Her lungs were burning until she let out a cough and felt water flow up her trachea and out of her mouth. A long and sharp gasp filled her lungs with the crisp air that they so desperately needed. Another gasp and she was coherent with eyes wide open. She was lying face up on the pavement in front of her job, and there was a sharp pain in her face. "You didn't have to slap my face," her throat scratched, and she heard a laugh above her. It was the Doctor. He looked like he was just saved from something even though she was the one that almost died. He held out a hand to help her up she took it gratefully. His hand was so warm, just like the hands that had grabbed her in the water. "Were you the one that got me out of the water?"
"Yup. Here have something to eat and I've also got a blanket for you. Put it on, quick." He handed her a very warm blanket as she shivered under her wet hair. He then handed her a paper plate of buffalo chicken. She stared at it and quickly sat down and started to devour the heavenly food.
"So what happened while I was under water?" Ruby asked.
"Well, I started to talk to the dalek and then I wasted my time talking and he got away. That's when I felt the water around my ankles." She was on her third piece now and was still listening to the Doctor all the same. "Needless to say, I dived in the water and got you out onto the pavement. Started slapping your face and then gave you mouth to mouth. You woke up and I gave you a blanket and some buffalo chicken, that has now vanished from the face of the planet."
"Whoa! Back up a bit! You gave me mouth to mouth!?" If he hadn't just saved her life then this situation might have been different, but she still felt her heart skip a beat.
"Yeah, I did. But I am truly amazed." He looked right at her and she noticed a light sparkle in his brown eyes. "You were absolutely brilliant in there! I didn't expect that you would be able to do it. You've got a lot of will power in you, Ruby." The sparkle faded from his eyes almost too quickly, and Ruby looked down at your shoes, trying to figure out a way to break the hiatus in the conversation.
"So what exactly is a dalek, just some scary looking robot?"
"Excuse me? Scary? You didn't seem to be frightened at all!" His laughter was nice. It was the perfect laughter that was almost pure happiness that radiated off and flowed into her body. She couldn't help but grin as the Doctor continued talking. "Well, daleks are aliens that contain no emotion what so ever. They can't wrap their complicated minds around the idea of good and evil. They don't understand that human emotions are what make them so unique and successful. Daleks consider themselves superior and are always trying to actually make a top rank for themselves. If they could kill God, they probably would try." The Doctor stared towards the parking lot with pure hatred in his face without actually seeing it.
"Then what are you? I mean, I know that you are the Doctor, but what are you?" Ruby hugged the blanket around her as a breeze swept across her face and shoulders.
The Doctor turned his head and looked at her. "I am a time lord. I have been around for a good 900 years and I've seen it all and lost it all. Traveling through time really does change a person's view of the world." Once again his eyes held that little twinkle that made her lungs malfunction. "I could take you somewhere if you'd like."
"Why not? It'd be nice to actually do something." Ruby had no choice but to believe this man because she wanted to leave this god-forsaken city and do something adventurous.
"Great! Follow me!" This man had the energy level of a child. He grabbed her hand and ran out of the parking lot. Ruby still couldn't understand why his hand was so warm. It was the one thing that was keeping her attached to reality, while her feet were practically flying to keep up with his speed. She still couldn't believe that this was happening, but the warmth of his hand was telling her that this was all very real and that her entire life was going to change. For better or for worse, she didn't know.
"Okay, now I am truly doubting your sanity." Ruby looked back in front of her at a bright blue police call box. "This is a telephone booth."
"It's called the Tardis."
"It's a telephone booth." She looked back at him for even the hint of a joke. He was smiling all right but he was still being completely serious.
"It can go to different worlds, different times, or right across the street if you're too lazy to walk."
"But it's a telephone booth."
"I actually tried it once. Turned out to be a complete waste of five minutes. But I did find out how good bananas were."
"It's a telephone booth."
"No, really. When I got to the other side of the street there was a man there selling bananas. I bought one to quiet my mumbling belly, when someone walked up to me and didn't know what it was. Well, poor fellow didn't have any money to buy one so I gave it to him. Needless to say, I made that man's day! I mean really how could a banana not cheer someone up. A full lifetime later I met an entire group of people that had never seen one before, either. Absolutely stunned, they were." Ruby just stared at the peculiar man in front of her and waited for something more interesting to come out of his mouth, but all that she heard was, "Well, come on then, ladies first."
Ruby placed her hand on the front of the door and it silently opened to reveal, not a small cramped little room but a colossal sized room that caused Ruby's mouth to drop open. "This is not a telephone booth."
"You're right it isn't!"
"What it is is bloody brilliant!"
"It's time lord science. Really boring and complicated stuff, not worth wasting five minutes over." He walked over to the center of the room were this giant glowing machine stood. "So where would you like to go? Future? Past? The extremely empty planet of Galliphrey? Or maybe, we could go to the Land of OZ. It actually exists you know."
Even though this was something that was completely unbelievable, Ruby still had some spark in her mind that was telling her to wait. Wait for something to tell her that this wasn't a dream or a hallucination. "Well why don't we go to the 15th century, ya know, Elizabeth the first and all that."
"That'll be interesting." Ruby didn't ask why because she didn't want to know. "But you you're from America aren't you?"
"Yeah, I was born in London, raised in America and never told about the fact that I was born in another country. When I found out I was pretty angry so I sort of ran away to here."
"Since you grew up in America, could you tell me what grits are?"
"It's like little tiny bits of wheat or corn or something like that."
"What about hot dogs? What are they really made of?"
"No one really know, but I think that if we did know, they just wouldn't taste as good." The Doctor laughed and then Ruby asked, "How long was I out?"
He looked at this watch and said, "Oh, about three hours." He watched Ruby let out a long yawn. "You've had an exciting day, Ruby. Why don't we go see the queen tomorrow, because right now you could use some sleep. Shall I show you to your room?"
"Why not?" The Doctor was right. Ruby was dead tired and she needed some sleep. Maybe, just maybe, she would wake up to find that this whole otherworldly fiasco was a dream. Probably not though.
"Right then, follow me. Stay close though, you might get a little lost." The Doctor started to walk out of the huge metallic room, and into what looked like a hallway. After about five minutes of staring at the beige walls, the Doctor took an unexpected turn and Ruby was left staring at another beige hallway. This went on for what felt like a half hour, until Ruby ran into the Doctor.
"Could you have at least given me a warning that you were going to stop?"
"Well, here's your room. Don't suppose you'll need anything, it should be all in there." He opened the door for her, and she wasn't surprised by the vastness of the room before her, but was astounded by the decoration. She had just walked out of a boring hallway and into a Victorian time zone. The intricate carvings all over the mahogany dresser matched those of the desk that sat on the right side of the room. The other side of the room was completely occupied with a four-poster bed with bed curtains. Everything was a mixture of reds and browns. There was a group of overstuffed chairs in the corner surrounding the hearth of a beautiful fireplace with a raging fire inside of it. There was a stereo and a computer but they had been modified to match the décor of the room. Everything about it was breathtaking.
"Sound travels really well in here so if you ever need anything, just give a yell. I'm right down the hall if you need me for anything. If you're being attacked by mutants or you just need a glass of water."
"Now when you say right down the hall, do you mean a couple doors down or a couple miles down the hall?"
"Oh, you have a sense of humor. Won't that be fun? I mean a few doors down. This is the bedroom part of the Tardis. Well, see you in the morning, then."
All of this was too surreal for Ruby to grasp. Everything felt real and looked real, but her mind was telling her otherwise. Too tired to ponder her situation anymore, she walked over to the dresser and opened the drawers to find them enchanted with time lord science. She was looking down on a closet. She fingered through the clothes that hung downward and was astounded at the amount of woman's clothing that he had in this place. She opened up a second drawer and found the pajamas. After she put on a T-shirt and a pair of boxers she snuggled herself beneath the covers. The bed was probably twice the size of a King size and even with that in mind, she curled up into a warm little ball on the side of the bed, and drifted off to sleep.