—Chapter 1 —

Roald Dahl Plass

I'm Ash. 13, but no one believes it. Ran off from foster care a few months ago because I do better on my own. Adults are stupid. Got a secret hideout no one else knows how to get into and fixed it up some. Sometimes being small can be useful. And you'd be surprised what you can run off a stolen car battery with a little ingenuity.

Obviously I'm a thief, pickpocket, whatever. No one's ever caught me. I'm just that good. Or that invisible. Just another unnoticeable orphan. I've got a perfect internal Somebody Else's Problem cloaking device. I even drew one on my backpack. Should rename myself SEP. Sep Fields. Ha! Perfect. Not that there's anyone to tell my name to. Or that I care.

Anyway, the crowds are decent around the Bay today. It's sunny and the tourists are out in force. I'll be home before dark, pockets full. See, I've got this little trick I use, like a super power, to keep from getting caught. If I really concentrate, I can see what the world around me is going to look like in the future, except I'm still seeing now as well. And all the time in between.

It's like when you see something moving quickly and it's a blur. If I look ahead I see the world now, and I can see like a ghost of what's going to happen. I can't do it for more than a few minutes at a time though. Bad headache.

I also can't see very much time all at once. If I try to see more than a second all at once, everything just gets all fuzzed out. And my nose bleeds and I get a headache. I even passed out once, so I try not to do that.

If I'm really focusing on one person, I can see further, and more clearly. It makes picking their pocket super easy, but I'm so focused on them that the rest of the world pretty much fades away. Besides, easy mode isn't as much fun, and it's a bit of a one and done. Afterwards I'm super nauseous and lightheaded, and need a nice long nap.

Anyway, looking ahead gets me in the right place, and then I make the grab using my other super power, slow-mo. My brain speeds up, I'm seeing everything in super detail, basically the world is in, well, slow-mo. I'm like the Last Air Bender, but with time. Ash the Time Bender.

A distracted looking businessman catches my eye. Time to get to work.

—

While waiting for another target to present itself, I notice one of those old school police boxes sitting in the Plaza. It wasn't there yesterday. There's no advertising or anything on it, guerrilla marketing campaign maybe?

No one is paying any attention to it. Which is weird. Tourists are always taking pictures of everything and poking their noses everywhere. But this definitely out of place box is being ignored.

I start walking over to The Box. Good name for it. Give it some gravitas. It's not just a box, it's The Box. I'm trying to fly casual, like Chewbacca, so people don't think I'm a stupid tourist, but I really want to check it out.

I see someone else headed in the same direction, a young black man, jeans, winter coat, and I have to change my plans. He's definitely headed straight for The Box. I keep walking, more slowly now, but am aiming to just pass by at a discrete distance.

I watch him walk up to The Box and knock on the door. A tall guy, clean cut, blue tee-shirt opens the door and lets him in after a brief conversation. Weirder and weirder. Two people will definitely fit; It's probably 5ft by 5ft. But… why? Maybe it's over a manhole and they're headed into a secret base. That'd be cool. Shit disguise for the entry though.

—

Inside the Tardis, the Doctor is looking at the scanner, trying to find the source of some small time distortions. Not big enough to be a problem, just odd, even this close to the rift. The scanner focuses on a young girl, slight, with a baseball cap and a backpack.

He zooms in and notices a handmade drawing on the pack. It shows what looks like a squat rocket surrounded by a force field with the words "SEP Field" with "The Perfect Camouflage" below. 'Ah, a Douglas Adams fan. Fantastic!' He thinks with a smile. "Good guy, gave him all sorts of ideas, me." He says to no one.

He pushes some buttons on the console, pulling up the results of a scan of the girl, wanting to know what species she is. But the results can't be right. She appears to be human. He mutters to himself, "Humans never develop the ability, or technology to manipulate time like that."

Rose steps up to the scanner, "Who's she?"

"I don't know, but the Tardis thinks she's the one creating the time distortions I've been tracking."

"How's she doing that then?"

"No idea. Could have some alien tech on her. There are also a handful of species with the ability, though few look humanoid. There's an arthropod on Gentis 4 that weaves time webs to catch its prey. We should go someday."

Turning back to the screen, he watches her expertly pick a businessman's pocket, and he realizes she's creating a localized time dilation around herself, in order to move faster relative to the target for the fraction of a second needed to make the grab.

He's impressed, but concerned about her timing. It's way too perfect. "Nah." He dismisses the possibility of time sensitivity, passing it off as luck. He sets the Tardis to continuously monitor the girl.

"Nah, what?" Asks Jack heading over to see what the other two are looking at.

The doctor is preoccupied messing with the scanner so Rose answers, "Don't know really. Some kid is messing with time out in the plaza."

The Doctor gives her a look, "Close enough I guess."

There's a knock on the Tardis door and Jack opens it saying, "Don't tell me. This must be Mickey."

—

I pass by The Box. I know I should leave it alone, or at least watch from a distance, but Must Touch the Box! It feels like it's important, big. It has a presence to it like nothing I've ever seen.

Maybe I can listen in without being noticed. The back is in the sun, a totally normal place to sit down and chill for a bit.

I get close enough to touch it and… disappointing. It feels like a very out of place old police box. It has such a presence about it, I'd almost think it's alive, but I guess it's just a blue wood box.

I sit down, back against the box, and focus on trying to hear what's going on inside but I get nothing. Absolute silence. Even if I lean my ear against the wood. Maybe it really is the entrance to a secret base.

I put on my headphones and pull out a book. I'm just a kid, catching some rays, nothing to see here. I've got no actual music to listen to though. The headphone wire just goes into my pocket, connected to nothing. I only wear them to keep people from bothering me.

"Should take another twenty four hours, which means we've got time to kill." I hear just on the other side of The Box. Yes! I rip off the headphones to make sure I catch it all. The voice sounds northern. Not one of the two I've already seen then. Just how many people are in this thing?

"That old lady's staring" sounds like the Black Guy.

"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box." and that's likely Blue Shirt.

"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Black Guy again. The what? "Wait, the Tardis, we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?" He continues. Tardis? Is that what The Box is actually called?

"Yeah, what's with the police box? Why does it look like that?" Blue Shirt is talking to someone else now.

"It's a cloaking device." A woman. Okay, so there really were at least four people in there.

"It's called a chameleon circuit. The Tardis is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck." And we're back to the Northerner.

So the Tardis is a ship. I can't, I can't quite wrap my mind around all this. A 5x5 ship that four people just walked out of. And that once landed in the 1960's and could go to Ancient Rome! Nope. Brain imploding. No way this thing can time travel. That's impossible right? Holy shit! A tiny time machine.

It can't really be that small can it? But it's not like there's an invisible part, people have been walking fairly close to it on all sides. Maybe the rest of it is above us. I pick up a rock to test that theory, but I'm going to need to wait until they've walked off.

I tune back into the conversation to hear Black Guy say, "But that's what I meant. There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"

Northerner replies, "Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do? Walk past it. Now, stop your nagging."

"What's the plan?" the Woman asks. To which the Northerner replies, "We're going to go meet a pickpocket." a big grin splitting his face.

—

I freeze, instantly looking ahead. He's talking about me. I know it. I can "see" future Northerner and Blue Shirt as they come around opposite corners. I drop the book, sling my bag over my shoulder, and begin to run away, but I'm looking too far ahead, everything is getting fuzzy.

It's weird trying to run from the ghost of where someone is likely to be in the future, particularly when my current actions affect their future ones. I keep stretching my senses out, probing the results of different choices I could make, looking for an escape.

But I'm just making myself nauseous, and I can barely able to see what's actually in front of me. So I end up stumbling and Northerner gets close enough to make a grab for my collar. Unfortunately he's not stupid enough to go for the bag.

I try to bend time but my head hurts too much, and it's not working very well, and this Doctor guy is FAST. I've never seen anyone so fast. I start wondering if he's even human. He did just step out of what's probably a time machine-space ship.

I stumble again, knee and palms hitting the ground hard. My head only misses because the Doctor guy got a hand on my collar.

"Hello." The Northerner says, with a huge and slightly creepy smile, and little wave. He helps me all the way up, hand now gripping my shoulder. "I'm the Doctor." My head is still killing me and my brain feels fuzzy. And that would be blood running down my chin. Gross.

Blue shirt pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to me introducing himself "I'm Jack. Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you…" This gets him a look from the Doctor. "What? I'm just introducing myself." Jack says smirking. That was weird.

"Is this the girl we saw on the scanner?" Asks the Blond as she catches up, Ricky a little further behind, out of breath. "Yep." the Doctor replies smiling, looking excited, rocking back onto his heels. He inclines his head towards her "This is Rose, the idiot over there is Micky, and Jack's already introduced himself. So who are…"

He pauses, taking a closer look at me. Eye's widening, he lets go and takes a step back. I manage to take a knee and aim away from everyone as I empty my stomach. Jack puts his arm across my back holding me steady and the Doctor has a hold of the side of my neck, thumb against my cheek. He tilts my head up and waves a noisy, lit up pen or something in my face. I open my mouth to tell him to get lost but he sticks something in my mouth. It melts almost instantly.

"That should help with the headache and nausea." He says, slowly rubbing circles on my cheek with his thumb. I catch myself leaning into the contact a little before abruptly standing up. "Thanks." I mumble.

"So, who are you then?" He asks softly, hand dropping to his side. I shrug, "I'm nobody." He straightens up, crossing his arms, giving me a very unamused look. I look up (dude's pretty tall) and just glare at him for a bit.

Eventually I concede the staring contest. Not because he's won though. I just want to try out my new name. "I'm Sep, Sep Fields." I stick my hand out to shake his. "So very nice to be chased down and tackled by you, Doctor." My sarcasm is strong today.

"Oi! I didn't tackle you, you tripped." He says, and instead of shaking my hand, he just grabs it and starts walking, dragging me along. Feels weird. Don't think I've ever walked along holding hands with anyone before. I try to tug my hand loose, but he won't let go.

"Alright then Sep, how about some lunch?" I look up at him and see him grinning like a maniac again. Who is this guy? Jack laughs and pats my back, and I can see he's grabbed my bag. Rose and Mickey are just behind us, whispering, probably about me.

—

"So is your name Mickey, or Ricky?" I ask, turning to look backwards.

"It's Mickey. The Doctor there just likes to be annoying. What are you doing out here by yourself anyway? How old are you, 10?"

"I'm 13 and I can be anywhere I want!" I reply, indignant.

"No way. You're lying." I get back from Mickey as he brushes by me, stepping ahead of the group.

"Might want to check your pockets Ricky. She's a pickpocket, and a good one." replies the Doctor. I'm wearing my widest, most satisfied grin. Ha. Take that Rickey. But seriously, how did the Doctor notice?

Now Mickey's whining, "My wallet's gone! She stole my wallet!" and turns to stop in front of me. Everybody stops walking. I warn him to back off, still grinning.

"Give. It. Back." He demands, in a very non-intimidating tone despite his best efforts.

The Doctor tightens his grip on my hand and clears his throat. I turn to look up at him, "What?" then I notice the very pointed look he is giving me and hand the wallet over to Mickey. "Whatever." rolling my eyes. I've already got the cash.

Besides, it's not like I can't just take it again. That was almost a straight pick, just a little slow-mo, more out of habit than anything. He's an easy target.

Mickey doesn't even check if his cash is still there. Amateur. I try to pull my hand out of the Doctor's, but he still won't let go. He just looks down at me and says, "No." A man of many words.

Doesn't matter I guess. I don't really want to run yet anyway. I'll have to soon, but not yet. There is something about the Doctor. He's so unlike anyone I've ever met. I want to spend as much time with him as I can.

I tug on the Doctor's hand a little and ask, "How did you even see that?"

"I'm just that good."

"Seriously." I insist, bouncing ahead a little, "Tell me. I must know."

He shrugs.

"Please!" I beg.

"I happened to notice a temporal distortion proximate to Mickey bumping into you."

"You could tell I went slow-mo!?"

I can hear Jack laughing behind me. "Excellent vocabulary kid."

"But how could you… I mean… that's…" I sputter.

"I'll explain later." The Doctor answers.

"Which means never. Adults." I mutter quietly to myself, kicking a rock. Apparently not quietly enough though, I can feel the Doctor is chuckling beside me.

We continue walking and I'm trying to be cool and adult, but I can't hold it in, "Are you guys aliens or what?"

Mickey splutters, "What? No."

"He is." Adds Rose, indicating the Doctor.

"Yup. That alright?" the Doctor asks me.

"Sure. So, where are you from? How does the Tardis work? Why are you here? Are there other aliens here?" I'm nearly jumping with excitement. This is soooo cool.

"Somewhere else. You wouldn't understand. I'm hungry. Possibly." Answers the Doctor. Giving me a strange look. "Now can we get a move on? I'm feeling peckish."

—

There's a bit of a crowd around the doors to the restaurant. A large group is leaving and I can't resist. It's too easy. I look ahead, then target one of the guys. Got to make this perfect, and the medication the Doctor gave me will hopefully keep me from getting too nauseous. Besides, can't use slow-mo, the Doctor would notice.

Time to show off my next trick! I focus on my target. His body is starting to turn, just a little further…

Wait, what! The Doctor has pulled me tight against his side, one arm now across my shoulders, the other under my chin, forcing me to look up at him. How could he know what I was about to do?

"Never do that again." He says quietly, his expression intense. I swallow. I'm not scared. Definitely not scared. He pulls me off to the side and tells Jack to go on and get a seat.

—

We move over to a bench on the side of the building. "Sit." he commands. He's standing over me, arms crossed, angry, and it's overwhelming. He's overwhelming. So, so huge and overwhelming. I don't even understand why he's mad. He wasn't when I grabbed Mickey's wallet.

"Who are you then? Species? Planet of origin?" He demands.

"I… I… don't…understand. I'm human."

He's just standing there, staring at me. It's like I can feel his presence pushing on me, and it's terrifying. I'm trying so hard not to cry right now, I'm shaking. I know I'm starting to hyperventilate but I can't stop it. I just want to disappear. It's too much. He's too much. I can't hold back any more. Tears start running down my face. I pull my knees into my chest, hugging myself and hiding my face.

I hear the Doctor sigh and kneel down in front of me. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry. I'm not going to hurt you. Promise. Cross both my hearts." He puts one hand on my knee and the other on top of my head, and gently strokes my hair.

"Stupid, stupid old Doctor. Just a kid, doesn't even know what she's doing. No one to teach you here." He keeps messing with my hair, and I start to relax a little. He's less again now. Not as intimidating.

Once I've settled down some, he starts explaining, "First off, on top of the slow-mo," saying slow-mo like it tastes bad, "you're time-sensitive. You were looking at the timelines of everyone around us. Neat skill that. Very advanced, and I'm guessing you do it instinctively." I shrug.

"You're also telepathic." He pauses, his hand stilling, then continues in a much sterner voice, "You invaded that man's mind and were pushing him to turn towards you. That's wrong. Never do that again. You don't ever want to find out how angry I will be if I catch you in someone's mind like that again."

I lift my head off my knees a little. "But, I.. I don't understand. I didn't… I'm not… How…"

He stands up and sits next to me, rubbing my back. It's comforting. I feel safe with him, like everything's going to be okay and that's scary, because I know it won't. It never is. I just wish… it doesn't matter.

I straighten up, looking off into the distance, but still hugging my knees, and his hand moves to rest across my shoulders. We sit in silence for a while, my brain spinning a million miles a minute, but not getting anywhere.

"What's your name then? Your proper name?" he eventually asks. "I told you my name's Sep." I answer quietly. I hear the bench creak as he leans back, "Big Douglas Adams fan me." Damn it. "Yeah, and?" He hesitates, "You are not somebody else's problem."

I glance over at him, then back at my knees.

He grabs my chin and tips it towards him, "You are not somebody else's problem."

My breathing speeds up. Time to run. I have to get out of here. "I'm not going to be yours either!" I shout, trying to run off.

I don't even make it one step before he's caught me. He crouches down, both arms holding me in place. "This can't be the life you want. Being alone can feel safer, I know, but it's not, it's just alone." He pauses. I can feel the strong emotion in his voice. Does he understand?

"I promise you you'll be safe with me. You will always be safe with me. Come with me and we can figure out what you are. I'll be able to answer all your questions, teach you about your abilities, teach you about anything you want to learn, me."

I hesitate, unsure of how trusting him will turn out. Could be really, really, bad. But, my gut is telling me to go for it. I could also run later. Decision made, I ask, "Anything? Absolutely anything?" He laughs and it feels different, more genuine. "No. Not actually anything. Almost anything."

"Ash. My name is Ash." He pulls me in for a hug and kisses the top of my head. "Thank you."

He takes my hand and we head into the restaurant.

"So, it's not the pickpocketing itself that makes you mad…" He just smiles and messes up my hair. I wonder when I lost my hat.

—

We've been at the restaurant for a while now. I'm gorging myself on a stack of chips as big as my head. Only stopping to nibble on a bit of chicken strip when the Doctor waves one in my face with the command to take a bite.

They've been telling each other stories about their travels. It sounds like Mickey doesn't travel with them. And Jack has had some adventures without Rose or the Doctor.

"I swear, six feet tall and with big tusks." Jack exclaims.

"You're lying through your teeth!" protests the Doctor.

"I'd have gone bonkers! That's the word - bonkers!" Adds Rose.

"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean tusks! And it's woken, and it's not happy." Jack continues.

"How could you not know it was there?" asks the Doctor.

"And we're standing there, fifteen of us, naked." Jack explains.

"Naked?!" Interjects Rose.

"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me. And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are running! And Brakovich falls, so I turn to him and I say,"

"I knew we should've turned left!" Mickey steals the punchline.

"That's my line!"

"I don't believe you. I don't believe a word you say ever. That is so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?" Rose asks Jack.

I watch the doctor grab a paper from the man at the next table.

Jack, oblivious, continues, "No, I just picked him up, went right for the ship, full throttle. Didn't stop until I hit the spacelanes. I was shaking. It was unbelievable. It freaked me out, and by the time I got fifteen light years away I realized I'm like this."

Turning the paper towards us, the Doctor says, "And I was having such a nice day." I don't understand what he's getting at, it's just a picture of the Mayor and yet another article about the nuclear power station that's being built.

AN: I'd love to get some comments - let me know what you think!