Jessica and Mel set out the next morning, leaving the warehouse empty as they had found it. "I wonder what living in a real house feels like," Mel rambled as they headed for the train station, "with a mum and a dad who tuck you in at night, and where nobody tries to kill you."
"It's pretty boring, actually." Jess supplied, kicking a rock.
"You only say that because now you get to shoot things." Mel said, darting a sideways glance up at the taller girl.
Jess smiled happily. "I do. It's awesome. I should hang out with time traveling glowworms more often."
"I'm not a glowworm. It's called regeneration."
"Same difference." Jess said, grinning outright now. Mel growled deep in her throat, an odd sound for such a little girl. Jess lightly punched her on the arm. "I know you can take a joke better than that, so stop."
Mel grabbed her arm and twisted it around. "Oh yes, I can take a joke."
"Ow." Jess said in protest, though she was laughing. She swept her leg out, catching Mel's ankles. The little girl was forced to let go to keep her balance, and Jess laughed. "Never go up against a karate expert, kid."
"You're not an expert." Mel answered, giving her companion a sour look.
Jess shrugged. "Close enough for government work."
"I really don't like you," the little girl huffed, crossing her arms.
"Yeah you do. I feed you," Jess answered, her grin returning.
"I'm not quite that prosaic, Jessica Allen, and I want you to know that I do in fact have principles and scruples, and…there's another word I can't think of, but I'm that, too."
Jess just laughed. "Sure you are. C'mon Wordsworth, let's go find us a train."
This was how Jess and Mel mainly got around: hopping trains, like hobos from some Depression-era movie. That was how Jess had originally gotten the idea, of course, two years before when she'd first set out on her own. After she found Mel, the little girl had just gotten pulled into it.
Jess tried not to think about how she was corrupting the next generation.
The two of them strolled into the station, looking like something between vagrants and kids who you could actually expect to be in a station. Jess, with eighteen years under her belt, could possibly have been a guardian for the little girl beside her, who didn't look older than six, though she acted much older. Jessica still hadn't quite figured out how that was possible, though she thought it had something to do with the glowworm tendencies Mel occasionally displayed. And time travel.
That had been one of the subjects they'd discussed just after Jessica had met her. Before she changed her other face. It had been an older face, with the body of a ten year old girl attached to it. Still, it had been odd to find her wandering around the streets of New York City, her bare feet padding along with no real goal in mind. Childish vagrants were nothing new to Jess though, and she had mostly ignored the little girl.
Until she'd found the same tiny figure nestled in the place she'd chosen for a bed. Jess had just stood there for a long minute, fists clenched at her sides, until the little girl apparently sensed her and looked up, a wan smile on her face. "Hello." she'd said. Her voice was stilted, the tiniest hint of an accent deep within it. "I'm sorry about this, but I feel as if I'm dying, don't you see. I need a quiet place, far from people, so could you kindly go away 'till I'm through?"
"You know, they make hospitals for that." Jess had said, trying to keep the biting tone from her voice.
The girl had laughed at her. "Oh, but I have a way out of death. It's the most wonderful thing. Would you like to see?"
"That's sort of impossible, so maybe I can get you a taxi or an ambulance or something, and you can-"
"But it's already beginning," and Mel had very calmly stood up, staring down at her hands that were glowing with a golden light. She had looked up at Jess with a huge smile on her face, and then…
She'd exploded. Jess could still remember the wind that had whipped at her clothes and hair as she stumbled backwards, landing in a pile of trash. Finally, the fire storm had died down, and a completely new little girl had stumbled out, shaking her strawberry-blonde hair and coughing gold dust.
Jess hadn't been quite sure what to do about this odd creature that stood in front of her – but then the girl smiled, and looked at Jess with an oddly gleeful expression. She held out her dress and twirled. "What do you think? Do I look nice? Please say yes."
"You look…um…what just happened?"
"I regenerated," she had said with a delicate shrug. "my name is Melody Pond, and I'm a time traveler. Well, sort of. I have to have help to travel, I can't do it on my own." A grin had flickered on her lips. "That's how I got here, you know."
"Time travel." Jess picked herself up, brushing her jeans off. "Right. Well, since you seem alright…goodbye little girl."
She'd started to head off. Then, predictably, the little girl had gotten herself in trouble. She'd squeaked, Jess had glanced over her shoulder…and there Mel was, struggling in the grip of two soldiers. Naturally, Jess couldn't just leave her there to be carted off to who-knew-where.
So Jess had jumped in with both feet, without thinking – as usual – and had given the soldiers what for. And run off with possibly the most dangerous person on the planet.
Sometimes, she still wondered what she'd been thinking.
Right now was turning into one of those times, with Mel rocking back and forth on her toes, humming a tune that wasn't at all familiar to Jess. Occasionally, she'd give a smile that was sure to look halfway deranged to some poor passerby.
"Come on, and stop doing that." Jess said, grabbing Mel's hand and tugging her towards the tracks.
They nonchalantly strolled out of the station, and started hiking down the tracks. Time to get moving.