((Prehistoric Break))

I slid out of the TARDIS, my gray eyes wary as Clave purred from around my shoulders. I adjusted my white jacket, checking to make sure my sonic keychain was attached to my belt loop, then waited for the Doctor to close the doors. "We're insane," I muttered to him under my breath. "We are so done for if one of those big guys finds us..."

"Not all big guys," he replied, using my words, "are predators. Some of them are actually quite sweet."

"...dinosaurs. Sweet. You're hilarious," I muttered back, sarcastic. Clave blinked at me and I scratched his chin. "You'd fit right in here, wouldn't you, little guy? Hey, Doctor, do you think Clave is from-"

"I've told you," the Doctor answered with a grin, "Clave is an alien so rare that his species doesn't have a name. Now, let's go explore and enjoy seeing some reptilians you will most likely never see again!"

Well that had a wonderful chime in it.

I rolled my eyes. He was an idiot. But when he turned his smile on me, I found my own growing in response. Damn him and his happy attitude! I looped my arm through his, snickering as Clave hissed in annoyance and slid to the ground. "Alright, Doctor, let's go see ourselves some dinosaurs. Preferably ones that won't eat us."

The Doctor laughed and I sighed quietly under my breath as we carefully made our way through the undergrowth. While the Doctor complained it unneccessary, I made sure to stop every now and then and make a mark so that we could find our way back. "I don't know what we plan to do here besides look at plants," I complained after nearly an hour of walking. "Thought you said there were tons of 'em around here!"

"I did," the Doctor muttered back. He frowned. "You're being very...complain-y today."

I stared at him, then burst into laughter. "That's not a word, you know," I teased before saying more seriously, frowning, "You're right though. Sorry."

He affectionately ruffled my hair, only slightly hesitant and I smiled to myself. He'd been strangely nice after the planet known as Veli, where the humans and alien possessions had been at war with each other. And I hadn't heard anything from bowtie man, which I supposed was a good thing.

"You're fine," he said playfully, then winced when Clave suddenly appeared, nipping at his hand so that he pulled it back. He frowned. "Ow! What did I do?"

"Nothing, Clave is being tempermental today," I sighed, flicking my pet's nose. He nipped at my fingers as well, but not as harshly as he'd done to the Doctor. "Don't bite him, Clave, or you'll be kicked out of my room tonight, got it?" He blinked innocently at me with calm amber eyes and I rolled my own. "Brat."

The Doctor merely laughed...and then stopped. His dark eyes snapped wide in surprise and I nearly crashed into him. "Doctor, what...oh."

I felt sick at the sight before us.

Before us was a very, very large and very, very dead dinosaur (that the Doctor later told me was a Tarbosaurus; yes, it's a real dinosaur, as silly as it sounds). Its massive head leaked blood from its mouth, its eyes still open and unblinking. But what truly made me swallow the urge to vomit was the massive hole in its side. The hole went clean through the poor creature, tearing raggedly, and I choked out, "What...?"

The Doctor approached hesitantly, letting his fingers skim along the scales of the dead creature. He stopped when he reached the other side of the hole, pulling his sonic out and scanning it for anything alien. "Obviously not another one of the dinosaurs did this," he said darkly, looking furious.

I nodded my agreement, remaining where I was. No creature, not even the man eating dinosaurs, deserved something like this. "Think there are other aliens running around?"

He nodded. "Possibly. Some might've thought it would be fun to come and try hunting something like this..."

"How disgusting," I muttered. The poaching of dinosaurs, huh? Ugh. Stupid aliens-

A screech filled the air and I whirled around. The Doctor darted past me, grabbing my arm to drag me along, but I easily kept up and he released me. We easily made our way through the massive plants, ducking around trees until a lashing tail suddenly slammed into the ground merely feet from us. I gasped in shock and the Doctor cursed, shoving me out of the way when a tree slammed into the ground between us.

Silence filled the air and I hesitantly rasped, "Doctor?" Clave hissed, pinching my shoulder with his talons as he struggled to keep his balance.

"I'm alright," he called back. "Stay where you are."

Naturally, I ignored that. I patted Clave's head, lowering the small alien to the floor of the Cretaceous forest. "Clave, find him and bring him to me when you find a way for him to get over the tree, alright?" I wanted to see if the dinosaur was okay as stupid as it sounded. Clave hissed, slithering off.

I ducked around a tree, determined to make sure it wasn't another maneater before I made my approach. When I peered around the tree, I sighed in relief. It was one I recognized. A Diplodocus. And it was huge. But that didn't stop me from hurrying over to where its head lay. A fresh wound, a hole, was in its side, and yet it was still breathing. I crouched beside its lage house, which was barely bigger then I was tall. It moaned quietly and I rested my hand on its nose. "Hush," I soothed. "It's alright now."

How strange. Here I was, soothing a prehistoric creature in the Cretaceous Period as it died from unnatural causes. Damn, I'm weird...

"Ali." I glanced up as the Doctor appeared with Clave, frowning as he scolded, "I told you to wait." He crouched beside me, and I gently patted the dinosaur's nose again.

"Sorry. Thought I'd come see if it would live, but..." I nodded towards the hole in its side. "That's obviously not going to happen."

The Doctor reached out to stroke its nose with me and I pursed my lips. "We'll put a stop to this," the Doctor told me softly as it gave a last breath before going still.

I gritted my teeth angrily. This was ridiculous! What kind of cruel jerk did you have to be to hurt innocent creatures like this?! Clave whined nervously and I stroked his head, vowing silently that he wouldn't get caught up in this. "Clave, stay with me. Don't go anywhere by yourself." The alien nodded.

The sound of voices suddenly filled our ears. I glanced up, nervous. "Doctor...?" I whispered, uncertain of what to do. But the Doctor had merely stood, offering me a hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet, explaining under his breath, "We're going to see whose doing this and hopefully deal with them..."

I nodded, approving the plan.

The killers soon revealed themselves.

My mouth dropped. They were simple humans. Humans with big, nasty guns, but humans none the less. And only two of them. Each held one of the massive guns which were probably the cause behind the holes in the poor dinosaurs. The Doctor's eyes gleamed angrily as the two humans, who were both male and were a few years younger than me, grinned. "Look what we have here," the first, a blond haired, green eyed man drawled. American, just like I was originally.

"People," the other agreed with a grin. "First ones in a long time, too. Wonder how they got here..."

The Doctor and I exchanged looks and I could see in his look that we both agreed as to what they were. Some kids had gotten a hold of some powerful weapons. And by the looks of the familiar looking watches on their wrists, I would bet they'd stolen some vortex manipulators somehow. The story? They'd somehow found a storage of these items, most likely one from Torchwood.

Great.

Just what we needed.

Kids who had no idea what they were doing with what they'd gotten.

"Look," I said, picking my words carefully as I crossed my arms. "Why don't you put down the guns and we can have a talk? You tell us why you're here and we'll tell you we're here." And somehow get those things away from them, figure out where they were from, and then finally take them home where they could be harmless once more. Oh, and destroy the Torchwood storage they'd found.

The two boys exchanged looks. "Nah, we're having too much fun." Blondie waved his gun around and I decided then and there that they were somehow drunk. "Isn't it cool? We can kill a bunch of dinosaurs and take pictures and stuff to show people back home!"

I take that back. They're freaking insane. "Doctor...?"

The Doctor glanced at me then joined in, and I rolled my eyes when he said, "Come now, killing isn't fun. Why don't you join us in my ship and we can all have a nice cup of tea..."

"Nah." The second boy smirked. "I think we'd like it better if we could stay out here. Why don't ya stay with us, lady? We'd be much better company then him..."

I made a face of disgust. College guys, had to be. Or even high schoolers. Ugh, how gross. "I'm happy with who I'm with, thank you very much," I replied coolly. The Doctor's eyes flashed and I bit back a smile at it. How funny. He thought I would go with them over him? I wanted to smack the back of his head. Clave slid from my shoulders unnoticeably and I silently nodded, giving him permission.

Let him go after the kids, get rid of their weapons. Then we could deal with them. Hopefully, my pet wouldn't end up with a hole in him...

"Doctor." I spoke under my breath so they wouldn't hear us. "What do you want to do about this."

"We'll have to wait and see." He paused. "Well, we'll figure it out here in a bit. After Clave's done his bit." I grinned. He'd noticed. That was awesome.

"OW!"

We glanced over in time to see Clave strike. The smart little guy managed to lock his jaws around a gun, tearing it free of one of the two boys' grasp. The other gun was sent skidding away with a particularly sharp slap to the wrist with his tail, which Clave then used to push the guns over to us. I picked one up; the Doctor picked the other up, his eyebrow raised. "Now," he said, shoving it at me. I grinned. Him and his disliking of weapons. "Why don't you come explain to us what you're doing here and why you're shooting dinosaurs?"

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

"Let me get this straight," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. We were all settled among the roots of a massive tree, the Doctor on one side of me and Clave curled up on the other. Across from us, on another root, the boys, who'd introduced themselves as Scott and William. "You guys broke into Torchwood Storage House Three and stole not only some guns, but two watches that you had no idea what they did?"

Scott, the blondie, flushed in embarassment. "Pretty much, yes."

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "Hm...lucky you didn't mess things up too badly. Now we'll just have a few paleontoligists asking why two dinosaur skeletons have some holes in their sides..."

"Four actually." William ducked his head. "We got those two and and two others. One was a Triceratops, the other was one of those ones with the big thing sticking out of his head." He used his arms to show what he meant and the Doctor supplied the word "Parasaurolophus."

How, exactly, did he remember all those names?

"Four then," the Doctor replied with a sigh. "Not too bad, I think it'll be fine as I said. You're lucky you didn't change anything in the future, as far as I can tell, anyways." He stood. "Now, let's get you home-"

"We can't leave."

I raised an eyebrow at William, who was avoiding looking at us. "We can't leave," he repeated, raising his brown eyes to meet my own gray ones. "We have to find our friend, Lizzie, first. The two of us got serparated from her when we were hunting the carniverous one."

The Doctor and I both moaned in frustration. "You're kidding me!" I exploded. "We have to look for another one of you idiots! Wonderful!"

William grimaced apologetically. "It's not our fault," Scott complained, "We-"

"If you hadn't come here and done what you did, none of this would've happened," the Doctor reminded, interrupting. His brown eyes were full of anger. "Ali, take these two back to the TARDIS. Clave can find me again, I'm sure-"

"There's no way in hell I'm leaving them alone in the TARDIS," I spat, eyeing the two boys irritably. "Are you crazy? Look how much they've already messed things up. We're screwed if they stay in the TARDIS alone."

"...good point," the Doctor muttered his agreement. He shook his head. "Will you stay with them? Please?"

Damn him. He knew I didn't want to sit around and do something. Yet even I would admit that I would get myself stuck in a situation like this, so I nodded. I reached into my pocket, waving my phone in his face. "You better check in with me, got it? Every half hour or so. If we can't find the girl..."

"I'll keep looking," he said simply. "Get going, Ali, take them to the TARDIS and keep an eye on them." He pulled me into a quick hug, grinning as he ruffled my hair before telling Clave, "Take them to the TARDIS." Clave purred. He winked at me, grinning. "Allons-y, Ali!" he said cheekily before darting off into the forest.

I watched after him for a moment.

"So...you two dating or something?"

My cheeks flamed immediately and I whipped around, smashing the back of Scott's head with the back of a gun. He cursed, clutching the spot I'd hit him with. "No! He's my friend, and no, I'm not gonna date a stupid kid like you!" Furious and flustered, I waved for them to follow Clave and I. Clave clambered onto my shoulders and I grinned when he extended his head. "Straight ahead?" Clave nodded. My adorable little compass.

We started forward.

After about an hour and a half of walking and me constantly checking to make sure the two idiots were still following, we reached the TARDIS, who hummed her greeting. William raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? A police box?"

I patted the doors, pulling the key from around my neck. "Yeah, gotta problem with it?" I ducked into the police box after opening the doors, waiting for them to come inside. Ignoring their mutters and gasps of surprise, Clave and I made our way to the console in the middle. I patted the controls as the TARDIS purred in my head. "Welcome home, my Girl."

I beamed. "Hey there," I replied back softly before dropping comfortably in the captain's seat. I could see the screen from where I sat, so, ignoring the confused looks I received from Scott and William, I asked, "Mind showing me the outside so I can watch?"

The TARDIS hummed, and a picture of the outside world popped up onto the screen. I murmured a thank you. I glanced at the two teenage boys, winking. "Best space ship and time machine in the universe," I told them. I grinned. "Guess who gets to live here, courtesy of the Doctor? Welcome to our home. You mess anything up and I will cheerfully beat you to death." I paused. Huh. I hadn't introduced myself. "I'm Alissa Levine, by the way."

"Alissa- you're the girl who was on the news when those metal things attacked in Texas," Scott muttered, sitting up straight with wide eyes. I frowned. The Doctor usually told me that those kind of events were forgotten fairly quickly. "Yeah. I am. They were after the Doctor and me and ended up killing my adoptive mother."

William grinned. "Wow, this is awesome! How'd you get here so fast, it only happened yesterday!?"

Oh. Well, then. That explained a little bit. "Err, like I said." I waved around us. "Time machine."

Scott and William exchanged eager glances and I rolled my eyes. Children. Not that I was more then five years or so older. I made a face that they didn't see and the TARDIS laughed quietly in my head. I stuck my tongue out at nothing and she hummed. Someone was in a good mood.

Suddenly, a roar shook the police box. I shot up from the captain's seat. "What's going on?" I muttered, confused, my eyes locked onto the screen. Ah, damn. From what I could see, there was a massive, roaring Tyranasaurus Rex storming towards us, racing after what looked like a fleeing mass of flying reptiles. It snapped at the air and I got the feeling that it was playing with them. The ground shook beneath our feet.

"It will not smash my physical form." The TARDIS sounded serious, and I realized she could see what was going to happen. "But it is best that you hold onto something, my Girl."

I cursed, diving for the control panel. "Oy! You two! Hold onto something, that guy is gonna-" The words were interrupted by a massive trembling that began to be constant. "-gonna run into us!"

They dove for pieces of coral that lined the outside of the TARDIS. Buttons and different swithes and whatnot lit up on the console, and as quickly as I could, I smashed, twisted, turned, flicked, and jerked all of the needed controls. I was reaching for the last button when the dinosaur's foot slammed into the side of the TARDIS. Clave clung expertly to grated flooring as the TARDIS was sent flying, tumbling this way and that. A startled shriek left my mouth as I clung to the console, and I rolled my eyes at the frightened yells that came from the two boys. Idiots.

My fingers hit the last button.

The trembling vanished in seconds. I dropped to the floor, gasping for breath with a look of relief. "Whew," I muttered, "that was close..."

Shaky laughter escaped William's mouth as he dropped onto his back, grinning. "This is so much better then school." Scott made a sound of agreement, collapsing beside him.

I glanced at the screen, and the TARDIS answered my unsaid question. "We are exactly where we were, my Girl, merely a few feet to the left."

Good.

I didn't need the Doctor angry with me again...

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

I was dozing on the captain's seat, both William and Scott sitting on the grated floor nearby when the doors of the TARDIS opened and revealed the Doctor, in a torn and dirty suit with smudged dirt on his cheeks, and a just as dirty looking brunette girl behind him. I raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna have to throw that one away..."

He pouted, looking down at his suit. "I liked this one..."

"You have millions of others in the same style," I teased, "I think you'll be fine."
He grinned and I returned it. Ah, amusement in our strange way. I glanced at the girl. "So this is the Lizzie you two were talking about?" I asked as Scott and William darted to her side, demanding questions. She laughed.

"Yes, I'm Lizzie," she replied, smiling brightly at me. Her eyes flashed. "And you're the great Alissa Levine from the news, right? This is awesome! Can't believe-"

"How much trouble you three almost caused," the Doctor scolded, interrupting. "Not fun, not...good. Just full of trouble!" He glanced purposefully at me.

"I put the guns and vortex manipulators down in storage," I told him, waving off his concern and throwing my arm over my eyes. He grinned in response to my nonchalence. Idiot.

"Good, I'll add these to it later." He threw down a third set, then moved for the controls. "Come on, time to leave, old girl. You three, give me the date and location of where you were before here."

"Day before the Cybermen attacked my place and New York City, New York in the U.S.," I answered for them, peeking at him innocently when he raised an eyebrow. "What, I got them to tell me a bunch of stuff..." I smirked. "I'll tell you more of what I learned later."

He snorted, moving for the controls and Lizzie tilted her head curiously. "So...you two dating or something?"

The Doctor sputtered and I found myself roaring with laughter, toppling out of the captain's seat.

Was that all teenagers thought about?

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

A/N: Just a fun chapter to re-strengthen the Doctor and Ali's bond. :3

Littlebirdd: As bad as it sounds, I'm glad you feel so emotional about the entire matter. Means I'm doing my work properly. XD

Maren the fangirl: I'm so glad you love Ali! I spent forever on her history and whatnot. :D

MaybeALittleBroken: Of course he did, crazy person. lol XD Why does this not surprise me?

BrainStormer: Glad you like it. ^_^ Detail is important! :D But it does seem to make things shorter...