Chapter 5

"Crap." I grumbled as I hit my side against the console as the T.A.R.D.I.S. jerked around.

"You ok? Good. Now, hold that one down!" The Doctor yelled.

"Thanks for being so caring Doctor!" I yelled back.

"I am holding this one down." Rose defended.

"Well hold them both down." He kept insisting.

"It's not going to work." Rose stretched across the console, trying to pull the other lever down.

"Hey both of you! The ego, I expected from the Doctor, but from you Rose? I'm right here! I'm perfectly capable of pulling the other lever down!" I exclaimed as I pulled the lever down. I rolled my eyes as the Doctor kept on talking, purposely ignoring me.

"I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, lets have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound? Alex? Rose?"

I threw him a grin as Rose questioned him. "What happened in 1860?"

"He doesn't know but personally, I think that's the best part. The unknown. For you I mean." Smiling, I sent a wink toward Rose and the Doctor before all of us went flying as the T.A.R.D.I.S. landed.

"Ugh.." I let out a soft groan as I felt myself being pulled up. Fully standing, I saw that Rose was the one that helped me while the Doctor was looking at the screen hanging above the console.

"Thanks Rose. Ever so helpful, unlike a certain medical man that's in front of me." While I continued to glare at the Doctor and make weird faces behind his back, Rose spoke.

"Blimey!"

"You're telling me. Are you alright?" He questioned us. "Yes, thanks for the concern now!" I threw him an annoyed look.

"Feisty are we?" He asked me smirking. I simply responded by sticking my tongue.

"Did we make it? Where are we?" Rose asked excitedly.

"I did it. We did it." The Doctor corrected as soon as I cleared my throat loudly. "Give the man a medal. It'll make him feel better. Earth, Naples, December 24th 1860. Or so he thinks." I directed the last part to Rose whispering. She let out a stifled giggle.

"It's so weird, it's Christmas." Rose said when she had calmed down her giggles.

"All yours, both of you." The Doctor nodded toward the doors.

"But, it's like, think about it though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone. It's finished and it will never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see the days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still."

"Not a bad life, huh?" I nudged the Doctor as I approached him. "The whole universe. Multiple worlds. All at the touch of colorful buttons and a tweak of a few levers. It's great isn't it?"

"Better with three. Come on, then." She headed toward the doors along with the Doctor but not before I grabbed the back of their jumpers.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked. "1860." They said simultaneously giving me confused looks. "If you go out dressed like that, you'll start a riot. And you, Doctor," I pointed my finger at his face. "You should be more responsible. Come on Rose. Wardrobe is right through here. First left, second right, third on the left, straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins and fifth door on our left." I pulled Rose toward the wardrobe missing the amazed look that crossed the Doctor's face.

The sound of our laughs bounced of the walls. Rose and I had been trying on the silliest dresses we could find for a while now. Right now, she was wearing a pink dress that was rimmed in too much lace and ruffles while I had on a blue dress that had a high neck and ridiculously7 long and lacey sleeves.

"We should really look for real now. The Doctor's going to get impatient." I laughed at Rose's face, which had turned beet red now from so much laughing. "Shh!" I shushed her, pulling her up and motioning toward one part of the room while I headed in the opposite direction.

"I'll meet you back in the main room when I'm done, since together, it seems we won't be able to pick out a dress!" I yelled back at her as I disappeared behind some clothes, loosing sight of her completely.

"It's a bit tight. Sexy! Of all the dresses, you had to pick this one?!" The old girl had hidden everything except for the one dress I was currently wearing. Clever, she was. The dress was really beautiful, though it seemed to hug all the curves I currently had, especially with the corset that went over the dress. It was making me uncomfortable showing off so much. "You know, we do have to run for our lives. If I die because I can't get enough air, thanks to the corset, I will come back to haunt you!" I pointed my finger accusingly toward the ceiling. I let out a another few grumbled words as I sat in a chair that suddenly lit up in front of the vanity I had seen when Rose and I first entered the room.

I began working on my hair, curling it and pinning it up, then adding a flower pin to my hair. "Might as well. Thanks old girl." Standing in front of the mirror, I slowly twirled in place. The dress was black with a blue corset and the flower I had pinned to my hair, was the same shade of blue, T.A.R.D.I.S. blue to be exact. It was really nice.

"Would you look that. Not as bad as I thought." It was tight enough but not overly so that it looked provocative. Just enough to show that I did have a figure. "Still though." I softly pulled at the strings of the corset. "Not good to run in." The old girl let out an annoyed hum.

"Okay, okay. I'm going. Take a chill pill!" A angry hum made me jolt. "Sorry!" I threw my hands up in a surrendering pose. "Won't say that again." I threw a worried look toward the ceiling. Wow, she was sounding like my mum now. I picked up my sonic screwdriver from on top the vanity, where I had placed it before I had changed clothes.

"I've changed my jumper. Now we've only got to wait for Alex and we can go." I heard the Doctor tell Rose as I neared the control room. I let a smile appear on my face as I leaned against the doorway, looking at how happy the Doctor appeared as he told Rose about one of his past encounters with the Autons.

"Well, you guys are sweet. You didn't have to wait for me, you now?" I spoke, making my presence known.

"Blimey! You scared me." The Doctor exclaimed, turning toward me. His eyes immediately went wide and a pink hue appeared on his cheeks.

"Blame the T.A.R.D.I.S. She was the one that took away all the other dresses and only left me this 't exactly say it's good for running." I explained.

"Yeah...good...not good, for running, I mean..." He trailed off as he turned away, trying to avoid eye contact. A small frown made it's way to my face. Did it look that bad? I shook my head to try to clear my thoughts. Why should it matter what he thought? It did matter. Why though? Why was I so keen on getting his approval?

"Ready for this? Here we go. History." He cleared his throat loudly the motioned outside. I gave Rose a questioning look but simply received a grin and a knowing look in return before she pushed us out of the way.

"No, you've done this before. This is mine." I nodded my head along with what Rose had said. I hadn't gotten the chance to open the door last time. I had to run up to meet them but I wasn't going to remind Rose of that. She needed this moment, I would open them the next time. There was plenty of time for that later.

We softly stepped out and into the world which was covered in white. A huge smile broke onto my face. Snow. I almost never saw snow, I had only seen it once before.

"Alex?" The Doctor's spoke making my neck snap when I quickly turned in his direction.

"Sorry." I let out a happy laugh, spinning around with my arms extended. "It's just that I hadn't seen snow in a long time." I continued when he and Rose gave me a curious look. "I used to live in the dessert and it never snowed. We were lucky if a breeze swept through the place. I had only seen snow when I went to visit some of my family and it was when I was about 8, it feels like it was a lifetime ago." I suddenly stopped. Thinking about my old life, I did miss out on a lot of stuff. Like my life didn't really have a meaning or was waiting for a specific time when something would happen.

"Enough about me though. We have just gone into the past and here I am, ever the selfish one!" I excitingly jumped up and clapped my hands, grabbing the Doctor's and Rose's hands when I had calmed down.

I kept swinging my arms where they connected with the Doctor's and Rose's, laughing gleefully.

"You know, you got the flight a bit wrong." I sent a smirk toward the Doctor as he quickly raced off to the nearest newspaper stand.

"I don't care."

"It's not 1860. It's 1869."

"I don't care." Rose insisted.

"And it's not Naples, it's Cardiff." I happily added, skipping forward while impatiently pulling Rose along. She made a sudden stop but since I was trying to pull her forward, I went flying into a pile of snow. But of course, they were too busy to notice I fell. I let out a grin and snuggled deeper into the snow until I was sure that they wouldn't be able to see me if they turned in this direction. I did have to be thankful for time lord biology though, otherwise I would have turned blue from the cold. It was actually really comfortable, I would fall asleep here if I was left long enough.

"Alex? Alex!"Wow, that was really quick. I started to laugh but accidently let out one laugh that was louder than the others. "Crap." I whispered before snow was shoved out of my sight.

"Hello!" I greeted with a huge smile as soon as I saw the Doctor's face but immediately frowned at the look he gave me.

"Alex. Behave." He scolded me, wagging his finger in front of my face after he had pulled me up until I was fully standing. Of course, he had to be the one to spoil all the fun. Letting out a scowl I headed toward the theatre, not looking back to see if the Doctor and Rose were following.

Since I had changed into a time lord, I was overly cheerful and energetic, like a little kid. Though, looking back, I think that I was only like 16, so close enough to a kids age but also to an adult's. I wasn't as happy before, wasn't I? Is that right? That's not right. I should remember more about my old life but everything seems foggy now. Did I have parents that I left behind? How about a best friend? Yeah, I did. What was their name? Alex. No, that was somebody else, but wasn't my name Alex? A sharp pain went through went my head making my hands grasp my head, seeking to put a stop it. I let out a moan as I dropped to my knees. Worried shouts could be heard in the distance, making my head feel like it was going to explode. I felt worse than it did when we were with the Autons when I thought I was barely getting used to time lord hearing.

"Shut up, please." I pleaded. Tears were making a wet trail on my face, leading from the corner of my eyes to the bottom of my jaw. My head felt like it was about to burst.

I felt hands softly grab my face and heard the muffled sound of the sonic. Kale. That was his name! My best friend's name. How could I forget him? Another sharp pain went through my head. Who? …..Kale. Who was he again? There was suddenly a pounding in my ears. No! Something was trying to stop my memories form returning! It was making me forget. I wouldn't let it. With a quivering hand, I reached inside my sleeve and tried to pull out my sonic but a hand stopped me.

"Stay still." A concerned voice ordered me. I did as was told and kept still, but to do so, I had to stop the pain. And the remembering triggered the headache so I had to make a choice, forget now or forget later. If I forgot now, the pain would immediately go away and if it was later, I had the problem that I didn't know if I would be able to last longer with the pain. Great, I had two choices and they added up to the same thing. Well then, I'm sorry Kale, Alex. I let go of the few memories that I had gotten a tight hold on and with that went my current problem. The headache slowly faded away along with most of what I had remembered.

Left with an empty feeling and sitting on snow. Why was that? Right, the Doctor wanted to show off. Why the empty feeling though? I slowly shook my head before I bolted up, onto my feet.

"Blimey! Alex, what happened?" I turned toward the voice, spotting the Doctor and Rose next to him. "What do you mean?" I cast him a confused look. What was he talking about?

"Right now. You looked like you were in pain."Rose interjected. "Was I? No, I wasn't. What was I doing on the ground anyways? Never mind, it's not important." Screams sounded in the air. I let out a grin. "Well? What we waiting for?" I raced forward, not catching the concerned glance Rose and the Doctor shared.

Something was wrong, I felt it. It wasn't only the empty feeling and the over enthusiastic character, my forehead felt like it was burning up with a fever and I felt really sick. This didn't feel like a regular cold would. My head was pounding and I was sweating despite being surrounded by snow.

I leaned down, cupping my hands together to gather some snow up but instantly stopped. Just as I had placed part of my hand on the snow, it instantly melted as it made contact with my skin, forming a small puddle.

"That's not right." I grumbled. I would have to ask the T.A.R.D.I.S. what was wrong with me when this adventure was over. I straightened slowly, trying not to get dizzier than I already was. I know I promised myself, when I got to this world, that I would I would do everything to help the Doctor but so far I had to be helped in the two adventures we have had so far. I was becoming a bother.

I saw Gwyneth an Sneed pick up the corpse of the old lady but no Rose in sight. I let out an annoyed huff. I would have to pass off as a damsel in distress, more so than I already did unconsciously. I hated that, not anymore. Well, except for right now, it was needed since Rose didn't show up.

"What are you doing?" I called as I approached them.

"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary." Gwyneth tried to convince me.

Right, here goes nothing. Let's see how good my acting is. "She's dead! What did you do to her?" I exclaimed with a horrified face, underneath it though, I was trying my hardest not to laugh. That only lasted until I remembered that I was basically going to get kidnapped.

A pad of cloth quickly covered my mouth and nose.

"Crap." I mumbled into the cloth before promptly passing out, hearing my name being called in the distance.

I woke up to one of the corpses heading toward me, making me instantly jump into a standing position.

"Speaking words of wisdom, I say, 'Oh, Crap'." I yelped as it reached toward me. I raced toward the door. Now would come the bit where I'm a damsel in distress, I hate this.

"Doctor!" I screamed. "I know you're there. Remember? All knowing! Now get this door open or so help me, I will redecorate the TARDIS!" I added the last part to make sure he got here on time and luckily just as the corpse grabbed me, the door was kicked in.

"I think this is my dance." The Doctor playfully states, sending a wink down at me after he pulls me toward him. "And you wouldn't dare redecorate her." He added.

"Try me." I challenged.

"Not the best of times." Rose spoke from behind Charles. "Rose! Come here, you!" I gleefully hugged her.

"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." Charles was clearly not believing anything of what he had just seen, even with the proof right in front of him. I have to admit that I had forgotten about him.

"Charles Dickens!" I exclaimed. "Pleasure to meet you! Though, correcting your statement, the dead are walking. Fascinating, no? The thrill of it all!"

"How do you...?" Charles started to question. Obviously he wanted to know how I knew who he was but he didn't get his request because the Doctor soon stopped him.

"All knowing." He simply answered. I had to let out a grin at that.

"My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?" The Doctor started to question the walking corpse that I had momentarily forgotten about. My memory sucked, short term wise.

"Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" The Gelth replied with many voices, creating an eerie atmosphere before they disappeared into the gas lamps.

That's right, the Gelth. My extremely happy attitude turned somber quickly. Gwyneth. She was going to die if I didn't do anything to save her. I watched her sadly as she poured tea. After the Gelth had left the bodies, we had gone to sit in the living room. No one was talking and it was all getting very boring really soon.

"Right, now, first of all, you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think that I didn't feel your hands wander about." I angrily turned my gaze onto Sneed.

"I wont be spoken to like this!" Sneed proclaimed all while the Doctor glared at him because of the previous comment I had made.

"After that, you stuck me in a room full of walking dead people! Zombies for god's sake! And if that wasn't enough, you had to go walk away from all the problems, and leave me off to die. So start talking before I get mad for real." I sent him a glare to get my point across. To say the least, the Doctor and Rose were very shocked to finally see another side to me other than my happy one. They both wore faces of utter disbelief. I wasn't really that angry though, I just needed Sneed to start talking.

"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed" He corrected himself once I sent him another glare. "they started getting restless." He continued.

"Tommyrot." Charles insisted that he had not seen anything.

"That's bull crap. You saw all that. You must really be something if you deny what's clearly there." I told him not entirely focused on what was going around me. I needed to tell the Doctor about the Gelth before anything went majorly wrong. But if they didn't die in the explosion, where would they end up. There were so many variables I had to keep in mind. It was most likely that Gwyneth wouldn't listen to what I have to say, since clearly she thinks the Gelth are angels looking for help. I would have to worry about that when the moment came.

Starting to pay attention to the conversation once again, I heard Rose ask what the rift was.

"It's a weak point in time and space. Basically a connection between this place to another. In the end, it's almost always the cause of ghosts stories." I answered for the Doctor, still thinking.

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations." Sneed told us.

Charles practically runs out, slamming the door on his way out. It seems like he got enough of all this.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

Time was running out and I hadn't even told the Doctor about the Gelth. We hadn't had time alone and I couldn't tell him in front of everyone else.

"Alex!" The Doctor called. I let out a sigh and headed off to where he was.