A blue streak sent ripples of time across its edges. The universe's rambunctious time traveler and planet hopper, with her new time machine and confused new friend.
"How fast are we traveling, Doctor?"
He held on to a lava lamp for dear life, afraid that if he let go he'd be cast into the void of space.
"You really want to know?"
Curiosity welled up in his throat.
"Yes."
She flicked another switch, the TARDIS shifting into another gear.
"How ever fast you think it's going, it's going a lot faster out there. Besides the numbers are too complicated to explain."
He turned to the Doctor as she calmly strolled across the bridge.
"How come you're not gripping the banister, Doctor?"
"Because, Jacob, when you've been in the TARDIS for as long as I have, you don't get so afraid of the time jumps."
Almost on cue, the TARDIS shifted again, as if changing gears in an automatic transmission.
"We'll be arriving in a few seconds, Jacob. Hang loose."
He shut his eyes as he squeaked out. "Don't you mean 'Hang tight'?"
She snickered as she flipped a few more switches and pulled another lever.
"Not at all. The more loose you get, the easier it will be when the TARDIS stops."
He still held fast, ignoring the lost logic. She rolled her eyes as the countdown went from 35 to 0. She pulled the emergency break and set the TARDIS back to stationary. Meanwhile, his grip failed him as he careened into the plush couches lining the walls.
She raced over to the poor man, now buried under an ocean of pillows.
He couldn't speak, his breathing calming down after screaming so loudly, so quickly.
"I wasn't ready to die, Doctor."
She laughed out loud, in a charming but soft volume that calmed him more than embarrassed him.
"I do believe that no one truly is. Even me. Come on, get your legs up from underneath you."
Her thin arms could surprisingly pull him up, but his legs were stuck below so many pillows.
"Why are there so many round pillows?"
"Because, Jacob, I like round things, and I like pillows. Two great things in one. You're the only one who's complained about them."
"Have there been others?"
Jacob gathered himself and refashioned his tie as The Doctor paused.
"Yes, but none of them have seen the pillows. You were the first, I guess, so you're the only one."
He turned into a double-take for the second time in a day- or was it a day any more?
"Doctor, have we arrived?"
Now that Jacob was fully revived, the Doctor turned towards the door, pausing halfway to it.
"Yes, Jacob. We've arrived at the furthest point on my TARDIS. The time when time stops, but…"
She stayed in place.
"I'm usually excited to show you the outside, and what it's like, but alas, I…"
"Alas? Doctor, what's wrong?"
She turned to him, her thin finger tapping her left cheek.
"Jacob, I don't think we fully grasp where we are. This is when time stops."
He sat back down onto the couch, sick of standing.
"What does that even mean?"
The Doctor leaned against one of the lava lamp pillars, the ambient glow of gold and blue reflecting off of each other.
"It means that this moment in time is when there's no one in the known universe that uses time anymore. The only beings around are too unintelligent to comprehend the concept of time. Once the last being dies, the whole universe returns back to how it came- a vast, cold, distant, and primitive plane of existence. A place filled with the dying of the old and the slow rebirth of the new. This is when time, as we know it, ceases to be."
"But how is that even possible, when we're still here?"
She turned back to where he sat, beckoning him to continue.
"For example, right, my phone still works. MY watch still works. I'm still watching the time. As long as we're here, time never stops."
She tapped her cheek again.
"Maybe so, but what happens if we leave? Will time stop when we leave?"
The two of them stared at each other.
"If time has stopped…" Jacob sat up.
"And no one in the Universe is using it anymore except us…" She stopped her tapping.
"We're the last time-telling beings in the universe." They said those words simultaneously, as if they each knew what the other was thinking.
She grimaced and began pacing around the room, her heels clicking against the metal floor.
"I knew I shouldn't have come here! I…"
Jacob sat back on the couch as a sinking feeling washed over him again. It was all his fault.
"This is all my fault. I'm…"
"DON'T YOU DARE BE SORRY!"
He looked up, only to see the Doctor mere centimeters from his face.
"We made this decision together, and we'll find our way out of this. Now, think with me!"
She continued to pace as she answered his questions, feeling emboldened.
"Why don't we just leave?"
"Because the Time Threshold is a precarious place. I don't want to be responsible for time being lost."
"Why not?"
"Nevermind! More suggestions!"
"We look for other beings, in other galaxies and once we find intelligent life, we go."
"Good. I set up a scanner while you sat down. We should find out any moment now. More."
"Um, we set up a beacon, so anyone can know what time it is."
She paused. He felt a wind of satisfaction wash over him. He said something smart?
"The WatchTower. Of course! I can check to see if that exists anymore. Next?"
He stood up now, readying his best suggestion yet.
"We put up a sign above the TARDIS reading 'IF YOU STILL TELL TIME, TEXT JACOB'."
She turned to him with an arched eyebrow.
"You got up from your thinking couch for that? That's enough for now."
He slumped back down as the TARDIS scanned for other life forms.
"Doctor, why were you asking me for suggestions? Haven't you been driving this TARDIS enough to have a lot of companions here? What's going on?"
The Doctor looked away from the scanners, towards the two doors keeping them away from what was out there.
"I hate this place, Jacob. I hate this moment in time. Yet every time I come here, I forget what I did the last time. That's how bad this place is. Not the Time War. Not the birth of the Daleks. This moment is my most despised.