"Wh...what's happening?" I murmured. My eyes were shut, but some weird light was being shone right in my face, lighting up my closed eyelids so that I saw a strange red-orange colour. And someone was with me.

"Where am I?"

"Keep calm." came a firm, male voice from somewhere far away. A familiar voice. "You'll be fine. Just relax. You did it, Lynsey! Saved us. Stopped the monster. When it comes to it, 'uman will always overcome monster. But things took a turn. You've sustained terrible injuries. D'you recognize me?"

"Nearly." I muttered, suddenly realizing that I wasn't talking at all. That I couldn't talk, in fact. I was thinking my replies, yet still they were heard.

"It's me," the voice said, "the Doctor...come on, Lynsey. Happen it's time ya woke up."

Somewhere, Sometime

I woke up with a start. I was sitting on a familiar bench, viewing a familiar view; I was at the promenade! From where I sat, I could see the muddy, grey estuary and, beyond that, Nywell on Crouch, the ugly sister village of my hometown. To my right were the promenade's four food kiosks - all of them serving the same sort of food, (burgers, ice creams, cheesy chips, yada yada) apart from the last one which served slushes, hot drinks and ice lollies only.

"Welcome home," said a woman's voice in my left ear. I yelped and wheeled around where I sat. Sitting beside me on the bench was a young blonde woman.

"Rose?" I gaped at her incredulously.

"Yep." Rose said, grinning at me. "Nice place, your town. What's it called?"

"Uh...um..." it took me a couple of seconds to remember, "Wallbridge."

Rose nodded. "Good. That's very good. Sorry, the Doc told me to check your memory."

"The Doctor?" I asked uncertainly. I looked all around me. It was all quite normal. I was sitting down at the promenade in Wallbridge, Kent, the town I'd lived my whole life. It was enough; a little seaside(ish) town with no beach, but a promenade (where I sat now) and a load of marshy, wild estuary. It had a town (charity shops, pubs and kebab houses), a retail park (no cinema) and a bowling alley (dirty, outdated and overpriced). There was no nightlife. There was little for younger people like myself to do. It was just enough. Not good. Across the estuary was the aforementioned dump that was Nywell on Crouch.

There was a school, of course. My old school took pride of place in the middle of town, an ugly red-brick building, complete with graffiti on the walls, a messy playing field and the smell of chips and grease in the corridors. But I didn't talk about my school days. Hate to sound like a walking cliche, but school was where it all went a bit wrong for me. But I ain't a cliche, coz unlike a cliche I sorted myself out! Got a job, got a flat, got a life.

Except that I didn't have any of that now. I'd been killed.

I examined my body carefully, looking for any signs of the injuries I'd sustained. I could see no damage anywhere. I felt no pain. Just a strange, surreal feeling of being in two places at once. On the one hand, I was lying down with some weird light being shone right at me, warming my skin. On the other hand, I was sitting upright on a bench outside, the cool sea air washing gently over me...

"Am I dead?" I asked Rose bluntly. "If I'm dead, tell it to me straight."

"Well," Rose said ponderously, gazing at me with interest, "no you ain't. Don't get me wrong, you ain't doing too good. The real you, I mean. In-"

"Excuse me?" I said at once. "The real me? What's that supposed to mean, dare I ask?"

Rose smiled. "I get why he likes you," she said with a giggle, "but sure you can ask. Where would you say you are now?"

I looked around, taking in the scene with forensic attention to detail. It felt real; it looked real, it smelled real (salty sea air, mixed with deep-fat-fryer food from the kiosks), yet there was nobody around despite it being early evening.

It was the temperature which gave it away. I mentioned the cool sea air, didn't I? Well, that's all well and good. In the summer. But it wasn't the summer, was it? It were late November. That sea breeze ain't cool in the winter. It don't wash over you in the winter. It's darn well freezing this time of year! It bites you. Which means...

"I don't think I'm where I see," I said finally, "I think I'm lying down someplace. I think I'm badly hurt. This is a dream, right?"

Rose smiled warmly at me. "Great stuff! But I don't think dream's the right word. More like...freaky virtual world constructed from your memories. Sorry...no nice way to put that."

"Uh..." I began uncertainly. "I um...I don't..."

"Don't understand?"

"Not much." I admitted. "Where am I? Where is real me?"

"Right now...in the Tardis. That's the Doctor's home I guess. Mine too now. We're doing what we can for you physically, but-"

"He a good doctor, is he?" I asked sarcastically.

Rose laughed dryly. "The best. Not perhaps a doctor of medicine...but he seems to know what he's doing."

"Well, okay," I said uncertainly, "but that doesn't really explain why I'm here too..."

"Your mentally linked to the Tardis right now," Rose explained, "it's keeping your brain stimulated, building a reality out of your memories. Should stop you...well..."

"Stop me dying?"

"Stop you slipping away, yeah," Rose agreed. "I'm connected to it too, that's how we're talking right now."

"Sure. And the Doctor?"

"Looking after you. The real you. We're taking you to the best hospital in the universe, so he says."

"Right." I nodded.

"The thing is," Rose said, moving closer to me and touching my arm gently, "there's something you should know about me and the Doctor. We aren't you who think. We-"

"Your aliens," I finished, "yeah. I guessed."

"I'm not!" Rose said indignantly, "I'm from this city, but like fifteen years ago. I left in 2005. But the Doctor...he's a different story."

"Who is he?"

"A Time Lord. Last of his kind. I've travelled with him for a few weeks now. But listen...if you...if you do get better. When you get better...will you join us?"

"Will I join you?" I repeated. "How do you mean?"

"I mean...well, it was his idea but I'm all for it too obviously...I mean, will you come? Will you come with us? All of time, all of space."

I stared at her, my mouth dry. To my horror, I started to feel emotional; nobody had ever really wanted me before in that way. Oh, I'd had boyfriends. Plenty. But to actually be invited like that...wow!

"I'd love to," I whispered, "but why me?"

Rose chuckled. "Why me? I asked myself that a lot at first. Why did he pick ordinary me out of a city of millions? Finally, I asked him. D'you know what he said?"

"Tell me."

"Why not you?" Rose giggled. "He doesn't know why. He only knows who...and do yourself some justice, babes - you basically saved our lives. The Whispering's gone for good. Nearly had me as well! You saved my life."

I shrugged. "Your welcome."

And then everything went white. I cried out in alarm as a hideous ringing noise filled my ears, accompanied by the noise of some old bells...cloister bells, I thought. I called Rose's name and scrabbled around in the blinding light, my fingers connecting with hers. I heard her scream for the Doctor, and in one strange moment, her face appeared in my vision, her eyes boring into my own.

"What's happened?" I asked urgently.

"Oh flamin' 'eck!" I heard the Doctor speak now. "Not now! No no no! Always at the worst times!"

"What is it?" I heard Rose's voice now.

"Come out now," the Doctor said. "Out of the simulation. You've gotta leave her, Rose. I'm sorry. Back out!"

"No!" I wailed. But too late - I felt Rose pull away from me, and then everything was black, and I knew nothing more...

Until, quite suddenly, my eyes snapped open; snapped open for real, this time.

I groaned. Unlike before, the pain was intense. I was back to reality. I could barely move. The room I was in made no sense, but I was too weak to think much of it; it was a dome-shaped orange-yellow, with round circles all around the walls. I was lying on three extremely uncomfortable chairs. There was a strange noise in the room, an odd sort of wheezing-groaning hum. It was cold. So cold.

And above me was the Doctor. He smiled down at me with his two marvelous blue eyes.

"Hallo again," he said, beaming, "sorry about earlier...Tardis trouble. You're gonna be just fine, Lynsey. Relax. And when your all better...Rose asked you, didn't she?"

"Yeah," I replied weakly.

"Yeah?" The Doctor said. "And?"

"Yeah." I said again, closing my eyes gently.

"Yeah as in...you'll come?"

"Yeah..." I said feebly, my eyes shut.

"Yeah? Great stuff! Jus' you 'ang on in there Lynsey Perron! The Doctor is in, and your gonna be fine!"

I lose consciousness again.

The Doctor's Diary, Entry 1973

We tried our best.

I should have known it were a lost cause. I think I did know. She'd lost too much blood. But we did our best anyway. I used what little medical expertise I have to stabilize her physically, but the danger was that she'd just slip away from us. So we tried something really quite dodgy, something I wouldn't think of in different circumstances; hooking her mind up to the heart of the Tardis.

Yeah, that's every bit as dodgy as it sounds. I mean, it's all right from her perspective. It just builds a nice little dreamscape for her, based on her own memories. Lovely jubbly. From a technical point of view, it's less "dreamscape" and more "bloody nightmare". Pardon my French. A lot can go wrong.

Rose being Rose insisted on linking up with her. I advised her not to, but she wouldn't hear of not doing it...

And you know what, it was going fine. Until the Tardis reacted badly to it. I had to pull Rose out at once, and for a while it looked as though we'd lost Lynsey. But nah. Being frankly marvelous, I quickly managed to shut down the dreamscape, stabilize Lynsey and stop the Tardis from misbehaving. Seemed strengely reluctant to let Lynsey go at first...

Lynsey Perron woke for real about an hour later. I told her she'd be fine, I comforted her. I told her how very welcome she'd be to join me and Rose. And she agreed to come! What a laugh it would've been. Sadly, however, she took a turn for the worse shortly after that. Despite my best efforts, Lynsey died two hours ago.

Lynsey - the times we would have had, darling...thank you for my life. Thank you for Rose's life. I can't promise anything regarding my own life, but I promise you this; I'll do everything in my power to keep Rose safe. You saved her, and I'll honour that every day I'm with her, by trying my best to protect her.

I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry.