"So," the Doctor said as he began to flip switches and twist dials on the TARDIS's console. "I should get the two of you back to the school."

It was at that moment that I realized how long I'd been keeping my mom waiting. "Oh no!" I moaned. "My mom is going to kill me."

"Why?"

"Do you have any idea how long I've kept her waiting? I'm a dead woman walking," I replied in a tone bordering on hysteria. "Maybe I'll get really lucky and she's already left for home."

"I could take you straight home," the Doctor suggested. "Don't know if it'll do much good, but at least you won't have to walk. I could try to explain to her…"

"Oh god no!" I shouted. "I'd rather not have you try to explain. Trust me, I'd rather take whatever punishment she dishes out than deal with explaining…" I shook my head and indicated the impossible interior of the TARDIS, "this. That and the fact my mom's pretty handy with a twelve gauge and exceptionally cynical…"

The Doctor nodded. "The school, then?"

I nodded, while Jeni said, "You could drop me off at the library."

The Doctor didn't answer Jeni; instead he twisted a knob or two and yanked down a lever. The TARDIS began to make the strange sound that I now knew meant that it was moving. As before, the sound only lasted for a few moments and ended with a large thud.

"Here you are," the Doctor said as he indicated the door.

I jumped to my feet and walked as quickly as possible to the door. I pushed it open and saw that he'd managed to land the TARDIS in the middle of my physics classroom. I glanced at the unchanged room with a strange sort of amazement. It didn't seem possible that the room could appear the same when it had seen Aegypians try to murder us. It did, though. "Mr. Smith" was still written on the board, the chairs were still messily scattered around the three rows of tables, and my binder and textbooks were still carefully stacked where I had left them.

I hurriedly grabbed my things and ran out the door of the classroom. I sprinted to my locker and spun the com. I muttered the numbers as I twisted the dial: "15-31-5." I yanked the locker's door open and hurriedly tossed my textbooks into it. I jerked out my backpack and shoved my binder into it. I zipped it shut and swung it onto my back while I grabbed my flute and my lunchbox. At that moment I heard the unique sound of the TARDIS departing.

I ran as fast as I could back to the physics room but only arrived in time to see the police box fade into thin air.

I'd rather hoped to say goodbye and timidly asked the empty room, "Doctor? Jeni? Anyone here?"

I shrugged my shoulders, turned and walked at my normal slow pace out of the room heading for the parking lot.

My mom was still sitting out there, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently.

"Mom, can we go to the library, please?" I asked. It was amazing that even after standing my ground against an alien that wouldn't have thought twice about shooting me; I was still positively terrified of my ordinary, human mother when she was angry. Oh, well, some things never change.

My mother was giving me the Look (otherwise known as the Evil Eye) and replied in a sharp tone, "Why?"

She'd had a full blown conniption when I'd finally made it out to the car. I'd been screamed at for a full five minutes before I could mutter an apology and then an additional four minutes before she'd allowed me to give my excuse. I'd told her that the Quizbowl coach had needed me to help her after school and I had completely lost track of the time. That had placated her enough to allow for my carefully worded request.

"I was kind of hoping to pick up my books that came in," I said timidly.

"Fine, but you had better never…"

Jeni was at the library with her family when we got there. She waved me over when she saw me. She shouted almost gleefully, "Liz! You'll never believe it!"

"What?" I asked quietly, trying not to draw any more attention to myself than had already been by Jeni's loud voice in the otherwise silent library. I hoped to high heaven that she would not mention our adventure. That was the absolute last thing I needed right now: to be caught in a lie by my mother.

"There's been an explosion right by my house and they're worried about chemicals and stuff…" she said hurriedly. "My brother is gonna go stay with one of his friends 'cause we're not allowed to go back home just yet. You think your parents would mind if I stayed with you for a day or two?"

I looked over at my mom, who had heard every word Jeni had said in her too loud voice, and asked, "Can she?"

My mom frowned slightly and said, "I suppose, if it's alright with Jeni's parents…" She trailed off and went to confirm with Jeni's parents that it was okay for her to stay over for a few days. It was.

We set Jeni up in the living room with the hide-a-bed. Since it wasn't a school night we could stay up as long as we liked with the stipulation that once someone went to bed we had to be quiet. By unspoken agreement, neither Jeni nor I spoke about what had happened until after my sister finally trotted off to bed at around eleven forty.

The moment she was safely out of earshot I whispered to Jeni, "How did you get to the library so fast?"

"The Doctor dropped me off," Jeni said with a shrug.

"Okay… and how did he manage to land the TARDIS at the library without being noticed?"

"I dunno, he just landed the Ta – time machine thing in that field behind the library," she replied.

"Today has just been too crazy," I muttered. "Do you think anyone will realize that there was a spaceship in your backyard?"

"I don't know," Jeni admitted. "But I doubt that the government would let anyone know about it even if someone did figure it out."

I nodded, "Yeah, governments are good at covering things like that up."

We sat in silence for a while before Jeni finally inquired, "You know, Elisabeth, I never asked: Who is the Doctor?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "To be honest, I don't know. A time traveler, I guess, and, if that book was right, an alien. Other than that the book was kind of sparse on facts about him. Most of what it said was that he turns up at events that history looks back at and calls disasters. It gave some examples."

"Oh," she replied.

Again we lapsed into silence with both of us wrapped up in our own thoughts about what had happened.

The grandfather clock struck midnight and above the bongs we heard a very particular sound that started my golden retriever barking.

I leapt out of the chair I'd been sitting in and raced for the backdoor. I flung open the door to the garage, where my dog barking at the outside door with her hackles raised. I called her over and grabbed her muzzle saying, "Shush, shush, Bailey-girl. No. No, you be good. Shh." With a few half-hearted growls, Bailey quieted down. I let go of her muzzle, smiled and in the gooey tones most people use with their dogs I praised, "Good girl. There's my good Bailey-girl. You're such a good doggy."

While I had been calming Bailey, Jeni had managed to put on her shoes and run out of the garage. I shoved my feet into my running shoes now and ran out after her.

She hadn't gone far, just to the end of the cement at the corner of house facing the road. She was staring out into the front yard.

There between the two branches of the U-shaped driveway sat a blue police box and stepping out of it was a tall, thin man with messy, brown hair in a brown coat, a blue, pinstriped suit with grey converse shoes.

Author's Note: Only one more chapter left after this. I'm going to leave the poll up until Wednesday, so you can voice your opinion on whether or not Jeni and/or Elisabeth should travel with the Doctor. Thus far I've only had two votes and two reviews with opinions on the matter.

As always, I thank everyone that reviewed.