A/N Hello. Thank you to the people that reviewed last time. So I'm back, after a long time off. Let me know what you think. Again, please don't be mean just for the sake of being mean, but constructive criticism is always welcome.
Everyone else, on the other hand, treated this as if it were an everyday thing, as if girls normally threw several tonnes worth of rock backwards through the air with what appeared to be the power of her mind alone. Some of them even had the nerve to be unhappy about it,
"Where were you, girl?" one of the women spat, "They were too close this time, my Timmy could have got hit."
"Yeah," a grubby looking farmer sneered, "You should be quicker to get here. It's us honest folk that'll get squashed, not you, freak."
The girl appeared to be studying her handiwork but then turned at the final comment and stared at the man. Her eyes were a shade of green that the Doctor, in all his years of travel, danger and wisdom, could not have named. It was a shade between grass, fresh leaves and sea green and all of them at once. And they were narrowed at the man with undisguised distaste and hatred,
"Then build me a cabin closer to the town, you fucking imbecile," she snarled.
Her voice was harsh with anger, but the way her mouth wrapped around the words was different to that of the townspeople. She clearly wasn't a local. The Doctor was slightly appalled at the language of this young girl, she couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen, but from the slight wisp of weariness in her voice it appeared that she had had this argument several times.
"Enough," the man in the fur coat shouted for quiet, then took the girl's hand and pressed some coins into it,
"Thank you for your services. Good day."
And with that he strode away. Everybody else followed his lead, going about their business as if some great disaster hadn't just been averted. Except the Doctor, who was still staring at the girl as if she had grown an extra head, and the grubby looking man, who had come out of the woods with her. But he bowed his head when the girl looked at him, and shuffled off to one of the houses. The girl looked at her fistful of coins with distaste and then strode away, back in the direction of the woods. Nobody followed her.
The Doctor stared at her until she reached the tree line and then started to hurry after her. Here was his excitement, the biggest thing he had come across, quite possibly ever, and he wasn't about to lose her. When she heard his footsteps she stopped and sighed,
"What do you want now, you little bastards? I'm not in the mood for your shit today so just leave me alone."
"I'd rather not," the Doctor said, rather confused, "You're most definitely not shit, you're quite possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever seen."
That had her spinning round. The expression on her face was mostly surprise, shock and anger. But then she looked at him properly, and her face went blank.
"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked, in an indifferent tone.
"What gave it away? The bow tie, or the fact that I have an actual range of emotions, not just bored stiff and spiteful?" he answered rather cheekily, hoping to get a smile on her face. She was thin, with long brown hair that fell in slight waves around her shoulders. Her face looked as if it rarely smiled and indeed she didn't crack one now, although her eyes now lit up with interest.
"Frankly I think it was the hair. What are you trying to pull off, exactly? Uncontrollable cowlick?" And this time a small smile did grace her face, making her positively adorable.
The Doctor pretended to be put out, following up with,
"I'll have you know that this is all the rage in the Vegas Galaxies, although it's not as good without a fez. But I tell you something I can't pull off. Throwing several tonnes worth of falling rock back through the air as if they weigh nothing at all." And like that the smile vanished.
"What, not impressed by my party piece?" her voice had turned bitter again, her eyes seeming to flash dark for a second.
"That was the party piece!" the Doctor said incredulously, "There's more!"
She looked at him warily,
"Isn't this the part where you start running away? It was for everybody else."
"When I'm afraid I don't run in fear… you know, much. Anyway, I'm the Doctor. And you are?" He held out his hand.
The girl looked at it, then back up at him, watching him closely, looking for any signs that this was a joke. Seeing none she accepted the hand, saying,
"Andy. And I'm not sick, so there's no reason to follow me. I've always been like this."
She started to walk again, obviously trying to make him leave her alone. But now he was even more intrigued,
"Really, you've always been able to hurl rocks through the air as if they weigh nothing?" catching up to her side.
Andy gave an irritable sigh and said,
"Look, what is it going to take to get you to leave me alone?"
"Tell me," he said happily, bouncing on the spot like an excitable child.
"What?"
"Tell me how you can do this. Tell me what else you can do. Satisfy my curiosity and I will leave you alone forever."
"I already told you, I've always been able to do this. And why can't you just leave me alone, like everyone else!"
"Is that really what you want? To be left alone?" She just ignored him, walking a little further up the path and then turning into the right. Completely undeterred he followed her. The sight he saw tugged on his heart strings a little. She had said 'cabin' but what it really was, was four wooden walls and a flat wooden roof. It barely looked big enough to lie down in. This…shack was where she stayed? Andy opened a small door in the side of it and placed her money under a stone in one of the corners. Then she shut the door and turned to look at him, a little sheepish for the first time.
"So…what do you want to know?"
"This is where you live?" it came out in a disbelieving whisper.
"No," she said, abruptly and defiantly. Then she took a deep breath and said, "It's just where they think I live. It's all they built for me. I built something better."
"May I see it?" She looked at him, calculatingly.
"Depends whether I like your questions or not," and she started walking again.
"Oh, so you've decided to answer my questions now?" The Doctor said as he hurried to keep up.
"If you won't leave me alone otherwise," she said, although there was a hint of a smile in her voice. She was leading him through the woods and although there was no visible path, she walked confidently, with the attitude of someone who knew exactly where they were going. He noticed for the first time that she was bare-foot.
"Well?" she asked over her shoulder. The Doctor thought for a second, what did he want to know first?
"Where are your parents?" That made her pause. But he just had to know, there was no way parents would allow the treatment of a child like this.
"I don't know," she said softly, "I never knew them. Old Matros is my guardian, but he's definitely not my father."
"You have a guardian but they still did this to you?" The Doctor was outraged on Andy's behalf. What kind of man let this happen to a child? Andy turned at the sound of his concern, and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw it was genuine. Clearly she wasn't used to people feeling anything but contempt for her.
"Well, he didn't say yes, but he didn't say no when they came and took me," she said simply, continuing to walk, "Next?"
Bewildered by her seemingly blasé acknowledgement of her guardian's weakness, the Doctor asked the first thing that came to mind,
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?" She seemed to find the randomness of the question amusing,
"I'm connected to the earth. It's stronger when there's no clothing obstructing that connection." She stopped and turned, seemingly anticipating the next question. The Doctor was just staring at her again and then asked, rather hoarsely,
"How?" She shrugged,
"Don't know, just always have been. I feel the power of the earth through my feet, and as long as my feet touch the soil I never get tired. I can tell you everything that is happening on the planet, anywhere, right now. For instance, the western fields need to be watered as the soil is getting dry, that five children are playing tig in the southern meadow and that something I have never felt before landed in the eastern fields, and that a few minutes after it landed, you stepped out of it."
For the first time possibly ever, the Doctor was speechless. He had never met anybody who could do anything close to what Andy was professing to do. Or anyone who could apparently do this as if it came as naturally to them as breathing. He was so busy staring at her in disbelief that he almost missed the pointed questioning end of her sentence.
"Oh that, that was my ship, my space ship."
"You didn't use the space port?" Andy looked confused.
"She doesn't like space ports, makes her feel somewhat inadequate next to all those flashy types, although don't tell her I said that, she'll make life harsh for me." The Doctor grinned in fondness of his beloved ship. He would always believe she was better than all the rest of them.
Andy still looked bewildered but now an eyebrow had risen as well,
"Please tell me you're not one of those men who treats his ship likes it's alive. But what I don't understand is how she landed in the first place. We all would have noticed a giant ship coming down from the sky, but she just seemed to appear."
"Hey, the TARDIS is alive, thank you very much, and that's the beauty of her, she just sort of appears." He looked rather proud of this fact, waving his hands around to try and imitate the TARDIS's ability to materialise.
"Oh good gods, you've named her and everything. Well, I'd certainly like to see this ship, especially since no one appears to have complained about her yet."
"That would be the chameleon circuit," the Doctor said knowledgably, and at Andy's confused look continued, "Basically a shield that hides her in plain sight." Her eyebrows rose but Andy looked grudgingly impressed.
"Must be something to see then, this TARDIS,"
"Oh she is, best ship to ever fly," the Doctor said proudly. Andy smiled, only a little indulgently,
"Any more questions?"
"Are you kidding?" he answered, "I'm just getting started."
A/N Hope you enjoyed, and I hope her powers are believable too. If not please let me know and I'll try and fix it.