A/N: So we're finally at New Earth! This paragraph has a bit copied from the original transcript from the episode New Earth, so just to let you know I don't own some of dialogue in this. Of course, I own Ava's lines!
Thank you so much for the reviews... OMG, I didn't think that I'd ever reach a hundred reviews... Whoever is reviewer one hundred will get a special mention next chapter.
Also, as promised, my fiftieth story alerter was... Spirit of the Sky! Thank you so much!
Hope you enjoy this chapter :)
Disclaimer: Only own Ava. Nowt else, 'right?
The first thing Ava established was the fact that it was incredibly windy. Rose was fighting with the material of her blue jacket from flying up in the severe gusts, and the Doctor appeared to be struggling with the long tails of his tan trench coat. Although, Ava did like the way it seemed to blow up like a cape in the breeze…
No. Stop it, Ava Jackson.
Ava grasped her hat tightly with the palm of her hand, and she could barely see due to the rainbow scarf which kept flying up into her face. She managed to grip the ends of the soft wool and throw them behind her, so the material flew behind her in the wind.
Looking upwards, Ava's mouth dropped open- that was soon becoming a permanent fixture, the whole gormless look. But she honestly couldn't help it. Surely it's ok to look completely dense when you've just been offered the whole of time and space with a nine hundred year old alien?
Above, in the cloudless blue sky, amazing vehicles were flying to and from a futuristic city which stood in the distance. It was like your classic sci-fi movie- all towering skyscrapers and glass podiums and incredible silver citadels. It was something that only existed in TV shows and innovative novels; yet, here it was. A city. Brimming with life and death and all that stuff that happened in between.
"It's the year five billion and twenty-three. We're in the galaxy M87 and this…" the Doctor began, his hands gesturing wildly towards the sky and the grass and well, everything. "This is New Earth."
"That's just… That's…" Rose just burst out laughing in wonderment.
The Doctor nodded, grinning, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. "Not bad! Not bad at all."
"Not bad is a bit of an understatement…" Ava gasped, reaching out for the trails that the hundreds of vehicles that zoomed by overhead left behind.
"Maybe. Just a little, tiny bit." the Doctor agreed.
"That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never." Rose announced, pushing her hair back with her hands.
"Think of me, Rose." Ava reminded her friend, grinning at her. "This is only my second trip. I'm just getting to grips that time travel is possible, then he brings me to a place where there are flipping flying cars."
"Hey!" the Doctor elbowed his newest companion and shot her a disapproving look. "They're shuttles, not flying cars. Flying cars are completely different."
Ava put her hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry. I'll make sure to look in the spotters guide next time."
"I wouldn't worry, Ave. He gets all touchy about his space-age tech." Rose eased her friend. "I still don't know the difference between… Well… I prove my point."
The Doctor looked at the pair with a warning look. "I hope you two aren't going to gang up on me."
Ava shrugged, "We'll just have to wait and see, eh?"
The Doctor frowned at Ava's reply. With one companion, life was easy. But with two female companions… Life was going to get a whole lot trickier. What had he let himself into? Nine hundred years of travelling, and he felt like he was going to become succumbed by two teenage, 21st century girls.
Rose bounced up and down on the spot excitedly. "Different ground beneath my feet!"
"Oh…" Ava copied Rose's action. "Yeah! That's pretty weird!"
"Different sky…" Rose wrinkled her nose and her face suddenly scrunched with concentration. "What's that smell?"
The Doctor bent down to the ground and pulled up a few shreds of the turquoise-green grass that grew there. He rubbed them in-between his fingers and sniffed them carefully, before a realised smile crept across his face. He showed them to Rose and she leaned in for a sniff too. "Applegrass."
Rose bit her lip and smiled, pretending to comprehend. "Applegrass…!"
"Yeah, yeah!" the Doctor nodded, before letting the blades flutter to the floor. "You remember, Ava?"
Rose arched her eyebrows. She knew that she had missed something. "Remember what?"
Ava crouched on the floor and ran her hand through the grassy blanket. The closer you got to the ground, the stronger the scent was. "The Doctor and I went to this place called The Glass Planet. Yeah, I told you, right?"
Rose gathered her thoughts together. "Oh yeah. The whole trapped star thing."
The Doctor nudged Rose on the shoulder. "I should take you to The Glass Planet. You'd love it there. But obviously the time before Ava and I went… Because I'm pretty sure the guards and the Emperor and Empress of the Muluminan Peninsula are still out looking for us."
Rose smiled and beckoned Ava to continue with her story.
"Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted," Ava glanced at the Doctor, who rubbed his nose to disguise the fact that she was looking at him, "We went to this… Well, it was a shake-shack. You know, like that milkshake bar in town, except without the milk. Unless you wanted Star Whale milk. Which I'm glad I didn't get, it looked revolting. I saw a bottle of it under its little name plaque… It had a sort of red tinge to it. And you can understand why I wouldn't want to drink milk with a red tinge to it."
"And you say I ramble." the Doctor muttered, louder than really necessary.
Ava narrowed her eyes at him. "This is your fault, Time boy. You've given me ramble-itus." Ava paused for a second, trying to remember where she was in the conversation. "Oh yeah! Well, the Doctor ordered us both Applegrass shakes. And he was going on about how amazing they were and how they were the best things that he's ever tasted… Yet, they weren't that great. They weren't bad, as far as space food went. But they weren't as good as the Doctor made out."
"I ended up drinking all of hers," the Doctor leaned forward, so he was more in line with Rose's ear. "She's fussy, your friend."
"Does it taste better raw?" Ava asked, and before the Doctor could stop her she popped a blade into her mouth.
The Doctor winced. "Um, Ava, applegrass is the fourth most disgusting edible raw plant in the universe…"
Ava chewed the grass carefully, trying to hide the fact that it was the most sickening thing she had ever tasted in her whole life. It tasted nothing like apples… More like socks, rubbish and… Ugh. Soil. Like normal grass. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Doctor."
Rose hid her giggles behind her hand. She knew when Ava didn't like something. And that something was in her mouth right now.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Right. Of course. I'll just have to explain to the Democratic Botanic Government next time I see them that they've put applegrass in the wrong category. My human friend likes it."
Ava tried incredibly hard not to cough anything up. At this rate, the taste was so repulsive, she debated whether it would just be the grass she spat out in the end. "Yep."
"Despite the supposedly horrible taste," Rose interjected, "It's beautiful."
Rose stared up at the Doctor with her gorgeous wide smile on her face. "Can I just say…" she linked her arm through his, "Travelling with you… I love it."
The Doctor looked down at Rose and bored his eyes into hers. "Me too."
Rose tossed her head back and a laugh erupted from her lips, and the Doctor grinned as he enjoyed watching it. "Come on!"
Ava stood back as their hands intertwined.
They started to run down the hill, and the Doctor called out "You coming, Ava Jackson?"
"Yeah," Ava shouted back, finally relieved that she could spit out the grass onto the floor where it belonged, "I'm coming!"
Ava didn't feel like running, so she took a leisurely walk down the hill, looking at the sky which was buzzing with life.
She snapped her head back when she felt like something was watching her: a niggling sensation which was tugging at the corner of her eye.
But when she looked, there was nothing there. Nothing that she could see, anyhow.
-x-
"So, the year five billion… The Sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." Ava heard the Doctor explain as she joined the pair on the grass. Both he and Rose were lying on the Doctor's coat, completely comfortable in each other's presence despite what had happened a day prior.
Ava sat down on the green next to her friends, eager to get back into the conversation.
"That was our first date," Rose smiled, as memories from Platform 1 flitted through her mind.
"We had chips!" the Doctor reminded her, and they both giggled.
Ava smiled back uncomfortably. She felt a little awkward when the Doctor and Rose talked about past adventures; then again, Ava sort of expected that both the Time Lord and Rose were going to have some sort of intimate bond which Ava couldn't ever quite squeeze into.
"Don't get me wrong," Ava chipped in, distracting the duo from their little trip down memory lane. "But I thought this was Earth."
"Oh no," the Doctor tutted. "The Earth did end, in the end. End in the end? Ha. Anyway, the Earth is gone… All rocks and dust, but the human race lives on."
Ava suddenly laughed. She just loved how even though the planet was gone, humans still existed. Miss Taylor, her Year Nine physics teacher, was so so wrong. There was life after the apocalypse. Alien life did exist.
The Doctor grinned back at her. "The human race spreads out across the sky. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic. Big revival moment… They find this place!"
The Doctor sat up so he got a better view of the city in front of them. "Same size as the Earth, same orbit, same air… Lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in!"
Ava stood up, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked into the horizon. "That's so… Oh, I can't even describe it! The fact that Earth has made such a big impact on the rest of the universe that they had to make a replica… It makes me feel proud to be human! And I didn't think I'd ever say that."
"I know," the Doctor said, a proud smile on his face. Even though he wasn't human in origin, it made him feel so gratified that such a small planet could achieve so much.
"What's this city called, then?" Rose queried.
"New New York."
"Oh come on," Ava and Rose said in unison, sceptically.
"It is!" the Doctor tried to explain, but still the two girls weren't quite believing it. "It's the city of New New York! Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New…"
Ava drifted out from the Doctor's most recent ramble, when she swore something was moving from behind her. The same little trivial sensation at the back of her mind… Like when you're in a back alley at night for some reason and you're always convinced some pervert is stalking you from behind. But this, this was different. Ava was sure something was creeping about amongst the grass.
"So can we go to New New York? So good they named it twice?"
Ava narrowed her eyes and carefully scanned the ground. She didn't usually miss something, and if she couldn't see anything by now she usually dismissed it. But…
The Doctor gripped her shoulder, dragging Ava out of her trance. "Still with us, Ava?"
Ava blinked. "Sorry, what?"
"We're going over there," the Doctor said, pointing to the west of the city to two tall, white buildings. Two very modern buildings, each depicted with a green crescent moon on the side.
"What are they?" Ava asked, suddenly feeling quite stupid by being the one who asked all the questions.
"Some sort of hospital. The green moon, it's the universal symbol for hospital." the Doctor said, reaching into his coat pocket. "And I got this."
He pulled out a familiar black, leather wallet. The wallet containing the psychic paper.
"We're going to break into a hospital?" Ava squeaked, "Why would we need to break into a hospital? That thing has got us into enough trouble, Doctor."
Rose grinned. "Oh, I love the psychic paper."
"No, we don't need to break in. Not this time." he showed the paper to both Ava and Rose. "I got a message."
"Not only is it an extraordinary piece of accustomed fake ID, you can also basically text on it." Ava offered the Doctor a couple of claps. "Bravo. You've got one suave piece of tech there, Doctor."
The Doctor tried to look modest. "I know. Anyway, someone wants to see me. And you, Ava, as it seems."
Ava scrunched her face in confusion. "What? Let me see that."
The Doctor offered her the paper and Ava took it graciously, bringing the wallet up to her eyes so she could read it.
Ward 26- Please come, Time Lord and The Lonely Girl.
"The Lonely Girl?" Ava questioned, handing the paper back to the Doctor. "What is that supposed to mean? I'm not lonely. How do you know that's supposed to be me?"
Rose coughed. "Strictly speaking, Ava, you are lonely. Not in the friendship aspect, I suppose, but with your family…"
"But how would anyone here know that?" Ava asked. "Just, how? Only you two know about my family. No-one in the year five billion."
"Well," the Doctor butted in, "We're just going to have to find out, aren't we?"
Ava felt completely out of her depth. She preferred to keep her personal life to herself, maybe only even telling her closest friends. She didn't want anyone that she'd never met to know anything about her situation.
The Doctor saw the look of distress on Ava's face and leaned out his arm, motioning for her to hook on. Ava was a little doubtful at first, but she eventually slipped her arm through his. Rose did a similar motion on his other side.
"Hmm!" Rose announced. "And I thought we were just sight-seeing. Let's go buy some grapes!"
The trio began their descent down the hill, Rose and the Doctor talking a little but Ava choosing to remain quiet.
She swore she could hear the tinkering of tiny legs behind them.