Wassup peeps! *dabs* this took forever. Good news is that most of the next chapter is written and you can expect it soon. Ish.
So, I know that there's people out there who see that an author has updated, checks the word count and is like "Oh, only eighty words? That's not a chapter I'm not reading this. And then don't. Which is totally lame but whatever.
I also know some people don't read ANs which is also lame! So anyways I'm on tumblr, look for Aubrey Cortez and I'm on it. That's me.
Also, no more regular updating schedule. It was nice while it lasted but if you know me you know it was doomed from the start.
Also also, published a new story. Go read it! (It's supernatural)
And finally, throughout this chapter, the aliens will be using they/them pronouns. (Aliens probably don't even have gender roles in their society, it's likely gender wouldn't exist either.) SO, there aren't multiples. There is one unless otherwise specified. (If you don't think that they and them are valid pronouns, bite me. (So much for the professional vibes I've been going for.)
NO TRANSPHOBIA IS ALLOWED ON MY PROFILE
This is a safe space for all queer peoples.
Also, I'm gay. Just putting that out there. (Technically I'm a lesbian, but that label doesn't really… fit.)
So anyways, no homophobia anyways.
Triggers are listed at the bottom.
This chapter is not edited.
IMPORTANT AN AT THE BOTTOM
I don't own Doctor Who. Who do you think I am? Moffat? Well, by the end of this story you might just think so.
The entire setup reads as too perfect.
"Hello?" I call.
No one answers.
"Anybody home?"
Nothing.
I move through the house slowly, looking for some indication of… anything.
Every bedroom is perfectly neat, the kitchen and dining room show no sign of ever being used, and the hallways are the only place where toys are. Do American children only play in hallways?
I crouch down, inspecting the mess.
There's no apparent pattern for the mess. There are dolls scattered around, toy cars piled on top of each other. It looks like there's a mess on purpose.
Which explains why it would be in the hall.
We always played in the living room.
I stand up straight.
Where is the living room?
I retrace my steps to the front door, and stare down the hall. There is the doorway to the dining room that leads to the kitchen which leads to the laundry room.
At the end of the hallway are the bedrooms. There are three. The entire right side wall is blank.
I walk down the hall slowly, tracing my hand against it. At first, I just feel the wall. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I stop in my tracks as my hand brushed against something.
Something wooden.
I knock on it softly and feel it's hollow.
I crouch down, using both of my hands to trace alongside the edges. It's most certainly a door. I pat down on it until I feel a doorknob. I twist it and find it locked.
I pull out the sonic and scan the door, and it suddenly appears in front of me.
"Oh, brilliant." I twist the doorknob and open the door.
When I walk in, I find the Doctor sitting upside down on a flower couch. He has his head in his hands, and I think he might be crying.
"Oh, what do you want now?" He groans.
"To leave this house, I think."
His head jerks up to look at me, his eyes red.
"Ada!" He jumps to his feet, hugging me tightly.
"How did you find me?" He asks, holding me at arms-length.
"Magic. Luck. I kind of wandered off."
He smiles and hugs me again, for longer than is strictly necessary.
"Brilliant!"
He takes my hand and pulls me out of the room.
"We need to go!" he says.
~The Doctor's point of view, earlier~
Bored. He was entirely bored in this room. He'd resorted to going through what he could find in the room- including knickknacks on the shelf.
The door opens and he turns to see the person who had taken him here.
"What do you want?" He asks.
"I want to know what you are."
"Why am I here?" The Doctor persists, ignoring the question.
"Because," they drawl. "You are not human."
"Why do you care?" The Doctor asks.
"It is our job to find non-humans, it is our job to eliminate them."
"Why eliminate them?"
"The humans cannot handle extra-terrestrial life. It is to protect them."
"Well, that's my job."
"What are you?"
"I'm the Doctor."
The thing stares at him for a moment, and the Doctor dares them to question him.
"Why do you care about humans, you clearly aren't one."
There is a moment of silence.
"We require you cooperation, if you will not answer my question, I will make you."
The Doctor rolls his eyes.
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
The thing pulls out, something that resembled a remote control, then scrolled through it.
"The Doctor," They mumble.
"Ah."
They're silent for about a minute while they read something, then look up, smiling.
"Time Lord." They smirk at him.
They show him pictures that appear on screen, of him in previous forms, previous companions. Amy, Rory, Martha, Sarah Jane.
The Doctor glances up at them.
The screen stops on Ada.
It's a picture of her with short hair, something she has never had before. She's carrying a book bag in one hand and is smiling brightly at something he can't see.
It's taken from a far off perspective, a stalker.
The word "identified" shows up on screen.
"We have her whereabouts from, about fifteen minutes ago." They say.
"Every half hour, this resets. Identifying the whereabouts of everything in the area we are in control of."
The Doctor keeps his eyes fixed on the screen, not looking away. What do they want with Ada?
"Does she mean something to you?" The Doctor nods slowly.
"A shame. You should have answered the question."
His head whips up, his eyes full of alarm.
"Don't! Don't you dare lay a finger on her!"
The creature is already walking away.
"If you touch her, I will kill you!" he bellowed, banging on the door.
He shouts for another five minutes before giving up.
~Ada's point of view, now~
"Why- where are we going!?" I shout.
He pulls me through the house and out the back door before turning to me, pointing a finger in my direction.
"Where were you twenty minutes ago?"
I blink rapidly. "T.A.R.D.I.S., I think."
"Are you sure?" He asks.
"Pretty- pretty sure!"
He inhales quickly.
"Okay, we need a plan." He says, and I nod along.
"They'll be at the T.A.R.D.I.S. by now, and realize you're not there."
"Why are they looking for me?"
He waves me off, concentrating on the task at hand.
"They'll have your coordinates soon,"
He closes his eyes, nodding slightly.
"I know what we're doing."
We waited a few minutes and ran back to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"Are we just going to fly away?" I ask, leaning over the barrier to see him ruffling through just underneath the console.
"No, of course not. Never run when you're scared, rule number four."
I nod slowly, and he turns back to his search.
"What are you looking for?" I question, leaning further over the rail.
"It- it sort of looks like a mirror type thing."
"What does it do?"
"It'll identify what species they are."
I form an o with my mouth, nodding.
"Good idea."
"Yes, well, it would be! If I could find the bloody thing!"
I smile, and he disappears further under the console.
"Maybe you should consider getting rid of some of this junk." I suggest.
"Junk!?"
I follow him down and hum thoughtfully.
"Do you really need this?" I ask, picking up a sword.
"That was a gift from King Tut!"
"Do you even know how to use a sword?"
"I could learn."
I laugh, setting it down.
"It's heavy. I learned with lighter blades."
"You know how to use a sword?"
I nod. "I went to private school, it's the only self-defense they taught us."
"Aha!" He lunges down and grabs a mirror.
"Is that it?" I ask.
"Yep!"
"What do we do now?"
"We wait.
I don't speak as we wait, and it occurs to me that there is no real plan in place here, and that scares me.
I have to wonder if I can trust the Doctor.
Obviously he knows how to keep himself alive, but he could be anything. He could be an indestructible immortal, he's an alien for heaven's sake.
I'm just a human.
I'm not the first to travel with him, I know I'm not the last, and I have to wonder what happened to the others.
Everything he does is reckless.
"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay."
In my house, the truth was dangerous. If you wanted to avoid the whip you learned to say what Dad wanted to hear. It was something you got used to, good at. By the age of nine I was a better liar than anyone could've thought.
I got out of a lot of trouble that way, at home and at school.
It was ridiculously easy to tell the teacher that the class clown had stolen their lunch when you had a perfect record.
It was all to do with my situation at home, so I was practiced enough to never get caught.
Anyways- all of this is to say that as I am a practiced liar, I can tell when someone is lying to me.
"Got it."
He glances at me, looking confused and, is he sad? Why does he always do that? I'm not a fucking puppy- there's nothing sad here!
I cross my arms, annoyed. If he notices, he doesn't comment of it.
I read a lengthy email from Riley, which is essentially him bitching about school. He's the only one I let rant to me, since he actually makes his stories funny.
"What are you laughing at?" The Doctor asks, attempting to lighten the mood.
"Just my dumbass brother." I shake my head, smiling. The Doctor raises his eyebrows and I elaborate.
"He argued with some of his classmates today- and, um-" I shake my head, closing my eyes and holding out my phone to him.
"Just- just read it. I'm bad at translating stories."
He scans the phone briefly and hands it back, smiling.
"You didn't read it?"
"I did."
I stare at him for a long moment before shrugging, turning back to my scrolling.
It's a few minutes later when he gets up, fiddling with the controller.
I get to my feet and follow behind him.
He's looking at the screen above the console which shows the blurry figures out there.
"Perception filter." He murmurs.
He turns around, grabbing the mirror and looking at them in it. I ignore this odd behavior and focus on the figures.
"Oh! I know what to do!" I stare at him for a moment, before offering my help.
"Yes- go research them in the library. I think I know what to do!"
I stand there for a moment after he leaves and stare at the mirror.
He knows what to do. He doesn't need me to research them- hell, he hasn't even told me what to research.
The petty side of me decides to jot down the names of these creatures from the mirror and dart to the library.
It takes me two minutes to find a book on them, and I position myself on the stairs to read it. I glance at the security camera footage every couple of seconds, each time less determined to focus on my book.
He's holding a giant water gun whilst he appears to be negotiating.
I frown, trying to remember a line I'm sure I read.
I open the book, my eyes darting around the paper before finding the line.
They are not weakened by water- this is a common misconception. Their true weakness is vinegar.
I reread the line twice before swearing violently and running to the kitchen. I rummage through the cabinets as quickly as possible- knocking cans and dining wear over.
I finally find the gallon sized tub of it and stare at it for a long minute.
"Fucking hell!" I grab the container and run back to the console room.
My arms is aching, probably because of the multiple times I've nearly yanked it out of socket in thirty seconds, and I open the door.
I find myself facing the Doctor, who is on his knees with his hands in the air, a gun pointed to his head.
I panic- pulling the lid off of the container and splashing it in the figures face. Something flickers there briefly and they withdraw, their face scrunching up with pain.
I don't think before I lose control any spray the liquid everywhere.
There's screaming. Horrid, wretched, screaming.
I realize my eyes are clenched shut and open them, looking around.
They're all crouched over, writhing in pain.
"Well, there we go then." I say, genuinely surprised that I'm not dead right now.
"Ada," The Doctor breathes.
I turn to him, suddenly incredibly pissed off.
"Do you know how much fucking water is in the atmosphere? The air we breathe? Fuck- there's a goddamned giant fucking puddle right there!"
I sigh, running a hand through my hair.
"Fuck." I add, just for good measure.
The Doctor drops the aliens off at their home planet, where they're incarcerated. Afterwards, the Doctor cleans up the mess in the kitchen while I watch.
This, I decide, is what it always looks like. Travelling with the Doctor means constantly going up against aliens like this.
And you know what? I'm okay with that.
But the lingering feeling of hurt and doubt stays with me long after he asked me to stay behind. The blatant distrust was evident, and I can't imagine this ever being successful if he cannot trust me with the most basic of things he's involved in.
It occurs to me that he's only allowing me to be here because he pities me.
I blink back tears, staring at him.
"Doctor?" I ask quietly.
He turns to me and I somehow manage to say, "I want to go home."
Triggers are violence and excessive swearing.
guest reviews
So, it occurred to me this morning that I forgot to answer guest reviews in the last chapter. (I'm really super sorry! So I plan on updating with this as a chapter, and in a couple of days I'll take it down and just add it to the A/N so that you guys can see it. Thanks a million!
Galarvis
Oh wow, this is pretty good so far. It's usually hard to find quality OC fanfics that doesn't have romance as a main genre. By the way, are there gonna be any interludes (small or full on chapters) that are from the Doctor's point of view? I'm curious to see his own thoughts on meeting her. Anyways, I can't wait for you to update! Keep up the good work!
Thank you! I actually made a point of making all of my stories at least somewhat romance based, which is why this FanFiction is so different for me.
Most of the time it's only romance based because I'm like "I'm fitting as much representation into this story if it kills me." So there's a lot of queer characters
Yes! The next chapter has multiple perspectives. It should be uploaded soon enough
Thank you again!
Alex
Hey, this is great and intriguing :-)
Thank you so much!
DocOfAllTrades
i absolutely LOVE this story! i hope you update it soon!
Thank you so much! I didn't update soon last time, but my next chapter is already mostly written!
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.
Alright loves, we need to talk. I'm having an absolutely miserable writing this story. It's been published for six months, I've worked harder on it than any other piece of writing I've ever done, and it have nine reviews. This is a twenty four thousand word fanfiction! Do you know how much work that takes? And not one of you have reviewed twice.
I absolutely want to finish this story but fuck guys, I can't do this if you don't think it's worth your time to leave a review.
Just tell me if you're reading. Let me know. Hell, I'll be happy if you just comment like three words. I just need something.
You, yes you, are very much capable of reviewing.
I actually hate to have to say this. I don't like begging for reviews, but I would appreciate it if you at least bothered to take this half as seriously as I do.
