It's going to be midnight in about four minutes and thirty seconds so I'm going to make this A/N as quick as possible.
I've updated the trigger warnings in the first chapter so review those please.
Tomorrow Donald Trump will be my president. I'm scared as Hell for myself and a lot of other people. If you're out there, and you're worried about what's going to happen in the next four years, stay strong.
Please pray for us.
I don't own Doctor who. I guess I own Ada but idk, she's an adult so she can do what she likes.
I'm pulling my hair into a ponytail as I run back down the stairs, pulling my duffel bag behind me.
"Is it cold in America?" I ask, running my hand over my head to check the pony tail.
"Not very. You'll be fine in what you're wearing." He says, glancing around the room, apparently curious.
"Should we inform your father of this?" he asks.
"Definitely not."
"I think he'd like to kn-"
"Is your time machine from Gallifrey going to have enough room for me to bring our popcorn machine? Nothing says time travel like popcorn, yeah?" I ask.
"Um… Don't worry about it. I have a popcorn machine… somewhere. It's vintage, from nineteen eighty. Don't worry, it's basically new." I blink a few times before sighing.
"Right, okay."
He chuckles
I make sure the door is locked before we leave. Dad doesn't check the security cameras almost ever. So unless he is for some reason suspicious of me, he won't have any idea I've left until at least next week.
"Is it parked far from here?" I ask, turning to face him.
"Not very far. About two or three blocks from here." He says. There's silence for a couple minutes as we walk.
"Do you have to buy a permit to own a time machine? Or is it one of those things that the government would try and steal so you have to constantly move around so they never find you?" I ask.
He chuckles. "More the second one." He says. I laugh.
"Am I breaking the law by going with you?" I ask.
"Well…" Giggling, I stop abruptly as he stops.
"What's this?" I ask, noticing that he's practically beaming at a tall blue box.
"This is the T.A.R.D.I.S." He grins. I stare at it for a few seconds.
"Is it behind that box?" I ask slowly.
"Nope." I glance around,
"You're joking, right?" I ask nervously,
"Not at all."
All at once, it occurs to me all the stupid decisions I've made just now. One, trusting this man in the first place. Second, buying into the whole alien thing. Seriously? An alien that looks like a human? How stupid am I?
"I wanna go home." I blurt out, staring at the box. He frowns, turning to face me.
"Why?" He asks.
"This is… This is a prank, right? Riley's behind this. Or Jess. No, definitely Riley." I try to sound confident in what I'm saying, perhaps trying to convince myself as well.
But it doesn't add up. Riley's been planning this since I was seven? Even he isn't that good. Or patient, for that matter.
"Just step inside the box," he says.
"This was dumb. I'm a moron. A stupid reckless impulsive moron." I bite my fingernails, staring at the box.
"You're not a moron." He says simply. "You're very smart. Maybe reckless, but so am I."
"Comforting." I murmur.
"Are you going to let me leave?" I ask.
"Of course. But please, trust me. Just step inside for one minute." I glance at him.
Stupid, reckless, impulsive.
"Okay." I say.
I pull open the door nervously. What I'm expecting, I don't know. I close my eyes as it opens and frown when I finally look inside. I step into a large metallic room, and I appear to be standing on some sort of walkway. I take a step down the stairs numbly, looking around. The only light is a dull, orange glow and some blue light coming from all around. In the center is an odd table which I can only assume is the control panel. Not that any of these details in and of themselves mean much, it's that I'm standing in what should be a four by four box, not a room.
"Doctor… this is-"
"The T.A.R.D.I.S. That's time and relative dimension in space. She can go practical anywhere, any time." He says.
"But it's-" I run back to the door, sticking my head outside. This is impossible. It's still a box on the outside. I hit it. Wood. How is a time machine made out of wood?
"It's bigger on the inside!" I exclaim, running back inside.
He laughs. "Yep." I open my mouth to say something, then seem to forget it.
"How?" I blurt out after a few seconds.
"Time Lord Technology. They're the only race in creation to ever use it." I blink a few times.
"O-okay."
He grins at me.
I look around, taking in every detail. Nothing changes as I look around, and slowly, I begin to accept the fact that this is real, not a dream.
I exhale slowly, looking towards the Doctor.
He smiled at me and says, "Would you still like to go to America?" He asks. It only takes me a moment before I nod.
He clasps his hands together and grins,
"Right, then. We're off!"
"Okay," I say weakly.
The machine starts making an odd sound while The Doctor is messing with the controls and buttons on the control panel.
"Ada, pull that lever for me," he says, gesturing in the general direction of the other side.
"What lever?" My voice is probably ridiculously panicked, but I can't hear myself over the engine of this thing.
He takes my hand gently and puts it on top of the red lever, pulling it down slowly.
"When I say now, push the blue button," He orders, pointing to the other side of the machine. I nod, and when he gives the cue, the entire machine shudders.
"What the Hell!" I exclaim, taking my hand off the button in panic.
"It's supposed to do that!" The Doctor shouts over the rumble of the machine. The machine swerves to the side and I swallow hard. This is not what appears to be controlled chaos. This is just chaos. This is obviously some sort of faulty machine that could crash at any moment killing the both of us. This is completely stupid.
"Doctor?" I ask, looking around. He holds up a finger, signaling for me to wait a moment, and I bite my lip.
"I'm going to die…" I whisper. Insanity. Complete insanity.
The machine slows down and I start to hear how loudly my heart is thumping. I stuff my hands into my pockets to hide the shaking.
"Are- are we done?" I ask.
"Yup!" The Doctor says cheerfully, turning to the door.
"And we're not in London anymore?"
"Nope,"
He walks towards the door confidently, and I follow him after a moment of standing still.
When we get outside, it's colder than it was in London. There's snow all over the ground, which has been trampled by all the people who have walked by. We're in the back alley-way of some town in the U.S. "Is this really America?" I ask, my breath fogging in front of me.
He nods, gesturing around. "Dana, North Dakota, America, twenty one eight one."
I frown. "Doctor, it's eighty two,"
"What?"
"We're in the wrong year."
"Huh." Is all he offers.
I wait for a few moments to see if he's going to do anything, like go back into that box. Instead, he starts walking towards the street. I quickly follow after him, ignoring the snow as it gets into my shoes.
"Doctor?" I ask.
He turns to look at me without stopping, "Yes?" He asks.
"Aren't we- aren't we going to go to the right year?"
He shrugs nonchalantly. "I don't think so. We might as well see what's going on right now. See, Ada, this whole debacle started somewhere. And if the T.A.R.D.I.S. took us here it's probably for good reason."
Reckless. I'm seeing it now.
The town looks very old fashioned. The road is paved with red brick, the lampposts black metal, standing tall above the sidewalks, and the stores are all locally owned. It's a country town.
"Doctor?" I ask.
"Yeah?"
"Was it a space ship?"
"What do you mean?" He asks.
"Before the lockdown, people from this town were posting videos, of the sky. It looked like a space ship, but a lot of people, really important people shot that idea down. Apparently their satellites are too advanced to not pick up on that."
He nods. "Humans, always too big to be fooled. Trust me, you can be. It's really easy. And funny to watch." He says. "To answer your question, yes, Ada. It was."
"Why is it that UFOs always crash in country towns?" I ask. I'm probably starting to annoy him now, but I really do want answers.
"It has to do with the fact that there's more open area in the country, and less people. Less witnesses should an alien ship land. It has to do with the fact that until about two thousand five the world hadn't made public contact with alien life. Ironically, that crash was in a city. London. " He says matter of factly.
"I bet you were there," I say conversationally, not looking at him, but at the scenery around us.
"Hmm?"
"When the Earth first made contact with aliens. You were there?"
"I was, actually."
The conversation lulls for a few moments, and I decide to break it.
"Was it scary?" I ask.
"They… They were humans about it. Some got drunk and prepared for the end, some prayed, and some got together and watched the news. No one really knew what to do."
I can't even imagine how scared I would be if a ship crashed in my city and I didn't know what to do. Now we have protocol. Even if it's only happened once in my lifetime, I wasn't that scared. Jesse held my hand, and I didn't cry. I thought about it, I thought about how we weren't allowed to leave the house, but it wasn't chaos.
"Here!" The Doctor exclaims.
I stop. I've been following him absentmindedly for a few minutes, and now I realize we're in the middle of the street.
I glance around, I try and figure out what I'm supposed to be looking for. It's an intersection between four roads, all of which are empty, except for a woman with dark brown hair walking into an antiques shop, and an older man unlocking the door on what appears to be the entrance to his apartment.
"This is, or will be, the crash site." He pulls out his sonic and scans the ground.
His face lights up as he reads the sonic. "There's traces of foreign materials. Metal."
"Like from Mars?" I ask dumbly.
"No, Ada, of course not." He rolls his eyes. "Martian materials look completely different."
There were parking spaces with cars in them behind the buildings where we landed, but there's nothing out here.
Maybe they don't drive much around here. There's not a long stretch to get to anywhere, and there's always Uber or a Cab.
"Okay, let's go." He says, turning on his heel and walking away.
I follow behind him, brow furrowed slightly. "That's it?" I ask.
"Yup, they didn't leave anything else to go on. Let's go."
"Shouldn't we try and figure out why there's already material here?"
"Oh, definitely."
The T.A.R.D.I.S. doesn't seem to have moved since we left it, or drawn any attention, which is surprising. If I happened to find a blue box appearing out of nowhere, as someone was bound to see, I'd like to think I'd react.
The Doctor snaps his fingers and the doors swing open.
"How does that work?" I ask before I have time to consider if I should
"How does what work?" He asks.
"You snapping your fingers. How does that open the doors? Would it work if anyone snapped their fingers? How is that very effective?"
I'm stumbling over my words, probably looking very stupid to him, and my cheeks flush what's probably a bright pink.
His gaze is soft, and his tone is calm, soothing, even, as he says.
"Well, the T.A.R.D.I.S. isn't exactly just a machine. She's alive. She knows everything, everything that could ever come to be. The Time Lords thought that she was faulty. She just doesn't listen, doesn't take me where I want to go, but where I need to. She also recognized me specifically, and people that she trusts. She knows who she can trust because, as I said, she can see all that ever can and ever will be."
"Is that- is that why we didn't go to the correct year? Why we tried to find something?"
"Yes, we're probably here for a reason."
"But we didn't find anything."
"Rule 234, just hold on tight, and pretend like it's all part of the plan." He says with a grin.
I want to ask him what he means by rules, I want to tell him that I don't understand his answer, and I want to know more about the T.A.R.D.I.S.
But I've already pushed my bounds. He's probably really annoyed by me, and would prefer if I shut up.
I don't speak again until we've arrived wherever. He's probably trying to go to the date of the crash, but he didn't say specifically.
"Are you alright?" He asks me. I glance up at him and I quickly return it to the floor.
"I told you, I'm fine." Liar.
He stares at me for a moment, seeming to see right into every fiber of my being.
"See, you say that," He says slowly, "But everyone says that."
"The crash. Remember?" I say, turning to walk out the door, fully intent on not looking back. He grabs my wrist and I flinch, regretting it almost immediately.
For a second, I wonder if I can convince him that it was nothing. He's not stupid, though. He pulls up my sleeve, revealing my wrist, showing all the bruises, cigarette burns, and cuts. My stomach plummets and I feel sick.
"Ada," He says softly, pulling me from my thoughts. I pull my wrists away, crossing my arms across my chest. I try to look confident as I say,
"The crash, Doctor." My voice cracks on the last syllable. So much for being confident. This time, as I walk away, I really don't look back, ignoring the absolute pain and upset in his eyes. Like he's hurting along with me.
As soon as I step outside, I smell smoke. We're on the hill on the outer area of the town, with a perfect view of the town square.
Only, it isn't like the town square I saw not five minutes ago. It has a crater a few meters south of the center intersection. It's still smoldering, but the ship that was supposed to have crashed is gone.
The Doctor is right next to me, and he clears his throat before saying,
"It's Earth, about ten hours after you left."
The sun is just starting to rise. I realize it would be around eleven or twelve in London. My house is probably untouched, no one will have noticed I'm gone.
My phone starts ringing after about thirty seconds of silence, and I pick it up, already knowing who it is.
"Hey, Jess."
"Hey Lady Bug." I crinkle my nose, smiling.
I hear Ariana speak in the background, something I can't make out.
"Ari says hi, and that she loves you."
"Tell her I love her too."
There's a beat where he repeats my words, then he's back.
"Anyways, what're you doing?"
"Time travel."
He snorts, and I can practically hear the exasperation in the gesture.
"Then how are you talking to me if you're in the future?"
"I only went slightly into the future. Now I'm like ten hours in the future than when I left. Did I miss anything important?" My tone is unnecessarily concerned, playing with him.
"Have you heard about all that stuff going on in North Dakota?"
My eyes flicker to the crater ahead of me.
"Umm, it might've made a few headlines." I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or lying. I guess one isn't really different from the other.
"Hmm, you're hilarious."
I smile. "What are you up to?"
"Ari's pregnant." His tone is nonchalant, and it takes a few seconds for this revelation to catch up to me.
I freeze for a moment, blinking rapidly as I attempt to process this.
"R-really!?" I exclaim, nervousness and excitement mingling together.
"Yup. We found out last night, you're the first one to know."
I don't know what to say here. Congratulations? Something excited? Telling him what he should name it? I'm not sure how to feel here, either.
The Doctor frowns next to me, and starts walking down the hill. He gestures for me to follow wordlessly.
"I- I have to go. I'll call you soon- love you!" I hang up before he can reply and run after The Doctor, slowing to a walk that matches his pace when I get close enough.
"Your brother?" He asks, still looking ahead.
"Yeah, I guess my phone connected to the satellites again. I don't think it'll do that again, if we went to a time where I was already there. It could malfunction."
"I can fix that," he says, holding out his hand for my phone. He's oddly sullen, and I know why, but that doesn't put me any more at ease.
I hand it to him and he uses his sonic to scan it.
"There. Now it'll work anywhere, aside from certain places, like alternative universes and black holes, but I don't foresee us ever going to one of those. The really killer part is the bill."
He smiles at me, which is obviously an extreme effort on him, so I return it. Funny, as convincing as he is, I can still see it's fake. I guess he can tell with me too.
The site is being inspected by people in hazmat suits, sorting through the rubble and disposing of some of the bits from the plane in weird bags. On the other side of the taped off bits is a group of people, all wearing suits and sunglasses, talking.
"I get the feeling that we don't want to be seen here," I say.
"I think you're right."
He directs me towards the two vans that the hazmat crew apparently drove in in, and from in between them.
"What are they doing?" I ask, whispering.
"Cleaning up the crash site. They want this whole thing to be swept under the rug." He replies, a tone of anger in his voice.
"Why, though? What about this makes people think that it needs to be covered up?"
"Dunno." He says, and I can't tell if he's lying or not.
"Maybe there's a—" I'm cut off by his hand flying over my mouth, and I raise my eyebrows in alarms as I hear heavy footsteps coming this way. I do the first thing that comes to mind, drop to the ground and pull the Doctor down with me. I roll under the car, and the Doctor follows. The boots walk around the car, slowly, which has my nerves on edge enough. He's going to check the underneath. He heard us.
As quietly and quickly as I can, I worm my way out and get to my feet, making sure my feet are behind the tire. The Doctor is one step behind me. After a few seconds, I realize there's no way we can stay here. I turn around, facing what's in front of us and try and figure out where we can hide.
It's a row of stores. None open. Not that I expected them to be. I'm still disappointed.
"Do you know how to pick a lock really fast?" My tone is just loud enough to reach him, but not suit guy on the other side of the van. He looks confused for a moment before he nods firmly, and we set off at a run.
We run into the Antiques shop without being spotted. He pulls out his sonic, scans it, and the lock clicks. I grin as we walk in, closing the door behind us and leaning against
The room is filled with all sorts of things. There's a bright green piano that looks to be seventy years old, and at least ten wildly painted, oddly shaped chairs with no matches are all around here.
"If we're going to hide out in here, we should perhaps hide in the back." The Doctor offers.
I nod in agreement, and attempt to navigate my way over and around all of the various things that appear to be just junk in front of us. My foot catches on the rug and I instinctively reach out to catch myself, but end up whacking my elbow against the floor, and my forehead on the edge of a chair. There's a rather alarming crack as my elbow makes contact with the floor.
"Damn it!" I curse, pulling my elbow to my chest.
The Doctor is already kneeling beside me, looking concerned.
"Are you okay?" He asks.
"Yeah, yeah," I mutter, gingerly trying to feel how bad my forehead is.
"Let me see your elbow." He says, and I realize there's no point in arguing.
He flinches fractionally at the site of my arm, but seems to move past that fairly quickly, prodding at my elbow, asking me if it hurts, to wiggle my fingers, and if I can bend my elbow.
"Well, I don't think it's broken. And you're probably not concussed."
"If it's not broken, that what was that crack?" I ask.
He's quiet for a minute, then he motions for me to get to my feet. I do, and as soon as I'm out of the way, he rolls the rug up. Underneath, there's a handle on the wood. It appears to be a door. A board of wood is cracked, but instead of seeing nothing but perhaps cement underneath, there's light peeking through it.
The Doctor and I share a glance and I nod, reaching down to pull it open.
Beneath it is a spiral staircase that is a grey metal, and the walls are all bright white. The Doctor doesn't hesitate before he walks down it, calling softly for me to follow him.
The stairs are silent, so I pad down them softly. I'm very adept at sneaking around, and apparently the Doctor is too, though that doesn't surprise me.
"Where are we going?" I whisper.
"Don't know. I figured we'd just sort of go from here."
The wall, ceiling, and floor of this place is white, and every surface is grey. And I can hear the low drone of conversation in the next room. I gesture for the Doctor to follow me, and we both hide behind a shelf that is ajar from where it should be. The Doctor is between me and the crack that leads back outside. The entire outside seems to be ajar, like there's been no time to clean up lately.
Three people walk by, one wearing a lab coat, and two wearing fine suits. One of them I recognize as the man who we saw come in earlier. They walk up the stairs, and I hold my breath. As soon as they get to the top, I remember that we didn't shut the door.
"Did you shut this?" The older man asks. I can't see them, but I can hear the accusation in his voice. I swallow, glancing at the Doctor.
"I did! I swear!" The younger one says.
The woman in a lab coat tsks, probably shaking her head. "Damn it, James," she sighs. "We talked about this."
I let out a silent breath, relief flooding over me. We still wait about a minute before we leave our hiding place.
"Is anyone else here?" I whisper.
"Doubt it." He says, scanning the door again.
I inspect the clipboard on the table. It seems to have someone's complete information, including name, date of birth, social security numbers etc.
"Odd," I murmur as the Doctor exclaims "Brilliant!"
I turn to him and he grins at me.
"It's sound proof! This entire basement is sound proof!"
"How? I thought the ceiling was wood."
"It is. There appears to be a thin sheet of… Something that is keeping the sound out! This level of technology is not something the humans could come up with on their own, at least, not in this millennia. Do you know what that means?" He asks.
I widen my eyes. "That this entire town consists mainly of aliens! I knew there was something fishy about America!"
He rolls his eyes. "Be serious, Ada. Think about what I just told you. What could this possibly mean, other than what I just told you?"
I wrack my brains, trying to figure it out. "That… Americans really have been reverse engineering spaceships since the nineteen sixties and we just found area fifty one?"
It's probably a lame answer, I know. But I'm not exactly sure what to say here. I have no idea what's going on. I don't really know what to think in terms of aliens.
To my surprise, he appears to toss the idea around in his head a bit. "Maybe," He says.
"What's in here?" He enters the next room, which is considerably larger than the one we were just in. I frown at the sight in front of us.
There are four tables, all appearing to have a body on them, underneath a bright white sheet. Next to them, are the same clipboards as I saw out in the front room. Except, on this one is a name I recognize.
"Doctor?" I call.
"Hmm?" He asks, looking up from what appear to be parts of an alien ship. Where he got them, I have no idea.
"Come look at this." I say.
He comes over, picks up the clip board and frowns. "Where do I know that name?" He asks.
I pull back the sheet, revealing the face of the body.
"Catherine Reynolds. The girl from the news this morning."
This chapter is un-beta read so all mistakes are my own.
Reviews are the only reward I get for working on this story, so please just take a few seconds to make my day.
