In Which the Alien-ness is Revealed

After taking me to meet van Gogh, the Doctor whisked me away to watch the building of the Great Sphinx in Egypt. It was really satisfying to finally know that it was the Doctor who had 'accidentally' knocked the nose off when he lost control of the TARDIS while trying to land. I still hadn't let him hear the end of that one. After the one-sided laughter at the predicament had subsided, the Doctor showed me down an impossibly long hallway to my room in the TARDIS.

"This is where you'll be staying," he said, "I hope you'll be comfortable. My room is just down the hall if you ever need anything and it's really important. Otherwise, the TARDIS is very good at providing for your needs. I'll leave you alone to do... stuff. Feel free to explore and otherwise muck about, but do be careful. Last week I lost the spider I had been keeping as a pet... Quite a poisonous one, too, I'm afraid," he chuckled and winked as he closed the door behind him. A spider? In space? In the TARDIS?! He had to be kidding, but then again, it was the Doctor.

I spun around, surveying my room. There was a huge bed, smack dab in the center of the room, just waiting to be jumped on. To the right of the bed, I noticed a small night stand, with a lamp that looked as if it had been through some pretty tough times. On the opposite wall, I saw a door, and, thinking it must be the closet, I opened it. No sooner had the door been opened, than a pile of clothes collapsed around me. I struggled to maintain my balance, but to no avail, and I fell on the floor with a resounding thud.

Deciding to just lie there a minute, I closed my eyes and thought about my predicament. Not only about the pile of clothes I was trapped under at the moment, but at the strange set of circumstances that had brought me there. I had lived a normal life, never so much as smiling at a stranger, let alone running away with one. What had I been thinking? Had I really been so starved for excitement that I would leave everyone and everything that I loved behind? And what about the Doctor? Why had he chosen to follow me? I was nothing special, only an art student in love with the work of van Gogh. The highest grade I had ever gotten was an B+, and the only special award I had ever gotten was from my best friend as a joke. I didn't see what had intrigued the Doctor so much about me. I was of an average height, weight, and stature. I had mousy brown hair, and mostly wore boring colors. I struggled to remember anything that I may have ever done that would have been special enough to be given this great opportunity. Superficially, the only thing that I could think of that was even remotely special about me was that my eyes were a greenish blue that changed with the weather, and I highly doubted that he had noticed that before he had spoken a solitary syllable to me.

I let out a resigned sigh, and pushed through the pile of clothes to get to my feet. After stuffing the assortment of shirts and pants all back into the closet, I decided to go exploring. I discovered that the TARDIS was much biggeron the inside than I had initially surmised. I was lucky enough to encounter a full size ice-skating rink, not one, but two basketball gymnasiums, and the largest library that I had ever seen. There were books on every subject known to man, probably in every language, too. Thousands upon thousands of books, all without the least bit of dust, as if every single one had been lovingly read and dusted hundreds of times in the recent past. I also noticed that a few were missing crucial last pages, which made me more than a little curious. Nevertheless, a small smile crossed my lips as I pictured a man with a bow tie, twirling around the large room, picking up his beloved books one by one, running a hand over them, perhaps reading a page or two, before putting them back down again. Turning as this picture ran around my mind, I was startled to find the Doctor leaning behind me against one of the numerous shelves, a bemused look on his face as he watched me admire the amazing library.

"I see you've found one of my favorite places in the universe. I've read every single one of these books more times than there are planets in the galaxy of Hexatemptine. Well, actually, thinking about it, more times than that, Hexatemptine only has 27 solar-systems, each with only 9 or 10 planets, it's pretty small... I've definitely read these books more than that in my 1478 years."

Hexatemptine? 1478 years old? I wasn't born yesterday! Who did he think he was fooling? But I found myself actually believing him. It was the same blind faith that had overwhelmed me at the museum. I didn't know what I was thinking. I didn't want to show this man that I believed in him so much so soon, so I decided to just play dumb and coyly nodded.

"Oh, yes, definitely. Definitely more than that. In 1478 years? Yeah, totally."

"It's true! You didn't actually think I could know so much and be any younger, did you?"

"Oh, come on, Doctor! Do you really think that I believe you? 15 lifetimes is a bit much."

A look of understanding crossed his features. "You really haven't figured it out yet, have you? I will say that I'm a little surprised, I thought you were better than this! The TARDIS, time travel, space travel... being really, really old... Don't you get it? I'm alien."

"Space travel? Who said anything about space travel? And alien? I don't believe you."

"Oh, Abbie... Abbigail. I suppose you'll need more proof, eh? Right... follow me."

He spun and walked swiftly out of the room. I quickly followed, but not before letting out an exasperated sigh. He led me down long corridors, all lined with photos of the Doctor and other people that I didn't recognize, until we reached the control room.

"Name a planet, any planet. I can take you there. I can take you to any time period on that said planet. I can take you anywhere in all of space in time, just tell me where," he challenged.

"I suppose I'd like to see... where you're from."

He gave me a look of pain. "Anywhere but there. I can't... I can never go back there. Please, anywhere but there."

"At least tell me about it, Doctor," I pleaded, wanting to know everything.

"I can't," came the slow reply.

The pain in his voice was enough for me. I waited a few moments, searching his eyes for answers, before responding. "I believe you. You don't have to prove anything to me. I believed you back in the library, I just didn't want to admit it. I'm sorry."

He looked at me for a good long while. I waited patiently for his response.

"Okay... Okay. But I'm still taking you somewhere. I've made up my mind, and there it will stay. How about Raxacoricofallapatorius? Or Clom?"

"Wherever you want, Doctor. Wherever you want. Just make it a good one."