"You must be John." My dad nodded towards The Doctor, giving him a quick hand shake. My mom was on the brink of blushing and I just let it all sink in. My parents had never met The Doctor, for obvious reasons. And even now, there were secrets. The little fact that I was in love with an alien was kept hidden, along with us travelling the universe instead of the country. It was all very complicated to explain, so I just left it as simple as I could.

"That I am, sir." The Doctor shook his hand firmly and gave my dad a quick grin. "And you must be Anthony. Ashlee's told me all about you. It's so nice to meet you. And might I add, your daughter is a lovely companion." I nudged him in the side at this point. He was given a script and that line was most definitely not on it.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" My dad pulled his hand back and almost became angry. At this instant, I was reminded that the man I loved had lived over 950 years longer than my dad. I pinched myself to keep from laughing.

"Companion? What an…interesting…term." My mom quickly changed the subject. A sudden wave of relief came over me as The Doctor smiled, and shook my mother's hand.

"And you must be Luz." He leaned over and gave my mom's hand a kiss. A bit of an uncommon tradition, but figuring we just travelled to 15th century France, I would let that slide. My mom's grin grew and she nodded in response.

"I am. It's a pleasure." My mom was nearly pink. I kept my posture and attitude instead of rolling my eyes.

My little sister, who is 7 brightly smiled back at him. The Doctor got onto one knee and was almost the same height as her. "Let's not forget Emilee!" He cheerily said, nipping her chin. "Ashlee doesn't stop talking about you!" He grinned back while she became extremely embarrassed.

"Well, wasn't that great." I clapped my hands together as The Doctor joined me by my side again. "Why don't we take a walk now?" Anything to get us out of this ice cream shoppe was worth a shot. The Doctor and I had already finished our afternoon snacks, and my family didn't want anything, surprisingly. So, we left with those introductions. I had survived the most crucial part of the process. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite enough.

"You already seem to know." The Doctor mentioned, tinkering with his long thin device that had some sort of probing mechanism at the end of it. "Why don't you tell me who you are?"

"But…" I froze. This man was completely impossible. Obviously, it was the same man that danced with me a whole year ago, and the same man that had been here when I was a freshman, but he didn't remember me. I was speechless.

He clearly didn't have any time to waste, because he was already on the move, using his probing device thing to follow whatever it was he was looking for.

"I'm Ashlee… Ashlee Parson?" I slowly comprehended, following behind him back through the crowd once again. His device seemed to lead him to the crowd, and we went with the flow, until we made it outside.

"Nice to meet you Ashlee Parson. Now, you're going to want to get away from me…"It seemed he was following one person and from behind, I could tell it was our new math teacher Mr. Simon. It was his first year here, and nobody really liked him, though I thought he had done a pretty decent job at teaching math. But, I could tell something was wrong. Why was this Doctor following him? "Get away…quickly." He said with a fascinating grin while he glanced up at me. I stopped in my tracks and he continued to follow my old math teacher with his probing device pointed out at him.

"Ashlee!" I could hear my own mother's voice ring out. I turned to face her and she hugged me. "Come on! We're going to be late for your graduation party." She let me go and I gave her an almost flat line smile. A gnawing sensation reverberated through me as I took a peek back at where The Doctor had gone off to.

Mr. Simon was gone and The Doctor had a cheeky little smirk to him as he popped his device back into his breast pocket.

"What?" I hesitated, but my mom's hand was already grasped around my arm as she dragged me to our car in the parking lot. "What!?" I was dumbfounded. Where did Mr. Simon go? Who was this man? What was that device? I couldn't bear it any longer. He made absolutely no sense to me. His own words echoed through my head as I watched him from the comfort of my own car.

You'll know, one day.

He slipped away into that same police box and closed the door behind him. I stared in awe from the back seat of our car as my dad attempted to pull out of the parking space. And right before my eyes, the machine wisped away, disappearing in front of me. My eyes widened at the sight of the police box fading into the scenery and the flashing light on top from my dreams brought forth the past. The screeching noise accompanied that disappearance. It was the noise I had once thought was something of an illusion. And he was gone.

But not today.

My dad drove away, out of the parking lot and onto the street. He would be back. He had to be back. He was so sure about it that one evening so long ago. And I let myself believe that. It made things easier on myself and I needed some peace of mind.