A/N: Still reading, my loyal fans? Bravo! :D Er... not a very exciting chapter, truth be told, but the next one will be nice, I think :P.

Chapter 6:

"Okay Bree, be prepared for the sight of your life," the Doctor forewarned, about to open the TARDIS doors.

"Oh, I'm ready," she stated confidently, almost hyper with anticipation.

"All right…" and the Doctor flung open the TARDIS door for her.

"Dude…" was her first reaction upon seeing the cavernous control room inside a box not much bigger than a closet. "I mean, whoa…" she continued, wandering in, "this is freakin' awesome!" Then she looked up and saw the many levels above her, "Oh my GOD! WOW! This is so sweet! How is this even possible?" she turned to the Doctor, "you have to tell me how this works because this defies all laws of physics, matter, whatever. Newton's got it all wrong here!"

"Well, gravity still applies," the Doctor pointed out, "and this is Time Lord technology, it's bigger on the inside," he summarized for her.

"So this is the way all your stuff works?"

The Doctor shrugged, "Generally, I suppose."

"Right, so," Bree plunked down on a seat near the control module, "let's start with question number one: who are you?"

The Doctor leaned on the console nearby where Bree sat, "I told you, I'm a Time Lord, my name's the Doctor."

"So what's a Time Lord?"

"It's a race of aliens from the planet Galifrey," he sighed, "Time Lords are some of the oldest members of this universe. On Galifrey, we watched all the other worlds, guided at times, but never interfered with outside affairs. You see Bree, the reason we're called Time Lords is not just because we travel through time, but because we see time. All of it, past, present, and future; it's constantly running through our heads, everything, everywhere, except our own specific time lines."

Bree was star-struck. "You… you can see… time?" she asked in a very small voice.

"Yep," the Doctor replied.

"How?" she asked in disbelief, "my brain would explode having that much stuff in it."

"Time Lord brains are built differently, we're meant to see all of it."

"Wow… and tell me about Galifrey, what is your planet like? Can we go there?"

The Doctor hated this inevitable question, no matter how long it had been, it was still heart-wrenchingly painful, "No," he answered very quietly.

"Why?" Bree asked cautiously, noting the tortured expression on the Doctor's face, even though he was facing the ground.

"It's gone," he whispered.

"Gone?" Bree watched him worriedly.

"There was a war, terrible time war. Everything was destroyed, everything…" the Doctor trailed off into silence. Bree gently got up from her seat and stood very close to the Doctor. She lifted a hand and rubbed his back in a sympathetic gesture, as she was unsure how he would react to a hug.

"Everything," he continued, having recovered himself in Bree's therapeutic massage, "except who we were fighting, it seems, the Daleks," he turned to her then, "You've seen them."

Bree blinked at him, "I have? When?"

"A few months ago, the whole planet got moved… and there were those strange robot creatures with the eerie voices…"

"Oh! I remember… they were horrible, they… they took over your planet? Is that what they were trying to do with the Earth?" Bree's heart shuddered in fear. She remembered them quite clearly, now that she had a name to go with the picture. She remembered how they cruelly blasted anyone who stood against them. Her family had been lucky, living on such a small street, they went unnoticed, but she heard the screams all night long…

"No. Sadly, no… they wanted the Earth for something much worse, a reality bomb."

"A what?"

"Reality bomb… it's a bomb made of a single string of zed-neutrino energy that would dissolve every atom in the universe."

"My god… and, they would do that? These Daleks… they would destroy the entire universe? …why?" Her voice cracked a little thinking about the utterly complete decimation of everything, the unending nothingness where once there was so much… something!

"Their goal, their lives' sole purpose is to be the supreme beings of the universe and if there's nothing else out there…"

"But… wouldn't that bomb have been suicide? If it destroys every atom of reality that has to include themselves."

The Doctor sighed, then replied darkly, "Daleks are geniuses, but they're also fanatical."

Bree swallowed carefully and nodded, understanding perfectly about the unreasonableness of any fanatic. At length she sighed, "I'm so, so sorry Doctor."

"Sorry?" he snorted regaining a little humor, "for what?"

"For what they must have put you through."

The Doctor swallowed too, "Thanks Bree."

Bree just nodded at him, concentrating on keeping a handle on her composure.

The Doctor inhaled for courage, then took a chance, "Bree… would you travel with me?"

"What?" she blinked at him, confused at the sudden change of topic.

"I hate traveling alone. So I bring friends with me, companions."

"Why don't you have any now?" Bree asked, getting nervous.

"Because they had to leave. They didn't really want to, but… sometimes it's just necessary," he looked at her with sad brown eyes, the ones that showed you that he had seen so much death, that he had suffered so much.

Bree bit her lip, "I'm sorry," she repeated, she didn't know what else to say. There was so little that you could say to someone that had such universal sadness.

The Doctor shrugged, looking away, "It happens, I should be used to it by now, but…"

"Do you ever see them again?"

"No… well, sometimes, not too often though."

"So… it's like they've died and they've left you all alone"

The Doctor's hearts lurched at the cruel irony of the first part and the utter truth of the second, "Yeah, something like that."

Bree frowned, "Well… I…" she sighed, her half-hearted reluctance was quickly being done away with by the prospects of this wonderful man she'd found. The Doctor looked up at her hopefully. She caught his eye and sighed again, all reasoning against joining him completely done away with, "Oh, what the hell, I'd love to come!"

He beamed at her, "Brilliant!" He loved having a new companion. "So," he started off, excitement quickly overtaking his momentary grief, he was not one to linger in sadness, "how about the grand tour?"