Vworrp. Vworrp. Vworrp.
The TARDIS landed on the corner of a mostly empty street. There weren't many people out and about since it was early on a Sunday morning. Normally the Doctor didn't travel to Sundays. They had a tendency to be uneventful. And, also like normal, the Doctor hadn't actually been trying to travel to this particular Sunday morning. He half-glared and half- chuckled at the TARDIS's antics. It was hardly the first time she had brought him somewhere he wasn't planning to visit. He patted the console and grabbed his coat from the chair behind him, double-checking that his sonic screwdriver was still in his pocket.
He was hit with a blast of chilly, January air as soon as he walked out of the TARDIS. He was rarely cold with his coat on, but right now he wished for a pair of gloves, or maybe a scarf. The street corner he was parked on seemed to be in a normal, everyday neighborhood. The type of neighborhood the Dursleys would live in. However, the Doctor was sure that the TARDIS had brought him here for a reason. Something shifted in the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to look.
The street corner he was parked on seemed to be in a normal, everyday neighborhood. The type of neighborhood the Dursleys would live in. However, the Doctor was sure that the TARDIS had brought him here for a reason. Something shifted in the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to look.
The street corner he was parked on seemed to be in a normal, everyday neighborhood. The type of neighborhood the Dursleys would live in. However, the Doctor was sure that the TARDIS had brought him here for a reason. Something shifted in the corner of his eyes, and he turned his head to look; however, something, or rather someone, stopped him.
"Doctor?!"
The Doctor swiveled his head in the complete opposite direction and saw a red headed woman staring back at him with a mixed look of relief and of anger.
"Where the hell have you been Mister? Two months I've been here. TWO MONTHS! There I was one day walking down the street, minding my own business, and suddenly I wasn't in London anymore. Do you know how disorienting it is to suddenly be on a different street in a different town in a different flipping universe? This kind of thing seems right up your alley, so I figured "He'll be here soon." And I guess I was right, but IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!"
The Doctor retreated backwards a step, his eyes wide with speechlessness. Before him Donna, as angry and Scottish as ever, yelled her head off at him. He couldn't believe she was here. He didn't want to believe she was here. How far did she remember back? He'd already lost her once. Was the universe really so cruel to give him the chance to lose her a second time?
"And another thing, you're phone isn't working. You live in a bloody police telephone box, and your phone doesn't pick up. Do you know how annoyingly ironic that is?"
"Well I-" The Doctor started to respond, but Donna cut him off before he had the chance to do so.
"Also, do you even know where we are? In all accounts this seems the same as our universe, except here you're just a fictional character played by an actor- he's more attractive than you, less fussy with his hair- and I'm just a fictional person here too. But obviously I'm not." She twirled in front of the Doctor to demonstrate this. "Donna Noble: totally real and not fictional person."
"Yes, well we were, apparently, both sucked into this alternate universe where we are fictional. There was a time rip here about four months ago in a small New England town called Newbury, but we closed the rip. No one else should have been able to get back through, either way."
"So we're stuck here?" She asked. The Doctor couldn't tell if she was happy with that or not, but he nodded nonetheless.
"As far as we can tell, yes. We're stuck here." The Doctor responded. He couldn't help but look at Donna in awe. He was so certain that he'd lost his dear friend, but here she was, standing in front of him completely unharmed by their adventures together.
"I guess I'm stuck with you then," she smirked.
"I guess so." The Doctor smiled back. The past was in the past, and he couldn't do anything about it. He had another chance to travel with Donna, and he should treat that like a blessing.
"Wait, you said "we." How many others are there?" Donna asked.
"Well there's me and you. Then there's Dean, Sam and Castiel from this show called Supernatural. And then there's Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the show Sherlock. But if you got through, there might be others as well." The Doctor's mind began to spin. More people would be bad. The six of them had decided to seal their fates and remain in this dimension, but unknown others might have had their fates sealed as well. The familiar burden of guilt weighed on the Doctor's shoulders.
"Supernatural? Sherlock? I mean, I've heard of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson of course, but I didn't know that there was a show. Is it any good?"
"No idea. We all decided not to watch each other's shows, because it could mess up the future..." The Doctor glanced over Donna's shoulder as he said this, trailing off slightly at the end of his sentence. He could have sworn that there was something there, but he didn't see anything. However, if he hadn't been looking over her shoulder, the Doctor would have seen Donna's face contort into a look of panic. Apparently, the thought of not actually watching the show hadn't occurred to her, and she might have marathoned the new seasons in just over a day.
"So that's it? That's everyone?" Donna asked after getting her facial expressions under control, causing the Doctor to refocus on her.
"Yes, wait… no! Sort of. There's this girl named Lucy. She's from here, but the rip was influenced by her, since it appeared in a place she used to spend a lot of her time. We were all her favorite characters, so we got pulled through in the center of the storm, so to say, in Newbury. She was the one who brought us all together, and when demons- real demons not aliens- started pouring through the rip she helped us fight them off. She was brilliant- amazing really. She hadn't done a thing like this before in her life, and she was the key to defeating them." The Doctor's mind wandered in the direction of what could have happened. She was inexperienced, and they were supposed to protect her. But they didn't. They failed, and she had gotten hurt several times that day.
"And what happened to her?" Donna asked carefully as she watched the Doctor's face turn from excitement to pain. She worried the worst might have happened to the poor girl.
"Oh, she's fine!" The Doctor exclaimed in response to Donna. "She got banged up a good bit, but she's fine. She just graduated from college actually. I went to her party the other day, and she's dating Sam. She seems really happy with everything that's happened."
"She sounds interesting, right up your alley." Donna replied excitedly.
"Yeah well, she wanted to be with the hunters, since that's where Sam is. And I wasn't really ready to, you know… I wanted some time to travel alone. I didn't want to drag her into it."
"No no no, that wasn't what I meant! I meant that- I would like to meet her." Donna said with a smile. "So how about we go hop into your box and pay her a visit?"
Lucy was alone in the motel room when the TARDIS appeared. Dean, Cas, and Sam were all doing interviews at the moment. They hadn't quite finished her (forged) badges yet, so she couldn't go along. It hurt to be so close to helping, and still be unable to do anything. Lucy reassured herself that she'd be able to help soon enough. Instead she was taking the little time she had alone, and going through her inventory. The Doctor had popped by a moment ago, and she told him that she wanted her converter in case they traveled to another country, and told him the date of the graduation party.
She hadn't realized how little Sam and Dean traveled with. All they had really were two duffle bags. One had clothing and the other had weapons. Lucy had two bags of clothing alone, and another one of random, but necessary (in her opinion) items like the converter, her laptop, loose-leaf tea, and her favorite book. She felt guilty for having this extra stuff, but she wasn't sure what else she could donate or leave with her parents.
The TARDIS didn't surprise her when it started materializing in the motel room. Maybe she could ask the Doctor for his opinion, or even better store some of her clothing in her room in the TARDIS (well she said her room- she'd only used it a few times).
"Hey Doctor, what did you forget? You were only here a minute ago!" She teased as the door opened. "I can write down the date for my graduation if you need it."
"I've already been to your graduation, Lucy. Timey Whimey… you know how it is." The Doctor answered.
"So this is Lucy then?" The red head asked as she shoved the Doctor out of the doorway. "She's young! You didn't tell me she was young!"
"I told you she just graduated from college, how old do you think she would be?" The Doctor retaliated. Lucy stared in awe, her mouth slightly open.
"I don't know, 26 or so?" Donna waved her hand at the numbers, knowing that she wouldn't win this argument. "You also didn't tell me she was so cute. Seriously, I haven't seen anyone this adorable since… I'm not even sure."
"Donna?" Lucy managed to say, her brain still in shock.
"So she does know who I am! You weren't sure, and I told that she would." Donna grinned widely and approached Lucy with outstretched arms much like a mother hen. "Come on, stand up. I want to see you. I heard all about you on the way here. You seem like companion material, much more than I do."
"I really don't think so, you're absolutely brilliant." Lucy said as she stood up. Donna placed her hands on Lucy's shoulders.
"Well look at you. You are young, older than Rose, of course, but still young. The Doctor told me how brave you were a few months ago."
"It was nothing, really." Lucy responded. She looked at Donna with as much intensity as Donna did at her. "You're really Donna Noble?"
"The one and only!" She exclaimed. Lucy's shock finally faded and she broke into a smile as she pulled Donna in for a hug, much to the red head's surprise.
"I can't believe that you're here! But wait…" Lucy extended her arms, breaking away from the hug. She looked at Donna with worry now. "This can't be good. If you got through, who else could have gotten through? Doctor?"
"I was thinking the same thing," he responded solemnly.
"Good guys, bad guys- it would be awful if anyone else fell through the rip, but what if the villains made it into this universe? That could be very, very bad." Lucy rambled. Her eyes had grown distant as she looked through her memory, trying to figure out a pattern to who had fallen in relation to who could have also fallen through.
"At the moment, we don't know if anyone else is here, so I suggest we don't spend too much brain power on it when we can't do anything about it." Donna interrupted. "We can wait until someone turns up, and then pursue it further. I might have just been a fluke."
"It seems unlikely that you were just a fluke Donna. If you came through and landed in London, then it's really likely others came through as well. The Doctor found you- where? Cardiff?"
"Yeah. He did. How'd you know?"
"Lucky guess." Lucy shrugged. "Anyway, that's pretty far from the epicenter of this thing, which was about a mile away from the motel room we're standing in. That means that, at least, between here and Cardiff there's a good chance other characters might have fallen through."
"How will you know if they came through, though? Won't they just look like people?" Donna asked.
"Some of them might, but they're look like the recognizable characters. Some of them won't. The ones I'm most worried about, the villains, they'll look human for the most part. But it's entirely possible that nonhuman creatures came through too. Sam, Dean, and Cas have been working on tracking monster cases for the past couple months. We figured it was a result of the battle- so to say- right before we closed the rip for good. However, we need to start looking for any signs of leakage."
"How will you do that?" Donna was standing with her head tilted as she listened to Lucy. She was a little stunned by the level of intellect this girl had. She seemed to have ready explanations for everything.
"The internet. Tabloids. I'll start looking for doubles of certain actors. If I have, say, a Mark Sheppard sighting in Ohio, when I know that he's in Canada filming, then we're going to have to be ready to deal with Crowley."
"Crowley?" Donna whispered to the Doctor, "Do you have any idea who she's talking about?"
"No idea," the Doctor responded shaking his head.
A rush of cold air entered the room as the motel door opened, letting Sam, Dean, and Cas in. They were in the middle of a conversation, muttering something about the fact that none of the suspects seemed to remember anything about what happened, but stopped when they saw the Doctor and Donna.
"Hey Doc, nice to see ya. Who's your lady friend?" Dean asked, instantly changing his own topic of conversation. He greeted the Time Lord with a casual two-fingered salute and a wink at the feisty red head as he threw his fake badge onto the table.
"Donna Noble, I'll take a salute too if you please." Donna responded without missing a beat. Dean looked from her to the Doctor and then back to her and raised his eyebrows as if to say 'I like you're choice in companions Doc.' He then gave Donna the same salute he had given the Doctor.
"That's Dean," Lucy provided standing at Donna's side. "The 'short' one behind him is Castiel, but we all call him Cas."
"Lucy, I believe you're incorrect in your assumption that I'm short. I'm at least five inches taller than you." Cas replied matter-of-factly as he tenderly placed his trench coat over the back of a chair.
"He and Dean are totally infatuated by the way, so you might not want to stand between them. The sexual tension could rip you to shreds," Lucy whispered to Donna, just loud enough for Cas to hear her, but not loud enough for Dean, who was standing in front of an opened fridge, to hear. Castiel squinted his eyes at her, attempting to look menacing but failing.
"So the tall one must be Sam then?" Donna asked also whispering.
"That'd be right." Sam responded, walking over to shake Donna's hand. "It's nice to meet you. I know we're not supposed to talk about the shows, but Lucy's mentioned you accidently on several occasions. She seems to be quite fond of your character, so I really look forward to getting to know you myself."
Sam smiled genuinely at Donna, before releasing her hand from his two handed grip and going over to help Dean figure out what to eat for dinner. "You, Doctor, are horrible at informing me about appearances." Donna threateningly pointed her finger at the Time Lord.
"I hardly see why that's importa-"
"I'll tell you why, because next time I want to know if there's going to be attractive people nearby. If there are, then I'm bringing a camera. Because this is a sight that I would like to document." Donna gestured to the kitchen where Cas, Dean, and Sam were all bent over, shifting the few containers in the fridge.
"Wait I got this," Lucy affirmed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and slid the screen into camera mode. She snapped the picture of the three hunters' asses, and then showed it to Donna, who whooped at her success.
"I'm beginning to really like you, Lucy."
"Well that's a relief, because you were my absolute favorite companion," Lucy responded joyfully.
"Well I'm certainly flattered, so I'm glad you said it," Donna replied.
In the course of next twenty minutes, Dean managed to heat up the rest of the left over Chinese food, and Sam cooked some whole-wheat pasta with sauce. It wasn't a fancy meal, but it smelt like heaven to Lucy's growling stomach. Normally, the four of them ate in various locations around the apartment. Sam would be at the small table in the corner on his laptop, Lucy and Dean would sit on the edge of one of the beds and watch television, and Cas would eat at the kitchen table while reading a passage from a magazine, typically rotating between National Geographic, People, The Smithsonian, National Anthropology Journal, and various poetry magazines. Tonight, though, all four of them plus the Doctor and Donna squeezed around the kitchen table, hitting elbows but making it work.
"So how were your interviews today?" Lucy asked. She had been dying to know since they returned to the motel. Sam, sitting to the right of Lucy, glanced at Dean across the table, who gave a small nod.
"They were a little unusual, even for us. The crime scenes were vastly unhelpful. There was no sulfur, no cold spots, and no body. The security cameras didn't pick up much, so it was almost like the thing knew where they were. We were hoping that the witnesses might be able to give us some guidance as to what it looked like." Sam looked around the table, worry deep in his eyes. "But no one could. It was as if the witness weren't even at the crime scene, despite obvious evidence that they were."
"But they weren't hiding anything," Cas interrupted. "Everything they said, they felt was the truth."
"But they sounded like robots." Dean cut in, his mouth full of lo mien.
"Right," Sam nodded at his brother, sneering in slight disgust. "Dean, have some manners. You weren't raised in a barn."
Dean just shrugged and continued to stuff his face with noodles.
"It was like they were reading from a script." Sam continued. "Every single witness said basically the same thing : 'I don't know what happened. I was there with [the victim], and I heard [them] screaming. I turned around to help [them], but… I can't remember what happened after that. The next thing I can recall was that I was half a mile down the road, and didn't remember how I even got there. I pulled out my phone to call the police. I told them there was a man with a knife, and that my friend was hurt.' All of the witnesses had this same story. All of them were convinced that a man with a knife attacked and killed their friends."
"Which is weird in itself," Dean continued. "Since a knife attack would have yielded a lot more blood at the crime scene then there was. Of course the killer could have just wiped it all up with bleach, but monsters usually aren't that smart. They just want to eat and leave."
"The only other guess that we came up with was that whatever killed the person ate the body, but by monster standards the scene is too clean for that." Sam said. He looked over at Lucy asking if she had anything to contribute by raising his eyebrows.
"I can't really recall anything right now." Lucy started. "But if you're doing more interviewing tomorrow I can scan some old episodes and see if I find anything."
"Sounds like a plan." Dean responded with his mouth still full.