A/N: You can find Alex's outfit for this chapter on my Tumblr, under the name 'darksideofparis'.
The next morning, when Alex awoke, she wasn't surprised to find the room empty once again. Though she had hoped to find that the Doctor had returned at some point during the night, she knew it wasn't likely.
Alex sighed and pulled herself away from the comforting confines of the bed. They needed to figure out what was going on at the Carslile-Locke Plant today. Twisting her hair into a loose knot on top of her head, Alex headed towards the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, after a thirty second shower (a new record for her), Alex walked downstairs dressed in a short-sleeved black lace shirt, skinny jeans, and an old pair of well-worn black Converse, old stuff of hers she had found in the bedroom closet. She had even found a pair of large hoop earrings in one of the bathroom vanity drawers.
The first thought she had as she headed towards the dining-room was that there wasn't the smell of bacon or pancakes or coffee or any of the normal breakfast foods she would have expected Marigold to have made for her in large abundance. Alex entered the room curiously and was surprised to find only Marigold in there, sitting at the head of the table with a plate of eggs Benedict and a cup of coffee in front of her. She was dressed in a Burberry-plaid sleeveless dress, brown high-heels, and a Cartier watch around her wrist. She was reading a copy of the Richmond Register as Alex approached.
She looked up and smiled. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" she teased.
Alex made a face at the name but the shine in her eyes told Marigold that Alex wasn't really offended. "Am I the first one up?" Alex asked, looking around.
"No, actually, everyone's already left," Marigold said, placing her paper down. "I was instructed by the Doctor to tell you that when you got up to come down to the diner. Apparently, everyone's meeting there to discuss plans of attack for the Carslile-Locke Plant."
Alex was surprised. "Wow. Okay. I'm surprised he wasn't banging on my door this morning, demanding that I get up. According to him, I sleep eight to nine hours every day."
Marigold chuckled. "He briefly entertained the thought of forcing you awake, but finally decided to let you sleep." Marigold's smile faded for a brief second and a curious look came into her eyes. "According to him, you two were up late last night talking."
"Oh, um . . . yeah, that's right," Alex confirmed, feeling somewhat exposed under Marigold's critical gaze. Now she knew how Lacey felt whenever she was busted for doing something outrageous.
"What about?"
"I'm sorry?" Alex asked, deliberately stalling as she knew what the question meant.
"What were you two talking about so late into the night?" Marigold quizzed. Alex could tell that she was trying to keep her voice light and non-confrontational, but the hardness in her eyes exposed her mask.
"Oh, nothing," Alex lied.
Marigold cocked an eyebrow. "From the look on his face and the way yours is redder than a tomato now, it wasn't nothing."
"What did he look like?"
Marigold thought for a moment. "Remember all those gentlemen Lacey dated in high-school?" When Alex nodded, she added, "Remember how they all worshipped the ground she walked on?" Again, Alex nodded. Lacey tended to have that effect on people. "They all had that stupid, worshipping, puppy-dog look on their faces. And that was the exact look on the Doctor's face this morning when he mentioned you. Actually," she said slowly, thinking something over, "it's the look he has whenever he mentions your name or whenever you speak to him."
Alex stared at her. "So the Doctor is like all of Lacey's boyfriends? Worships the ground I walk on and gets all goggle-eyed whenever my name is mentioned?"
"Trust me, it's the truth," Marigold insisted. "Although, I do wonder just how involved the two of you are."
"We're not a couple," Alex quickly corrected her. "Trust me, we're not."
Marigold only made a hmm sound, expressing her doubt about that statement very clearly.
Alex hastily retreated out of the dining room and down the hall to the front door. Outside, it was a fresh summer morning. The sky was still gold and orange in some parts, making the dew on the front lawn sparkle like diamonds. Alex had always liked these kinds of mornings, even more so after she moved to Leadworth. Over there, mornings usually consisted of a low fog overhead, guaranteeing the need to apply half a pound of hairspray before you went outside.
At the end of the drive was Nat's black Nissan, all the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition. Alex smiled at her friend's thoughtfulness and quickly slid behind the wheel. Her gratefulness faded a little, however, as she took in the dingy interior. Nat had never been very tidy, which could be evidenced by the abundance of McDonald's bags, cigarette cartons, magazines, lip glosses, and other junk littering the seats and floor of the car.
Within a few seconds, Alex was driving towards town. She hastily switched the radio to a pop station instead of that weird NPR crap Nat liked and took a right turn which led her to a slightly older section of town, an old slum that used to be populated by African-Americans before desegregation.
Past this was what Alex and her friends referred to as Bar Alley. Bar Alley was actually Montgomery Street, but became known as Bar Alley due to the abundance of bars and clubs along it. Alex grinned as she passed Blair's, a frequent haunt of hers long ago, the old dance club where Emmy had gotten drunk for the first time and threw up on a bouncer, and then Piedmont's, which everyone knew had the crappiest drinks in town and avoided like the plague.
After leaving Bar Alley, Alex came out next to a tiny strip mall and continued on down the street to the little rise where the diner was located. There were already a bunch of cars in the parking lot and just like yesterday, one spot up front had been saved especially for her. Looking around, Alex was quickly able to gather that Lacey, Emmy, Ross, and Mike were definitely here while Lola, Nat, Bree, Amy, Rory, and the Doctor had likely hitched rides with one of the previous four.
The inside of the diner was jumping. Bree had opened already and there were a few people mingling around by the soda fountain. Over by the jukebox, Amy and Rory were attempting to dance to 'Twisting the Night Away', although neither of them seemed to be very good. Ross and Lola were next to them, Ross teaching Lola how to do the Carolina Shag. Sitting in a nearby booth were Lacey and Emmy, both of them calling out pointers and occasionally holding up a napkin with a pen-written number on it, judging the two couples and their moves.
Across the room were Nat and Mike, Nat with an apron hastily tied around her waist as she helped Bree take orders. Mike was at a booth by the window and was attempting the crossword puzzle in an issue of People magazine, though based on the amount of scribbling he was doing, he wasn't having much luck. Finally, sitting in the corner by the door, observing all of this, was the Doctor. A glass of water was by his elbow, partially drank, but Alex could tell he was actually waiting for someone. Most likely, it was her.
Alex swiftly moved into his line of sight and she could have sworn he visibly brightened when he spotted her. Motioning her forwards, she sat down across from him.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Hey," the Doctor repeated back to her. "Finally got out of bed, I see."
Alex glared at him. "Oh, shut up with that!" she cried. "I do not sleep eight to nine hours a day!"
"Yet Amy, Rory, and Lacey were up at seven o'clock while you were still passed out in bed."
"It's your fault," Alex retorted. "You kept me up late talking and teasing me about my bloody nose."
"Oh, God, Alex, did you really tell him that?" Lacey demanded, suddenly appearing in front of them. She looked chipper and ready to go that morning in a short-sleeved floral print shirt, ripped jeans, and bright pink Converse sneakers. She shook her head. "My, how stupid we were back then."
"He tricked it out of me," Alex replied.
Lacey sighed and leaned in close to look at the scar on Alex's nose. "I'd forgotten you even had that. It's faded quite a bit."
"Thank God," Alex said. "Remember when Hillary asked what fight I'd gotten in that week?"
Lacey shook her head and closed her eyes. "You know the saying; once a bitch, always a bitch."
Alex laughed a little and Lacey went back over to Amy and Rory, calling out a dance move they needed to work on. Alex's eyes followed her and she winced slightly as her friends attempted to dance to the Bob Dylan song that was now playing. "How long have they been doing that?" she asked the Doctor.
The Doctor groaned. "Half an hour," he answered. "Apparently, they're practicing for their wedding reception."
Alex cringed. "I tagged along with them one time to a dancing class Amy had signed them up for. It wasn't pretty." She looked over and watched the two for a few minutes, smiling a little when Ross came up and corrected Rory's posture. "Still, they're improving. Before today, they still couldn't figure out who was supposed to lead."
The Doctor snickered a bit and took a sip of water. "So. Any ideas for the Carslile-Locke Plant?"
Alex arched an eyebrow at him. "I figured I'd be leaving it all up to you. You're the one always coming up with brilliant plans at the last minute."
"True, but you have a vested interest. This is your family's honor you're trying to defend. Besides," he added sheepishly, "I haven't forgotten what you did back on Starship U.K. That was brilliant."
"Amy deserves some of the credit, too," Alex reminded him.
The Doctor nodded, acknowledging this. "Right. But you're brilliant as well. You need to be in the planning process as well."
Alex nodded. "Okay." She rested back in the booth, tucking her legs up underneath her as she thought. "I really would like to look at those employee files Carslile never let me look at."
"And I need to look over that equipment," the Doctor said. "We need to figure out where it came from and how much power it's taken." Right as he said this, the lights above them went off. The fans powered down, the jukebox went silent, and Alex distinctly heard Bree curse as the walk-in fridge in the kitchen died.
"And we need to do it fast," Alex added. The two watched as the lights remained off for five minutes before slowly starting back up again.
The Doctor and Alex got up and walked to the center of the diner, where everyone else was gathered. "It's getting longer time-wise," Lola reported worriedly from her spot in a booth next to Ross. "Usually, it's only a few seconds."
"It means Carslile is increasing his power. All of the electricity in Bristol is almost gone." The Doctor began pacing and Alex leaned against a table, giving him room.
"Alex and I need to look at the machinery in the plant and she needs to take a look at the employee files," the Doctor reviewed. "But we can't let Carslile see us. There's no way he'll let us back into the plant after yesterday."
"Why? What happened?" Lacey quizzed.
The Doctor, barely registering what Lacey was asking, offhandedly replied, "Oh, tried to poison us is all."
The entire Bristol group sat up straight and stared at Alex, shocked that she would leave such a detail out. "ALEX!" they all shrieked.
Ross stood up. "Why the hell didn't you tell us that?!" he cried. "That guy ought to be arrested."
Alex sighed wearily. "It's no big deal, Ross."
Nat stared at her. "Alex! The guy tried to poison you and the Doctor! That is a big deal."
"Not poison exactly, just erase our memory of the last few hours," the Doctor assured her. However, this didn't work as Nat's jaw dropped so low, Alex was sure it would hit the floor.
"Can you even do that?" Emmy wondered. "Sounds impossible."
Alex knew they were treading on dangerous territory and hastily steered the conversation back on topic. "Anyways, we need to get into the plant at a time when Carslile isn't around."
"You could try sneaking in though a back door," Amy suggested.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, wouldn't work. There are loads of workers around that plant and twice as many security cameras. I could disable some of the cameras, but not all of them."
"What if you went at night?" Mike asked. "Less people around and the cameras won't pick you up very well."
"They could have infrared," Alex pointed out.
Bree shook her head. "No, they don't," she corrected. "I went out there once with my dad when the plant first opened, just to check it out, and one of the reception girls told him that Mr. Carslile hadn't bothered to get the full package on the cameras. She said he felt no one would try to break in."
Alex grinned. "His stupidity is our gain then."
Rory looked over at the Doctor. "Just how easy is it to break into a power plant?" he questioned. "It sounds like it's difficult."
"Not necessarily," the Doctor said. "All we have to do is go through the front doors and I'll use the s— . . . I'll use some skills I acquired to turn the cameras off, and then we'll have free run of the place."
"And you won't be alone," Lacey jumped in. When the Doctor and Alex turned to look at her, confused, she rolled her eyes and cried, "Well, you didn't think we were going to let the two of you go in there by yourselves, did you?"
"Actually, yes," the Doctor confirmed.
"Lacey," Alex began, ready to give her friend all the reasons she could think of on why she couldn't accompany them, but Lacey quickly cut her off.
"Forget the lecture, Alex. You're not changing my mind or the minds of anyone else here. We're helping you and that's that."
Alex looked at the Doctor and sighed, silently conveying what they both now knew; like it or not, the Bristol group was tagging along with them tonight. "Okay, fine," the Doctor reluctantly agreed. "But you have to do exactly as we say."
Alex cocked an eyebrow at them. "Deal?" she asked.
None of the Bristol group hesitated to say, "Deal."
With that settled, everyone went to do some respective activity. Bree went back to taking orders, Nat trailing along behind her. Ross and Mike left for work after promising to meet the group back at the diner at closing. Lola, Emmy, Amy, and Rory all moved to one large booth while Alex ducked into the kitchen, swiping some frozen strawberries and cream from the fridge.
As Alex walked back to the booth, she noticed the Doctor, Amy, and Rory leaning over something. "What are you all looking at?" she asked, sliding in next to Lola in the booth.
"Amy wanted to see our high-school yearbooks," Emmy explained.
Alex groaned. "Oh, God, which year is it?"
Emmy grinned at her. "Freshman year," she said happily, knowing that Alex hated that year.
"Damn," Alex muttered. She popped a strawberry in her mouth and sourly eyed the three who seemed utterly fascinated by the yearbook.
"Oh my gosh," Amy muttered. She looked up. "Alex, is that really you?" She turned the book around and pointed to a picture of a younger Alex, dressed in a black vest, black t-shirt, black jeans, and black kitten heels standing on a stage in front of a backdrop made to look like nighttime in Paris. The caption underneath the photo read: Alexandria Locke, Drama Club President.
Alex groaned. "Unfortunately, yes."
Rory snickered. "Emmy really wasn't kidding when she told us about that Goth phase of yours."
"It was a phase!" Alex shrieked. "I was young and stupid and really messed up!"
"What play were you doing there?" the Doctor asked, deciding to take pity on Alex's embarrassment for her past teenage acts.
Alex looked visibly relieved by the question. As she twirled a strawberry in a pool of cream, she said, "It was some artsy piece our student teacher wrote. Hostages in Paris, about a bunch of young American millionaires who are held hostage while on vacation in Paris. My character Clara fell in love with the mastermind and ended up marrying him in Monte Carlo in the last scene."
"It was weirder than it sounds," Lola jumped in. "All of the henchmen danced on stage and one had a three-minute monologue on the wonders of drain cleaner."
Lacey came over to them from where she had been sitting at the counter chatting with people, arriving just in time to hear their conversation. "I was in that play, too!" she cried, pulling up a chair and sitting next to Alex. Swiping a strawberry off the plate, she added, "I played the dumb clueless girl, Bianca. I got to nearly fall off the Eiffel Tower twice."
There was a little bit of snickering and Amy turned the book around to turn the page. There were a few pages filled with shots of other clubs and teacher candid's before she eventually came to the freshman photo section. Flipping the pages, she eventually found the one Alex was on, right between two kids named Earl Landon and Claire Michaels. In the photo, Alex was smiling away at the camera, dressed in a tight black sweater, large hoop earrings, and a necklace with a key charm on the end of it.
Emmy grabbed the yearbook and flipped over to where her picture was. "Ick," she said as she looked her photo. It hadn't been a good one for Emmy. Her skin was extremely pale, her red hair too bright, both of these things clashing horribly with her light pink blouse. In addition, she hadn't had her braces taken off yet and the photo clearly revealed the train-tracks of metal on her mouth.
Lola shrugged. "Better than mine," she argued. "Freshman class picture day was also the day Pete Dawes put gum in my hair as a joke in science. A whole chunk of my hair was missing."
After looking through some more pages, Emmy suddenly squealed. "Oh, Alex! Here's our first WOW Day!"
The Doctor rose an eyebrow at them. "WOW Day?" he repeated.
"It's a big thing the school does every year after testing," Lacey explained. "It's kind of like an all-day carnival with food, games, movies in the auditorium, all sorts of stuff."
Alex looked over and laughed. "Oh, look! Somebody caught a photo of me going up the rock wall after Ross dared me."
"Since when are you afraid of heights?" Rory asked.
"I've never been afraid of heights," Alex said defensively.
Emmy snickered. "She barely passed gym because she kept falling off the rock wall."
Alex glared at her. "I couldn't get a decent grip on those rocks! They were always so slick! Plus my spotter kept trying to trip me just so he could grab my ass."
There was one more photo of Alex in the yearbook, also at the carnival, standing next to Lacey, laughing, at the cotton candy booth. Alex still looked beautiful in a black t-shirt, tiny skull earrings, jean shorts, and black Converse sneakers. The Doctor studied the picture over Amy and Rory's shoulders as Alex and Lacey recounted a story on how they took some lemonade from WOW Day and spiked it with vodka. Alex was gorgeous in this photo, young and carefree, something he always liked seeing on her face.
Emmy's sophomore yearbook didn't contain many pictures of Alex. Her student yearbook photo showed her wearing a gray fisherman's sweater over a black t-shirt, her now recognizable large hoop earrings stuck in her ears. One photo showed her in a drama club production of The Mousetrap, where Alex revealed she played Mrs. Boyle and had to briefly replace the student director when the original one came down with food poisoning two weeks before the play opened. There was one final photo of her on the page before the sophomore student photos, showing her and Lacey sitting in the cafeteria, grinning into the camera. Lacey was in a tight red sweater and Alex had her hair in a ponytail, wearing a gray cardigan and a black blouse.
The junior year yearbook was packed with photos of Alex. Alex explained that since her guidance counselor had discouraged her from taking so many classes, she had a lot more free time. The drama club photos showed Alex in leading roles in Arsenic and Old Lace and A Moment in Time. Alex's student photo showed her in a purple plaid shirt and her hair long and loose. Then, Amy flipped the page to the cheerleading team photos. In one large photo that dominated one page, Alex was doing a split in mid-air in front of a packed gymnasium.
The Doctor, Amy, and Rory all gawked at the photo. "You were a CHEERLEADER?!" they all cried, staring at Alex incredulously. Alex just didn't seem like the rah-rah, go-team type.
Lola nodded. "Yeah, that's the reaction we all had when she told us she tried out and got in."
Alex nodded, barely noticing their shock. "Yep!" she grinned. "Junior year. Apparently, the coach thought I had a really good high-kick and was really flexible. It was a lot of fun."
Lacey snorted. "Until Hillary joined the team."
Amy scoured the page. "Which one's Hillary?" she asked, looking at the large photo of all the cheerleaders together in front of a trophy case.
"Tall blonde standing in the back next to the coach," Alex guided her, a slight edge in her voice.
The group looked at Alex's self-proclaimed arch enemy. Hillary Westcott really was pretty, in that superficial, money-guided way. She had long blonde hair, china blue eyes, and her uniform only fell to mid-thigh instead of a few inches below low-thigh like the other cheerleaders due to two certain something's on her chest. Alex was standing on the other end of the row, smiling into the camera, one hand perched on her hip, her blue, white, and orange uniform fitting her in all the right places.
The Doctor studied Hillary. He had to admit, she was pretty, but it wasn't in that pure, lovely, inherited way Alex was. Hillary's appearance had been carefully manufactured. He knew this even without Lola informing them Hillary had gotten a nose job prior to the photo being taken and that Emmy suspected Hillary was a natural brunette. Hillary's look was fake and undeserving of her; Alex's was perfect in every way, nature having bent itself backwards in order to match her appearance perfectly to her personality.
There were a few more photos of Alex in her cheer uniform and then one on the WOW Day page, this one showing her clad in a floral sundress, ripped jeans, and sneakers, about to throw a ball at a dunk-tank. According to Alex, the woman in the dunk-tank was their vice principal, Mrs. Thurmond, who apparently loved Alex, at least in Lacey's opinion.
But the senior year yearbook contained the most photos of Alex out of all four. Alex seemed to be on almost every page, from a dabble in newspaper to her leading roles in the drama club productions of Fools, Romeo and Juliet, and a student-written play called Fell From Heaven, which according to Emmy, was about an angel that fell from Heaven, developed amnesia, and fell in love with a lawyer, played by Ross. All the while, the angel was unknowingly being looked for by two bumbling, comedic male angels who had finally gotten an assignment of importance. In the play, Alex had played the lead role of the angel, Hope. One photo showed her and Ross in a clingy embrace, two large feathery wings on Alex's back.
The Doctor felt a burn of jealousy rush through him as he stared at the page. While he knew Alex and Ross were playing characters in a play, he still couldn't extinguish the wish that he had been clutching her that tightly instead of Ross.
A two-page photospread following the Drama Club pages showed an event Alex named as Southern Spotlight, a type of talent show the seniors put on every year. One photo showed Emmy tap-dancing, another of Lacey singing (though Lacey couldn't even remember what she had sung now), one of Ross and Mike doing a type of vaudeville act, one of Alex in a flapper dress doing a skit with a group of people, and finally, one of her standing in front of a microphone, singing.
Amy looked at her, surprised. "I didn't know you sang."
Alex blushed. "I did it on a dare. I think everyone was just tired of hearing me hum Rascal Flatts songs under my breath."
"Not it!" Bree objected, coming up behind the Doctor with a pitcher of iced tea. "We all heard you singing a Blake Shelton song in the bathroom during rehearsal one day and agreed that everyone else should hear you."
The Doctor smirked at Alex. "Seems you did a lot of things on dares back then," he observed.
Alex blushed. "They all had a very negative influence on me back then."
Lacey rolled her eyes. "More like we annoyed you until we broke down your protective armor and agreed just to humor us."
"What'd you sing anyways?" Rory asked.
"Doesn't matter," Alex dismissed.
Amy pouted. "Oh, come on, Alex!" she pleaded.
"You wouldn't have heard of it anyways," Alex argued.
"ALEX!" Amy shrieked, desperate to know.
Alex sighed. "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man by Loretta Lynn."
Sure enough, Amy and Rory's faces were blank. "Who?" they questioned.
Emmy stared at them. "Only the greatest female country singer to ever live!" she cried. Emmy was a devoted Loretta Lynn fan.
"Remind me to loan you two my iPod," Alex quipped, part joking and part serious.
Amy shrugged and turned the page. There weren't any more photos of Alex until they got to the graduation ones. There was a shot of Alex and Nat in black robes sitting on the school steps, displaying their diplomas for the camera. The senior awards page showed Alex and all the drama club members receiving plaques and another of Alex wearing a tight, short emerald green dress, holding a thick piece of paper as she smiled away at the camera. The caption under the photo read: Alexandria Locke received several awards, including this scholarship to Octavian University. No one said anything about the photo, knowing how Octavian had turned out.
The superlatives page contained a few photos of Alex as well. She and Ross had been voted Most Popular and Ross's arm was slung over her shoulders, making the Doctor shift slightly. Alex had also won Most Intellectual along with some guy named Preston Max. Lacey volunteered that Preston was currently attending the University of Kentucky, intending to become a lawyer or judge. Finally, Alex had also won Most Likely to Succeed, something Alex privately thought ironic now. Her companion in that photo was a guy named Jason Isaacs, who Lola revealed was the son of a brain surgeon from Nashville.
Some of the other Bristol group members were on the superlatives page as well. Mike had been voted Class Clown along with a red-haired girl named Chelsea Earls. Emmy had been voted Most Athletic due to her all her roles in softball, girls' basketball, and brief stints in track and tennis, along with a buff guy named Taylor Marks. Lacey had been voted Best Personality along with a guy named Logan Herrick's, who Alex revealed had been in drama club with her. Finally, Hillary Westcott was also on the page, having been selected for being the Best Dressed and Best Looking.
Lola shook her head at the latter photo. "I have no clue what the senior class was thinking that year."
Emmy shrugged. "They were probably pulled in by her designer clothes. That's an Alexander McQueen dress there, if I'm not mistaken. Personally, I voted Lacey."
Lacey looked pleased. "Thanks! I voted for me, too!"
Alex snickered. "Conceited much?"
Lacey made a face at her. "Like you didn't vote for yourself in every category you were nominated in."
"I didn't select myself for Class Flirt." Alex rolled her eyes. "Never break up with the class president right before superlative nominations come out. He only did that to spite me."
Emmy nodded in agreement. "No kidding. If Bree wasn't vice president that year, you wouldn't have been nominated for anything at all."
The Doctor listened to the girls banter and then watched as Amy and Rory jumped into the conversation, sharing their own school experiences. Their conversation about yearbooks and clubs and breakups were as foreign to him as other emotions were to Cybermen and Daleks. School on Gallifrey had been very different than Earth schools. Yearbooks? Ha! That would have made the Time Lords laugh. If there had been superlatives in the Academy, he probably would have gotten Most Likely to Cause Trouble and General Chaos.
As Alex laughed at something Rory said, he thought about how different his companion's lives always were before he swooped in and swept them off their feet with the wonders of the universe. Rose had just been an average shop girl with no A-Levels or accomplishments to speak of, save for winning the bronze in a gymnastics competition. Martha had been a doctor-in-training from a rich family (the latter part she never told him; he just guessed it). Donna had been a simple temp, longing for adventure. Amy also longed for adventure, the spark ignited within her when he first crashed into her garden when she was only seven years old.
But Alex hadn't really longed for adventure. She didn't contain any of the other qualities of his past companions (though he guessed he could say that she was sort-of rich even if she wasn't in control of her inheritance). She had been a beautiful, popular Southern girl who only wanted an education and had nearly succeeded at that dream. She was a girl who had extraordinary mental abilities and who could calm him down better than anyone else ever could. She was truly unique and special in his eyes.
And even though he promised himself not to get too attached to her, not to get too close to her, he knew he wanted to keep her around him for as long as possible.
A/N: More about Alex's past here! I had to add that part about her being a cheerleader, it seemed like a fun surprise and something you'd never expect from her. :) Sorry for the late update, but I was out on my birthday dinner. I'll try to update early tomorrow before my party. :)
Some notes on reviews. . .
SopherGopher'sAwesomeSister - I'm glad you and your sister like the story!
TheGirlWhoWaited - Don't worry. This chapter shows just how good the Doctor is at pulling away from Alex . . . not very. :)
rycbar15 - Oh cool! I haven't seen that. I'll have to go and try to find it. And I'm glad you liked the Twenty Questions part. It is a cute chapter with just a little angst to keep everything from being too sweet. :)
Gwilwillith - We can only hope, can't we, lol.
ElysiumPhoenix - Yeah, I remember hearing about amnesia pills or something like that being mentioned in a Torchwood episode, so it seemed like a good idea to bring them up here. Glad you liked Lacey's POV. Observant little thing, isn't she? And it is cute they fall asleep together! But then it got ruined with the Doctor scolding himself. . . :D
The Ultimate Guest - Glad you liked the Twenty Questions bit! I thought it was a good way for the two to get to know each-other more instead of Alex just randomly asking questions for no apparent reason.
Thank you to those who reviewed and to those who favored/followed this story. It means a lot! Please review and see you tomorrow!
