At 5.45 am, Jane's alarm clock went off, and she was immediately awake. Unlike her brother, she was a relatively light sleeper, and never slept through her alarm. Sure, she might get up, turn it off, and go back to sleep, but she never slept through it.

Today, however, this was not the case, for the instant the horrible buzzing noise began, Jane was again conscious. Still half-asleep, she rolled out of the sleeping bag, stood up waveringly, flicked the "OFF" switch, and stumbled for the door.

As was typical for morning-time, her brain was a veritable soup, and it wasn't until Jane was halfway through brushing her teeth that she stopped because a memory was forming in her mind. The memory, she soon realized, was of yesterday, and the little adventure that had filled her afternoon with excitement. She also remembered the cause of that excitement, and her eyes opened wide in realization. Quickly Jane spit out the toothpaste in her mouth, took a swig of water to rinse out what was left, and dashed back into her room, fist slamming onto the switch for the overhead light.

Her bed was empty, the covers thrown back, and the Doctor gone.

Immediately Jane's gaze turned to her desk, where she had left some of his clothes, though due to her poor vision, it was blurry and she couldn't tell. She took long strides over to the desk for a closer look.

Yes, the jacket and tie were gone, and upon inspection, so were the dirty old high tops that had been waiting next to the door the previous night. Jane turned to the cup of tea, and found it empty.

For a moment, her mind was in turmoil, so many thoughts racing through it at a time that she couldn't focus on one. It took her several minutes to notice that her gaze had rested on a small sheet of paper next to the empty mug. She then saw that the piece of paper was one from the notepad she kept on her desk, and it was covered in a messy scrawl she could only presume to be the Doctor's.

Slowly Jane picked up the note. At first she stared simply at the paper itself; the object. Then, holding it closer to her eyes so she could actually read it, she looked at the content.

Jane-

I wanted to thank you very much for all your help. Welcoming me into your home and allowing me to rest here was an incredibly kind- and incredibly brave- thing to do. I'm sure it took a lot to convince your parents to let me stay, (here she smirked and thought, Oh, Doctor, if only you knew.) and I really do appreciate it. Honestly, there isn't much I could give as a thank-you, even if I knew what was in the realm of things teenage girls like. But if you ever find yourself in need of my assistance, I'll be sure to find you.

Thank you.

-The Doctor

Looking up from the note, Jane felt the bottom of her stomach drop a bit that he was gone. The questions she'd wanted to ask him suddenly flooded her mind. Somehow she was sad that he was gone. Then it occurred to her; assistance. Assistance? What could he possibly mean by assist-

'Jane?'

With a jump, she looked up and saw her mum standing in the doorway.

'Oh. Yes?'

Her mother studied her, then said, 'Just making sure you're up.'

'Well… I am. Obviously. Heh.'

Mrs Parsons paused. 'What'cha got there?'

'Nothing,' Jane replied quietly, looking back at the paper in her hand. 'Just a doodle I found. Derek must've left it.'

'Right…' the woman lingered a moment longer, then turned and walked back down the hall, the bottom of her nightgown fluttering.

With a shake of her head, Jane slid the note into the pocket of her blue jeans, and moved to close the door so as to get dressed in privacy. Yet all morning after, her thoughts centred on the mysterious Doctor she had apparently made acquaintances with. While eating her breakfast, she wondered what had been wrong with him. As she put her makeup on, Jane asked herself why he had left so abruptly in the middle of the night, and on the walk to her bus stop, she pondered on exactly who the Doctor really was.

Even chatting and laughing with Arty as the crowded school bus wound its way through Firefly City's forests and shopping centres couldn't take Jane's mind off him, and hanging with Arty could take her mind off anything. So when they arrived at their usual place in the central plaza of SHS, Jane was distracted.

Finally her very best friend Tobi got to school. Jane and Tobi had only known each other for two or three years, and their relationship stemmed from a huge and terrible fight. But the wounds had healed without scars, and they were close to the point that their brothers and parents hung out together, too.

Though the previous night held Jane's decision to not even tell Tobi about her adventure, this morning, she found herself in need of a confidant, a fellow to discuss both facts and thoughts with. Therefore, after their customary greetings, Jane called over to her friend, 'Hey, Tobi. Can I talk to you for a second? By ourselves?'

Under other circumstances, Tobi actually would've denied Jane, as she still had homework to complete before first period. But, looking at the expression on the other girl's face, she consented. 'Sure. 'Bout what?'

It was loud in the plaza, loud enough that they might actually have been able to get away with their conversation in peace, but Jane didn't feel like taking chances. 'Um… over here,' she said, pulling the sleeve of Tobi's red, plaid flannel shirt over to an empty hallway.

'What's up, Jae?' Tobi asked, once they had made sure no one was around. 'You seem worried. It's making me a bit nervous, actually.'

'Well…' Jane looked down at her red high-tops. 'Yesterday, I… did something.'

Looking up, she saw that Tobi's eyebrows had shot up her forehead, and said quickly, 'No, no! It wasn't anything bad! It was…' She paused, searching for words. 'An adventure, really.'

Tobi spoke in body language: she tipped her head to her right, shifted her weight to her right foot, and crossed her arms. All as if to say, 'Care to elaborate?'

'Okay. So, um, yesterday, as I was walking home from rehearsal…'

And so Jane dove into her tale, recounting the events of yesterday, omitting only the most minute details. In all honesty, it didn't take as long as she thought it would, and when she was finished, she looked for a reply from Tobi.

After a long minute or so of incredulous silence, her answer came in the form of a loud screech. 'Are you crazy?'

'Shhhh! Shhhh!' Jane tried to hush up the other girl. 'Are you crazy? Stop yelling!'

'Sorry, sorry!' Tobi exclaimed quietly. 'But any doubts I once had about the state of your sanity have officially been confirmed!'

'What! How?'

She looked around conspiratativley, then whispered loudly, 'You took some random guy you found in the middle of the woods home with you? And let him stay the night? In your own bed?'

'Hey, hey, hey! Ca-'

'Hay is for horses, Jae.'

Jane glared at Tobi for a minute, then went back to defending herself. 'Calm down, Tobias. Look, I know you're worried about what could've happened, but-'

'He could've been some creeper, Jae, he could've robbed you. Or worse.'

This gave Jane pause, not really for any reason other than she truly could not picture the Doctor trying to attack her. It was simply inconceivable, and she pointed this out, too. 'Tobi. I know that something could've happened, but it didn't. The Doctor is not that kind of guy; far, far from it.' She paused here.

'Y'know, in all honesty, if it was any other stranger I think I might've just called the cops or something. But this guy… I could tell he was good- that he was an okay guy, I mean, that he wouldn't hurt me. And he really was very sick. I mean, very sick.' Rubbing her arm self-consciously, she sighed. 'I just hope he's okay.'

Tobi stared at her, then chuckled a little. 'You always say that: "I could just tell." Geez, Jae, you gotta be psychic or something.'

'Well, it's true!' Jane cried. 'I can just tell.

'But you're right,' she continued, 'I must be psychic. I do have these dreams, y'know, where someone says something like "the alarm clock's going to go off"- well, not that outright, but you get my gist. Anyhow, then it does, and I wake up. It's happened twice.'

Tobi laughed. 'Right. Okay, Jane, if you're such an all-knowing psychic chick, what am I thinking right now?'

'Haha. Well, for one thing, I knew you were going to ask that. And you're thinking that I'm as mad as a hatter.'

'Yeah, you're right.'

`The first bell rang, and the two returned to the table where their friends were waiting for them to get their stuff so they could go to class.

'But I still wanted to talk to you in more detail about that later,' Jane said to Tobi. 'I just need to discuss it with someone. It was all so…'

They began to jog up the stairs. Tobi eyed Jane. 'Okay, fine. I'll text you later, then.'

Jane smiled. 'Thanks.'

Unfortunately, the rest of Jane's day was terrible, morning weirdness aside. She fell asleep in every period; history, algebra, English, even homeroom. By the time she was in the second half of American Sign Language (after having managed to nod off in both the first half of the period and the lunch hour that broke the period into two halves), she was not in a good mood. Very, very, not-in-a-good-mood. So, as they practiced their vocabulary signs, Jane really wasn't paying attention. She was angrily wondering why she was always falling asleep at school when she got more than enough at night. This whole deal was really messing her up; she was always out-of-touch, unfocused; missing out in school; it was even throwing off her eating habits, because she was never, ever hungry, even though she knew she had to eat. And she would, but then Jane would feel sick right afterwards, exactly as she did right then.

The greatest misfortune was that, as she was stewing over this, she slipped back into unconsciousness.

Jane left her fourth period in a silent rage. She was fed up; she'd had more than enough of this; she was leaving.

Her fifth period chemistry class was right by the back exit, and if she went just after the bell rang, everyone would be in class and no one would notice.

Quickly glancing about to make sure no one was watching Jane, pushed open the door and made a dash for the trees only just across a short stretch of lawn.

0-0

*profound swearing in several different languages*

It's snowing. Which normally I would be okay with. But it's cancelled school. And that is not okay. In any. Way. Possible.

*screams*

Okeydokey, moving on. Told you it'd be picking up! Sort of. Editing needed as usual, but nowhere near as much as I'm going to need for the next chapter. When I first wrote it, it was horrible because I was watching "The Mummy" and that somehow turned the story into one big, epic, load of crap. And even now, it's actually not so bad, but too far from canon for me to be comfortable at all. But with no school tomorrow and me being literally prohibited from leaving the house, I'll have plenty of time to work on art and writing. I might definitely do the next chapter of this, as well as some art pieces I've been intending on for deviantART.

Um… thank you for the wonderful reviews! I've been having a terrible evening and that just made me so happy. Didn't heal the burnt tongue. But made me happy. Thank you all so much, and I hope the weather does what you want it to do in your hometown! Thanks! 8D