Chapter Eight

Poking With A Ten Foot Pole

I poked at my lunch that day (which consisted of a plain salad with only lettuce, tomato, spinach, carrots, and radishes), deciding to wait until noon in the library before heading to my afternoon class. I was doing most of the poking at my food with my right hand as my left was reading a tech magazine. I was reading an interesting article about how scientists have discovered that the universe has just about finished creating stars when I saw something in the corner of my eyes. I was pretty sure I made out a red bowtie.

"Oooh. Interesting. 95% of stars the universe can create has already been created," he stated, almost eagerly, "each day, another discovery to be made by the human race."

"Is there a reason that you're reading the magazine over my shoulder?" I asked, not looking up from the magazine or my food.

"I've been trying to get your attention and I don't think you noticed," he stated.

"I was trying hard not to. So what's up?"

"The direction opposite of down. I thought you of al-" he said, stopping once he saw the glare I lowered at him before saying, "right. You probably meant what I'm doing, trying to get your attention. Right. So, I think I found the whole nest of 'em. And guess where it is?"

"It's somewhere in the basement of the music building," I stated in a deadpan.

"Right. The music building. But there's nothing wrong with the ground floor or the second-"

"Basement."

"And you get on my case for being rude. Now let me finish talking," he stated, almost snappishly, clearly not noticing that I had told him where it was.

"As I was saying, there's nothing wrong with the ground floor or the second floor which mean that—wait. Basement? The music building has a basement?"

"Took you long enough. Yes, there's a basement. Full of practice rooms," I stated, "and generally open to any students who needs to use the rooms to practice. No one patrols the rooms and if anyone did...well, it would be very boring. It's almost always empty down there."

"Sounds like it's time to go down there and investigate," he stated with a smirk, giving me a glance.

"I made sure all of the walls were solid. No dice," I stated with a frown.

"But I have something you don't have."

"What's that?"

"A Sonic Screwdriver," he stated with a smile.

I let out a sigh and put my lunch up and set the magazine down on a table, getting a look from him.

"What?"

"You were saying that you weren't going to back me up," he stated.

"And I'm female. We change our minds a lot," I stated with a frown as I got up, slinging my messenger bag onto my shoulder.

I blinked, feeling the whole world turn under my feet like I was on one of those carnival rides at the fair. I blinked it all away as my eyes temporarily freaked out. I let out a sigh, seeing his worried expression as he looked at me and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and waved it over me.

"Scanning me?" I asked.

"There's something wrong with you," he stated.

"There isn't and if there was, I probably know and don't want to share it with the world," I stated, trying to get him to stop.

"But you wouldn't be sharing it with the world."

"Point is that if there's anything wrong, I know about it and only want those of my choosing to know," I stated.

"Interesting," he stated, having ended the scan and looked at the device he held up to his eyes, "there's a good amount of...narcotics? In your system? And there seems to be something wrong with an organ..."

"Just shut up and let's go before you manage to scan me within an inch of my life," I almost snipped.

"There's something wrong. Something's wrong with you and you're trying to hide it. Is it an addiction?" he asked, "I'm sure I can help you-"

"The narcotic is my prescription pain killer," I stated quietly, "and there's nothing life-threatening wrong with me so drop it."

"But there's something wrong with you."

"Yes. Something that tends to crop up in humans and is completely normal," I stated.

"Then what is it?"

I sighed and looked around the library. No one was paying us any mind as I sighed again and walked towards the music building with him hot on my tail.

"Tell me," he stated, "you can trust me."

"Last thing I need is some alien time traveler thinking that I'm gonna keel over at any moment," I stated with a frown, "which I'm not to my knowledge. Nothing's wrong to the point that you have to worry."

"You're throwing yourself headlong into danger. I have a reason to worry. Especially with how you're clearly trying to hide something from me."

"Because it's. None. Of. Your. Business."

"It is now that I feel responsible for you and your well-being," he stated as I opened the first of two layers of doors.

"Okay, fine. I'm going in to the hospital in two days for an outpatient surgery to remove my gall bladder, okay?" I said, snapping.

"That sounds horrible," he stated.

"Not as horrible as knowing that I could get gall stone attacks for little to no reason, especially if I eat any of my favorite foods that aren't fruits or vegetables."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Yes. Don't worry about me," I stated as I led the way to the one way I knew how to get to the basement- the elevator.

The elevator doors opened and I walked in with the Doctor following me and I pressed the button for the basement. I clung to the side rails and closed my eyes, doing my usual inward chant that I do when in an elevator. I had seen too many movies where elevators would break and someone died. Even if I had seen the episode of Mythbusters where they tested out what would cause an elevator to fail like that, I still didn't trust elevators.

"You don't like elevators," he stated, almost laughing.

"Everyone's afraid of something," I stated with a frown as the door opened and we walked into a room which had corridors stretching in every direction, full of smaller rooms.

I walked further from the elevator, careful to not to walk into the instrument lockers.

"What's in the lockers?"

"The lockers are used by students to store their instruments," I stated lightly, putting my hands in my pockets as I walked around.

"Don't go wondering off," he stated.

"First, you're trying to rid yourself of me and now you want to keep me in sight," I stated with a bemused grin.

"Just that I know what your idea of wondering off is."

"There's a reason why I once thought that my first name was trouble," I stated, "everyone told me that constantly to the point I believed them."

"Really?" he asked, almost incredulous.

"No, but I was still constantly told that," I stated, walking further down the corridor, "the joke was that if anyone could sniff out trouble, it would be me."

"Well then, what does your nose tell you?" he asked.

"Right now?" I asked, getting a nod, "allergy season sucks."

"Let's just focus on finding the nest," he stated with a frown.

"Right. If you hear me shout, it means either 'come here, I found something' or 'run away'," I stated.

"Please don't," he said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping, "I've heard enough screaming to last two millennia."

I shrugged, continuing on my own merry way. I figured that if anyone found something, he would. After all, I've already scoped out this entire floor on my own. Besides, I had my own thoughts that I wanted to deal with without him figuring me out. It wasn't that I was terrified of him and kept things from him out of terror. It was more like I didn't know how he'd react but I knew that if he truly felt that he was responsible for me, I was safe from him killing me. Of course, I knew that he was quite opposed to anyone killing anyone or anything. Was he still like that, even if he had underwent such a radical exterior change? There was still so much that I didn't know or understand.

But what bothered me the most was that I knew he was alien, he said as much. I didn't want him to freak out over what I knew was a particularly normal occurrence for humans. Like getting wisdom teeth removed. And getting one's gall bladder removed. Or appendix. But of course, I knew he was an alien. He may not even have wisdom teeth or a gall bladder or even an appendix and may think that it was more serious than it really is.

But what worried me the most as I walked through the level of practice rooms, was how they would remove my gall bladder. Would they be cutting it into small chunks and then pull them through my ribs? Would they open my ribs and lift it out? They couldn't just cut it off from the other organs and let it rot. I was pondering all this when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I had been deep in thought. Too deep in thought for me to remember that I was teaming up with the Doctor. So, I acted completely on impulse.

I really should watch what my impulses are to a hand being on my shoulder.

Especially around guys that I know would probably not harm me directly.

I looked away from him, rubbing the back of my neck as I could hear him making pained noises. I would be staring a whole in the floor in shame, but he was taking up the floor in front of me.

"With a kick like that, you should play football," he muttered, his voice still high and squeaky.

"I used to play soccer. Back when I could keep up with everyone," I muttered lightly.

"Maybe you should get back into it," he stated, clearly trying to keep himself occupied with anything but the pain.

Yeah, he was probably going to be walking funny for a while.

"Going to be okay?" I asked him, feeling guilty, embarrassed, and apologetic.

"Probably," he stated before frowning, asking, "what was that for anyways?"

"I was too busy thinking and...I forgot that I wasn't alone," I stated, sounding completely rueful to my own ears.

"So people like to sneak up on you when you're alone?" he asked.

"A few," I stated lightly, "maybe we should get you an ice pack or something."

"I'll be fine," he stated getting up off of the floor and paused, almost like he was considering me, analyzing me before he turned decidedly not-serious saying, "so, I found something. And no, it wasn't your shoe. I think I found where they're hiding."

"Great. Time to crash their party," I stated with a smile.

"Not you," he stated, turning serious.

"I don't have any weapons," I stated.

"You didn't exactly had a weapon on you when you entered that ship either," he stated with a frown, "and you were about to start killing them, which, might I add, would've ended with your own death. I'm not going to expose you to that kind of risk again."

"So that's it, huh? You've passed judgment on me, not knowing that I've changed too," I stated with a frown, "You don't know what I've gone through since, and not because you happened to enter my life for a single day, so you can abandon that thought right now. I've got nothing to lose, Doctor. No family. No friends. Nothing. But I also have something that makes me a different person. An understanding of just how royally I screwed up, how royally I prolly ticked you off. What I'm asking is a chance here. A chance to prove that just cause a human did something awful in the heat of the moment, when they were overcome by grief...that humans can change. Maybe not in the same way your people obviously do, but in subtle ways. I want to change your opinion of me...your judgment of me. Not so I can be exposed by danger by aliens just for the sake of it...but maybe because..." I said, not aware that I was ranting and had brought up a thought that scared me that I didn't want him to know that I thought.

"Because what? What is it?" he asked, looking at me, not knowing of what I may say.

"Just that... someone with the power of time travel...they can alter anyone's pasts at any given time...and change them. By changing someone's past, you can permanently change who they are. And..."

"I don't do that," he said calmly as he put his hands on my shoulders in a comforting way, almost like he was speaking to a child, "I never have before and I've faced some truly horrible beings out there. What makes you even think that I'd do that to someone who doesn't deserve it."

It was then that I found myself, yet again, being hugged by the Doctor. Did he always hug people seemingly on random? It could be worse. Something in me told me that he wasn't altogether a bad person. After all, we had saved human lives together, working as a team. In a way, I felt that I had started to see him as a bit of a friend. And that scared me.

Because I knew friendships never last. They always end. Sometimes with a bittersweet moment. Sometimes with a soul-crushingly depressing moment. And sometimes, with me kicking and screaming. And when friendships end, I just feel worse about it. And I just didn't want to feel that same pain again. That same anguish.

As suddenly as he hugged me, he let go with a wide grin, making him look quite the grinning maniac. He seemed that he was back to his energetic self. This version of him was more energetic than the last one I'd seen and that one was still more energetic than I've been for a long time.

"Let's go see what I found," he said with a grin before grabbing my wrist and pulling me along as he ran.

I started to see a pattern here. Maybe this is what anyone who travels with him goes through on a daily basis. For a few moments, I realized that it could be fun. I knew I needed a break from my daily life, anyhow. But the real question was whether or not he would take me on adventures? That was the real unknown.