.

"Oh, and Doctor?" she said. "Can Wally come too?"

His face turned into a grimace. Thankfully his back was turned. This Wally character didn't sit well with him, at all.

"It's okay." Said Wally, who had already started to walk away. "Go on, Eva."

She waved goodbye to her newfound friend and stepped inside. The Doctor glanced at Wally for one last time and then stepped into the TARDIS as well. He took a couple seconds to shut the door, feeling the cool breeze from the outside before finally closing the door and making his way toward the console.

He knew where he wanted to go, but he also couldn't help but wonder what the heck he was thinking in keeping Eva with him. With everything that happened today, his mind was weighing him down. He had just lost Rose, and thanks to this girl he is supposed to protect, he lost a potential companion. There was no doubt in his mind that Martha would have been wonderful. Well, there was no sense in dwelling on what could have been. He set his destination and held onto the console as the TARDIS began to lift off.

Eva made her way to her room, leaving the Doctor alone. He leaned himself against the rails, smiling as he looked at the ceiling. It was nice to finally have a moment of peace and quiet after the mess that he had just gotten out of. His thoughts turned to his beloved Rose, who was off in Pete's World. He wondered what she was doing right now, and if she had adjusted to the way time passes in that universe.

Hopefully she would find happiness there, in a world without him. After all, he wouldn't be there to take her from her family again, or put her life in danger, or abandon her like he did on the SS Madame de Pompadour. In retrospect, he felt he had treated Rose quite poorly. What would his previous incarnation say about what he had done?

A sudden gust of wind blew behind him all of a sudden, breaking the Doctor's spiral into depression and guilt.

"Wow and I thought the Batcave was something." Said an all too familiar voice.

The Doctor instantly turned around in shock.

"What?!" he exclaimed.

Eva ran up to them from her room, having heard his voice. "Wally!"

"How did you get in here?!" asked the Doctor, agitated.

"Door was open." He smiled.

"But-"

"I'm so glad you let him come after all, Doctor!"

"Now wait a minute!" The Doctor said. "I never-"

"Yeah, he's a pretty good guy, isn't he?" said Wally.

While Eva and Wally were off laughing and having a good time, the Doctor leaned onto the console and groaned. This was going to be a long journey.


Meanwhile Eva invited Wally to her room. She looked pretty nervous.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Promise not to laugh?" she said, keeping her head down in embarrassment.

"Sure."

"While you and the Doctor were gone, a transmission started to play in that control room over there. It kept going so I woke up and answered it."

"What did it say?"

"It was a guy on the screen, asking for you or the Doctor." She said, taking a breath.

"Who was it?" asked Wally.

Eva knew this next part was going to sound crazy, but she trusted this guy enough to tell him.

"He called himself Batman."