A/N: You know what I would like? 25 reviews. Please. If you're reading this now, please do so! I will be your best friend. If you want me to be. As always, thank you if you have reviewed/favourited/alerted or just read this. It's really boosted my confidence as a writer!
This chapter was a lot shorter than intended, as I only got on the computer at eight o'clock and I really wanted to post something in time for The Apprentice. Yeah. I'm sad.
So, basically, this chapter was going to be double the size but I halfed it so I could write it in an hour- I promise a brill chapter tomorrow!
Disclaimer: Only own Ava. Nothing recognisable.
*CHAPTER REWRITTEN 27/05/12*
I felt like a criminal; running away in the middle of the night with a man I'd just met, without telling MY best friend who was so obviously in love with him… I'm such a good friend.
But right now, I didn't care. That may sound incredibly selfish, but Rose's welfare was hidden right at the back of my mind. All I cared about was here and now, and the fact that I was going to visit outer space. Outer bloody space. This kind of thing did not happen in real life; yet, here I was, inside a flipping space ship!
The Doctor flung his coat over the side of the bar near the entrance, and then bounded up the stairs in two huge strides. He was honestly like a little playful puppy, so eager and full of life. I soon found out that his enthusiasm was incredibly contagious. Within a minute I couldn't help grinning either.
The Doctor danced around the central control panel; which I assumed piloted the time machine.
Time machine. I was still coming to grips with that without going mad. Or have I already gone mad? I didn't care.
The Doctor was gliding around effortlessly, twisting regulators and switching buttons with ease- it looked so complicated and random, but the Doctor obviously knew what he was doing. He was also showing off a bit, twisting backwards and flashing a grin at me every so often. He tried to hide his limp when he tried but failed to pull a lever with his left foot. I supressed a laugh.
"Do you actually know how to drive this thing?" I asked, walking up the steps at a lower speed than the Doctor and then lounging on the battered pilot's seat which was bolted to the floor.
"Oh yes," announced the Doctor, pulling down a lever and beaming as a ray of light shot up the central column. "I've been doing it for hundreds of years, Ava!"
I frowned, leaning forwards so my chin rested in my hands. "Hundreds?"
"Ah, well…" the Doctor started, but he didn't get to finish.
"Doctor, you promised to tell me a bit about yourself," I said, recalling back to not long ago. "And you better. You promised."
The Doctor hesitated, but he didn't need to reply. The TARDIS made a loud, wheezy, gratey noise; signalling that we had arrived at our destination.
I abandoned what I was about to say, much to the Doctor's apparent relief. He clearly didn't want to reveal much about himself just yet.
"We're here?" I breathed, barely containing my excitement.
The Doctor grinned. He enjoyed how naïve I was to the universe; how I was learning so much. My disbelief to it all. My look of sheer glee on my face,
"Ava, outside those doors is deep space. The year six-hundred-and-eighty-two-thousand." the Doctor envisaged, "Well, I say deep space. It obviously isn't to the people who live here. I mean, it's probably quite shallow space to… Sorry. I'm babbling, aren't I?"
I didn't even nod. I didn't care that he rambled. "Six-hundred-and-eighty-two-thousand? Has the Earth ended yet? Are there still humans?"
"What?" the Doctor screeched, "Has the Earth ended yet?"
I waved my hand flippantly. "You know, 2012 theories and all that."
The Doctor snorted, "Those theories are complete rubbish, Ava. You humans are all for conspiracy, aren't you? Why can't you just believe the possibility that your tiny planet will live for billions more years, and humans will go on and do so many amazing things?"
I dismissed the fact that the Doctor had mentioned humans instead of people. My picture of him was slowly coming together, piece by piece. By now, I was beginning to think that he really didn't originate from Earth…
Any other day I would be freaking out about the prospect that an alien was standing right in front of me. But now, I'd seen so many impossible things that they just seemed- well, possible.
And I loved it.
"You ready?" asked the Doctor, grabbing his coat.
"Yeah, apart from the fact I'm in my pyjamas." I stated, pointing to what I was wearing. Yes, they were very attractive zebra-print shorts and a perfectly good pink vest top, but they weren't really the kind of thing I wanted to wear jumping around an alien planet.
The Doctor coughed. "You should find something in the wardrobe. Right corridor, the left door, through the second-right tunnel, down the pole, the third set of stairs on your middle-left…"
-x-
I wrapped a rainbow patterned scarf round my neck, and pulled a trilby over my head. The Doctor had so many incredibly cool clothes, I didn't know what to choose.
I decided against the dress which was made completely of fur- I sincerely hoped that the Doctor had never worn that before. I wavered between a leather jacket which I found near the entrance, but put it back when I discovered it was way too big for me. And why the heck was there a piece of celery strapped to this cream jacket? Please, please say that the Doctor had never worn that before. Surely there were laws against it.
After going through (and almost getting lost, twice) in an infinite crowd of clothes rails, I managed to find a pair of electric blue skinny jeans (which for some reason had 'Ava' written on the label… Weird. I'd have to ask the Doctor about that) and a band T Shirt from some band called the House Martens. I'd never heard of them. The only reason I liked it was because it was in exactly the right size for me.
Leaving Rose's pyjamas neatly folded at the entrance, I pulled the rainbow scarf tighter round my neck. For some reason, I'd become pretty attached to it. The trilby hat also became a fixture. There was something I liked about hats.
Making my way back to the control room, I took a deep breath.
Okay. Deep space. With an almost-one-hundred-percent-sure alien.
This was going to be one heck of a night.