Parallel Minds
Citizen of Fantasy at Heart

Note: Thanks so much for all the great reviews, you guys. It really meant a lot. To answer a frequent question: I have no idea if there are TARDIS earrings out there. I live in Taiwan, a country sadly lacking in anything related to the Doctor. If there are, I want some. If not, there should be some. I'd also love a shirt with David Tennant on it, or at least the TARDIS. :P

Disclaimer: I have no ownage over the Doctor, Rose, the TARDIS, or anything related to them. They could probably own me, though. So badly. For the record, my yet-to-be-named OC is not here to steal the Doctor from Rose - I'm a firm believer in Rose/Doctor, ha. She's just here for the fun.

Also - there will be SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't seen the show up until The End of Time. Cheerio.

.chapter two: first impressions.

"How did you get in here?" the Doctor demanded. The girl paid him no attention, apparently still caught up in looking at the TARDIS, at him, at Rose. He said, a little louder, "Excuse me."

"Huh?" The girl turned, showing the T-shirt with his face on it again. He winced, and instead focused on her face. She looked human, but you could never tell these days. Plain brown-gold hair, blue eyes, pale skin. She was shorter than both of them, just edging in at five feet. "Sorry. I'm just in shock, just a little." She grinned. "I can't believe it. How did you get me here?" He noticed, belatedly, that her accent sounded American, but again, you could never tell.

The Doctor's face froze on a look of rare incredulity. "I did this?"

"I told you," Rose said, snorting.

"Except this wasn't me. It was you. Tell me, how did you get in here? Actually, how did you get through the Time Vortex?" He stopped, cocking his head, suddenly looking tired. When was the last time he had actually slept? He had gotten an hour or two half a week ago, and that was the last he could remember. Until now, it hadn't affected him. "Right. What's your species?"

The girl looked at him blankly. "Species?"

"He's trying to find out what kind of alien you are," Rose added, looking a little disgruntled. "So just tell us."

"Human," said the girl.

"What?"

"I'm human," she said with a shrug. "Like you," she said, nodding to Rose. The girl stopped and slung off her backpack, which neither of them had noticed before, letting it drop to the ground as she leaned against the same coral pillar Rose had been. "Seriously, you can check. I don't have two hearts or anything like you do," she said with a grin at the Doctor.

"How does she know you have two hearts?" Rose murmured, moving closer to the Doctor.

"Oh, everyone knows that," the girl said brightly. "It's mentioned in a lot of episodes, actually. What's it like, having two hearts? To me, it seems like it would feel kind of weird. When you get out of breath, what's that like?" She paused, shrugging. "Or maybe you don't, since you have two hearts. Seems like you like running a lot…"

"This is wrong," the Doctor said,shaking his head. "You are wrong."

"Yeah, but I feel so right," she said, grinning impishly.

The Doctor shook his head, fishing out his sonic screwdriver again. With a frown on his face he stepped towards her, scanning the air around the girl slowly. "You're from a parallel world, you have to be…wait. Episodes? Episodes of what?"

"The real sonic screwdriver," the girl said in awe, staring at his device with wide eyes. "Wow. It's more beautiful in real life, look at it…" She shook her head as if snapping out of a trance, smiling again. "Sorry. I'm just a bit of a science geek. Always loved your screwdriver."

"You know it's a screwdriver?" the Doctor said, looking surprised. He switched it off, slipping it back inside one of the internal pockets of his pinstripe suit. "Nobody ever seems to know."

"Yeah, and you two don't know, do you?" the girl said suddenly, pushing off the pillar. "I'm in a real parallel world, and you two are real, and you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

"No," said the Doctor, leaning against the console himself. "So tell. How do you know so much?"

"Right." The girl suddenly looked flustered and excited at the same time. "This might be hard to explain." She took a deep breath. "I think – because this feels like a dream, seriously…that I'm from a parallel world. Somehow."

"What, with zeppelins and all that?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you'll see that later," the girl said with a wave of her hand. Rose shut up mid-scowl. "No, mine is exactly like yours, except for one detail. Just one, I think." She nodded to both of them, suddenly looking grim. "You don't exist."

"So I was never born?" said Rose.

"More than that," she said. "You were never born, your parents were never born. Mickey and his family never existed, either. As for you," said the girl, looking almost sadly at the Doctor. "Time Lords don't exist. Gallifrey was…well, it was never there. As far as any of us know."

"You know about Gallifrey," the Doctor said hollowly. He had become completely still, like he was quantum-locked.

"The Shining World of the Seven Systems," the girl said quietly, nodding. "Yeah, I know what it is. Because all of you – the TARDIS, the Daleks, all of you – you're…well, you're a television show."

It took a few moments for even the Doctor to wrap his mind around the concept of that. He'd been to parallel worlds before, long ago when he was just a kid, but there had always been something familiar, no matter which one. The Time Lords existed in every universe. That was a constant. He grimaced. A parallel world where that much was different…it couldn't be good.

"You mean we're on the telly," Rose said warily. "Some kind of show?"

The girl nodded. "Pretty much."

Rose sighed, but a sudden look of curiosity appeared on her face. "Are we a popular show?"

"Rose," the Doctor said wearily.

"Oh, like you don't want to know," Rose said with a snort.

"It's popular," the girl said quickly. "Seriously, it's been going on since the sixties or something, since your first incarnation. One of the longest running shows in the world. You're something of an icon, back home."

"That's enough," the Doctor said brusquely. He had stopped inspecting the girl and was leaning over the TARDIS' console. "I'm taking you back."

"What?"

"You don't belong here," he said quickly, winding a knob. "It's an instinct I have, a Time Lord thing – you're not right. People aren't supposed to be traveling into different universes. That's why they were locked."

The girl snorted. "Wait until you get to the season finale, then tell me that."

"So you…" Rose said carefully, scrutinizing the girl. "You know everything? Everything that's going to happen to us, yeah?"

"Isn't that what I've been saying?" Without a thought the girl ran over to where the Doctor was focusing on the TARDIS, and nudged him on the shoulder. "Come on, Doctor. You don't know me, but I've been watching your show since I was a little kid. My parents watched it when they were kids. Are you telling me you're going to try to send me back without one little adventure?"

He stopped. Turned around, one eyebrow raised. He groaned, looking a little irritated. Finally, he said, "How popular?"

"It's the most popular show in Britain," the girl said without missing a beat. "People love you there, seriously. You're their hero. All witty and full of adventure."

"Hear that?" The Doctor turned and grinned at Rose, looking suddenly happy. "I'm witty."

"You are so hung up on yourself," Rose replied.

"I know everything," the girl said coaxingly. "All the episodes. Everything that's going to happen. Aren't you the tiniest bit curious about how it all turns out?"

"You know," the Doctor said, speaking only to Rose. "I really shouldn't listen to her. We should try and get her back to her universe right now, shouldn't we?"

In unison, they grinned. "Nah."

Sorry that there's not a lot of action here - it's pretty dialogue heavy, I know. More's going to happen in the next chapter, don't worry. How will our favorite Time Lord cope with someone who knows more about the future than he does? And what if Rose wants to know what happens to her in future seasons? Stay tuned to find out. Cheers.

Btw, that's the first time I got to use the word 'telly' in a piece of writing, and I am loving it. (I'm American and suck at British accents, so...)

-Ari