A/N: As a special treat because the last chapter took so long to post... another chapter! Yey!
I must assume that you are not reviewing because you have nothing nice to say and have thus chosen to stay silent... or else you're like me and LOVE THIS FIC, but only review on the random very special occasion. Or when you see a 32-chapter fic and decide to read it in one sitting and review every single chapter just for the heck of it. waves at The Chibis Are Stalking Me I hope the chibis don't plague me tonight...
And now, without further ado... we start getting down to it, only to discover that we're 4 chapters away from The End.
The air around her seemed to rumble, vibrating as if someone were grabbing it by the shoulders and shaking it. As she began to rise in the air, she realized that she could not hear John anymore. A light blinded her, and she looked around wildly for a star before remembering that there wasn't one. The light became brighter, turning everything stark white; she squeezed her eyes shut, curling into a ball. The feeling of being in a shaken canister intensified and the roaring seemed as if it would split her ears…
… and then she had fallen painfully onto a familiar grated decking, the roaring and the light and the shaking completely gone. Her pack kept her from rolling over onto her back, so she lay still for a moment, face pressed into the grating, gathering her bearings enough to finally direct them toward her surroundings. Grate, yes. Coral, organic walls, yes. Brown-haired pretty boy, yes. Two companions… ah, well. Not everything could've been expected.
The moment passed, and after her first glance-around, she sprang to her feet with that boundless energy and ripped her bag open, plunging both her head and her hand inside and rooting around, throwing things that got in her way over her shoulder. Jacket, tool kit, pink flamingo (why the hell had he thought she'd need that?), hat rack… "Aha!" she cried, snatching the monitor from a deep corner and reemerging from the bag in triumph.
Hardly seeming to notice the other people, one of whom had definitely begun shouting at her, Tardis sprinted to the center console, pried open the proper hatch, and with a tremendous yank, ripped several wires loose. "Oi!" more than one of the others yelled, but as the ship hardly did more than sputter in surprise at her violence, one held the other two back.
Faster than anyone who didn't know the ship could have done, she'd wired her monitor in and flipped it on. When John's anxious face flickered into view, Tardis leapt in the air and whooped. The echo of an excited yell coming from the monitor was evidence that John was responding similarly. Tardis threw herself at the monitor, noting that the edges were already beginning to static. "Go!" she cried, grinning as widely as she could. "Go and get her, and I'll see you soon. We did it, John!"
"All right, now remember what I told you about that circuit. If you don't line it up perfectly, you're not going to be able to do this the other way without opening the Void." His voice was beginning to crackle and the static had crept over his face, but she still took the time to roll her eyes.
It wasn't until the monitor had gone completely black with a small pop that the easy companionship that had always connected the two seemed to fade away, leaving Tardis, for the first time since she could remember, feeling very alone. With a huff and a pat to the monitor, she turned at last to the alarmed, sputtering Doctor and his two companions, poking her tongue out the side of her mouth for a moment as she regarded them.
"I'm Tardis. Tardis Tyler."