Andrew's sleepless day continued as a loud rap ringtone from his phone woke him only a few hours later in his bed. The young man yawned before rolling over on his side to stare bleary eyed and annoyed at the phone on his dresser. If only he had put the stupid thing on vibrate he could have finally gotten enough rest to make up for how tired he was. Andrew still couldn't tell what was a dream and what was real. It was still like a great big haze. Right, the phone. After one more chorus of a song he hadn't cared for since a month ago the phone beeped having given him notice of a voicemail.

With curiosity Andrew leaned over and picked the phone up, dialed voicemail, and listened to the message. "Yo, A, it's Rod, we're at Happy's tonight. Erica's in town, son" The voicemail then told him in its empty female voice that the message had ended. Cryptic to most, but Andrew knew exactly what his friend Rod had told him about. Tonight was going to be good!

The general displeasure at his lack of sleep diminished as he got out of bed excited for the night. Drinks with his homies always seemed to take the sting off of hard days, and this one needed two shots of it!

Erica was an old high school friend that he had held a brief relationship with for a strong year. If anything she might be described as the one that got away due to how it had ended. The story was ironic if Andrew looked back on it honestly. She had accused him of cheating when it had been a simple misunderstanding over some drinks. As funny as it was, the breakup had affected him more than he ever cared to admit because ever since then he hadn't been interested in a long term relationship. Only one night stands.

Andrew left his apartment, drove to Happy's bar a couple blocks away, parked, and walked in. It was a particularly busy night as the bartender seemed to be rather busy serving many drinks. After waiting on one patron to decide if she wanted a cocktail or bloody mary, Andrew slid in and told the bartender. "Jack and coke." Andrew gave the man his drivers license to open up a tab and was returned the alcohol prepared in front of him.

He got up with his drink and saw his friends sitting over at a table. Rod spotted him first waving at him which Andrew nodded before heading over to join him, a guy he recognized but had guiltily forgotten his name, Rod's girlfriend, and… Erica."

Erica smiled at him which he returned. The years had done her good. This was definitely going to be a good night…

Several shots in and lots of reminiscing coupled with laughter later, a couple of things were clear. One, everything was glaringly awesome and the other, Erica's personality seemed a lot flatter. She wasn't quite as outgoing as she used to be mostly laughing with the group rather than being the one telling the jokes. When Andrew asked her what she had been up to she hadn't told him much. That was definitely not the Erica he remembered. There was not even a hint of the playful flirt he remembered. Had something horrible happened to harden her personality? Wow, Andrew hadn't cared about an emotional state of a woman in a couple years now. And then as he gazed about the scene around him searching in thought he leaned back in disbelief.

The tall man who had dubbed himself the stupid name of the Doctor was walking into the bar followed by the blonde whose name was the Wolf, or was it Rose? The couple stopped by the bar receiving drinks. Instead of giving them their driver licenses the Doctor presented the bartender with some type of identification before retrieving it back. The bartender seemed a bit put off about it before mixing some type of drink and handing one to each of them. The couple promptly drowned their drinks and put them back on the counter before exchanged words and glancing in his direction. Andrew couldn't hear what they were saying, but watched the Doctor pull some type of remote control device out of his pocket. A voice at his table brought him back to the conversation.

"Something wrong, A?" It was the guy that he still hadn't asked the name of.

"Sorry, thought I had seen someone."

Andrew's friends shrugged it off and continued to reminisce as Andrew turned back around to check. They weren't there, anymore. Phew!

The relief lasted only a minute as he was once again reunited with the weirdest couple he had ever met. "Andrew! Fancy to see you here!" The Doctor bellowed as he placed his hands on the side of the table.

Erica asked tentatively, "Friends of yours, Andrew?"

"Uh…"

Rose cut him off. "Hello! I'm Rose and that's the Doctor. Gotta apologize before we do this, but it's completely necessary."

Rod leaned forward and asked, "What is?"

"Uh…"

The Doctor showed everyone his device proudly. "I picked up a biographical signature with my Seismomagorian Device. So I have to ask, are any of you possibly hiding any secrets?" The Doctor grinned like it had been a joke.

"'Cuse me waat are you tagin' 'bout?" Rod's girlfriend trilled with a slur.

Rose slapped the Doctor's arm while shaking her head. "What he's trying to say is we think one of you may need some help and we just gotta scan to make sure. That, ok?"

Now it was the Doctor pushing her out of the way. "I stand by what I said. This will only take a minute.

It seemed the young adults including Andrew were too trashed to understand what was going on anyway so the Doctor raised his device and began pressing a button to make it beep. First he did Rod and the machine produced a low beep. "Good." Next was Andrew who still looked at these two with an air of disbelief. A low beep sounded. "Brilliant." Rod's girlfriend produced the same result. The Doctor trained the machine on Erica and then a high pitched beep followed.

Rose shouted, "Back away!" She motioned for everyone to do so but the college students broke into a fit of laughter.

Only Erica wasn't laughing. She was actually a little annoyed. "I think your machine's a bit busted. Why don't you two just run along and let us be."

The Doctor retorted, "That sounded awfully… awfully sober."

"Didn't have any drinks. Designated driver." Andrew didn't want to say anything but Erica had been drinking all night with the group.

"Rose, make sure they all stay safe. I don't want any casualties." Rose nodded after hearing the Doctor's instruction ready for action. "So, sorry I have to do this…"

"What are you…" Erica trailed off as the Doctor pressed a different button on the machine. The woman before them began to almost immediately begin to change shape and color as she grew in height. She began morphing into a green and scaly lizard like creature.

Naturally, the entire bar began crying and screaming including Andrew and his friends as they tried to get out of the building. The Doctor simply shouted, "The true form!"

Erica, or what used to be the woman, hissed. "You shouldn't have done that!"

She leapt at the Doctor who ducked before Rose pushed her to the ground. The lizard grabbed Rose's leg which made her shriek in alarm before toppling a nearby chair on Erica's head.

Erica was stunned and it was just enough time for Rose to get free and make her way over to the Doctor grabbing his hand. The Doctor held the device on her a little longer scanning. "Almost got it!"

Pandemonium filled the bar as tables and chairs went flying with people attempting to get as far as they could from the large monster. Only Andrew didn't run like everyone else. He wanted to and he was frightened by the whole ordeal, but he couldn't. He shouted at Erica. "Don't do this, Erica! Stop it!" There was a time he had felt deep feelings for the woman and her change had almost broken his heart again. Andrew couldn't tell if it was the alcohol or if he had harbored feelings for her the whole time they had been apart, but he suddenly wanted to help.

As Erica raised her head she met his eyes silently pleading. "Andrew. Just run!" The anger returned as she got up snarling moving his way with hate in her eyes…