before anyone asks or in case anyone was wondering: yes, this group of children live somewhere where the TV show Doctor Who exists, so a few of them know who the Doctor is

They all came out alright after the explosion. Everyone was a bit dazed, but no one had broken bones or anything. Most of them had been knocked back by the shock wave and were all recovering from that.

The Doctor groaned and started to get up, only to realize that one of the fox girls had landed on him due to the force of the blow. She wasn't terribly heavy, but just enough to keep him pinned.

"You can get off now" he mumbled, starting to shove her off. She firmly stayed put.

He took a second to try and figure out which one it was, then tried again. "Juli…"

Her response was to shift her head so she had her ear pressed to the Doctor's chest. "Two hearts" she whispered finally.

"What?" the Doctor said, starting to panic

"Two hearts" she repeated, louder, as she sat up. "Samuel!" she called "he's got two hearts!"

"What?" Samuel's voice came from off to the side.

"No I don't" the Doctor lied, sitting up.

"Oh no, why didn't I see this before?" Samuel asked himself

"See what?" the Doctor asked, standing up now. He backed up a few paces.

"Doctor, Time Lord, Gallifrey, all this, staring me right in the face…" Samuel was muttering.

The Doctor had backed himself into a pile of rocks. Alice had come over and cast a glance at the Doctor.

'Two hearts' he mouthed simply

"Jeremy!" Samuel called "pulse check!"

"Oh" Alice replied

"Got it!" a kid, Jeremy, said

The children had formed a crowd, apparently now very curious about what was going on. Jeremy was in front. Though something like this shouldn't be scary, both the Doctor and Alice were as freaked as heck. Alice reached out and grabbed the Doctor's hand, whether that was for her own comfort or for his was a mystery.

"Leave him alone" Alice said, voice surprisingly calm even though she was incredibly nervous. She was standing slightly in front of the Doctor, as if to protect him.

"Look, all I need to do is feel his pulse" Jeremy said "that's it."

Alice didn't move

"Please" Jeremy said "this could mean life or death later"

The Doctor squeezed Alice's hand slightly, and she turned to look at him. Their eyes met, and although he said nothing she got his meaning, and backed up.

Jeremy grabbed the Doctor's wrist and felt for a pulse, his eyes widened instantly. "Yeah, two hearts" he said, and then smile slightly "and blimey, you're panicky… never heard a heart beat so fast. Or hearts…" Jeremy mulled the thought over.

"Hey Alice" Jeremy said "let go of his hand a second"

Alice quickly dropped the Doctor's hand. Jeremy made a face, as if he was thinking about something. "Go ahead and grab his hand again" he said after a moment

Utterly confused, Alice slowly grabbed the Doctor's hand again. Jeremy's eyes lit up and he turned back to the group of children, flashing them a wry grin. Apparently they got his meaning, because a bunch of suppressed laughter and giggles went through the crowd.

Jeremy walked off, work done. Alice and the Doctor looked at each other, and stopped holding hands.

"Why didn't you say something before?" Samuel asked the Doctor, as the crowd of children dwindled off to make sure everything was fine after the explosion.

"Didn't think I needed to" the Doctor replied "besides, things don't usually end up going great when people find out."

"Well, it's a good thing we found out before they did. If you were just plain Magical or even an Abnormal they would have let you alone, but as soon as they found out you had two hearts…"

"Can I assume that wouldn't be a good thing?" Alice asked

"Yeah…" the Doctor replied, he turned back to Samuel, "have I been putting you in danger the entire time I've been here?" he asked

"No, we've been putting you in danger. Now come on, number one priority is getting you back to the TARDIS, if you stay here any longer… I would feel terrible if you were dissected or something because I didn't tell you to go" Samuel shook his head and walked off.

"Come on guys!" Samuel called to the kids "we're heading back to the forest."

"Hang on…" Alice said, looking at the Doctor "I don't remember you mentioning the TARDIS by name."

The Doctor looked at her, a bit shocked "I don't think I did"

"Then how did he know?"

The Doctor merely shrugged, and looked at the group of children that seemed to be waiting for them. "I don't know, but I guess that's the least of our worries at the moment, we need to get back the TARDIS and I don't think we'd manage by ourselves."

"You sure about that?"

"Well, I'm not going to turn down their offer to help. Come on," the Doctor headed off, following the group of kids as they made their way back through the hills.

"Samuel, can I ask you something?" the Doctor said, sitting down next to the boy. They had stopped and made camp recently.

"You already did," Samuel replied "but I suppose you can ask me something else."

"You said that the people that were chasing you didn't want you dead" the Doctor said, ignoring Samuel's comment, "so why did they plan an explosion?"

"I told you, things have changed recently. It's entirely possible that they do want us dead now. But whatever's going on, I don't know and don't care about it. All that matters is getting you back home."

"Why do I matter so much?"

"Hmm… let me see" Samuel replied with a slight edge in his voice "a bottle of your blood could change the future of the human race, your brain is about twice the size of a human's, you've got two hearts, you're alien, you've got a machine that can travel through time, do I need to go on?"

"How do know all this?" the Doctor asked

Samuel sighed. "Trust me Doctor, you don't want to know."

"Have I met you before, like in my future, your past or something?"

"First time I've seen you in my entire life"

"Then how do you know all this?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"

"If you know so much about me, then you'd probably know that I would"

"I doubt it, besides, there are other reasons I'm not saying anything"

"What reasons?"

"The same ones that justify why you haven't been to earth a lot since you've ran into Alice, and why you've avoided the game room in the TARDIS."

The Doctor said nothing. He was left speechless.

"Exactly" Samuel said, standing up and walking away