I glanced over at Jeni, half thinking that I should confirm what I was seeing with her, and then I thought better of it and took a strange little hop into my bizarre sprint. I could hear a second set of footsteps on the gravel behind me, so I knew that Jeni had gotten the same idea.

I came to a skidding halt in front of the Doctor, who was just finishing locking the TARDIS, not that there was anyone here that would steal it… or rather there wouldn't have been if I hadn't invited Jeni over.

He turned around and smiled widely at us: "I seem to have found something on my chair." He pulled out a rectangular object out of his pocket, which he shouldn't have been able to fit into the pocket at all. Of course, the inside of the TARDIS shouldn't have been able to be larger than the outside, so I wasn't going to point it out.

I recognized it. "My book!" I smiled gratefully as he handed it back to me. "Thanks. I thought there was something I'd forgotten. I always forget something."

"And something else – " he rummaged around in the pockets of his coat for a few seconds. "I believe I owed you a new MP3 player."

With that he handed me a shiny, new MP3 player.

"3,000 gigabytes on that," he added. "Do me a favor and don't show that off to Apple, if you would."

"No problem," I muttered in awe of the little music player. Suddenly the manners my mother had drilled into me since I was two took over and I began to feel guilty about accepting such a generous gift. "Thank you. I mean, I was only joking about that… you didn't need to… I can't possibly…"

Jeni recognized the symptoms of my conscience, elbowed me in the side, and explained: "She's 'guilt tripping' herself. Don't take it personally."

"I am?" I asked. I blushed stupidly. "Sorry."

"I better get going," the Doctor said suddenly when the conversation lapsed into silence for a little too long. "There's a lot of universe out there to see."

"Oh," I said. I wasn't one for being too "touchy-feely" as I sometimes thought of it, but since it was doubtful that I would see the Doctor again, I said very quickly, before my nerve could give out: "Thanks for saving us back at the school." I thought about giving the Doctor a hug, but my nerve failed before I could do more than take a step closer. The Doctor surprised me by guessing what I had meant to do and giving me a bear hug that reminded me strongly of hugging my cousin Patrick.

"You know," he said I stepped back to stand right next to Jeni. "You could come with me. Travel anywhere in time and space." He smiled a little wider and added the words that I recognized as my own: "See all those events that really changed the world."

"I don't know," I said as I took another step back. Part of me, the adventurous part that had really taken charge today was very tempted by the offer. The more reasonable, sensible part of my mind reminded me how dangerous taking up such an offer would be.

Jeni, on the other hand, didn't even pause to consider: "Of course we want to come!" She had said that at the exact same moment I had muttered my indecisive reply.

I had the strangest feeling that the Doctor really hadn't been extending that invitation to Jeni, the girl who liked guns and explosions and violence just a little too much, and the doubtful look he gave her confirmed that.

Jeni usually didn't notice looks like the one she was receiving from the Doctor, but at that moment she seemed to understand that I was her ticket aboard the TARDIS. She looked over to me and did something very un-Jeni-like: She begged. "Please, Elisabeth, as if anything would hurt you while we're keeping an eye out for you."

I looked from the Doctor and the TARDIS to my house to the TARDIS and back again. How often had I dreamed of this exact sort of chance? How often had I wished that my daydreams of heroism were real? Could I, boring, bookworm Elisabeth, really manage to travel with the Doctor and my best friend? And could I live with the regret if I chose not to?

It was that last question that answered my internal debate.

"Stay right here," I ordered the Doctor as I spun on my heel on ran back to the house. Over my shoulder I shouted: "Don't you dare leave me behind!"

I didn't bother to take my shoes off when I ran into the house. I sprinted through the family room, the kitchen, the hallway, up the stairs and into my bedroom. I was suddenly glad that I had packed my bags the night before in preparation for a family vacation to a little cabin my grandmother owned up north. I grabbed my carry-on filled with my favorite novels. (Whether or not I was going to go on adventures, I was still Elisabeth the bookworm and had a reputation to uphold.) I picked up my suitcase filled with clothes, my extra toothbrush and hairbrush, hair bands, and my retainer. (I was not going to sacrifice my five grand worth of orthodontic work either.) I also grabbed my laptop in its case. After all, if I was going to be time traveling I was going to have to write down what had happened, if for no other reason than that it would be complicated remembering where and when I'd been if I didn't.

I trotted down the stairs and stopped at the landing. I sat down my bags and slipped into the living room for a moment. I found a piece of paper on the desk that our computer sat on and wrote a note to my parents:

I've gone out with Jeni and a mutual friend. Don't worry; I'll probably be back before you wake up. I'll give you a call soon if not.

I thought for what felt like a long time before signing it. Just in case… I thought.

Love,

Elisabeth

I really don't say that often enough, I thought as I realized that I couldn't even remember the last time I had said the L-word to anyone, family or otherwise. Almost being killed does put things in perspective, doesn't it?

I picked up my bags and dropped the note on the kitchen counter on my way to the backdoor. I stopped at the backdoor to grab my backpack, since I had homework to do and, being a straight-A student, I had issues with the idea of not getting my homework done on time.

On my way out of the backdoor I patted Bailey on the head and told her that she was the best dog in whole wide world, which probably wasn't true but wasn't the point. I locked the door and sprinted as quickly as I could back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor wasn't standing outside the TARDIS anymore but the door was ajar and I could see a bit of the impossible interior. Since my things were threatening to escape my grip and fall on the ground I hurried inside and dumped them off to one side. I figured that the Doctor would tell me where I could put my junk soon enough.

The Doctor was standing at the controls and Jeni was sitting on the chair nearby. I turned and shut the door of the TARDIS.

The moment the door was closed behind me the Doctor grinned brightly as if I had just made his day. "So," he said enthusiastically. "Where do you want to go?"

His enthusiasm must have been infectious because I smiled right back and said: "Wherever you want to take us."

Author's Note: That's it. Really it is. The End. I get to mark the story complete now, isn't that strange? At least until I talk my friend into finishing the sequel, or I give up and write one on my own. I left a few little things to follow up, of course. Who really shot down the Pician ship and what is that sphere that Elisabeth picked up and has conveniently forgotten about? Just to give a couple examples.

The final results for the poll was two votes for both Jeni and Elisabeth to accept an invitation to travel with the Doctor, one vote for only Elisabeth and two reviews for both and one review for only Elisabeth.