Hello, miss me? Here's a new chapter for you, please review and let me know what you think
Dawn came suddenly, as it always did in the woods. One minute everything seemed dark and somewhat dreary, the next the trees exploded with birdsong and the music of insects. The world had awoken and wanted everyone to know.
People in the village were stirring, livestock in the fields moving towards the troughs and fences and the city rush began.
And the mountain shook slightly, in the cool morning air. Andy sighed in her mind. There would be another rock fall today, probably a big one. And that meant she should probably be getting up round about now, if she wanted to make it back in time.
Pulling the little parts of herself that always seemed to spread out when she slept back together, she severed the full connection with the earth and stretched, moaning as her muscles moved. She took a deep breath of fresh air and smelled the slightly stale aroma of old wood-smoke and cooked venison. Remembering, suddenly, that she had a guest, Andy turned towards the Doctor.
He was facing away from her, hunched, his hands holding his elbows, staring into the remains of the fire. It was not an encouraging posture.
"Hey," she said softly, trying not to startle him. It didn't work; he jumped up anyway, "You didn't need to stay, you know. You could have gone back to the TARDIS, no need to sit out in the cold all night."
"I've had worse nights," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground, "And I didn't know the way back there." Andy sighed. She'd scared him. After everything he'd accepted yesterday, she'd finally scared him off with this last thing. She probably shouldn't have been surprised. Everyone was scared of at least one aspect of her.
"Right, well, I need to head back into town, there's going to be another rock fall today, so I'll lead you back."
"Another…" he frowned, looking both wary and intrigued, "How do you know?"
"The mountain shook, just as I was waking up. That generally means the loose stones will begin to fall soon. I really need to get going." She stood up as she was saying this, and didn't miss the way he took the tiniest step back. She turned in what appeared to be a random direction and began walking. The Doctor hurried to keep up.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, Andy leading, the Doctor following. Finally she couldn't take any more. The silence was awkward and she could feel his stare burning her back and it was making her uncomfortable and annoyed,
"Look, if you have questions, just spit them out, or if you're going to run in fear and jump into the TARDIS, could you at least let me know." Her voice was full of venom, and she couldn't believe she was this angry this early in the morning. A dull ache sprang up, somewhere in the back of her head, and the old scar on her left pinkie finger burned for a second. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and then took a deep breath as the thumping retreated.
"Sorry, I don't know what came over me there. I didn't mean to sound that bitter," she said, turning in fear that she'd sent him running with the tone of her voice alone. He was still there, although he looked a bit shocked, and perhaps a little scared of her anger, "It's just that nobody's ever really stuck around this long." Embarrassed that she'd admitted this, she resumed walking.
"What happened to you last night?" She turned. The Doctor hadn't moved. Taking a deep breath, she thought about it,
"I said that I can draw power from the earth. Well, the power that I don't use, I keep inside me, in case I need it again. But at night I've still got a lot more power in me than I should, so I just sort of…return it." The Doctor was silent, thinking about what she was saying, then he said,
"But surely that's only a little power, compared to what you have inside you. You don't need to essentially shut down your body for that." Andy looked shocked that he'd even said that,
"I don't shut down my body, I fell asleep."
"That wasn't sleep, Andy. Sleep is when you curl up and dream pretty dreams all night. Do you even dream?" She looked insulted at that,
"Of course I dream! When I was younger I used to dream all the time, that my parents would come back for me, take me home and I'd have a happy life. Then my powers came into effect, and I found out that I could return my powers, and suddenly I didn't miss those dreams. Because look around, it's not like they're going to come true. I'll be alone, on this rock, forever! Unless someone takes me away." Perhaps it was the dim light in the early morning, but the Doctor swore her irises turned black and hungry during those last sentences. Then she closed her eyes, brought one hand up to the side of her face and winced, as if in pain. When she opened them again, her eyes were that same mesmerising green.
"Sorry, bloody headaches. It's worse this morning than I think it's ever been." The Doctor nodded his head slowly, suspicious of both her changing eye colour and her rapid mood swings. But he didn't want to bring up a touchy subject, so let it lie for now.
"It wasn't sleep, Andy. Your body completely shut down except for your vital organs and brain activity. You went into a self-induced coma and somehow made weird little vine things attach themselves to you."
"The vines? They're just the visible connection to the earth, they don't mean any harm."
"But the coma, Andy, do you understand how dangerous that is? You could slip deeper into it, or get lost under the earth, forever!" He was really worried about this. Sure she was dangerous, possibly the biggest disaster-waiting-to-happen he'd ever seen, but it would certainly be a terrible thing to lose her, especially before his curiosity was fully satisfied. So he was rather miffed when all she did was roll her eyes.
"You think I don't know that it's dangerous. When I was eight, I went deeper than I was supposed to and slept for three days straight. Believe me, old Matros was almost going out of his mind." She smiled, as if it was a fond memory.
"Then how can you keep doing this, when you still know the risks?" he wanted to know. He was startled to see a look of disbelief on her face,
"Is it such a difficult concept?"
"What?" now he was getting annoyed, especially since he was a one thousand year old Time Lord being outsmarted by an eighteen year old girl.
"Giving back what you take?" He was stunned. Was that how she saw her power, not just something to steal from the very ground beneath her feet, but something to return! Suddenly he relaxed. She had perhaps the strongest power he'd ever seen and yet she understood the give and take that went with power. She didn't force it, indeed she embraced it. She was also a good person. She wouldn't misuse her power. He hoped. Even the strongest could fall, and tried hard not to think of Gallifrey.
"What does it feel like?" he suddenly wanted to know, his mood buoyant after this recent discovery. Andy looked startled, but tried to think back to it,
"When I fall asleep, it's like letting everything go, relaxing completely. Everything goes dark, but at the same time, I'm aware."
"Of the outside world?" suddenly worried she'd heard him last night.
"No, of the earth," seeing the puzzled look she tried to explain, "Imagine the power of this planet like threads of light, covering the entire planet," he thought about the planet Earth, and the streams of electricity that covered it, invisible but still there, "It's like, I don't see it, I sense it. I can still feel what goes on, but mostly it's just sleeping, the same as I am." He didn't really understand but nodded anyway.
"And waking up, it's like parts of myself have become embedded in the earth, outside of my body, and I have to call them back to me."
"Your mind…comes apart?" he asked, worry tinging his voice.
"No, nothing like that," she reassured him, "It's more…like I'm trying to sense it all, everything under the earth, but there's too much. Even on a rock this size, there's too much going on for me to see at once, so I seem to sort of…split my conscience. Does that make any sense?"
"Honestly?" the Doctor asked, "No, Andy, it doesn't. Not even to me, and I can get my head around time travel. You are…impossible. And before you say anything," cutting off her irritated look, "I know that you've been doing this all your life and you are…incredible, brilliant, beautiful but you're still impossible. No one should be able to hold this amount of power in them! No one! Nor should they be able to control it, it would burn them up! Or be able to do what you can do, hurling giant rocks backwards, it just isn't possible for one mind to do that!" There was silence for a few beats after the Doctor's awe-filled rant. Then,
"So there really is no one out there like me then?" The Doctor's heart broke slightly at her despondent tone. He wished he could give her some comfort, but what can you say to someone who is completely alone in the universe. How can any one person possibly make that better?
"I'm alone too, you know," he found himself saying. She looked up at him, eyes shiny with tears, although she stubbornly held them back, "I'm a Time Lord, the last Time Lord. There's no others like me. They're all dead, in the Last Great Time War. My planet is gone. I'm completely alone." He had often thought these thoughts. He had no idea what had prompted him to tell her this, but he felt himself wanting her to know, that even if he couldn't help her, he could give her someone who empathised. Who understood what she was going through. The woods were silent again for a few more seconds. Then a sound that startled him. A laugh. A low, strained but still tangible laugh.
"We are a sorry pair, aren't we?" she said, wiping away the one tear that had fallen from her eyes. He looked at her and what he saw in her eyes had him laughing too, although he didn't quite understand why. They were both alone in the universe, no one to care for them and yet they could still laugh. And in that second he felt so very alive.
When the laughter eventually quietened down, she looked at him and said,
"Come on, people to save, rocks to stop, life to live and all that nonsense." She smiled. He returned it.
"Yes, indeed," and he walked beside her all the way back to the village, feeling lighter than he had in weeks.