Somebody Else's Problem Chapter 3: Elizabeth Ashton Davies, a doctor who fanfic

Previously: Blon has been dealt with. Sep has met the Tardis and discovered that the room she woke up in is hers.

— Chapter 3 —

Elizabeth Ashton Davies

I have a room, my own room, that's a first, but I can't stay here. He scares me. He was going to take Blon to her execution and probably would have stayed to watch, and Blon could have killed me and they all treated it like just another Saturday, and he lies to me. What really happened in Cardiff? Why did I faint? Why did I have such a weird reaction entering the Tardis? Why did I have a panic attack in the med bay?

He says I'm creating time distortions and am a telepath who's controlling people's minds. Riiiight. So much more believable than being lucky and quick. He probably is though. I mean whatever he was doing with the weird "talking" that felt so strange and hypnotic, gotta be telepathic.

Besides, they're all like swashbuckling adventurers and I'm just a kid from Cardiff. Even if I really do want to stay, he'll get bored, or angry, or something and kick me out or just forget me somewhere, and then what do I do? It's not like anyone ever actually wants me to stick around for long. Better to just stay in Cardiff. I understand Cardiff. No one's ever tried to strangle me in Cardiff.

'My' room is so cool though. After making my way back, I wander around a bit, checking everything out, and find my backpack by the desk. Please don't let him have looked inside. I empty it out onto the desk: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, envelopes, wet wipes, sketchbook, coloured pencils, pencil sharpener, my old wallet, and trusty old Stan, my fuzzy blue stuffy. At least it's all here.

I hide my old wallet under the mattress just in case he hasn't gone through my stuff already and check out the closet. And wow, what a closet. It's practically a clothing store. So much stuff! I grab a long sleeve shirt with narrow vertical brown, orange and blue stripes and a pair of dark brown cargo shorts and head to the bathroom. Which is also awesome! It's got a tub and a shower and the softest Tardis blue towels.

—

My first hot shower in forever felt so good. Now I just need to try to do something with my grown out, shaggy, pixie cut. I try a couple things, but bangs to the side with a barrett is the best I can manage. I really really wish I could live here, maybe I…

"Aah!" I scream as I walk out of the bathroom and see the Doctor relaxing in the chair by my bed, flipping through my Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book. "Don't do that. I thought this was MY room." I say, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

"Your room. My Tardis." He says sitting up in the chair. "Big Douglas Adams fan me." He says with his mad grin.

"Yeah? And?"

"Ready to tell me your real name?"

"Already have." I say, before grabbing Stan from where I'd left him on the rock steps, climbing up to the loft, and sitting down at the edge. I'm not ready to have this conversation.

The Doctor puts the book down on the bed and stands up, arms crossed over that stupid leather jacket of his, "Clever name, Sep Fields. I figured it out right away of course, but still clever." He says. "You are not Somebody Else's Problem, SEP, and you are not cloaked in a Somebody Else's Problem Field. Not anymore."

"Don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't pretend to be stupid. It doesn't suit you, Elizabeth Ashton Davies."

"You, you went through my stuff."

"Yep."

"That's not…"

"My Tardis. My rules. And you are a child in my care."

"I don't have to be. Just take me back to Cardiff and you'll never have to see me again."

"I can't do that. You're not human. You have abilities you don't understand and can't control. You need me, and I'm not going to leave you alone out there where anyone could get their hands on you, not to mention the kinds of trouble you'll get yourself into"

"I don't need you. I don't need anyone. I do just fine on my own." I tell him, retreating into the corner at the back of the loft and trying to put out my best, go away and leave me alone, vibe.

He sighs, "Well, you're not going back to Cardiff, Elizabeth. The Tardis is your home now." He says before walking out the door.

"Don't call me that!" I yell at the closing door. The now opening back up door.

"What would you like me to call you?" He gently asks.

"Nothing. Just go away."

"Not going to call you nothing or Sep. If you don't like Elizabeth, how about Ashton?" he asks, but I just turn away. He sighs, then says "Go ahead and explore if you want, just try not to get lost." before closing the door.

—

Even I eventually get tired of sulking. Might as well explore. Most of the rooms I find are locked, and the unlocked ones are kind of boring. Maybe I'm in the wrong wing or something. There's got to be some good stuff around somewhere. I should probably head back towards my room and try a different direction.

"Jack." I shout in surprise as we nearly run into each other coming around a corner. "Hey kid. You lost? Or just wandering?"

"Wandering. Most of the doors are locked. I was hoping to find something cool."

"I've got just the thing. You're going to love this." He says, taking off down the hall.

It's a library, the most amazing library ever. Multiple levels, sliding ladders, leather couches, the smell… it has everything. Each section is pretty big and running around I can see so many different sections. It's incredible. I went to the British Library in London once and it has nothing on this. I am so moving in.

"Ha. Thought you'd like it." He says, clapping me on the shoulder. "This is amazing." I say as I plunk myself down on one of the leather couches and inhale the wonderful old library scent. "Did the Doctor send you to check up on me?"

"No. He seemed a little extra grouchy when he came back to the console room. I thought you might like someone more agreeable to talk to." He says sitting on a couch across from me and draping his arms along the back.

"He said I have to stay here, like I can't take care of myself."

"Why wouldn't you want to stay here?" He says, laying back further into the couch and propping his feet up on the coffee table between us.

"Maybe I don't like being strangled."

"Never would have actually happened. And look at you, all better."

"Yeah. After 17 hours. What happened that I was out for 17 hours? He said I had a panic attack going into the med bay, but I wouldn't sleep for 17 hours because of that."

Jack looks a little uncomfortable and sifts around on the couch before saying, "It was more than just a panic attack."

"Why won't he tell me? What's wrong with me?"

"I don't think anything's wrong, you're just telepathic like he is, but you don't know how to control it. Your mind got a little overloaded when you panicked, on top of already being exhausted, and you shut down for a while. Look, you were so nauseous running from us you threw up, then you passed out in the Mayor's office, and almost again when you first came into the Tardis, then Blon strangled you and then you had a panic attack. I'm surprised you only slept for 17 hours."

"None of that would have happened if I hadn't gotten curious about the random police box in the plaza."

"Nah, we'd already locked into you. The time distorsions you create make you pretty easy to find."

I stand up and start pacing. They're so annoying. "I don't create time-distortions!"

"Come over here and sit down." He says flipping open the small device he keeps on his wrist and patting the cushion next to him.

"What is it?" I ask, not moving any closer.

"A handy device I can use to show you the time distortions you create."

"How?" I ask sitting down. He shows me a sort of recording of the last guy I pickpocketed before going to check out the Tardis. "Okay. And?" He taps the screen and zooms in on my hand, but it's really hard to see what's going on because some parts are blurry.

"You see that? Your hand looks blurry because it's inside a sort of time-bubble. Basically 10 seconds inside the bubble is only 1 second outside. But look at this. The bubble fades as it travels up your arm. No wonder you're exhausted. I don't understand how you're even alive."

"It's a blurry video of my hand. So?"

"Look, I'll set the time to show your hand at normal speed. Watch the movement around it. It's all in slow motion."

"This is all crazy! You're all crazy!" I shout as I get up.

"Look, Elizabeth…"

"You too! Ahrg… Just leave me alone." But he grabs my hand before I can walk away.

"Beth? Lizzie? Ellie? I've got to call you something." He says. I keep trying to yank my hand away but he WON'T LET GO!

"FINE Ash. Call me Ash." I say, resigned, as long as it's not Elizabeth.

"Ash?" He asks, letting go of my hand.

"Short for Ashton." I say before leaving the library. All of these people are so stupid and annoying. I just want to be left alone. I'm just going to stay in my room forever.

—

If I can find the stupid thing. I swear these corridors keep changing. I just want to go back to my room! I pause when I hear voices and press my back against the wall. Hopefully they'll just keep going straight.

"What are you going to do about Ashton?" I hear Rose ask.

"What do you mean?" and that's the Doctor.

"She can't really stay here can she? The Tardis is no place for a kid. She needs to go to school and do kid stuff." She says. Yeah right, like I'd ever go back to that.

"She can't." He hesitates before adding, "She has to stay on the Tardis Rose. Her DNA is unstable. She's developing talents that need to be monitored. It's not safe for her to be anywhere else. This is going to have to be her home now." He says as they pass by the hall I'm hiding in. Great, now I'm unstable too. And he doesn't even want me here. I just HAVE to be here.

"What do you mean it's not safe?"

"Rose, she can manipulate time, sees visions of the future, and can control people's minds. Imagine what could happen if the wrong person gets a hold of her. Like I said, it isn't safe for her to be anywhere else." He explains.

"So what, you're turning the Tardis into a nursery?" She says laughing. "So domestic!"

I step into the hallway behind them and yell, "I'm not a child, and I don't need you to take care of me!" I glare at him, wishing I had laser beam eyes. "Take me back to Cardiff." I try to shout but I suddenly feel nauseous and take a knee so I don't fall over.

"Ashton!" The Doctor shouts, "Stop. You're hurting yourself."

"Seems like a good idea to me, Doctor. We could have her back there in a few minutes." Rose says looking a little disoriented.

"Rose…here, sit down."

"No. We should take her to Cardiff." She says.

As the Doctor is huddled over Rose I make my getaway. Slow get away. Maybe I can get myself back, if I can find the control room. I don't make it very far though before I find the Doctor in front of me. In front? Whatever. "Take me back! I don't want to stay in your stupid Tardis." I say as I shove him. But he grabs my arms, pinning them to my side. Looking down at me like he's trying to figure something out. So I make solid foot to shin contact and take off running again.

"Ashton!"

I've found a second wind and I'm running as fast as I can down a corridor. There aren't any doors, so I just keep weaving down corridors, turn left, turn right, right, left, trying to get lost.

More like failing to get lost.

I turn a corner and find the Doctor leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "Finished with your little temper tantrum?"

"Augrhhh!" I scream, stomping my foot. I'm not having a temper tantrum! I turn and run back the way I came, only to find the Doctor waiting around the next corner.

I slide to a stop. Defeated. Looking down and trying to catch my breath. I'm not going to start crying. I'm not! "I hate you. Why can't you just leave me alone? I hate feeling like this, I just… I want…"

"Ashton." He says, crouching down. "Look at me." I glance up but he's holding that stupid magic wand of his up to his head for some reason.

"Just leave me alone." I softly protest. I'm so tired. What's the point, anyways. It's not like what I want ever matters.

"Ashton." He repeats. "This, oh, just giving me a basic current medical scan of you." Guess he noticed my suspicious glare. "Feeling intense emotions that you don't understand, headaches, nausea, nosebleeds? It's been getting worse, hasn't it? And everything that's happened in the last couple of days has accelerated everything."

I take a step back and shrug. Has it been getting worse? It all started when… stuff, but everything just feels so hard now. I don't want to think about anything.

"Come with me." He says, putting a hand on my shoulder and directing down the hall. No point in resisting. Not like I can go anywhere. We end up at the med bay.

"I thought…"

"Fixed it. Nothing scary here anymore." He says, "Go on. Hop up on the bed."

"But…"

"Told you I fixed it. Was a smell from the surgical containment unit that triggered you last time, so I moved it." He says before using my shoulders to maneuver me into the room and next to the bed.

I get on the bed and curl into a ball on my side, facing away from the Doctor.

"Hormones are all out of whack, your whole endocrine system is a mess." He pauses. "Even with a big brain like mine, it took me a while to synthesize, but I got it. One little prick and you'll start feeling better."

He comes around the corner of the bed, "This will help." He holds up a syringe, "I promise. It will help."

I look away as he gently takes my arm and injects something into a vein.

"This is probably going to make you sleepy. Time to get you back to your room." He says, pretty much forcing me off the bed. I half walk, half stumble along with the Doctor's arm around my shoulder until we make it back to my bed. I wonder if the shot is having an effect already. I feel so tired and numb and, and scared and I don't want to be alone.

I kick off my shoes, curl up under the covers, and watch the Doctor walk out the door. "I…"

—

Something… wet? On my face. I wipe my mouth and find blood. Nose bleed in my sleep? Oh, my head! What happened? I was dreaming, I think. It felt like something was pulling me away, but I really wanted to stay in bed. It was like a teleport in slow motion, then I was sort of in two places at once, and then I snapped back. I did something I think, or someone else did? I was holding on to the Tardis, the idea of the Tardis, and she, she helped?

I pat the wall, "Umm, thanks." I say feeling kind of awkward. After washing the blood off my face, I head off to find the Doctor, but the Tardis feels eerily still. There's no one in the kitchen or the console room. And I think the scanner is telling me that I'm the only one here. Did the teleport grab them too?

I can't go look for them; The door is locked. I guess I'll just wait here for them to come back. I run back to my room to grab a book and lay out on the balcony overlooking the center console.

—

Forever later. Seriously, I'm almost finished reading the book, I hear the door and Jack enters. "Look who the cat dragged in!" I call out, sliding down the ladder. He grabs me in a hug and squeezes like he can't believe I'm alive.

"You're safe. Thank God! We couldn't find you."

"What do you mean?"

"Rose. She's gone."

"What do you mean gone? What's happening? Where's the Doctor?"

Jack explains how they were all transmatted out of the Tardis and into some deadly games on a space station. The Doctor and Jack got out, but they were too slow to save Rose. Meanwhile he's typing at the console, looking like he's trying to figure something out.

"What the hell?" Jack says, before grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the Tardis at a run, "Come on, there's someone who is going to be very happy to see you."

—

Jack drags me out of the closet the Tardis is in, "You'll never guess who I found!"

The Doctor looks over and comes running. I swear he's trying to break my already sore ribs.

"Enough already!" I squirm around trying to get him to let go. He loses the hug, but won't actually let go.

"Where the hell have you been!" He yells at me. Is he serious?

"Me? You're the one who left. I've been in the Tardis."

"The Tardis is here?" he asks, his whole face lighting up.

"Yup! And she's worked it out." Jack adds. "You'll want to watch this. Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I just want to go home."

"It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can. Everybody watching? Okay. Three, two, one."

And Lynda is gone, a pile of ash in her place. Jack? He killed her! No way, it's got to be a trick.

"But you killed her!" Hollers the Doctor.

"Oh, do you think?" Jack says, flipping another switch.

Lynda, standing back where she was, "What the hell was that?" Okay, she's not dead. What?

"Oi, language." The Doctor says. Whatever, I shake my head, now doesn't really feel like the time to be worried about cursing.

"It's a transmat beam. Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games. they get transported across space. Doctor, Rose is still alive!" Jack explains. The Doctor lets go of me to give Jack a hug, ecstatic.

Way too much hugging going on here.

The Doctor runs back over to the terminals. "She's out there somewhere."

A woman, all hooked up to tubes, is sort of hanging, surrounded by monitors in the center of everything. I walk over to her as she calls out, "Doctor. Coordinates five point six point one…"

"Don't, the solar flare's gone. They'll hear you." The Doctor says. What?

"Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Stigma seven seven." She finishes. I reach out, but she disappears, screaming. Who was she?

I look over at the Doctor, "Who was she? Where are we anyways?"

"Busy. I'll explain everything later." He says. Right. Later.

The Doctor, Jack, Lynda and a male and female station worker are crowding round one of the terminals. I move over to stand beside the Doctor. One of workers hands Jack a data disk, "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

"Nice, Thanks. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way." He says, reaching out to shake the guy's hand, obviously flirting.

"I'm Davitch Pavale." And he's flirting back.

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale."

"There's a time and a place." The Doctor says, shaking his head.

"Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?" The woman asks.

The Doctor explains, "Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago, someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

"Click on this. The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system." Jack says, handing the Doctor a device to control the large central monitor. He turns it on and we can see a view of the stars.

"There's nothing there." Lynda states.

"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal." The Doctor explains.

"Doing what?" Pavel asks.

"Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal…"

He messes with the computer and a ship is revealed. "Daleks." I whisper. I don't know how I know that word, but I am now very afraid. The Doctor looks down at me, confused, pulls me away from the screen and turns me to face him. I'm trembling. Why am I so scared?

"Ash, I need you to go back to the Tardis. Can you do that for me?" He asks. I nod and start slowly backing away, eyes still glued to the monitor showing an entire fleet of Dalek ships.

"Jack." The Doctor says.

"On it." Jack replies before walking over to me and helping me back to the Tardis. Just before we step inside, an absolutely terrifying voice call out, "I will talk to the Doctor." and I look up at Jack. My eyes are wide with fear, I'm breathing too quickly and I'm still trembling. I don't want to be left alone here.

"Ash. Ash. Look at me. Stay here. Do not leave the Tardis." Jack says then hugs me tightly. "You'll be safe here and the Doctor will think of something. He always does." And now I'm alone, again.

I can't settle. I'm just pacing around the console room trying to burn off some of this nervous energy, but it's not working. I've been feeling a sort of mental tug to go look in one of the storage spaces in the wall and decide to go see what's there.

What? How? It's Stan and some blankets and pillows. Is the Tardis really that alive? I use them to make a little nest up on the balcony and snuggle in.

It's not long before the Doctor and Jack come running in. The Doctor looks around for me for a second before finding me, "Might get a little bumpy." He says holding his arms up to help me down the ladder. I only make it a couple of steps down with Stan in my arms before the Doctor picks me up and deposits me in the captain's chair saying, "Hang on!"

Then they're both flipping witches and turning knobs like crazy, piloting the tardis towards the fleet. Kind of funny, tiny tardis, flying towards hundreds of huge ships. David threatening Goliath. I laugh a little and the Doctor looks over at me with a big grin and winks.

"We've got incoming!" Jack yells. The impact almost knocks me off my seat but we're still alive! Jack, looking almost as surprised as me, comments, "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk."

"And for my next trick." the Doctor pulls the big lever. As we're materializing, Rose and a Dalek become visible inside the Tardis. What the hell! I didn't know that was a thing.

"Rose, get down!" the Doctor yells, but she hesitates, "Get down, Rose!" he yells again as the Dalek and Jack fire their weapons.

"Exterminate!" I can feel the energy discharge pass by me, missing the Doctor and hitting the wall. Jack, however, doesn't miss.

"You did it." Rose says, as the Doctor walks over to give her a hug.

I approach the dead and mangled Dalek, Stan dangling from one hand. I'm fascinated and terrified. Why do I recognize it? They are my enemy, but I don't know why. I go to touch the octopus like thing inside the metal casing, only for Jack to yank me back by the collar, "What the hell are you doing?! Don't touch the Dalek!" He yells, shaking me a little, then hugging me. "We did it."

I look over at Rose and the Doctor having a moment…

Finally they separate and the Doctor goes to take a closer look at the Dalek. I join him, "What, what are they?" I ask. "Can't they get in?"

"The assembled hordes of Gengis Khan couldn't get through those doors." The Doctor replies, trying to be reassuring.

"But the Daleks aren't exactly 13th century horseback archers." I shoot back, unconvinced. Jack puts his hand on my shoulder, "Don't worry Ash, the extrapolator is still working. We're not just in the Tardis, we're also behind a force field that almost nothing can get through." As I look up at Jack I catch Rose glaring at me.

"You said they were extinct. How come they're still alive?" Rose asks, breaking eye contact with me and moving over to the Doctor.

Jack is also confused, "One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."

"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War." The Doctor explains.

At the mention of the Time War, I feel like an ice pick has just been shoved into my temple. I stumble, steadying myself against the Dalek, only to scramble away, struggling with a surge of images. I can't single out anything well enough to actually see it, but it's overwhelming me. I'm there, in the Time War, and it's all my fault.

I back into the console, and feel the Doctor's hands on my face. And I can feel him inside my head, pushing the images away, blocking them off. I lean into his chest as he removes his hands from my head and hugs me. He's softly saying something. I can't understand it, but it's soothing, comforting.

Jack turns towards us, quietly stating, "I thought that was just a legend."

The Doctor picks me up and sets me down in the captain's chair before turning to Jack, "I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing." The Doctor explains.

"There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?" Rose asks.

"No good stood round here, chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbours." the Doctor says, then looking back at me, "Ash, stay here, out of sight. The Daleks can't find out about you." I nod, disappointed, but also not, and curl up in the chair, hugging Stan.

The Doctor steps out of the Tardis and I can hear the Daleks firing. "Exterminate!", "Exterminate!", "Exterminate!"

"Is that it? Useless! Nul points. It's all right, come on out. That force field can hold back anything."

"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?" I can hear the Doctor talking outside through the monitor above the console.

"They survived through me." That voice. It's even creepier than the other Daleks, more commanding.

"Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it."

"Do not interrupt.

"Do not interrupt."

"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you! So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead."

"That makes them half human." Rose interjects.

"Those words are blasphemy."

"Do not blaspheme."

What is this, some kind of Dalek cult?

"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"

"Worship him."

Definitely a cult.

"They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever."

"Exterminate!"

"We're going." The Doctor says, walking back into the Tardis. He's radiating anger and sorrow and so much more…

We head back to the space station, but the Doctor still wants me to stay in the Tardis. I feel like this might take a while so Stan and I climb back up into my little nest.

—

20 minutes later, the Doctor and Rose come running back into the Tardis. He tells Rose to hold a button down.

"What's it do?" She asks.

"Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart" He's lying. He knows it's not going to work. What's he doing?

"I'd go for the first one."

"Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!"

The look he gives me as he leaves the Tardis breaks my heart. I can hear Rose yelling, and the Tardis dematerializing, but it can't be real. He's sending us away because he doesn't think he's going to survive.