Note- I'm waiting to hear back from someone who offered to beta my stories 'Blood of A Doppelganger' and 'Blood, Love, and Gold' if they're still interested in being a beta for them so that is why they haven't been updated yet. If I don't hear back in a month or so, then I'll go ahead and update them. I'll hopefully update 'Soulmates' again later this week, since I know fully where I'm taking the remaining chapters.
Thank you to everyone who added this to his or her favorites and followed it, and special thanks to Amandla123 for reviewing.
Anyway, here's the conclusion to the first two parter in this which will end with the Doctor gaining a new companion. Hope you enjoy, and I apologize how long it is.
Chapter 2: A Chance Meeting, part II
The moment Elena walked through the front door she was engulfed in a tight hug.
"You're safe." Jeremy said, not releasing his grip on her. "We heard about the explosion, and had no idea if you'd gotten caught in it or not."
"I'm fine, Jer." She replied, returning her brother's hug. "I was just on my way back from work." A job I don't have anymore. She added, remembering how the store had gone up in flames.
"Elena?" Alaric asked, coming out of the living room. Elena could faintly hear the television from where she was standing—"This just in- the department store in downtown Mystic Falls is apparently up in flames. No word yet on what caused this, and we'll get back to you as soon as we know more."—and tried to hide her surprise; news did seem to travel fast. She smiled at him in reassurance that, yes, she was safe. "I'm glad your safe." He continued, giving her a small smile.
"So am I." The brunette said, breaking out of Jeremy's hug- only to stumble as a wave of fatigue hit her. With the adrenaline of running from the living plastic men she had forgotten how tired she was from being on her feet all day.
Jeremy caught her before she could knock into anything. "You should get some sleep." He told her. "You look like you're about dead on your feet." He joked.
Nodding, she said a quick goodnight to her brother and guardian before heading upstairs. Changing into her sleep clothes, she was out the moment her head hit the pillow.
-DW-VD-
Her alarm clock still went off at the same time the next morning. She was half way through her normal routine when she remembered: she didn't have a job anymore.
Deciding it was too late to go back to sleep now, she finished getting dressed and made a cup of coffee before taking it back up to her room and pulling out her diary.
Dear Diary,
She began, then paused. What could she write about? How she didn't have a job anymore and was back to square one of missing Stefan continuously and being shadowed everywhere by Damon?
At that, her mind wandered back to the man from last night. Suddenly, she knew what she was going to add in this entry.
I'm officially out of a job today. Not because of something I did, but because it got blown up by a man. All I know is that he called himself 'the Doctor' and seems to know why the mannequins came to life last night. He's the only one who knows what's going on- the only one who can stop this if it's something big.
The last part sent chills down Elena's spine- what if it really was more than just a few mannequins in the store coming to life?
Pushing the thought away for now, she closed her diary and made her way downstairs for the second time, finding quite a bit of time had passed. Alaric, who had been asleep on the couch when she had last came down here, was gone- presumably with Damon at the bar. The two did seem to be hanging out a lot more together, and drinking together more often.
Jeremy was up and about in the kitchen, grabbing a few random bits of food to make what she assumed was his idea of a breakfast. Glancing at the clock on the microwave, she saw she had spent an hour or so in her room. It was still early for the other two residents in the house to be up though.
"Morning." He said around a yawn. She glanced at his attire and found he was already dressed.
"Where are you off to at this hour?" She asked, pouring herself a bowl of cereal.
"Bonnie's." Her brother replied. "She offered to let me help her with some spells she wanted to try out." He continued, finishing up the last of his mixed breakfast.
Placing the plate in the dishwasher, he paused at glanced at her. "You sure you're doing ok? I mean, you were near the explosion when it happened."
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said. "Go on and have fun with Bonnie. I'll see you later."
He nodded and smiled at her, before closing the dishwasher and leaving the house.
Elena took her bowl of cereal into the living room and began flipping through channels on the TV to find something mildly interesting to watch. She eventually settled on reruns of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer- something her and Caroline used to be obsessed with when they were kids.
Halfway through an episode, a noise outside the front door startled her. Turning towards it, she waited for a few seconds to see if she heard it again. Hearing it, she set her now empty bowl of cereal on the table and cautiously moved towards the door.
Opening the mail slot, she found herself face to face with a familiar pair of blue eyes.
Throwing the door open she saw the man from last night was standing on the other side.
"What're you doing here?" He asked, sounding confused and slightly put out.
"I live here." She replied.
"Well, what do you do that for?"
Elena just looked at him and didn't bother responding. They way he said it… it's almost like he's not human. She thought, before pushing it away. Just because he knew what was going on and made odd comments didn't make him some supernatural thing.
"I must have gotten the wrong signal then. You're not plastic are you?" He asked, rapping her head sharply, making her wince. "No, bonehead. Bye, then."
He took off before she could say or do anything, and after realizing this could be the last time she got any answers she took off after him. She ran after him for a few blocks and slowed down when she was a few feet behind him.
"Why are you following me?" He asked, turning around causing her to halt in her tracks.
"I couldn't let you go walking off without getting some answers first." Elena answered.
"Yes you could- this is me walking off and you letting me. See you." He said sarcastically, turning back around.
If he thinks that will stop me, he's wrong. She thought. "Can't you at least tell me what's going on?"
"No, I can't."
Seeing this wouldn't get her anywhere, the brunette tried another approach remembering his words from last night. "You said if I told anyone I would get them killed. In exchange for not telling anyone, you can explain the situation."
"Is that supposed to sound tough?"
Annoyed at getting nowhere and at how much she found bantering with this stranger enjoyable, she settled for outright asking some of her questions. "Who are you? What do you do?"
"Told you. I'm the Doctor." He said, resuming his walking. She took off, keeping pace with him.
"Yeah, but what do you do? And doctor of what?" She pressed, wondering what type of doctor he was exactly.
A dark shadow briefly crossed his face. "You don't need to know." He replied. "And just the Doctor."
"So… 'the Doctor'?" She asked slowly for confirmation. This man was becoming odder by the minute.
"Hello!" He said cheerfully and somewhat sarcastically, turning around and waving at her.
"Why did those plastic things try to attack me last night?" Elena continued, changing the subject. She knew it might not be her they were after, but she was the latest Petrova doppelganger- something everyone seemed to want a piece of. And what better way to get her than ambush her with a bunch of robotic, controlled things?
She saw the Doctor roll his eyes. "Typical, thinking the world revolves around you. You were just an accident. It was there, after me. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing."
"So the world what, revolves around you?" She asked, somewhat sarcastic and not expecting an answer. Inside, she was relieved this had nothing to do with her. She had been half worried Klaus had managed to find a witch willing to cast a powerful enough spell to control the plastic to find her, which would have meant Stefan would have given the fact she was still alive away. And that was not a pleasant thought.
"A bit, yeah."
"Full of it much?"
"A bit." He said, making her smile slightly against her own better judgement. Honestly, what is it about this man? She wondered.
"All these occurrences… who else knows about it?" The brunette continued, serious again.
"No one." He said shortly, and seemed to pick up his pace. A glance at their surroundings told her they were heading towards a small nearby park.
"You're by yourself?" She couldn't quite believe that- there had to be someone else out there in the world that could help him with… whatever this was.
"Well, who else is there? You lot, all you do is eat chips, watch telly, go to bed, all the while, underneath you, there's a war going on." The Doctor replied.
Elena didn't know much about British slang, but she understood enough to know he was talking about junk food and the television. Not all of us. She thought, remembering everything she'd done since the supernatural invaded her life.
"The living plastic- how do you stop it?" She asked, determined to help him now- damn whatever consequences came from her overprotective circle.
"The thing controlling it projects a signal to it. I cut it off, dead."
"Like remote control?" Her mind flashed back to the conversation in the elevator.
"More like thought control. Are you alright?" He asked, like he wasn't expecting her to handle this information well. If only he knew…
"Yeah; fine. Who's controlling it?" If she could learn who, then maybe she could come up with a way to stop the person- if it was a person. For all she knew it was some machine or creature.
"Long story." He said shortly.
"What's the purpose of all this- is whomever it is trying to take over the world? The United States?" That was the big one, the one she wanted to know most of all. She could handle threats to Mystic Falls- they seemed to occur weekly- but the world… that would be a different experience.
"Yes." At her look the Doctor elaborated. "It controls all plastic. It wants to take over America. It wants to take over Earth. It wants to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?" With the last part, he turned around and stared at her, his blue eyes looking unrelentingly into her brown ones.
"Yes." She replied, holding back the shivers trying to creep down her spine at his words. Others were trying to as well- though she knew they were because of how intently he was looking at her.
"Which explains why you're still here and won't leave me alone." He muttered.
"Honestly Doctor… who are you? How do you know this?"
He didn't respond for a few seconds, when suddenly he reached out and grabbed her hand, startling her.
"Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you the world's spinning and you just can't quite believe it because everything's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this little world, and if we let go…" He trailed off for a bit. "That's who I am." He continued, his gaze sharpening. "Now forget me, Elena. Just go home."
She longed to ask him more, but realized she had already annoyed him enough stopped her pursuit and let him walk off. Turning around, she began retracing her steps and halted when she felt a wind begin to blow around her.
Turning around, she saw a blue police box standing off to the side, a strange noise immolating from it- and before her eyes, it began to flash, eventually disappearing all together.
-DW-VD-
"Come on, Matt, please?" Elena practically begged her old childhood friend. "I promise you can stay in the car and do whatever you need to if the person really does end up being some sort of serial murderer." She added, hoping he would say yes.
After returning home, she'd researched the Doctor and found there was one man in a nearby small town who was looking for someone who had seen 'a man calling himself the Doctor'. She had contacted him and set up a time when she could visit- now she had to find someone who would be willing to go with her, since she had reluctantly agreed to not leave town without someone.
Everyone else would try to stop her out of being overprotective, but she knew Matt wouldn't. He trusted her to make decisions by herself- something she would always be grateful for.
"I don't know Elena- what if he is luring you to his house to kill you?" The blonde told her. "I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I don't think he is- I promise I won't do anything stupid while there."
Matt sighed, and she cheered for joy inside. "Alright, I'll go with you. But if the man ends up being a serial killer and you die, don't expect me to mention this to Damon. I kind of value my life." He said, the last part an attempt at humor.
She laughed lightly. Damon really would kill him if anything happened to her- something that still disturbed her. "I don't."
The two spent the ride to the man's house making small talk and catching up. It felt almost like old times, when they were together and would dream about getting married and having two kids and didn't know the supernatural existed.
Pulling up to the man's house, Elena exited the car with Matt following her.
"Oh," She remembered what the Doctor had mentioned about whatever it was controlling the plastic controlling all the plastic in the world. "Matt, stay away from any plastic. Don't ask, just… please stay away."
He gave her an odd look but nodded anyway.
Walking up to the house, the brunette knocked, and the door opened to reveal a young boy.
"Hi. Is Clive here? We've been e-mailing." She said, giving the kid what she hoped was a pleasant smile.
"Oh great. I thought you were too pretty to be normal." The kid grumbled. Turning back towards the house he yelled "Dad, it's one of your nutters!"
A middle aged man lumbered to the door and the kid scampered upstairs.
"Hello. You must be Elena. I'm Clive- obviously." He said, and Elena turned her pleasant smile towards him.
Matt interrupted with a mistrustful glare. "Elena, I'm going to be waiting in the car- just in case you try to murder her." He said, the last part to Clive, before turning and heading back to the car.
"Yes, right, no murders here." Clive said, ushering Elena inside.
He led her to his basement- which made Elena suddenly wary of him- and pulled out a folder, which he laid on a table in front of her. Opening it, he pulled out some pictures and showed them to her.
"What are these?" She asked, picking up some and looking at them. To her shock, she spotted the now familiar face of the Doctor in each of them.
"Proof that the Doctor is real." Clive said. "The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings a storm in his wake and one constant companion: death."
The brunette's eyebrows rose at this. He was making the Doctor sound almost like he was harbinger of death and destruction. But to me he sounded like he was trying to prevent the end of the world. She thought, but she kept this to herself and listened to the rest of Clive's conversation- with a grain of salt this time.
"If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, then one thing's for certain: we're all in danger." He continued, as if she hadn't spaced out.
"So… who do you think he is? What, do you think he is?" She asked, curious to see his theory. She was pretty certain now he wasn't human- or at least, could travel through time.
"I think he is the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."
-DW-VD-
As the conversation was taking place inside, Matt was sitting in the car, watching the house intently for any sign he needed to rush to Elena's aid.
A noise startled him and he glanced at a trashcan beside the car that suddenly began rattling. He frowned and made a move to get out when he remembered Elena's warning.
His hand paused on the door handle as he hesitated. I'll just take a peek. He concluded, and got out. However, when he placed a hand on the lid to open it, he found he was unable to remove it.
Panic began to set in, and the harder he fought the quicker it seemed to suck him in. Before he knew it, he was sucked into the trashcan and knew no more.
-DW-VD-
Clive's words echoed through Elena's head as she walked back to Matt's car. It made sense when she thought about it, but a part of her was screaming to ignore it, that she had dealt with enough non-human things for a lifetime.
"He thinks the Doctor's an alien from another world. Can you believe that? All this time we've been trying to adjust the idea of vampires and werewolves, when there were entirely different cultures happening on new planets all around us!" She exclaimed to her friend as she climbed in the car. She failed to notice the waxy, shiny texture of his skin nor his fixed smile. "I'm thinking about stopping for some burgers- how does that sound?"
"Burgers! B-b-burgers."
If she noticed Matt's sudden trouble pronouncing the simple word, she gave no indication of it.
-DW-VD-
"So where did you meet this… Doctor?" Matt asked Elena as they sat at the Mystic Grill.
"I thought you weren't that interested in him?" She asked, the first signs of warning bells going off in her head.
"Because I imagine it started back at the shop, right? Did he have something to do with that?"
"Nooo." She drew out the word slowly, determined to keep the fact he had blown up the building secret. It wouldn't go over well with anyone- no matter what the reason behind it was.
"Come on." Matt pressed.
"Look… I don't want you to get hurt. Just drop it, ok? He told me 'don't tell anyone unless you want to get them killed', and I don't want that to happen to you Matt." The brunette told him, hoping he would do her a favor and just let it go.
"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you Elena." The blonde said, and the red alert bells went off like fireworks in her head. This wasn't Matt- Matt hadn't called her that since she broke it off with him.
"Did you order champagne?" A waiter asked.
"Sorry, not ours. What the hell have you done with Matt?!" Elena said, her voice raising, tensing herself to leap out of the chair at a moment's notice.
"Champagne?" A familiar voice asked, and Elena glanced out of the corner of her eye to see the Doctor. She had to fight down the relief threatening to overwhelm her. A small smile broke out across her face.
"Look, we didn't order any champagne." Plastic Matt said, continuing to interrogate Elena. "What is he planning?"
"Doesn't anyone want this?" The Doctor asked, annoyed.
"I said, we didn't- ah." Matt began angrily, before glancing up and realizing exactly who it was standing next to Elena.
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" He said cheerily, shaking and pointing the bottle towards Matt and popping the top just as Elena shot out of her chair.
The cork hit his head. After a few moments, the plastic spit it out and stood. It's hand turned into a chopper and smashed the table, attempting to deal the Doctor a fatal blow.
Elena ran towards the nearest fire alarm and pulled it out in an attempt to evacuate the building before any innocent bystanders got hurt. "Everyone, get out! Don't stare, just get out!" She commanded. Turning around, she was just in time to see the Doctor pull the things head off. She couldn't help the shock that overcame her- it might not be Matt, but it looked just like her best friend.
Somewhere behind her where the Doctor and the now decapitated Plastic Matt were she heard "Don't think that will stop me."
Coming out of her shock at seeing her friend's look alike head's pulled off, she took off through the kitchens and towards one of the alleys, the Doctor hot on her trail.
She slammed the door shut behind them and turned to see the blue police box from earlier standing a few feet away, looking very much solid.
"This thing… it disappeared." The brunette said, amazed at seeing it look so solid. "Can it turn invisible? Is this some sort of space ship or time machine?" She began firing off, forgetting momentarily the danger they were in.
"All of the above. Enough questions, get in." The Doctor replied curtly, opening the doors and walking inside, dragging her in after him.
"It's just wood! How can it do any good?" She couldn't stop herself from asking as Plastic Matt broke down the door to the alleyway.
"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shh."
Elena turned around and almost fainted at the sight before her. This… spaceship… was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.
"The head's perfect- I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?" He rattled oblivious to the fact she had yet to move from her spot.
"What is this? Some sort of other dimension?" She interrupted, still staring around the ship in awe.
"Most people settle for 'it's bigger on the inside'." The Doctor told her.
"You're an alien." It wasn't a statement, the way she said it. It was a fact.
"Yes. That alright?"
She smiled at him. "Stranger things have happened. So, yes, it's perfectly fine."
The Doctor grinned at her. "It's called a TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S. 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space'.
She began to grin back when she remembered Matt. "Did they kill him- Matt?" Then she noticed the head on what she assumed was the control console of the spaceship. "The head- it's melting!" She exclaimed.
"What?" He exclaimed whipping around to see it was indeed melting. "No, no, no, no!" He began hitting and pumping random things in an attempt to preserve the signal.
"Can you still follow it?" Elena asked anxiously, taking a step away from her rooted spot by the door.
"It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there… here we go!"
The TARDIS shook a bit and the Doctor ran for the door.
Elena walked outside and saw that they were in the middle of London. "How did we-? It didn't feel like flying."
"That's 'cos we weren't. It disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand it." The man- no, alien- absently told her.
"Do you think we'll find Matt if we find the controller? Will he be alive?"
"Matt this, Matt that. Look, they might be keeping him alive to maintain the copy, but I can't worry about a single human boy while trying to save the life of every stupid blundering ape on this planet, all right?" He told her, annoyance creeping into his voice.
"You really are alien, even though you sound like you're from here." She remarked. "What do these living plastic creatures want? They're being very War of the Worlds about it."
"That's exactly it. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all it's protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" The Doctor replied. Elena wondered what this 'war' he mentioned was but dropped it for now.
"How do we stop it?"
In response, he held up a vial of blue liquid. "Anti-plastic."
"Anti-plastic?"
"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How do you hide something so big in a city this small?"
"What does it look like?"
"Like a transmitter- round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London." Elena glanced over his shoulder to see the iconic London Eye and raised an eyebrow in it's direction.
It took him awhile, but he eventually caught on to what she was indicating. "Oh, fantastic!" He exclaimed, grabbing her hand and taking off towards the world's largest wheel.
The two climbed down underneath it through a manhole and climbed a ladder into a multileveled chamber illuminated by a gloomy red light.
"The Nestene Consciousness. There it is, in the vat. A living plastic creature."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I've got to give it a chance."
He walked down the catwalk overlooking the vat. "I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." He boomed into it, his voice taking on one of authority. Elena spotted Matt a level below, and ran towards him as the Doctor did his thing.
"Matt. Thank god you're alright." She said in relief, helping him fight off the plastic dummy trying to restrain him, thankful for asking Alaric to teach her the basics of fighting.
"Elena, get out of here. That thing down there, it's dangerous." Her friend said.
"Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with great respect, that you shunt off?" The Doctor continued from above.
Elena stifled a giggle at his horrible pun.
A face formed in the vat and made a series of strange noises that grated on her ears.
"Oh don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking!" He roared, making Elena jump. The Nestene Consciousness fell silent, making her wonder who exactly the Doctor was to have that much authority. "This planet is just starting. These stupid- and sometimes clever- little people have just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."
The brunette noticed a couple of mannequins coming up behind the Doctor. "Doctor, behind you!" She yelped. The pair grabbed him however before he could turn to look.
"I'm not your enemy though, I swear. I'm here to help." He said against the living plastic men trying to restrain him. Angry like noises sounded from the vat below them. "What do you mean?"
A door slid back, and Elena spun around to see it revealed the TARDIS. She wondered how the living plastic in the vat knew about it, or how to even find the thing when she remembered that it was trying to take over the world. But what's the big deal with a spaceship designed as a police box from the, what, 50's?
Pushing those thoughts away, she helped Matt up and began half helping him, half dragging him towards the blue box.
The Doctor was still trying to reason with the Consciousness from what little Elena was paying attention. "No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" He said, getting progressively louder towards the end.
There it was, this 'war' mentioned yet again. She really wondered what it was- was there some sort of intergalactic war taking place in some other galaxy, or at least, used to be one, judging by all this talk of worlds being destroyed?
"Doctor, what's it doing?" She called down to him as the vat began roaring at the alien. Something—she didn't know what it was, if it was the Doctor himself or something with him, possibly the TARDIS—was making the thing agitated and probably quite violent.
"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's going into the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Elena! Just leg it out now!" He called back.
Fear gripped her. Everywhere in the world, seemingly harmless mannequins were coming alive, trying to kill unsuspecting shoppers- innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. She couldn't let that happen, there must be a way to stop it… The anti plastic! The Doctor still had it; she suddenly knew what she could do, had to do.
Scanning the area she spotted a chain not too far away, long enough to swing her over the vat, kick away the mannequins holding the Doctor, and let him drop the vial into the living plastic below.
Ignoring Matt's yelling—"What are you doing!?"—she ran for the chain.
Heaving an axe she found next to it, she began furiously hacking at the rope holding it. Gripping the chain she swung out across the vat, giving the dummies holding the Doctor a furious kick in the process.
It gave him enough time to pull the vial out and throw it into the vat. The chain Elena was hanging onto for dear life swung back and she found a pair of arms stop her. She glanced up and saw it was the Doctor.
His eyes met hers briefly before he grabbed her hand and took off towards the TARDIS.
-DW-VD-
What felt like only seconds later, Elena stepped out of the TARDIS with Matt by her side on the edge of the forest belonging to the Lockwood property.
Spinning around to face her, the brunette found herself pulled into a tight hug by her childhood friend. "I'm glad you're safe." Matt breathed.
"You too." She replied, returning his hug, not daring to let herself think about how close she could've come to have to bury one of her oldest friends on top of most of her family.
Behind them, she heard someone clearing their throat. "Right then, I'll be off." The Doctor said as the two broke apart. "Unless, er, I don't know, you wanted to come with me?" He added, glancing at Elena, an almost hesitate look crossing his face.
Shock flooded her. It was like a dream come true- a chance to see the world and escape what her life had become. And here it was, an alien that could've chosen anyone in the universe and planet, asking her, a small town girl that seemed to always attract trouble to come with him. Her mind was blown that she would be presented an opportunity like this after everything.
"What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and sleep and crappy American telly, or you could go anywhere." He continued.
"Is it always this dangerous?" She asked, already having a feeling she knew the answer.
"Oh yeah." He said, nodding and giving her a small smile.
That should have discouraged her right then and there- she's gotten into enough trouble both intentionally and unintentionally to last her a few lifetimes- but it didn't.
Then another thought hit her: Alaric and Jeremy. She couldn't just up and leave them, especially Jeremy; not after she was the only blood family he had left. She couldn't be that selfish in her desire to escape seemingly constant shadowing and chase an old dream of seeing the stars.
"I-I can't. I can't leave my brother, not when I'm about the only thing he as left." Elena told him, hearing the reluctance in her voice clear as day as she said it.
As soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. She didn't mean it, she knew that in the heart of hearts that she didn't. Jeremy, think of him. She told herself, forcing herself to ignore the feeling of being split down the middle- go or not go?
"Okay." The Doctor seemed to hunch forward. "See you around." He said, walking back inside the TARDIS.
Matt came up and held her hand as they watched the blue box dematerialize.
"You could've gone, you know." The blonde told her quietly. "They would've understood."
Her heart clenched at that. "Not Damon."
"No, but that's a given." He said, giving her a lopsided smile. "But honestly… it's your life. Your decisions, not his. Not theirs."
Just as they turned away, she heard a resonated wheezing sound that sounded just like the noise the TARDIS made.
Whipping around, believing it to just be a figment of her imagination, she saw the ship had indeed materialize- almost like it had not just left.
"By the way, did I also mention it travels in time?" The Doctor said, poking his head outside the door.
"Go." Matt said, pulling her into a tight hug for a brief second. "I'll explain everything to the others, make them see sense."
Heart in her throat, she hugged him for the life of her and murmured "Thank you, thank you, thank you" over and over until it no longer sounded like a word.
Chuckling slightly, he gave her a gentle nudge in the direction of the TARDIS. "Go on. I'll see you… whenever, alright?"
Giving him a brilliant smile wide enough to split her face, the brunette turned and ran full speed towards the blue box, the smile still on her face.
The Doctor opened the door wider for her to enter as she grabbed his hand, a wide grin on his face. She didn't look back, not once.
-DW-VD-
Warning: Long ramble; best thing would be to skip it.
So Elena's just become the Doctor's new companion. Should I start including the Doctor's thoughts/POV? Where should they go next- the end of the world? Another time period? A different planet, a different universe? How cannon should I keep this story? (I'm including Jack, and Elena will go missing for a year, so don't worry about that, and I'm thinking about including Bad Wolf possibly)
Also, do you think it's possible to write a dark!Doctor/Rose story without explicit smut? Because I've been wanting to write one, but I can't really write smut- especially not explicit smut- and have never tried. The idea behind this is that after the Time War, the Doctor sort of… loses it, and begins inflicting the same misery he feels over losing his people on other universes. Until he lands on Earth and meets Rose, who despite being what he considers an 'inferior ape', he finds her very intriguing and different from the other humans he's come across, and decides to make her his by any means necessary.
Let me know your thoughts on this chapter, any ideas for it, or even about the dark!Doctor/Rose idea if you want. And, if you're interested in challenges/prompts, check out my Doctor Who Fanfiction Challenges and Prompts forum.
Until next time.