A/N: Hello everybody!!! Soooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry I've been away forever, been so mega busy and then I got distracted and then there was a fire... long story. Anyway I'm back now, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. Sorry if I'm a bit rusty, but I am excited to get back to this story. Big love and hugs to everyone who has reviewed so far, thanks for sticking by me!!! Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter Five: Unavoidable

The Doctor stood with his heels buried in the sand, staring towards the forest. He scanned the foliage again, and this time frowned at the reading. He looked to the right.

"Come on," he said quietly, and led the way along the sand, never once taking his eyes off the trees.

They walked silently, both lost in their own thoughts. Eventually Rose spoke in a shaky voice.

"But, we can't be. The Bermuda Triangle's just a myth, isn't it?"

The Doctor didn't answer straight away. "Rose, you've been travelling with me for a while now. You've seen a werewolf, homicidal pepperpots and giant green aliens with a gas problem. Is anything really a myth anymore?"

Rose couldn't think of an answer to that, and her lower lip pouted out just a little. If the situation weren't so dire, the Doctor would have laughed. Rose squinted up at the scorching sun, and pulled her jacket from her arms, wrapping it round her waist. The Time Lord frowned at her, and fished in his pockets for a bottle of sunscreen.

"Can never be too careful," he muttered as he tossed her the bottle.

Rose lathered herself in the cold liquid, and was so engrossed in her task that she didn't notice that they had moved inland, hovering the line between the forest and the sand. They rounded a corner, and the Doctor stopped abruptly. In front of them lay a small cove, cut off from the rest of the beach and leading straight into the forest – somehow out of reach of the tide. Rose blinked.

"Don't know why this surprises me," she murmured. The Doctor didn't hear her, he was still staring into the cove. Rose tried to see what he was looking at, but all she could make out were some vague shapes that were most likely rocks and driftwood.

"Look," the Doctor said in a surprised tone. "Civilisation."

He nimbly made his way down the rocks to the powder-like sand of the cove, stopping every now and again to help Rose over the ragged boulders. His eyes were wide like a child at Christmas. The cove was brimming with random bric-a-brack: an ancient globe, bleached by the sun, a potted rubber plant, a box of art supplies, an enormous pile of books, an old music box, a battered telescope. But none of this caught the Doctor's attention. He was immediately drawn to the torn map, spread out on the ground and held down at the corners with small rocks. A rough triangle had been marked out on the map near Florida, stretching out into the ocean. Other small diagrams, doodles and equations were scrawled all over every inch of the map, and the Doctor glanced at these, taking it all in. Flicked through the assortment of books, and found everything from their old friend Charles Dickens, to Edgar Allen Poe and Enid Blyton. She grinned at the disarray, and looked over to where the Doctor was stooped on the floor. But he wasn't looking at the map any longer. She followed his gaze, her heart pounding in her chest.

Two children, no older than eight, stood side by side, watching them silently. A boy and a girl, both with dark hair and sunkissed skin. The Doctor stood up slowly, not wanting to frighten them.

"Hello," he said brightly. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose..."

"MAMA!!!" the little boy rushed off into the forest in a flurry, leaving the girl standing alone, staring at the newcomers.

The Doctor ventured a step closer. "What's your name?" he asked in a gentle tone.

"Rebeccah," she said quietly.

"That's a lovely name. Rebeccah, I was wondering if you could tell me-"

He was cut off by the sound of rustling and commotion. A small group of people had gathered in the forest at the edge of the cove, and were watching curiously. The Doctor glanced at Rose before putting on his friendliest smile and stepping over to greet them.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose. We've sort of... crashed... here. Wherever 'here' is."

After a moment of hushed whispers, a tall man stepped forward, wearing the battered remains of what would have once been a nice suit.

"Professor Harling," he introduced himself simply.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but held out his hand in way of greeting. Harling shook it hesitantly.

"Nice to meet you, Professor. Maybe you could tell me, because I'm not actually sure... where are we?"

The Professor's face cracked, and his bellowing laugh echoed around the cove.

The Doctor tried to smile, but failed. "Have I said something funny?"

"'Where are we?' How could we be anywhere? We are nowhere."

"The Bermuda Triangle?" Rose offered, stepping over to the Doctor.

The professor gave a stiff nod. "That's what they seem to call it." He made his way down from the edge of the forest further into the cluttered cove, and everyone in the huddle behind him seemed to relax, some wandering back into the forest, some following their assumed leader. Harling stood in front of the map, peering down at it, as if it were an unsolved riddle.

"What happened here?" Rose asked, her heart going out to the troubled professor.

He turned to smile at her, and sighed tiredly.

"Our ship sank," he said simply. "We thought we'd hit something at first, but there was nothing in sight. The ship went down far too fast – impossibly fast. And then I found myself here, along with these fine people." He gestured to the small group around them.

"We were headed back home, to England," came a quiet voice from within the group. It belonged to a slight woman in her thirties, her hair pulled back from her face in a messy braid. "Everyone was panicking. The ship was going down, but we hadn't hit anything. And then... we were here. It's all such a blur."

"And then the wreckage started washing ashore," the professor continued. No bodies, mercifully, but all of the things you see here are what we have rescued." He sat down in a rickety wooden chair, and wiped his hand over his brow."

The Doctor was frowning, his mind running a mile a minute. "Professor, how long ago was this?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"It's so hard to tell," he explained. He took out an old pocket watch, and showed it to the Doctor. It wasn't ticking. "There is nothing wrong with it," he explained. "It should work. But nothing works here. We found a radio from the ship," he pointed to an ancient-looking radio in the sand, "but we cannot get it working. By my reckoning, we've been here three months."

Rose eyed the Doctor nervously. She knew that look. He was pondering something, something that would make her whole understanding of the situation shatter into pieces. She braced herself for the revelation.

The Doctor was still turning the watch over and over in his hand. "Professor, what year is it?"

"Such a strange thing to ask."

"Yeah, I'm strange, ask anyone. Well, actually... don't..." He quickly refocused and stared at the baffled professor. "What year is it?"

"1959 of course."

"Of course it is," the Doctor sighed, glancing at Rose.

"Does that surprise you?" Harling asked curiously.

The Doctor shrugged, seeing no point in lying to this man. "It's just that just before we crashed here, it was 2006."

"Impossible!"

"Unavoidably so," the Doctor agreed.

"When did you crash?" the quiet woman whispered to Rose. Rose jumped a little, not realising she had moved so close. The woman smiled apologetically.

"Um... sometime yesterday I think."

"Then yours must be the blue box."

"Yes, that's ours." The Doctor's attention was suddenly focused on this quiet woman. "Why do you ask?"

The woman hesitated.

"That's when it happened. Yesterday. That was when time broke."