Chapter 3:
"It is beautiful!"
Jemma said as she rushed through the doors and gazed around followed by the Clara and the Doctor.
"That's, different," the Doctor muttered.
"I take it all your previous companions have said 'it's bigger on the inside?'" Clara said.
"Most look around to check the dimensions," the Doctor said as Jemma used the railings to move around.
"I have been to the Doctor Who Experience twice and this is so much better," she cried and collapsed into a chair.
"So how do we get her home?" Clara asked.
The Doctor pulled off a panel that revealed the membrane console they used when they were hunting for ghosts in the past and the future. He then went to the near-hyperventilating Jemma and plucked a hair from her head.
"Ow," she said and slowly got to her feet to see what he was doing.
He placed one long dirty strand into the membrane of the TARDIS.
"Your DNA will guide us to your home world, but we'll have to drop you off someplace alien. Stonehenge is as good a place any."
"I knew the place was alien," Clara said. "How else do you explain the design?"
"In my world it is a possible portal to the different realms of the universe. I did a term paper on astrophysics about the site," Jemma said.
"Yes, your view of the world is so basic. You really don't know the depth of your world yet. They've only had one alien invasion and that was only in New York."
"How do you know so much about that world Doctor?" Clara asked.
"I have my own channel for that world. The TARDIS doesn't let me tune in often but I know enough."
Jemma stood up a little straighter.
"Does that mean I'm a telly character in your world?"
"We're all characters in different dimensions" the Doctor said evasively. "In one I think I am a Communication Director who only knows how to swear. In another I share the face of a man who escaped the fires of Pompeii."
"Do you know character I am in another dimension?" Clara asked.
"Try not think about it too much, it will give you humans a headache."
Neither Clara nor Jemma spoke. Clara was curious but knew better than to push her luck otherwise he'd shut up completely. Jemma was simply too tired to speak. She found another seat and fell back.
Clara noted her condition. "Let's get her home."
The Doctor touched the membranes carefully. "Yes. I feel the TARDIS isn't starting to like her paradoxical presence here."
The TARDIS made sounds that had filled Jemma's fantasies. She was really traveling in the TARDIS.
…
In less than two minutes they arrived near the center of Stonehenge with a slight jolt. The TARDIS was apparently eager to be rid of Jemma Simmons. It was around midnight and stars could be seen from angle. Clara had visited the Stonehenge as a student and with her family but they never got this close. It was truly stunning.
They guided Jemma out and into the center. The Doctor told her to lay down and he knelt over her.
"You seem like a remarkable woman Jemma but I have to erase this from your memory. You'll wake up with no recollection as to how you got here."
"Understood sir."
Jemma looked up at the stars, happy to recognize all the constellations and distant planets. Tears dripped down her faces silently.
"Thank you," she said.
The Doctor pressed two fingers to her forehead and she fell asleep. Clara was touched by the sweetness of the scene.
"Come on Clara," he said brusquely. "We'd best be going before the TARDIS tries to leave without us."
"Can you show me an 'episode' about us?" she asked as they entered the TARDIS
"Let's go find some monsters instead."
…
Jemma Simmons was found early in the morning by maintenance men. Jemma woke up at first disoriented and didn't know how she got there. At the visitor's center she called to get a ride home.
Scientifically, Jemma knew she needed to go into a containment cell to wash off in the event some of the dirt from the planet she was on was toxic when it reacted to other earthy compounds. Every inch of her needed to be scanned in the event that she underwent some sort of transformation without knowing it. She knew she also needed to physically recover from the experience with bedrest.
But none of these rational thoughts stopped her from running into Fitz's arms when he got off the new jet. Fitz swore he would never let go of her again. She wasn't running anymore. There was no other place she wanted to be at that moment. Even if she had something as incredible as a TARDIS.