Dear Martha,

Words cannot express how sorry I am.

No. That was stupid. Sounded stupid, looked stupid, felt stupid. It was the third draft of Tish's apology letter and it was going nowhere. Every version reminded her of something you would hear on a bad soap, and none of them sounded anywhere near sincere. Maybe writing to Martha was a bad idea, after all, it wasn't her she had insulted.

Dear Dr. John Smith,

There, that was better.

I am extremely sorry I insulted you.

That was not.

I never intended any hostility.

Of course she had.

I really only wanted some answers.

And a good punch.

My deepest sympathy for the loss of your family…

Oh, that was brilliant. Bringing attention to the thing she had insulted him about. That would get her sister back, definitely. Tish sighed, and banged her head against the keyboard.

This wasn't working.

Four hours, Martha had been gone, four hours. During that time Tish had accomplished absolutely nothing apart from moving from the living room into the bedroom. Outside her room, everything remained the same. The teacups were still there, the biscuits were still half eaten and the rain still pounded on the windowpanes. Time stood still, and that's when Tish heard it.

It barely registered at first, it was just one of the many noises coming from the world outside her bedroom. As it grew louder, however, Tish realized that she recognized it. She looked up and gazed out the window, the sound growing louder as the rain picked up outside.

Engines.

She had heard them earlier, just barely before Martha had shown up with Dr. Smith, then again just after they left. Both times she hadn't cared merely because she had been distracted. This time, with nothing to notice except a rainstorm and a letter she couldn't write, it was different. It was louder. It was coming from inside. Slowly, carefully, same as before, she crept to the doorway of her bedroom, and peeked outside.

Nothing was there. Well, apart from the yet to be tidied living room and kitchen on the other side of the hallway. There were no monsters, no machines, no strange men in blue pinstripes, everything seemed normal. Everything was the same. As the engine noise died down, Tish took a well-deserved sigh of relief and stepped out into the hallway.

"Tish,"

"WHO ARE YOU??!" she turned. It was Martha.

"Last I checked," said Martha, amused, "I believe I was your older sister."

"What are you doing here?" Tish asked nervously, "Where's Dr. Smith."

"That's not his real name," Martha said calmly, "and he's right outside. There are some things we need to tell you, Tish, important things, things you're probably not going to believe but you're going to need to if you want to accept me."

"What?"

"Just trust me," And with that, Martha proceeded to blindfold her. Tish had had this done to her dozens of time when they were little, Martha had loved to play tricks on her. She had always assumed her sister would grow out of things like this as the two got older, some things never change.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she screamed through the struggle.

"Sorry, just trust me," Tish felt herself being pulled out of the flat and into the dark outside, the rain pouring down on her and soaking her brand-new t-shirt. She heard a door open in front of her, and was suddenly pushed rudely though the open doorway. The noise of the storm stopped.

"Martha," she asked slowly, "Where are we?"

"I'm not," Martha began, slowly untying the blindfold, "the best person to ask." The small strip of black cloth dropped from Tish's eyes.

"Dr. Smith…" Tish gasped from her place by the railing. The man smiled.

"That's not my name," he said calmly, standing in front of a massive glowing structure in the center of the… room, was it? "Though you've probably guessed that by now."

"Tish," said Martha, standing behind her, "This is the Doctor, I met him at work when…er…"

"When the hospital was transported to the moon," said the Doctor, "I was disguised as a patient."

"Right," Martha agreed, "though he wasn't very good at it, every time I showed up there was nothing wrong with him,"

"Apart from the two hearts," he added, grinning

"You alright Tish?" Martha looked at her with concerned eyes as she stared wonderingly at the Doctor. She took a deep, slightly frightened breath.

"You said you were disguised as a patient," said Tish, cautiously, "what are you really?" The Doctor sighed.

"You had to say what, didn't you?"

"It's a bit hard to explain," said Martha, "he's not really normal,"

"That's obvious," said Tish, bitterly.

"No, but what I mean is, he's not…human."

"What?"

"It's true," said the Doctor, lightly, "Remember the 'two hearts' comment?"

"You're nutters," said Tish, backing away, "or at least, he is,"

"He's not," said Martha firmly, "He's telling the truth. He's an alien, a real live, honest to God alien from a completely different world."

"That you met on the moon?" Tish added skeptically.

"In the hospital, on the moon," said the Doctor, "not one of my favourite travel spots, not really a fan of hospitals," he turned to Martha and winked, "though the doctors were particularly nice at this one, I have to say."

"You'd better," said Martha jokingly before turning back to Tish, "I know this seems unbelievable, and I know you think we're both a pair of nutters, but I'm telling you, we're not lying. The Doctor is an alien, he has two hearts, and this," she motioned upwards, "this is his spaceship, it's called the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?"

"The TARDIS." Martha smiled, trying her hardest to look reassuring, "I know it's a lot to take in, but…"

"The hell it's a lot to take in!" said Tish, angrily, "First you disappear for a month, then you show up in my flat in the middle of the night with some strange man with no sense of color coordination…"

"Hey!" the Doctor interjected, "There's no call for-"

"Oh shut up, you're wearing a bright blue suit with red trainers and a trench coat, get over it!" Tish took a breath, "Anyway, then you storm off because your new boyfriend gets a bit moody and I get all guilt-ridden for four hours until you come back, kidnap me, throw me into some freaky building somewhere and try to tell me that he's an alien! What the hell is going on?! Who is he really? What has he done to you, and why the hell did you go off with him?!'" Tish stopped and took a breath, glaring intently at Martha.

"Well," said the Doctor, amused, "she's more stubborn then you are."

"Runs in the family," answered Martha, "Though it is a fairly unbelievable story."

"Suppose so. Right then," he jumped up suddenly and hit a few buttons on the glowing structure behind him, "where should take her?"

"Take me?" said Tish.

"Doctor…"

"Well we've got to take her somewhere, she'll never believe us otherwise,"

"I think we can do this without taking her anywhere," said Martha, "let me just take her outside," The Doctor grinned.

"Shall I bring a stethoscope?"

"Of course," she grinned back, "Come on then, let's go."

"Out there?" Tish asked, irritated, "it's pouring rain out there, I'm wet enough as it is!"

"Just trust me,"

"I've heard that before," Tish muttered as she let her sister lead her out the doors of the room. She wondered briefly if they were suppose to look like phone box doors, or if it was just another trick. She shivered as she stepped out into the storm, giving a slight gasp as she realized she was still at the estate her flat was in. She turned to Martha, "Was that a flat?"

"No," her sister replied smugly, "Turn around," Tish did as she was told, and suddenly wished she hadn't. Behind her stood a large blue box, just barely big enough for two people. The lights in the windows were on, and the sign at the top that read "Police Public Call Box" glowed eerily in the storm. Tish had seen pictures of these, in old family scrapbooks from when her parents had been teenagers. Supposedly, there were none left in London today, unless you wandered up to the sixth floor of Tish's estate, apparently. Tish regarded Martha skeptically.

"A police box?"

"Yeah," said Martha, amused, "A police box. Hard to believe we were just in there, huh?" Tish gasped.

"We couldn't have been."

"We were." Tish walked cautiously up to the box and ran her fingers on the front of the door, "Go ahead," said Martha behind her, "Door's unlocked."

"Right," said Tish, slowly wrapping her hand around the door handle. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and looked inside. The Doctor was standing in the center of room.

"Hello," he said brightly, rummaging through some things on the large, glowing structure, "Has the weather improved?" Tish didn't answer. Instead she shut the door, rudely slamming it at no one in particular. She took a few steps back and looked at the box, no longer caring how wet the rain was making her. It wasn't possible, she thought to herself, it just wasn't possible.

Frantically, she walked around the box, checking its size, hoping desperately that the outside was bigger than she thought. It fit tightly between the railing of the estate and door to the flat next door, but she didn't care, she managed to squeeze through anyway. She had to prove her sister wrong, the man had to be a nutter, there was no way any of this could be happening. As she rounded the opposite corner of the box, the clearly phone-box sized box, however, she began to realize that she was wrong.

She backed away from the box, overwhelmed with fear, confusion, and anger. She stood still in the rain for what seemed like hours, though it was probably only a few minutes. The night was freezing and she shivered harder as the wind started to pick up. After a while, she felt a thick, warm coat get draped over her shoulders. She turned, it was the Doctor.

"Thought you might be cold," he said, holding out a stethoscope, "No use doing this while you're freezing." Tish took the stethoscope.

"Do I really have to do this?" she asked.

"Do you really believe me yet?" he asked back. Tish sighed and he unbuttoned his suit coat. She put on the stethoscope and cautiously put the end on his chest. She heard nothing at first, until he took her hand and moved it first to the right side of his chest and then to the left. There was a heartbeat both times.

"Two hearts," said Tish, quietly.

"Two hearts," he agreed.

"I suppose I…" she began.

"It's fine," he said, smiling, "You're not the first to have trouble handling it." Tish shivered and smiled back, not entirely grasping what all of this meant, but not wanting to push it either.

"Where's Martha?" she asked after a moment, motioning to the tall blue box behind them, "Did she…"

"She's in your flat, I believe, hopefully making tea," his smile changed to a grin, "You look like you could use a cup."

"If I could, so could you," she looked him over, noticing he had yet to put his suit coat back on again, "Aren't you cold?"

"Nah," he answered, "I don't get cold easily, besides, I've been to colder planets than yours."

"Ah," said Tish, "Your planet. Leave it to my sister to finally make a friend and have it be an alien."

"At least it was a nice alien, right?"

"We'll see. For now, let's just go inside."

"The tea will get cold,"

"Right," she smiled at him, and the two began to walk side-by-side back to the flat. As she watched him however, hands in his pockets, looking contently out at the London street, looking so normal but at the same time so incredibly alien it occurred to her that for some bizarre reason this was exactly what her sister had needed. Martha had always been slightly above normality it seemed, to keep her trapped in it like Tish had planned would be a fate only slightly worse than death itself. She sighed, suddenly knowing exactly what to write in that e-mail.

Dear "The Doctor",

It has become increasingly clear, that you are not good with a typical family situation. The fact that you're not human is probably a good excuse for this, but for now we're just going to ignore that minor detail and move on.

I have known Martha since the day I was born, obviously, literally. Since then, there hasn't been a single moment where she wasn't there. She was never any good at making friends as a kid, so I was forced to serve both the sister role, and the best friend role in her life. I cannot imagine life without her, despite my knowing she's with you, this whole experience is hard for me. Give me time, I'll get over it.

Please don't hurt her. I'm not asking you to "keep her safe" or "protect her for all eternity" or something, that would make it sound like you're getting married or something (plus she'd kill me if he knew I asked someone to "protect her") You seem nice enough, but I can't be sure. I have no idea what it is you two do while traveling, where you go, or what you see, I can only imagine. You seem so human sometimes, and I have trouble believing there's any real danger. But then there are times when you become distant, strange, something else entirely that I can only describe as alien. It's then that I become worried. Don't you dare hurt her, Doctor, no matter how alien you are, know that she has a whole life and family attached to her, and if you hurt her you hurt them even more.

Good luck to both of you, tell Martha to e-mail me a lot, and tell her I'm genuinely happy for her. I like you both, try to stay alive.

Yours,

Tish Jones.